Question: Does every person need to experience all of the states described in The Zohar?

Answer: It is written, “Every man has to write the Torah.” This means that a person gradually needs to reveal all of his or her qualities or desires in their initial egoistic form and, to the extent of their revelation, correct them by changing the intention from “for myself” to “for the sake of others or the Creator.” Thereby a person builds a new vessel that has a screen and Ohr Hochma that fills it.

The revelation of the broken Kli means that a person clothes into a certain type of a sinner as described in the Torah. With the consequent correction of this state, he clothes into a righteous man from the Torah. A person has to assume these images and forms time after time, alternating between clothing into a sinner and a righteous man, both of which are presented to him by the Torah.

It is like an imprint of models that already exist in you. It is as if you were walking in darkness with a projector and alternate between shedding light onto a sinner that has clothed in you and a righteous man on the opposite end. In this way, you go from image to image every time. You must go through all of them! This is because the entire Torah consists of states that you experience, beginning with Adam: the first revelation of evil in you and the first contact with the Creator.

Man begins with experiencing the sensation of his egoism in contradiction to the Creator. The entire Torah only speaks about these consecutive clothings into different roles that you play like in theater and according to a script given to you. You clothe into different figures, but you are the only one playing this multitude of roles.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter "VeYechi (And Jacob Lived)," Item 193: In regards to the rest of the wicked of the world, it does not say, “And the thing which he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord,” but here it is written, “And Er, the firstborn of Judah, was wicked.” What he did was wicked in the eyes of the Creator because it is written, “And he spilled it on the ground.”

The ladder of the spiritual degrees by which we ascend from our world to the World of Infinity consists of 125 degrees (states), which themselves are divided into a multitude of different states. Each state consists of a vessel and the Light in it.

Hence, based on what’s written in the Torah, if I am at the degree of "Er," I perform an action called "he spilled it on the ground." And if I’m at the degree of Jacob, then, according to this degree, I form the three lines.

Therefore, when we read The Zohar we need to realize that in a given state a person enacts an image called Moses or Aaron, Abraham or Pharaoh, Bilam or Balak and performs actions inherent in each of them. These images refer to a person’s inner states which he has to undergo, receiving an impression from his "evil inclination" and the Light that Reforms. The sum total of these images and acquired forms is later accumulated into a general image of similarity to the Creator.

All the righteous and the wicked unite in it with all the voids (vessels) coming from the states of the wicked and all the corrections and fillings with bestowal from the states of the righteous. And thereby a person rises in Infinity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, The Zohar

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

Main Kabbalistic Sources: The Book Of Zohar

An exception is Rashbi and his generation, the authors of The Zohar, who were granted all 125 degrees in completeness, even though it was prior to the days of the Messiah [before our time]. It was said about him and his disciples: “A sage is preferable to a prophet.” Hence, we often find in The Zohar that there will be none like the generation of Rashbi until the generation of the Messiah King [our generation]. This is why his composition made such a great impact in the world, since the secrets of the Torah in it occupy the level of all 125 degrees. [This is not because the world understands it, but rather because the Upper Force is in it.]

Hence, it is said in The Zohar that The Book of Zohar will be revealed only at the End of Days, the days of the Messiah. This is so because we have already said that if the degrees of the students are not at the full measure of the degree of the author, they will not understand his intimations, since they do not have a common attainment. [The need for The Book of Zohar arises at the End of Days of egoism’s development, when humanity begins to realize that its path is corrupt and wants to correct itself. This is because one can draw the force, the Light of Correction only when he reads The Zohar with the correct intention: to correct oneself.]

And since the degree of the authors of The Zohar is at the full level of the 125 degrees, they cannot be attained prior to the days of the Messiah. It follows that there will be no common attainment with the authors of The Zohar in the generations preceding the days of the Messiah. Hence, The Zohar could not be revealed in the generations before the generation of the Messiah. [Egoism was not developed enough.]
– Baal HaSulam, A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar is being revealed now because it is a source of strength which can carry out all the corrections and advance us. Just as a train or a car cannot move without electricity or gas, we cannot advance without The Book of Zohar which gives us energy, “fuel” for advancement.

In addition, The Zohar reveals to us where we are situated, who we are, where we are advancing, and for what purpose. It reveals the whole path to us. In essence, it is the Light that illuminates the whole space that surrounds us in order for us to see where we are. The Zohar is the Light that gives us an opportunity to feel in our minds and hearts who we are and what we represent, how we are arranged, how we sense, think, and make decisions. It is the Light that illuminates the goal to us so that we understand to where we are advancing, with what speed, what is happening, and what to do.

