Bnei Baruch started shooting "The Zohar," a full-length, historic film based on the script written by Semion Vinokur. Months of preparation went into this event: a group of decorators led by Gia Basilaia made costumes that live up to the standards of the world’s best movie studios; all the attributes of the Roman army were recreated thoroughly; an ancient stone road was found. The scene was filmed with participation of the Bnei Baruch Israel students.

An in-depth study of The Book of Zohar strenghthens the desire to spread the knowledge about the Book and tells the story of its creation and unprecedented importance for humanity. This movie is a unique opportunity to achieve this goal. Let’s think together about the success of this project!

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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

The connection between us can be likened to a picture that has not only been torn or broken into little pieces, but then incorrectly reassembled. If there were no connection between us at all, that wouldn’t be so bad, but the breaking has created a negative, egoistic connection. What is the reason for this? This negative connection between all parts of nature is “help against us” as it enables us to discover the Creator’s nature from outside of Him.

Without this negative connection between us, we would not be able to discover that the type of connection between us determines everything, and that it is the cause of all good and evil in the world. If this connection were good, we would not be able to attain the Creator for we would be inside of Him. And if there were no connection between us at all, we would not be able to reveal the reason for the evil in our lives.

By revealing that the connection between us is evil and is the cause of our suffering, we can transform it into good. So much so that, with the help of suffering that pushes us forward, we reach the Creator. Then we realize that otherwise we could not have reached Him.

Similar things sometimes take place in our life: There arises a situation which brings us closer with others. Before, there was no close bond between us; we were distant to one another although considerate and respectful. However, for some reason, we suddenly ended up together, bound by a common cause or problem.

We were brought close together, and now we begin to discover how different we are and how we clash with one another. That is when the evil becomes revealed between us. The evil has always existed, but wasn’t revealed until now.

When we discover that the connection between us is evil, we typically try to distance from one another. However, if external conditions don’t allow for this, then we have no choice but to correct the relationships between us.

Is this not reminiscent of the state of humanity in our days? In the past, the connections between the nations were weak, and every nation was connected to only a small number of other nations. There was no real connection between us, and that is why the evil was not revealed.

However, with time, human society has become global, and everybody has been bound to and is affecting everybody else. We have nowhere to run from each other, so the hatred between us is being revealed. Yet, the same hatred will force us to correct the relationships between us.

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The Zohar is just like the Torah in that there is no need to read it in an orderly fashion. You can open up the book anywhere you want to! It’s similar to Psalms; you can open up any psalm and read it. You can even begin reading any psalm starting in the middle of it.

The most important thing when reading holy books (meaning books written by those who attain the Creator through the quality of holiness, bestowal, Bina) is not what you are reading or the things you read about, but the intention: What do you want to attain by reading?

One way or another you are reading about the Upper World, which you don’t feel or understand. The Zohar is the highest source of all the holy books. It is the most powerful source of Upper Light, the Light of Correction. It’s like an infusion to a sick person, or like a medicine that you take.

What do you want to attain by taking this medicine? What does "being healthy" mean to you? Depending on this, the force of The Book of Zohar can be the elixir of life for you, or a deadly poison!

Therefore, before opening up this book, you must think and feel, attune yourself, prepare and discern: What are you hoping to receive from it now? You are hoping to receive medicine, which is symbolized by a snake. A snake’s venom can be truly poisonous, or it can be the remedy for every illness.

Therefore, before opening up The Book of Zohar, we must have the right intention so instead of attracting deadly poison, we will attract the elixir of life that saves us. When people study the Torah without the right intention, it becomes dry and lifeless. This is even more dangerous when we are reading The Book of Zohar, the greatest source of power.

It wasn’t an accident that for so long The Zohar was concealed from regular people and revealed to Kabbalists. A Kabbalist, meaning a person who attained the right desire, was sure to find this book in some way. It was sent to him through someone or in some other way. He was brought to the place where he could find it.

However, it was not revealed to other people because in the past we were unable to arm ourselves with the right intention. That’s why The Zohar would only have brought harm upon us. Today, however, we open up The Book of Zohar with the intention that it will bring us goodness, that it will become the source of life for us instead of turning into deadly poison.

The Zohar contains such enormous force that we must be careful to open it only together and with the right intention. That is why it has become revealed in our time and offers us incredible opportunities. We want to offer it to everyone.

However, every person must know that only the right intention while studying The Zohar can turn it into the elixir of life.

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

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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

The most complex and, at the same time, the most fascinating subject related to The Book of Zohar and life in general is the perception of reality. There are many waves around us that we presently do not perceive, such as radio waves. There is also an all-inclusive field of information. The field of higher information is called the higher nature or the Creator.

This field fills the entire space around us. We are capable of establishing contact with this field and receiving everything from it: feelings, understanding, knowledge, love, and also the sensation of eternal life and wholeness that’s inherent to it.

The whole purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to teach us how to develop within ourselves the instruments to perceive this field of higher information. This is possible only via an inner transformation, and as we attain it, we become similar to this field: the Creator.

We exist in this field even now, but we are incapable of perceiving it.

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Question: The more I read The Zohar, the more I realize its power. Is The Zohar truly that deep?

Answer: I will say only this: It’s difficult without The Zohar. You will often feel the need to return to it throughout the day. Anyway you look at it, it’s simply a source of strength.

In the beginning, when a person just opens The Zohar for the first time, he doesn’t know why this book magnetizes and charms him so much and why it is so difficult to go without it. Some start feeling this sooner than others. For some people it can take a long time to feel the power hidden in this book.

