The most important thing for us right now is to formulate the correct approach to the study. Indeed, there really isn’t anything to study in the books of Kabbalah, since we can study only what we can sense with our feelings and investigate with our reason. However, what we’re presently doing is waiting and counting on a miraculous force (Segula), the Upper Light, trying to draw it to ourselves.

We exist in the state of concealment (single and double) until we cross the Machsom and begin to sense the Upper World. For now, our task is to come out of the unconscious state and start feeling that we’re in the state of concealment, that something is being concealed from us. This discovery (or sensation) of concealment is what will bring us to revelation.

We should feel as though we’re in the dark, and there is someone waiting close by, watching us through cracks and windows, “Metziz Aleynu Mi Halonot.” When we reach revelation, the first stage will be “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” the qualities of Bina, Hafetz Hesed.

At this stage there’s no investigation; we merely acquire the quality and force of bestowal. That’s the state of single revelation. We then advance to “reception for the sake of bestowal” where we are able to conduct investigations. That’s the state of the double revelation.

If we relate this to human stages of growth, then the first stage of concealment (in which we presently exist) is like infancy. Then we rise to the level of “bestowal for the sake of bestowal” and acquire spiritual qualities – the qualities of Bina. This can be likened to the stage of accumulating knowledge and learning, or in other words, adolescence, youth, and formation (school, university).

After that we begin to receive for the sake of bestowal. At this stage we are like scientists that investigate and learn about the world, making new discoveries. That is where the science begins; it is when we’re working with desires actively by receiving inside them for the sake of bestowal. Therefore we are able to investigate them on account of being similar to the Creator.

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In order to see the true reality, we have to imagine nothing but our own desire. Since birth we have been conditioned to see a movie that shows the whole as being outside of us. However, it exists only inside our desire. We have to fight an inner war with ourselves in order to become convinced that everything happens inside the desire. However, this fact does not revoke reality, since desire is reality.

We normally think that a desire is simply when we want something. However, desire is everything. The wall that blocks our path is also a desire – when we come up against it, we come up against a desire. Everything around us is desires or forces, which are depicted a certain way on our screen. When we look at a photograph on a computer screen, we don’t think that there are real objects inside the computer. We know that the picture is created by electrical forces. However, when we look at our world, we don’t realize this because we don’t see the screen onto which this world is projected.

Yet, in reality, everything taking place is even simpler. What we see on a computer screen seems to be happening outside of us, on the screen, and from there the image enters our eye, is processed, compared with what is stored in our memory and is then recognized with the help of electro-chemical processes in our brain. However, when we see the world, we see it inside ourselves, in our brain. That is where we see a projection of this world, which appears as being outside of us. In reality it’s also projected on a screen where electrical forces are depicting a picture. Meanwhile, however, we think that this picture is located outside of us.

If we come closer to this authentic perception with the help of The Zohar, then we will see a world of forces and qualities before us. These forces and qualities are operated by one general force, the Creator. Upon reaching this vision and realization, we will reveal the Creator, which is our greatest desire. This revelation takes place inside our desire, depending on its equivalence of form with the Creator. All of The Zohar is aimed only at revealing the right perception of reality.

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The single concealment is the reverse side of the Creator. This is a connection with Him, but a negative one. A person’s vision is clouded by everything: he has problems with his family, children and wife, with his boss at work, his bank balance, and his health. However, he always attributes everything taking place to the Creator and understands that this is simply the Creator’s way of playing with him.

If he doesn’t forget that everything comes from the Creator and does not lose this connection, he is already in the state of single concealment, the reverse side of the Creator. This state contains various sublevels, which depend on how one understands the reason for why the Creator is doing all of this. Perhaps it’s because He wants to punish the person for the mistakes he made in the past? On the other hand, a person may know that there is no such thing as punishment. Or, he might decide that the Creator has always treated him well, even in the past; or he breaks all of his ties to the past and focuses entirely on the future. In other words, he feels that the Creator sends him suffering in order to help him advance in the future. The Creator pressures him similar to how parents pressure their child because they want him to succeed.

Once a person reaches this realization, he begins to justify the Creator – either with regard to the past or the future, with the latter approach being more correct. However, the problems may be so great that a person becomes confused completely. He comes to the bank, or home, or work, and everywhere he encounters so many challenges that he forgets about the Creator and remains alone with his problems. His excuse for this is that he must first put his life in order.

It’s true – you really do have to work on your problems, but at the same time, you shouldn’t forget that they come from the Creator. You have to do everything that is expected of you in this world, but with the intention that you will attain the Creator’s revelation through these actions. The Creator uses all of these situations to reveal His opposite side to you. So the right way for you to see the situation is to correct the problems in the bank, with your family, and with your health, but to do it for the sake of revealing the Creator (“His face”), instead of thinking that the most important thing is to get rid of the problems themselves.

If you worry only about how to fix your bank account, your family problems and your health, then nothing will help, and even greater problems will come. But if you do all of this for the sake of revealing the Creator, or in other words – with a different intention, then everything will work out – even your bank balance.