The Zohar is the Light that gives strength, the Light that corrects us, and the Light that advances us on the path. It does everything. However, we need to rouse this Light and it’s not easy. After we rouse it, there’s nothing more to do because it knows how to arrange and carry out everything. We merely need to rouse it.

We think that the science of Kabbalah demands some impossible effort from us. However, the entire work is actually in our hands. After all, the Light needs to come and influence us. This Light is called Surrounding Light since it cannot clothe a person directly, clearly, and openly. It does this indirectly and we only feel the results of its actions but not it itself.

Under what condition is the Light drawn? It is drawn according to law of equivalence of form or the law of equality: The Light comes to the extent that I desire to become similar to it. How do I perform this action in order to become similar to it? Something that is called the group has been placed before me, and initially I hate it. In the same manner that I am opposite to the Light, I am also opposite to this Kli (the spiritual vessel) called a “group.”

To the extent that I try to unite with the group, to enter it, the Light affects me to the same exact degree. I am situated below, “under the group,” and it is on top, “above the group.” It turns out that I work on uniting with the friends, and to the extent that we unite the Light influences and corrects us. It unites us and the Light (the Creator) is revealed in our unification.

If this is the case, then everything is in my hands. The Light waits for me to perform this effort. I cannot unite with others; I merely need to desire this and to exert effort. Then it will happen.

Therefore, before we read The Book of Zohar, the strongest source of Surrounding Light, I need to think about the fact that I must unite with others, thereby preparing the vessel (Kli) for the Light that will glue it together and be revealed in it. After all, the Light is revealed only in the unification, in the place of the former breaking.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 170: Upon the departure of one’s soul, all his kin and friends in the world of truth walk his soul and show her the place of Eden and the place of the punishment.

Question: People who have undergone clinical death speak of visions they experience, which in many ways are similar to what The Book of Zohar describes. However, these people don’t know the first thing about Kabbalah.

Answer: Understanding Kabbalah does not help a person see the spiritual world. The Upper World can only be felt in a corrected soul. Whether or not a person studies Kabbalistic books is irrelevant. The important thing is whether one wishes to correct himself.

We can look at clinical death experiences in two ways. On one hand, when a person falls into a critical state, it is a heavy blow to the physiological body, which is nothing more than the desire to enjoy. Our body only appears to us as something corporeal that takes up space, but in reality it is only the desire to enjoy a particular type of fulfillment.

If this desire feels emptiness or suffering, it naturally doesn’t want to feel the place (desire) in which it feels pain. It wants to reduce and restrict this place, to live less, to disconnect its senses, take drugs, and so forth. Any person feeling emotional or material suffering wants to restrict it, that is, restrict his perception of the world even to the extent as the desire to stop living.

But by feeling suffering and wanting to ascend, to escape this place that is full of darkness, pain, blows, wars, and diseases, meaning, to rise from the terrible suffering above this world, a person is essentially making a spiritual action. You don’t do it for the sake of bestowal or because you are drawn by spirituality, but because the suffering is pressuring you so much that it forces you out, like a pit popping out of  a cherry when squeezed, and you are led upward.

This is the path of suffering, but it is not advancement because in this you do not draw closer to the goal. In fact, you don’t even know there is a goal; you’re simply running away like a beaten animal from the stick. But either way, you rise above your ego, the desire to enjoy. You want to nullify it, thinking: “I don’t want anything, just leave me alone!”

Suppose you stole a billion dollars and were caught and sentenced to life in prison. At that moment you desire only bread and water and to be back home. That’s it! Yet prior to that you wanted a billion dollars! The desire reduces itself, as though ascending by “faith above reason.” It is ready to be in bestowal, to reject and restrict itself so that it does not feel the suffering that punishment brings.

And that is when people begin to sense the truth; a connection with the Creator becomes revealed to them, at least to some degree. However, it passes very quickly, and people are unable to fully take in or retain this state because they lack their own permanent Kelim (spiritual vessels). And so the feeling passes.

In 99.9% of the cases, the sensation of something otherworldly relates only to people’s psychosomatic experiences. Since they live in suffering, confusion, emotional cloudiness, and faulty internal systems, it’s merely their imagination.

The purpose of creation is not for a person to feel the spiritual world in a state of clinical death. We have to feel spirituality in a state of total soundness and function in it like the researchers that have knowledge, understanding, sensation, and power. We have to come to be like the Creator.

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

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

Main Kabbalistic Sources: The Book Of Zohar

Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai’s soul was of the Surrounding-Light [Ohr Makif] kind. Hence, he had the power to clothe the words and teach them in a way that even if he taught them to many [egoistic, uncorrected masses], only the worthy [very few] of understanding would understand [by correcting themselves or by yearning for self-correction. If a person doesn’t pursue this goal, The Book of Zohar repels him, invokes in him a sensation of rejecting it].

