Question: You said that in order to comprehend The Zohar we have to make an “an opening in the heart.” Who makes this “opening?”

Answer: The Light! I myself am unable to do this. Only the Light can. As if through a magnifying glass, the beams of Light concentrate and become so powerful that they “burn through” your desire to feel pleasure thereby creating an “opening.”

Question cont.: Why can’t we make this “opening?”

Answer: It is not our job to make this happen. When two hearts unite through their desires, it is called the “openings” in the walls of their hearts. A wall in the heart means a whole heart, but we need the broken hearts. If our hearts, yours and mine, are “breached” and we connect these “breaches,” the job is done. I want what you want, and you wish what I wish. We are bonded already. If two have united and are connected in the quality of bestowal, that’s where the revelation takes place.

How powerful this revelation will be is based on everything you and I have in our hearts, besides the breaking and these “breaches” connected together. There are thousands of obstacles in your heart, all sorts of thoughts and worries; I have them too.

To the extent we are able to overcome these obstacles and stay connected, grounded in them all and constantly holding ourselves above them in order to remain in the common sensation of the quality of bestowal (since only through partnership can we stay in it), to that degree are we able to attain the property of the Creator in the connection between us. Thereby, we try and discern the taste of bestowal.

Question cont.: How do we connect the “breaches” in our hearts?

Answer: It is done by the Light. Our job is only to wish for it to happen. No other action is necessary! While reading The Book of Zohar, you wish for its words to “drill” and open a “porthole” in you.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, The Zohar

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Because Yaakov Chose the Creator”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 20
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 32, Lesson 15
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 13, Lesson 13
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In order to attain The Zohar a person needs to open the channel that leads to the heart. And the tendency to understand it with the mind is given in order for us to resist this and wish for The Zohar to be revealed in the heart. Otherwise it will not work.

It is necessary to make an “opening in the heart” so that the text of The Book of Zohar is felt in inner attainments, in the desire, rather than just in the external mind where one connects words to each other. After all, the external picture which one imagines in the mind, remembering the meaning of words and building logical connections between them, does not allow him to constantly aspire to feel The Zohar.

Such an approach is doomed to fail. A person receives satisfaction from the fact that he seemingly connected a few things in his mind, and the problem is solved for him. He has no regret or desire left to feel and attain. He learns the external (comprehensible to him) definitions from the Book and builds a “Lego” out of them by connecting them to each other.

However, only under the condition that a person already feels what is written in The Zohar and wishes to connect the sensations, can he look at the words of the text and connect the sensations according to these words. If there are no sensations, it’s better not to activate the mind and just to wait for “the wonderful force” (Segula) that is contained in The Book of Zohar to affect you.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, The Zohar

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

Darkness sensed within the desire to receive pleasure can be transformed into the Light provided that the direction of the desire is altered from “for my own sake” to “bestowal to my neighbor.” It means that one has to use his desire to enjoy in order to start bestowing to his neighbor and thus feel pleasure from giving. Only at this point does a person become unlimited in his actions since only bestowal knows no boundaries.

If I get pleased in the same way as the Creator does (from giving), I thereby become similar to Him and sense eternal and perfect life filled with love and bestowal. What do I lack in order to acquire this new type of fulfillment? I need to love my neighbor and find the fulfillment he needs. I can obtain “love of neighbor” from the Creator with the help of the Light that Reforms. I receive the Light of abundance from Him in order to fulfill my neighbor.

Thus, I become the Creator’s partner in everything that exists; I become similar to Him. This is how correction of the intention used by the desire to enjoy works.

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Concerning the Importance of Friends”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 6
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 29, Lesson 14
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 11, Lesson 12
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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Shoftim,” Selected Excerpts
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Shamati 34 “The Profit of a Land”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 1
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Item 77
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Excerpts From the Works of Rav Kook
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Question: During the lesson I tell myself that I want to feel what The Zohar speaks about, but I see that I don’t have the true desire for this. How can I attain this desire?

Answer: It’s a problem of our common thoughts. Maybe we aren’t fully aware that The Zohar speaks about our advanced states and the most important thing while reading this Book is our desire to attain those states.

What are our advanced states? It’s when we all unite together and inside the connection between us we reveal spirituality, the common quality of bestowal, the Creator. This is exactly the aspiration you should feel while reading The Book of Zohar. Otherwise all of the reading is a waste and it won’t help us in any way. It will even result in us receiving a sensation of darkness, a negative awakening. There is no choice about the matter: In any case we have to move forward, and in this case we will advance against our will.

Therefore, everything depends on how correctly we will be able to imagine the advanced state while reading The Book of Zohar, meaning how much we will see that it is a connection between us inside of which we reveal bestowal, love, mutual guarantee, and the unification that reigns in all of reality and all the worlds.

Everything becomes revealed only in the connection between us: all of reality, all the worlds until Infinity. We draw the Light of Correction to the degree we desire to reveal this state while reading The Book of Zohar.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/10, The Zohar

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And You Shall Know the Day and Return to Your Heart”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shoftim (Judges),” Item 11
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 22, Lesson 13
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“Kabbalah Today,” A Lesson About the Role of the Nation
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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

In order to feel what is described here, let’s look at the following example: Suppose I visit the home of a very distinguished person. The hospitable host offers me the finest delicacies, invites me to play a round of golf, and to listen to some classical music. However, I am a simple man and have no interest in doing any of that since I have no connection to any of these pleasures. I have never experienced them in my life, and that is why I don’t desire them.

I look at the host in surprise and say, “What do you want from me? I didn’t come here to take pleasure in the things you love. I want to enjoy the things I love!” The host replies, “My dear friend, I want to bestow onto you such awesome pleasures. You cannot even imagine how amazing they are. Try to get accustomed to them a little bit and you will reveal infinite, higher pleasures which are incomparable to the ones you’re used to.”

So, what am I to do? I can trust the host and try to let him teach me new tastes even though I’m not used to them and for that reason am not drawn to them. Gradually, however, I will learn to feel in them a special, heavenly flavor. Or, I can tell the hospitable host, “You know what? It’s hard for me to get used to these new tastes and such difficult conditions and forget all my past habits. I cannot do it. Leave me alone and let me get back to my simple life.” What would the host tell me then? “Sure, go on.”

However, when I get back to my regular life, I begin to experience unpleasant states. That is when I remember the host’s words describing other, higher tastes, so I come back to him. This process may repeat itself several times as I return to my former life and then back to the host.

Ultimately, I will realize that there is no other way: I simply must return to the host so that he could help me replace my tastes with his for good. I know now that I will savor the taste of life in them.

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