Since we are created from the will to receive pleasure, all our spiritual work is done at night. Without feeling pleasure (in the dark of night), we can test ourselves: Are we able to do something moved by some other “fuel” so that it isn’t the reward that defines how much work we do, but rather the work itself does? Can we work without attainment of the Creator, but just with our faith that we will bring Him delight?

To work for the sake of delighting Him and not ourselves can only be done during the night, in the states where we don’t feel pleasure. Therefore, layers of uncorrected desires that demand filling with rewards for ourselves are purposefully and continuously awakened in our will to receive pleasure.

This gives us the opportunity to work on this uncorrected will to receive for ourselves. The struggle to work in the will to receive appears so that we can work not for the sake of a reward, but in order to delight the Creator; not to work for the reward of attaining the Creator, but just to be working for Him. Success results from our ability to acknowledge the greatness of the Creator.

When a person discovers that he is not able to do this, he demands assistance from Above. The strength from Above comes to him through the group since a person doesn’t have a connection with Above. As he starts seeking this “Above,” after numerous failed attempts to grasp something, he reaches a point of desperation and begins to understand that “Above” means “through the group.”

At this point, if he enters the group, then through it, he will be able to receive the very force that will change his nature from receiving to giving. Then he will be able to work during the nights while blessing the Creator. Then, a person works not for the sake of fulfilling his demanding egoistic desires; with the aid of the night he ascends to bestowal.

We don’t demand for the night to go away since “day” consists of working for the sake of bestowal. When we don’t feel “light” in our desires and we work above this, not for the sake of filling our desires, then we perceive day. Therefore, in the perception of our receiving desires, we exist in the night, but in the perception of our bestowing desires, the “light” shines.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 248
The benefit from studying The Book of Zohar depends on one’s efforts and one’s connection with the group, and not on his understanding.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 20
Our desire will never independently wish to bestow. This is why in order to correct ourselves we elevate to the upper and connect to Him.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 5
All we need is to reveal the Creator.  Our suffering should only be over the fact that we haven’t obtained bestowal.
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Rav Baruch Ashlag “They Helped Everyone His Friend” 
We must uncover our natural spiritual connection which is much greater than any connection in this world.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 230
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 156: The thirteen qualities of Rachamim depend on the Yod, on the upper tip of the Yod, Keter, in which there are the thirteen corrections of Dikna. Hence, the Yod consists of Vav–Dalet, to indicate the ZON within her, from which they become YESHSUT, which is Bina that returned to being Hochma. This is where all the Mochin emerge, and they are the perfection of everything because the filling of Vav–Dalet in Gematria is ten, meaning that they are as important as she.

A question I received: The Zohar talks about letters a lot. What is the connection between the definitions of the letters described in The Zohar and a letter used as a symbol describing how the Upper Governance system influences us?

My Answer: They are the same. Letters are the spiritual vessels through which the Light acts upon us. We can talk about the Light by calling it a letter, such as “Yod,” “Vav,” or “Dalet.” A letter is a property of the Light, which the Light acquired when it has gone through the letter in order to impact us in a certain way. A letter is also a property of the spiritual vessel that has become similar to the Light in order to perceive it.

According to the law of the equivalence of form, it is impossible to perceive the Light unless I am similar to the form through which it impacts me. Suppose the Light enters through “Vav” and acts upon me. Then, I should also acquire the property “Vav,” to assume the form of “Vav” in order to be connected with the Light. But since I myself build similarity to “Vav” from my material, I am not “Vav” any more. My material is now different, and I become the next letter, “Dalet.”

Thus, on the one hand, we have “Yod” (Hochma), whose three letter spelling (“Y-O-D” or “Yod–Vav–Dalet“), shows in what form we can perceive it. When we acquire “Vav” and “Dalet,” “Dalet” will become similar to “Vav.” But aren’t Dalet and Vav two different letters? True, they are different, but they are similar to one another. Since they are created from different material, they acquire appropriate forms. This is why there are so many forms of letters even though each form is bestowal.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 183
We don’t simply read The Book of Zohar, but try together to attract the force that will correct us from receiving to bestowal.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 18
A prayer is a desire to adhere to the Creator, to obtain His qualities.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 2
In the last 15 years the fear of Kabbalah has disappeared. All there’s left to do is to reveal to the world the good that it brings.
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Rav Baruch Ashlag “Love of Friends”
In order to enter a new realm a person needs help from an outside force which is the environment.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “The Donkey Driver,” Item 89
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 83: … as it is written, “Behold, your king will come unto you,” certainly, and not you to Him. He will come to you to appease you; He will come to you to raise you; He will come to you to complement you in everything; He will come to you to raise you to His palace, to bond with you in everlasting bonding, for all times, as it is written, “And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.”

