Question: Is every Kabbalist who takes a piece from a Kabbalistic text able to feel the author and recognize that the text was written by another Kabbalist?

Answer: No. It is necessary to be on a high level in order to do that. But in principle, according to the text, it is possible to understand immediately whether a person who attained the upper world, or at least had a connection to the upper world, wrote it, or whether it was just a person “from the street” talking.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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Question: How does one read The Book of Zohar correctly, and what is the order of reading?

Answer: The Book of Zohar must be read with commentaries; in fact, without them, it is impossible to understand it.

A few years ago, during group work, we published a book that was prepared for the people and that is also what we called it, Zohar for the People. As a result of this work, today everyone can read the book and understand it. We translated the text from Aramaic to Hebrew and “simplified” the text without distorting it.

Originally, the structure of The Book of Zohar was divided into several parts: the text itself, the commentary on the text, and so forth. We united the different parts in a harmonious way into a single text that is divided into numbered sections, making it possible to read it easily and continuously.

Zohar for the People is material that has been well processed, translated, not only into the Hebrew language, but also into Russian and English. I very much recommend becoming familiar with the book and trying to start studying it.

The lessons that we learn from the book Zohar for the People begin to be felt by the students present in a lesson as a definite “spiritual stream” that passes through them. The book works on them from within and washes egoistic thoughts and calculations out of them.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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Question: What is the uniqueness of The Book of Zohar? After all, in addition to it, there are also the Talmud, Mishnah, and other sacred writings?

Answer: First, these books were written by people who had attained the upper world. Second, all of them are called Kedoshim (sacred), and Kadosh denotes distinction, uniqueness.

The Book of Zohar is unique because it was written by a group of ten Kabbalists: Rabbi Shimon and nine of his students who attained the highest level of attainment of the upper world. From this level, they fully described their ascent and all the details of the spiritual ladder, the ladder for attaining the Creator.

The Book of Zohar is appropriate for everyone because it was written for our generation from the interconnection of ten people. For a long time it was hidden and became accessible to people a few centuries ago, but its inner meaning was discovered only in the beginning of the 20th century by the great Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam.

Question: Was Baal HaSulam the only one who interpreted The Book of Zohar?

Answer: Other interpretations exist, but they do not explain the entire spiritual system. Baal HaSulam wrote this explanation when he was on the same level as the authors of The Book of Zohar. The rest of the Kabbalists did not attain this level, and therefore, they could describe something, but no more than that.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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Question: How was the Book of Zohar written and how long did it take?

Answer: Ten Kabbalists, the authors of The Book of Zohar, wrote in a cave called Idra Raba, which exists until this very day.

According to The Book of Zohar, one of the authors spoke, another explained and clarified, and a third wrote down what was said. They had no disagreements because they were as one single desire, one single soul. They described all the possible states of all the individual souls that ascend and connect into one soul called Man, Adam, in a hundred of volumes.

The Book of Zohar was concealed for a long time and was discovered by chance. Its pages were found in a market. It turned out that they were used to wrap different food products. Whatever was found became accessible to the public. The attempt to find the other volumes did not yield the desired results. In the middle of the 1940’s, The Book of Zohar was revealed by Baal HaSulam, and he began to write his commentary on it.

This is a very special book considering its origin and its fate, in the vicissitudes of the people associated with it, and with what happened to the people who had it because there was only one copy of The Book.

2,000 years have passed since it was written, and still anything associated with The Book of Zohar is yet to be explored: where are its hidden parts and what happened to them. We are yet to discover all that and to explain it. I am sure that everything will be revealed with time.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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Question: How was The Book of Zohar written? Did its authors rely on some kind of source like the Torah, for example, or did they write everything only from their attainment?

Answer: The authors of The Book of Zohar had no library, computer, or connection to any information because the information itself was found within them; they were its source.

All ten people who wrote The Book of Zohar were one single spiritual body in which all the information that they described and partially expressed was found.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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The Book of Zohar, “Lech Lecha”: How beloved is the Torah by the Creator, by which virtue the man is rewarded with life in the future world. And everyone who teaches the Torah to others is more important than everyone else.

The Torah is called the upper Light (Ohr), which acts on one who studies it in the right way, that is, wants to reach a higher level in the Torah than the one he is on now.

He wants to become more altruistic, giving, loving, more connected with others and supporting all. In other words, he wants to become like the Creator—kind, complete and bearer of good.

