The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 250: And when the Creator saw the great joy of this world when it improved to being as above, He said, “Let not the twelve tribes mingle with the rest of the nations, leaving a blemish in all the worlds.” What did the Creator do? He shook all of them to and fro until they went down to Egypt to dwell in their abodes inside the obstinate nation, which despises their conducts and degrades them by not marrying with them or mingling with them, and by considering them slaves. The males were loathsome of them and the females were loathsome of them until everything was bettered by the holy seed without mingling with strangers….

There is a scrutiny of one’s state as one attempts to rid oneself of egoism, and then there’s a scrutiny of one’s state when one wishes to remain in (adapt to) his egoism. If I wish to remain in my egoism, then the egoism pushes me out through its hatred for me as it senses within me the point in the heart that is opposite to it. As it is written: “The Pharaoh brought the nation of Israel closer [via pointed oppression] to Israel,” and “I have created the ego as help against you.” It opposes you, and precisely therein is its help.

Similarly, when the Soviet government pushed a hard anti-Zionist agenda in the 1960s-70s, in so doing, it actually boosted Zionism. It is precisely the evil forces (the reverse side of the Creator) that help elucidate the evil, and not the Creator or the Upper Light, openly or directly.

Exile is one’s interim state between the degrees when both the Egyptians and Israel are revealed within him, opposite one another. He is in the middle scrutinizing these qualities. He is an exile, under the Egyptians’ command. On the one hand, he is drawn to Egyptians, but they reject him over the “seed of Israel” that is within him.

In other words, the desire to enjoy despises and rejects the intention to bestow for it wants only to act for the sake of reception. This is the hatred of the nations of the world toward Israel. And then there is the opposite discernment, when one has already advanced to the desire to bestow and identifies himself with it, as he nears the exodus from Egypt and is unwilling to mingle with the Egyptians (the nations of the world).

The Egyptians’ rule over him has ended; he no longer strives to be like them, no longer does he wish to unite with them, although he still lives among them, for now. In his eyes the Pharaoh receives blows, and these blows help him to rise above his relationship with the Pharaoh. Then he distances from the Egyptians, not because they spurn him, but because he is the one rejecting them as he nears the exodus from Egypt.

The Creator conducts these scrutinies in everybody (every person in this world) from both sides, in order to help us understand to which we are drawn more: egoism or bestowal. The nations of the world feel hatred for the spark of bestowal that has remained in the nation of Israel from its previous spiritual level. They reject Israel, which is precisely the reason the nation of Israel has remained intact.

Israel did not somehow manage to survive on its own; but rather, it is the opposition to Israel that held it together. As Baal HaSulam writes, Israel exists like nuts in a bag, united not by love, but forcefully, by the external hatred that surrounds them.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Exile Is The Creator’s Doing
Laitman.com Post: Inheritance Of The Land Of Israel
Laitman.com Post: The Two Paths Laying Before Us

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

A question I received: There is one’s personal intention and intention of the group. What should be the group’s intention during the Zohar study?

My Answer: It should be the same. The group’s intention cannot be different. A group is a sum total of the individuals in the group; it only amplifies everybody’s individual intention.

I have to connect with others because my intention does not carry enough power to attract the Light that Reforms. This Light reveals to me everything that I read in The Zohar. If my friends passed me their intentions, and their intentions united within me, I would immediately reveal the inner essence of a story that I read in The Zohar. It would happen instantly.

The problem is that they don’t wish to supply me with their intentions in the same way that I’m unable to pass them mine. Perhaps I’m talking about it, but it does not really bother me that much.

Herein lies the essence of unification. In uniting with others, I receive their intentions. Alone, I cannot reveal anything. It is the intentions that we receive from each other, nothing else. It is only through the web of intentions that I can connect with the other person, and this connection occurs only when I’m ready to supply others with life energy so that they all live in spirituality.

By thinking in this manner, I pass my intention to everybody. I unite with the others in a network of a living organism and then it becomes alive. I enliven it. Then each of my friends possesses a life force since each of them has an opportunity to pass the Light further.

