Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “What, You Have Given the Strong to the Hands of the Weak, Means in the Work”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Good and Evil” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” “Rewarded – I Will Hasten It, Not Rewarded – In Its Time”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Gatehouse of Intentions,” Item 78

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “You Stand Today, All of You”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Good and Evil” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” “The Wheel of Transformation of the Form”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Gatehouse of Intentions,” Item 73

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Question: What does it mean not to be afraid to start each degree anew after all results from the previous work are erased?

Answer: Let’s assume that I am in a good state, meaning feeling the connection with the friends. This state is not necessarily pleasant to my ego, but by relating to the goal, I feel good; that is, I understand its importance and am aimed at the goal.

With this, I can go through difficult, unpleasant, confusing states, but the only criteria for evaluating all these states is the understanding of the necessity for attaining the level of Ubar (Embryo). And the same can be applied not only to the stage of the Ubar, but also to the subsequent higher degrees.

I am happy with my lot and progress. Where can I fall from this state if the importance of the goal and the importance of my degree are giving me inspiration? I am happy that I overcame this state, and with the help of the friends, the teacher, the study, the Creator it becomes clearer to me that all these states are the components from which my spiritual vessel is assembled.

It is not important if these states are pleasant or not, the main thing is that I rise above them, hold them together, and understand that this is my world through which I must aspire to the good that does good and there is none else besides Him. No matter what is going on inside me—what seething volcano of desires, intentions, qualities quake in me—all this is rubbish, and I am above them and build a white picture above the black picture.

I can fall from it again to this world and suddenly lose all aspiration for spirituality and be satisfied with corporeal comfort. I can fall to this state if I have not looked for deficiencies in advance. And then I fall to the degree of this world; I live in this world like a regular man, and even come to study, but this is simply a routine that will continue until I am tired of it.

If I don’t want such a descent, then I need to look for deficiencies while still in the higher state, in the “white light.” And this is possible only if I have prepared a strong connection with the friends that will add clarifications. How could I reach perfection by myself at this point? I justified the Creator and my state, so now where will I find deficiencies? Only the group can awaken them in me. When I am connected with them through mutual guarantee, then I am impressed by their importance of the goal. The importance of the goal that I receive from them is greater than mine. And I must tie myself to it.

After I have tied myself to the importance of the goal, I discover that I have no need for such importance. I have no aspiration or attraction. I don’t burst to feel it, and therefore, I am aware of my lack of desire. I begin to search where to get such a need from. There isn’t anywhere, because I am already fulfilled. As if I had eaten until there is no room for more in some cheap restaurant, and when I came home I found that my wife had prepared my favorite meal, and I say I couldn’t resist and had eaten on the way home. Now I suffer from heartburn, don’t feel good, and even feel nauseous; I can’t eat anything more. This means that I don’t feel the lack; where can I get it?

We are exactly in this state. After we have fulfilled ourselves and completed our degree only from the outside are we able to receive an additional desire. If I sit with friends and have a small drink, the appetite will awake in me. We must do such simple tricks in order to receive new deficiencies from the environment. If I don’t have an environment, I will fulfill myself and that’s it.

Without the support of friends, I am sentenced to fall to the degree of this world, to the state of “beast,” and to live in it. With this, due to the fact that I still go to the lessons and participate in some activities, I gradually receive from others their desires, exit from the routine of the study, and rise to the new degree. But this will take a very long time.

Therefore, after attaining some degree, one needs to immediately check if you are in the correct connection with the environment. Now I am giving you valuable practical advice that will cost a lot of blood for a person who wants to build this system, the method. If you see that you have received a new desire and again you caught fire, then it means that your connection with the friends worked, that there is guarantee between you. If there is no guarantee, you will fall to the level of beastly existence and live such a life.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, The Book of Zohar, 2/16/14

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Question: The Book of Zohar is a major part of studying Kabbalah, but, at the same time, The Book of Zohar is divided into many parts and is very complicated. There are three volumes that explain the five books of the Torah (the Pentateuch).

Beyond that, there is The New Zohar and other books that are not included in the other volumes such as The Secrets of the Letters (Sitrei Otiyot), Raza de Razin, and so forth.

Recently, I have come across a book called Parashat Pinchas (the weekly section of the Torah Pinchas) in Russian, translated by Ephraim Bauch, and I have not found this book in the editions you have published.

