When we read The Book of Zohar, we have to demand spiritual elevation. The demand can happen even through our sensation of being close to this book, the feeling that we value it, that we want it to shines upon us and perform changes inside us.

Sometimes this feeling is very difficult to attain; it comes only after a few hours of studying. Nevertheless, it still has a great effect when we constantly apply effort in trying to feel the words of the text inside ourselves. As a result, we awaken the Light that Reforms. Gradually our effort adds up and the law of “I labored and found” goes into effect. We only need patience because nothing else will help.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Miketz (At the End),” Item 161: “And he put them all together in prison for three days.” These three days correspond to the three days of Shechem, as it is written, “And it came to pass on the third day, when they were in pain.”

The third day is always connected with pain. It is the hardest day in the process of correction because it is the day when the mutual inclusion of the right and left lines occurs. It is not like the first day, which is all about the right line and when we arm ourselves with the power of bestowal, nor is it like the second day, which is all about the left line, when we check which of its parts we can connect with the desire to bestow. The third day is about the reciprocal inclusion of one property into another, which results in the creation of a new, intermediate property.

Reciprocal inclusion exists only in spirituality; it never happens in our world. In this world there exists only one type of connection – when two objects unite. For example, the first object contributes its intellect whereas the other one donates emotions. They connect and replenish each other. This happens because in our world everything possesses only one property – the will to receive. Therefore, all inclusion in our world occurs only within this one property, which takes on various aspects and forms.

Mutual inclusion in spirituality, however, means that something brand new emerges – a third entity comprised of the first two. This is, in fact, a completely new phenomenon that didn’t exist previously. This “something” is called the Soul, the Human, or Adam.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Miketz (At the End),” Item 178: The Creator made it for man to strengthen himself in the Torah and to walk on the path of truth and toward the right side, and not to the left side. And because people need to walk to the right side, they should increase the love between each other. This is because love is considered “right,” and there will not be hatred between each other, which is considered left, so as to not weaken the right—the place to which Israel cling.

This paragraph seems to be speaking about life in a corrected society or group, but we still have to decipher what it means through our inner discernments. There is no difference when The Zohar speaks about an apparently external assembly of people or about a gathering of inner properties of our soul. It is the same thing since everything consists of the same ten Sefirot. We all contain the vessel of our common soul (Adam Rishon) and the same internal states of ten Sefirot exist in each of us.

This is why sometimes The Zohar uses inner definitions when it describes our properties or when it tells us about what the group should be like; sometimes it depicts only one person, or animals. We must try to see multiple levels at the same time: the inner level of our soul, the level of our group and our connection with friends, and the level of all humankind. In the future, all these levels will unite.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Miketz (At the End),” Item 33: “Them that await His mercy.” “Them that await His mercy” are those who engage in Torah at night and partake with Divinity. And when the morning comes, they await His mercy.

The Zohar also talks about this in the article, “The Night of the Bride.” It describes all the days of exile as a dark night, during which we prepare our desires (Kelim) for the connection between the Groom and the Bride that will happen in the morning.

All who prepare for this meeting are called the dwellers of the King’s palace. The moment that they complete building the wedding canopy (Huppah, symbolizing a screen and the Reflected Light), the Creator (Zeir Anpin) unites with His Shechina, which is the union of all souls. This is the vessel for receiving the Light. Then the Bride unites with the Groom; the two compliment each other and attain a state of perfection and peace.

When a person engages in Torah at night, a thread of mercy extends upon him during the day….

It is impossible to engage in the Torah during the day, because the day is when unification happens. At that point, everything is revealed and there is no more work to be done. Our work lies in exercising our freedom of choice, while in fact we already exist in the perfect state. We just need to “prefer” it, meaning to choose day over night.

When we decide that bestowal is day, we will reveal it as being day. Through the Reflected Light, we awaken day and Light instead of darkness. This is why all the work happens at night; it’s because all our choice and efforts are concentrated there. There is no work that can be done during the “day.”

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The Zohar, Chapter “Ki Tissa (When You Take),” Item 16: “All those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored.” The Creator is destined to do unto Israel all that good, which He had said through the prophets of truth, and for which Israel greatly suffered in the exile. Had it not been for all that good that they await and see, which is written in the Torah, they would have been unable to tolerate and stand the exile.

This means that a person gains a greater desire for correction, called “Isra-el” (directly to the Creator), by anticipating the goodness and abundance that will come later on. And moreover, his desire grows even stronger when he gains an initial connection with that goodness.

In our world, a person feels like he knows that he will receive a future reward for his suffering. But in spirituality, this is not the case. There, a person doesn’t receive psychological relief by thinking that evil will turn into goodness. One who is studying Kabbalah relates to this differently. When a person is on the path of truth, he knows that evil is there to help him attain goodness. He sees that the evil is actually within him and he has to correct it instead of simply enduring it. Then, instead of feeling the evil, he feels goodness.

