Nukvah (the female desire) receives everything from Zeir Anpin (her husband), including the Light of Correction that turns her into a vessel (Kli) at night, and the Light of Fulfillment that fills her when she attains the state of adulthood and receives Light for the sake of bestowal, a state called day. The daylight hours are different states when she receives Light for the sake of bestowal to varying degrees.

Time is a change of illumination inside Nukvah, depending on her ability to unite with Zeir Anpin and the amount of Light of Correction that she receives from him. Time is the stages of Nukvah’s correction, which she must gradually go through. Nukvah does not determine what stage she is going through, but only the rate at which the changes take place.

Morning is always followed by afternoon, and afternoon is followed by evening, and then by night. This order is impossible to change. However, the rate of how quickly these states will come to replace one another depends only on her request (Hitaruta de-Letata – “awakening from below). Nothing will come from Above unless she desires it.

This is the law operating in the spiritual world, governing the relationships of the Upper Level with the lower level, the Creator and the creation. And we observe the same thing in our world. It seems to us that the male desire rules the world, but in reality, everything is determined by the woman’s desire. It is her desire that causes all the changes in the world.

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The Zohar: “Who is that rising from the desert like pillars of smoke?” (Song of Songs), at the time when Israel walked across the desert.

A person on the spiritual path goes through states of darkness, emptiness and various problems, and he must constantly rise above all of this by acquiring the quality of bestowal.

The Shechina walked ahead of them, and they followed it.

If a person asks for help so he will have something to follow, and if he chooses to follow the Creator instead of his egoistic nature, then he sees a “pillar of fire” and “clouds of greatness” – signs that help him ascend up the spiritual ladder.

“The Shechina walked ahead of them” means that their only thought was about how to unite together into one gathering of souls, called Schechina.

The Shechina walked accompanied by all the clouds of greatness. And when the Shechina ascended, so did Israel, as it is written, “When the cloud rose above Sinai.”

When the Shechina ascended, the cloud rose to the highest peak. And all those inhabiting the world saw and wondered, “Who is that rising from the desert, like pillars of smoke?”

The desires that are able to follow the Shechina do so. And those that aren’t yet able to follow her are called “the nations of the world.” However, they also receive a revelation, and when everyone ascends, these desires also advance with them.

This is how a person advances by clarifying which desires within him are called “Israel” (straight to the Creator), “the nations of the world” (the desires that he is unable to correct for now), “Klipot” (desires that are completely unfit for correction until the end of all corrections). A person continuously sorts his desires and sacrifices them, causing the sacrificial smoke to rise, which means that he changes their use from “for my own sake” to “for the Creator’s sake.” Smoke (“Ashan” in Hebrew, also translates as “world, year, soul”) is the Reflected Light.

If a person works on himself in this manner, sorting his desires and attaching them to the Creator, then He attains similarity to Him. Thus, he raises the Reflected Light and opens the way to his next degree. In other words, he constantly reveals a new world, a new year, and a new soul.

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A question I received: Does reading The Zohar affect me even if I don’t feel it?

My Answer: You will soon feel that The Zohar is working on you, because this influence is very powerful. Let’s take a look at you after ten lessons; you will already feel very great changes happening in you.

First of all, your view of life and your entire life focus will change. What you do and do not pay attention to will shift; your inner sensation will become more self-absorbed and you will be more concerned with your attitude to others. Suddenly, you will begin to think and dream about various actions which you read in The Zohar and to imagine how they are connected to our world in a more internal manner. And there will be a multitude of other changes.

It is clear that The Zohar changes a person very much. It calms him down, making him more internal, serious, and goal-oriented. In this regard The Zohar affects a person in a very powerful manner. And it happens irrespective of how much a person understands; it depends on one’s efforts – how much he tries to comprehend what is written in The Book of Zohar.

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A question I received: Can we be reading too much Zohar in one day?

My Answer: Right now we are reading and rereading The Zohar again and again. There is no sense talking about the inner definitions since we don’t feel them yet. After many hours of study (say, 100 hours) we will begin to feel and sense what The Zohar is talking about. It will be hazy and unclear at first, like seeing through a fog. We will feel something that draws us to an unknown place. This is called a “wonderful means” (Segula), which influences us.

