When Baal HaSulam explains The Book of Zohar using the terminology of Kabbalah, he aims to provide an explanation that will develop our soul and sensations rather than our mind. This is, indeed, a challenge because the language of Kabbalah is very precise, logical, scientific, and dry and therefore, a person faces the pitfall of becoming too engrossed in it mentally. This is especially so in our time when egoism is so highly developed that its development occurs through the mind. The modern person is inclined to look for a scientific explanation using the earthly mind instead of feeling the Upper World inside his corrected desires.

As a result, when a person hears an explanation, he is lured into Klipa. If he accepts everything on a purely rational basis and starts to provide explanations to what is happening without relating it to the correction of his sensations, then he won’t aspire for spiritual attainment. He will be satisfied with the explanations on the level of his earthly reason, and that will halt his spiritual progress. Moreover, he will go on to confuse others who don’t understand that his beautiful words hold no spiritual attainment, but just abstract knowledge.

This is why my teacher Rabash conducted his lessons in a way that caused his students to leave the lessons confused, not understanding anything. They did not aspire to acquire pure knowledge, but waited to acquire the ability to feel what they read. There is also a different approach to teaching Kabbalah where a student rejoices after the lesson about receiving certain knowledge and being able to connect everything beautifully into a single picture of the world. These are two completely different approaches.

Either way, life will put everything in its rightful place. The global crisis, suffering, problems, and the development of egoism will bring an end to our superficial interest in science. People will become smarter and realize that abstract knowledge is of no use because it does not provide any solutions to their problems. We have to reveal and feel spirituality, instead of building theories based on things written in books.

When the mind works based on feeling and attainment, we truly reveal nature, the Creator. However, when the mind keeps growing instead of achieving real attainment, it is described by the verse, “One’s knowledge exceeds one’s actions” (Hochmato Merubeh Mi Maasav) and this halts a person’s spiritual development. He starts to be a know it all even though he is actually in total darkness and does not feel what he speaks of.

Therefore, it is my wish to prevent every person from being carried away by speculative commentaries, and to help everyone aspire only to self-correction and the attainment of real revelation.

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The Zohar, Chapter “ Ve’Eleh Toldot Itzhak (These Are the Generations of Isaac),” Item 14: Even though all the people in the world are from Israel, they are all worthy of blessing the Creator. But blessings for which upper and lower are blessed, who are they who bless Him? It is the servants of the Creator. And who are they whose blessing is a blessing? It is them who stand in the house of God at night, those who rise at midnight and awaken to read in the Torah. They are the ones who stand in the house of God at night. And they need both: to be servants of the Creator, as well as to rise at midnight, for then the Creator comes to entertain with the righteous in the Garden of Eden.

In the science of Kabbalah, “midnight” does not correspond to the time fixed by astronomical hours and the rotation of the planet earth. Rather, it corresponds to the state of a person who builds spiritual senses (Kelim) within.

This person is in the state of darkness because his previous level has completely exhausted itself like a grain that rots in the soil. This is a necessary condition for acquiring a new degree; his previous state must “rot” in regard to him.

Then he begins to see a new level from within the darkness, which is formed by the following level and the Upper Light that lie ahead of him. For now it appears as darkness to him because he senses it through his current qualities. After all, every subsequent level is a greater degree of bestowal in relation to the uncorrected will to enjoy that becomes revealed to him.

On one hand, a greater Light shines for him, but on the other hand, he reveals an additional, uncorrected will to enjoy within him. He already has a new level within him, but he perceives it as darkness, a lack of Light within the desire.

Because his additional desire is not yet corrected, he experiences the Light as darkness. This makes him search for a way to change his attitude to his perceived reality. In and of itself reality is always a part of the corrected Malchut, which gradually becomes revealed to him more and more.

A person constantly changes his perception, sensation, and awareness, as well as his attainment of his state. He then demands the Light that Reforms; yet, he does not do it to make reality change, but to change his perception of reality.

Therefore, this person is called “a servant of the Creator” because he understands that in every state, everything comes from “There is none else beside Him.” Only the person’s perception of reality changes as a result of him correcting his qualities (Kelim).

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Ve’Eleh Toldot Itzhak (These Are the Generations of Isaac),” Item 10
While reading the Zohar, one has to blend the inner and outer reality into one.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 150, Lesson 71
The desire is homogenous until the light enters into it which causes changes, and reveals differences and contradictions.
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“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 52
By developing under the influence of the Light I search for my “I” — the point of independent existence, which becomes revealed at the end of correction.
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The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 162: “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin…on the evidence of two witnesses.”

