The Book of Zohar, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat) ,” Item 125: Anyone who delved in the Torah in this world is rewarded with engaging in it in the next world.

This is talking about two degrees or two states in the desire. In our world we exist only in one quality: the desire to receive or be fulfilled for our own sake. In the spiritual world we also exist in the desire to receive, but we don’t use it. Our intention there is “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” Hafetz Hesed, also known as the desire to receive for the sake of others.

The desire always remains since it was created by the Creator. It is the invariable building block of creation. However, it can have two different intentions. The intention to use it for ourselves is the natural intention we are born with and through which we perceive this world. The spiritual, corrected intention in which we perceive the Upper World is the intention to use it for the sake of others

Our spiritual development occurs when our corrupted desire evolves, but we correct our intention from “for my own sake” to “for the sake of others.” Thus, we continually discover new states inside the new intention. Our desires need to change so that we can have the opportunity to change the intentions over them. We don’t have access to the desires themselves, as they are foundational matter and not in our hands.

Even if we are successful on the present degree, when we enter the state of an embryo of the next degree, we don’t know what happens there and we are unable to orient ourselves.

In our world a person’s desires also grow, but they always have the same intention – for the sake of oneself. Therefore, the states one experiences in different desires is similar because the intention is always the same: for the sake of himself. However, in the spiritual world since the intention over our desire to receive is “for the sake of others,” the feeling of fulfillment entails a contradiction: We fill ourselves, but we do it for the sake of others and we feel the world through others. Therefore, each spiritual degree is completely new with unexpected desires and sensations.

Our efforts in a given degree provide us with a good beginning for the next degree, in spite of the fact that the new degree always begins from the absence of realization, meaning a very limited understanding of our present actions. However, the efforts in our present degree are necessary in order to prepare for the next degree. After all, everything we actually attain in the next degree comes from our attainment in the present degree. This is from the perspective of preparing our matter, the will to receive.

Let’s say we finish sixth grade and begin seventh grade. In seventh grade we learn about new subjects which we never studied before or heard about. However, since we prepared ourselves well in the previous grade (degree), we already have experience and various forms of perception that dressed over our matter.

We know exactly how our matter perceives new forms. We know that we can work with the group and receive help from it. We can influence our friends and they will influence us, and this mutual influence will enable us to take on new forms. We know how to work with the books, with the study materials, and with the teacher.

In other words, the work in this world – the degree in which we are situated and which we perceive now, prepares us for the “world to come” – the next degree or perception. Of course, it doesn’t give us any understanding of what will happen in the world to come, but after all our efforts, we become worthy of its revelation and have a foundation upon which to continue our path.

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As we open The Book of Zohar again and again, our initial inspiration eventually subsides. This inspiration was given to us from Above, like the point in the heart that brought us to the science of Kabbalah. It is called an “awakening from Above” (Itaruta de-Leila), which means it is given to us by the Upper Force.

The desire for the Upper Level acts as fuel, naturally giving us aspirations to push us ahead as if we’re on fire. More and more we want to feel what is hidden within the book and what exactly it speaks of. We are awakened from Above to seek contact with the book.

But then this inspiration passes as we are overtaken by new desires that lack the Creator’s awakening from Above. That is when we must add our own awakening from below in order to continue to advance. We must independently search for answers to questions like: “Why do I need this work and what is it for?”

The Creator desires for us to continually reveal the importance of the Upper Level, to develop a persistent demand to connect with Him, and to realize the importance of all the means of attaining the connection, with The Book of Zohar being the main means. He wants us to keep searching for these inner discernments, over and over again.

Next, we come to a state where we must realize that we’re engaged in “Bezalel’s work” – the construction of a spiritual vessel inside ourselves, a Temple with all its contents. This great work takes time and requires a great deal of preparation.

In truth, we never actually do anything; all that’s required of us is the willingness, desire, and intention. However, beyond that, everything is realized by the Upper Force, Bina, although its influence is prompted by an awakening from below. Therein lies our work.

Therefore, on one hand, our work lies in exerting efforts and making discernments at every step. But on the other hand, it is called “the Creator’s work,” because it is done by the Creator, not by us.

Indeed, we only have to achieve the desire, the appeal, or the prayer; everything else is done by the Creator. This is the meaning of the verse, “Give half a Shekel and the Creator shall complete the rest.”
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From Daily Kabbalah lesson on Zohar for All “”VaYeshev,” 148,  1/7/10

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shmini (On The Eighth Day),” Item 1
The more developed a person is, the deeper are the questions he asks while trying to solve the mystery of his existence.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 117, Lesson 47
All parts of the World of Nekudim turn into Kelim for correction in the World of Atzilut.
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“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 37, Lesson 14
While reading The Book of Zohar one must tune into its wavelength, the wavelength of Kabbalists who are “conducting a broadcast” from the spiritual world.
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The Zohar: When the Temple was ruined and Divinity was exiled among strange lands… Everyone was weeping over it and connected weeping with lamenting. And all this was because Divinity had been exiled from her place.

