The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out) – Part 2,” Item 373: With all the offerings, it does not say, “Observe,” as it is written, “Shall you observe to offer,” since observing [(Tishmeru) is ”keep,” (Shamor)] is the Nukva, who should bring closer above, to ZA, as it is written, “Shall you observe to offer unto Me,” offer the Nukva in its time, in the right and left [lines] of ZA, who are Abraham and Isaac.

The whole essence of sacrificial offerings is to come closer, to build the middle line by classifying desires. Whenever possible, desires should be used for merging and connection. The ones that are impossible to use that way should be removed as obstructions and filed. One should connect the right and the left lines so that the “fire blazes” and the Returning Light rises to the Creator. All discernments are performed only through the “sacrificial offerings” of one’s egoism.

Related Materials:
Laitman.com Post: The True Meaning Of Sacrifice
Laitman.com Post: Are You Rich Or Poor?
Laitman.com Post: Prayer Instead Of Sacrifice
Laitman.com Post: Preparing Oneself To Be A Sacred Vessel

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter ”Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Items 146-150: He said, “When a man goes to sleep on his bed, his soul departs from him and goes up, as it is written, ‘At night my soul longs for You.’”…

Afterwards, she walks and roams and rises according to her degree.

That Nefesh that was rewarded with rising appears before the King and adheres with a desire to be seen, a sublime craving to see the pleasantness of the King and to visit His palace. This is a man who always has a share in the next world.

What is the soul (Nefesh)? When I desire to unite with the others and feel how through this aspiration I connect with similar desires of the others, the place of our oneness and unity is called “Nefesh” in relation to me. Everyone may feel it differently, but for me Nefesh is the first spiritual step. If I can later strengthen this connection despite my growing egoism and obstacles, I can attain the next spiritual degrees: Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. But the place of my very first contact, my desire for unity to occur, is called Nefesh.

I have to create a place for all of our desires to come together! And when everybody is there (and so am I), when I have connected them with my effort (and they have given me the opportunity to enter and join them), there, in the place of my exertion and my oneness with all the others, I will finally undergo all the spiritual states that The Zohar tells us about.

All I need is to desire this connection and feel as if I’m already in it, which will indicate my entering the state of Nefesh. The Zohar tells me about what happens next, in this oneness. There is only one relationship which experiences ups and downs, various adventures, and spiritual states. The Zohar doesn’t discuss anything else. As a matter of fact, The Zohar talks solely about the spiritual world since spirituality can be found only in our oneness.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Where Is The Entrance To The Spiritual World?
Laitman.com Post: A Step Into Infinity
Laitman. com Post: Spiritual Ascension

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

The correction of attitudes in a Kabbalistic group from love of self to love of others is possible only with the help of the very Upper Force that created “the evil inclination,” our egoism. Only this Force can turn the evil inclination to good, as it is written, “I created the evil inclination, and handed down the Torah for its correction since the Light in it Reforms”; that is, it unites us in love.

In fact, even now we exist in perfect reality. We are tightly connected with each other as parts of one body in mutual love and adhesion with the Upper Force that created us and filled with love and abundance. We just need to awaken to the feeling and awareness of this reality in the same way as a person who is unconscious has to wake up in order to feel alive.

This awakening, the resurrecting force of the Light that Reforms, can be felt only when we come together. In the group, we try to be connected in the love between us and rise above our instinctive egoistical emotions. Together, we read The Book of Zohar.

This book talks about unity among us and our corrected state of existence. So, our collective reading of The Book of Zohar with the intention to attain oneness arouses the Light that brings us back from oblivion. Gradually, we begin to feel the connection and within it, the Creator. In doing so, we achieve practical realization of the essence of the science of Kabbalah: the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Ascending The Levels Of Love
Laitman.com Post: Waking Up To The True Reality
Laitman.com Post: Unification With The Group Leads Us To The Creator

Filed under: Books, Zohar - 2 Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 24: The third exile is the long exile that we are in, which corresponds to 100 years in Jacob’s life compared to the forty (years) in the exile in Babylon.

We shouldn’t view this story as an historic recounting. There is no such thing as history. The reality we think we live in transpires within us as imaginary pictures; it unfolds inside of our desire (Kli).

All we are supposed to do is to correct the program of our perception. As we do that, we will sense genuine reality through our authentic properties (that are similar to the Creator who makes them).

This is why we have to treat The Zohar’s narrations as an invitation to reveal everything it describes from within, in our sensations and consciousness, and our minds and hearts.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Introductory Lecture “Perception Of Reality”-08.16.10
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar: The Illumination Of The Other World
Laitman.com Post: The Secret Code Of The Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Excerpts from my future book, A Guide To The Book Of Zohar

In order to prepare us for spiritual development, the Creator rouses two sensations in us. The first is the emptiness of this world, and the second is the aspiration to attain the source of life, the awakening of the “point in the heart.” The point in the heart, like a charge in an electrical field, brings us to a place where we can give it nourishment and fulfillment. This place is the group.

Truly, we can see how people in whom a point in the heart awakens are drawn to each other naturally. It is always the case in human society that people with similar desires draw closer to each other and gather into groups. A group is a place where people realize the connection with their neighbor on a practical level based on new principles of love and unification instead of hatred and isolation.

