It is written that the language of The Zohar can do anything. What does that mean, exactly?

We exist inside a system. This system is comprised of individual souls that separated one from another after the breaking from Above. In the space between us, which is outside our points in the heart, we’re building a Kli (vessel) to sense the spiritual world. This vessel is necessary in order for the Creator to be revealed to the creature. This is the goal of the science of Kabbalah as well as the goal of our entire existence.

Our intention should be aimed at making the connection between us powerful enough for this vessel to become similar to the Light and to become a vessel of bestowal. The moment this vessel becomes similar to the Light on the most minimal level, the Light will be revealed in accordance with the law of equivalence of form. All of our meetings and Congresses and our entire work is intended only for us to create this common vessel of bestowal.

In the creation of this common vessel lies a very interesting phenomenon. Naturally, we must all think only of the connection between us, of the partnership, the mutual guarantee, and the unification “as one man with one heart.” This is the condition for creating this vessel and the Creator revealing Himself in it. Otherwise, He will not be revealed.

At the same time, it cannot be that I labor with great effort while others are still impeding the creation of this common vessel. By not exerting the degree of effort requisite for its revelation, others are stifling the whole process. It is possible for me to labor greatly and have the vessel reach its full power while I don’t yet feel this state nor the results of my efforts.

After all, in this common vessel of the soul, everyone depends on everyone else. This is called the mutual guarantee. Every person is responsible for everyone else for better or for worse. It’s for better in that everyone could support, encourage, and assist one another in the work. This is called the positive mutual guarantee.

The negative mutual guarantee is when everybody is connected to one another whether they want it or not. This is because the system has already been formed in the first state (state Aleph) of Infinity. However, everyone also affects others in a negative way if they are lazy and careless. This causes others to also feel a lack of a desire to advance and the goal becomes vague.

Yet, as the Kabbalists say, the language of The Zohar can do anything. Our entire advancement is recorded, remains, and exists in the system. Even if it isn’t revealed, none of our efforts disappear in the spiritual world. Rather, all of our efforts remain and are saved in the system.

As soon as our common vessel is ready on the most minimal level to be like the Light (bestowal), the Light will be revealed. We’re talking about both the quantity of friends as well as their unity as a whole to form a common vessel for sensing the spiritual world.

Therefore, we must approach the study of The Book of Zohar with the right intention, with the feeling that everything is built in the connection between us and everyone must care for his friend.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Miketz (At The End),” Item 164
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A question I received: While reading The Book of Zohar, I try to imagine what I am reading within my own desire, but this makes me disconnect from the text and submerge into my internal stresses. I then realize that I have lost focus and it is as if I am floating away, not understanding anything. What should I do?

My Answer: The most important thing is whether those “inner journeys” are supported by the question: When will salvation arrive, brought to us by the Light that Reforms ?

It doesn’t matter how a person imagines what’s written in The Zohar or how he goes about his inner search. The most important thing is that in the background of his thoughts and efforts, he continues to wait for the Light to come. He waits for it to change him and to reveal the contents of The Book of Zohar – the sensation of the Upper World and the property of bestowal.

What matters most is: Does a person feel that his heart wants to move in this direction? If he does, then his thoughts, confusion, and reminiscences about himself, as well as the fact that he doesn’t listen to the reader, become unimportant. Underneath it all, he is bothered only by one thought: “When will the help from Above come to me?”

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In The Zohar, we read about all types of qualities and desires that exist within every one of us, as well as the states they go through. Together, we must exert the effort to try to recognize them within us.

It is not effective for every person, individually, to try and reveal these qualities and desires. Rather, we should all strive to reveal them within our common vessel of the soul (Kli) as if these desires, such as the Pharaoh, Moses, and others do not exist within oneself. A person doesn’t know who they are or what they symbolize. He cannot recognize these qualities, see the connection between them, or appraise their level. He only hears the sounds and the words. He must try to view them as a collective structure and as the ten common Sefirot of our soul.

Indeed, the authors of The Book of Zohar were ten friends who had united together into one whole vessel and attained the correction of all the degrees. In this same way, we must imagine our own state.

Of course, every person has their own personal sense with which to feel the spiritual world for everyone is comprised of the ten Sefirot. However, our work will not be complete unless we connect the common vessel of the soul, which also is comprised of the ten Sefirot, into the complete HaVaYaH.

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When reading The Zohar, we have to aspire to feel as one man with one heart in order to be similar to the Upper Light, because we desire to evoke its influence upon us. The great Kabbalist Moshe Cordovero (the Ramak, 15^th century CE) writes the following in his book Ohr Yakar:

“When we study The Book of Zohar, we awaken the force of the souls of the righteous men and renew the Light that was revealed at the time of this book’s composition. Thus, the Shechina – the assembly of all the souls – shines and illuminates us with this Light. And all those studying this book return and awaken the Light which Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and his friends had revealed at that time…”

Therefore, we too expect for the Light that was revealed by the authors of The Zohar to influence us through all the systems they had gathered after the breaking. They prepared these systems for us in order to influence us through the corrected system from the World of Infinity itself.

These great Kabbalists were acting toward us similar to how we act in this world toward our children, wishing to leave them a good inheritance. This is why they prepared the corrected system for us, as well as the Kabbalistic books and all sorts of “study materials.” They also left us advice on how to build a Kabbalistic group and what its statute should be.