After many hours of study, we receive impressions from various words, and each word starts to awaken a unique sensation in me. For example, cold, warm, up, down, bestowal, reception, GAR, VAK, Esau, Jacob, Leah, Rachel, village, animals, and so on are all words through which we accumulate specific impressions. Once we do, we will be able to talk about them with others.

Then we will be able to participate in a shared discussion. This is not particularly necessary, but nonetheless, it will give us a common language with our friends, since they will also feel and realize a new reality.

This special sensation is not easy to achieve. It is a true revelation, and it occurs after many hours of study.

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The Zohar: All the ways of the Creator are right, and His ways are true. Hence, “the just do walk in them,” since they know the ways of the Creator and engage in Torah, and anyone who engages in the corrections of the Torah knows the ways of the Torah and walks in them, and does not stray right or left. But transgressors do stumble therein.

This is not speaking about the material world, but only about a person’s soul if he uses all the possible means and his entire strength to try to attract the Light of Correction in order to merge with the Creator. A person wants to walk the right path, but along the way he sometimes experiences night and sometimes day.

That is why all of the “transgressors” described in the Torah (Esau, Bilam, Balak, Ahasuerus, the primal Serpent, the Pharaoh), as well as the “righteous” (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David) emerge in a person. He falls into a state of darkness, fear, war, troubles, and then he awakens, succeeds and advances forward. Then he goes through the same cycle again and again. He “sins” numerous times on the spiritual path because he has to reveal his entire uncorrected desire and feel how opposite it is to the spiritual goal. Only after that can he learn what kind of Light he needs in order to correct his desire and turn it into a bestowing one.

We don’t have any other matter through which to study what the Creator made and how He is acting inside us; we can only do so through the desire to enjoy, through empty, evil shells that are revealed in us. We can then convert the evil to goodness with the help of the Light to the degree that we gain knowledge about how to do this. A person has to sin first in order to understand that he uses his desire to enjoy for the sake of evil – against everyone and against the Creator. He then sees that he is full of egoism and it rules over him. While going though these states he is called a “transgressor,” and by correcting them he becomes “righteous.” So let us hope that we will become the transgressors about which the Torah is telling us, since these are elevated spiritual states.

These states come to a person who is ready to see his evil, provided that he does not submit to it but rather feels and discerns it. A special Light shines upon him, allowing him to discern the darkness inside himself. Similar to how we check Chometz with a candle light before the holiday of Pesach, a person should descend into the dark cellar within and, aided by the light of a candle, begin checking where is Chometz and where is food that is fit for Pesach.

Only the bestowing Kelim are good for Pesach, while all the rest is forbidden. We need at least a tiny candle light in order to go down to the cellar and begin checking it. That is how we prepare ourselves to exit from our inner Egypt. By revealing and checking the evil within, a person takes a step forward and comes out of the exile from the Upper World.

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In preparation to The Zohar lesson, we have to attune ourselves so as to want to perceive, understand and feel The Zohar within us, inside our matter, so the Light will be revealed to us and we will open up as well, instead of being calmed by our fantasies. Besides, we shouldn’t forget that all the forms of the Light’s connection with the Kelim are attained inside our unity and connection, by restoring the connection among us in the place where it was broken.

Our Kelim are broken and we have to reveal the broken connection among us, as well as to feel how to correct it. The corruption as well as the correction are both inside of us, and both of these feelings must be expressed in us as darkness and Light. They have to define for us the forms of the letters, the form of our connection with and sensation of the Upper Level. The words express a special relationship between the broken Kli (vessel) and the corrected one. From these two forms one attains oneself, the Creator, the relationships between the two and the unity.

“Nothing disappears in spirituality” is a law which means that my previous, broken forms are revealed to me through my mistakes, transgressions, problems and obstacles; and they never disappear. This enables me to make efforts in order to reveal these things and to attract the Surrounding Light, which corrects what had occurred before.