Therefore, the work in the group is necessary and mandatory in order to reach a revelation of the Creator. It allows a person to truly evaluate his attitude to his neighbor and not to fall into illusions in regard to spirituality or his personal connection with the Creator. After all, the Creator is the quality of love and bestowal that dwells in the corrected connection among us.

Such groups have always been created over the course of human history. By changing their relationships in the group to mutual bestowal and love of people created the necessary conditions for perceiving the Upper, true reality. Reading books in which they wrote about the world they revealed allows us to acquire the enormous experience accumulated by them and to understand how to achieve a new life by the shortest and most effective path.

Such a group is called a group of Kabbalists. Their goal is to unite with each other in the spirit of what is written in the Torah: “As one man with one heart,” “Don’t do unto another what is hated by you,” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Thus, they correct themselves and achieve equivalence to the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Become Your Own Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Connection Between Group And Enterprise
Laitman.com Post: Ascending The Levels Of Love

Filed under: Books, Zohar - No Comments →

The flow of the actual story, which waves come at us and in what form is not so important. What is important is that I am always sailing on these waves with the intention of reaching the goal.

The actual story may be expressed in all kinds of forms; this does not matter. The important thing is for me to always stay above the narration of The Zohar and think only about what I want to attain through the reading. I want to attain the force of bestowal!

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/2010, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar: The Illumination Of The Upper Worlds
Laitman.com Post: Our Work Is In Preparing The Desire
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is For Those Who Yearn For The Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 1 Comment →

We have many different desires inside and each of them must go through correction in a specific order. Depending on the connection of desires inside the soul, a person reveals his connection with other people.

Therefore, we do not know the true reasons for the states we go through, but we have to understand that their order is predetermined. The only thing that depends on us is how to go through them: by way of Light or by way of suffering. In any case, without understanding why it is happening, we will have to accept the revelation of any state as a useful occurrence.

We don’t have any control over the things that are already happening. We have to accept the things that come to us with gratitude, correct them, and move on. We should never try to reject the next state because we thereby refuse to accept the means that are given to us for our advancement.

There are no states that do not facilitate advancement. Therefore, we shouldn’t torture ourselves with doubts: Is this a good state or a bad one? We shouldn’t give them any personal attitude. It’s best to look at the things happening to you “from aside,” as if you are an outside observer. I have to go through this state, and that means I act, go through it, and advance onwards. Everything is for the best (HaKol Le Tova)!

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/2010, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Who Observes the Creator’s Reality?
Laitman.com Post: When All Boundaries Disappear
Laitman.com Post: "Come And See" A New Reality

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

A corrected desire acts in accordance with the formula, “Israel, the Creator, and the Torah are one.” Israel is me. More precisely, it is my internal desire to attain the Creator and become similar to Him (“Isra-El” in Hebrew means “straight to the Creator”). The Creator is the goal I am trying to attain. The Torah is a corrected mechanism of connection among the souls, of love among them.

In order to illustrate this, let’s have a look at a human organism. All of its parts interact correctly and help each other by being related, mutually responsible, and united. This is how the souls have to function. The system of their reciprocal bonding and love (complete interaction) is called the “Torah.”

It includes 613 (Taryag, six hundred and thirteen) correct connections between each soul and all other souls as well as among all souls in general (the latter type of connection, commandment, links all of them into one whole through love). If there is no connection between the souls through love and, on the contrary, if they are linked together through hatred, it means that the Torah is corrupt and hidden.

Souls that do not sense connection between them are defined as being in “exile” from the Torah and the Creator. They lack this property because they are disconnected from the correct type of link among them (the Torah) and from the Creator who fills the correct connection among them. It is similar to the difference between a healthy body and a sick organism that is deteriorating because its systems do not function properly.

Internal corrections that we make within our desire in order to transform it from corruptness into correctness are called “commandments.” This is why it is said that “love thy neighbor as thyself” is the main rule of the Torah since it includes the whole system of correct connections between the souls.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Unification With The Group Leads Us To The Creator
Laitman.com Post: Is There A Connection Between Body And Soul?
Laitman.com Post: Our Work Is In Preparing The Desire

Filed under: Books, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Ki Tetze,” Selected Excerpts
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

All books written by the Kabbalists can give me the Light that Reforms. The greatest force of Light descends on me when we read The Zohar; this is when the connection with the Light occurs.

However, the Light acts only if all of us together desire to attain mutual guarantee, unity, love, and become “as one man in one heart,” similar to the Creator. How well we understand is not important. If I am unable to unite, the Force will come from Above and do it.

As soon as I start feeling connected to all the others to the smallest degree, the spiritual world will be revealed to me in that connection. This occurs within us in the same way as a person who was unconscious starts coming back to consciousness and realizes where he truly is.

Concealment disappears, and I feel that this reality of which I wasn’t previously aware has always been and still is here. This depends solely on my desire to be connected with the rest of its parts. In the correct relationship between us, I find the true reality.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Easiest Path To spirituality
Laitman.com Post: The Whole Universe Is Between Us
Laitman.com Post: Unification With The Group Leads Us To The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →