When reading The Book of Zohar, we have to see the connection between the forces mentioned in the stories and try to sort them out inside us, because everything exists inside us. The Zohar gives us a picture of another, non-corporeal, spiritual reality. We have to try to find it and identify it within us.

Through our efforts, we must achieve a state where the things described in The Book of Zohar will begin to settle into our feelings and our heart. We will then begin to recognize the characters and the objects in the form of qualities, and all the actions that are described – in the form of actions of bestowal or reception. For example, when we hear the words, “Yesod,” “Jerusalem,” “Jacob,” and “well,” we will not envision their corporeal images, but will immediately feel their inner qualities.

Suddenly we’ll realize, “Wow! The whole world is inside me!” It will be a great surprise for us to discover this. For example, we will feel, “Right now I am going down a ladder and then going to Jerusalem.” And it will be clear that we are performing all this inside.

This will come gradually, as a result of reading The Book of Zohar. We have no other means to do it, as Baal HaSulam explains in Item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” Therefore, we should always be trying to recognize and “arrange” everything inside.

We were born and have existed for decades in this world, having gone through many reincarnations before. We have Reshimot from all the previous reincarnations, and we are always situated in this confusing and false perception of this world. However, we can realize that it is a lie.

This realization will come gradually by allowing the Light to work on us. This cannot happen all at once, since the changes that the Light must carry out in us are extreme. The Light doesn’t just want to change you, but it has to bring you to this perception consciously. It has to help us understand and consent to the change, become smarter, and truly come to own it.

This is why we have to exert effort. In so doing, we participate in the process and are ready for greater pressure and influence from the Light.

Our effort lies in connecting with the group in order to receive from it the importance of the goal and the right perception. This happens most while reading The Book of Zohar, provided that we approach the study the right way, as Baal HaSulam writes in “Preface to the Book of Zohar.”

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Shmini (On The Eighth Day), Item 25: The right line and the left line are mercy and judgment. Those who aspire to the Creator go right, while idol worshippers go left.

He who aspires to the Creator, even should he sin and surrender, he remains on the right side, without connecting to the left or ever mixing with it. Therefore it is written: “Rescue with Your right hand and answer me.” For when the right ascends, he who is tied to it ascends and is exalted by it.

Then the left side obeys, and all those who walk from this side, as it is written: “Your right hand, the Creator, crushes the enemy.”

We shouldn’t focus on the left line, because if we begin to do this, we will analyze our desires and it will seem that we’re making discernments and actually standing up against our evil qualities. But in actuality we’ll be mixing with them, and that isn’t good.

We have to try to ignore them as if they don’t even exist. We shouldn’t desire to deal with them, but only aspire to the right side. When we aspire toward the spiritual goal, adhesion with the Creator, the Upper Degree, bestowal, then its Light will correct us and our egoistic qualities, the left side.

On our own we will never be able to withstand these qualities, so it’s best to just stay away from them. The left line awakens in us only so we cling to the right. This is our path. If, however, we turn to the left side, we will think we are heroes, capable of working with and defeating these desires. But that will never happen! Only the Creator can defeat them for us. This war is waged by the Creator, not by us.

We don’t have the strength for it. One who aspires to the Creator is little, weak, and unable to withstand the egoistic qualities on his own. All of this is arranged by the Creator, and all we need to do is desire for it to happen. We just have to reach the right request.

That is why our work is called “the Creator’s work”; it’s because the Upper Force, the Upper Degree, the Creator, carries out all the actions, while we merely express our desire for it to happen. Our entire work comes down to wanting for it to happen. This is called “I awaken the dawn,” when the horse (us) moves obediently on its own, guessing its rider’s (the Creator’s) wishes in advance.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shmini (On The Eighth Day),” Item 49
The Book of Zohar allows us to see the connection between our reality and the forces that form it.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 120, Lesson 49
The first restriction allows one to work with all of one’s desires, whereas the second restriction leaves only half of each desire in a working capacity.
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“Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 1
The problem isn’t that the Creator created us corrupt, but that we don’t appeal to Him for help.
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I receive many questions about studying The Zohar from old-time students as well as total beginners. People write, “We used to understand what we were studying. Talmud Eser Sefirot and “Introduction to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (Pticha) gave us knowledge about the structure of the universe. Articles about the group made us think about unity and the goal that the group has to reach. Baal HaSulam’s articles explained Kabbalah’s connection to other sciences and its attitude to religion, philosophy, and freedom of will. It was clear that these articles dealt with the structure of the external society as well as man’s inner structure, which are questions related to psychology. But what the heck are we studying in The Book of Zohar?”

