The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha” (Go Forth), Items 158-159: Nefesh is a low awakening that clings to the body (Guf), like candlelight, whose bottom light is black, clings to the wick, …it becomes a throne to the white light atop it, for it hovers over the black light. And that white light corresponds to the light of Ruach.

The white light becomes a throne to a hidden light, and it is not seen or known that it hovers over the white light. It corresponds to the light of Neshama, and then it is a complete light. Thus, there are three lights one atop the other in a candlelight: 1) The black light that clings to the wick, below all the others; 2) the white light over the black light; and 3) the hidden, unknown light over the white light.

Similarly, a man who is complete in everything has three lights one atop the other, NRN, as with the candlelight.

The Zohar teaches us how we can develop and enhance the connections between us after we attain the first spiritual contact. If we cling to the point of union, it awakens new properties and sensations in us by expanding and revealing itself even more. When this happens, it means we’re ascending spiritual steps. Nothing else changes. We simply go deeper into the connection between us and begin to sense that all organs and elements of the system are unified, that all souls are tied into one.

Everything is aimed at one goal which is bestowal to the Upper Force. Within this aspiration we sense that we receive from Him. This begins with the sensation of the connection between souls and is called Malchut of the World of Atzilut, which is one point. Later this point is unveiled through bestowal to the Upper Force (to the Creator, Zeir Anpin). However, without bestowal it remains just a point.

We have to reach this very first contact by connecting together in one black point (Malchut) and start to bestow to the Creator from there. Then Malchut receives the property of bestowal from the Creator and nine Sefirot are unveiled within it. The Creator (the spiritual reality) can be sensed only to the degree that we bestow to Him.

The revelation of Malchut (the system of our souls) to Zeir Anpin (the Creator) is all that The Zohar tells us about. The Zohar teaches us how to develop connections by adding new, emerging forces to the very first spiritual point called Abraham. This is how a person uncovers spiritual organs and reveals the forces of the Upper World within himself. Instead of dry narration, The Zohar becomes an entire world and its power is unmatched by our limited reality.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 4: People should observe the work of the Creator. After all, all the people do not know and do not consider what the world stands on and what they themselves stand on.

What does the world rest on? It rests on desire. What are people grounded in? They are grounded in desire. The Zohar is speaking of the types of desires the world and we rest on and how we can change these desires. After all, everything that happens within our desire makes up the reality that we experience.

Our perception of the world hinges on how we change our desires. In his article, "The Creator’s Concealment and Revelation," Baal HaSulam writes that nothing changes outside of us. And it is solely our responsibility to replace our perception of this world with the perception of the World of Infinity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 104: When the Ruach comes out of this world and enters the cave of Adam HaRishon and the patriarchs, they give him there a letter as a sign, and he goes to the Garden of Eden. When he approaches, he meets the Cherubim there and that flaming sword which turns every way. If he is rewarded, they see the letter that is the sign, open the gate for him, and he enters. If not, they repel him outside.

When we read The Zohar, we should imagine a greater or a smaller desire to bestow or only the desire to receive, that is, we should envision changes in bestowal. That is the entire spiritual world. However, these variations contain all color shades and all gradations of qualities. Everything we read in The Zohar is about changes in the quality of bestowal which manifests as such in our perception.

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The Zohar tells us about the Upper World, which we reveal inside of us. Everything described in this book occurs inside us. In fact, we perceive our world in the same way. The difference between the worlds or perceptions is that we perceive this world individually, within our egoism, while the Upper World is perceived collectively within our relationships and the connection between us.

Connection through mutual bestowal and love is called the soul, and what we perceive in this soul is called the spiritual world. By making corrections in ourselves we correct the initially broken connection (Kli) and thus reveal different qualities of the connection that The Zohar talks about. The common connection of all parts of the soul or creation is called the Creator. The entire spiritual world is comprised of different types of connections, which are called Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, different angels, as well as still, vegetative, animate, and spiritual objects. These are all revealed in the connections.

Today we perceive our world and think that it exists on its own. However, this is an illusion. The truth is that we perceive a type of connection between us that we call by this name. The last or lowest level of connection among the parts of the soul (the particular souls) provides a sensation of a bad connection that is called “this world.” When we attain the absolute connection of all parts of the universe, this connection is called the World of Infinity because it is an unrestricted connection without any finite limits. It is, indeed, beyond space and time.

Between the full connection in the World of Infinity and the complete absence of connection in this world, there are five levels of connection or five worlds called Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. We actually exist in only one reality which is the World of Infinity, but our perception of it depends on our attitude toward the connection. This involves 1) egoism or reception, and 2) bestowal or love. Our life is a sensation of the quality of connection between the parts of reality.

If we want to reveal the true world and understand, attain, and enjoy it, we have to try to see ourselves as more connected when reading The Book of Zohar. Then we will begin revealing a greater connection and the Upper World. This method to reveal the Upper World is called “We shall do and we shall hear” (Naase ve Nishma).
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/10, The Zohar

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

Who Is a Kabbalist?

Now we can easily understand the merit [special quality and wisdom, heart and mind] of one who has been rewarded with cleaving unto Him once more. It means that he has been rewarded with equivalence of form with the Creator by inverting the [egoistic] will to receive, imprinted in him through the power in Torah [the Light of correction] and Mitzvot. This was the very thing that separated him from His Essence [absolute good and bestowal], and turned it [specifically his ego] into a will to bestow.

And all of one’s actions are only to bestow and benefit others [in which he is similar to the Creator], as he has equalized his form with the Maker. It follows that one is just like the organ that was once cut off from the body and has been reunited with the body: It knows the thoughts of the rest of the body once again, just as it did prior to the separation from the body.