The reverse side of the Creator becomes revealed to us through all of these situations in order for us to find the right attitude to Him and to reveal His face. This revelation will elevate us above all the problems.

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The Book of Zohar was written by a group of great Kabbalists the likes of which has never existed in all of history. They created a bridge of language, information, forces, sensations, and Light, connecting our sensations and our understanding of the revealed world, with the sensation and understanding of the concealed world.

When we study The Book of Zohar that they wrote and try to enter the state they want to convey to us, then we are like a baby that greedily opens his eyes and mouth in order to absorb what his mother is telling him. He doesn’t understand anything, but simply looks at her and expresses his joy through movement.

We have to make similar efforts to understand our teachers. To do this, we have to connect with each other the way the ten authors of The Book of Zohar are connected. Even if we read it without any explanations, we will gradually begin to feel new inner reactions and movements. From within us, from an unconscious and subconscious level, a new realm or world will begin to come though and become more habitual.

We call our lessons “a study of The Book of Zohar,” but in reality this book is not studied but revealed, and the revelation happens through our aspiration and readiness to feel the concealed world. The readiness must be expressed through the unity among us, similar to the unity among the authors of this book. It is a unity of all the point in the hearts – the aspirations toward similarity with the Creator. This is how Kabbalists describe the necessary condition for using The Book of Zohar correctly.

In the process of reading the text of this book, I provide small clarifications in order to help you “grab onto” the text, similar to the explanations of an adult while playing a game with a child.

Whenever Kabbalists write about The Book of Zohar, they do not refer to it as The Book of Zohar, but simply as The Book. This expresses their desire to show that there is no other book in the whole world!

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A question I received: What is the secret of love for friends that the science of Kabbalah is talking about? The whole world says that we have to love each other, but instead we just hate each other.

My Answer: The secret is that by properly working in a Kabbalistic group, a person begins to reveal the truth: that he does not love his neighbor, and even hates him. Before making this revelation, he used to think that he loved everyone and he truly believed this. But now he sees that he is the greatest hater, and he would destroy everyone around him if he could. This is called the revelation of evil, and it is a big step on the path of correction.

This realization comes on its own as a consequence of Kabbalah studies and self-scrutiny. A person studies the qualities with which he was created, the same qualities about which it is written, “I created the evil inclination.”

We have to put in a lot of effort in order to understand what kind of world we exist in. This is the springboard for making the leap upward. When I understand with what qualities I was created, the only thing left for me to do is complain and ask for correction from “the Master who created me.”

The Creator does not hide the fact that He deliberately created us this way so we would realize our evil. A person must first understand that he personally suffers from his hatred toward others and loses out greatly because of it. He is then gripped by fear about what will happen to him in this world and the world to come. However, gradually, under the influence of the Light that Reforms, he begins to understand how valuable the quality of bestowal is, since it gives him freedom.

He begins to prefer spirituality over all the material things. He wants to become giving and loving and to come out of his egoism – to come out of his dungeon! For the time being, he wants this for himself, so he would feel better, but at least he already wishes to become free from his egoistic desire.

For this purpose, he unites with others, and in regard to this goal, they are already called Kabbalists rather than a gathering of egoists. Together they reveal that they are powerless to change anything; they need a third component, the Upper Force, the Creator, the Light of Correction.

The Lights stirs them up like a boat in a stormy sea, and the whole group unites in such a way that it begins to react together, synchronously, by interacting with each other in common harmony (either positive or negative). The Light then begins to influence each person much more powerfully, since its influence is increased in the group, as if it passes through an amplifier.

In this manner they come to a realization that they will not manage without the Creator, the Light that Reforms. Then the whole group reaches a willingness to unite as one person with one heart in order to reveal the Creator.

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It is written, “The Creator created man to be forthright, but people came up with many calculations.” It seems to us that the world is so huge and multifaceted, but that is only because we cannot unite everything within one root and we’re dispersed among various desires. We perform many calculations while searching for different things that can help us gain power and derive pleasure.

Yet when we begin to concentrate all of this within one root, which is to give to Him, we come to one simple principle. We begin to focus everything on one goal, which is to “Reveal the Only One that Bestows.”

This revelation occurs by the principle of similarity, where a person has to build an inner system making all his numerous desires and thoughts follow one simple principle: “There is nothing but bestowal!” Finding the quality of bestowal inside oneself means revealing the Creator. The problem lies in the fact that it is impossible to abandon the numerous calculations and aspire to this one principle, to the only One that Bestows.

However, as a consequence of one’s efforts, a person begins to understand that all the obstacles are meant to help him. They emerge only so that through them, a person would direct himself to the true goal.

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Our time is the era of liberation from egoism, an age when the Creator is being revealed to us. We have to act as if that revelation could happen at any given moment, because no matter how far ahead we plan this event, the spiritual act always happens spontaneously.

The moment before the exodus from Egypt, no one thought it was possible. The Creator suddenly said: “It will happen tonight!” And you will be immediately submerged into the darkness and have to run.