A person does not expect a lucky streak to follow a bad one, but knows that the “unlucky streak” he is experiencing is the revelation of evil within him, which he has to reveal and then correct. In this manner, he attains goodness within. It’s not that the suffering takes place in one place and the reward comes in another, or that he makes an effort here and receives a payment there. Rather, by carrying out the correction, he transforms the “evil inclination” into the “good inclination” – and that’s the reward.

That is why a person rejoices when the “wicked are revealed” – because this gives him something to work on and to correct. It is thanks to this work that he attains spirituality, the Creator, the property of bestowal. Yet, everything happens in the same place: the desire to enjoy.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Ki Tissa (When You Take),” Item 24: “As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, she writhes and cries out in her birth pangs,” since it is the nature of a pregnant woman to wait nine whole months.

This is talking about the fact that it takes time for us to feel all of the evil contained within us. At first we simply start to feel it slightly, but this doesn’t mean anything yet. Every state has to go through all four stages until we attain it fully along with its root and decide that it isn’t something accidental or temporary, but it is evil from the beginning, at the very root, and come to the realization that we have to get rid of it. Only then do we have the power to eradicate the evil.

But there are quite a few in the world who go through only one or two days of the ninth month, while all the pains and pangs of the pregnant woman are on the ninth. Hence, even if she only went through one day of the ninth month, it is considered as though the whole of the ninth month had passed for her.

Here The Zohar speaks about the revelation of evil, exile, and redemption. It says that we don’t have to wait for the end of 6000 years if we already feel that we have started the ninth month of “pregnancy” and the birth pangs of the exile. This means that we are already capable of completing the entire correction process.

So are Israel: Since they tasted the taste of exile, if they repent, it is considered as though they had experienced all the troubles that are written in the Torah, especially that they had experienced several pangs since the beginning of the exile.

This is saying that the duration of the exile does not depend on time. That is to say, it depends on time only until the “nine months” mark. We have to go through “eight months” of being burdened – this is certain. But when we start feeling even the first day of the ninth month, from then on everything depends on this sensation and our full realization of our evil in relation to the root. Then we will be able to come out of exile because “it is considered as though we had already gone through all of the misfortunes.”

The period called “the initial eight months” is the preparation period, the period of exile that we have to go through. There is no way to avoid or reduce it. This was the period before the Ari. Starting with the Ari onward, a different time began, which can be reduced the more we advance. This will increase the “pangs of birth” of our development and enable us to complete our development long before the end of 6000 years.

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The ten students of Rabbi Shimon who wrote The Book of  Zohar are the ten Sefirot of the corrected soul. This is why they are able to bring to us the Upper Illumination (Zohar), the Light that originates from the head of Zeir Anpin. This Light comes from the highest source, and as such, it is the highest possible Light that can reach us.

As I try to find the qualities that The Zohar describes inside me, I have to understand that all ten Sefirot exist inside me even on my small level. I just can’t discern them inside my desire, which is like a single drop. For now my desire still lacks aim, yet it is like a drop of semen that already contains everything that will happen to it later on – all the qualities and all of life. It is missing only my effort; this is what I have to add to that drop, which is like a drop of semen from which a person (me) will develop.

The effort is made by working with the environment (the group) and the book. The environment inspires me with a greater desire for the spiritual goal, but most importantly, it gives me the right desire. Sometimes a person is burning up with a great desire and thinks that he doesn’t need the group, but that is because he can’t see that his desire is incorrect and not aimed at the goal. It can only be a correct desire if he lets it pass through the group. His personal desire will never be aimed at the Creator because the Creator becomes revealed inside the connection between the souls (us). Therefore, we have to let all of our desires pass through the group. That is how we will receive the force of unity and bestowal from all the group members.

If you are simply burning up with a great desire for Kabbalah and the Creator, this doesn’t mean anything yet. You still don’t desire spirituality because spirituality is bestowal and love for one’s neighbor, and those are things you surely don’t desire very much. You have to let your enormous desire pass through the group, and then you will see how much it really is or isn’t aimed at spirituality. Maybe you will be left with five ounces out of the 100 tons of desire that is burning inside you. But those five ounces will be aimed at the goal and you will really be able to use them to turn to the Creator. As for the rest of the 100 tons, you are simply burning up with them but standing in the same place, not going anywhere.

This is why we have to bring our drop of “spiritual semen” into the right environment: It’s in order to receive the force of bestowal and the right direction from it. The group molds us like dough, which can then be placed into the oven in order to bake into bread.

