A question I received: You said that the students of Rabbi Akiva wrote The Zohar and Talmud. Could you specify who precisely?

My Answer: I said it to emphasize that the Torah came to us from Rabbi Akiva in that his students presented it to us in the form of the revealed Torah, Talmud, and the concealed Torah, Kabbalah.

Rabbi Akiva had five great students (out of 24,000): Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda Bar Ilai, Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), and Rabbi Elazar Ben Shamoa. Rabbi Yehuda Bar Ilai is the most prominent scholar of the Mishnah. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (a student of Rabbi Akiva’s five great students) finished the Mishnah. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai (Rashbi) wrote The Zohar.

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The original text of The Zohar is not divided into paragraphs, chapters, or item numbers. It’s all one smooth text. Moreover, The Torah is written without any spaces at all from beginning to end.

So where does the division of the text come from? It is caused by the fact that we are so small that we are unable to accept everything and incorporate it within us. Therefore, the more we advance and the generations develop from the time of the Torah’s and The Zohar’s composition, the more we need to divide the text into parts, paragraphs, and chapters with titles. After all, it’s very difficult for us to take in rows upon rows of letters, to look at them and become similar to them in our intention. But this is, indeed, the work of correcting our desires, and its order determines the structure of the Kabbalistic Prayer Book.

This is why Baal HaSulam divided all of The Zohar into paragraphs and chapters. In addition, he wanted to add introductions, definitions, and clarifications preceding the text. In doing so he wanted to balance the text of The Zohar with his Sulam Commentary in a way that doesn’t just offer explanations, but designates the middle line in The Zohar’s text. Without his commentaries, we wouldn’t be able to balance the text inside us in order for it to clothe inside us correctly in the middle line.

Thus, Baal HaSulam doesn’t offer us mere explanations, but causes us to oscillate while reading the book, thereby attuning our vision, approach, and sensation in a way that makes them go through the middle line, “the golden middle.” Therefore, we have to accept all the commentaries with gratitude regardless of whether they are short or long. We have to go along with them and understand that we are building our middle line in this manner.

This is what the Sulam Commentary is intended for. Without it, The Zohar is only two lines, just like the rest of the Torah. We have to build the middle line ourselves, and the Sulam Commentary helps us do this. This is why it is called “Sulam” (Ladder). It is already built in the form of steps, and all that remains for us to do is to climb them. The ladder is already there, and now we just have to make efforts to climb it. We must only push ourselves forward slightly and we will be sure to follow the right path.

This is why Baal HaSulam writes that after the composition of his “Sulam Commentary to The Book of Zohar,” he is certain that it is impossible for a person to err. One will go through a wondrous spiritual ascent and thereby attain the revelation of the Messiah – the Light of Correction.

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When reading The Zohar, one must always think about oneself. The Torah does not say a word about history. However, every spiritual root has to touch a material branch, which is why all of these events also took place in our world.

Did the people described by the Torah understand who they were? This is indeed a question worth asking. Baal HaSulam writes that there was a time when someone “accidentally” decided to name a hill he saw “The Mount of Olives” because he thought it was a good place for planting olive trees. In reality however, he gave the mountain this name in a natural manner, instinctively, because every person acts according to his spiritual root. This root is instilled in every person from Above, and we carry out its commands.

So did Noah really exist? Yes, he did. Was he the most righteous person in all the generations? Did he understand what he was doing? This is a good question that we will discuss at some point in the future. Did he have sons called Shem, Ham and Jafeth? Yes, he did. Were they also righteous, and did they understand the Creator and speak with Him? All of this requires an explanation.

However, I am not interested in all of this history. The entire spiritual world has to be imprinted in a material form, inside me, in some way. It has indeed been imprinted there, but this isn’t important as far as I’m concerned. I have to arrange all of this in an orderly manner for myself in order to further my own advancement.

All of these Biblical stories are talking about man’s inner world. Therefore, I don’t care about anything else. The rest may as well be non-existent, as if there has never been any history, or Ancient Babylon, or this entire world. It doesn’t exist until I discover it for myself, instead of hearing someone else talk about it.

Right now I am inside an empty space where there is nothing. Everything takes place inside me. But who am I, standing in the middle of this empty space? I am someone that feels. And what do I feel? I feel what The Zohar tells me – and nothing exists besides this.

This is how I, a point inside an empty space, study The Book of Zohar, building an entire world out of the material that I absorb. It is the only world there is – not the Upper World or the lower world, but the only one. I make efforts to understand how this world is arranged and where every quality and action being described by The Zohar are found in this world. This is what I am always trying to imagine. I am just a point that tries to find these qualities.

