The Zohar is structured in a way that requires a great deal of reading. A person should read it for one or two hours, go through various inner states, concentrate on each state he encounters, realize how distracted and unable he is to listen, and then once again come back to The Zohar noting its influence.

Gradually a person begins to feel that something becomes clearer. This clarity comes through seemingly dry material, different states, and by making efforts. This is how it works.

The main thing is not to forget about the intention. A person should look within for all those desires and properties that The Zohar speaks of, yet at the same time, want to be together with everyone and feel that together they are him.

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A question I received: What kind of spiritual advancement did we gain at The Zohar Convention 2010 that was held last week?

My Answer: We went through enormous changes. I felt that the nation of Israel did not simply receive The Book of Zohar, but returned to it. It wasn’t the reception of something new, but the joy of people who found what they once lost.

Maybe they can’t even give themselves an explanation of what happened to them, but I saw that this is exactly what their souls experienced. They felt that they found what they lost two thousand years ago. They aren’t studying The Book of Zohar now, but are remembering it.

Indeed, this is the case: They aren’t finding out something new, but are rejoicing about the return of something that was once lost. Therefore, I think that the nation of Israel went through a great, wonderful spiritual ascent. Moreover, this doesn’t apply just to the people who were with us at the Convention. It was a step forward for the entire dissemination of the science of Kabbalah among the nation of Israel, which will later be joined by all humanity. Thus, all of Babylon (all of humanity) is returning to its spiritual source.

There is reason to hope that all the souls will unite into one soul of Adam in our lifetime and we will attain the state of the Final Correction, the World of Infinity, the corrected common soul. I believed in this and waited for it, but our success exceeded all my expectations. I think that we are being given great opportunities from Above to correct our nature.

There is still a lot of work ahead of us, which is special and yet difficult. At the same time, it is extremely important and exalted, and we have to be grateful that the Creator has chosen to fulfill His great plan through us.

Now all we have to do is continue to disseminate Kabbalah among the nation of Israel with the help of all the people who took part in the Convention together with us. By virtue of the wisdom of Kabbalah and the force of the Light of The Book of Zohar, Israel will unite into a single nation, as Baal HaSulam writes in the newspaper “The Nation” and Item 70 of “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.” This is possible only by uniting the hearts, and that can only happen by the force of the Light that Reforms, which raises us above our egoism.

I would like to thank all the people who came to the Convention from many different countries all around the world. Together we will be able to carry out this great correction, and judging by the speed of its current dissemination, it is bound to happen very fast.

The time has not yet arrived to reveal the true depth and greatness of what is unfolding, but I can say that we carried out exalted and mighty inner corrections. And this will soon be expressed inside us and in the world.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Ve’Eleh Toldot Itzhak (These Are the Generations of Isaac),” Item 51
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A question I received: What does it mean that we have to desire to study The Zohar together? How should we do this or feel it?

My Answer: Correction means that all desires are united together. When our desires are separated from one another, we feel this reality or this world within them. When we unite our desires together, then inside them we feel a reality called “the spiritual world.” Everything is very simple and it does not involve space or time. Everything depends on the unity of desires into one whole or their separation from one another.

Right now we feel this reality because our desires are disconnected and each one stands on his own. Inside your own small desire, which is aimed only at your own good, you feel what you are able to feel inside it. You feel Light, but when the Light appears inside this desire it seems to you as what you see now. Do you want to see something different? Well, you won’t be able to do anything with these earthly desires all the way until the End of Correction.

When this earthly desire is revealed and grows within us, we feel that we live. Afterward it dwindles and we feel that we die. Then it comes to life again and dies as if it is revived in order to be used and then goes back into concealment. However, besides it, there is another desire called “the point in the heart,” which comes from another, spiritual level. This is a desire we can connect to others. We cannot connect the desires of this world, which are desires of the still, vegetative, and animate levels. They exist in their regular form, where every person is connected with others to the degree that nature obliges him to, and not more than this.

However, we can unite our desires called “the points in the heart,” and then we will feel the spiritual world within them. This is why I have to imagine this common desire (Kli or vessel). It is very tangible and it really is in our hands. If we could unite our desires for spirituality, our points in the heart, together through mutual help and mutual connection, then we would feel the spiritual world. However, the sensation within them has to be mutual. It cannot take place in each separate individual because it is revealed through the unity of desires.

