A question I received: What should one’s intention be while reading The Book of Zohar: to reveal the Light between the friends, to reveal the text within oneself, or both of these together? And which is more important?

My Answer: I don’t consider the two separate. We talk about how the whole world is inside a person, and the entire reality that I perceive exists within me. Even though I currently exist inside an illusion, thinking that I see friends in front of me, the surrounding world, enemies, houses, stars, and everything else, the fact is that all of this is my own desire. That’s how I perceive it.

My desire contains spheres. Some of them are my inner spheres, called root (Shoresh), soul (Neshama), and body (Guf). Then there is a more external sphere, called garments (Levush) as well as a more external one called house (Eichal).

This is why I perceive myself inside the inner spheres (the root, soul, and body), and in the external spheres (the garments and house) I perceive the world, which seems to be outside of me. This is so because during the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet), the two external spheres separated from me and became outside in relation to me. That’s why they surround me. However, in reality they are mine. They exist inside of me and I only perceive them as external.

Since my inner desires are Keter, Hochma, and Bina, or root, soul, and body, inside them I perceive the Inner Light – NaRaN. In the desires surrounding me (garments and house) there is a weak surrounding glow and that’s why I don’t consider them very important. I depend on them to some extent; for example, the stars and the sun shine for me and the world surrounds me, but the most important thing is me.

I don’t even suspect that my most important desires are precisely the ones outside of me. And they are all mine. It’s just that I exist inside an illusion where they seem foreign to me.

So where is the group, the teacher, the Creator, The Book of Zohar, the entire world, my spouse and my children? They are all inside my desires. Who did I marry? My desire. Who did I yell at today? Who did I laugh at? It was all my own desires. All of it is me.

You might say, “So you’re saying that I am inside of you, but I say that you are inside of me, who’s right?” The answer is that both are correct.

As long as we don’t ascend above this world into spirituality, we won’t be able to free ourselves from this illusion. However, if I view the whole world as my desire, then it’s much easier for me to go from this illusory perception of reality to the true sensation of reality.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 172: “And he made the camels kneel outside the city by the well of water.” “Outside the city” means in the graveyard. “By the well of water,” which precedes the revival of the dead in the graveyard. Those are the ones that negotiated in the Torah, since what is the first thing that one is asked when he goes into the grave? If he set times for the Torah, it is written, “And the stability of your times.” It is even more so when he comes out, there is no question about reviving them first.

A question I received: How does Torah study help a person when he goes into the grave?

My Answer: One studies the Torah and because of this he “dies” at the previous level and goes down into the “grave.” This death is required before a person renews himself and is reborn on a new level.

The desire for pleasure remains in the form of a “fetus” (Ibur) until it completes this stage and has to be born. The prior state turns into the “grave.” The mother’s womb that once comprised the whole life of the fetus, and which one knew in every detail because he grew up in it, now transforms into “the grave.” The egoistic desire that a person starts to reject and is unable to work with any longer is forced to turn itself into a new state.

This is why a person is asked: “Did you set times for study of Torah? Did you want the Light to act upon you?” Now a new state will be revealed. You applied all your efforts toward spiritual growth while staying in the mother’s womb. Now, the womb turns into the grave, and you are born with a new desire.

How else could we come to a new degree? Why can’t we just leap over the degrees? It is because we have to accumulate the desires that are associated with each prior step. By  going through them, a new degree becomes obvious for us. A new degree doesn’t just descend to us from Above. One’s former desires that were previously worked on perfect themselves, thus transforming into a new level.

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Kabbalists who revealed the Creator, wrote books about this, starting from Adam, the first person to attain the Creator, through Baal HaSulam. There are many Kabbalistic books mentioned in The Book of Zohar, which we aren’t familiar with. Apparently, these books have been lost. All the books written by sages from the nation of Israel up to HaShla HaKadosh (17th Century) were written from spiritual attainment.

Later, as a result of the descent of the level of the generations from the 17th Century on, not all authors of books on Kabbalah were in spiritual attainment. For this reason, a question arises regarding the authenticity of some books. We have at our disposal hundreds of books by authentic Kabbalists who wrote them while they were in our world and simultaneously had the perception of the spiritual world, a connection with the Creator. Hence, they were able to transmit their attainments to us in the form of texts, so that we, in turn, would obtain contact with what they attained.