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Three questions I received on studying The Book of Zohar:

Question: Baal HaSulam’s regular texts don’t leave us room to get confused, but when we read The Zohar with his “Sulam Commentary” without your clarifications, we begin to imagine images of this world. Why is that?

My Answer: This depends on one’s training and practice. When I read the Torah, I don’t perceive it as a historical novel. The whole Torah talks only about a person’s inner world, the spiritual world that is within me. My spiritual world is formed by my desires for bestowal; they give me a perception of a new world.

Right now I also perceive all of reality within me. What I feel in my mind and feelings is called “this world.” However, since my intentions are egoistic, “this world” that I perceive is a limited, defective, and only a temporary state. If I change my intention from reception to bestowal, then I will perceive the spiritual world, which is boundless, perfect, harmonious, and an eternal state.

The Book of Zohar is meant for those who desire and are ready to change their intention from reception to bestowal. It is now being revealed to all the people in the world who feel a need for this, and the global suffering will cause everyone else to feel a need for this.

Question: Why do the authors of The Zohar, the Torah, and the Talmud confuse us by describing our world instead of the Upper World, and instead of spiritual actions, they seem to describe corporeal actions, such as jobs in the Temple and the history of the Israeli nation? Why do they use this medium to tell me about what is happening in me?

My Answer: By confusing you, they direct you to change your perception, to start perceiving through the intention to bestow instead of the intention to receive.

This world, all of history, the Temple, the laws of the Talmud, the Sefirot and the worlds do not exist. They are all parts of my desire. However, in order to change this desire from the intention to receive to the intention to bestow, you need to perceive it and the precise images in this form. You have to make efforts in order to see the world through the quality of bestowal and to transfer yourself from one type of perception to another. It is precisely the effort that brings about changes in all of us and brings us to a completely different, previously unfamiliar perception.

There is nothing artificial about the perception of this world or the spiritual worlds. All their images are created in us by the natural, direct interaction of the Light and the desire (the vessel, Kli). Nothing else exists except these two things.

Question: After all is said and done, how do we really attune ourselves to studying The Zohar?

My Answer: You have to:

1. Constantly try to feel that everything in this world and everything described in The Zohar is inside of you. Everything happens only within you.

2. Remember that everything written there is about you and your qualities.

3. Try to find the qualities inside you that are named by the words of the text of The Book of Zohar. Which of your qualities do you relate to the words “flood,” “Creator,” “creature,” “Noah,” “wicked,” “righteous,” “sons of Noah,” “animals,” “ark,” “the waters of the flood,” “skies,” “earth,” and so on.

4. Who am I? This is something I don’t know either. I have to expect to reveal myself, to reveal another world and everything filling it. Everything will be new. I need to be ready for any revelation because right now I exist in a lie and in the dark. There is a hollow space inside of me, and inside of which I build a new world from my searches and revelations, like a baby gradually pieces together a picture of our world from his impressions.

I don’t understand the words that I read. I am like a baby, wishing to reveal everything “from scratch.” Gradually I will begin to see myself and the world in another form, as it is written in The Book of Zohar: “I saw a reverse world.”

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The Book of Zohar always talks about the unity of friends. It was written by the group of Rabbi Shimon, where he and his nine students make up the wholesome desire for bestowal (the Kli or vessel) which is similar to the Creator. Each of them represents one particular quality out of the ten Sefirot, and each one describes the situation differently depending on his nature. Each one describes the particular way that he connects with the Creator.

That is why The Zohar talks about ten friends, each of whom reveals the spiritual world from his point of view. Yet, all of them work together, because attainment and Light can only be revealed inside unity.

The Torah speaks to a person who stands opposite the Creator, and The Zohar talks only about a person’s inner forces. Therefore, when reading it, you have to imagine that everything is being said about you alone, and it all happens inside you.

You have to understand that your destiny depends on how you connect with your friends right now. This is the condition set for us from Above. There’s no other way to go; you have to study The Book of Zohar together with your friends. When all of you together follow the path by which The Zohar leads you, you begin to perceive the same things as the people who wrote The Zohar – the group of Rabbi Shimon.

You don’t need a lot of intelligence to perceive the spiritual world. All you need is heartfelt devotion and work on your egoism within a group, with friends who are next to you, as well as those who wrote The Book of Zohar for us. When we delve into this book time after time, trying to unite, then the book reveals itself to us and illuminates us with its Light – the Zohar (which means “Radiance”).

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A question I received: What is the meaning of the verse, “A commandment is the candle and Torah is the Light”?

My Answer: In the science of Kabbalah, a commandment means the correction of your intention from “to enjoy personally” to the intention “to let others enjoy.” How is this done? With the help of the Light called Torah, which “ignites” your desire like a fire ignites a wick inside wax or oil.