We have to take into consideration that the language of The Zohar is not always smooth. This book came to us after being collected from detached pages. Sometimes it lacks certain chapters and there are many unfinished sentences. Often Baal HaSulam replenishes it with comments saying that some content is omitted or that there is no connection between its parts.

Nevertheless, by no means can we change anything in it, even though it is obvious that the text was compiled of the pieces that were available. What we consider to be The Book of Zohar is actually a very small part of what was originally written.

On the other hand, we should understand that this fact doesn’t reduce the book’s strength or ability to deliver the Light to us. The fact that we have this book in its current form means that it is exactly what we need for the correction of our souls. The language of the book is not always clear and we come across vague portions of phrases in many places. This is proof of the authenticity of its text.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharoah),” Item 63: Accordingly, Bina, Tifferet and Malchut of the still Nile, too, fell into Keter and Hochma of the Niles during the Katnut. During Gadlut, the still Nile, too, elevates its Bina, Tifferet and Malchut to it, and with them rise the Keter and Hochma of the Niles, which receive GAR from him.

There is a great, still river, the Nile that is connected to all the small Niles (rivers) through their Galgalta Eynaim. This big Nile annuls its AHP (this is why it’s called still) in order to let the small ones connect with it. It waits for them, and as soon as they become connected it begins lifting them along. Thus, they rise from their own level to the next one.

At the higher level there is another “still Nile (river).” They connect to it and rise even higher. This is the way the “spiritual elevator” works. What seems to be darkness is always the concealed Light. Therefore, there is no darkness. It’s only dark because of my egoistic attitude to the Light; this is why the Light becomes concealed. It shines to me with its opposite side, which is why the Hebrew word for Light is “Ohr,” while in Aramaic the word “Ohrta” means night. It is for this reason that these two languages are opposite to one another like a front and back side.

Darkness doesn’t exist. It exists only with regard to our uncorrected desires. There is no darkness in the corrected desires. Therefore, as soon as I am in a bad mood and lack inspiration, it means I have an opportunity to awaken myself and attain a greater connection with the Upper One precisely through the darkness I feel.

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What does The Zohar teach us? We know from the science of Kabbalah that the Creator created one desire, within which all further development occurs. This one desire encompasses a great multitude of individual desires, connected with each other into a single system called “Adam,” the common soul.

Then, according to His program, the Creator began to ruin the connection that existed between the parts of the same desire. Thus, they began to lose connection with each other, and like a sick organism, the organs stopped interacting with each other properly. Similar to an imbalance when our body is ill, we experience symptoms such as increased blood pressure or temperature, or chemical changes of the blood. It is an illness where the body is unable to balance itself out.

Why does the Creator act this way with regard to the souls? It is in order for us to feel the corruption and then correct it. This illness or corruption of connection between us as parts of one system permeates into our initial state, and we begin to feel less and less connected to each other. This loss of connection between us comprises 125 degrees of descent from Infinity, the state where we were infinitely connected to each other and until a state where this connection vanishes completely. Moreover, during the descent through 125 degrees, on the level called “Parsa,” (division), an even greater corruption arose, and instead of the positive connection that was once present, a negative connection emerged. Therefore, each person now wishes to use others for his own benefit. The organism doesn’t simply die, but completely devours itself.

This descent into a desire for the sake of receiving and using others continues until it reaches a state where we absolutely lose any connection to each other, including a positive connection for the sake of bestowal, as well as a negative connection for the sake of reception. We exist in a state of complete disparity to spirituality, lacking any realization or knowledge of it, which is a consequence of our separation from each other.

Therefore, what we feel is “this world,” an imaginary reality. Why is it imaginary? It is because the Creator created it specifically for the purpose of creating an illusion of His absence for us. We are given the opportunity to understand that we need to correct the connection between us. To the extent that our connection increases, our soul ascends from the feeling of just our world to the World of Infinity occurs. Thus, re-establishing a connection between us creates an ascent.

For that reason, to the extent that we can imagine our states in connection with all the souls (all individual parts of creation together), we will gain a greater appreciation of The Zohar. After all, The Book of Zohar is written from the level of Infinity. The authors of The Book of Zohar wrote this work from the height of all 125 degrees, where they were connected together. Likewise, when we study The Zohar, we need to feel a desire to unite within. We don’t need any special tricks, but must only remember that everything is attained inside our connection with one another.

