The Book of Zohar, Chapter Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh), Item 68: And all the herbs grow around that still Nile on either side.

We are talking about the vegetative level, about what grows out from the ground. Slowly, plant sprouts appear, that is, there is a need for something, in particular for growth.

Although the silent river does not seem to give anything, the spiritual, altruistic desires of man begin to develop around it.

Bina is the future world. And so gradually, underneath, it implicitly develops in us sprouts of our future spiritual desires, which grow around it and rise up.

Then, that monster climbs unto the herbs and grows among them, and then returns to all these Niles. The herbs are the light that grew out of the dark.

Thus, the quality of water (Bina) gradually develops in us.

Water is, in principle, an inanimate substance but it practically gives life. Thanks to it, plants develop from the earth because the property of mercy combined with egoism—the property of the earth—gives the earth (egoistic quality) that life-giving power when new properties begin to grow out of it in man. Therefore, our egoism alone is not enough. We need to acquire the property of Bina, the property of the upper world.

This is basically what The Book of Zohar does, because when we begin to study it, we attract the quality of mercy.

And all four rivers that descend from the Garden of Eden to our sinful earth, to my sinful qualities, begin to change me. New spiritual properties in which wisdom gradually increases grow out of me, and I begin to develop to the point that I will eventually reach the Garden of Eden, the future world, and I begin to exist in it.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #1

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Question: When we read The Book of Zohar together with an audience, does it affect them?

Answer: It gives them a certain impression, a certain image. They do not even feel how much something has changed in them. With these stories, we arouse in them concealed qualities that they did not suspect they had.

That is the secret effect of The Book of Zohar. It talks about things that exist very deep inside of you, and it arouses these inner qualities within you. You suddenly begin to feel: “Something is happening within me, this Book is doing something in me.” You do not understand what it does, but you feel movement inside you, something in you changes.

Question: Is this for the best? Is there no danger of negative feelings here?

Answer: Absolutely not! We are now in a state where the entire world must change. This Book is our guide because we will still change even without it, but under very harsh influences of nature.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #1

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Question: Why did Rabbi Shimon and his disciples need to sit in a cave to write The Book of Zohar?

Answer: First, a cave is a special state. There is a very useful microclimate for human health. After all, we are all from the earth. You can’t do anything, everything is made of dust.

Previously, people lived in caves. And sometimes they hid there. There were times when they had to hide from both internal and external enemies since they were engaged in Kabbalah at a time when the people of Israel had already fallen from the spiritual level to the material one.

Haters of Kabbalah began to appear among the people. They pledged Kabbalists to foreign authorities, the Romans, and Kabbalists were forced to avoid them.

But the main thing are internal enemies. The Romans didn’t care what the ten destitute people were doing sitting somewhere in a cave with their scrolls. They knew little about this. The internal enemies are the Jews who sold them out.

In such conditions, The Book of Zohar was written, a book of incredible power, enormous in volume. Probably only 5% of what was written by them reached us.

It included Kabbalistic commentaries on all the constituent parts: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Holy Scriptures. And we got only a small part, a commentary on the Pentateuch. But even that is enough!

Question: Is it an accident that only a commentary on the Pentateuch remained?

Answer: No. What was left for us should have stayed. There is nothing random in the world. Absolutely everything manifests itself under the influence of higher forces. And what we need is what we get.

Question: Why was there a comment on the first part?

Answer: Because it is fundamental, the most effective. And that’s really enough for us. We would not have coped with all the volume that exists in The Book of Zohar.

It is possible that in the future we will somehow reveal the rest of it. Maybe it will manifest itself somehow. But so far we do not need this.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #2

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter Bo, Item 68: It has another way of approaching the herbs: When the quiet Nile returns from Malchut to its place, when it rises and falls. Since its waters are still, it walks quietly and the great monster climbs unto those Niles and is not there in the still Nile. And all the herbs grow around that still Nile on either side. Then, that monster climbs unto the herbs and grows among them, and then returns to all these Niles.

These rivers are silent because they consist only of the property of Hassadim, the property of mercy, bestowal. They do not have egoistic desires; they do not work with the ego, thus they are so quiet as if the water did not flow anywhere, still, calm, silent water. Eternal peace.

