When we read The Zohar, we should expect salvation. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 155:  “Indeed, there is a great and marvelous quality concealed in Kabbalistic books, worthy of being publicized.” In other words, by studying The Zohar we can unite with the Source, the Creator, Who exists in other dimensions.

We exist in our dimension, in separation from Him, while The Zohar creates a connection between us and Him, the higher dimension. From there, to the extent of our aspiration, we receive the Light, the remedy that flows into us one drop at a time, like an infusion.

The Torah does not demand anything unrealistic. After all, the Upper One knows us better than we know ourselves; what is expected of us is measured according to the way we’re created. One is told: “Sit down with a book. You must connect with your environment because that is your spiritual form.”

Currently a person is on his or her own level. One is an egoist and doesn’t care for anyone, wanting nothing except egoistic pleasure. A person doesn’t even know what exactly is wanted, but the Upper One knows it well. It is He who creates these desires, even the most disgusting qualities in a person. And only occasionally do we slightly feel what He does.

Having created all of this in within us, the Creator expects just one thing: “Try to unite with Me just a little bit, based on all the things given to you from Above.” A person has to reveal the present state, and just wish to become like the Upper One.

However, in order to become like the Upper One, one needs to imagine the state when he and the group are together in a state of mutual bestowal, mutual guarantee. Imagining our self and them as one whole means we want to feel this state of the Light already operating between us in a single whole. We want to feel that we’re together and the Light is fulfilling us because we become like the Light to the extent of our unity. This is the state that we need to imagine.

It is clear that we are not together or connected with one another, but we are trying to connect, which means we want to grow spiritually and become like the Upper degree. Thus, to the extent of one’s aspiration, The Zohar creates a connection between that person and the Upper degree, injecting this infusion, which are drops of Light called “drops of luck” (Mazalot) that flow towards him.

There is no other difference between a person and the Upper degree, aside from the fact that one is better connected with others on the Upper degree. Try to imagine this upper state, the inner connection of mutual bestowal with everyone, which is called the “Upper Light.” This force, the Surrounding Light that rears a person like an infant, influences from that same state that one imagines, dreams of, and aspires to.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/13/10

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When we begin to study Kabbalah, often we feel so inspired and uplifted that we burn with desire and are ready to turn around the worlds. Yet sometimes we fall into complete numbness and can’t make sense of anything; the world becomes immersed in darkness for us. In other words, we feel life within when we have a contact with the Light, and as soon as we disconnect from the Light and it stops shining on us, we feel dead.

Then the next stage comes. Through our actions (studying, disseminating Kabbalah, and creating connection with friends), there forms a system that shines to us even when we are going through states that aren’t very good, when we don’t attract the Light on ourselves. This system is similar to a person who is surrounded by others who can always help him when he needs it.

Such a state is no longer a “commandment” that shines at the moment it is performed; it is called the “Torah” that shines to us always (forget about the conventional understanding of “commandment” and “Torah”!). Even if we don’t feel so well and are confused, we have external support. It helps us look at ourselves from the side and realize that this is not so bad; it happened before and it passed. The Torah (the Surrounding Light from the group or from the environment) protects us even when we don’t study it, that is, when we are not close to the Light.

When we approach the Machsom, we feel a greater concealment, total Egyptian darkness. However, we also have the support of the environment, which safeguards our straying from the spiritual path into a purely animal state. We understand what kind of darkness it is; we feel it and know when it is coming to us and why. We are aware of what we need to do, and how to adhere to the Creator.

From this darkness we receive the Creator’s order to make signs of our union, “Mezuzahs on the doors,” to prepare the vessels for coming out of Egypt, and to run away exactly at midnight. This connection with the Upper Force is called the “Torah,” the Light that comes to us even if we are currently incapable of a “commandment,” of a personal connection with the Creator, which is called a “day.” This is how we advance.

The concealment no longer disconnects us completely, when we don’t understand or feel anything, as it sometimes happens to beginners. Now the concealment develops special forms; we begin to distinguish various shadows and qualities in them, and understand how to work with them.

The more we advance, the more we reveal the forms of darkness of these empty hollows. They clarify for us the form of salvation – on the other side of the Machsom.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, Shamati #39

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The Zohar tells us about the connection among souls. From the Creator’s perspective, all the souls form a single system in the World of Infinity, where infinite Light fills everyone. This can be likened to a perfect, healthy organism, all the parts of which exist in harmony and proper interaction. On the other hand, The Zohar describes this system in respect to its parts called souls or people.

There are some who feel the souls and the connection among them. There are also others who do no feel it and perceive this system in its external form. They see it as consisting of our corporeal, animal bodies of this world that are somehow connected with each other.