Should we raise Malchut from the ashes on our own, or does the Merciful Creator raise the fallen tent of David for us? Do we need to wait in exile and then everything will become revealed from Above? Or do we need to recognize that the King has come, done his work, reaches out to us, and we need to grab on to Him and ascend?

There are people who say that everything will come and become revealed from Above, that the Third Temple will “fall down” from the skies, and we don’t need to do anything but just keep waiting. This is the “Galut” (the time of exile) type of thinking.

Kabbalists, on the other hand, explain to us that we had to force ourselves into exile (from the level of spirituality) for a specific period of time, until the end of the 20th century. Then, from Above, the Creator returned us to the Land of Israel and revealed the method of correction which is Kabbalah and The Zohar. He created all the conditions for the freedom of will, and the Giving of the Torah from the Above took place. Now, people need to receive the Torah and realize it in their correction.

This is what we call “the king has come to the queen.” He gives her everything. However, now she must take a step toward the king and express a desire to unite with him, instead of merely continuously lying in the dust without making a single action on her own behalf. After all, the king compels her to act and reaches out to her, revealing his desire.

This is what those who study the external Torah, the religious, and those who study the inner Torah, the Kabbalists, argue about. There’s nothing to add to the external observance of the customs as the entire addition happens on the inside, that is, in the intentions, the discernments of the desire, and revelation of the evil inclination which needs to be corrected.

From the 1st of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, The Zohar

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The entire evil has been prepared for us from Above during the breaking of the vessels. So how can we say that the creature sins if this is the Creator’s making, the result of His actions? Anything man does will always be the consequence of the Creator’s actions. We can always point at the source from which everything comes. Even He acknowledges creating evil and nothing but evil: “I created the evil inclination” (“Barati Yetzer Ara“).

The only freedom of will that allows us to choose between good and evil and demand the correction of evil within us is realized with the help of the environment. As a person turns to the group, he discovers an “empty space,” Klipat Noga, which belongs neither to the Creator nor to the creature. Good or evil there is determined only by one’s free choice.

As you work with the group you begin to see that the Creator has left you something where you can make a decision. This is a special point of your independence. If you begin to create the Creator’s image from this “white,” free point, and decide that you want to become like Him, you will be referred to as “human.”

However, you still need to reveal this point. So far the Reshimo(recollection) of the breaking is being revealed in you. This point is a rudiment of a screen, which you need to build from the Reshimo. It is revealed through our work with the group.

We clear away the accumulation of the shell (Klipot) and different habits with our inner efforts to suddenly discover something that does not belong to the Creator beneath them. This really is a miracle. In this point a person has to say: “The entire world depends on me. Every moment I direct it either toward good or toward evil with my decision.” Then a person spends his entire time like a tightrope walker on a tight wire; every moment he has make a new decision in the direction of good to make sure he does not fall off the tight wire. This means that every moment he chooses to walk the path of truth.

This is why Baal HaSulam says that the path towards the Creator is a very thin thread, and the person walking it must be very careful to make sure he does not bear right or left. Yet all of this happens under the condition that a person discovers the point where the rope starts: his freedom of will in his work with the environment. All of the following points on which he walks are the points of his proper connection with the environment, which he chooses as he realizes his freedom of will.

A person constructs his own rope with the points that he discovers. He himself walks through them, as every time he directs himself and the entire world towards good. Actually, nothing exists before him, neither the point that he discovers nor the rope made with these points, the path straight to the Creator.

The path does not stretch out from the Creator toward us. We only receive the Reshimot, which remain on every degree from the above-downward descent. The rope does not exist, but we build it ourselves from below-upward. At the end, this is precisely what we call “human.”