The “Egyptian darkness” is a qualitative concept that symbolizes the absence of the Creator; it has nothing to do with physical suffering. Physical pain and suffering serve only as a precursor to awaken us from our egoistic struggle and competition, and elevate our thoughts above our material lives.

But can suffering really awaken the human being in us and cause us to understand what is happening to us and where fate is leading us? The fact is that we need Kabbalah in order to reach this realization. Without it, we will continue to suffer for decades before we understand the true reason and purpose for our troubles. This is why the dissemination of Kabbalah is so important.

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Only the environment can instill the importance of the goal and of spirituality in you. This is the only thing you should demand from the environment: the importance of the quality of bestowal which you wish to feel inside. When you do, you will reveal the Creator. This constitutes our work and the purpose of our existence in this world.

It seems to us that this revelation will occur somewhere far away, outside of us, but actually it occurs inside each of us. Later on you will see that everything has already occurred – all the spiritual actions that are described in books and all the worlds, starting from the World of Infinity to our world; all of this already exists within you. It is all contained in that tiny grain of desire which brought you to begin studying Kabbalah. In fact, this grain encompasses the whole world, all the degrees of the spiritual worlds’ expansion from above downwards, and all the spiritual qualities. They don’t exist anywhere else but in you; the whole revelation occurs inside of you, never outside.

However, in order to feel this, you need the right environment. You have to plant your seed in good soil and make sure that it doesn’t dry up or rot!

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The science of Kabbalah tells us that there are five worlds separating us from the Upper Force. They are positioned one beneath another, where everything existing in a higher world descends and is completely copied in all the worlds, all the way until the lowest world – our world.

The difference between the worlds is not their details, but the material of each world. The higher a world, the more spiritual (bestowing) is its material. The lower a world, the more corporeal (receiving, egoistic) is its material.

Because the details of all the worlds are identical, by comparing them we can try to imagine the difference between their material or desire, and we can desire for this change to happen to us. The Book of Zohar is special because it creates a projection of the spiritual world onto our world. It tells us a story about this world, and parallel to it, about this world’s source in the Upper World. Moreover, it describes all of this in great detail, enabling us to enter the picture of one world’s superposition over the other.

We thus find ourselves between two worlds: between that which we can understand in the story about our world, and the higher picture that we try to imagine. The difference between the two pictures is that the images in our world are visual; we see them, perceive them and understand them. But in the spiritual world, the images are qualitative; they are qualities, forces, desires and intentions.

If a person is always positioned between these two worlds, then even if he doesn’t yet recognize the Upper World nor have the spiritual senses to perceive it, nonetheless by always trying to imagine the Upper World instead of this world, he begins to feel a revelation. In this way, he comes closer to being born into the spiritual world.

This is what makes The Book of Zohar special. At times it attracts a person and at times it repels him; through these varying movements, it brings him closer to the Upper World, or the next spiritual world above him.

If a person is already on a spiritual level and desires to ascend higher, then this special book performs the same action to him. It works on all 125 levels of the spiritual ladder.

Therefore, when reading or listening to The Book of Zohar, behind every word and action being described by this book, we have try to envision the most correct concept of “what might this really be on a higher level?”

These efforts will enable us to feel the Upper World. The understanding will come after the sensation. For now, the higher senses are starting to form in us, parallel to each bodily sense. That is how we will enter one world from the other.

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A question I received: Why does a person’s inner change in his approach to reality from reception to bestowal give him unlimited ability to know the present, past and future?

My Answer: The Light, the attribute of bestowal that a person reveals, is all encompassing, for it is the only force in all of Nature, and is Nature itself. The Light governs us, the creation, for we are the only thing that was created. Its broadening revelation in us reveals everything above time, space and motion. Therefore, by revealing the quality of bestowal, a person knows all of the Creator’s  actions – from beginning to end.

“There’s no Creator without the creature that reveals Him.” The quality of bestowal that influences the creation, is in fact, the Creator. When that quality which created me begins to reign inside me, it means that I am revealing the Creator. The quality of the the dominance of desire to bestow and the intention to bestow within me is called the Creator’s revelation to me.

Such revelation occurs to the measure that I become a giver myself. How then, can I state that I am revealing the Creator? Who is that “I” who is revealing the Creator? It turns out that there are qualities within me that are still in the process of revealing the Creator. Later on however, when I reveal everything to its fullest extent, there is no division into “me” and “Him,” there’s only an attribute of bestowal that is reigning supreme within me, and nothing more.

Eventually, I begin to  substitute the force that drives me and I develop the desire to alter it myself so that instead of constant thoughts about reception,  I think only of how to bestow. Actually, I am simply in the bad habit of thinking for the sake of reception, and it’s a habit that I am unable to rid myself of.

Baal HaSulam writes that there’s just a psychological problem of passing on to the will to bestow, nothing more. It turns out that in the desire to bestow, there are many more opportunities for me to develop and receive pleasure. But I am stuck in the habit of acting for the sake of reception and that’s how the whole of humanity works.

That’s why we must all apply an external force against our habit, the force of which is the Surrounding Light.  Through the force of this Light, called, “My sons prevailed over me,” it will change our operating program.

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