Evening Zohar Lesson – 04.09.10
Posted on April 10th, 2010
The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 496
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 496
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
If a person ascends above himself and begins to feel that unification with others is more important to him than what is happening in him, then to this extent he comes closer and closer to the Upper Force. In this manner he reaches the quality of bestowal, Lishma. In this quality of bestowal he begins to feel the Upper reality. It is as though a light turns on before him and in this light, he begins to see what is ahead.
It is like he was roaming around a dark field, without seeing or understanding anything, and suddenly he acquires the quality of bestowal, which turns on the Light, and he begins to see in what reality and in what world he exists! All this is due to the fact that he had properly implemented all the exercises that the Creator had given him. In these exercises he preferred to come out of himself in order to connect internally and spiritually to his environment, instead of closing up inside himself.
In this manner, a person acquires the quality of bestowal instead of the quality of reception, and in this quality, in the Light of Love (Hassadim), he turns on the Light and sees the true reality. However, now we see only ourselves. It is written in The Zohar that our eyes are turned inward and we do not see what is happening on the outside. This is how all our senses work. Therefore, we do not see the true reality.
The whole Torah is meant to reveal this external, spiritual world to us and to lead us into it to live actively in it! This is called the Torah Lishma, which is studied in order to reach the quality of bestowal, faith above reason (knowledge). Faith is Bina, and “above knowledge” means above Malchut. When Bina reigns above Malchut (faith above reason), and Malchut adjoins it, then, in this form, we can reveal the Upper reality.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/10, Shamati 22
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The Zohar. Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 424. …The fruit of the actions of the Creator is from that river that stretches out of Eden, meaning ZA and the souls of the righteous. In other words, its deed is the souls of the righteous. And this is the fortune from which all good blessings and timely rains pour out, as it is written, “To water the garden.” It trickles and waters from above downwards because sons depend on this fortune and on no other place….
All our degrees of ascension and correction depend on “fortune” (Mazal) – the Lights that come from above “in drops,” one after another, and seep through the beard of Arich Anpin from his head. And since they come in intervals, we have an opportunity to correct ourselves.
Corrections occur to us step by step, time after time, due to the fact that the Upper Light comes to us in small portions, since a person is incapable of freeing himself from his egoism immediately, in one leap. This is impossible, since egoism is our whole nature!
Therefore, heaviness of the heart comes to us, we overcome it, then it comes again, and we overcome it again, and so on; “drop by drop” we receive correction. All this is due to the revelation of the drops of the Light of Hochma, which are delivered to us by the stream (Zeir Anpin) that flows out of Eden (Bina) and irrigates our souls.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, The Zohar
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled),” Item 432: And now that Divinity needs correction, to bond with her husband, ZA, that redemption of Egypt must be shown to contain four redemptions. And with the awakening of the Mochin of the exodus from Egypt, she is corrected to bond with her husband because she has become liberated from all four Malchuts.
Shechina (Divinity) must go through four exiles which will be followed by the final redemption, the exodus out of the final exile. Malchut comprises four layers of the desire to receive pleasure. Thus, each time she must reveal a greater egoistic desire and exit out of it, meaning to use it for the sake of giving; and then once more reveal an even greater desire to receive pleasure, and again correct it with the intention to give. And so on four times over according to the structure of Malchut of Infinity. In so doing, we will conclude her correction, and she will be completely corrected.
Presently we stand on the threshold of the final redemption. The greatest desire to receive pleasure, which is being revealed today in the souls, must be corrected with the intention to give. And then there will be no more exiles.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/10, The Zohar
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If I, along with my friends, wish to reveal within myself the inner qualities described in The Zohar, they will be revealed. I only need to desire greatly that the property of mutual bestowal, love, and guarantee will be revealed in all of us. By doing so, I affect all the parts of my soul whom I see as strangers so that each of them would awaken himself.
You are a part of me, but I can’t act in you directly as we are separated by our egoism which acts as a divider. I have no access to you even though you are a part of my soul. So, what should we do? I realize that I can reveal the Creator or the Upper World only inasmuch as I restore the soul. I search for ways to influence you in order to awaken and revive you since you are my part. I affect you and, when you correct or revive yourself, it is my doing. Thus, this corrected part belongs to me. In this manner, I adjoin the whole of creation to me.