The soul [the point in everyone’s heart, the aspiration for the Creator after it awakens in a person] is like that, too: After it has acquired [by correcting itself via the Light] equivalence with Him [acquired the quality of bestowal in place of its inherent quality of reception], it knows His Thoughts [as it knows its own for it has achieved adhesion with Him] once more, as it knew prior to the separation from Him due to [uncovering] the will-to-receive’s disparity of form [being opposite to the qualities of the Light, the Creator].

Then the verse, “know thou the God of thy father,” lives in him, as then one is rewarded with complete knowledge, which is Godly knowledge. Also, one is rewarded with all the secrets of the Torah, as His Thoughts are the secrets of the Torah. [“Secrets” refer to the Creator’s thoughts and desires because they are concealed from a person due to disparity of form and are attained by him as he becomes similar to the Creator.]
– Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: The Zohar causes so much darkness and evil to be revealed. How can a person ask for love while seeing all the evil? How can I ask for good in spite of the evil?

Answer: We think that there is a great distance between hate and love, but this is not the case. First of all, they are the same thing because everything occurs in the same desire. When you go from one to the other, you do not move through space. Rather, the Light performs a change inside you causing you to move from one extreme to the other in one instant

When you look at things without the Light, you do not see anything and all is presented to you as darkness, negative feelings, and hate. However, as soon as there is Light, you reveal goodness, love, and sweetness. There are no prolonged actions here. You “turn on” the Light, and it immediately changes everything. The whole picture of reality instantly changes.

Right now we are in darkness, and that is why we cannot believe that the Light can emerge in one instant. However, when it emerges, it always happens very suddenly, like during the exodus from Egypt.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out) – Part 2,” Item 373: With all the offerings, it does not say, “Observe,” as it is written, “Shall you observe to offer,” since observing [(Tishmeru) is ”keep,” (Shamor)] is the Nukva, who should bring closer above, to ZA, as it is written, “Shall you observe to offer unto Me,” offer the Nukva in its time, in the right and left [lines] of ZA, who are Abraham and Isaac.

The whole essence of sacrificial offerings is to come closer, to build the middle line by classifying desires. Whenever possible, desires should be used for merging and connection. The ones that are impossible to use that way should be removed as obstructions and filed. One should connect the right and the left lines so that the “fire blazes” and the Returning Light rises to the Creator. All discernments are performed only through the “sacrificial offerings” of one’s egoism.

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The Zohar, Chapter ”Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Items 146-150: He said, “When a man goes to sleep on his bed, his soul departs from him and goes up, as it is written, ‘At night my soul longs for You.’”…

Afterwards, she walks and roams and rises according to her degree.

That Nefesh that was rewarded with rising appears before the King and adheres with a desire to be seen, a sublime craving to see the pleasantness of the King and to visit His palace. This is a man who always has a share in the next world.

What is the soul (Nefesh)? When I desire to unite with the others and feel how through this aspiration I connect with similar desires of the others, the place of our oneness and unity is called “Nefesh” in relation to me. Everyone may feel it differently, but for me Nefesh is the first spiritual step. If I can later strengthen this connection despite my growing egoism and obstacles, I can attain the next spiritual degrees: Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. But the place of my very first contact, my desire for unity to occur, is called Nefesh.

I have to create a place for all of our desires to come together! And when everybody is there (and so am I), when I have connected them with my effort (and they have given me the opportunity to enter and join them), there, in the place of my exertion and my oneness with all the others, I will finally undergo all the spiritual states that The Zohar tells us about.

All I need is to desire this connection and feel as if I’m already in it, which will indicate my entering the state of Nefesh. The Zohar tells me about what happens next, in this oneness. There is only one relationship which experiences ups and downs, various adventures, and spiritual states. The Zohar doesn’t discuss anything else. As a matter of fact, The Zohar talks solely about the spiritual world since spirituality can be found only in our oneness.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/10, The Zohar

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

The correction of attitudes in a Kabbalistic group from love of self to love of others is possible only with the help of the very Upper Force that created “the evil inclination,” our egoism. Only this Force can turn the evil inclination to good, as it is written, “I created the evil inclination, and handed down the Torah for its correction since the Light in it Reforms”; that is, it unites us in love.

In fact, even now we exist in perfect reality. We are tightly connected with each other as parts of one body in mutual love and adhesion with the Upper Force that created us and filled with love and abundance. We just need to awaken to the feeling and awareness of this reality in the same way as a person who is unconscious has to wake up in order to feel alive.

This awakening, the resurrecting force of the Light that Reforms, can be felt only when we come together. In the group, we try to be connected in the love between us and rise above our instinctive egoistical emotions. Together, we read The Book of Zohar.

This book talks about unity among us and our corrected state of existence. So, our collective reading of The Book of Zohar with the intention to attain oneness arouses the Light that brings us back from oblivion. Gradually, we begin to feel the connection and within it, the Creator. In doing so, we achieve practical realization of the essence of the science of Kabbalah: the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.

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

Who Is a Kabbalist?

Were it not for sages [those who have attained the Creator by equivalence of form], people [those who have not yet attained Him] would not know what is Torah [methodology of correction]and what are the Mitzvot (commandments) of the Creator [sole governing force], and there would be no difference between man’s spirit and the spirit of a beast [at their final state].
– The Book of Zohar with the Sulam (Ladder) Commentary, Chapter “Shemot” (Exodus), Item 84

Mysteries and secrets of the Torah will not be revealed as a result of one’s earthly powers, but only as thanks to the Upper Light [correction and fulfillment] that stems from the Height of His Divinity [the World of Infinity] with the help of His messengers and angels or prophet Eliyahu [the force of creation].
– Chaim Vital, “Introduction to Shaar HaHakdamot”

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