However, The Book of Zohar is the only authentic Kabbalistic book about which it is written that through it we will come out of exile and rise to the level of those Kabbalists – the authors of these books. Indeed, The Book of Zohar truly has a special Light. The fact that there are other books, through which we can acquire a greater impression or understanding, is irrelevant when actually attaining the level of connection with the Creator.

There are many Kabbalistic texts, such as: “The Tree of Life” by the ARI, the Tanakh, the Gemara, and the Mishna, which are written in a rational, logical language that we understand. In contrast, when we read The Book of Zohar, we don’t understand what is written. It carries us into various directions. However, the special connection that it creates between our souls, between us who are beginning this path, and the source of Light that is able to correct us – is not present in any other book.

Therefore, of all the books, only about The Book of Zohar is it written that due to it we can come out of exile, to deliverance, and reveal the Creator. Other Kabbalistic sources also contain a connection, since the Kabbalists writing them possessed spiritual attainment. Their connection is expressed in their compositions. Nonetheless, only The Book of Zohar, can help us.

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 258: The Din (judgement) that the Creator executed in the flood and the Din in Sodom were both Dinim of hell, since the wicked in hell are sentenced by water and by fire.

Item 259: Sodom was sentenced by the judgment of hell, as it is written, “And the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” One was sentenced with water, one was sentenced with fire. And both are sentences of hell. And the wicked in hell are sentenced by these two discernments, for there is hell of snow, which is water, and there is hell of fire.

We have to understand that we make all the discernments within us, while reality itself does not change. I am in the World of Infinity even now, and nothing can ever change in the existing reality. The only thing that changes is my own perception, sensation, awareness, understanding and assessment. These changes are what I feel.

It is written, “Every person judges to the degree of his own shortcoming.” In other words, I depict a picture within me according to my assessment of the World of Infinity. This is why heaven and hell, good and evil, and judgment by fire and water are different levels of my attitude to a static, unchanging picture. It is written, “I did not change My HaVaYaH.”

We depict our own reality inside ourselves with our attitude to a constant state. Everything depends on our qualities, perception, and assessment of the World of Infinity, the Creator, the Light, absolute bestowal.

Heaven, hell, and different kinds of judgment are all states that I reveal inside myself. Nothing changes on the outside. Everything is determined by the change that takes place in my consciousness or my vision. In other words, everything depends on me and my inner values, qualities, and foundations.

It follows that everything depends on education and a society that will help me to change my foundations. That is how I can develop a more accurate attitude to the unchanging reality. The faster I will be able to change my inner qualities, the faster I will go from one “frame” to the next.

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A question I received: Do you have any recommendations to enhance the effects of reading The Zohar text while listening to the simultaneous translation during the daily Kabbalah lesson?

My Answer: People who gather around a Hebrew text reader unite even though they have no command of any other languages other than their native tongues; they sense how much the words of The Zohar influence, correct, and fill them.

We stay within a system that is called “The Zohar.” The Zohar is not just a book. Each of its words “presses” some buttons and triggers its elements to move. This is how we launch it. We have no idea what this system really is. Even if we knew the correct, clear, and accurate translation of each word, we wouldn’t know a thing. We don’t know what we activate by pressing the buttons.

Therefore, an accurate and beautiful translation into any language won’t help much. For a person who speaks Hebrew and for whom it is his/her native language, it becomes even more complicated. They listen to the familiar words, but don’t know what they mean.

If you heard a translation of my current words you would hear some abstract sounds, and yet you would strive to reach the spirituality that is hidden behind my words. Those who hear these sounds and at the same time understand what I say feel as if they are already satisfied. It is as if their desire to be pleased has been filled and they have received something. For them, it is much harder to penetrate deeper into the inner meaning of the words. They think about the “earthly” meaning of words in The Zohar like “banners,” “people,” “animals,” and “colors.” They listen to the text and draw pictures in their imagination.

But you don’t. You hear an alien language without any understanding of its meaning. That’s why you can link anything you want to the words you hear. You can be sure that we talk about the soul, the spiritual conditions under which it becomes filled with the Light, and about the revelation of the spiritual world. Imagine! It is the best!

After you learn Hebrew, it becomes more difficult for you. There is an advantage in NOT knowing the language. The mixture of the languages happened specifically to help us connect with each other. This “perversity” triggers the connection among us. In fact, it is not a perversity; but rather, a revelation of the remedy that helps to establish a union among us.

It seems to us that the mixture of the languages happened for the sake of separation. It is not true. It occurred intentionally to make our connection possible at the spiritual level rather than at the level of “everyday common language.” It is worth confusing our worldly relations to the extent of being unable to communicate with each other if, as a result of this confusion, we wish to attain a “heart-to-heart connection.”

