The Zohar, Chapter "VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out)," Item 60: … Indeed, so it is in the Merkava—Abraham and Isaac are right and left, and Jacob is in the middle. It is written, “The land,” Nukva, “On which you lie.” Thus, together, they are all one holy Merkava, the three lines with the Nukva. And here Jacob saw that he would be the senior among the patriarchs.

The Zohar tells us so much about the lines and especially about the ones that are opposite one another (about Abraham and Isaac) since we simply don’t sense yet how hard it is for a person to work with intention and action that are opposite one another. After all, in our world, everything works in one direction. If I give to someone with the intention to do something good for myself, it doesn’t mean that I give and that I work in two directions. It is work in a single direction which is for myself.

When we begin to work outside of the desire to receive pleasure, then every element includes two opposites which are in intention or in action. Hence, it’s not a coincidence that The Zohar always encounters such calculations. It seemingly says over and over where Abraham is, where Isaac is, and where Jacob is, or in other words, where the right line and the left line are.

This is because the work in three lines is very difficult on each level. It is the connection of the desire to receive pleasure that doesn’t have anything to do with spirituality, or with the intention to bestow so that this exact desire would become active, determining, building the foundation, and performing a spiritual act.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Golden Agreement
Laitman.com Post: Correction In Three Lines: An Exalted, Complementary Compromise
Shamati #179: "Three Lines"

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

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 59: “And behold, the Lord stood above it.” Here in the ladder, Jacob saw the connection of faith, the Nukva, tying all the Sefirot as one. “Stood above it” is as it is written, “A pillar of salt,” a mound, since all the degrees as one are on that same ladder, the Nukva, connecting everything in one knot because that ladder was given between the two sides.

It is written, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac.” Those are the two sides, right and left—Abraham is right and Isaac is left.

Malchut is an image, a picture of the Creator. We are within Malchut. Actually, we are Malchut and we sense everything within as a picture of this world. In fact, we always sense the Creator and nothing but Him. The problem is that we sense Him in accordance with our properties and to the level of our similarity with Him.

Sensations always come from the Light, but the desire (the vessel of its perception) senses itself as a certain object depending on its opposition or similarity to the Light. That’s why the Higher Sefirot constitute properties that are present in Malchut and include the Creator’s attitude toward Malchut’s attempts to become similar with them. They are called Sefirot since they illuminate inside Malchut which “lights” them because of its corrected desire to receive pleasure in order to bestow. That’s why it is luminescent.

The Upper Light doesn’t illuminate itself; it is hidden. Only to the degree that the lower one advances and attempts to become similar to the Upper One do the properties of the lower one light up and then are called Sefirot.

Everything we feel begins and ends within Malchut. Anything we can imagine existing prior to Malchut is an illusion of our perception. Similarly, we envision a certain reality around us, but in fact there is nothing at all; everything is within us. We simply divide all of reality into “me” and “something outside of me.”

The same happens in spirituality: We divide all of reality into a soul that as of yet has no sensation of itself and something that is outside of it. But when our correction is complete, everything comes together and there is no difference between “external” and “internal”; everything merges into one point.

As a person advances, he begins to see that even though the whole picture around him becomes wider, more intense, and complicated, at the same time, it concentrates and organizes itself into ten Sefirot. This allows us to arrive at the conclusion that everything depends on our perception, that is, on the measure of our similarity with the Light.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Life Is Merging With The Creator
Laitman.com Post: Acquiring The Real Perception Of The World
Shamati #68: “Man’s Connection to the Sefirot”

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

At some point, we will start feeling how much text is missing in many places of The Zohar. Being the commentary on the Pentateuch (The Torah, The Prophets, and the Scriptures), The Zohar describes the whole of reality: HBD-HGT-NHY of the common soul, Malchut of the World of Infinity. But the original text was hidden from us and only a small part of it remained. Apparently, we don’t need more for our correction. The parts of The Zohar that are not relevant to our current correction most likely refer to the already corrected parts of the system.

For this reason, one can sense certain omissions and incompleteness in the text. Even though we may not be noticing it just yet, we will increasingly sense it more. We will also feel how beneficial these omissions are. The soul that strives for correction seeks perfection. Hence, the missing parts that the soul senses as if invite it to cling to the corrected souls which have corrected these parts. This is why we are missing them today.

