Here is a simple intention to have while reading The Book of Zohar:

1. I connect to every letter and word, and they enter me like a medical infusion that is administered drop by drop, which I perceive as “the elixir of life.”

I go from one word to the next, not knowing what hides behind each one. Yet I am convinced that word after word, like drop after drop, this “elixir of life” gradually pours into me.

2. If I am able to hold on to this thought at all times, then without really delving into the text but through the text or inside it, I allow myself to discern the Creator and my attitude to Him.

The text is what happens to a person, and the intention is a person’s connection to the Creator. At first we hold on to the intention, and then through it we try to reach the Creator, the One from whom we hear and from whom we receive. The text is the state of my desires which I want to attain.

If a person is also able to imagine that right now he really hears the text of The Zohar from the mouth of the Creator, that the Creator passes this knowledge to him, telling him about his own higher states, then this is one of the best ways to connect to the Creator. This is called “Hearing or studying the Torah from the mouth of the Creator.”

3. If we try to unite our intentions together while reading The Zohar, then deep down, inside our joint efforts, we will feel that The Zohar talks precisely about this.

The Torah describes only how we should unite together, in what degree, form, and manner. Therefore, the text of The Book of Zohar is not separate from the intention. It does not exist by itself, but talks only about realizing the intention.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Expect To Be Healed By The Zohar
Laitman.com Post: A Thin Bridge Into The Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: Open The Door To The Creator!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

When I read the text of The Zohar, it’s not good if the text conceals the purpose of reading from me. I must constantly check: What exactly do I desire by reading it?

First and foremost, I desire for the reading of The Book of Zohar to reveal my illness: egoism, and then to heal it by helping me acquire the quality of bestowal instead of it. I want to acquire unity with others who aspire to the same goal. This is called the intention before the study.

After preparing the intention or the reason why I read The Book of Zohar, I can then start to read it. If I am consistently able to maintain the intention, then I can allow myself to also listen to the text and its meaning.

This is similar to a sick person who is in a critical state: He reads a medical book only in order to find the remedy. Nothing else interests him! He doesn’t care about the style of the text or the details of the story. He only looks for the remedy (the elixir of life: the Light)!

Therefore, first and foremost we must have the right intention, and after that we can listen to the details about what The Zohar narrates. There is nothing more important than receiving the “medical procedure” because we don’t understand any of the actual story until we enter that state ourselves.

Why then did the authors of The Zohar write all of these stories for us? It was in order for us to make efforts to keep the intention. Only after that, to the extent it is possible, can we allow ourselves to listen to the story while desiring to reveal it through the intention. We have to realize that we are not living these states and don’t understand the text, but we do desire to reveal it and aspire to be inside the state that is being described. Then we can understand the text and connect to it.

My primary desire is to attain the spiritual quality through the right attitude to The Book of Zohar. After that I can pay attention to the text and be sure that I will understand it correctly. This is called “desiring to attain what you study,” as written in Item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”

The text of The Zohar is the place where I perform my inner work and make the inner discernments regarding where I am. First I must have an intention in relation to the goal, and then a sensation in relation to the text.

We have to feel the depths of the layers of attainment. This is called “Engaging in the Torah and the Commandments,” and “Studying the Torah.”

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is The Link To The Upper Force
Laitman.com Post: The Strongest Medicine: Drops Of Fortune
Laitman.com Post: Reveal The Zohar Within Yourself

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Torah, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: During The Zohar lessons, you reveal very subtle, concealed, and secret things so to speak.

Answer: They are secret and undisclosed to our senses because we are too coarse and can’t detect them. That’s all there is to it! It doesn’t mean that these things represent some kind of secret. They only seem like a mystery since I don’t see or feel them.

I have to sharpen my perception and make it more precise, capable of sensing more subtle gradation of properties. As a result, I will suddenly start sensing a very different, true picture of reality at a higher “resolution.” In order to do this, we have to bring our perception to the quality called “bestowal.” Once we feel it, we will feel the Upper World.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Concealment Is For Our Own Good
Laitman.com Post: Visions Or The Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: A Guide To The Book Of Zohar: “We Were Like In A Dream”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Main Kabbalistic Sources: Baal HaSulam’s Commentaries on the works of the ARI and The Book of Zohar

Indeed, I know the reason: It is mainly because faith has generally diminished, specifically faith in the holy men, the wise men of all generations. And the books of Kabbalah and The Zohar are filled with corporeal parables. Therefore, people are afraid lest they will lose more than they will gain [from their study, and they will receive a greater breaking or egoism rather than correction], since [by reading what is written in the corporeal images] they could easily fail with materializing [rather than imagining the spiritual properties].

