Rav Baruch Ashlag, Article “Love of Friends“
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 364
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 305
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A question I received: How do you manage to understand what is written in The Zohar? Could you share your secret?
My Answer: I see rather than understand. I simply see. Let’s suppose that you and I are standing together, and I have binoculars while you do not, and maybe even your eyesight isn’t so great. You ask me, “What’s here? What’s there?” I see through my eyesight, and if it’s not enough, I look into the binoculars, the telescope, or the microscope.
In other words, I have a means of seeing, and I tell you about what I see. Meanwhile, you do not see it. It is something completely new for you – something strange, which may or may not exist. It is all unclear, confusing, and unfamiliar to you.
Therefore, you need to acquire these devices: “binoculars,” “telescopes,” and “microscopes.” And in order to acquire them, you need the Upper Light. These devices are the screen, which helps you see a new, Upper world. We merely need to rouse the Upper Light on us, and the most effective means for this is mutual study in a group using Kabbalistic sources.
From the Sunday Morning Zohar Lesson 5/23/10
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 230
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 156: The thirteen qualities of Rachamim depend on the Yod, on the upper tip of the Yod, Keter, in which there are the thirteen corrections of Dikna. Hence, the Yod consists of Vav–Dalet, to indicate the ZON within her, from which they become YESHSUT, which is Bina that returned to being Hochma. This is where all the Mochin emerge, and they are the perfection of everything because the filling of Vav–Dalet in Gematria is ten, meaning that they are as important as she.
A question I received: The Zohar talks about letters a lot. What is the connection between the definitions of the letters described in The Zohar and a letter used as a symbol describing how the Upper Governance system influences us?
My Answer: They are the same. Letters are the spiritual vessels through which the Light acts upon us. We can talk about the Light by calling it a letter, such as “Yod,” “Vav,” or “Dalet.” A letter is a property of the Light, which the Light acquired when it has gone through the letter in order to impact us in a certain way. A letter is also a property of the spiritual vessel that has become similar to the Light in order to perceive it.
According to the law of the equivalence of form, it is impossible to perceive the Light unless I am similar to the form through which it impacts me. Suppose the Light enters through “Vav” and acts upon me. Then, I should also acquire the property “Vav,” to assume the form of “Vav” in order to be connected with the Light. But since I myself build similarity to “Vav” from my material, I am not “Vav” any more. My material is now different, and I become the next letter, “Dalet.”
Thus, on the one hand, we have “Yod” (Hochma), whose three letter spelling (“Y-O-D” or “Yod–Vav–Dalet“), shows in what form we can perceive it. When we acquire “Vav” and “Dalet,” “Dalet” will become similar to “Vav.” But aren’t Dalet and Vav two different letters? True, they are different, but they are similar to one another. Since they are created from different material, they acquire appropriate forms. This is why there are so many forms of letters even though each form is bestowal.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “The Donkey Driver,” Item 89
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 83: … as it is written, “Behold, your king will come unto you,” certainly, and not you to Him. He will come to you to appease you; He will come to you to raise you; He will come to you to complement you in everything; He will come to you to raise you to His palace, to bond with you in everlasting bonding, for all times, as it is written, “And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.”
Should we raise Malchut from the ashes on our own, or does the Merciful Creator raise the fallen tent of David for us? Do we need to wait in exile and then everything will become revealed from Above? Or do we need to recognize that the King has come, done his work, reaches out to us, and we need to grab on to Him and ascend?
There are people who say that everything will come and become revealed from Above, that the Third Temple will “fall down” from the skies, and we don’t need to do anything but just keep waiting. This is the “Galut” (the time of exile) type of thinking.
Kabbalists, on the other hand, explain to us that we had to force ourselves into exile (from the level of spirituality) for a specific period of time, until the end of the 20th century. Then, from Above, the Creator returned us to the Land of Israel and revealed the method of correction which is Kabbalah and The Zohar. He created all the conditions for the freedom of will, and the Giving of the Torah from the Above took place. Now, people need to receive the Torah and realize it in their correction.
This is what we call “the king has come to the queen.” He gives her everything. However, now she must take a step toward the king and express a desire to unite with him, instead of merely continuously lying in the dust without making a single action on her own behalf. After all, the king compels her to act and reaches out to her, revealing his desire.
This is what those who study the external Torah, the religious, and those who study the inner Torah, the Kabbalists, argue about. There’s nothing to add to the external observance of the customs as the entire addition happens on the inside, that is, in the intentions, the discernments of the desire, and revelation of the evil inclination which needs to be corrected.
From the 1st of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, The Zohar
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All comes out of HaVaYaH (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey), the universal, singularly existing system, and everything takes its beginning in the root, the tip of the letter “Yod.” This is Keter, the “essence of the essence” (Yesh mi Yesh). There is the, “existence from absence” (Yesh mi Ain), which are expanding together. The Light affects the desire, and it takes various forms; that is, the will to receive constantly changes its properties in similarity with the Light.
The Zohar explains how all properties come from the Light which created the will to receive, “existence from absence,” and how the Light works on it. This is truly a symphony of development: the impact of the Light on the desire, the lack of filling that changes under the influence of the Light and acquires different forms and properties, including the properties of the Light and its own previous forms that influence the next states even several steps ahead.