This is why he was given ‘permission’ [from Above] to write The Book of Zohar. The permission was not ‘granted’ to write a book in this wisdom to his teachers or to the first ones who preceded them, even though they were certainly more proficient in this wisdom than he. But the reason is that they did not have the power to dress the matters as did he [to reveal it only to those who really strived for it].
– Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

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

Main Kabbalistic Sources: The Book Of Zohar

We did not find a single book in the wisdom of truth that precedes Rashbi’s The Book of Zohar since all the books in the wisdom prior to his [Book of Zohar] are not categorized as interpretations of the wisdom. Instead, they are mere intimations [short, incomplete explanations] without any order of cause and consequence, as it is known to those who find knowledge, thus far understanding his words [randomly and inaccurately].
– Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

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Question: What does it mean to reveal The Zohar in our common sensation?

Answer: Nothing is revealed in an individual person, but only in his proper connection with the friends in the group. My first ten Sefirot, the first spiritual vessel (Kli), is my aspiration to come out from myself and unite with others (the group). My spiritual state is determined by how much I will try to create this unification.

There is you and I. Between us, there are five worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon. When I draw closer to you until the distance between us fades, my state is called the World of Infinity. But not yours. The World of Infinity is when you and I, on my side, become as one whole. Therefore, the extent that I am able to draw closer to you determines the spiritual degree that I am on since all 125 degrees are between us.

We can conquer the distance between us together. This is much more effective because what matters is the unification between us, rather than you or I. I don’t need to accept you, receive pleasure from you, or unite with you. We need to unite together. This unification is in fact the Creator, the third component, as it is written: “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.”

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, The Zohar

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Question: If foreign thoughts come to me while we read The Zohar, does this mean that I am drilling a hole in the boat?

Answer: These foreign thoughts are not yours but “come” to you from somewhere. They don’t depend on you; the Creator sends them. So, relax. You are not drilling a hole in the common boat just with the thoughts that arise in you.

It’s important, however, what you will do with these “foreign” thoughts, meaning, whether you will remain with them and continue to think about them. If so, you will really be making a hole in the boat. Or perhaps you will resist these thoughts and throw them away from you at every given moment while wishing to stay together with your friends who are using all their might to bring this boat to the goal? This depends precisely on you.

This is always the case in Kabbalah: We work on what the Creator sends us, above the circumstances (Reshimot) that emerge. We don’t choose them, and we are not judged according to them. Only our reaction to them depends on us, and we should be judged based on it.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Va Yechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 152: In the midst of all that, Rabbi Elazar saw that the angel of death departed and said, “No sentence holds where Rabbi Shimon is.” Rabbi Shimon said to Rabbi Elazar, “Come here and hold Rabbi Yitzhak, for I see that he is afraid.” Rabbi Elazar came in and held him, and Rabbi Shimon turned his face and engaged in Torah.

Question: Why does a soul fear to ascend to its next spiritual degree? If it already sees its corrected state, why does it dread leaving the current one?

Answer: I am not prepared for it, and therefore I fear. The wisdom of Kabbalah often speaks about the awe before the Creator. The state of awe is a spiritual vessel (Kli, desire). It is the same in our case. I am afraid that I am not ready to exist at the level of bestowal in my present state, which I share with the friends and the teacher Rabbi Shimon, who becomes revealed as a mentor and guide on our path.

Suppose a teacher one day tells me that I have to jump from a plane. But I am terrified for I don’t think I can do it. This is an earthly example of how I feel in egoistic properties.

In spirituality, however, we talk about the property of bestowal, where the fear is even greater. I discover that I am not in bestowal and have no strength of my own for it. I am unable to pull myself together (as I would in the material world) and take the next step. It isn’t the same in spirituality, and there is always a question: Will I receive the strength, or, rather, will I be able to ask for it? This fear, the awe, is a very problematic state.

Awe before the Creator is the first commandment. I use it as a foundation on which I build everything else. It’s because I depend on the Creator, the Upper Surrounding Light that I receive. My position at a certain spiritual degree depends on the amount of strength the Light provides for me. And if it doesn’t bring me this strength, I will have none.

How can I participate in this? How close am I able to come with the others? How great is my present capacity to do so? This “death” (for my egoism) must come to me step by step. It has to be accepted by me and turn into life within me, as it is written: “The angel of death becomes the angel of life.”

Spiritual acts (of bestowal) that a person is yet to commit seem an enormous stumbling block. When you think about fulfillment, it is desirable (in our egoism). But when you think about the corrected desire (Kli) where it is revealed, rejection and fear arise: Am I good for it?

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, The Zohar

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