And as she was changed in exile from the way she was, her husband, ZA, does not shine his light, as well, for then he has no one upon whom to shine. Thus, he has changed from how he was, as it is written, “The sun will be dark when it rises.”

“So His appearance was marred more than any man,” than that servant, Matatron, who changed his shape and colors during the exile, and unlike what they were, they are green, white, and red.

As we read The Zohar, we have to expect it to influence us. It’s not important what words we are reading, since we don’t understand what’s behind them anyway. We don’t understand the meaning of these words, such as what it means to be “green,” “red,” “slave,” “Matatron,” or “Malchut.” It’s all the same to us. We just want this revealed inside us, and that’s it.

If it seemed that we understood something, then we would leave the lesson satisfied, as if we acquired something. But this is false! We didn’t acquire anything unless we made efforts with every word that we didn’t understand.

We shouldn’t desire to understand the text with our earthy mind on our current level. What we want is revelation! This is the state we want, our next degree. We want to really feel what this book is talking about. We want it to come to life inside us.

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When we are reading The Zohar, I don’t want to give theoretical explanations and confuse people, giving them the false impression that they’ve understood something. All these qualities must be sought within yourself. Just as a small child doesn’t understand the difference between one thing and another, so you don’t understand the difference between anything in the world of The Zohar. Understanding comes later, naturally.

In this context, understanding means attainment. You must feel everything in order to say: “Ah, now I see, feel, and taste, and I have to live with it!” You must only aspire to enter inside this picture, and then you’ll understand.

The Zohar should not be studied theoretically. Actually, there’s nothing to study. You must simply enter it and discover it for yourself, just as a child attains this world.

Does a child know how he needs to develop? No, he merely absorbs all that he can from the world, and that’s how he grows. That is how you should develop, with the same thoughts and intentions during the study.

The only difference is that a child has his room, his mother’s care, and all kinds of games; all these things already make up his world. But the world you must develop is concealed in The Book of Zohar. You must behave like a child that has to discover this world for himself.

A child doesn’t ask what he should think about; he opens his mouth and eyes wide, and greedily absorbs information with all his senses. That is called attainment – first you sense something, and only afterward you begin to understand what it is. Within the sensation, you already begin to understand how things are connected, how they affect you, and what happens when you interact with them. It’s similar to how a child learns how everything works from playing with his toys.

That is how you should feel The Zohar – as the only method to enter the spiritual world. The brain cannot add anything because then you’d need to use your corporeal reason in this world and its material examples. And that is no way to build a spiritual understanding.
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Within each of us there is a desire which broke. Therefore we perceive part of our desire as our self, which in Kabbalah is described as “the root, the soul, and the body,” and the other part of our desire as being outside of us. That which is closer to us is referred to as “clothing” and farther away from us is called “castle,” or the outside space. However, in reality it all belongs to us and exists in our feelings; we merely imagine that something exists outside of our desire.

There is great difference between the inner and the outer desire. The barrier that separates them is called the Parsa, the force of the breaking. It is as though we receive anesthesia on one part of the desire and stop feeling that it is ours. Imagine you’ve just been injected with anesthesia and your leg is being removed. At the same time you are talking to people, laughing, and don’t feel a thing; you continue to live your life!

However, our situation regarding our “external desire” is even more extreme. Besides feeling that this desire is not ours, we were also instilled with the sensation that it is opposite and even hostile to us. We feel it is less important than us and can only think about how to use and exploit it.

Moreover, this is the only reason we notice it at all. Billions of other manifestations of the same desire exist in the world, but if we don’t find a way to use them for our own benefit, then we won’t notice them at all.

The force of the breaking makes us feel pleasure from killing, burning, exploiting, and enslaving this desire of ours. It fools us so completely that we cause harm to ourselves and don’t even understand we are doing it!

Harming others in all possible ways eventually reveals the harm we cause ourselves. Just imagine the disappointment and pain we have yet to feel.

So how do we cure this deceptive blindness in ourselves? This is why we read The Book of Zohar and want it to help us. We want its force to affect us and give us back the part that we’ve lost in order to correct it.

We want to see that this foreign desire (other people) is actually ours, by correcting the force of the breaking and uniting all five parts of our desire. Then nothing will remain outside forcing us to think that it is not part of us.

When we cure our blindness so that our eyes open, we feel that it’s all us – the vessel of our soul. Everything exists inside us, including the Upper Light and the Creator.

By eliminating this gap and division, we unite the Light and the Kli into one.

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In the corporeal world we work on fulfillment, while in the spiritual world we work on desire. This confuses us as we are not used to it. Therefore, without feeling the desire, we leave the spiritual work, thinking, “If I don’t want it, why go ahead with it?”