So, is all of that The Book of Zohar? Do all of these books draw the Light, even the above-mentioned Raza de Razin that speaks about different lines on the palm of the hand? Please tell me what is the complete Book of Zohar?

Answer: There are many versions, commentaries, and translations of The Book of Zohar. To avoid confusion, I recommend only The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary by Baal HaSulam or Zohar La’am in Hebrew or the version that is translated into different languages.
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Question: I have a question and I want to understand it with my intellect specifically, and not through emotions and feelings, but specifically to understand it with my intellect. You say that while we are reading The Book of the Zohar we need to grasp it as a cure, like an infusion, like a medicine, with no connection to whether or not we want to understand The Book or not.

However, I feel desire. I constantly feel some lack if I don’t read this book at least once a day. Something pulls me to the text. I want to intellectually understand what this attraction is.

How is it reflected on the intention if the texts simply interest me? Sometimes, I even forbid myself from hearing the reading of The Zohar and, on purpose, listen to another part of the lesson. Is this correct to do?

Answer: Listen to what you want and don’t limit yourself. The main thing is not to make a mistake, but to wait so that the Upper Light, the Surrounding Light, will complete its action, its bestowal, and then to discover its results: your clarification of the revelation of the upper world and the Creator.
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 66

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 69

Conventions in Odessa, “In the Circle of Unity,” Preparatory Lesson 

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 57: …Imagine that there are people who study Kabbalah and attract the light of Infinity, lead the generation after them and the people follow them, and then all will be sure they will never err on their path. But if, instead of Kabbalah, people prefer to study other parts of the Torah, no wonder that the whole generation errs through their fault. So deep is my grief that I am unable to continue speaking about it.

Why did the generations in Israel descend lower and lower, and go further away from the interior of the Torah?

After the destruction of the Temple, there were still many people in constant attainment. Not all fell at once into concealment.

In fact, with the Shevirat ha Kelim (the breaking of the vessels), the highest Kelim descended below all, and those that were not as high don’t fall as low. Besides, there is also significance to the general mixing. Every Kli that falls drags the others after it and pushes those that fell previously even lower.

As a result, the original whole Kli,  all parts of which were as a single person with one heart that revealed the Creator, in the shattering gradually lost the revelation as the vessels fell from their previous height. The Study of the Ten Sefirot (Talmud Eser Sefirot) talks about this in Section 7.

History, too, serves as an example. We see how the destruction happened gradually, stage after stage, layer after layer, and continued for a long time. Accordingly, after the destruction of the Temple, for a long time, the spiritual illumination still hadn’t disappeared. After more than a thousand years, during the time of the Ari, many people still maintained the consciousness, the spiritual sensation. It is possible to explain this partially through the great troubles of the exile that held people above the Machsom (the barrier).

Later, after the time of the Ari, a new awakening began, an ascent, a slight call for correction from the side of the Reshimot (remembrances). And therefore, the Baal Shem Tov conducted his work.

It would be possible to ask, “Who gave him permission to do this?” However, the Ari called for correction and suggested his students to “go up to Jerusalem.” Rabbi Chaim Vital also writes about this in Sefer HaHakdamot (The Book of Introductions), and in our day, Baal HaSulam wrote the Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot on the same basis.

So, for the Baal Shem Tov, there was a basis for beginning to act and awaken the people to inner work and corrections. He began to speak about the five spiritual worlds, about the Partzufim, about the Sefirot, about the Creator that is clothed in them, and so forth. Why did he and his students disseminate the new message among the people? It was because the crisis had ended by then.

Since then, since we are late with our corrections, we haven’t realized what has been given to us from above, just as we have encountered problems of a different type that have come from below.

Here we are talking about the Yeridat HaDorot (descent of the generations). This was discovered in the 19^th century and especially in the 20^th century. Despite the fact that the people received a push to return to the land of Israel, this hasn’t had any internal influence on us to this very day. The descent has continued, and we see how from year to year the people gave up the last connections of unity, even in the worst form. But in spite of it all, they are still holding it together. As of today, the shared values of the roots of the movement have disappeared without a trace, like the Kibbutz movement in the form in which it was born.

