A question I received: Why is it more and more difficult to study The Zohar? Not only do I not feel that I am progressing, but also that I’m regressing. I open the book and feel as if an even greater burden falls on me.

My Answer: Imagine a person who is burdened by a huge problem and is constantly thinking about it. Even when he is performing various other duties, his heart and mind are fixed on the problem. For instance, a woman who goes to work and must leave her sick child at home, will only think about him.

When your heart acquires a desire that is able to think anti-egoistically, you will be able to understand that The Zohar is talking solely about unity. Gradually, you will develop a need for it. Then, it will come as a sensation. After all, everything we feel is the connection (the Upper World) or the lack thereof (our world). This is how the picture of the world is built.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 133: …And since those NHY join with the lower one during the Katnut, afterwards, during the Gadlut, when the upper one brings its NHY back to its degree, from the place of the lower one, it rises along with them to the place of the upper one, and the lower one is attached to them, as well. Thus, the lower one receives the lights that are in the upper one….

Suppose, we read a passage from The Zohar. What did it talk about? The Zohar spoke of the relation between the souls, between the parts of reality and nothing else. It doesn’t matter what words are used to describe it, be it HGT, the Upper One, Leah, and so on. Regardless, we have no clue what is going on here. Kabbalists use the words of the corporeal world to express the relation of forces in spirituality, which is a completely different reality.

While reading every word, I have to tell myself: “This is the connection between the souls. That is the property of bestowal dwelling among us, and the Upper Light that fills the souls (our desires), connecting them in one common vessel. This is the Creator revealed in the creature, and that is the creature perceiving the Creator.” Behind all these words, I must always see one reality. Then it makes no difference what words I’m reading. After each word I read I remind myself that the Book is talking about unity, the property of bestowal that fills the entire desire to enjoy.

The most correct, inner approach is to constantly sense and feel that it all speaks about unity, connection, love, adhesion, a single reality, and mutual guarantee. Thus, all the words just explain in more detail those sensations experienced in my mind and thoughts. This approach will make it easier to perceive all that we read in The Zohar more correctly.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/10, The Zohar

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We proceed to reading The Zohar after preparing ourselves for it by studying Rabash’s articles during the first part of the lesson; that is, after we are ready to receive the Light that Reforms. What does it mean, “We are ready”? It means we have a desire for it, a desire for the inner dimension in particular, for acquiring the property of bestowal beyond our earthly mind and sensations. We want this property to rule over us.

What if a person has no desire for it? What if he does not feel that he lacks the property of bestowal and does not even wish to feel this lack? What should he do? He too should stay with those who want to acquire the property of bestowal. A person who feels virtually no relation to it should cling like a newborn to those who study. It is said about the science of Kabbalah: “It will heal all flesh.”

In our world, even a healthy person occasionally undergoes medical examination: “What if they find some illness?” “Why do you need it if you are healthy?” “I want to be sure I don’t have any disease that is progressing while I am unaware of it.”

The same applies to us. Even if we don’t feel that we lack the property of bestowal and we consider ourselves “healthy,” we trust the great Kabbalists who advise us to examine ourselves. Hence, we read The Book of Zohar even if we feel no need for it. Perhaps, thanks to this reading that I don’t particularly relate to or feel any taste or necessity for, I will nevertheless examine myself and see that I possess negative properties. By correcting them, I will reach something good (I will get better).

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “The Night of the Bride,” Item 1
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The Zohar, Chapter "VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out) – Part 1," Item 129: “And they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.” The entire seven years were to him as the upper seven years from Bina, who are ones, in one unification, and are not separated. They are all one, since they connect to one another for the love that he loved her, since she was to him like the upper unification in Bina.

How do we define infinity? Is it when time lasts infinitely or when there is no time and it equals zero? How can it be that when I love her, I spend seven years working for her, and in my perception these years fly by? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t this time last infinitely long because it will take seven years before we will be able to be together?

In reality, infinity is when time reduces to zero. In our world, we believe that infinity is something infinitely distant because we imagine that the end (death) is pushed beyond infinity. We perceive infinity in this way because our perception is shaped from lack rather than fulfillment.

But in spirituality, where all our actions are dictated by bestowal, it is the other way around. Infinity is when everything is in one place as if compressed into zero. Everything exists at the same moment, "at the same time, in the same place, in the same woman."

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out) – Part 1,” Item 127: For this reason, Leah did not appear but Rachel, to attract Jacob’s eye and heart with Rachel’s beauty, so he would set up his dwelling there. And thanks to her, Leah, too, was coupled with him and bore all these tribes. How did Jacob know who Rachel was? After all, he did not know her? The shepherds told him, as it is written, “And, behold, Rachel his daughter comes with the sheep.”

All these properties -  “well,” “water,” “Haran,” “Jacob,” “Lavan,” “Rachel,” “Leah,” “shepherds,” and “herd” -  are within us. The Torah explains how to distinguish and sort these forces within ourselves.

It can be likened to a construction set. We have to discern our inner desires and, by referring to the picture that the Torah draws for us, position each of them in the right place. We continue doing so until we get the whole internal picture that shows the connections between all the desires and properties that the Torah describes, between – the “herd,” “well,” “water,” and so on – at their inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, in the entire spiritual reality.

As soon as I organize this picture correctly according to the Torah instructions, I am captured in a film sequence and I move to the next frame. This is how we advance from one sequence to another one, one degree after another. At each step, the Torah tells us how to develop from one level to another through inner changes.

By changing our internal forces and properties in accordance with the Torah story, we advance along with the Torah narrations. This is when the Torah stories turn into revelation.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 88: It is written, “A Psalm of David, when he fled.” He said the psalm while fleeing because previously he thought that the Creator would punish him for his sins in the next world. And when he saw that He wished to avenge him here in this world, he was happy and said a psalm.

