When we read The Zohar, we should expect salvation. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155:  “Indeed, there is a great and marvelous quality concealed in Kabbalistic books, worthy of being publicized.” In other words, by studying The Zohar we can unite with the Source, the Creator, Who exists in other dimensions.

We exist in our dimension, in separation from Him, while The Zohar creates a connection between us and Him, the higher dimension. From there, to the extent of our aspiration, we receive the Light, the remedy that flows into us one drop at a time, like an infusion.

The Torah does not demand anything unrealistic. After all, the Upper One knows us better than we know ourselves; what is expected of us is measured according to the way we’re created. One is told: “Sit down with a book. You must connect with your environment because that is your spiritual form.”

Currently a person is on his or her own level. One is an egoist and doesn’t care for anyone, wanting nothing except egoistic pleasure. A person doesn’t even know what exactly is wanted, but the Upper One knows it well. It is He who creates these desires, even the most disgusting qualities in a person. And only occasionally do we slightly feel what He does.

Having created all of this in within us, the Creator expects just one thing: “Try to unite with Me just a little bit, based on all the things given to you from Above.” A person has to reveal the present state, and just wish to become like the Upper One.

However, in order to become like the Upper One, one needs to imagine the state when he and the group are together in a state of mutual bestowal, mutual guarantee. Imagining our self and them as one whole means we want to feel this state of the Light already operating between us in a single whole. We want to feel that we’re together and the Light is fulfilling us because we become like the Light to the extent of our unity. This is the state that we need to imagine.

It is clear that we are not together or connected with one another, but we are trying to connect, which means we want to grow spiritually and become like the Upper degree. Thus, to the extent of one’s aspiration, The Zohar creates a connection between that person and the Upper degree, injecting this infusion, which are drops of Light called “drops of luck” (Mazalot) that flow towards him.

There is no other difference between a person and the Upper degree, aside from the fact that one is better connected with others on the Upper degree. Try to imagine this upper state, the inner connection of mutual bestowal with everyone, which is called the “Upper Light.” This force, the Surrounding Light that rears a person like an infant, influences from that same state that one imagines, dreams of, and aspires to.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/13/10

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Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #140 “How I Love Thy Law”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 51
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Preface to Sulam Commentary,” Item 1, Lesson 1

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Kitvei Rabash – Shlavei Sulam, Vol. 1, Pg. 11, “The Purpose of the Association – 1,” 1984
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A question I received: Why do the authors of The Zohar repeat and explain the same things over and over again? Isn’t it enough to explain the basics and proceed further? Why do they write so much about things that are clear to us already, for example, that each element consists of four parts multiplied by three lines, which eventually add up to twelve parts?

My Answer: By reiterating, the authors of The Zohar give a chance to those who already possess the screens and spiritual vessels (Kelim) to perform the actions described in The Book while they read it. A person then reveals these actions and performs them along with Rabbi Shimon during the time when the latter wrote The Zohar. Time doesn’t exist in spirituality, so the reader connects with the author, grasps his hand like a child holding on to an adult, and proceeds together with him.

Rabbi Shimon leads a person, shows and explains to him the actions and properties one by one by replicating the same actions in various places over and over again. Why? It’s because each time we have to correct a certain property within our desire to receive pleasure.

It seems to us that it is already enough; how many times can we go over the same things? But that is because we simply neither know nor sense that these things are in fact different. Names and titles look the same, but each time they stand for new inner definitions. This is why we should simply move along with the authors of The Zohar, trying to connect with them as much as we can in order to better understand what’s going on.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/5/10

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Shamati #66 “The Giving of the Torah”
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 50
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 33
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Letters are the forms of desire. The Creator created only the desire to enjoy that acquires various forms of reception and bestowal. Yet, forms of reception have no right to exist in spirituality. As to the forms of bestowal, we are only concerned with those similar to the Creator, that is, with various types of bestowal from Bina to Malchut.

Altogether, there are 27 letters: 9 come from ZAT de Bina (from Aleph to Tet), 9 from Zeir Anpin (from Yod to Tzadik), 4 are contained in Malchut (Kof, Reish, Shin, and Tav), and 5 letters are used in the end of words, MaNTZePaCH, on the Parsa.  These are the forms of matter similar to the Creator or models of the correct behavior.

Therefore, when we talk about a book, word, or sentence, we talk about the matter of the desire to enjoy, which is constantly changing and acquiring different shapes like dough. This is how our desire alters its form, yearning to become similar to the Creator.