And this is what prompted me to compose a sufficient interpretation to the writings of the Ari [TES], and now to the Holy Zohar [Perush HaSulam]. And I have completely removed that concern [of possible incorrect and, therefore, harmful study of the Torah], for I have evidently explained and proven the spiritual meaning of everything, that it is abstract and devoid of any corporeal image, above space and above time, as the readers will see, to allow the whole of Israel to study The Zohar and be warmed by its sacred Light. [This means that, if one studies The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary, he does not need to fear losing his way to the purpose of creation: adhesion with the Creator.]
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 58

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Which Books Contain The Most Light?
Laitman.com Post: Try To See The Truth Behind The Illusion
Laitman.com Post: Using The Ladder To Build Our Soul

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 210: Come and see how important are the works of the Holy King. In the deeds that are done below, they tie them with the high things above, in their root, since anything below in this world has its root above in the upper worlds. And when they are taken down and worked with, the act above awakens corresponding to them, in the roots in the upper worlds.

“Above” and “below” refer to Bina and Malchut. If we think that “Above” refers to some abstract place in spirituality while “below” alludes to a place in our world, that is incorrect. After all, the science of Kabbalah does not speak of our world whatsoever. It does not concern itself with man in our world or actions which we perform here. The science of Kabbalah alludes only to actions in the desire which we can perform in similarity to the Upper Force, in bestowal.

Therefore, “the work of the Creator” means to learn from Him how He performs actions and to perform the same actions in our desire. Herein lies our work. We study this and ask the Creator for the ability, the strength, and a model of how to do it (from NHY [Netzah, Hod, Yesod], AHP [Awzen, Hotem, Peh] of the Upper One in the lower one).

Our entire work is the connection between Malchut and Bina where Malchut wants to learn the qualities of bestowal from Bina and, in response, receive the strength and realize it so as to become similar to Bina. That is why Malchut is called the lower world and Bina is the Upper World. All the actions to correct Malchut (the creature or the souls) are made only in the World of Atzilut. The souls which wish to unite rise precisely into Malchut of the World of Atzilut.

Therefore, wherever The Zohar speaks of the lower and Upper worlds pertains to what takes place between Malchut and Bina of the World of Atzilut,

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Similarity To The Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Point Of Salvation
Laitman.com Post: The Seal From Above

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Why did Kabbalists intentionally confuse us by using “earthly” words in their books as if they were talking about our material world?

Answer: It is because only out of confusion do we realize the truth. Without confusion, you will never get to understand it. Kabbalists wrote so many books because we need to arrive at revelation from its oppositeness: from the desire to receive pleasure to the desire to bestow.

There is a huge gap between them. We think that it’s enough to modify “plus” into “minus,” but, in fact, it is not that easy. All our thoughts and desires are interconnected, and we have to go through this entire perplexity. Any “confusion” represents a question that we have to resolve. And to come up with a question means already being half way to revelation or even more.

Therefore, every state that we go through in darkness being weak and helpless is an absolute necessity for us. I have no idea how to reach the truth without going through mistakes and deceitful perceptions that are repulsive to my senses and unclear to my mind. However, I grow because of them. This is the only way that we can combine “plus and minus,” or the Creator’s desire to bestow with the creature’s desire to receive: to go through a system of exile, concealment, and complete bewilderment.

When I look back, I see that each moment of my path is irrevocable. If I get rid of even one instant, nothing will look clear to me any more, and there will be no perfection at the end. We won’t be able to recognize or reveal it.

That is why everything that happens to us is indispensable. It was impossible to write The Zohar any other way. A person cannot progress without making mistakes. We have to become conscious of something that is opposite to the truth.

How do we teach our children? We confuse them and allow them to make mistakes so that they learn from them and won’t make them in real life. This is the difference between advancement through affliction and through the science of Kabbalah.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Collective Life Of Light And Desire
Laitman.com Post: Giving Is Life Receiving Is Death
Laitman.com Post: The Sweet Taste Of Truth

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar tells us about the “next world” and “this world,” but do not think that it is talking about our material world. The Zohar does not say even one word about the physical bodies and what we feel in this world. Everything that happens to us is not taken into account at all in the spiritual.

Everything that happens in the desire to receive for one’s own sake on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature is not described in Kabbalah because it is not subject to correction. Only the relationships between people need to be corrected to unification with each other and with the Creator. When The Zohar refers to “this world” or seemingly physical actions and people, it is referring to different types of desires in a person.

Kabbalah engages only in correction of desires. The Creator created a desire, and He wishes to bring it into equivalence with Him. Meanwhile, our physical body is merely our perception of this desire’s existence.