“This world” and “the next world” are two spiritual degrees because we exist in the Upper Light and see our qualities around us against this Light. This determines the reality we perceive.

Consequently, any state we experience is a state of concealment of the Upper Light which hides from us behind our egoistic qualities. It is revealed only to the extent that our qualities become similar to it. It follows that each of our states is called a “world,” (Hebrew “Olam” from the word “Olama” or concealment), that is a measure of concealment that we attain.

Therefore, “this world” and “the next world” are two degrees. One is what I feel and observe at this moment or what I can verify, investigate, and study. The other is a state to which I aspire, a measure of concealment that I want to reveal and attain. That is what the Kabbalists refer to as my next world.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: How do I combine inner work with studying The Zohar?

My answer: Don’t think that The Zohar was written to serve as an ordinary book to tell or explain something to us. This isn’t the case. Baal HaSulam wrote his commentary for a different reason as well. We don’t study using our earthly mind to comprehend what is written and to learn in detail how to work in the three lines by memorizing all the terms. We must understand the necessity for correction and not the structure of it all.

The additional commentaries on the authentic sources provided by the Kabbalists (on the Kabbalistic works of the Torah, the Prophets, and other sacred texts) are impossible to comprehend through the ordinary, external mind. They can only be comprehended through correction of the soul. Therefore, all Kabbalistic commentaries are primarily designed to draw the Upper Light onto the student. Then, the reader can use the sources correctly, enjoy the light contained in them, and, along the way, discover what is written in the books. This is what is called commentary.

Every commentary is an additional instrument that helps us to connect to the authentic source, not to just understand it. When we are reading Baal HaSulam’s so-called “technical” explanations about the three lines, Sefirot and Partzufim, ascent and descent, and Reshimot and screens, we think that he is trying to teach us some regular science for us to learn with our brain and to be able to draft all this schematically. But, this is not the case.

Baal HaSulam’s addition, “The Sulam Commentary to The Book of Zohar,” helps us to draw the Light that Reforms. Its purpose is not to give us abstract knowledge of the structure of some higher world. It is impossible to know the Upper World until we are able to perceive it within our souls. Essentially, we are studying our own construction.

A person begins to sense that the entire reality, all of creation, is enclosed within him, not outside of him even though it appears to be external. Therefore, we must tune ourselves into studying correctly with an understanding that we will gain nothing but the Light that Reforms. After this, attainment will follow, and “the soul of a person will begin to teach him.” First, we must receive this soul, the spiritual substance, in which we will discover all the phenomena about which The Zohar speaks.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, The Zohar

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From the articles of Rabash: Malchut’s guidance is called “Chukat” (corpus juris/code of laws). But it is only the law of the Torah, not the Torah itself. This means that in order to attain the Torah, we have to accept the laws it bestows on us. Otherwise, it is impossible to receive the Torah. When a person accepts Malchut’s governance over him, he is called Israel.

We all are the desire to receive pleasure. This desire is similar to a mountain, hill, or a pile of sand that has no form. From this “sand,” with the help of water (Hassadim), we must build a shape in the likeness of the Creator much like we are able to shape the sand on the seashore.

This is our work, the process in which we build the correct form from shapeless “sand” as we study the qualities of the Creator, copy them, and mold ourselves from it – called “chukat” (the code of laws). The forms that we acquire ourselves are called “chukat.”

Ultimately, the cause, effect, and the forms of bestowal that we are building, one by one on the foundation of the will to receive, will all join together. Nothing disappears in spirituality; the foundation remains, and ultimately this construction will transform into an image of the Creator that we create by ourselves.

It follows that the creatures create the Creator. This is written in The Zohar. Therefore, all the great laws that we receive from the Light, along with the revelation of the Creator, exist for us to realize them on our own.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 6/14/10

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A brief summary of the weekly Torah portion of “Chukat,” Part 1: The nation of Israel continues to wander around the desert and comes to Kadesh, which is situated in the desert of Tzin, where the nation begins to complain about the lack of water. Moses and Aaron turn to the Creator for advice and He tells them to ask the rock to give them water in front of the whole community. However, instead of asking the rock, they hit it. This angers the Creator, and He sentences them to die in the desert, and not to be among those who will bring the nation to the land of Israel.

A question I received: If the Creator gives us the point in the heart and takes us through all the states Himself, then why does He get angry?

My Answer: Obviously the Creator creates all the problems for us right from the start. He gives us obstacles every step of the way, no one else does. In the cruelest manner, He first performs evil, and then yells, punishes us, and later makes a suggestion: “OK, do it differently that will be better for you.” However, while we are in that “better” state, He once again makes it even worse for us and punishes us once again.

Why does He get angry? This wrath is correction. A person feels the Creator’s behavior inside himself; this is the way we are arranged. We cannot correlate this feeling to the Upper Force and to what happens inside It. After all, nothing happens in the Creator; He exists in absolute rest.

However, since we still don’t exist in a completely corrected state, our reality is separated into “me” and “outside of me,” “me” and “the world that surrounds me,” “me” and “the spiritual world,” and “me” and “the Creator.” However, everything that is seemingly external to me is in essence me; for the time being, it just seems to exist outside of me.

Therefore, the Creator’s behavior, which is presented to me in various forms, is really only the way I imagine Him through my own qualities. If I correct myself, I will see that love, nothing except love, comes from the Creator. But, while my external desires are not corrected, these desires bring me either a sensation of an evil world or a sensation of an evil Creator.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 6/14/10

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