These questions indicate the wrong attitude to the study because everything must eventually unite into one. For example, the group is a collection of souls that have to unite together. It only seems to our vision and sensations that there are different, foreign souls and desires around us, and that we want to attach them to us in order to see the true picture.

It is impossible to study Kabbalah theoretically; this wisdom can only be attained practically. This is the whole point of studying the science of Kabbalah: it is intended for revealing the Creator to the creatures in this world.

The Creator (Bo-reh) means “Come and See” – come experience the quality of bestowal by revealing it inside you, by going from “love for the neighbor” to “love for the Creator.” The true perception of reality is when reality is no longer divided into “myself and others,” but everyone is united together into one whole. But how can we attain this unity and perception if we are still unable to feel all the souls as one man with one heart, to unite them with the Creator, and to feel this whole world inside us? How can we discover and understand it?

All of this has to be done to us by the Upper Light. The Light must bring us to the state where “There is none else besides Him” and “He is Good that does Good,” despite anything that happens to us. These two forms of concealment have to come together and unite; we just don’t know how to make it happen.

This is exactly our purpose when we start studying The Zohar: we have to desire for it to reveal the true reality to us, for the Creator to become revealed to the creation here and now, for the desire to be revealed together with the Light in it! In addition, we have to add a bit of sensitivity, concern, and fear to this approach. Each one of us should ask himself: Am I doing everything that has been allotted to me? Am I making the required amount of efforts that I am supposed to? This, in turn, depends on our sensation of the spiritual goal’s importance and a constant inner concern about it. Then we are guaranteed success.

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A question I received: Is order important when reading The Book of Zohar? What if I’ve only joined the study recently? Should I read everything you’ve studied up to this point?

My Answer: First of all, it makes no difference which part of The Book of Zohar we are reading. It is written: “There is no time in the Torah.” So it doesn’t matter where you start reading: from the middle, end, or beginning.

It also doesn’t matter how much you understand or don’t understand, or whether you’ve joined the study just now and this is your very first lesson, or you’ve been studying a long time. You may join the study from the very beginning or be tuning in midway through the lesson, when half of the material has already been covered.

Everything we study are processes that take place in Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut (AHP), where all the Upper Forces are located above Bina. That is to say, Bina is the Upper Forces’ relation toward us; Zeir Anpin is a system that conducts the forces of Bina to us along the three lines, and Malchut receives these three lines. We connect to Malchut and work on our connection to Zeir Anpin in order to connect to Bina.

The picture remains the same at all times – Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. There is nothing else. Therefore, no matter what Kabbalistic text you read, be it chapters of the Torah or parts of The Book of Zohar, the text invariably talks about the same thing – the correction of the soul in the system of AHP, ZAT de Atzilut.

This is why you will see a great deal of repetitions in The Zohar, which are all different descriptions of how the Light affects the soul. We do not know why the authors of The Zohar wrote it the way they did and why they chose those specific words and sequence of words. But they did it naturally; their writings reflect the correct actions of the Lights upon the desire as the soul ascends upward.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shmini (On The Eighth Day),” Item 33, Lesson 2
While a person is asleep, the only thing he can do on his own is to desire to awaken.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 118, Lesson 48
After the breaking of the vessels, the creation recreates the image of the Creator within itself by connecting the broken pieces into a picture that is similar to Him.
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“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 40, Lesson 15
No individual has the strength to advance. However, we have the force of desire, which we can and must share with each other.
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A question I received: Before we started studying The Book of Zohar, our inner states and our ascents and descents were more balanced. Now they are much more dramatic and extreme, like black and white. Why is this happening?

My Answer: It is because we are being affected by The Book of Zohar, which is a tremendously powerful book. And in addition, we are all reading it together.

The Zohar’s influence allows us to feel whether we are actually connected with each other or not because it was written by a group of Kabbalists who were completely connected with each other and had attained absolute correction on all 125 levels.

When the Light comes and influences us from such a high source, it creates awareness of where we are relative to the Light. Therefore, we will surely go through dramatic and extreme conditions ranging from confusion to inspiration, anxiety, total fatigue, insensitivity, and much more. This will enable us to build ourselves in order to start sensing spirituality.

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In the “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam writes that although it seems to me that everything takes place externally, before my eyes, any reasonable person knows that all these pictures exist only within the brain. When I realize this, I am ready to begin to approach the matters spoken of by the science of Kabbalah.