There are 613 desires in the soul. But the desires are only the wax or the oil. The wick in the desire is created by our efforts to change our intention to one of bestowal. Then, the Light ignites it.

We have to prepare our desires so each of them will become a candle. To the degree that we make efforts, the Creator will light up lights inside us like a magician, and suddenly there will be Light inside us and we will be similar to the Light, the Creator.

We constitute a material that cannot light up by itself. Wax or oil cannot burn on their own. You have to add a wick to them, which is our efforts to overcome egoism.

We need to have the right ingredients: the Upper Light, the screen (wick) and the desire to enjoy (the material that can burn). Then we will become the Light!

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We have to understand once and for all that the Torah does not say a single word about this world. It speaks only about the soul and the soul’s correction. There is no other topic in it.

Our soul, our egoism, or our “evil inclination” is what was corrupted. We still have to carry out the serious task of clarifying what the egoistic desire is, and then correct it. We will then reveal the Creator in our corrected desire and achieve equivalence to Him in our desires and thoughts – in the heart and mind.

A person has to strive to see the spiritual world through this world, and to understand that the spiritual world is eternal and we are in it even now. We just have to reveal it for ourselves.

All the books of the Torah are written particularly in order to reveal the Upper World. In Hebrew, “Torah” comes from the words “Oraa” – instructions, and “Ohr” – Light. It tells us how to reveal our eternal state, in which we already exist but do not feel. It tells us how to develop the inner sense that will allow us to feel the hidden part of the world.

All the books of the Torah talk exclusively about this, because our purpose is to reveal the entire, perfect Nature in which we exist.

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We cannot overpower our desires. We can only replace one desire with another, better one. After all, a person is a desire, and he cannot go against himself.

The only way to fight a desire is by using an external force – the force of the Light. Then the Light will fight your war for you. This is why the Creator said to Moses: “Let’s go to Pharaoh! I will fight him in order to demonstrate my power and might over him. I will show you all of this!” This is also why the Creator said, “I created the evil inclination and the Torah for its correction, because the Light that’s concealed in it returns one to the source.”

Therefore, one’s task is not to fight against oneself, but to make efforts in order to draw Light from the study of Kabbalah. You only have to see your own evil from afar and have the desire to part with it. It’s like the story of Moses who grew up in Pharaoh’s house but then separated from him.

You have received a point in the heart, called Moses. You now have to attract the Light, the Creator, to fight against this evil, against your heart – Pharaoh.

There are three components to this state:

1. A person’s evil inclination, his egoism, which hides deep within him. This is man’s nature, Pharaoh.
2. A new consciousness that starts to form in a person, the point in the heart, Moses. This is the realization that you have to correct your evil inclination,  otherwise you won’t attain spirituality.
3. The source of Light, the Creator. This is a book that talks about how to correct egoism using the Light. The book is a tool that enables you to attract the Light in order to correct your egoism, to change it and transform it to goodness.

Your evil inclination is inside you – it is Pharaoh. The force of the Light that you draw during the study is the force of the Creator. You, Moses, are in the middle, and you constantly wage this war, as it is written, “A person should always set his good inclination against his evil inclination.”

One’s point in the heart, Moses, grows up in Pharaoh’s house. Moses sits on Pharaoh’s lap, playing with his beard and trying on his crown. Moses was like an adopted grandson to the Pharaoh, and an adopted son to Pharaoh’s daughter, Batya. In other words, he was a prince.

But as soon as a person separates from his evil inclination, he starts to feel that they are opposite and hateful to one another. When Moses later comes to Pharaoh, he no longer speaks to him like a person he’s close to. He speaks to him like he is a stranger or an enemy.

This is how a person separates from his own nature, revolting against it and hating it. His only hope then is for the Light to come during the study of Kabbalah and change his nature.

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When reading a Kabbalistic text, it’s important to understand that it is only talking about spiritual processes that take place inside a person, rather than about different characters and external actions. Everything that is described in a Kabbalistic text is inside a person.

For instance, the entire Torah talks only about how a person discerns different desires and qualities within: which ones belong to bestowal and which – to reception, which are fit for correction and which are unfit for it; and how a person experiences an inner world through these qualities, which is the only world that actually exists. A person then discovers that he perceives our world inside him as well, and there is never anything on the outside.

The way to enter the new world is by expanding your perception of your internal desires and qualities and by taking care to use all of them for the sake of bestowal. This is how one realizes oneself to the fullest.

A person contains all the characters of the Torah – the whole world to the fullest is within him. Kabbalah explains how a person can arrange the entire sum of all his desires within, and thereby reveal a new world.

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