All that remains for us to do is to try to cling to them like little children to the best of our ability. Then the system they prepared for us will begin to affect us.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Miketz (At the End),” Item 113: “And Joseph was the governor over the land.” Joseph is the sun, Zeir Anpin (ZA), since Joseph is Yesod de ZA, which governs the moon (Nukva), shines to her, and feeds her. He is the provider of all the people of the land, for all are fed by that river that stretches out of Eden, which is Yesod, called, “Joseph,” and from there the souls fly off to every person. This is why everyone bows before that place, for there is nothing in the world that does not depend on luck, which is Yesod.

Everything depends on the Light of Fulfillment and the Light of Correction that comes from Yesod to Malchut and to the souls that are included in Malchut. Malchut can receive these Lights when it, together with all the souls in it, reaches equivalence of form with Yesod.

Yesod contains all the qualities that are above it, all the Sefirot of Zeir Anpin. If the souls in Malchut are able to reach unity and become one, as Yesod, then they receive the Light called “Mazal” (luck), which corrects them.

This is why the condition for receiving the Torah is “to love your neighbor as yourself” and to unite “as one man with one heart.” If we are ready for this unification (despite not being able to make it happen, since only the Light does all the actions), then the Light actualizes this in response to our desire.

If we desire to unite, then even though this aspiration is still “Lo Lishma,” meaning it is purely external and artificial, nevertheless the Light understands it and affects us. Because of the difference between our levels, the Light understands similar to how we understand our little children: We know what each of them is capable of on his level according to his character and qualities.

If, according to our souls’ conditions, they are ready to be connected with each other and to become equivalent to Yesod, then there is a point of contact between Malchut and Yesod and the souls inside Malchut receive the Light that Reforms. Therefore it is written that everything depends on luck (“Mazal”) – on the Light coming from Yesod to Malchut.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Miketz (At the End),” Item 117: When a person rises in the morning, he should wash his hands from a Natlah of water, which is a vessel from which to take water [a special cup for ritual hand-washing].

“Morning” means that the Light of Hassadim comes and the illumination of Hochma is revealed. A person feels the spiritual quality of giving and love as darkness inside of his egoistic (receiving) desires. By correcting them, he awakens for morning and experiences the dawn, and then the day. Inside of his corrected desires he feels the Light of Bestowal.

All of this occurs inside the same desires. At first a person feels that the spiritual world is darkness – something that is repulsive and undesired because it is related to bestowal and the need to love the neighbor. He then goes through correction by studying during the nights (and according to the connection of “branch and root,” we also study at night). Thus, he prepares for the coming of day; he reaches the understanding that spirituality, bestowal, and love for one’s neighbor is day – that it is good, and therefore, he desires it.

Because of his intention, the Surrounding Light gradually begins to influence him, making the state that seemed like darkness to him before look desirable. The same state turns into day and begins to shine.

These corrections that a person performs to his desires are called “hand-washing,” since “hands” are the receiving desires, which need to be cleansed of egoistic intentions before they can be used. The “special cup for ritual hand-washing,” the Upper Vessel, Bina, pours the Light of Correction upon our receiving desires.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Miketz (At the End),” Item 34: “Joseph was sad,” sad in spirit and sad at heart, since he was imprisoned there. Since Pharaoh sent after him, it is written, “And they brought him out hastily,” meaning that he appeased him and replied to him with words of joy, words that delight the heart, since he was saddened by his being in the dungeon. First, he fell in the dungeon, but from the dungeon, he later rose to greatness.

It appears to us that the story about Joseph talks about material things and the changes they undergo. Joseph falls into a pit and then rises to greatness. We see a desert, a Pharaoh, the Pharaoh’s ministers, a prison, and so on.

However, in fact, it is Joseph, himself, who decides how to see reality. Joseph decides whether it is a pit he falls into or a king’s palace. He decides whether it is night or day. He perceives each of his conditions according to his level of revelation of the Creator, as well as what he thinks about his connection with the Creator and about the situation he is in.

In reality we are always in the state of infinite fulfillment. However, our uncorrected perception depicts pictures that are uncorrected as of yet. The scenes we see are a reflection of our attitude and judgment in regards to the Creator and His role in governing us. The situation in which we find ourselves is, in fact, our evaluation of the Creator’s attitude toward us. Therefore, we are the ones who create our own state.

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Miketz (At The End),” Item 137
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A question I received: Why should we read about all the numerous details described by The Zohar if we aren’t able to identify them inside us?

My Answer: We have to be like a child who looks at the world around him and doesn’t understand anything, yet he gradually develops. He gets excited when he sees a bus passing by because it looks like something very big that’s moving. There’s another natural phenomenon where newborn geese take the first moving object they see to be their mother, and they follow it. This causes them to develop.

In the same way, when we are reading The Zohar, there is a part we don’t understand at all yet, and another part that we can already connect to. This develops us. We have to realize that we aren’t able to understand it yet, but one day we will surely understand everything in its entirety. When we desire and try to understand what we are hearing, we awaken the force that develops us. Otherwise, how else could we develop?

The more we advance, the more taste we will feel in the study.

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