Hassadim is the property of Bina, the property of sufficiency; it does not need anything for itself. Everything can stop and freeze. Only if needed for someone else, then Bina will start using those desires. If someone needs something, she will absorb those desires and the river will begin to murmur, merrily filling the one who needs it.

In the meantime, no one needs it. Therefore, even the large green crocodile personifying wisdom has no place for existence there. In this state, it does not exist because there is nothing and no one to excite any desires, thoughts, or decisions, because everything is still in an absolutely frozen state.

There are only small ups and downs, small excitements in this calm water, which prepare changes in future states. That is, the property of Bina lays down future changes in us, but we still do not feel them and go with the flow.

Question: Do we feel this state while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: I feel a tremendous power in this, which prepares me from within for tremendous changes. I am like an embryo in its mother’s womb, in an absolutely secure state: he does not need to think about anything, decide anything; the mother does everything.

She prepared everything for him, developed him, and now she is pushing him out along with those calm waters in which he existed. He must be born now.

Here, finally, new forces appear in him when quiet, calm waters turn into pushing ones, helping him to be born. And then there is the next development of events.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar,” Part 1

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The Book of Zohar was written by people who had an inner attainment of the universe at the level of the highest world, the world of Infinity. These were ten great Kabbalists who managed to connect with each other. Each of them, in essence, represented a certain spiritual category, called Sefira.

Together, they formed the ten Sefirot, meaning a single whole at the highest level, and therefore, were able to create through themselves a connection between the highest level of nature and its lowest level, our world. By creating a system of mutual connection, they gave us the opportunity to climb it from our low, primitive, vicious level to the highest.

Along the way, we change ourselves so much that we become an integral part of the upper nature, eternal and perfect. Our body is no longer identified with us. We feel a completely different state in the soul, we begin to feel the forces that control us, we pass from matter to forces, and matter gradually disappears from our sensations. We do not attach any importance to it, it seems to move away from our perception.

Comment: It’s still scary to lose our material.

My Response: No. Conversely. Our impressions become much clearer, brighter, more effective, and more powerful.

In this, man becomes like the Creator. He begins to see from the end of the world to the end. His horizons are expanding. He sees the causes and consequences of everything that happens, understands the ultimate goal and can choose the right decision from any circumstances.

This gives him the opportunity to act intelligently, rationally, which in our world absolutely doesn’t exist. Here we stumble on mistakes every time, go and make the next mistakes, and the next ones, never correcting them. We don’t even have the ability to correct ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #2

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Question: Is our task to reveal the world that The Book of Zohar gives us?

Answer: We must reveal the higher world of forces, properties, and their relationship with each other. The Book of Zohar gives us such an opportunity.

Everything that we perceive as existing outside is drawn inside us. All kinds of electrochemical parameters, forces, interactions, and reactions paint a picture of the material world in our brain, and we see such a hodgepodge of force. In fact, all this is not the real picture. This is how our brain depicts what it feels inside us.

When we begin to feel the upper world through The Book of Zohar, it shows us exactly those forces that stand before the earthly image and even higher, not all kinds of electrochemical reactions in the brain, but higher ones that control and determine them. This is called the upper world, the highest degree.

What does it give us? The ability to rise above the illusion of our world, above the illusion of the existence of our bodies, above the whole picture, which is drawn as if on the screen. In fact, it does not exist. Like in a cinema, if it were not for the projector, into which the reel is inserted and the film is spinning, there would be no picture.

This is how we live. Some picture is being scrolled for us, and we play in it as if it is real. We interact with it and with each other, so we see each other and we feel all this really exists. And suddenly, through The Book of Zohar, you begin to see that this is all a holographic picture. It doesn’t exist.

There are only forces that painted these pictures for you. You go back to their root, you begin to understand what it was all for, why, for what reason. And as if from this external picture, you begin to rise to its sources: where is it from and why. You ascend to higher realms.

In this case, you do not lose anything. On the contrary, you begin to feel everything that happens more vividly.