The force of life or the Light exists among us. We can reveal it only according to our intention, our attitude toward each other.

It can be likened to an electromagnetic field. The field can’t be identified without an electric circuit with its conductors which allows the electric current to flow in the network, to move and perform work in the magnetic field. A metal conductor moving in the magnetic field passes electric current; free electrons are moving in it. These are exactly the same processes.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Mutual Guarantee Is An Inner Intention
Laitman.com Post: A Rock Separated From The Mountain
Intention Handbook: “The Intention of the Group”

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

The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 249: The world was created in ten utterances. But when you look, they are only three that the world was created in: Hochma, Tevuna, and Daat. And the world was created only for Israel. When the Creator wished to sustain the world, He acted for Abraham in Hochma, for Isaac in Tevuna, and for Jacob in Daat. This is considered, “And by knowledge are the chambers filled….”

There is a force above that reveals for us the entire reality, which descends from HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat) along three lines. This is how the Creator influences us from above.

And we, in turn, must take on an identical form below. Then we will understand the nature of this influence and how we can sense it, how to become similar to and merge with Him.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The All Encompassing Nature Of The Light
Attaining the Worlds Beyond: “The Work Along The Three Lines”
Video: Who’s In Control? – 5 Minutes Of Light (5:27)

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

The Zohar tells us about the connection among souls. From the Creator’s perspective, all the souls form a single system in the World of Infinity, where infinite Light fills everyone. This can be likened to a perfect, healthy organism, all the parts of which exist in harmony and proper interaction. On the other hand, The Zohar describes this system in respect to its parts called souls or people.

There are some who feel the souls and the connection among them. There are also others who do no feel it and perceive this system in its external form. They see it as consisting of our corporeal, animal bodies of this world that are somehow connected with each other.

The whole Torah describes only the types of the connection between us. The question is only how a person perceives it. We either feel the connection in the external form, as this constantly changing world that is moving toward some goal. Or we permeate within and, using this world as the basis, begin to feel the connection between us in the souls. Then we feel these two forms simultaneously.

The concepts of “world,” “year,” “soul,” and “procurement of reality” are forms of connection among us both on the material and the spiritual levels. All the concepts that exist in our world can be found in spirituality as well. However, in the latter they point to the form, the force, or the type of connection among us. This is precisely what we need to achieve.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Book Of Zohar Was Written Only For Creating A Connection Among Us
Laitman.com Post: Time, Space, And The “Self” Are Depicted In Our Perception By One Force
Video: Unraveling The Zohar – 5 Minutes Of Light (5:48)

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

Before we begin reading The Zohar, we need to prepare ourselves with an internal feeling that we are within the group. We will then be similar to that same group of the Kabbalists who wrote The Zohar and will have an easier time understanding what they convey to us.

Understanding comes as a result of the Light’s influence. The Light acts upon us from within the connection between the souls of ten Kabbalists who together existed in the final corrected state, meaning in the final corrected connection between one another. When they corrected the connection between them to such a degree that nobody had a single uncorrected desire to receive pleasure, then between themselves they revealed the Upper Light called “Zohar,” the Light originating from the Rosh (head) of Arich Anpin, which is the Light of Infinity.

Hence, if we try to reach the same relation between us as the authors of The Zohar had, we will attract the Light from the same state which they attained. This Light can also create the connection between us as it is said, “One who makes peace in the Upper One, makes peace in us.” This is precisely what we should expect from reading The Zohar.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Thin Bridge Into The Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: What The Zohar Teaches Us
Laitman.com Post: Access To The Spiritual Control Panel

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

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 228
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

While reading The Zohar we imagine, like on a screen, a picture of this world detailing various subjects and images, material words and actions. This is because our desire remains solely material.

We demand that The Zohar bring us the Light which illuminates a deeper screen similar to a computer screen where different windows are hidden behind each other. We have to try to see the spiritual property behind each word to the best of our abilities.