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It is written, “I created evil and the Torah to correct it” because the Light in the Torah reforms. Correction occurs only according to a person’s intention. As the Ari explains through his student Chaim Vital in “The Preface to the Tree of Life” and as Baal HaSulam says in “Preface to Talmud of Ten Sefirot,” everything depends on the intention of a person who studies the Torah. All the books that talk about the correction of the soul are called “Torah.”

A person reaches a true demand for correction only if he intends to correct his soul and wants to attract the Light in order to be corrected. He has to reach the feeling that he needs to correct his qualities, which is attained by studying his qualities compared to the qualities of the Creator. Then he sees that there is a great distance between these qualities and understands the state that he must attain. At that point a demand for correction emerges in him.

Books that were written by the Kabbalists who reached spirituality and attained the Creator are called “sacred books” since they talk about bestowal and love for one’s neighbor. This is why it is written that people study the Torah only if they strive to reach bestowal.

“Torah” means the Light that comes to a person in order to correct him. The words of the Torah fill a person’s soul to the same degree as his level of correction. It says in the “Preface to the Book of Zohar” that the Torah is divided into 613 corrections (Taryag Eitin) and 613 fulfillments (Taryag Pkudin), where “613 corrections” signify the Lights that come to a person in order to correct his 613 desires to receive for himself, turning them into desires to receive for the sake of others. Thus, the Lights transform all our desires into the desire to bestow. The “613 fulfillments” are the Lights that fill our corrected desires with the Light of the Torah. This is why we always need to begin The Zohar lesson with the correct intention – each person on his own and all of us together. Our correction and our bright future depend on it.

There’s no doubt that when many people join together, they have much more power and strength than each one had by himself, especially now that they strive to reach the same goal together – the revelation of the Upper Force which governs them. A union such as this has much more power, making the intention even more important. This is why it is extremely important for us to learn to achieve the correct intentions before the lesson starts.

Baal HaSulam gives a detailed explanation of this in the “Preface to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” where he writes: “Therefore, each student has to reinforce his faith in the Creator and know that He governs over us,” where “reinforce the faith” means the strength of bestowal. In other words, before the lesson starts, I have to desire to attain the properties of bestowal. This is the reason why I study. “Then,” continues Baal HaSulam, “his heart will be ready because ‘Lishma’ will extend from ‘Lo Lishma.’” This means that out of our natural desire to receive, we will attain a true intention – the desire to reach the Upper Force – bestowal. It is the intention that defines the quality of our studies as well as all the results we can expect.

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While reading The Zohar, instead of looking inside ourselves and identifying what’s written in the book as our own properties, we mistakenly start imagining historical characters and events. In this manner, the words that appear familiar become obstacles to experiencing The Zohar.

The words are only symbols. They consist of letters where each letter is a symbol representing a spiritual property. The sum of several spiritual properties comprises a small system called “a letter” (in Hebrew it is called “Ot” – meaning a symbol or sign). A letter expresses a certain property, an action, and a spiritual structure. It consists only of a desire that is shaped in a certain way. Desire is matter, and the forms that it assumes are called “similarity with the Creator.”

There are four such similarities with the Creator in Malchut, nine in Zer Anpin, and nine in Bina. They add up to twenty two. Also, there are five forms that bear a restrictive or coarse property at all five levels of desire (0-4 Aviut), and five letters MaNTzePaCh that indicate the Parsa (borderline) between Atzilut and the Worlds of BYA. This is why the Hebrew alphabet has 22 main letters and five additional letter that replace the regular letters. This is the MaNTzePaCh – the letters that appear at the end of the words.

These words contain no corporeal taste, flavor, or connection with history or people. Rather, they are only forces and properties of desires. At first we don’t see any difference between all these words. It doesn’t matter if they are names of people, animals, actions or plants; we still don’t know what they mean and simply try to understand. At this initial stage they are just symbols with unknown meanings.

It is similar to trying to understand hieroglyphs: I don’t feel anything nor can I tell the difference between them. Words and hieroglyphs are symbols that outline states of my desire.

Therefore, when we read The Zohar, we have to detach from stereotypes, feelings, and relationships that are associated with each word, and instead start searching for their spiritual meaning. The only thing I know for sure is the fact that everything I am reading about is happening within me. I know nothing else since I am dealing with a world that isn’t revealed in me yet; these phenomena exist in me in a concealed form. I have to apply effort in order to uncover these phenomena inside myself by disconnecting from all corporeal images that are triggered in me by these words.

I won’t be able to see these properties within myself if I only use my own effort. However, by applying my effort I can attract the Light that Reforms, which will correct my intention and make me use my desires in order to bestow rather than to receive. To the extent of obtaining such qualities, I start to feel The Zohar’s words.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Miketz (At The End),” Item 248
If a desire becomes like the Creator, if it becomes equal to Him, then it becomes infinite.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Metzorah (The Leper),” Item 1
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