This is similar to how people come to me and show me an advertisement they want to make, for example, about Kabbalah. I look: “This is not right, something isn’t working.” And they tell me that there is a picture with eighteen million colors in the computer. But I only catch seven colors of the rainbow and some other shades. Where did eighteen million come from?

In fact, when we rise to the sources that these pictures give in our world, we begin to enrich ourselves billions of times more in all sensations. Vision, hearing, smell, taste, and tactile sensations develop, and each of them becomes a whole world! Therefore, it becomes so rich, and most importantly, eternal, perfect, and determines everything.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” # 1

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And this monster which comes in the Keter of the Niles gradually strengthens in it, and swims and enters the sea—Malchut de Atzilut—where it rules and swallows several species of fish, which are degrees within the sea that are inferior to it. It swallows them, they are completed within him, and he returns to the still Nile. And these nine Niles come up toward him to receive their abundance, since they receive their abundance from the still Nile, their Keter. And around the Nile are several types of trees and grass. And this is the first among the Niles, Keter. (Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Rashbi), Zohar for All, Vol. 4, “Bo,” 41)

We are talking about two spiritual stages where each stage develops one inside the other, like an embryo inside a mother. Why has nature arranged it this way?

Initially, a small stage must develop inside a large stage. It completely annuls itself before the large stage, and then it has the right to develop. It surrenders to the will of the upper stage, and the upper stage develops it, as if swallowing it into itself, as a mother absorbs a drop of semen and begins to develop it within herself.

A large green crocodile, symbolizing a huge desire, absorbs small desires, develops them in itself, and then releases them. A crocodile is the personification of the ruler of the river descending from the Garden of Eden and reaching the earth.

From the highest level of bestowal, love, and general government, called Bina, four rivers descend, four special streams of force that reach Malchut through Zeir Anpin. These rivers bring us all a life-giving force. They are dominated by the property of wisdom, which is called “crocodile.”

Water is a property of mercy and bestowal. The property of wisdom flows in it, but both properties do not mix with each other, and one exists inside the other. This is a very interesting feature of water. In Israel there is Lake Kinneret (Lake Tiberias), into which the Jordan river flows from the mountains.

If you look from above, you can see how the river flows inside the lake, and their waters do not mix with each other. They have completely different properties.

It is the same here. A big green crocodile is a property of wisdom that exists inside the property of mercy (in the water). It is in this property that a person’s desire can further develop, but inside the water, inside the property of mercy! That is, we are talking about receiving for the sake of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “The Power Of The Book Of Zohar,” #1

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Question: What will help us “get into” The Book of Zohar and understand it?

Answer: It is not so easy to get into this book. It is really secret, concealed. For thousands of years, no one could open it. As it happens, something exists, but hands do not reach it. But in our time, we are beginning to uncover it.

To uncover does not mean to understand the language in which it is written. To uncover The Book of Zohar means to bring yourself into its narrative, inside it.

Let’s say in childhood you pick up a book, for example, In Search of the Castaways, and when you read about their adventures, you enter them, sail with them on a ship, travel around the world: Patagonia, the tribes, and you are there with them.

But mom tells you “It’s time for bed.” You are forced to close the book, and you are already back at home, in your bed, falling asleep and breaking away from this fairy-tale world that was invented by somebody.

As children, we very often continue to live with the book’s characters, in some way we as if play these roles, talk like them. But then it passes. Life takes its toll. We develop more serious desires, more serious relationships. We are more connected with life than with books. Thus, the period when we live in books passes.

But not here. On the contrary, it turns out that you enter into The Book of Zohar and you live in it, and as if you lead a double life. On one hand, you live in our normal world. It is normal because that is how we are used to treating it, as perfectly normal, like all people do.

And at the same time, you exist in another dimension to which this book is gradually introducing you, to a world that does exist, not in your imagination. It is even brighter, more vivid, more powerful, more defining than the world you live in.

Moreover, you begin to understand, realize, feel, and see that the world you are now revealing actually controls this small world that you previously thought was the only one that exists.

When you close The Book of Zohar, the world that you entered does not disappear. After all, every time you open it, you perceive this world even more deeply, you open this world in yourself even deeper, you begin to feel that you already exist in it.

