The Zohar: Peer into the secret of the degrees, and you shall see how the colors (white, red and black) expand in all directions: to the right, to the left and to the middle, until they enter Malchut below by the secret of the twenty seven channels with gates that conceal the abyss.

If we can change our qualities and make them similar to the Light’s quality of love and bestowal, we will unite with the Light and reveal its channels. We exist in the World of Infinity even now, but it is concealed from us by five worlds. These worlds are concealments that exist within us, inside our desire, because it is opposite to the quality of the World of Infinity.

These concealments don’t exist in and of themselves, but become revealed as we establish contact with the World of Infinity. Concealment emerges between us and infinity in order to help us make the necessary revelation. However, if we are not prepared for this, infinity is concealed from us. This is called a “world” (Olam in Hebrew, which comes from the word “concealment”), which conceals and reveals at once. In the end, everything depends on how successful we are at uniting and transforming our qualities.

…Through these 27 channels the Upper Light pours into Malchut, and the gates are the channel rafts that conceal the judgments and restrictions, called abysses, that reign in Malchut.

We are the ones who build these channels inside us, and the rafts (bolts) are like valves that sometimes open the way for the Light and sometimes block and conceal the Light, depending on our desires’ similarity or contrast to the Light. Therefore, our efforts should be aimed at taking all our qualities and using them to build a likeness to spirituality. We will thereby receive a portion of Light.

The Light is revealed to the extent that our egoism is concealed by “modesty” (The Zohar even has a chapter called “Book of the Modest”), and to the extent our egoism is made similar to the Light, it receives the Light. We then reveal the Creator’s qualities and the Thought of Creation.

When we conclude this work of attaining similarity and become just like Him in every way, all the Light channels disappear and we end up in a vast ocean of endless Light. However, this is only possible due to the force of our anti-egoistic screen.

We then see that all the concealments were necessary. They helped us understand the Creator and cling to His thought by ascending above His actions. In this way we ascend to the Creator’s level and unite with Him.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Noah,” Item 309
Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio

“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 74, Lesson 30
Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio

“The Character of Kabbalah,” Lesson 8
Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: I find it difficult to concentrate at The Zohar lessons which is why I try to think about the connection between everyone studying. Is this the right thing to do, or should I make more mental efforts to understand what is being said?

My Answer: The efforts have to be made in your feelings, not the mind. You have to feel everything that The Zohar describes, rather than understand it. The Book of Zohar speaks to our feelings, not to our mind. When I read some word such as “Grapes, a tree, heaven, hell,” I should try to find it inside me. After all, I am entirely composed of desire, and desire is sensation, not reason.

If I use my mind to transpose all of this into concepts, such as notions of the Light, the vessel (Kli) and the combinations between them, then I will never go beyond the mechanical picture, like a chart, and I won’t be able to come closer to feeling it. The picture must gradually be pieced together inside me in the form of feelings. It is comprised of sensations. I have to accumulate inner sensations and impressions that will gradually come together of their own accord, forming the sensation of the Upper World.

It’s the same as how we develop in our world: the mind comes after the sensation. At first a child feels whether something is good or bad, and later he gains the understanding of what he should come close to or move away from. Later on he acquires a broader mind.

Therefore, when reading The Book of Zohar, we must always try to identify our sensations and discern what our will to enjoy feels. Later on a mind will emerge within us and begin connecting them into a unified picture.

It’s easier for beginners to perceive these processes schematically, but nevertheless, we should try to transfer the text of The Zohar into sensations of bestowal and reception.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 1 Comment →

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Noah,” Item 302
Each person contains the entire world; The Book of Zohar lets us reveal it within.
Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio

“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 71, Lesson 29
Malchut cannot receive the quality of bestowal from Keter, which is all Light, but from Bina – the desire that is filled with bestowal.
Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio

“The Character of Kabbalah,” Lesson 7
The Upper Degree is myself that doesn’t exist yet; it is myself + 1.
Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The study of The Book of Zohar requires general efforts in the desire and the thought (the heart and the mind) in order to unite everything we studied before in the science of Kabbalah about creation, the group and the world, the Creator, the perception of reality, the direct and indirect influence and governance from Above, the singularity of the governing force and its goal, and many other components.

Obviously, when a person starts to study this book, he cannot unite all of these things into one right away. Yet he has to try to do it. The descriptions in The Book of Zohar facilitate this and compel us to do it. By focusing all the possible descriptions of the only forces in nature – the desire and the Light – it’s as if we pass through a needle’s eye, through our point in the heart, the point of our efforts, and after passing this pressure we enter the boundless, Light-filled world of the Creator.

