The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 324: Happy are the righteous, for the Creator teaches them profound secrets of above and below, and it is all for the Torah, since anyone who engages in the Torah is crowned in the crowns of His Holy Name. This is so because the Torah is the Holy Name and one who engages in it is registered and crowned in the Holy Name, and then he knows the hidden ways and deep secrets of above and below, and he never fears.

There is no other way to connect with the Creator, with the true Upper reality (which we want to reveal, enter, and exist in), but with the help of the Light. It can shine upon us only if we cultivate the desire for it.

We can only develop this desire with the help of the group. A person only has a point in the heart, and in order to attract the Light that Reforms, he needs additional strength, which he can receive only from the group. The desire one receives from the group already has the intention to bestow, and with this force, he will have a connection with the Upper Light. In order to acquire a connection with his group, a person must lower himself before it and raise the importance of the goal.

In other words, he needs to work against his own desire to receive pleasure, against his ego. Therefore, when a person works with the group, he can appeal to the Light that Reforms so it will grant him a connection with the properties of bestowal, with the spiritual world.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Sometimes The Zohar text is written so clearly that it seems to address me and talk about me directly.

My Answer: You should be clever and realize that even though a portion of the text appears to be clear, you actually don’t comprehend it any more than you do an unclear part. Comprehension at this point doesn’t matter. In your current state, you don’t understand anything.

If, by chance, it seems that you can put these words together and prescribe a certain meaning to  them, it’s a problem that you are confused. It has nothing to do with the intention of the authors of The Zohar. They write about properties and acts which you have no connection to yet. Not a single word there talks about a person in this world or the actions that he or she performs here.

Cast away your mind as soon possible and as far away as possible. This is the biggest favor you can do for yourself.

Question (continued): Sometimes The Zohar talks about something incomprehensible, and it makes it easier for me to focus on the intention.

My Answer: Your going deeper into the intention does not depend on the text being or not being clear to you. It bears absolutely no relation to how much you understand the text.

Suppose that now I simply listen to the text, without knowing any Hebrew or  having any translation. Then I only think about when this medicine will affect and cure me. That’s all. That is all you need.

Say I come to see a doctor and he tells me to take a certain medicine. He mentions a long name in Latin that reflects its chemical composition. Do I really need to know how this medicine works, what its composition is, and why it is called a certain way? Do I need to know these things in order to believe that it will help me and I will be healed?

I only have to understand what the doctor says in terms of how to take the medicine, and nothing more. All other information will only harm me. I will think I’m smart and start acting as if I really know about these things.  But, it is a doctor, and not you, who is given the right to treat you. You don’t have to treat yourself. The instruction says: “If you are sick, go to a doctor (Nitan La Rofe Lerapot).”

Does the intention depend on how much you understand the text? There is no connection between them whatsoever.

From the 1st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 428
While reading the Zohar we should think of how it corrects us, uniting us into one general soul. If we will influence one another, then we’ll want to sense this soul.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Item 1
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 36
To unite means to abandon something of my own and let in something foreign.  When I have something of yours in me, and vise versa, then we are as one whole.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 19
Each person is capable of achieving spiritual correction because it depends upon his desire, not his inborn qualities.
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Rav Baruch Ashlag, According to “Which Keeping of Torah and Mitzvot Purifies the Heart”
Awakening of the point in the heart is a start of one’s independent development. From here on, a person will advance only by consciously choosing his environment.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “The Donkey Driver,” Item 97
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The Creator did not create our material world. It exists only in our imagination because we are within the boundaries of our egoism. The moment we transition to bestowal and begin to acquire bestowing desires, the Upper reality (in which we in fact exist and develop) will reveal itself to us.

The lower layer of this material world will continue to exist for it has to constantly provide us with the freedom of choice in attaining spirituality. In this world we go to work or go to buy groceries, yet we know that we have a permanent place of residence, our home and family. The same thing applies to spirituality: There is a place where we permanently exist. We climb and descend spiritual steps, but the lowest level of existence (our world) is always guaranteed to us.

This world is illusory and doesn’t exist anywhere except in our imagination; it’s a basic point that allows us to act on our own for the sake of bestowal. The Creator shows all of us the same movie, thus allowing us to exist within the same reality. That is the reason why the most advanced Kabbalist and the most feeble-minded, silly person perceive the same material world.

It goes without saying that an intelligent person sees our world a little differently and understands more, but in general all of us see the same picture. It makes no difference whether a person possesses specific properties because it doesn’t have anything in common with spirituality.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why do 90% of the obstacles I get pertain to my physical body (I’m hungry, I’m tired, and so on)? After all, corporeality is far less important than spirituality and contains only a small spark of life.

