Lately I received many questions and complaints regarding why we have begun to study The Zohar if we don’t understand anything in it! Others, on the other hand, write, “If The Zohar brings the Surrounding Light, why didn’t we begin to study it earlier? Why have we lost so many years?”

Those who have been studying for many years and recently began to study The Book of Zohar feel that they could not have approached this earlier. First, preparation and a mature desire are necessary. This includes an understanding that there is no choice and that without The Zohar we will not be able to achieve anything. The preparation involves understanding that there is a special, wonderful power in The Zohar and only it can help us. Ultimately, it is not in my power to ascend this mountain on my own; the only choice that remains is to await salvation from above.

In order for a person to begin to search for the Light that Reforms, one first needs to lose faith in his own strength and see that on his own he will not achieve anything. As it is written about Egyptian slavery: “And the sons of Israel cried out from this work.” In other words, you raise your arms up in despair, realizing that there is nothing else left to do – you have tried everything and you see that nothing helps.

To reach this point, a person needs to be “old” and experienced; this maturation occurs through studying Kabbalah for several years. This feeling is not given to a person without a reason, and the years spent are not wasted! There is a huge benefit in them, and this benefit will be revealed to us.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 230
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We could not begin studying The Book of Zohar any earlier. Students simply would not have been able to tolerate it. Although new students see that now people who have been studying for a few years can open The Zohar and feel that redemption truly comes from it, these new students don’t yet have that same need. They perceive this book as being completely incomprehensible, dry, and unfit for a beginner. They want something that is more directed at logic and feelings.

However, we need to take into consideration the following condition: The majority of the group that has been on the path for many years is on such levels of development that they need this book. The moment this group achieves a state where it can finally comprehend The Book of Zohar, the Surrounding Light completes its work on them and will bring all of them across the Machsom.

So what will happen to the newcomers? We will always have newcomers. Until the very End of Correction, there will always be people who have been on their path of correction for many years already, and those who are just beginning. So what do we do?

The instant the main bulk of the students, who are now leading, began to study The Book of Zohar, this shortened the time for all the others! If new students join the others, these newcomers can perform a leap in their development.

We see this through the example of a child in our world. A child is born into this world and already he is benefitting from all the preparations and efforts the world of adults has made for him. Completely unaware of these arrangements made for him, a baby is born in a maternity unit of a hospital equipped with specialized instruments and machines to care for him. Ready for the baby are: diapers, special foods, and a multitude of products and services. Nearly half the world is devoted to providing children with everything they need.

A child is included in the whole world and grows with his generation. He doesn’t start from the beginning, from the primordial state of 20,000 years ago. He joins his modern generation at their level of development with all their advancements. He immediately falls into our contemporary degree, surrounded by computers, cell phones, and mp3 players. We give him all the best things that we were able to create.

In spirituality it works exactly the same way. When “children” come, when they have just been “born” and don’t have anything, we must provide them with everything that befits our generation of mature students.

They will assimilate it all quickly and grow even higher than us.

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A question I received: During The Zohar part of the morning lessons, I feel that I don’t understand anything but, nonetheless, feel an aspiration and connection to the material.

However, during the evening lessons, I don’t know what to do with myself. I feel completely detached from the material, overwhelmed by thoughts of daily problems, and unable to concentrate on the lesson. What can I do to start focusing on the material? Is there some instant, automatic action that can be done in such a state?

My Answer: The automatic action to fight the disturbances is to thank the Creator that sends them. After all, “There is none else beside Him.” He creates these disturbances for you; He controls your heart and your mind. It stands to reason that He best knows what to send you at any given moment. He sends you all these things precisely to confuse you, to make you feel clueless, unable to focus, to distract you by compelling you to think about your day’s activities, problems, and concerns.

Why? If, in the midst of all this confusion, multitude of problems, and distractions, you are able to gather all your strength to grasp and connect with even a tiny fraction of the text for just a few moments, therein lay your profit. On the other hand, if you’re sitting at the lesson with a clear mind, feeling as if you are practically soaring in the spiritual worlds, you may not be in the right place at all. Indeed, your effort lies in trying to connect to the spiritual world, even a little, in spite of all your little “snakes” (egoistic desires). This is precisely what you need.

Later, all of a sudden, the great revelations will come. Precisely from the hardships and departures, the revelations are attained. As it is written, “The Torah shall come out of Zion (Light’s departure).”

Therefore, if your mind isn’t functioning or your mood is foul, don’t think that it’s useless to come to the lesson and listen to The Zohar. That calculation is absolutely incorrect; your clarity of mind or emotional state is not important. If you’re truly struggling with feeling detached, weary, and confused, but you still try to connect to the material as much as you can, even if you only make a small momentary connection, you gain much more than during the states of great inspiration. This is because inspiration is granted from Above and it just inflates you like air fills a balloon. However, the true benefit is produced by hard work and effort in spite of disturbances.

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A question I received: Since our objective is to attract the Surrounding Light when reading The Zohar, why do we read it with Baal HaSulam’s commentary instead of reading the original Zohar?

My Answer: First of all, since The Zohar is written in Aramaic, the ancient language of Babylon, modern readers cannot understand it. Furthermore, The Zohar is written in a style filled with allegories and images that appear corporeal to us. We would not be able to detach from these corporeal images when reading The Zohar without the Kabbalistic Sulam Commentary on The Zohar. This is why, by combining the original Zohar text with his Sulam Commentary, Baal HaSulam introduces us to the correct understanding of The Zohar and the proper structure. Through this we can begin to see the entire text through the three lines.

