Question: Can I evaluate my progress relative to the state of the group?

Answer: If you study The Book of Zohar (especially this book) even though it doesn’t tell you anything and seems so incomprehensible, distant and even repugnant to your entire being, you don’t understand it at all, and its characters and actions seem absurd, yet, despite all this, you accept it as a necessary tool for connecting with the source of the upper force that can change you, and you use it.

It’s like a child who doesn’t know or understand but is compelled by nature to nullify themselves in relation to adults, to learn from them, and to mimic them like a little monkey without understanding what they are doing simply because that is what adults do. Similarly, we, by naively following the guidance of Kabbalistic texts and recognizing that they contain the source of some transformative force, suddenly begin to feel that they are working on us.

Initially, we are given a certain desire for this, a realization that there is no other way, and a group that can push us in this direction. But in the end, what is required is patience.

This involves studying the material, participating in dissemination efforts, and working within the group over months and months. Then suddenly you begin to feel that something is happening to you, something is working. You change. You suddenly feel a deeper understanding of what is going on interspersed with periods of greater confusion. This is the path.

It is a period of serious formation, a transition from one world to another. It is not simple and takes a significant amount of time. But this is the essence of our entire history, all those millions of years of development that are now approaching their critical, culminating point of realization when we transition into another state, another dimension.

All of this is about to happen to us, to those who seriously work on themselves, who wish to adopt this spiritual framework represented by The Book of Zohar, and pass through it into the other dimension.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Signs of Advancement” 3/11/10

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Comment: I would like to ask a question about intention. In everyday life, I just take medicine, and it helps me.

My Response: No, here much depends on how much you believe in the medicine. There is the placebo effect, which is significant up to a quarter of a medicine’s impact. That is, our impression, confidence, and belief that it will help account for 25% of the success, or conversely, its effectiveness diminishes without it.

Question: In any case, the medicine works somehow. But in Kabbalah, we work with intention. Only with the correct intention can the correct medicine be formed. For example, can The Book of Zohar influence us solely through the right intention?

Answer: Yes, because The Book of Zohar is activated through the intention that we must correct.

Otherwise we cannot accomplish anything unless we transform our egoistic intention into an altruistic one. This is why we expose ourselves to the influence of the light. I want my intention to change in relation to the entire surrounding world.

Instead of using the world for my own benefit and trying to see my personal gain in everything, I begin to realize that such an intention is killing me, it confines me in the narrow prison of this world like a solitary cell. I want to break free!

The only way to escape is to move beyond the intention for myself, because “for myself” means for my body, for this beast. I no longer want to serve it! I want to break free from it, to become a human. A human is something beyond and above this beast.

How can I do this? I am told: “To achieve this, imagine yourself outside your physical body. Try it!” But how? How can I do that? Invite the surrounding upper light to act upon you, to open your pores, your feelings, and pull you outward. Then, to hell with this body! Let it die if it must, it does not matter anymore. You will already exist outside of it.

Question: So Kabbalah is just the intention?

Answer: Yes, exactly. As soon as my intention changes from reception to bestowal, it is in this intention to bestow, to exit myself, to relate to everything as one single whole that I begin to feel the upper world—a completely different reality, entirely different properties and qualities! Everything is different and new!
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The remedy of The Book of Zohar” 3/11/10

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The wicked are wiped out of Dumah’s book because he takes into the calculation only from the middle line, where the wicked are not included. And who will desire them at the revival of the dead? During the revival of the dead, the angel Matat will receive the account in writing from the graveyards from Dumah. But who will desire those wicked ones that are not counted by Dumah for the revival of the dead? (Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 3, Chayei Sara, And Dumah Rises and Calculates, p.12)

Question: This text can confuse a person because how will a person perceive such words as “dead” or “cemeteries”? It is just scary.

Answer: You must understand that The Zohar is written in the “language of branches,” like most Kabbalistic books.

This is a method of transmitting knowledge and, most importantly, impressions to us in order to attract the light of correction from the spiritual world, that is, from our corrected state.

We are not talking about physical bodies or our material world—we do not need to correct our arms and legs (a regular doctor should treat them).

The Zohar speaks about the correction of the soul. Therefore, although it uses the words of this world, they all point to spiritual concepts, that is, to our inner forces and qualities.

It is these properties that I want to explore now to understand what is uncorrected in me, what needs to be changed, and what I should wish to correct. This is the purpose of the book.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/10, Zohar for All, “Chayei Sara [The Life of Sarah]”

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But the lower ones cannot receive the illumination of the left before it is clothed in Hassadim from the right line.

This is why Esau was weary and said, “Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall the birthright do to me?” (Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 3,  “About the Revival of the Dead“)

After all, he wanted to receive the light of Hochma in his egoistic desires, his receiving Kelim, and he is not able to do this.

It is like our whole life. We want to enjoy life; we chase after all the pleasures and want to receive them, but as soon as I am about to achieve some pleasure, it immediately disappears. And so it has been my entire life.

That is why Esau was weary and said: “I cannot continue like this any longer. I am tired. I have despaired of all this. I am ready to unite with Jacob.”

Today all of humanity stands on the threshold of such awareness. And that is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed—the method of Jacob. After all, this is the science of how to build a middle line.

Before such despair came, there was no need for the wisdom of Kabbalah. The need for it has appeared now. After all, the Torah is revealed from the middle line, the correction of egoism.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/10, Zohar for All, Chayei Sara [The Life of Sarah]

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Question: It happened that during the lessons on The Book of Zohar, I was at home in front of the computer. Reading it together with everyone strongly influenced me. I do not have this opportunity now because I am at work or in transit at that time. What should I do when I am alone during the reading of The Zohar?

Answer: Listen in any state. Just listen.

Comment: But the images that come through The Zohar repel me, and I need some inner engagement, not just listening.

My Response: Try to understand what The Zohar says about the spiritual states of the group. After all, all of Kabbalah speaks only about the spiritual states of the ten, including, of course, The Book of Zohar.

Question: Do I need to engage and think of what The Zohar says and try not to picture physical images?

Answer: No. You have to resist and not picture physical imagery. On the contrary, everything should be translated into spiritual images, rightly or wrongly, but the very fact that you will resist the earthly depiction will be your great victory.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”

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Question: Do you ever have moments when you are surprised that you give out certain information?

Answer: Yes, it happens that I can easily express some information. It is a muse; it is simply a human property.

There are Kabbalists who could do it amazingly. I envy them a lot. After all, if I weren’t a teacher, I would float at my level and would be trying to rise all the time. But since I have to simplify the information I receive to the level of my students, I envy those who have fluent language.

But I was specially given a very difficult and complex Hebrew. I generally do not have a good grasp of languages; I have an absolute inaptitude for them. It’s hard for me in this regard.

Therefore, if I succeed, it is like a birth, like labor pains, when you can finally give out some information. When you feel that it has entered a person, he understands it, and all the information has smoothly jumped out of you like an embryo jumps out along with waters during a successful childbirth, then it certainly gives a lot of pleasure. You are amazed about the extent of it that came from above.

I clearly understand that everything is given from above because with my qualities that I also received from above, I am not capable of expressing my thoughts easily. There are even more problems here. Even if I had this ability, Kabbalistic information is still clothed in more or less convenient forms depending on how much the student needs it.

After all, there are circumstances when there is a need to confuse a student a little, give him an opportunity to unravel the tangle by himself. Then he will start using his brain and will sense that he still lacks his own efforts. Therefore, I not only make my presentation dependent on the lack of an opportunity to present the material normally, but also on the fact that the student does not need a more explicit presentation, he must figure it out himself.

Let’s take The Book of Zohar. It is written in a very confusing language, although it in principle it is close to our style. This is amazing! The book was written 2,000 years ago, but it talks about things that are very easy for us to communicate today. It is interesting. Although it is incomprehensible, its style is close to us.

When I was working on it, adapting it to the modern reader, I practically did not have to do anything special. I translated it from Aramaic to Hebrew, removed various additions, clarifications, references to other sources, outside commentaries, etc. in order to make the text more readable.

Practically, the whole task in Kabbalah is to adapt the spiritual material for the consumers, for the students.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Mindflow” 3/13/10

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Question: You say that when reading The Book of Zohar, we do not feel how spiritual forces influence us or how many corrections occur during its study. If a person does not feel anything, does it mean that nothing is happening?

Answer: Certainly! Do we feel what is happening in our bodies? We feel only a millionth part of what is happening, and everything else passes by our senses and thoughts. We do not catch anything, and we do not have time to process anything.