My Answer: You’re asking why we weren’t given the opportunity to work with spiritual desires, lights, and screens, instead of the corporeal ones. But to the extent that you begin to view the world in waves of bestowal, you naturally stop noticing this world. It stops being the determining world for you. You continue to exist in this world and connecting with people, but without this world being connected to the spiritual world, it loses its meaning. It is merely a consequence, a reflection, of the spiritual worlds that project reality to you.

There is a special technology that projects three-dimensional, holographic images in the air via laser beams. They make all kinds of figures appear in empty space. In a similar fashion, this world is presented to you in illusory images, for this world is but an imprint of what exists in spirituality.

It is our egoistic desire that projects this world for us. For the time being, it can only exist in this form that does not disappear until the very end of correction. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai could be sitting here with us and he would be seeing our corporeal world despite being fully corrected himself. Indeed, this world will only disappear from our senses following the general, final correction.

This world pertains to the general desire to receive pleasure. It is an egoistic desire, yet it is not against the Creator. It is simply a desire to lead an animal life and receive pleasure.
Therefore, it is not considered criminal and does not require correction. You simply need to use it like an animal and shape it into a desire to bestow – the soul.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/10, The Zohar

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The Creator demands of our souls to unite. Our distancing from each other and feeling as strangers constitutes the entire corruption. The correction, on the other hand, lies in perceiving ourselves as being parts of a single body. Yet, if we simply perceive ourselves as parts of a body working together, it’s not enough.

I have to become incorporated into everybody, they have to become incorporated into everybody else, and so on till infinity! It resembles a holographic picture where each element contains all the others in itself.

We are still unable to imagine this sensorially because we are opposite to such a picture. The breaking of the vessels resulted in us feeling completely separate from each other. We can’t even understand how it is possible to incorporate into each other when there is no “I,” which unites with all the others and becomes a single whole.

When our points in the heart unite, this illusionary reality of physical bodies fades away; only our desires remain. The more correctly each of us attempts to imagine our unification, the closer we move toward the true picture of reality, the only one there is. We only have to draw closer to it and reveal it. This is how we gradually heal ourselves from all these material illusions that envelop us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 411
Inner disagreement is positive and necessary because by resolving it a person advances forward.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 27
The left and the right line can never achive perfection. Only the middle line, which is the result of unifying with the Creator, can bring them to reconciliation.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 17
The Light acts upon me to the degree of my desire to obtain the quality of bestowal. This desire is acquired through the group, and my success is determined by this desire.
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Rav Baruch Ashlag, According to “What is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend‘” 
My environment forms my future-the fulfillment that I’ll wish to obtain in the mind and in the heart.
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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Bealutecha,” Selected Excerpts
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A question I received: Is bestowal an act or a desire to give?

My Answer: What can you give to the Creator if He doesn’t lack anything except your attitude toward Him? He doesn’t need even this. The only thing He lacks is for you to become like Him. This will delight Him. Why? It’s because, then, you’ll exist in the most comfortable state. “But I don’t want to be in the most comfortable state. I want to think only about bestowal!” If you’re thinking about bestowal, you’re thinking about how to attain the most comfortable state.

What motivates you is essential. If it is to give to the Creator,  for this sake you attain the perfect state, or if  you desire this state because it’s the best and giving to the Creator looks like a reward? What are you working for?

You can’t have the will to bestow without realizing it. If you have this desire, you must fulfill it. The act of bestowal and the desire to bestow are the same. In the spiritual world, there aren’t physical actions. To attain the will to bestow is our entire work. Indeed, what can we give to the Creator? It is the will to bestow onto Him.

We discover the Light of Hochma. In regard to whom must we uncover this Light, the creature or the Creator? The Light of Hochma fills the entire system. You only discover yourself or your own perception by sensing that you enjoy, bestow, and become infinite. Your will (Kli) is the only thing that changes.

“I am bestowing onto the Creator.”  What are you bestowing?  Did He really lack Light before and now He’s got it? You’re giving Him your attitude. Your attitude to Him is called action. Your will is already an act. However, this will must be complete. Otherwise, it isn’t considered a will.

The desire has to evolve through all four stages. Then, undoubtedly, from the 4th stage, its Reflected Light reaches Keter, and this is bestowal. However, where is bestowal in Keter? One feels the he is bestowing onto the Creator, and this is enough. The Creator has no desires (Kelim) for either reception or bestowal. He has nothing.

Yet, when you perceive that you are bestowing to the Creator, it is His pleasure because He’s within you. You allow the Light to shine.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/10, The Zohar

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