If a person strives so to change himself, then the upper Light, called the Torah, acts upon him and pushes him forward to this state. And then he feels that he is changing.

Of course, in these changes there are ups and downs, a change of all kinds of states, but from all of them, a person learns how much the Torah actually influences him and acts in him.

First of all, a person must acquire desires to bestow and faith above reason, and then he goes beyond the boundaries of this world. This world begins to dissipate like a mirage because it exists only in our egoistic imagination.

In Kabbalah, our world is called the “point of this world” because there is no other point in it. When we go beyond the boundaries of the egoistic point and expand, we begin to feel the abundance and significance of the Torah, adhering to its Tree of Life. And if not this, then we will remain in darkness, inside a tiny, black point.

The Torah is the Light of the world of Infinity, which according to the program of Creation (HaVaYaH) was divided into 620 Lights, whose purpose is to act on the corrupt desire and correct it. A person must correct his desire with the help of this Light, and on the other hand, he must himself awaken this Light.

He cannot change himself without the upper Light, but the Light must be attracted, and for this, too, the Torah is necessary. It turns out that the whole system connecting the Creation with the Creator and the Creator with the Creation is called the Torah.
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Question: Why does The Book of Zohar use images like grass, rivers, crocodiles, etc.?

Answer: The Book of Zohar was written on the level of the upper world and uses its terminology. At the same time, it uses the terminology of our world, although it means to express the upper forces and spiritual attributes that yield the outcomes such as a table, chair, man, tree, sun, etc. This is called the language of the branches.

In addition, The Book of Zohar uses the language of Kabbalah. In the upper world where there are no worldly names and terms, The Book of Zohar uses the pure physical mathematical language of Kabbalah.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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Question: What does it mean to read a Kabbalah book?

Answer: Reading a Kabbalah book means reading it with the thought that it will impact you.

A Kabbalah book is like medicine that can correct, change, and bring us to the state where we begin to feel what we read. Not to understand but to feel!
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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Comment: The Book of Zohar was the first book written after the Torah. The Torah is 3,100 years old and The Book of Zohar is 2,000 years old.

Response: The Book of Zohar is a commentary on the Torah that includes hundreds of volumes! Today only a few of them remain.

Question: Will further commentaries on The Book of Zohar be written to simplify it?

Answer: I don’t think there is any need for it. First and foremost, we need to learn and understand the wisdom of Kabbalah, and to do this, we must prepare instructions and practically implement the methodology in groups.

We see what is happening in the world. Kabbalists write that we are in a situation where the time has already come to begin the final correction; therefore, The Book of Zohar has been revealed.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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Question: What does the word “Zohar” mean?

Answer: Zohar is the upper radiance that descends upon a person. By correctly studying this book, he receives a certain impact from it, which in the Aramaic language is called Zehara Ilaa, the upper glow.

The fact is that a person in our world does not possess any spiritual properties and this refers to the animate level.

In total, the four levels of development of nature are distinguished as: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. The inanimate level is all non-living matter. The vegetative level is everything that relates to botany. The animate level includes all kinds of living creatures, that is, everything pertaining to a normal animal organism that is born, lives, and dies, including the human body.

Therefore, in taking care of our body and living inside it, we are clearly on an absolutely animate level. But in each one of us, there is also a spiritual potential. It is revealed in the form of a question about the meaning of life.

This question arises, practically, in every person, but later on, we “jam” it, bury it, and do not let it show up because it causes us great suffering: “What do I live for? Why? What kind of life is this?”

It turns out that through this question, through a very small, specific desire, we have some connection with the upper world. This desire is called a point in the heart, but we do not develop it.

However, there are people who cannot accept the lack of an answer to this question. Of course, one can end this life. Isn’t this life given to them, too? It turns out that they have no choice but to seek an answer. But in order to find it, a person must exert great effort until he finds a group, teacher, and books.

In principle, all Kabbalistic books come from The Book of Zohar. If in one of them it is written: “It is said in The Book,” then it is The Book of Zohar that is meant. The word “Book” is not even mentioned together with Zohar because it goes without saying.

Other works are not even considered books because this Book is special. It connects a person with the upper world and teaches him how to attain it. Then, it justifies its name, Zohar, radiance, because a person begins to receive a glow from above, developing him spiritually.

Thus, from a small, specific desire for spirituality, a real, strong desire develops, and a person is born spiritually.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/2/17

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