The whole Torah describes only the types of the connection between us. The question is only how a person perceives it. We either feel the connection in the external form, as this constantly changing world that is moving toward some goal. Or we permeate within and, using this world as the basis, begin to feel the connection between us in the souls. Then we feel these two forms simultaneously.

The concepts of “world,” “year,” “soul,” and “procurement of reality” are forms of connection among us both on the material and the spiritual levels. All the concepts that exist in our world can be found in spirituality as well. However, in the latter they point to the form, the force, or the type of connection among us. This is precisely what we need to achieve.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, The Zohar

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The revelation is always personal; it cannot be received from someone else. Someone else can only teach you how to read. But there has to be someone to teach us to read, since reading and writing belong to the human level, whereas we, who are beginning to read, are on the animate level. Thus, we need someone who is on the human level to help us rise to that level and teach us to read and write.

The book is all of creation, from the initial plan all the way until the final act. However, in order to reveal it, a person has to go through the story and write it on his heart (as the verse says, “write the whole Torah on your heart”). That is how we prepare our spiritual vessels.

When a person reads the Torah, he learns from the Upper One, and when a person records it, he becomes equal to Him and starts to understand Him. That is how one rises to the level of the plan of creation, the end of the book.

The book is the plan of creation, which is attained at the end. The story is what we read and record within us by changing our desires and building letters out of them. Thus, we become the authors by revealing its Author. We create a copy of the book, and that constitutes all of our work.

The author does not invent the book with his own mind. He is already in front of a ready-made book from the heavens, and he transcribes it. He does not work with his own mind; he does not even know how to read or write. He must first learn. If we learn to read and write, and are able to transcribe all of creation upon ourselves, following the Creator’s example, then we will receive the title of “author.”

The Creator is not the author, since He did not write anything. He actualized everything with one thought. But we reveal His plan inside our uncorrected desires, and therefore, for us, His thought divides into the book, author, and story. If I learn to read, then His thought starts to be revealed to me inside my matter and I read it off of myself to the degree that I become equal to it. And then I transcribe it on myself.

The plan of creation is the right line, and my matter is the left line. I am in the middle line, transcribing this thought into my left line. The book, author, and story is the Creator, the creation, and the connection between them, called the Torah.

From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Shamati #197

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If a person ascends above himself and begins to feel that unification with others is more important to him than what is happening in him, then to this extent he comes closer and closer to the Upper Force. In this manner he reaches the quality of bestowal, Lishma. In this quality of bestowal he begins to feel the Upper reality. It is as though a light turns on before him and in this light, he begins to see what is ahead.

It is like he was roaming around a dark field, without seeing or understanding anything, and suddenly he acquires the quality of bestowal, which turns on the Light, and he begins to see in what reality and in what world he exists! All this is due to the fact that he had properly implemented all the exercises that the Creator had given him. In these exercises he preferred to come out of himself in order to connect internally and spiritually to his environment, instead of closing up inside himself.

In this manner, a person acquires the quality of bestowal instead of the quality of reception, and in this quality, in the Light of Love (Hassadim), he turns on the Light and sees the true reality. However, now we see only ourselves. It is written in The Zohar that our eyes are turned inward and we do not see what is happening on the outside. This is how all our senses work. Therefore, we do not see the true reality.

The whole Torah is meant to reveal this external, spiritual world to us and to lead us into it to live actively in it! This is called the Torah Lishma, which is studied in order to reach the quality of bestowal, faith above reason (knowledge). Faith is Bina, and “above knowledge” means above Malchut. When Bina reigns above Malchut (faith above reason), and Malchut adjoins it, then, in this form, we can reveal the Upper reality.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/10, Shamati 22

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“The people of Israel will not return to their land until they are completely united.” The people of Israel are a group that Abraham once organized by selecting them from among the Babylonians. He wanted to correct the whole world but managed to gather just a few thousand people in this group.

However, the Torah does not speak about historical events, rather about internal states through which a person passes. The property of Abraham within us takes a part of our desires and leads them to a partial correction, and then to a shattering (a fall of the Temple, or descent from the spiritual level to exile).

Exiles are required in order for desires that have been in spirituality (Israel), to mix with the rest of desires that did not go through spiritual ascent and shattering (called “nations of the world”). After mixing together and becoming included in one another, all of them are prepared for corrections. In other words, everyone now has a part that has been in spirituality, and a part that hasn’t.

Those who went through the ascent and shattering must be the first to undergo corrections because they contain Reshimot (data about previous states). After this others will awaken. Everyone must come to understand that the “Israel” within, meaning the desires aspiring to the Creator, will not attain their land (Eretz) or corrected “desire (Ratzon) “straight to the Creator” (Isra-El), in which the Creator becomes revealed, until they all unite to become “as one man with one heart.”