This should make us understand that we exist within the living system of souls, where some parts complete the others. The missing parts of The Zohar invite us to join the souls that carry these missing revelations. If we unite with them, we will thus complete all souls.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Help For Spiritual Birth
Laitman.com Post: How One Can Inherit “The Fathers’ Merit”
Unlocking The Zohar: "How To Evolve"

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

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 51: …It turns out that she is like a polished mirror, which is concerned not with showing her own form, but only with the form of others, those who look at her or those who stand in front of her.
She resembles a mirror also because the whole quality of the glass mirror is the murky color in its other side. It reflects the rays of light, for if it were transparent, no shape would be seen in it. So is the Nukva—all her strength is in the Masach in her, which detains the light from shining from her down. Without this Masach, there would have been no light in her at all.

We read The Zohar but we don’t understand it; we read it but don’t feel anything. Ultimately we have to reach a state when the question “What is it all for?” will plunge us into despair, disillusionment, to an inner explosion and realization that we have no other choice but to unite, and in this inner unity, reveal what The Zohar speaks of.

There is no other method, no other path. We must overcome this barrier. There are many obstacles on our way: laziness, lack of understanding, and the mind’s protests due to its inability to comprehend. However, none of that matters. We only need persistence that brings us to a state of despair and the realization that there is no other choice. We must reveal what The Zohar speaks of precisely here in our unity. That which The Zohar describes is revealed only in the unity among us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Unlocking The Zohar: “Relating Others To Me”
Kabbalah Moments: “Feeling In Exile”
5 Minutes Of Light: “Inner Work And The Zohar”

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

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYigash (Then Judah Approached),” Item 129:  When the firmaments and the animals, meaning the Nukva, are corrected so that everything is one Merkava for this man, ZA, it is written, “And Joseph prepared his Merkava [chariot/structure], and went up to meet Israel, his father, to Goshen.” This is a Tzadik [righteous], Yesod de ZA, called “the righteous Joseph,” who tied and united his Merkava, the Nukva, with the firmaments and the animals.

Here The Zohar speaks about the desire created by the Creator, which begins to resemble Him, His actions. The Creator is the source that shows the desire to enjoy (that He created) His actions upon it. The Creator influences the desire to enjoy in a variety of ways, and, by perceiving these forms, the desire starts developing from them.

The desire perceives the Creator’s actions in six different directions (four directions of the world and up-down) as well as through a variety of colors, tastes, smells, temperatures, and so on. In essence, the Light emanating from the Creator affects the desire to enjoy and it receives certain impressions.

In accordance with the sensations experienced, the desire ascribes different names to these impressions and defines them by various forms. These phenomena do not exist outside of the desire to enjoy since we are unable to perceive anything outside of our desire. For example, we can say that there is simple Surrounding Light; however, we can only talk about certain phenomena when they’re already within the desire, when the desire already senses them in one way or another.

The Zohar explains the structure of the systems, that is, it clarifies how the desire to enjoy is impressed by the Light and how this determines the desire’s structure. Each time the desire receives an impression from the Light, it acquires a specific shape, which is how the Light leaves various imprints on it. The desire to enjoy is like a living sculpture with a myriad of internal and external forms and systems.

That is why the creature represents an extremely complex system that originates from the influence of the Light upon it. The direct influence of the Creator on the creature means that the creature goes through all His actions and acquires forms in accordance with the system “from Above to below,” that is, directly from the Creator.

There is also an opposite action when the creature says: “Stop! From here on I will operate the system on my own. I want to be similar to You. It’s enough. I’ve already received all the impressions and Reshimot, and now I want to work independently. I want to operate the system that You imprinted in me, in the way You do it. I want to become as giving as You are. I want to bestow to You!”  This is called “work from below to Above.”

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 6/9/10

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Let The Light Shine
Laitman.com Post: Opening The Way To The Light
ARIfilms: “Development of Desires”

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

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, Article “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend- 2,” Lesson 3
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Weekly Parsha, “Chukat” 
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: In addition to thinking about studying together and wanting to correct ourselves, what should our connection be with the text while reading The Zohar?

My Answer: The connection with the text of The Zohar will come later; you will start feeling how it excites you. The Zohar touches one’s innermost layer of the heart as if it were a very personal, intimate, life-changing letter, a letter from someone very dear to you.