The three line approach is necessary. Even the Torah is approachable only through the three lines. It is written entirely by way of the three lines: We need to take the two lines given to us from Above, the right and the left lines, the desire and the Light, and connect them properly. We build our soul by properly combining these two lines.

It is impossible to study The Zohar without the Sulam Commentary. This method, called the Sulam (The Ladder) became revealed and added to The Zohar when our generation came to the point of being ready to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is the time of correction. As the global crisis becomes revealed amongst the souls, we can now use this method to its full extent.

In addition to including the Sulam Commentary, we slightly modified the text of The Zohar by abbreviating some technical details to make it more accessible to the modern reader. This is why we have named it Zohar for All.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 155: …But the lower ones cannot receive the illumination of the left before it is clothed in Hassadim from the right line.

This is why Esau was weary. It is written, “Behold, I am at the point of death; and what profit shall the birthright have for me?”

Esau wanted to receive the Light of Hochma into the egoistic desires (Kelim of reception) and found that he was unable to do this. Similarly, we spend our whole lives chasing after pleasures, trying to find enjoyment in life, but as soon as we feel pleasure, it immediately disappears. This cycle recurs throughout our entire lives. Repeating this unending cycle is why Esau was weary and said, “I am unable to continue like this. It is hopeless; I am tired of it. I am ready to unite with Jacob.”

Today all of humanity is standing at the threshold of this same realization. For this reason, the science of Kabbalah, Jacob’s method, is being revealed. This science is precisely about how to build the middle line, how to implement Jacob’s method.

Before humanity reached this state of despair, there was no demand for the science of Kabbalah. Now the need is apparent; from here the Torah can be revealed since the Torah is revealed from the middle line – the correction of egoism.

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A question I received: What should we imagine when we read the words of The Zohar, which we do not understand at all? Should we picture the souls in unity, the Light’s influence on us, or something else?
My Answer: You need to imagine that we are all together in one desire, and that what we read about in The Book of Zohar will be revealed as filling inside this desire. And together, this desire and its fulfillment will reveal the Creator.

We are waiting for and expecting results from our studies. We really need to correct our connection to others because this will become our vessel for the Light. Then, my desire will receive the quality of correction, the quality of oneness – the Creator. The Creator is my correct desire for bestowal.

I need to imagine a state that I want to exist in. I may not know what the Light is or how it enters me, but I still need to picture the correct state that I want to achieve. Just like in our everyday lives, when we wish for something, we don’t think about the actions we have to make in order to obtain it, but only about the end result, about our desire coming true. I am then able to understand what I am lacking in order to attain the object of my desire, and where I can obtain the right example of the future state, meaning, which books can give me that example.

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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 194
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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),”Item 12: …Hence, the wicked are wiped out of Dumah’s book because he takes into the calculation only from the middle line, where the wicked are not included. Therefore, who will desire them at the revival of the dead? During the revival of the dead, the angel Matat will receive the account in the graveyards from Dumah. But who will desire those wicked ones that are not counted by Dumah for the revival of the dead?

A question I received: This text can confuse and frighten a person with words like “dead” and “graveyards.” What is the right way to perceive these words?

My Answer: We must understand that The Zohar speaks in the language of branches, as do most other Kabbalistic books. The method imparts not only knowledge, but more importantly it conveys impressions to us. This is in order for us to attract the Light of correction from the spiritual world to attain our corrected state.

We’re not talking about physical bodies or our material world, and we mustn’t try to correct our “hands and feet;” we aren’t attempting to fix physical concerns that should be treated by a regular doctor. Rather, The Zohar speaks of the soul’s correction. Therefore, even though The Zohar uses words of this world, they all allude to spiritual notions, meaning that they relate to our inner forces and qualities.

It is these qualities that I now want to study. I do so in order to understand which part of me is “ailing,” which part must be corrected. I do so, so that I will need to desire to correct it. That is the purpose of The Book of Zohar.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bamidbar (In The Wilderness),” Item 36: This explains the reason for the journeying of the banners, which were east first, which is the hidden Daat, the beginning of the light, the root of the light of Hesed that appears from AVI. This is why the south follows it, for it is its branch. And following it is the west, which is Malchut, whose face should turn to the south. And following it is the north, for the back of Malchut should turn to the north, as it is written, “Let his left hand be under my head, and his right hand embrace me,” and “under” always means Achoraim.

This passage of The Zohar speaks about the form in which the entire structure of a person develops and advances forward, and the order in which one’s qualities change. Every one of us is HaVaYaH, in addition to being divided into three lines, twelve tribes, four phases, and so on.

All of these qualities change in us during the period when we “wander through the wilderness.” So what is the form that is passing through our impure forces (desires), through our uncorrected qualities, which are called “wilderness”? Moreover, as we run into hardships, problems, and obstacles in this wilderness, how do we nonetheless continue clarifying our qualities so as to draw nearer to the “land of Israel” (desire for the Creator)?

“Banners” are our primary qualities with which we try to advance, changing them one at a time. Just as with an embryo, first the arms develop, and afterwards the legs, brain, heart, kidneys, and then the eyes are formed (there is a particular order by which a drop of semen develops into a human being); similarly, there is an established developmental order concerning spirituality. The Zohar explains the order by which we develop after being born from our egoistic desire.

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