What is it that becomes revealed? It’s the connection among the desires. This connection is called fulfillment, the Creator, or the Light that fulfills the desire. We don’t reveal the Light by itself. We only reveal our impression of the Light, the quality of bestowal that clothes into us. It clothes precisely into our relationships of love and bestowal to one another.

There is a force that enables us to unite together and treat each other with mutual bestowal. My bestowal to another person is called “Light,” and the mutual bestowal that I reveal among everyone is called “the Creator.” This is the meaning of the verse, “From love for the created beings to love for the Creator.”

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When engaging in this composition [The Zohar], one evokes the power of the souls and the power of those righteous with the force of Moses. This is so because while engaging in it, they renew the generated Light, which was created during its composition. And Divinity shines and illuminates from that Light as when it was first created. And all who engage in it reawaken that same benefit and that first Light which Rashbi and his friends had revealed while composing it.
– Ohr Yakar (Precious Light), Gate 1, Item 5

Studying the Holy Zohar purifies the body and the soul and is capable of bringing redemption soon in our days.
– Rabbi Efraim Ben Avraham Ardot, Mateh Efraim (Efraim’s Wand), The Tip of the Mateh (wand), Item 23

When a student of The Zohar overcomes the temptation to give up the study under the rough and brute influence of those around him, his soul is fortified by the aspiration to come closer to the Creator despite everything….
– Damesek Eliezer, Introduction to Derech Kedusha, Chapter 12

And you shall return and distinguish between a righteous…a servant of God, and one who serves Him not: A servant of God is one who engages in the Talmud and The Zohar. One who does not serve Him engages only in Talmud, and does not engage in The Zohar.
– Maayan Ganim (Fountain of Gardens), Chapter 1, Item 2

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 117: We learned that there are upper spirits, from among those who were made of the spirit of the left of Adam HaRishon. Those do not cling below in this world, but hang in the air and hear what they hear from above. Some of them know other spirits below in this world, and appear to people in their dreams and alert them.

Obviously, this is not talking about people who are seeing this in their dreams. The Zohar does not say a word about our mundane reality or our world. Gradually, as we read it more and more, we begin to feel that we are inside a system that is operated by forces and desires.

When a person sees that he is connected to these forces and acts through them, he feels that he is clothed in a specific image, force, or character that is being referred to by the name of an animal, bird, or plant. These words do not refer to animals, birds, or plants that we see in our world, but to the way a person senses parts of the spiritual reality, or the spiritual forces that enliven him.

That is why The Zohar uses descriptions in this manner. In reality, this is the form closest to what we will soon begin to recognize when we start to feel the spiritual world.

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When Baal HaSulam explains The Book of Zohar using the terminology of Kabbalah, he aims to provide an explanation that will develop our soul and sensations rather than our mind. This is, indeed, a challenge because the language of Kabbalah is very precise, logical, scientific, and dry and therefore, a person faces the pitfall of becoming too engrossed in it mentally. This is especially so in our time when egoism is so highly developed that its development occurs through the mind. The modern person is inclined to look for a scientific explanation using the earthly mind instead of feeling the Upper World inside his corrected desires.

As a result, when a person hears an explanation, he is lured into Klipa. If he accepts everything on a purely rational basis and starts to provide explanations to what is happening without relating it to the correction of his sensations, then he won’t aspire for spiritual attainment. He will be satisfied with the explanations on the level of his earthly reason, and that will halt his spiritual progress. Moreover, he will go on to confuse others who don’t understand that his beautiful words hold no spiritual attainment, but just abstract knowledge.

This is why my teacher Rabash conducted his lessons in a way that caused his students to leave the lessons confused, not understanding anything. They did not aspire to acquire pure knowledge, but waited to acquire the ability to feel what they read. There is also a different approach to teaching Kabbalah where a student rejoices after the lesson about receiving certain knowledge and being able to connect everything beautifully into a single picture of the world. These are two completely different approaches.

Either way, life will put everything in its rightful place. The global crisis, suffering, problems, and the development of egoism will bring an end to our superficial interest in science. People will become smarter and realize that abstract knowledge is of no use because it does not provide any solutions to their problems. We have to reveal and feel spirituality, instead of building theories based on things written in books.

When the mind works based on feeling and attainment, we truly reveal nature, the Creator. However, when the mind keeps growing instead of achieving real attainment, it is described by the verse, “One’s knowledge exceeds one’s actions” (Hochmato Merubeh Mi Maasav) and this halts a person’s spiritual development. He starts to be a know it all even though he is actually in total darkness and does not feel what he speaks of.