When one completes repeating the entire series of permutations from the first word (In the beginning – Beresheet) to the last (Israel), going through all the letters of the Torah, one acquires all of these forms, becomes completely similar to the Creator, and reaches the Final Correction. Hence it is said, “Inscribe the whole Torah on your heart.”  The heart is the desire; the book of Torah all the existing forms of the Creator’s bestowal onto the creatures. We have to transcribe them on our desire. Then we will become similar to the Creator.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/5/10

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 17
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 16: But now, after the Vav illuminated, meaning the middle line, when all four lights in the letters Yod–Kof–Reish–Aleph were opened, he [Moses] could come to the tent of meeting.

Only in the middle line can one enter the tent of meeting (Malchut) and pass the Lights into these desires (Kelim) through the three lines. This points to the main principle: One can receive the Light only by repelling it from oneself. If the Light of Hassadim, the Reflected Light, rises from the screen from below upward, we can receive the Light of Hochma into it.

In other words, if I desire to fill another person, and I give everything that goes through me to him (I push everything away from myself), then all the Lights can go through me, and I too will receive them. However, this will already be reception from below upward, with the help of a screen, which is in opposition to my ego. Then, as it is written, “Moses could come to the tent of meeting.”

If we wait for the Lights to be revealed in our desires, this will be for the sake of reception, and the revelation of the Lights will not be permitted. Therefore, the condition for receiving the Lights is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Everything can pass through you if you act for the sake of the neighbor. Then you delight by receiving both what comes to you and with what you fill the whole Malchut of Infinity. All these Lights are yours. This is the only way to receive them.

Herein lies the wisdom of receiving – the science of Kabbalah, a science about how to receive the Light by reflecting it. We are now situated in the Light of Infinity as well; it is present here and now. However, we do not see or feel it since first we have to acquire an ability to repel it, to arm ourselves with the Light of Hassadim. Only then will the Light of Hochma be revealed in the Light of Hassadim.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/5/10

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Post Zohar Convention Lesson
All of today’s problems are meant to show that the main problem is people can’t live with themselves let along with others.
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A question I received: There’s a saying in the Torah that’s become very popular worldwide: “A Life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” What does this mean from a Kabbalistic standpoint?

My Answer: Where there was a breaking, now a correction is needed at the same degree, on the same level, and in the same form. Where the desire was corrupted, we must now correct it, make it suitable to use.  We need to discern correctly where the breaking took place, and correct it in the exact same place. Why? In so doing, we study what the Creator has done, the cleverness of His plan, and how He trips me up in every state so that I would demand His help and learn from His work.

The entire work in correction is called the Creator’s work because I discern the corruption, take Him by the hand, bring Him to that place, and ask Him to correct it. I imagine ahead of time how this state must be corrected. Once He corrects it, I complement Him, and thereby, He and I walk together. In this way, we are connected to the Creator.

If I were capable of making this correction on my own, I wouldn’t have a connection with the Upper Force. If the Creator were able to do it without me, then who would I be? What would be the point of my existence? This is the only way He and I can work together as partners.

The Creator mourns for the broken desires (Kelim). On one hand, He wants to correct them but, on the other, He’s unable to do it in the general system without my request, my demand, and precise instruction as to what to correct and where. Thus, He and I become true partners in this work.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why does the desire to receive pleasure have to suffer and go through so many blows in order to become the desire to bestow? If I feel that bestowal is a good quality, then why is it so difficult to give up the desire to receive?

My Answer: You feel the blows and difficulties because you identify with the desire to receive pleasure and don’t see that it doesn’t belong to you. Both the desire to receive and the desire to bestow are angels; they are Creator’s forces that are sent to you. They are two lines that come to you from Above. You need to identify with the middle line which consists of both of the lines. The middle line doesn’t belong to either of the two lines; it is when you start feeling a new reality that is totally separate from them, that is above them.

The lines are there to help you, like two distant magnets exerting force on an iron bar from two opposite sides. You are connected to these forces so that you can build a middle line as a result of their influence. You do not identify with either of them, not with the desire to receive pleasure or the desire to bestow.

The desire to receive pleasure was created by the Creator as “existence from absence,” while the desire to bestow, the Creator Himself, already “existed.” You are not connected to either of them, otherwise you couldn’t become independent. Your independence comes from building your “I” out of both of them.

So why do you feel bad? It is what causes you to leave the desire to receive pleasure, to stop identifying with it, and to be above it. First, the blows come in the form of shame and humiliation to push you away from the desire to receive because it makes you suffer. After that, the opposite is true: a person wants to grow a bigger desire to receive because he builds himself above it, like above a magnet.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/10, The Zohar

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