This is the requirement Kabbalists tell us about. We must implement it in a small part of the soul inside each of us, as well as in a big part of the soul among all Kabbalah groups in the world, and in yet an even bigger part of the soul, which includes all of humanity. Thus, this necessary requirement begins to be realized starting from a very material level.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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In his book, Gates of Intentions, the ARI explains the meaning of all the spiritual actions of Passover and their reflections in material customs. The commandments (Mitzvot) refer to the correction of the 613 egoistic desires (of the soul) to altruistic ones with the help of the Upper Light (the Torah). Many are familiar with their reflections or corporeal copies in the customs or traditions (Minhagim) of the holiday.

Many follow these traditions because they are willing to carry out corporeal actions (customs) under the condition that they will help them achieve the results, the execution of corporeal actions (commandments). This is the only reason these traditions are followed.

The more we ask ourselves about the goal and the meaning of every material action (tradition), the more it will help us connect more tightly to their spiritual roots. In this manner, we will learn about the Upper World from the lower world. It is only its connection to the root that gives a custom importance and the right of existence.

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After the destruction of the second Temple (the destruction of the quality of bestowal and love of the level of Neshama), people stopped feeling spirituality (the quality of bestowal). Then instead of performing actions of bestowal and love (commandments), all that was left for them were corporeal traditions, the copies of the spiritual actions. From the time of the destruction of the second Temple, people have continued to follow these traditions.

Kabbalists, who were leaders throughout these generations, supported following these traditions and customs in the nation. Gradually, as egoism grew and there was a descent of the generations, people lost the understanding of the connection between the traditions and their desired spiritual execution. They simply carried out mechanical actions, thinking that this was what the Creator demands from a person. They were promised a reward for this in this world and in the other world.

It is written in the Talmud that if there is no connection between the corporeal and spiritual performance, the corporeal actions are lifeless and they kill a person. The corporeal actions that are not connected to spirituality distance a person even more from spirituality and from the Creator because they satisfy the person. It is also written in the Talmud that “the Creator does not care how an animal is killed (meaning, whether or not it is done correctly according to rituals) since the commandments are given in order for a person to be corrected through them.”

If a person seeks a connection between his material actions and their spiritual roots, then when he performs these actions, he reminds himself about spirituality, and in this case it pays for him to perform them. However, if this connection is not there, then carrying out mechanical actions can distance a person from spiritual development, since he becomes satisfied by corporeal actions, “commandments,” and does not feel that anything is lacking in them.

Without the connection to spirituality, the Torah will become a deadly poison for a person. Instead of loving his neighbors, he will feel that he is perfect and will become full of pride in regard to others, thinking that everyone owes him, and this is the poison of spiritual death.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 155: …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. It is written, “Behold, I am at the point of death; and what profit shall the birthright have for me?”

Esau wanted to receive the Light of Hochma into the egoistic desires (Kelim of reception) and found that he was unable to do this. Similarly, we spend our whole lives chasing after pleasures, trying to find enjoyment in life, but as soon as we feel pleasure, it immediately disappears. This cycle recurs throughout our entire lives. Repeating this unending cycle is why Esau was weary and said, “I am unable to continue like this. It is hopeless; I am tired of it. I am ready to unite with Jacob.”

Today all of humanity is standing at the threshold of this same realization. For this reason, the science of Kabbalah, Jacob’s method, is being revealed. This science is precisely about how to build the middle line, how to implement Jacob’s method.

Before humanity reached this state of despair, there was no demand for the science of Kabbalah. Now the need is apparent; from here the Torah can be revealed since the Torah is revealed from the middle line – the correction of egoism.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bamidbar (In the Wilderness),” Item 36: …south is Hesed, and grips to the east and depends on it as a branch with its root. This is so because the hidden Daat is the beginning of the sun, whose essence is Tifferet, called “sun” and east. But with its ascent to Yod–Hey it becomes Daat. In the beginning of the Daat in upper AVI, a root is made for the disclosure of Hesed, by which the upper AVI mate and elicit the Hesed (Love and Mercy).

We have to extract correction and remedy from every word in The Zohar. The Light will transform our properties according to its source. This should be our attitude to the reading. On the other hand, we have to try to understand what we read with more clarity.

Everything originates from the first HaVaYaH (Yod–Hey–Vav–Hey). The basic structure is the four stages of the Direct Light and everything clothes on these stages: the four letters, the three lines, and Malchut which receives from them. Everything comes from this connection.

First of all, we have to aspire to correct the breaking in ourselves so that every moment and every word from The Zohar will penetrate us like a balm or a healing remedy. After all, the Torah is created as a “seasoning” for a desire, as a remedy for its correction. When I want to connect with the text to reveal it, it opens up and connects with me as one whole.

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