We don’t understand that the only thing we need to attain is the prayer that precedes the prayer, the desire to acquire the desire. This is the most important thing. We should never be concerned with fulfillment. The fulfillments are our future degrees and they always exist. They are already there, waiting for us to desire them and to become ready to attain them.

We reveal The Book of Zohar by understanding that we only need the desire. As soon as we acquire the desire through our studies, it will be fulfilled immediately.

Approaching a Kabbalah book, study, and any spiritual action without a desire is normal; this is how everyone starts. The awakening a person receives at the very beginning is given to him in order to bring him to the right place so he has the opportunity to clarify everything for himself. However, after this he is left alone and is no longer awakened from Above, because our whole work is only to develop the desire, the vessel (Kli).

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When a person reads, hears, and participates in reading The Book of Zohar correctly, then he has to check the degree of his progress. Of course, we are unable to assess our progress precisely because we don’t understand the initial conditions we are in, what our qualities are, and what we have to attain. The beginning and the end of the path are not revealed to us.

But in any case, based on our sensations we are able to correctly define the phases of advancement and the difference between different states. It should become increasingly easier and more natural to imagine everything described in The Book of Zohar; a person should be able to see that it all takes place inside him, in his qualities. When starting to read The Book of Zohar, it has to become more and more natural for him to immediately start searching within himself for the definition of every word. He has to feel that the book evokes responses inside him to every word, every symbol, and every action.

He then starts to identify the inner system of the souls in which he exists. He starts to see that the body, which he imagines himself to exist in, as well all the space around him – the entire world, the environment, and the whole universe that now appears before him, are all part of his inner sensation. And to this partial sensation he is now adding one more new sensation that The Book of Zohar explains and reveals to him.

These two forms of perception awaken in a person and somehow interact with one another. By means of reading The Book of Zohar, the new form of perception of reality becomes more dominant and powerful than his previous perception of reality.

This is one way to check and assess how much you are advancing at every step of the way. The second way to check is to understand that the point in the heart that was initially given to you only seems to be a point now due to a lack of inspiration, impression, revelation and perception. In actuality, this point includes all the souls, all the worlds, and the entire reality that was created by the Creator.

This point expanded from above downwards in the beginning of creation, when it was created as “existence from absence”; it thus expanded through the four phases of Direct Light, the World of Infinity, and through all the worlds, down to our world. In the same way, we must now expand and broaden this point with our own strength from below upwards. Of course, we don’t have the forces to do this inherently. But when we try to expand this point on our own and when we turn to all its constituent parts – our friends, desiring to receive inspiration from them, then to the degree we are inspired, instead of seeing one point, we start to see many different points that are connected together by a net called the system of souls, or the system of worlds. The system of souls is more internal, while the system of worlds is more external.

That is how we reveal all of reality within the point in the heart that we received from Above. This point expands and we begin to reveal the entire universe in it. A person begins to see that his point in the heart includes all the friends, and later, all the people who are more distant, until it expands to include all of reality. If a person is gaining this vision, perception, and approach, it is a good sign that he is advancing as a result of reading The Book of Zohar correctly.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 258
One should make efforts in the desire, rather than the mind. One should constantly aspire to acquire the perception of the true reality.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 113, Lesson 46
The force of the striking interaction (Zivug) is measured by how much the desire to enjoy becomes similar to the desire to bestow pleasure.
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“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 35, Lesson 13
I begin to reveal the spiritual world when I change hatred for my neighbor to love for him.
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A question I received: Sometimes in life there are situations of incredible opportunity. In a month and a half there will be an international Kabbalah Congress in Israel dedicated to The Zohar, which will be attended by thousands of people. How should we prepare for this Congress if we want real changes to take place?

My Answer: This is, indeed, a very special situation. For the first time in history, we are given the opportunity to solve all our problems, both in Israel and the whole world. This is what the revelation of The Book of Zohar can do.

This Congress will give every person the key to the solution; the solution can be partial or complete, it can be personal or national or even global, it can even pertain to the existence of all reality, because everything originates from one root.

At the Congress, we still study what Baal HaSulam explains – how we can truly change our destiny. Right now we have all the tools and opportunities for this at our disposal; we only have to use them correctly. We will study all of this and we will implement it in practice when we meet.

I think that every person whose wish is not to simply hear about everything Kabbalah says from a distance, but who wishes to actually implement this wisdom and to change his life and fate for the better, will participate in this Congress, whether virtually or physically. I expect that there will be people in attendance who have only heard of Kabbalah a month or two ago, and who revealed it at the last moment. There will be room for everyone there.

If a person is searching for a way to change his life and wants to find out a little more about himself, his future, and the opportunity to change things, then the wisdom of Kabbalah enables him to do this. And there is no other opportunity.

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