What does The Zohar teach us? We know from the science of Kabbalah that the Creator created one desire, within which all further development occurs. This one desire encompasses a great multitude of individual desires, connected with each other into a single system called “Adam,” the common soul.

Then, according to His program, the Creator began to ruin the connection that existed between the parts of the same desire. Thus, they began to lose connection with each other, and like a sick organism, the organs stopped interacting with each other properly. Similar to an imbalance when our body is ill, we experience symptoms such as increased blood pressure or temperature, or chemical changes of the blood. It is an illness where the body is unable to balance itself out.

Why does the Creator act this way with regard to the souls? It is in order for us to feel the corruption and then correct it. This illness or corruption of connection between us as parts of one system permeates into our initial state, and we begin to feel less and less connected to each other. This loss of connection between us comprises 125 degrees of descent from Infinity, the state where we were infinitely connected to each other and until a state where this connection vanishes completely. Moreover, during the descent through 125 degrees, on the level called “Parsa,” (division), an even greater corruption arose, and instead of the positive connection that was once present, a negative connection emerged. Therefore, each person now wishes to use others for his own benefit. The organism doesn’t simply die, but completely devours itself.

This descent into a desire for the sake of receiving and using others continues until it reaches a state where we absolutely lose any connection to each other, including a positive connection for the sake of bestowal, as well as a negative connection for the sake of reception. We exist in a state of complete disparity to spirituality, lacking any realization or knowledge of it, which is a consequence of our separation from each other.

Therefore, what we feel is “this world,” an imaginary reality. Why is it imaginary? It is because the Creator created it specifically for the purpose of creating an illusion of His absence for us. We are given the opportunity to understand that we need to correct the connection between us. To the extent that our connection increases, our soul ascends from the feeling of just our world to the World of Infinity occurs. Thus, re-establishing a connection between us creates an ascent.

For that reason, to the extent that we can imagine our states in connection with all the souls (all individual parts of creation together), we will gain a greater appreciation of The Zohar. After all, The Book of Zohar is written from the level of Infinity. The authors of The Book of Zohar wrote this work from the height of all 125 degrees, where they were connected together. Likewise, when we study The Zohar, we need to feel a desire to unite within. We don’t need any special tricks, but must only remember that everything is attained inside our connection with one another.

In actuality, The Zohar talks only about the unification of souls. It explains our connection in the general system, called “Adam,” with all the other souls, and how we can connect them all together into a corrected, healthy, and properly functioning system. This is the only thing that The Zohar speaks of.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 218: But after He had made that form of the chariot of the upper Adam, He descended and clothed there, and he is named in it in the shape of the four letters HaVaYaH.

The Creator made the worlds. Inside the white Light He created a rough framework of reality: the order of steps, Partzufim, and Sefirot. This was done so that we would have something to “grasp onto,” and “climb” up, gradually reaching the simple white Light.

We climb up these steps from our world reaching the World of Assiya, then the worlds of Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the World of Infinity; they all roll up behind us like a rug. We rise together with the worlds, and they all disappear. Therefore, the Hebrew word “world” (Olam) originates from the words “Elem,” “Alama” (concealment), and “Nehelam” (disappearing) since eventually they disappear and cease to exist.

These worlds were formed due to the fact that the Creator created a black netting inside the white Light, making it easier for us to navigate and find the steps from our current state. However, as soon as we complete our correction and rise to the World of Infinity, then this entire framework will disappear and become absorbed by the Light.

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While reading The Zohar, we need to delve deeper into ourselves, searching internally for all the actions and qualities that it describes. These actions and qualities are actually found within our desire, but they are hidden from us. Thus, we need to reveal them.
The process of revealing them is similar to a machine that works within. It is as though we’re walking through a forest together looking for something that we’ve lost. Our whole group is walking through a forest, searching for a lost item that is very important to all of us.

We need to put forth effort and search inside ourselves, until we break this inner wall that is present in each of us, that separates us from spirituality. There is no other means to break through to the spiritual world, and The Zohar tells us about the world that exists behind that wall. If we wish to pass through it and we are attacking it together, this is the only way to break through it.

In fact, this wall is created in a person in opposition to his spiritual qualities. A person is an egoist and is found on one side of the wall. However, one also exists on the other side of the wall, but this is a completely opposite “I.” Therefore, we need to go from the egoistic “I” to the spiritual “I,” and this is only possible with each of us making our own efforts.

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We don’t feel that we exist in a special system. Once there was a story on the news about the security system at the diamond exchange. Invisible rays penetrate the whole place but the web of rays remains undetected by the eye.

We exist within the spiritual system in the same manner. We are already in it; we are its parts; we activate it, and it activates us. This system exists, it lives. The Light in it comes from the Partzuf of Arich Anpin of the World of Atzilut, meaning from a very high level called our End of Correction. This Light is called “The Zohar.”

Therefore, The Zohar is not a book; it is an instruction manual of how to put into gear the influence of the Light that is coming from the End of Correction, so that it influences and carries us with it to the final corrected state.

When authentic Kabbalistic sources reference The Zohar, they do not say “The Book of Zohar;“ they simply say “The Book” because it is obvious that there is nothing else. Everything else is not considered a book.

We have to realize that it is not just a book. A “book” means “revelation,” and this is precisely what occurs when we come into contact with The Book of Zohar. Even when a person simply reads, watches, or listens to how others read this book, without understanding or knowing much, something changes in him though he doesn’t realize exactly what that is.