The whole still, vegetative, and animate nature of this world is the most external form of the same desire, which is not subject to correction. In our world there is nothing to correct! The greatest Kabbalist and the most common citizen are made of the same flesh. We can perform organ transplants from one to the other. There is nothing sacred or faulty in these bodies; both of them will die.

Everything starts from the spiritual desire where there is impurity, an intention for one’s own sake against the Creator, and sanctity, a desire for bestowal for the Creator’s sake. However, we are only talking about the desire, not the material body.

It is like placing a special filter in front of me, which holds back the matter of this world and leaves only spiritual matter, the desire for bestowal, in the open. We study the science of Kabbalah, meaning study about those desires that must be brought to equivalence with the Creator, and the other desires will vanish.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What The World Rests On
Laitman.com Post: We’re Building A New Reality!
Laitman.com Post: The Book Of Zohar Shows Us The Path To A Well Of Living Water

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

It is essential to understand that everything we read in The Zohar takes place within our connection. Our connection produces (gives birth to) “space,” a new dimension where the Creator will be revealed. In fact, this space in itself doesn’t exist. But if every one of us, with his point in the heart, yearns for connection with the others, our collective efforts construct this space, the network between us, for the revelation of the property of bestowal: the Creator.

This space can be regarded as the group. People constantly ask: “Where is spirituality: upward, downward, or somewhere on the side?” It is said in a prayer: “Where is the place of His Greatness?” It is no-where; it doesn’t have a place. You have to build this place from your relationship with the others. Together, you are constructing spiritual space and in it, you find the Creator.

Moreover, the Creator Himself is regarded as “the place” because we feel Him in the “place” that we create for Him. The Creator exists beyond any space. You yourselves have to build it: one collective and corrected desire similar to the Creator in the property of bestowal where the Creator will be revealed.

He can be revealed only in this way, in the equivalence of form, meaning in the place suitable for Him which is the very same property of bestowal. None else is possible. This place is the Temple, the House of the Creator, the desire of Malchut that has acquired the properties of Bina. This is why it is named Beit HaMikdash, the Sanctified House. Malchut is the house and sanctity is Bina’s property of bestowal.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Kabbalistic Group Is A Spiritual Booster
Laitman.com Post: The "Stimulator" Is Spirituality
Laitman.com Post: Unification With The Group Leads Us To The Creatory

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Main Kabbalistic Sources: Baal HaSulam’s Commentaries on the works of the ARI and The Book of Zohar

You should know that after the ARI’s time to this day there was no one [no such Kabbalist] who understood [completely attained] the ARI’s methodology to the very depth of its [original spiritual] roots since it is easier to comprehend it through the intellect twice as big as the ARI’s rather than to follow his methodology [of attaining the Upper One]. [This is because] his methodology passed through so many hands from the first descriptor till the last compiler [who had described it] without having attained these things fully, till their Upper roots, and, consequently, each of them contributed to changing and confusing its content. [The level of a researcher’s spiritual attainment doesn’t depend on his intellect, but rather on the type of his soul].

Here I am – a reincarnation of ARI’s soul – not because of my good deeds, but according to the Upper will which is concealed from me, why I am chosen to represent this miraculous soul that no other man but I merited from the day of his death until today. However, I cannot talk much about this issue because it is against my rules to talk about miracles.
– Baal HaSulam, Igrot (Letters), Letter 39

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Guide To The Book Of Zohar: The Ladder To All The Bounty In The World
Laitman.com Post: Before The ARI, The Gates Of Wisdom Were Closed For Us
Laitman.com Post: First, Let’s Receive A Soul

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 244: For the next world, it is written, “For as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people.” “As the days of the tree” means the tree of life.” At the same time, it is written, “Death shall be swallowed up forever,” for there are no changes and no death in the tree of life.

This passage talks about the situation when a person is at the threshold of making a decision, a choice between good and evil, in Klipat Noga. All this system derives from the following: On one hand, the Creator forbids Adam to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, but on the other, He sends Adam a “woman” who tempts him to sin by tasting the forbidden fruit.

The two opposites co-exist. As for us, we shouldn’t get confused and feel the split in our perception. Rather, we have to realize that the very disagreements present in each state where the Creator is shown as two-faced and having two different attitudes to us are designated to place us in a predicament where we won’t be able to discern what to do and will be forced to need Him.

This is what is called Klipat Noga, the point of our freedom. This freedom appears at this specific point, where two attitudes of the Creator, good and bad (as it were), come together and make it impossible to tell them apart and remove their conflict, other than by appealing to Him for help.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: All The Wicked And The Righteous Are Within Me
Laitman.com Post: How Do We Find Our Point Of Freedom?
Laitman.com Post: Walking The Tight Wire Straight To The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Zohar - 1 Comment →