It’s written, “the corporeal of a friend is the spiritual of you.” That is to say that I rouse him to correct himself through corporeal actions and thereby bring a part of my soul closer to me. Everyone acts in this manner and returns everyone else to himself. It turns out that I never work against someone else. By bestowing to others and by loving the neighbor, I simply relate to parts of my own soul in a different, correct, “egoistic” form. Later, it will be revealed to me that these are parts of my own soul.
For example, I hate the son of my neighbor for disturbing me by playing the piano. Then, suddenly, I discover that he’s my own child and I repent my hatred bitterly. In other words, I take the mistakes and the transgressions of the past and turn them into merits.
In the same manner, we reveal our sins right now on the stage of preparation for spiritual revelation. We reveal our hatred in regard to everyone. Later, we learn that it’s all our own and correct it.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, The Zohar
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Our thoughts and desires are interconnected. Therefore, right now, as we study The Zohar, if someone is being lazy, this weakens everyone else. That person will be punished for his deed in that it will be even more difficult for him to keep studying.
We are all in one common boat. Either I am drilling a hole in it, or I’m trying to the best of my ability to move our common boat with my intention.
The less energy I have, the more difficult it is for me. Yet, if I overcome all these obstacles, then I contribute great efforts to the common effort to evoke the Light. I thereby influence everyone else and this comes back to me through them. As a result, I end up a winner.
Therefore, the more difficult it is during the study, the better it is. I have to feel the responsibility I have because we have all signed a group contract, a mutual guarantee, and this fact has to obligate me to act.
It is impossible to read The Zohar by myself; I need an environment. That environment is the people who are studying all over the world and expecting results from the study. The Creator has awakened several million people in different parts of the world, who are now reading The Zohar together with us.
Every person sitting in front of his TV or computer screen has to understand that if he is being lazy at this moment, then he influences all others! This transgression will come back to him and will push him away from attaining the goal in the same measure that he caused harm to all of us.
Therefore, the study is not just my personal work. Right now all of us together are trying to attract the Surrounding Light and with its help to move our boat closer to the goal. It is written that one has to attain such a degree of love for one’s friend that one would give the friend one’s last pillow if the friend wanted it.
Now think: Your friend wants to advance toward the spiritual goal, and the two of you are moving together in the same direction. However, suddenly you abandon him! What kind of punishment does a traitor of this caliber deserve?
From the 1st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/10, The Zohar
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 452
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The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 118: A firstborn is considered Hochma, and “All the firstborn” indicates that even the higher and lower degrees were broken from their dominion… ” Item 119: “From the first-born of Pharaoh that sits upon his throne…even unto the first-born of the maid-servant…."
A firstborn is GAR, the head of the Partzuf, and it needs to subside in Egypt. Everything that was perceived in the desire to receive pleasure as a stable basis of life, which supposedly could be achieved egoistically, is now being destroyed: "From the firstborn of Pharaoh unto the firstborn of the maid servant and the firstborn of the cattle."
Egoism grows, the Light cannot fill it, and Egyptian darkness comes about. It seems to us that the attitude of the Upper Governance with regard to us changes, but in reality the Light exists in absolute rest while the desire to receive pleasure in us increases constantly. If we don’t correct it in time, we feel greater and greater darkness and suffering within it.
At the end of the Egyptian slavery our desire increases through a leap, and it is revealed with a new force on the next level. It is there that a person feels Egyptian darkness, the ten plagues, which is egoism revealed in all of its ten Sefirot, meaning in a complete desire displaying darkness and evil. The desire has grown, and we have stopped feeling even that minor illumination within it which we had experienced before.
The ceasing of the former Light in the new, great desire to receive pleasure is called the execution of all the firstborns in the dark night, "from the firstborn of Pharaoh unto the firstborn of the maid servant and the firstborn of the cattle." This means that the Light has been concealed and is no longer revealed.
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