In actuality, The Zohar talks only about the unification of souls. It explains our connection in the general system, called “Adam,” with all the other souls, and how we can connect them all together into a corrected, healthy, and properly functioning system. This is the only thing that The Zohar speaks of.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 218: But after He had made that form of the chariot of the upper Adam, He descended and clothed there, and he is named in it in the shape of the four letters HaVaYaH.

The Creator made the worlds. Inside the white Light He created a rough framework of reality: the order of steps, Partzufim, and Sefirot. This was done so that we would have something to “grasp onto,” and “climb” up, gradually reaching the simple white Light.

We climb up these steps from our world reaching the World of Assiya, then the worlds of Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the World of Infinity; they all roll up behind us like a rug. We rise together with the worlds, and they all disappear. Therefore, the Hebrew word “world” (Olam) originates from the words “Elem,” “Alama” (concealment), and “Nehelam” (disappearing) since eventually they disappear and cease to exist.

These worlds were formed due to the fact that the Creator created a black netting inside the white Light, making it easier for us to navigate and find the steps from our current state. However, as soon as we complete our correction and rise to the World of Infinity, then this entire framework will disappear and become absorbed by the Light.

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A question I received: What intention should a woman have while studying The Book of Zohar? Should she try to find what the text is talking about within her? Should she desire for the book to influence her? Should she think about connecting with others or ask for the men’s unity? Or should she simply focus on supporting the men and disseminating, since studying is not as important for women?

My Answer: The most important thing for a woman is dissemination. But to do it she has to know what to disseminate, feel the importance of dissemination, and have the energy for it. Undoubtedly, for a woman dissemination is the only means of advancement. Otherwise, she is like a woman who does not give birth to children.

The role of a woman in our world is to give birth to offspring, and a man’s role is to provide the woman with everything she needs in order to give birth. That is, he has to build a house and give her everything that is necessary, provided it is for this purpose. This is how we are built and how we exist. A woman is the central point around which everything revolves because she gives birth, which is the most important act of our existence on earth.

Birth in spirituality is dissemination because this act facilitates spiritual birth. That is why it is the most important thing for a woman. However, in order to disseminate, she has to participate in the study process and study The Zohar. However, for her, all of this must be a means for dissemination.

With men, on the other hand, study, dissemination, and most important – unity, are all means for acquiring the right intention. That is how the male and female parts of creation complement each other.

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While reading The Zohar, we need to delve deeper into ourselves, searching internally for all the actions and qualities that it describes. These actions and qualities are actually found within our desire, but they are hidden from us. Thus, we need to reveal them.
The process of revealing them is similar to a machine that works within. It is as though we’re walking through a forest together looking for something that we’ve lost. Our whole group is walking through a forest, searching for a lost item that is very important to all of us.

We need to put forth effort and search inside ourselves, until we break this inner wall that is present in each of us, that separates us from spirituality. There is no other means to break through to the spiritual world, and The Zohar tells us about the world that exists behind that wall. If we wish to pass through it and we are attacking it together, this is the only way to break through it.

In fact, this wall is created in a person in opposition to his spiritual qualities. A person is an egoist and is found on one side of the wall. However, one also exists on the other side of the wall, but this is a completely opposite “I.” Therefore, we need to go from the egoistic “I” to the spiritual “I,” and this is only possible with each of us making our own efforts.

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We don’t feel that we exist in a special system. Once there was a story on the news about the security system at the diamond exchange. Invisible rays penetrate the whole place but the web of rays remains undetected by the eye.

We exist within the spiritual system in the same manner. We are already in it; we are its parts; we activate it, and it activates us. This system exists, it lives. The Light in it comes from the Partzuf of Arich Anpin of the World of Atzilut, meaning from a very high level called our End of Correction. This Light is called “The Zohar.”

Therefore, The Zohar is not a book; it is an instruction manual of how to put into gear the influence of the Light that is coming from the End of Correction, so that it influences and carries us with it to the final corrected state.

When authentic Kabbalistic sources reference The Zohar, they do not say “The Book of Zohar;“ they simply say “The Book” because it is obvious that there is nothing else. Everything else is not considered a book.

We have to realize that it is not just a book. A “book” means “revelation,” and this is precisely what occurs when we come into contact with The Book of Zohar. Even when a person simply reads, watches, or listens to how others read this book, without understanding or knowing much, something changes in him though he doesn’t realize exactly what that is.

So let’s continue to read it with the intention that we are all together, since correction is possible only in connection among people. In it, we will then reveal the Upper Force, the Creator. We aren’t just reading this book; we are putting a system into gear in order to reveal it.

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