Baal HaSulam writes that all of this happens, of course, also among those who study the Torah. Instead of turning toward its interior, as all of the Kabbalists in all generations taught—as it was before the destruction of the Temple, according to the principle, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)—they were drawn in an absolutely different direction where it was not possible to find love of others, mutual bestowal, and connection.

This is the reason for the situation we are now in. The generations descended lower, but the people still were not awakened. On the contrary, they continued to descend even lower, even in comparison to the state in which it was in the lands of the exile.

Indeed I have known the reason: that it is mainly because faith has generally diminished, especially faith in the holy men, the wise men of all generations. And the books of Kabbalah and The Zohar are full of corporeal parables. …And that is what prompted me to compose a thorough interpretation… (Item 58)

The books of the Kabbalists were written for Kabbalists, and the common man is not able to understand them. So, Baal HaSulam was compelled to write “The Sulam Commentary to The Book of Zohar.” This commentary, on condition that one learns it correctly, makes it possible for everyone to approach a true understanding and gradually advance toward the truth, to bring the concealed layers of The Book of Zohar down until it will begin to shine from within.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Our sages said: “The study of the sacred Zohar nullifies all kinds of disasters.” In the book, Sha’arei Yisrael it states: “The words and speech of the sacred Zohar themselves connect the person to the Ein Sof, be He blessed.”

And Rav Yitzhak Safrin of Komarno wrote this: “If my people would hear me during the footsteps of the Messiah when evil and heresy increase, they would strive all their days to study The Book of Zohar and the amendments from the letters of Rabbi Nachman and would nullify all the evil decrees and would attract abundance and Light.”

How could it be that one book could rid humanity of all its problems and every individual of his personal problems related to health, family, children, money, culture, and behavior, and relationships between people, countries, and nations?

This arouses lots of questions. How can The Book of Zohar solve all of our environmental problems with inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, i.e., environmental disasters and climate change that we are beginning to feel more and more now?

The Kabbalists from all generations specifically point to The Book of Zohar as having the power to organize the whole world, to restore harmony and peace, to transform us into absolutely different people who relate to each other benevolently, to deliver us from all evil, all wars. It is able to make peace between people and also within a person himself, within his family, within the nation, between rival parties, and to resolve all internal and international conflicts, and also to fix the climate.

It can give an answer about a person’s questions like: “What is the reason for my life?” “What am I alive for?” Apparently this is a subtle problem and we don’t want to acknowledge that these questions nag us. But in fact, specifically all of the problems of modern society are derived from that, both personal and societal problems. It is not clear to us what we are alive for and what we need to achieve in life. We are searching and pursuing something all the time, using one another as an example, but basically nobody knows what to do.

This happens to everyone. There are those who still don’t understand this, but they also encounter the same problem. Subconsciously this question “nibbles at our brain and drops us to the ground.” So we oppose it and do stupid things. We simply try to run away from this question somehow until we “succeed in flowing in the streams of life like yesterday.”

This means that we want to continue with everything without changes, today like yesterday and tomorrow like today, the main thing being not to think that our entire life goes by for nothing and in vain and nothing happens besides ordinary life. Life itself is filled with occupations that don’t bring any benefit and only cause harm to one another.

After thousands of years of the development of humanity, of society, and civilization, we finally reach a unique process, a unique milestone. Humanity is beginning to discover the question, “Why am I here?” This question begins to be awakened in every person and in every society. It is impossible to hide it any more. We must discover it and answer it because we still are not able to escape from it.

So we are destined to contend with great challenges. After all, according to our nature, we still want to run away from this question, pretend it doesn’t exist, and continue living as before. Nevertheless, this question is aroused in every person, “embittering his life,” and subconsciously he tries to do everything not to feel it. The crisis that we are beginning to feel in our time is designed specifically to prevent us from running away from this question and to seek an answer to it.

But humanity will not be able to find the answer to the question by itself. It will discover that the answer is found within us, within those who study the wisdom of Kabbalah and it will come to us with demands. Humanity will come to us with all their bitter and empty feelings and they will demand a solution from us. In other words, they will submit an account to us, will claim that they are suffering because of us, and that we are to blame that things are bad for them!