All the Partzufim that we reconstruct from below-upward are not the same Partzufim that exist during the descent from above-downward. This is because when we climb the degrees, we reveal every degree 620 times greater than it was during the descent. This is a completely different degree, which we build ourselves.
[14473]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, The Zohar

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All comes out of HaVaYaH (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey), the universal, singularly existing system, and everything takes its beginning in the root, the tip of the letter “Yod.” This is Keter, the “essence of the essence” (Yesh mi Yesh). There is the, “existence from absence” (Yesh mi Ain), which are expanding together. The Light affects the desire, and it takes various forms; that is, the will to receive constantly changes its properties in similarity with the Light.

The Zohar explains how all properties come from the Light which created the will to receive, “existence from absence,” and how the Light works on it. This is truly a symphony of development: the impact of the Light on the desire, the lack of filling that changes under the influence of the Light and acquires different forms and properties, including the properties of the Light and its own previous forms that influence the next states even several steps ahead.

The Zohar explains to us how from only two forces – the will to bestow and the will to receive – come all the diversity of the creature. And all of it is directly connected with us since in our world there is also nothing, except the two forces: black and white, one and zero, good and bad. It doesn’t matter what levels we are talking about – all of creation, all of our impressions, sensual images and pictures of the perception of reality – all of this consists of two forces.

The Kabbalists were able to describe these two forces beautifully in the form of letters. As a result, when we look at these shapes, they come alive and get filled with the spirit of life. You begin to recognize inside each letter: How these properties, the Creator and the creature, are connected with each other; how they are mutually intertwined and penetrate each other, in which direction, in what way; where they merge together and where they don’t yet, and what restrictions there are.

We don’t have the words to express these relations. But a letter, a symbol, gives you a model. And then, by absorbing this model, you enclose within yourself the entire accumulation of feelings, relations, and everything that exists within the letter. But a letter contains everything. It only seems a simple form, but this simplicity encloses thousands of previous forms that it was acquiring during its descent from above downwards.

In Kabbalah, everything derives from the vital necessity. By observing nature, the content of man and his perception, the Kabbalists saw that there was no other way to express the connection between the Creator and the creature except with the help of such symbols, these letters.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Items 147-149: The Yod of the Holy Name connects in three ties. For this reason, there is one tip in it above, one tip below, and one tip in the middle, since three ties hang down in her. The tip above is the upper Keter, above all the upper ones, the head of all the heads and stands atop all of them…The bottom tip is the other, bottom tip of the Yod. It is Bina, the head to water the garden, Malchut. This is the fountain of water from which all the plantings are watered, since all the Mochin of ZON and BYA extend from the Bina….

The letter “Yod” is Hochma of the world Atzilut, its “hidden mind.” Through the upper point enters the Light of the Infinity, and through its bottom point exits the Light of Bina, flowing through Zeir Anpin; it waters the garden, Malchut.

It would be possible to describe the entire system in details like this, but we are studying The Zohar in order to arouse the Light that Reforms, not to study some dry theory. We study The Zohar not to gain theoretical knowledge of spirituality, but to actually experience it! When we begin to feel what The Zohar is telling us, we will feel bestowal and reception within us and the difference between them; only then will we be able to read and unveil the whole picture, which will appear as sensations. We will study The Zohar in order to understand what we are feeling! Then I will start studying Kabbalah as a science; I will add mind to my feelings.

But first I have to receive the sensation! The mind follows. Otherwise, it would simply be theoretical reasoning without practical comprehension. We would get stuck in these diagrams and remain in this world to intellectualize, as if we know what is going on “there” in the spiritual world.

But we don’t need to know what is happening there: We have to be there! There is a great difference between those who are perceiving the spiritual world and the theorists who are just learning about it in The Zohar. The latter are the type that Baal HaSulam encountered in Jerusalem when he arrived in Israel. They were studying The Zohar and knew all its books and writings of the ARI by heart. But when he asked whether they perceive it, they replied: “There is nothing to perceive here! We just memorize the text.”

But for us, first and foremost, it is important to achieve the ability to perceive the spiritual world: The Zohar has to enter us, and we must begin living in it. Then, we will study what we feel and how to change these feelings, how to walk in spirituality.

We cannot research what we don’t perceive. Since we are the matter of the will to receive, we must perceive the reality within it. Only then we will be able to study what our perception. consists of.

Bina derives from the word “Havana,” understanding, as it is written, “the heart understands.” This is why we study The Zohar, in order to be able to bestow and perceive the Creator. Later, you and I will discuss every page of The Zohar, and we will see how much it contains, the entire symphony of feelings.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar

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