The Zohar explains to us how from only two forces – the will to bestow and the will to receive – come all the diversity of the creature. And all of it is directly connected with us since in our world there is also nothing, except the two forces: black and white, one and zero, good and bad. It doesn’t matter what levels we are talking about – all of creation, all of our impressions, sensual images and pictures of the perception of reality – all of this consists of two forces.
The Kabbalists were able to describe these two forces beautifully in the form of letters. As a result, when we look at these shapes, they come alive and get filled with the spirit of life. You begin to recognize inside each letter: How these properties, the Creator and the creature, are connected with each other; how they are mutually intertwined and penetrate each other, in which direction, in what way; where they merge together and where they don’t yet, and what restrictions there are.
We don’t have the words to express these relations. But a letter, a symbol, gives you a model. And then, by absorbing this model, you enclose within yourself the entire accumulation of feelings, relations, and everything that exists within the letter. But a letter contains everything. It only seems a simple form, but this simplicity encloses thousands of previous forms that it was acquiring during its descent from above downwards.
In Kabbalah, everything derives from the vital necessity. By observing nature, the content of man and his perception, the Kabbalists saw that there was no other way to express the connection between the Creator and the creature except with the help of such symbols, these letters.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Items 147-149: The Yod of the Holy Name connects in three ties. For this reason, there is one tip in it above, one tip below, and one tip in the middle, since three ties hang down in her. The tip above is the upper Keter, above all the upper ones, the head of all the heads and stands atop all of them…The bottom tip is the other, bottom tip of the Yod. It is Bina, the head to water the garden, Malchut. This is the fountain of water from which all the plantings are watered, since all the Mochin of ZON and BYA extend from the Bina….
The letter “Yod” is Hochma of the world Atzilut, its “hidden mind.” Through the upper point enters the Light of the Infinity, and through its bottom point exits the Light of Bina, flowing through Zeir Anpin; it waters the garden, Malchut.
It would be possible to describe the entire system in details like this, but we are studying The Zohar in order to arouse the Light that Reforms, not to study some dry theory. We study The Zohar not to gain theoretical knowledge of spirituality, but to actually experience it! When we begin to feel what The Zohar is telling us, we will feel bestowal and reception within us and the difference between them; only then will we be able to read and unveil the whole picture, which will appear as sensations. We will study The Zohar in order to understand what we are feeling! Then I will start studying Kabbalah as a science; I will add mind to my feelings.
But first I have to receive the sensation! The mind follows. Otherwise, it would simply be theoretical reasoning without practical comprehension. We would get stuck in these diagrams and remain in this world to intellectualize, as if we know what is going on “there” in the spiritual world.
But we don’t need to know what is happening there: We have to be there! There is a great difference between those who are perceiving the spiritual world and the theorists who are just learning about it in The Zohar. The latter are the type that Baal HaSulam encountered in Jerusalem when he arrived in Israel. They were studying The Zohar and knew all its books and writings of the ARI by heart. But when he asked whether they perceive it, they replied: “There is nothing to perceive here! We just memorize the text.”
But for us, first and foremost, it is important to achieve the ability to perceive the spiritual world: The Zohar has to enter us, and we must begin living in it. Then, we will study what we feel and how to change these feelings, how to walk in spirituality.
We cannot research what we don’t perceive. Since we are the matter of the will to receive, we must perceive the reality within it. Only then we will be able to study what our perception. consists of.
Bina derives from the word “Havana,” understanding, as it is written, “the heart understands.” This is why we study The Zohar, in order to be able to bestow and perceive the Creator. Later, you and I will discuss every page of The Zohar, and we will see how much it contains, the entire symphony of feelings.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, The Zohar
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 135: The seven firmaments are above, and in each there are stars, signs, and suns that serve in each and every firmament. In all the firmaments, there are Merkavot [plural of Merkava—chariot/structure], one atop the other, to assume the burden of their Master’s kingdom. And in all the firmaments are Merkavot and suns that are different from one another, standing one atop the other. Some have six wings and some have four wings; some have four faces and some have two faces, and some have one face; some are burning fire, some are water, and some are wind, as it is written, “He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers.”
Angels are forces of the still, vegetative, and animate levels with respect to man. In this world man exists within the still, vegetative, and animate nature, which creates the necessary environment for him. Similarly in the spiritual world, amid the forces of our soul, there are various forces of the still, vegetative, and animate spiritual levels, which are called angels. With the assistance of these forces, I form my attitude to the Creator, as I aspire to aim myself toward Him in order to find the connection with Him. My soul exists thanks to these forces; they are its environment. In this way I advance.
Angels are also the forces of man’s soul, which a person arranges in order to exist in his soul. A person directs all of these forces toward the Creator and thereby gets in touch with Him. These angels have neither free will, nor their own reality. They resemble the powers of nature as we know them as gravity, and the laws of interaction between molecules and atoms and large and small bodies. All these forces are called angels.
We should not imagine angels as bodies with wings flying around! The “wings” that The Zohar speaks of are coverings or the screens that they bring to a person. With the help of these forces, a person attains self-realization and then has the power of the screen called “an angel with wings.”
Therefore, our attitude to these forces should be same as to nature in this world. Everything that surrounds a person (with the exception of people), all other powers, are angels. Essentially, we always aspire to arrange them in a way that is most comfortable for us. It is similar in the spiritual world.
[14546]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/10, The Zohar
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