When we obtain spiritual sight, we naturally start to see a totally different picture behind the words we read: forces, connections, relations, properties, and qualities. This new picture is absolutely disconnected from what we used to see before. The prior form disappears and transitions to a more “inner” screen which is holding our sensations, sensibilities, and our whole life. We have to strive to attain this state.

In other words, I wait for the Light, the force that I attract while reading The Zohar, to get me more deeply involved in the screen that hides behind the others. By shifting from one display to another, I start to live through a new screen. That’s where my sensations and reason “reside;” it becomes my life.

When that happens, everything obtains a new essence. I previously thought that I grasped the meaning behind the words in The Zohar, and attached them to various subjects and actions of this world. Yet when I transition to a deeper screen, I see that the prior display barred a totally different meaning of a much more internal nature, for example, my inner properties. That’s the change that we have to expect from The Zohar.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Change The Movie Of Your Life To A Better One
Laitman.com Post: Inner Reflection
A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “The Screen (and the Unlikely Example)”

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

The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 59: The Creator never left Israel in exile, before He came to place His Divinity with them.
It is even more so with Jacob, that when he went down to exile, the Creator and His Divinity and the upper holy ones and the Merkavot, all came down with Jacob… This is the conduct of the Creator in all the exiles….

What does it mean that “Divinity went down to exile with the nation of Israel“? We think that there exists something, in which the Creator does not take part. However, the only one Force that acts in the whole creation and in us is the Creator or the Light.

Exile is a special state of the creature (the desire He created), which the Light purposely creates in it in order to lower and distance the creature from Himself, to create a desire for Him in it. The Light measures out very precisely all the states of exile, all the problems, emptiness, and misfortunes that will be revealed in the will to receive pleasure. The reverse side of the Light or the Creator, acts in exile, as it is written, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart (Exodus 10:1).” (The Creator was also clothed within the great flood, and so on.)

“There is none else beside Him.” The exile is a form of the Creator’s, the Light’s influence in its oppositeness or reverse side. This influence is precisely measured in all the gradations of qualities, against every desire of every soul, and in all the connections between them.

Therefore, the Creator, the Light surely exists together with the people in exile, constantly influencing and supporting us. He creates this exile Himself, with His reverse, shadowy side, as King David wrote, “Thou hast beset me behind and before (with Light and with darkness) (Psalms 139:5).”

When the Light no longer needs to act from the reverse side, that is, through darkness, when the Creator stirs up and rouses the desire (Kli) to a sufficient extent, and it will truly aspire to the front side of the Light or bestowal, then He pulls the Kli out of exile, to liberation. However, the Light is the only acting force, which influences us from either the reverse or front side. Therefore, the exile is Him preparing us for our liberation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Morning Lesson 4/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: First L ight Prior To Sunrise
Laitman.com Post: How To Feel The Surrounding Light
Shamati #1: “There Is None Else Beside Him”

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

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 163
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 510: “And the angel of His presence saved them.” Thus, He was with them in the affliction, since he begins to say, “In all their affliction He was afflicted…” …When Israel are in exile, Divinity is in exile with them, too, as it is written, “Then the Lord your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you.”

The Creator can stay together with the creature only at the times of peril or exile. Otherwise pride, ego, and coarseness of the desire to receive pleasure separate them.

When the creature is in harm’s way, feeling exile or bitterness, it is capable of feeling the Creator and being closer to Him, as it is said: “The Creator stays close to broken hearts.” There is no other way to awaken the creature, approach it, and stay together except for the times of trouble. Being in this state, the creature awakens.

However, if the creature is willing to inflict upon itself “suffering of love,” if it suffers because of the absence of a connection with the Creator rather than the earthly troubles, it ascends and becomes able to attain advanced states. It then lives the life full of blessings and pleasure.

The sensation of deficiency and darkness that the creature experienced while being separated from the Creator does not vanish; it remains within it. This sensation stays in the empty space beneath and inside of it, as well as in all the good that is above it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: In Spirituality, Everything Is The Other Way Around
Shamati #34: "The Profit of a Land"
Video: Find Happiness Through Despair – 5 Minutes Of Light (6:46)

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