That is, the world that is revealed to you through The Book of Zohar exists here, along with this world. You feel it, see it, and interact with it. Every time it becomes clearer and richer. And you live in it.

It turns out that this is not a double, conditionally divided life, but both worlds mutually complement each other. However, the world that is now revealed to you is more majestic, strong, defining, and higher. All the powers come from it and control your little previous life.

Question: As a result, do I begin to identify more with this serious, big world?

Answer: This happens gradually because you see that everything is determined at the upper level, in the upper world. Our world is inside it. It follows as a consequence of the upper world, and you can already see how people and all sorts of events are determined precisely from it. It seems that a person is standing, then he moves, then he does or says something. And you see how they move him, do things through him, and talk through him.
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From KabTVs “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #1

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There are texts in The Book of Zohar that seem very strange to an ordinary person. Therefore, to introduce a person into them, to explain them to him, it will take, perhaps, several years.

It all depends on the qualities and states that one must experience in order to begin to feel them. Just like a small child, you cannot tell about the experiences of an adult, about his art, etc. He will not understand this.

The allegorical, mythological language of The Book of Zohar is very conventional, but accurate. After all, if I know the inner meaning of the concept “crocodile,” then through the image of an earthly crocodile, I see the forces that stand behind it, determine its general background, properties, appearance, character, absolutely everything! I see all spiritual properties in this earthly image, and I deal with them.

Thus, The Book of Zohar tells about our inner properties. Through reading it, I reveal everything in myself. The Garden of Eden is the highest level. The four rivers, the crocodile, the big sea, this is Malchut in which souls exist, and with them I must merge.

That is, this whole picture is in me. Everything exists in the person himself. Even the world that is supposedly around us, in fact, we feel what is inside ourselves. It only seems to us that it is on the outside.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #1

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are some basic understandings you should have before reading the Zohar?“

Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), who wrote the Sulam (Ladder) commentary to The Zohar, wrote four introductions to The Zohar in order to provide us with a sturdy foundation for approaching the book.

Without thoroughly understanding the concepts that Baal HaSulam describes in these introductions, it is impossible to reach an accurate understanding of The Zohar, as well as approach its reading effectively to advance toward its attainment.

The Zohar describes the spiritual world, i.e., the desires, intentions and actions of the created being when in contact with the Creator.

Since we exist in an opposite corporeal reality, we understand nothing about the spiritual world.

We are born and raised in an egoistic human nature, which aims to benefit itself alone, with no consideration of others.

Thus, when we read The Zohar with no prior preparation, it appears as if it is written in a foreign language (even if we read it in our native tongue), with strange fables and other depictions that seem to be codified.

No matter how much we try to make connections with what we read in The Zohar, if we have no perception and sensation of the spiritual world, through an opposite giving sense to our inborn receptive senses, then we have no access to understand and feel what The Zohar truly describes.

In addition, both The Zohar itself and various Kabbalists discuss the notion of The Zohar’s revelation in our times, that specifically in our era, more and more people will feel a need for what The Zohar contains.

If our egoistic nature of receiving for self-benefit alone was replaced with a spiritual one of love and bestowal, we would immediately understand what The Zohar describes. Reading The Zohar with such an inclination would then reveal more and more layers of the spiritual world to us.

However, is there anything we can get from The Zohar while we lack the spiritual nature, locked in the human ego?

What we can get is called “Segula,” a special kind of remedy. Reading the book, not understanding a single word, attracts forces from the spiritual world it describes. If we approach reading The Zohar with the intention to transform our nature—from egoistic to altruistic, corporeal to spiritual—then the book serves to illuminate upon us a special light called “Ohr Makif” (“surrounding light”), which acts on us to ignite that transformation.

The spiritual forces from the reading work on us, gradually leading us to the revelation of the spiritual world, to access the quality of love and bestowal that fills reality.

Since The Zohar was written by a group who attained the highest degrees of attainment of the spiritual world, and who shared a nature of love and bestowal, then only by attaining a similar nature can we understand and feel what The Zohar depicts.

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