Therefore, it is my wish to prevent every person from being carried away by speculative commentaries, and to help everyone aspire only to self-correction and the attainment of real revelation.

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The Zohar, Chapter “ Ve’Eleh Toldot Itzhak (These Are the Generations of Isaac),” Item 14: Even though all the people in the world are from Israel, they are all worthy of blessing the Creator. But blessings for which upper and lower are blessed, who are they who bless Him? It is the servants of the Creator. And who are they whose blessing is a blessing? It is them who stand in the house of God at night, those who rise at midnight and awaken to read in the Torah. They are the ones who stand in the house of God at night. And they need both: to be servants of the Creator, as well as to rise at midnight, for then the Creator comes to entertain with the righteous in the Garden of Eden.

In the science of Kabbalah, “midnight” does not correspond to the time fixed by astronomical hours and the rotation of the planet earth. Rather, it corresponds to the state of a person who builds spiritual senses (Kelim) within.

This person is in the state of darkness because his previous level has completely exhausted itself like a grain that rots in the soil. This is a necessary condition for acquiring a new degree; his previous state must “rot” in regard to him.

Then he begins to see a new level from within the darkness, which is formed by the following level and the Upper Light that lie ahead of him. For now it appears as darkness to him because he senses it through his current qualities. After all, every subsequent level is a greater degree of bestowal in relation to the uncorrected will to enjoy that becomes revealed to him.

On one hand, a greater Light shines for him, but on the other hand, he reveals an additional, uncorrected will to enjoy within him. He already has a new level within him, but he perceives it as darkness, a lack of Light within the desire.

Because his additional desire is not yet corrected, he experiences the Light as darkness. This makes him search for a way to change his attitude to his perceived reality. In and of itself reality is always a part of the corrected Malchut, which gradually becomes revealed to him more and more.

A person constantly changes his perception, sensation, and awareness, as well as his attainment of his state. He then demands the Light that Reforms; yet, he does not do it to make reality change, but to change his perception of reality.

Therefore, this person is called “a servant of the Creator” because he understands that in every state, everything comes from “There is none else beside Him.” Only the person’s perception of reality changes as a result of him correcting his qualities (Kelim).

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 162: “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin…on the evidence of two witnesses.”

We have to take into consideration that the language of The Zohar is not always smooth. This book came to us after being collected from detached pages. Sometimes it lacks certain chapters and there are many unfinished sentences. Often Baal HaSulam replenishes it with comments saying that some content is omitted or that there is no connection between its parts.

Nevertheless, by no means can we change anything in it, even though it is obvious that the text was compiled of the pieces that were available. What we consider to be The Book of Zohar is actually a very small part of what was originally written.

On the other hand, we should understand that this fact doesn’t reduce the book’s strength or ability to deliver the Light to us. The fact that we have this book in its current form means that it is exactly what we need for the correction of our souls. The language of the book is not always clear and we come across vague portions of phrases in many places. This is proof of the authenticity of its text.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharoah),” Item 63: Accordingly, Bina, Tifferet and Malchut of the still Nile, too, fell into Keter and Hochma of the Niles during the Katnut. During Gadlut, the still Nile, too, elevates its Bina, Tifferet and Malchut to it, and with them rise the Keter and Hochma of the Niles, which receive GAR from him.

There is a great, still river, the Nile that is connected to all the small Niles (rivers) through their Galgalta Eynaim. This big Nile annuls its AHP (this is why it’s called still) in order to let the small ones connect with it. It waits for them, and as soon as they become connected it begins lifting them along. Thus, they rise from their own level to the next one.

At the higher level there is another “still Nile (river).” They connect to it and rise even higher. This is the way the “spiritual elevator” works. What seems to be darkness is always the concealed Light. Therefore, there is no darkness. It’s only dark because of my egoistic attitude to the Light; this is why the Light becomes concealed. It shines to me with its opposite side, which is why the Hebrew word for Light is “Ohr,” while in Aramaic the word “Ohrta” means night. It is for this reason that these two languages are opposite to one another like a front and back side.

Darkness doesn’t exist. It exists only with regard to our uncorrected desires. There is no darkness in the corrected desires. Therefore, as soon as I am in a bad mood and lack inspiration, it means I have an opportunity to awaken myself and attain a greater connection with the Upper One precisely through the darkness I feel.

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