Therefore, it is impossible to start reading The Zohar immediately. A preparation is necessary in order for a person’s heart and soul to absorb everything the science of Kabbalah speaks of, all of its demands, opinions, and outlook on life and the world. All of this must form one’s heart and come together into a specific feeling that Kabbalah has toward the world. Then one will be able to correctly perceive everything that The Zohar tells him.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Noah,” Item 293
Download: WMV Video| MP3 Audio

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Noah,” Item 233
Download: WMV Video 1 of 3| MP3 Audio 1 of 3
Download: WMV Video 2 of 3| MP3 Audio 2 of 3
Download: WMV Video 3 of 3| MP3 Audio 3 of 3

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The revelation of the Creator happens in the Light of Hochma. The Light of Hassadim, bestowal for the sake of bestowal, is simply a preparation for the soul to receive the Light. We cross Machsom, attain the property of bestowal (the intention of “for the sake of bestowal” – the property of Bina) and remain in this state during the period of correction “40 years in the desert,” until we finally reach correction by filling our desires with the Light of Hassadim.

Later on we begin to “receive for the sake of giving.” We “step into the Land of Israel,” where the word “Eretz” means “land” and is derived from the word “Ratzon” – desire, and Isra-el stands for “directly to the Creator.” We use our desire to receive for the sake of bestowal by revealing the Creator (the Light of Hochma in the Light of Hassadim). This is why it is written that the Creator reveals himself only in the “Land of Israel” (the desire to give), and the exodus from Israel is called banishment or exile (from giving and spirituality).

Between the words “exile” (Golah) and “redemption” (Geula) there is only one letter that differs, “Alef,” which stands for the Creator (the First and the Only One in the world). “The Land of Israel” is a desire in which we receive for the sake of giving. Those desires through which we are not able to receive and reveal the Creator, which serve only to give for the sake of bestowal, signify that we are not yet in the Land of Israel, but are close to it.

This is why Kabbalah describes various areas as circles around the Land of Israel. We gradually distance ourselves from Babylon and conquer the Land of Israel by correcting our desires step by step. However, we are dealing with the same desire, a desire which stays constant, with only our attitude changing.

We leave Babylon, arrive in Egypt and then leave Egypt as we pass through various desires with self-serving intentions. We agree to restrict these desires, which means crossing the Ultimate Sea.

We are ready to rise above our egoism, above the mountain of Sinai (the mountain of hatred) and connect with unfamiliar desires (“Love your neighbor as thyself.”) It’s not that we acquire the same desires as our neighbor, but rather we turn our own desires inside out like a glove, making their aim “for the sake of our neighbor” instead of ourselves.

Later we become ready to receive pleasure through those desires, yet not for our own sake as before, but for the sake of bestowal, for the sake of our neighbor. The desires of others become more important to us than our own, giving us an  “indirect” fulfillment of our desires as opposed to “direct” fulfillment.

It follows that all the notions described in the Torah – such as Egypt, Mount Sinai, 40 years in the Sinai desert, and the Land of Israel – stand for spiritual actions inside of the same desire. The only thing that changes is our attitude toward the way we implement our desires. Then, what we thought was geography and history becomes an internal portrait.

Gradually we will come to the correct outlook and will be taken aback, asking ourselves, “How could we have been so wrong as to think that the Torah taught us about external historic events and geography?” We won’t even believe that we used to see the Torah as a historical novel. It will become so natural for us to understand that it speaks of human desires through which we attain spirituality. The only thing outside of us is Olam HaMedumeh – a world of illusions.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: If we read The Book of Zohar in another language, does it still have the same effect as in Hebrew and Aramaic?

My Answer: It doesn’t matter what language one reads The Book of Zohar in. Everyone in the world will have to study this book and every person will read it in his language.

Even though The Zohar contains parts that talk about the elements making up the Hebrew letters, such as the lines and dots that form the letters, these aren’t really letters, but rather symbols, markings, and forms that designate forces. It doesn’t matter whether you are looking at a letter from the Hebrew alphabet or just a symbol; what is important is its meaning. At the end of the day, it’s all about one’s desire, and desire has no language or nationality. It is just that – a desire.

When you translate the words “sweet,” “bitter” or “sour” to other languages – every reader will still feel those tastes. The Zohar talks about sensations, and since words that sound different evoke the same sensations in people, reading in another language does not hinder one’s attainment.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →