There are no individual details; it only seems that way to us because we’re unable to comprehend the whole system with all its qualities and interactions, phenomena, states, and times. In our world, we choose an individual phenomenon and study it on its own, but it’s impossible to study the spiritual world this way. We’ll never learn the truth in this manner.

In the spiritual world, we always study the entirety because every degree is perfection consisting of all ten Sefirot. We study it all, but only to a small extent. In order to do this, we need to possess a ready and full spiritual vessel (Kli) because only something that’s perfect will be able to take in perfection. A person won’t be able to feel the spiritual world while his Kli isn’t ready to perceive some minor part of perfection with even minimal resolution.
Therefore, we should always strive to something perfect and whole rather than being satisfied by studies or sensations alone. We shouldn’t stop and wait, getting stuck on the inanimate level of development. We need to head toward perfection. We need to prepare our spiritual Kli to perceive, feel, and attain the whole spiritual universe. Only then will we become worthy of a spiritual revelation. The spiritual world is perfection and it can only be revealed in this general and perfect form.

Therefore, our work doesn’t consist of limiting ourselves but of opening ourselves up as much as possible. We need to head toward the maximum revelation in the right line and, in accordance with it, the limitations of the left line will be revealed as an addition to the right line. However, that revelation doesn’t depend on us. The Upper Light knows what needs to be revealed to us according to our advancement. In regard to this, we evaluate to what extent we can attain the full picture.

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A question I received: Prior to the reception of the Torah, the people of Israel performed a special preparation for three days. How can we prepare in the best possible way during the three days preceding the Zohar Convention 2010?

My Answer: These three days are called “days of restriction”; it is when you completely detach from everything you had before.

We know from the science of Kabbalah that the screen, which rises with the Reshimot when the Light exits the Partzuf, ascending from Tabur to Peh, needs to go through three stages. Once it reaches the third stage, it loses all connection with the first stage.

In the same way, a person who is in the first stage raises to the next degree, where there is an emanation of Reflected Light, which descends to the previous degree – the first stage. When the person rises one degree higher, he also emanates these Lights onto the two previous levels.

After going through these three stages or three days (limitations), one reaches a state where he has no connection to the “transgression” of the past. Therefore, we need to detach from everything we had or knew before and prepare for the correction of our desires. This is how we’ll be able to reveal the Upper Force inside us.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Ki Tissa (When You Take),” Item 81: …for a thing that requires disclosure, to be revealed later, needs a place for hiding and covering, first. First, it must be concealed from the eye, and then the craftsman lets his craft be shown. Thus, what needs covering later needs to be revealed first. This is so because “God has made them one opposite the other.” All that exists in the degrees of holiness has its opposite in the Sitra Achra (impurity).

Everything will be disclosed through its opposite; the advantage of the Light is revealed from within darkness. The Creator cannot disclose Himself to the creature until the creature reveals His opposite form and learns through that opposite form about what the direct form is.

We can perceive only darkness. We read black letters on a white background, meaning that we feel what is missing. What we reveal is not the Creator, but His absence. We are unable to reveal His properties. Our entire work amounts to revealing Him from His opposite side, as it was said to Moses: “You shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

That is why a person who truly wants to attain the revelation has to go by faith above reason and acquire the power of bestowal, Bina. However, he is unable to reveal this force of bestowal, since he does not feel it. He can reveal it only under the condition that he feels a lack within him, within his darkness, his egoistic desire. This lack is a need for bestowal. We have to reveal it from the opposition, because we always come from the side of the darkness, from the side of egoism and see the opposite of everything. Upon revealing the spiritual world, we will say: “I saw a reverse world.” We don’t even realize how opposite to us spirituality is.

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The most important thing at the upcoming Zohar Convention 2010 is our inner work. We must have the right intention, which will give everyone who attends the Convention and the whole nation of Israel the feeling that if the quality of Israel (Directly to the Creator) that exists in every person, dispersed among the Klipot, will unite as one, this will cause the correction of the world.

Because this opportunity is being revealed to us, it is a sign that we don’t need greater numbers in order to attain spiritual revelation. Since we are given the opportunity to assemble this many forces in the whole world and in Israel, on such a scale, it’s a sign that all we lack is a connection among everyone, rather than lacking more people.

The current amount of people is already sufficient; unity is all we lack. If we unite, then the “candle” will light up. By connecting, we build a common screen, and then the Light will immediately ignite it.

We have the oil — the desire to enjoy, and the filter — the screen, and the Upper Light that is above the filter. When we have a screen that connects our desire to enjoy with the Light, then our desire becomes similar to the Light, since the screen is the force of overcoming, where a person desires to unite with everyone in spite of his egoism that separates him from them. Then, it happens — a connection emerges.

Our entire work, the concentration of all our efforts lies only in this point of unity between the screen and the “wick.” The oil is below, the Light is above, and in the middle there is the point inside of which we must all unite together. Then the candle will light up and begin to burn.

In the past we thought that our dissemination in the whole world and in Israel would bring us Light and revelation. But if we are given the chance to carry out such a great event — the upcoming Convention, the only thing that’s missing is our inner connection. We already have the critical mass.

Right now we must think together with all our friends around the whole world, about how much we desire to ignite this point of contact, this “candle.” We have all the conditions for doing this. We have the chance, and now everything depends on us. We have the oil, and the Light is also present; we have an assembly of souls and a certain degree of connection.

It doesn’t matter how much we know or understand. Every person must only add his own desire for unity between the Light and the oil, as much as he is capable. In other words, each person must overcome his ego to create a wick (bestowal) above the oil (egoism). Then it will happen. But we are the ones who have to create this wick — the screen and the Reflected Light.

It’s impossible to do it alone, but together, it’s easy.

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A question I received: It seems to me that The Book of Zohar has much more of the left line than of the right line. Is this true?

My Answer: The Zohar, like the whole Torah, is the middle line, not the right or the left. The whole Torah is written from the middle line.
The authors of these books revealed their spiritual attainment by attaining the Upper Level, the Creator, and this occurs only in the middle line of the soul. Therefore, none of the Kabbalistic books are written in either the right or left lines. However, there may be an inclination toward one direction or another in the way that the material is expressed externally.

For example, the book Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) by King Solomon seems like an expression of the left line to us when it writes phrases like, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” However, “vanity” (Hevel) actually refers to the Surrounding Light. Therefore, “vanity of vanities” means that everything is achieved in the Surrounding Light.

When read his way, one sees that this whole book is not filled with despair, as many think, but just the opposite. It speaks of the yearning for the Upper Light. For example, the above phrase by King Solomon in Ecclesiastes actually means, “All is my yearning for the Creator,” rather than how it is usually translated.

Everything depends on a proper understanding of the text, unification with the author, and with the protagonist – the Creator.

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We read the words of The Zohar, but we don’t understand anything yet. I only provide a brief explanation in order to direct a person, to show him where to begin searching for these qualities inside himself and how to picture them. For example: Aaron and his sons, the evil force, Moses, and the Golden Calf are all qualities that we need to recognize inside ourselves.

Right now, each person’s desire added to everyone’s collective desire is our “mutual guarantee,” where mutual guarantee is the force of unity, which consists of many layers. Each layer or degree has a collective force of unity, called a mutual guarantee. It works the same way in the human body; the general defense system gives all of its strength to overcome an illness. The immune system works together to battle a foreign body to try to achieve the desired goal.

On every level and for every type of inner work, a person needs to receive another form of a mutual guarantee from this force of unity – a feeling that everyone desires the same thing, but no one understands each other, and that everyone thinks differently. All of this helps new sensations to begin to emerge within us.

Each person has the desire to interpret the text in his own way, according to the root of his soul; he directs himself in a particular way, according to his form, and he tunes into the collective desire to reach the spiritual goal. All individual desires, needs, and aspirations connect this collective force together making it very rich, complex, and multicolored. And later, when the Surrounding Light begins to influence a person through this template, he goes through a collection of desires, demands, and confusion – a depiction of all the qualities of every person described in The Book of Zohar.

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In spirituality, “mutual inclusion” is an action that is carried out by a force that comes from the Creator. Although our qualities tune into each other, the mutual inclusion does not happen outside of us since it is impossible to accomplish on our level. I cannot take two qualities and fuse them together in one plate here on the table before me. I need to raise them to the source where they can unite into one whole in the Creator. I can work on their mutual inclusion there.

My desire to include these qualities is here in this world. However, in order to create their mutual inclusion, I need to raise them to the root (Keter) of the given degree and connect to the place where they exist as one whole. This is not a material unification where a few atoms unite into one molecule and create a compound through a chemical reaction.

In spiritual unification, nothing remains from the right and the left lines. The middle line is a completely new entity. It does not consist partially of the left line and partially of the right. Rather, mutual inclusion produces a new quality that supersedes the qualities of which it is made.

The desire to enjoy (which connects to the screen) and the Reflected Light (the intention to work for the sake of bestowal) are depicted as a desire below and a screen above (the intention to bestow), as if the intention and the desire exist separately. They are depicted as if these are two separate components rather than one whole.

However, this explanation is only provided in this manner when using the terms of our world. In the spiritual world, the intention and the desire are forced to be completely inseparable, intertwined, and merged inside one another. The intention can completely change a desire by using it for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal.

Therefore, the work we do on the “third day” lies in merging with one another and creating one common body. Each person does the inner work of uniting his qualities from the right and the left sides into one whole in the middle line, tuning in to the Creator as a result. After all, the source of all these opposite things is situated in Him, where they all exist in unity. This is why on the third day, upon ascending to the Creator, a spiritual quality opposite to the Creator was revealed, which is the spiritual death of desires such as Shachem.

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When we unite our desires to reveal The Zohar, every person contributes his own deficiencies, his unique work of the mind and heart, and his attempts to cling to the words in order to attain the goal through them. Every person has his own ideas about what spirituality is and how the qualities we read about, such as Aaron, the bull, the mixed multitude, Moses, and others are connected inside him.

Every person imagines these notions from the root of his soul, envisioning them in various, distorted forms. But it’s OK that they are distorted because “The advantage of the Light is revealed from the darkness.” Every person adds his own small misconception to the great, common, confused desire.

This results in a great, mixed-up ball, like a ball of yarn composed of something unclear and unknown. It consists of all the disappointments, deficiencies, and desires, but they all unite together inside this ball because through our searching we desire to attain unity and reveal the Creator inside us. As a result, we raise a prayer (MAN), which is the sum of all the doubts, confusion, and impressions we feel while studying The Zohar, while The Zohar is one for all of us.

We desire to unite all of our aspirations together, which means that we are standing around Mount Sinai (the Mountain of Hatred). However, we don’t understand what is happening. Therefore, while Moses ascends to the mountain, we construct a Golden Calf and commit all the other transgressions.

But then the Surrounding Light comes to us and illuminates our common desire (Kli), which consists of our confusions and doubts. It illuminates the darkness, the state of not being able to see where this picture is inside of us and where our connection with others lies. The Surrounding Light comes to us through the great cloud of doubts that we create together; it is through that cloud that the Light influences every person. Passing through this filter, the Light brings each of us the desires, deficiencies, and qualities of others, as well as its own qualities. And this brings about the revelation.

The Light itself does not have any form. When you desire to unite with others and with The Zohar, when you don’t understand anything and are confused, but you strive to be part of the great, common desire, then the Light brings you an imprint of these forms. It reveals the right connection between us and gives you the right structure, in which you are connected with everyone. You then start to understand the qualities that The Zohar describes.

These qualities don’t exist inside any one of us. I don’t have Aaron or the Golden Calf inside me; these qualities become expressed only inside my connection with others – whether I’m “for” them or “against” them. They cannot exist in a separate person. The impure force and the holiness that are being described mean “against unity” or “for it.” Therefore, the Surrounding Light that comes in response to your efforts brings you either unity or opposition to unity. But it happens in a clear, conscious manner. Everything is discerned only in relation to unity because the only thing we have to correct is the broken vessel of the common soul.

Therefore, a single individual cannot imagine anything that The Zohar describes. The prayer rises upward and the Light descends downward only through our common cloud of confusion and doubts.

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A question I received: During The Zohar lesson I feel that I’m thrown from side to side like a boat in a storm. Sometimes I feel good about it, and other times very afraid. Is this good for me, or to the contrary?

My Answer: We have to understand that there is no connection between what we read, what we feel, or in fact, what goes on inside us. During the lesson, The Zohar works on us as if we’re pressing buttons on a device whose functions we don’t understand. It is like a child, for example, who pulls a mobile phone out of his father’s pocket, plays with the buttons, and accidentally calls someone or sends a message. Similarly, when we read The Zohar we’re pressing “buttons” without understanding what forces we induce. Therefore, the reactions we feel in response are not at all connected with our initial actions.

We may think of our friends, the whole world, and the Creator with love, and suddenly become plagued with the opposite concern, wondering, “Why am I even trying to do this?” Or it may occur the other way around where we blame the Creator, the group, and ourselves, but suddenly something good appears that we didn’t feel we deserved.

The Zohar speaks to us like a parent would speak to an infant who doesn’t understand what is being said to him. The parent knows everything about the baby, but the infant doesn’t understand anything about the parent. In spirituality we are at the level of an infant. This is why we shouldn’t draw conclusions based on our sensations, since they are not properly connected.

It may be that we’re thinking everything is a mess and feel only problems and confusions, when in fact everything is perfectly arranged. We need to be mindful that regardless of what happens, we continue with our studies until deliverance comes. We are advised to avoid worrying about something which occurs along our path, and it is written, “Do whatever you want, but don’t leave!”

We need a certain measure of persistence, devotion, and patience on our spiritual path. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Preface to Study of the Ten Sefirot,” that “Only those heroes who possess real patience manage to climb the mountain and enter the King’s palace.” Thus, we need to allow The Zohar to influence us by means of the Surrounding Light.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Miketz (At the End),” Item 117: When a person rises in the morning, he should wash his hands from a Natlah of water, which is a vessel from which to take water [a special cup for ritual hand-washing].

“Morning” means that the Light of Hassadim comes and the illumination of Hochma is revealed. A person feels the spiritual quality of giving and love as darkness inside of his egoistic (receiving) desires. By correcting them, he awakens for morning and experiences the dawn, and then the day. Inside of his corrected desires he feels the Light of Bestowal.

All of this occurs inside the same desires. At first a person feels that the spiritual world is darkness – something that is repulsive and undesired because it is related to bestowal and the need to love the neighbor. He then goes through correction by studying during the nights (and according to the connection of “branch and root,” we also study at night). Thus, he prepares for the coming of day; he reaches the understanding that spirituality, bestowal, and love for one’s neighbor is day – that it is good, and therefore, he desires it.

Because of his intention, the Surrounding Light gradually begins to influence him, making the state that seemed like darkness to him before look desirable. The same state turns into day and begins to shine.

These corrections that a person performs to his desires are called “hand-washing,” since “hands” are the receiving desires, which need to be cleansed of egoistic intentions before they can be used. The “special cup for ritual hand-washing,” the Upper Vessel, Bina, pours the Light of Correction upon our receiving desires.

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