Yet sooner or later, everyone begins to feel that they need The Zohar. It’s like water: We need it more than food.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, The Zohar

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Kabbalah Moments: Make Use Of The Book

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (Jacob Lived),” Item 119: “Only your fathers did the Lord desire.” “Your fathers,” actually three—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It writes, “Only,” really only, that there are no more than these three, and from them all the others branch out and grip, meaning all the degrees in BYA. They rise for MAN to ZON, to crown the Name, to extend new Mochin to the Nukva, who is called “Name.”

The Zohar always brings us to the middle line in all the states. That is its mission: to constantly show us how we can arrange the two lines we receive from Above, from the Creator – the force of bestowal and the force of reception. The Zohar shows us how to build our reality out of them so we are above the force of bestowal and the force of reception. We ascend above both of them and receive them to the degree we are able to include one inside the other. Their mutual combination builds the middle line in us.

The middle line is built out of the sum of two lines, by using the best from both of them. The middle line is formed when the left line becomes included in the right line, and the right line  in the left line, and then you take what is shared between them – their mutual combination from both sides (Malchut in Bina and Bina in Malchut). That is how you make the middle line.

This is the fundamental principle, and the same thing happens to the soul. The soul does not exist unless we build it. Even though it is called “a piece of the Creator from Above,” in fact this piece does not come from the Creator unless I build it through the connection between us. This spiritual vessel (Kli) does not exist. We build it in the form of a connecting net between us.

The same thing happens with the middle line because it is the soul. The right and left lines, bestowal and reception, come to us. They are both forces of nature. When I combine them in the right way, then the middle line or the soul is formed out of them.

In our relationships we deal with the forces of bestowal and reception. Based on our reception we build the form of bestowal, and that is how we attain the soul by creating a middle line between us. There is no reality besides the one we build between us. Everything becomes revealed there, in that reality.

The Zohar brings the middle line to us from Above. While reading it, we have to try to become included into that line. Then we are tuned to the same wave through which the Light comes to us and returns us to the Source, the Creator.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYechi (Jacob Lived),” Item 103: “In the light of a king’s face is life, and his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain.” This is so because when they accept the face of the Divinity of the Creator and engage in those Merkavot [chariots/assemblies] from which the animals of the world come, the animals that carry the Merkava [singular of Merkavot], as written in Ezekiel, it will be said about them, “In the light of a king’s face is life.”

Everything depends on the illumination from Above. However, just like everything, “Above” is “inside a person.” It is inside our sensations although it belongs to the “higher,” more advanced states.

In the spiritual world (or sensation), there is no time, space, or motion. The only difference between everything is a greater or smaller importance relative to the quality of bestowal, the Creator. If I acquire a force or quality that brings me a greater quality of bestowal, then to me this state is more important or “higher” than the previous. It is called “illumination from Above.”

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar influences one’s soul more than anything else in the world. This doesn’t mean that we should discard all other books and study only it, but its effect is more powerful than anything else.

Talmud Eser Sefirot and Tree of Life are good for forming oneself. In addition, later on, when a person is already on the spiritual levels, they can serve as instructions for making inner actions.

When you feel ascents and descents, entrances and exits of Lights the way you might feel it physically, since your desire or spiritual vessel is ready for reception and bestowal, for the entrance and exit of the Light, then you can work with Talmud Eser Sefirot and Tree of Life by actually making the actions they describe.

On the other hand, when you work with The Zohar, you do so through an intermediary – the Surrounding Light. This composition develops the vessel of the soul in general, rather than according to the verse, “A person’s soul teaches him.” The latter is when you can take Talmud Eser Sefirot and carry out the actions in practice.

There is a time of preparation for the future level, and that is what The Zohar is mostly intended for. Besides this, there is a time for actualizing the levels, which is done with the help of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/10, The Zohar

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Excerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 58: And I have named that commentary The Sulam (Ladder) to show that the purpose of my commentary is as the role of any ladder: If you have an attic filled abundantly, then all you need is a ladder to reach it. And then, all the bounty in the world will be in your hands.

There is no use to open The Book of Zohar without The Sulam commentary. There are quite a few commentaries written on The Book of Zohar, but The Sulam is the only one that raises us to the level of the Creator’s perfection. It is so because Baal HaSulam ascended all 125 degrees that the authors of The Zohar “stood on” at the time when they wrote it, and disclosed The Zohar for us from their height.

The Sulam commentary adapts The Zohar to modern-day souls that emerge nowadays in this world. The Light of The Book of Zohar corrects our souls and enables them “to face” The Zohar (the Upper Radiance or the Upper Light) in a way that it can return us back to the unity through which the Creator will reveal Himself to us.

The Sulam helps us to position ourselves in the middle line so that we correspond to the form through which the Upper Light descends onto us (a combination of measures of mercy and judgment) and thus can receive it. The middle line is a formula by which we have to correctly combine two forces that exist in nature: the force of the Creator (bestowal, abundance, and Light) and the force of the creature (the desire to receive pleasure). Our entire work consists of building the middle line and is the only freedom of choice that we have.

The Sulam commentary allows us to build the middle line, and hence, ever after it was written, there exists no other way to realize The Book of Zohar but in accordance with it. Truly, Baal HaSulam directs our vision, approach, and sensations in a way that all that is written in The Book of Zohar penetrates in us through the “middle line” (middle ground).

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

Following the Paths of Kabbalists

The RAMBAM said that if a thousand blind walk in a line along the way and at least one of them is able to see, then they are certain to take the right path and not fall into the pits or obstacles since it is the sighted one who leads them. But if the sighted person is missing, then they are certain to stumble over every hurdle along the way, and they all will fall into the pit. [The task of spiritual leaders is to lead the generations towards the Creator by the path of the Torah. It is the responsibility of the masses to follow their spiritually sighted leaders.]
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 57

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