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A question I received: How can we connect the articles from the book of Shamati, which we are studying during the preparation to the lesson on The Zohar to The Book of Zohar itself?

My Answer: Everything we study in the science of Kabbalah is meant to keep us in constant connection with the Creator. In order to be connected to the Creator, to hold onto Him, to know how to properly and purposefully work out all of our states and situations, and to remember that they are sent to us by the Creator, we need the Light that Reforms. This Light needs to constantly illuminate for us that everything comes from the Creator and that it is given to us in order to advance. I evoke this Light again and again, repeating this cycle.

Importantly, The Book of Zohar connects me to the source of the Light. The Zohar is protection, it is our life buoy.
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 201
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A question I received: How does the Light that Reforms work when we read The Book of Zohar?

My Answer: I have a desire to understand what is written in The Book of Zohar. I ask the Light to give me this opportunity. What does it do? It changes the intentions over the desire in me. This change works so that within this desire I begin to understand what is written in The Zohar. Everything I feel, hear, see, and think now is presented in my desire. The whole reality is carried out in it.

If I read a book and I don’t understand it, it is because my desire or my sense (Kli) does not perceive what is written in the book. How can I perceive it? This is possible only if some force comes and changes my desire. After all, my reality is clothed in my desire. The Light that shines within the desire creates all these forms for me. My perception and understanding change only if my desire changes. Therefore, all my aspirations, all my appeals are to the Light, for it to change these forms for me. In response, it changes them by changing the desire.

Within an improved desire I begin to feel new, more perfect qualities, the next degrees. Always the Light itself is constant. To the extent that our desire changes, we will begin to perceive a new and different reality. This is precisely what we need. After all, everything is a result of a change within the desire. And this change is performed by the Light.

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The Zohar tells us about the upper system which includes all of us. However, there is no need to explain it in great detail, because we simply follow the story and wait for it to influence us. Then the picture becomes clearer, as though appearing through the fog. It’s like a child who gradually becomes familiar with the world, learning about various things around him, how they’re connected, and how to use them.

Similarly, we naturally grow this way in the new world. Now we’re approaching that world and it is beginning to emerge more clearly before us. First we begin to “hear” something, and later on we start to recognize these sounds. This is the way we enter the sensations of the spiritual world.

Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to explain a lot since spirituality must be revealed in sensation, inside the desire rather than inside the mind. Instead of studying spirituality theoretically and being satisfied with that, we have to enter the spiritual world.

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statutes),” Item 5: …and the awakening of the act above depends on the words of the mouth. As we need to evoke the higher holiness with deeds and words, those who come from the side of impurity should awaken their side with deeds and with words.”

Item 6: And although Balaam was the greatest of all the wizards in the world, Balak was a greater wizard than him, since in magic, Balak was greater than the sages….

What does it mean “to awaken impure forces with our deeds and words”? Isn’t it better to keep silent, inactive and not to awaken the “sleeping dog”? No! Our advancement finds its path between our actions and words that in turns appeal to impurity and sacredness.

The “magic” means using the power of the Creator for the sake of confusing people and showing them their true evil nature. Those are the forces that are hidden within us and without which we won’t be able to reveal our egoism.

Angels of evil who work within us are: Balaam, Balak, Azazel, Aman, and others. These names imply the forces of the shattering of the soul; they represent its separated parts, not some “outside powers” since the only power that ever works outside of us is the Creator.

Before shattering, all souls were interconnected within one whole, harmonious system and were merged with “the One, the Single, and the Only.” After shattering, these parts obtained a new type of connection that brought them certain “benefits” and at the same time prompted them to “kill” each other.

Similarly, one nation becomes allies with another only to conquer “the third party.” This force is called “impure” because on one hand, it is a miraculous power of unity that comes to us directly from the Creator, on the other hand, we use it with a wrong egoistic intention – to harm others.

If we knew how to use this power, we would be able to thrive for a short period of time, but it is obvious that this prosperity will come to its end shortly. All evil people and dictators begin with encouraging people to unite, to help each other, and to build socialism because an evil force cannot attain power over a human being if it doesn’t hide itself behind a “good” mask.

The evil force “buys” a person by presenting with him “a partial truth” that serves as a cover for a big lie. It seems to us from the outside that we are getting a great “offer,” but in fact this “offer” is a well concealed lie with the purpose of deceiving and using us.

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