Together with the awakening of the question about the purpose of life, people will feel that specifically we have an answer and we seem to hide it from them, that is, we are preventing them from reaching a good, happy, and complete life. And in truth, it is our obligation to reveal the answer to them and to be the leaders of this process. We have received the desire to discover the question of life and the answer to it from above.
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From the World Zohar Convention, Day One – 2.5.14, Lesson 2

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 We have reached the beginning of the way upward, toward the completion of correction. We have learned what the chain is from above to below, from Olam Ein Sof through all the worlds, meaning the Ha’alamot (Concealments), intensifying more and more until we have reached this world.

Gradually, all of the Light of Ein Sof and its perfect eternal life is concealed from us, and all of this is so that from here, from below, we begin to rise again, and in this way we discover the upper force, the higher spiritual life.

The Book of Zohar is at our disposal, and only with it did all the Kabbalists connect their hopes for correction, for the good future for us and for the entire world. In The Book of Zohar there is a power to elevate us from feeling the mortal physical life in this world to feel the eternal existence in Olam Ein Sof. The keys for happiness are in one book. The unique power of The Book of Zohar is capable of removing all the obstacles, all the problems, and ward off all human misery.

But it doesn’t work like all kinds of blessings, amulets,mystical miracles and actions. It doesn’t change the surrounding world; it changes me. I am changed in such a way that I see and feel the Olam Ein Sof in the same reality that previously seemed like this world.

It becomes clear to me that the people that I saw before as strangers are parts of my soul and are connected together into one soul. That is how I see them now! We are connected as one soul and are filled with the same Light, eternity, wholeness, attainment and understanding. I don’t even find the solution to the previous problems, but rather, the power to rise to another dimension of life. All of this is thanks to The Book of Zohar.

To push us toward this, the Light that influences us from above is revealed more and more. The informational genes, the Reshimot, according to which we are developed and changed, are discovered in us more strongly as a result of the increasing influence of the Light. Accordingly, we feel worse and worse. After all, the opposition between the Light and the broken desires, the Reshimot, produce in us the feeling of being broken.

Here, we need to precede the blows with a remedy, and we are given the remedy. After all, we came to the wisdom of Kabbalah not to avoid troubles, but because of spiritual suffering; we didn’t feel spiritual fulfillment in our lives. So, we were drawn to the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is not as it is with all of the rest of the world that feels no connection to the meaning of life, neither negatively nor positively. The question about the meaning of life is hidden in everyone, but, externally, the person simply feels that it is bad for him.

So, we must respond to this invitation, the call directed toward us, and make a correction on the spiritual level, on the height of that elevated state that we must attain. We must reach a state where the evil doesn’t push us from behind through blows. Rather, we ourselves elevate the good, the greatness of the goal, the upper force, the upper world, the elevated state, that is ready for us. We must ascend and appreciate it, and we have all the means necessary for this.

We have many friends and groups in all parts of the world, an international organization, a well-organized connection between us. We only need to play this game of life as if all of our lives have spiritual characteristics, with bestowal that is the opposite of our natural ego, as if your lives are sanctified by love that is the opposite of hatred. If we play like this, we grow.

Nothing impossible is required of us: we don’t need to be good. It is known that a person is not able to correct himself. We just must want to be good. This is called our “half-shekel.” The Light adds the second half and completes the correction instead of us. The Light does everything according to the rule that I labored and found, as it is written, “If you labored and did not find, do not believe.”

So, our goal is to invest effort, to want to connect, to play with oneness, and to take all the necessary actions like children who play at being adults and attract the Light that Reforms that causes them to grow. We also want to be big in a qualitatively different sense, correcting our relationship with each other, with the group, and, through the group, our relationship to the Creator.

I must measure the stages of my development. Have I truly begun to feel that the friends matter to me, even egoistically so that I will feel internally that I depend on them and my entire future is with them, that I am connected to them and must be within the group, immerse myself, and dissolve into it?

If I feel that I am approaching this state and begin to feel that I am more and more dependent on the group, then I advance. This is a very gratifying sign that testifies that the Light truly influences me.

After this, when I feel my dependence on the group, I must check as to whether my pleasant feeling is connected to my wanting to give contentment to the Creator. Try it! Does the thought that I want to make the Creator happy awaken warmth and pleasure in me? If this feeling exists in me, then I am aiming correctly through the group to the Creator. That is how the Upper Light begins to build the way upward within me.
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From lesson 2 of the World Zohar Convention, Day One 2/5/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”  

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