Question: I can usually judge something when I feel something. You say if I do not feel, then is nothing happening. So does studying The Book of Zohar influence people?

Answer: The fact is that, on one hand, the integral world in which I actually find myself is vital to me and not the one that seems to me. I want to know the complete picture of the world and how it affects me. And what I do not feel today, I can feel tomorrow. Therefore, first of all, I need to experience this world. Second, I work in the part of the world that I feel.

There are two worlds: revealed and hidden. I must uncover everything around me and connect with the universe entirely.

This is what Kabbalah is for. That is why it is called the science of receiving. Receiving, that is, the disclosure of the universal complete universe, so I feel myself not within the framework of our world, not within the framework of my body, but in perfection, in eternity, in complete harmony with all of nature, I feel as an integral part of it, as eternal as it is.

Question: Let’s say an ordinary person begins to study The Book of Zohar. Does even just reading a passage affect him?

Answer: It does even if he just hears and does not understand. All the same, he is in contact because everything that happens in our world is some kind of contact through the matter of our world, which is desire.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Hidden Influence of The Book of Zohar” 3/7/10

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Everything that is attained in the upper world is the middle line.

Two lines descend from above from the Creator: light and desire. Their correct combination forms the middle line, which we perceive as comprehension of the Creator, as attainment of a single root.

In other words, there is one single root, from it two lines descend to us: on one hand desire, on the other hand light, the quality of bestowal.

We must combine them correctly within ourselves, like the Creator. He is one, from Him these two desires descend. We also must be one here; we must combine these two desires correctly in ourselves, like Him.

What does “like” mean? It means rising back up through these two desires higher and higher to His very level. That is all.

Therefore, any Kabbalistic, so-called “holy books” are written in the quality of bestowal, in the middle line. But in this middle line there is a slight inclination to the left or to the right.

Question: Is The Book of Zohar written in the middle line?

Answer: Yes, it guides you and helps you create a line from these two components. But there are books that are still written with an inclination in the other direction. For example, the Psalms are written with an inclination to the right, Ecclesiastes with an inclination to the left, and so on.

Question: Let us say I read The Book of Zohar or The Sulam Commentary on The Book of Zohar and do not understand them. What is their advantage?

Answer: You are given The Book of Zohar, already prepared and processed for you. You listen to it translated to Russian. I think this is normal.

The only thing you need to do is continue to listen to it patiently, for hours! I think you will still say that it has some effect on you.

Comment: It really works!

My Response: This is the special attribute of this Book. Gradually you will begin to feel it, understand it, and contact it.

And The Sulam Commentary adds a middle line to us that is suitable specifically for our souls, which is not found in The Book of Zohar itself. It adapts us to it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Pure Zohar” 3/7/10

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Question: Translations do not give me anything. Even though I do not understand Hebrew, I try to feel the Hebrew letters. And this has an effect.

Can translations serve as a conduit for feelings? Should we still read, for example, The Book of Zohar in the original Hebrew and try to feel it?

Answer: Yes and no. It is not necessary. The Book of Zohar will start to appear before you as a network of forces and attributes within and around you, like an internal and external matrix, and you will begin to feel it.

Question: Do you feel this clearly when you read The Zohar?

Answer: Of course! It is such a power! I am simply astonished, in awe, trying to understand, accept, and interact with it in some way, somewhere, somehow. It is as if you are in some inner and outer space with which you interact.

You study it.

Question: But do you get some kind of satisfaction from this? Or is it a completely different sensation?

Answer: There is no satisfaction comparable to this.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Unlimited Bliss“ 3/7/10

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Question: How should we build an internal connection with our great teachers—with Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and with you, and through them with the authors of The Book of Zohar—in order to gradually approach an understanding of what they want to convey to us?

Answer: We must build our unity starting with the types of connections that now exist between us in mutual assistance and mutual connection with each other.

We can reach a state in which we exist as if in one body into which we will begin to receive the spiritual light—the light of The Book of Zohar.

And so we will gradually approach an understanding of what this book wants to tell us.

We need to perceive our teachers as closely as possible, as if they fill us. And the more we strive for them, the closer they will approach us. Eventually we will begin to feel them existing directly within us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “To Understand the Words of The Zohar”

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