However, the corruption remains inside me so that I would be able to build the correction above it. Both of these states have to exist. It’s impossible to have just serene perfection, since then I would not be able to feel or understand anything. The corruption always continues to exist, and the correction happens above it, but both of these states support one another. The darkness is below and the Light is above it, and this is what produces understanding and sensation within me, the relationships between myself and the Creator, as well as everything that follows from this.

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A question I received: If charts are a language, and letters are charts, then what is the significance of vowel points (Nekudot)? What is their role in perception?

My Answer: Vowel points are much more than additions to the letters. The most important thing for us are the vessels of perception (Kelim, the letters), since we talk about the perception of Light. Nekudot (the points beneath the letters) and Tagin (the crowns above the letters) create a flow that is necessary for us to understand the connections between the letters.

We cannot pronounce words without vowels. We have to add vowels (represented by vowel points, Tagin and Nekudot) between the consonants, since they enable us to flow from one Kli to another – from one letter to the next.

It is impossible to get along without the whole TANTA (Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, and Otiyot). One TANTA follows another, and then is followed by a third one, and so on; their flow creates a word. By themselves, however, the letters are not words and we cannot define them as states.

You cannot define a state unless you connect it with a cause and effect, with a sequence of other states. This is called a “word.” You have to know where this state comes from and who determines it; where is the Creator in this situation, what does He want from you, how are you acting, what are you doing, and at the end of the word – how will you come out of this state.

Therefore, a word is a specific action, and it contains everything. It includes qualities, and therefore it cannot consist of just one letter, but must have at least two.

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The Zohar: When darkness comes and Malchut connects to it, she governs and shines in Hochma, which is her governance. And since she lacks the Light of  Hassadim, all her openings are blocked from all sides, for all the Lights freeze within her and there is no vent in her, through which any Light can appear.

She is filled with Light, but the vents are blocked. Afterwards, when the middle line awakens in her and opens the vents, they will receive the illumination of Hochma from her, which was blocked within her at that time. It is written that they crave to permeate the Nukva precisely when she is discerned as small ways and blocked vents, since only then is the Hochma in her complete.

The night is actually full of Light, but we are unable to see in the night since we lack the Light of love and bestowal (Hassadim) to see the Light. Only in the Light of Hassadim can we compel the Light of Hochma to reveal itself and to shine in the Light of Hassadim. The greater the Light of Hassadim, the greater the revelation.

Night or darkness is a state where I am in an ocean of the Light of Hochma, but I have no Light of Hassadim. If I begin developing inner qualities of love and bestowal (the Light of Hassadim), then the Light of Hochma begins to shine for me little by little. This means that I awaken dawn, the Light of morning, and then the day.

From noon and further on, the Light of Hassadim, my force of bestowal, weakens and I begin descending from the level of Hassadim that I once had. It is as if dusk, a lessening of the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim, sets in. That is when evening comes, followed by night. Stated differently, my desire to enjoy has grown and it leaves no strength for me to remain in bestowal and love (Hassadim); it gains more and more power over me. The dark forces of night seize me and I give up, descending into the darkness and becoming incapable of love and bestowal.

But then, while in this dark, I again accumulate the strength to give, and starting from midnight, I begin combining Hochma and Hassadim, so that one Light shines within the other. This is how I reveal the Light.

All of this is done by a person if he overcomes his desire to enjoy through his aspiration for bestowal; then he sees the Light. And vice-versa, he sees darkness to the degree that his egoism overcomes him. That is how we advance through our spiritual development, from day to night, again and again. Everything depends on the person alone, since on the part of the Creator, the Light permanently surrounds us, as it is written, “I did not change My HaVaYaH,” and, “The law is given and one cannot break it.” Everything is already given to you, and from now on you are welcome to do whatever you want.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYishlach (And Jacob Sent),” Item 244
The “soul” is the degree of a person’s connection and similarity to the Creator.
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 92, Lesson 38
Each spiritual degree is clothed in the adjoining degrees and is free at only one point. There it decides which of the adjoining degrees to relate itself to.
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“Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 17, Lesson 5
Without darkness we can’t reveal Light, and without hatred we can’t reveal love. This is why darkness remains until the end of correction.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYishlach (And Jacob Sent),” Item 222
“The gate of tears” is the joy from the fact that I finally and truly want to become similar to the Creator.
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