So let’s continue to read it with the intention that we are all together, since correction is possible only in connection among people. In it, we will then reveal the Upper Force, the Creator. We aren’t just reading this book; we are putting a system into gear in order to reveal it.

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I have been hearing reactions that people find it very difficult to read The Zohar. They don’t have the patience for it; they lack connection with the text and the taste for it. I agree with all these complaints because if that’s how a person feels, there’s nothing you can say in objection. However, we have to take an example from our regular lives and how naturally we enter this world.

How do babies learn to live in this world? They simply listen and watch everything, without understanding what is happening to them. Thus, they involuntarily establish connections with the world, and naturally, with the help of the Light, they receive all the notions, language, and understanding of this world.

If we knew how this whole process happens to a person in this world and all the mechanics of it, then we would understand that we go through the same thing in spirituality. It is the only possible development; it happens naturally and enables us to enter an additional world – the spiritual world. Granted, the process is easier for babies in this world because they have already been born into it and all they need to do is assimilate knowledge and sensations of their surroundings, according to the nature of a newborn. We, on the other hand, have to learn the systems and acquire the sensations of a world that is opposite to our qualities.

We don’t even know what this opposition means because we are completely separated from the spiritual world. Therefore, our entrance into it must happen even more naturally; that is to say, it must happen exclusively with the help of the forces of nature, because on our part it is impossible to understand or feel it in any way ahead of time.

On the contrary, we have to rise above all of the understanding and sensations that we already have by virtue of the force of bestowal. This is called, “faith above reason.” We have to make these efforts and desire to belong to the spiritual world above our feelings and our mind. We have to desire for it to influence and develop us, to give us a new heart and a new mind instead of our current, material ones. That way we will reveal ourselves above our current nature. We will then desire to remain open and to absorb everything that the Upper Light is able to do to us.

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 62: Such is the Torah. It has a body, which is the Mitzvot of the Torah, which are called “the bodies of the Torah.” This body clothes in dresses, which are mundane stories, and the fools in the world consider only that clothing, which is the story of the Torah. They do not know more and do not consider what exists underneath that clothing.  Those who know more do not consider the clothing, but the body under that clothing. But the sages, the servants of the High King, those who stood on Mount Sinai, consider only the soul in the Torah, which is the essence of it all, the actual law. In the future, they will gaze upon the soul within the soul of the Torah.

This passage tells us about the processes that take place within a person. We are the “fools” or the “sages,” depending on the state we are in. A big Aviut (coarseness of desire) reveals itself within us—and we fall down. If we’re able to cope with this newly revealed Aviut by building a screen above it, we become more sensitive, corrected, and can go deeper.

The same applies to our material world: Some people are foolish, others are wise. What does “foolish people” mean? Their desire to receive pleasure is very small. Because they are not developed enough, they don’t penetrate into the “body” (Guf) of the Torah. The “clothing” (worldly stories) is enough for them. Their desire doesn’t demand, obligate, nor force them to reveal the inner essence of what’s written in the Torah.

When the desire to receive pleasure grows and manifests in each person as a part of a global desire (that is the whole system of connections between us reveals itself), we start asking questions about the meaning of our life and about our purpose. At this point, we realize that we all depend on each other, and therefore have to unite. Everything depends on the depth of our desire to receive pleasure (our ego) that is gradually being revealed within us. It helps us to transcend from the clothing to the deeper content of the Torah.

Hence, each person must force himself to connect with others as much as possible. Then, with the help of the group, he will receive a much stronger power of the Light that Reforms. Accordingly, a rougher desire to receive pleasure will be revealed, a person will be able to get deeper into it, and thus will reveal the inner essence that hides behind the clothing.

There are fools and sages within each of us. Therefore, we have to make sure that we are able to deal with the deepest layers of the desire to receive pleasure. Revelation of the Torah happens within the corrected desire to enjoy in correlation to its power and coarseness. Then, Aviut (coarseness) of the desire is transformed into Zakut (purity, subtlety).

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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 124
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Studying Kabbalah, I know that you yourself would not want to study, except from one greater than you. And you will not find it except in studying The Book of Zohar. However, prior to each study, resolve within yourself to not make it a habit, but only for the Creator. And not all times are the same: at times you will be able to study for the Creator fervently, if you are rewarded with praying with a pure thought; and sometimes with a small thought, but all with a thought to benefit the Creator.
–The Rav Meshulam Feibush,
Yosehr Divrey Emet (Sincerity, Words of Truth), p 25

If one merits it, he will study The Book of Zohar at dawn, because by its power Israel will come out of exile as out of darkness.
–Ohr Tzadikim veDerech Seuda, Volume 1, Chapter 15

Study in a book of Kabbalah, and even if you do not understand them, say the words of The Zohar, for they can purify the soul.
–The Rav Yaakov Kapil Prayer Book, Section “The Intention in the Study”

It is true that we accept that even for one who knows nothing, the words of The Zohar can still cleanse the soul.
–Rav Tzvi Elimelech Shapira (MAHARTZA),
The MAHARTZA Additions, Item 9

Each and every letter in The Book of Zohar and the writings of our great teacher, by Rav Chaim Vital…are great corrections for the soul, to correct all the incarnations.
–Rav Yitzhak Yehudah Yehiel of Komarno,
Notzer Hesed (Keeping Mercy), Chapter 4, Teaching 20

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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 112
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Zohar Convention 2010, Lesson 7
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Zohar Convention 2010, Lesson 8
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Zohar Convention 2010, Lesson 9
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