You may go through various states, plunge into some thoughts and actions; however, when you come back to The Zohar, you feel that it enlivens you. It fills, calms, caresses, embraces, and envelops you. This text expresses the state of the soul that is in absolute adhesion with the Creator.

After a person receives a very first sensation of spirituality, he already knows what it means. He can’t live without it anymore. For him, it’s like a very personal, inner message from Above, like “cold water for a weary soul.”

The first feeling is followed by more complex and richer sensations that burst out into a full drama. Yet first we need an initial contact that requires a few years of serious work. If we do it together and really desire it by helping and obligating each other, it will take less time.

We need to establish a contact with spirituality. It may not even be the initial adhesion, but a certain anticipation and sensation that transcend the boundaries of our ordinary reality. Everything seemingly remains the same, yet above everything there is a state starting from which a person unites with The Zohar.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Spirituality Is Discovered Unexpectedly, Like An Amazing Find
Laitman.com Post: Efforts Yield Revelation
Unlocking The Zohar: “Sensing The Zohar”

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

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “The Donkey Driver,” Item 112 
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

A question I received: If I sense everything that happens in my regular life from “within,” is it a sign of my advancement as a result of reading of The Zohar?

My Answer: No. There is no such thing as “regular life” when you read The Book of Zohar. I have an embryo of the soul, the point in the heart, through which I stay within the Upper system that The Zohar describes.

How can I sensibly and rationally connect all these properties (the three lines, ascents and descents, and spiritual actions) with this tiny point in which there is nothing? This is exactly what I am striving for. How can I stay with them, sense them, and experience them at the level of ZON in the World of Atzilut?

I don’t expect anything from this world (from myself or my group friends) in the way that I perceive them or the entire world within my five senses. Why do I need it? This world doesn’t exist; I only imagine it within my ego (the desire to receive). If I climb to a higher degree of bestowal and “faith above reason,” I’ll perceive everything in a totally different way.

I have no desire to deal with this world. All I want is to rise and merge with the Upper One! However, I exercise a realistic approach and I don’t abandon this world. But I study The Book of Zohar as well as the rest of the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to reveal the Upper reality rather than to pull it down into this world. It will never happen. Never will the spiritual world clothe into the material one.

On the contrary, our material world will rise to its roots: the spiritual world. Through this material world I’ll eventually see the Upper World, but first I have to perceive spirituality. That’s why I have to detach myself from all my worldly possessions since at this point I am learning about perfection, spirituality, and the Creator.

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

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “Do Not Make Thyself An Idol”
5 Minutes Of Light: “Tuning Yourself To The Zohar”
5 Minutes Of Light: “The Things You Have To Do In This World”

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

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYigash (Then Judah Approached),” Item 120: …Also, it is written, “I will go down to Egypt with you,” meaning that Divinity went down to exile with him, and wherever Israel exiled, Divinity exiled with them.

It wouldn’t be an exile otherwise. Exile means that you feel concealment. You feel that spirituality (the Creator) exists, yet you sense His reverse side. It shines to you in a way that allows you to feel the Creator’s presence, but in a concealed form. That is when it is called exile.

If your sensation of the Creator’s concealment is absent, this is not exile. As far as you’re concerned He simply doesn’t exist, meaning you exist at a level below spirituality. Exile is a spiritual sensation which is above the level of our world. Therefore, we cannot say that people in this world are in exile.

However, if you know that something spiritual ought to be here, if you have that feeling or are somehow familiar with what is concealed, then you are in exile. This is a connection that shines via its reverse side, in a black light instead of white. It follows that “Israel in Egypt” is a spiritual degree. They have a Light, a special illumination, so they are not detached from spirituality. Whereas we are “like mortal beasts” if we have no sensation of exile.

Today, as we read The Zohar, we gradually awaken from our beastly existence, and the reality of our exile is slowly becoming apparent. It is no small feat to ascend to the level of exile. For that you need to truly feel the concealment, the striving (desire) for the spiritual world, to discern from the darkness Who it is that is concealed from you, and how you can grab onto Him.

Exile is a spiritual degree which is the reverse side of the same degree of revelation. The sensation and work of this reverse side is part of the Creator’s work.
[15835]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Exile Is The Creator’s Doing
Baal HaSulam Article: “Exile and Redemption”
Kabbalah Moments: “Feeling In Exile”

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