The lack of this realization is the reason why The Book of Zohar is concealed from us and why we don’t know how to open and read it. It’s because the key to understanding it lies in having the correct perception of reality. The Book of Zohar must be approached only by imagining the depictions within myself. The terminology, sounds, worlds, spiritual objects, souls, and relationships are all notions within me. This is particularly true when addressing the parameters of reality’s perception: world, year, and soul – all of which are above time, space, and motion.

If I perceive the text as an unfolding pattern of relationships between forces and qualities within me, I will gradually reveal increasingly deeper inner states. Then it will become clear that this external reality isn’t truly real, even if it seems real to me. I only see it as existing outside and independent of me.

It is my present folly in thinking that I do not create this reality, mistakenly thinking that it unfolds before me by itself, having existed before my birth and sure to exist after my death. I have to try to change all these beliefs in order to start to understand what The Zohar wants to explain to me.

The key and the entrance to The Book of Zohar lies precisely in transporting everything inside myself, as per the principle, “A person is the whole world.” I can tell whether or not my study is correct by checking: How much do I expect to feel and reveal my entire future within myself?

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A question I received: What should we think about while reading The Book of Zohar in order to be more sensitive to it?

My Answer: I actually don’t have the answers to any of your questions, because all the answers are provided by the Light that Reforms. My job is only to try and direct you toward this Light.

Some people ask me about sensation, wondering, “Where can I get more of it?” Others ask about the mind, “When should or shouldn’t I use it?” Other people ask me questions like, “When will I start to see and feel everything we study? Why do I feel one way now and later I feel differently?” The answer is that I don’t have the answers to these questions – and I shouldn’t have them, either. An answer is a manifestation of the Light inside a person; it is one’s corrected state which stands opposite the question – one’s previous, uncorrected state.

A person should have just one concern, “Am I directed toward the ray of Light called the Light that Reforms, so it will shine on me?” One shouldn’t think about fulfilling one’s sensation and mind with answers to any other questions besides the one question about the Light that Reforms. Incidentally, this is why Baal HaSulam was laughing at the “Kabbalists of Jerusalem” who knew The Book of Zohar by heart, but rejected its inner essence.

The only thing one should store in one’s memory is the basic concepts of the science of Kabbalah, because they direct a person toward bestowal, giving him the correct, spiritual interpretation of the words. They elucidate the goal and direct a person toward it. If a person is studying correctly, then he will receive answers to all his questions, both in the sensation and the mind. He will advance and understand what is happening, and eventually he will be satisfied by this. He will see how he is advancing day by day.

We are now studying The Book of Zohar intensely. If a person tries to prepare for the lesson and to seriously participate in it, then in a very short while he is bound to feel qualitative changes happening inside him. He will become more sensitive to his connection with others and will feel a change in his attitude to the environment, the studies, the quality of bestowal, and the Creator. But he has to become more sensitive in order to discern what is useful and what isn’t.

All of this takes place as a result of the study. Besides this, there is nothing for us to work on. This is why I always talk just about the intention –  exactly what we want from the study and what it should give us.

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A question I received: How can I tune into the Light that Reforms while studying The Zohar?

My Answer: The Light that Reforms is the force of bestowal that comes from Above and builds qualities of bestowal above our will to receive. But how can we attract this force if we are just egoistically thinking about wanting to bestow? This will not help. Instead, we have to tune into the system that influences us.

Our soul has to receive the influence of the Surrounding Light. This is why we were given The Book of Zohar, which tells us all kinds of stories about a donkey and a snake, different nations, three lines, Zeir Anpin, Malchut, the Temple, and many other things. I don’t know what desire I am working on now and whether I have the right intention, but while I am reading The Zohar with the right mindset, it operates as a connecting system between my soul and the Upper System.

There exists an Upper System wherein my soul is already included in a fully corrected state; meanwhile, my uncorrected soul is below. These two systems have an identical structures. The only difference between them is the use of the desire, meaning the intention, which determines how the desire is used. As I correct my desire, my soul will expand, starting from a point, and new, concealed desires will surface. But I need a mechanism to connect me and these two states:

The Book of Zohar functions as this connecting link. When I read it correctly, I reveal this connection. All I have to do is try to imagine myself in the corrected form. I have to tune into the text and start living inside it. I have to desire for it to “clothe” me so I will become the protagonist of everything being described there. It is talking only about me and my inner battle with my corrupted self, where I am fighting for a chance to be similar to the Creator. All the qualities and characters are me; it is all inside of me.

If this is how I prepare for reading The Zohar, then I will proactively attract the Surrounding Light to myself.

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