When a person reads, hears, and participates in reading The Book of Zohar correctly, then he has to check the degree of his progress. Of course, we are unable to assess our progress precisely because we don’t understand the initial conditions we are in, what our qualities are, and what we have to attain. The beginning and the end of the path are not revealed to us.

But in any case, based on our sensations we are able to correctly define the phases of advancement and the difference between different states. It should become increasingly easier and more natural to imagine everything described in The Book of Zohar; a person should be able to see that it all takes place inside him, in his qualities. When starting to read The Book of Zohar, it has to become more and more natural for him to immediately start searching within himself for the definition of every word. He has to feel that the book evokes responses inside him to every word, every symbol, and every action.

He then starts to identify the inner system of the souls in which he exists. He starts to see that the body, which he imagines himself to exist in, as well all the space around him – the entire world, the environment, and the whole universe that now appears before him, are all part of his inner sensation. And to this partial sensation he is now adding one more new sensation that The Book of Zohar explains and reveals to him.

These two forms of perception awaken in a person and somehow interact with one another. By means of reading The Book of Zohar, the new form of perception of reality becomes more dominant and powerful than his previous perception of reality.

This is one way to check and assess how much you are advancing at every step of the way. The second way to check is to understand that the point in the heart that was initially given to you only seems to be a point now due to a lack of inspiration, impression, revelation and perception. In actuality, this point includes all the souls, all the worlds, and the entire reality that was created by the Creator.

This point expanded from above downwards in the beginning of creation, when it was created as “existence from absence”; it thus expanded through the four phases of Direct Light, the World of Infinity, and through all the worlds, down to our world. In the same way, we must now expand and broaden this point with our own strength from below upwards. Of course, we don’t have the forces to do this inherently. But when we try to expand this point on our own and when we turn to all its constituent parts – our friends, desiring to receive inspiration from them, then to the degree we are inspired, instead of seeing one point, we start to see many different points that are connected together by a net called the system of souls, or the system of worlds. The system of souls is more internal, while the system of worlds is more external.

That is how we reveal all of reality within the point in the heart that we received from Above. This point expands and we begin to reveal the entire universe in it. A person begins to see that his point in the heart includes all the friends, and later, all the people who are more distant, until it expands to include all of reality. If a person is gaining this vision, perception, and approach, it is a good sign that he is advancing as a result of reading The Book of Zohar correctly.

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A question I received: Sometimes in life there are situations of incredible opportunity. In a month and a half there will be an international Kabbalah Congress in Israel dedicated to The Zohar, which will be attended by thousands of people. How should we prepare for this Congress if we want real changes to take place?

My Answer: This is, indeed, a very special situation. For the first time in history, we are given the opportunity to solve all our problems, both in Israel and the whole world. This is what the revelation of The Book of Zohar can do.

This Congress will give every person the key to the solution; the solution can be partial or complete, it can be personal or national or even global, it can even pertain to the existence of all reality, because everything originates from one root.

At the Congress, we still study what Baal HaSulam explains – how we can truly change our destiny. Right now we have all the tools and opportunities for this at our disposal; we only have to use them correctly. We will study all of this and we will implement it in practice when we meet.

I think that every person whose wish is not to simply hear about everything Kabbalah says from a distance, but who wishes to actually implement this wisdom and to change his life and fate for the better, will participate in this Congress, whether virtually or physically. I expect that there will be people in attendance who have only heard of Kabbalah a month or two ago, and who revealed it at the last moment. There will be room for everyone there.

If a person is searching for a way to change his life and wants to find out a little more about himself, his future, and the opportunity to change things, then the wisdom of Kabbalah enables him to do this. And there is no other opportunity.

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At every new moment in time, a damaged Reshimo enters us and our task is to fix the world that exists inside of us. To help us do this, The Zohar is written to be a ready made instruction manual. We just have to read it and search for the properties it tells us about within ourselves. We have to translate everything that is written in The Zohar into our desires and the relationships between them. The whole book is about this, and that is how it was written.

The Torah and all other sacred books are written the same way because they were also written by those who sensed spirituality. However, The Zohar was wexternal ritten with exceptional skill; its authors knew how to explain every minute detail to us. It teaches us how to bring our image of the world into ourselves. This is what our work is all about.

Once we do this, the whole world will begin to awaken as well, because we are all connected. If some people still don’t feel this interconnection, then it’s only temporary. It’s like waking up in the morning with your leg still asleep. You’re unable to feel it, but gradually you begin to regain the feeling in your leg. The same is true for the rest of the world.

The Kabbalistic group is a set of desires that exist outside of me and support me in my goal to connect my external and internal parts together. The group helps me by trying to get inside of me, pushing me from the outside to return myself inside. We act collectively because the group is ready to become one person with one heart – together with me.

It is as if this “external” piece moves in my direction all by itself. These desires seem foreign to me, but the more I want to sense them as my own, they will in turn approach me and get closer to me. Meanwhile, the Creator is hiding within those desires, making them seem alien to me in order to force me to look for and recognize Him within those desires.

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When a person joins the group, he works on unifying the desires of all the friends and aiming them towards one goal. Inside the united desire, they reveal the quality of mutual connection and love – the quality of the Creator. A person “flies” forward together with everyone, riding on the impulse that is created by reading The Book of Zohar.

Whoever does not join this inner movement will be thrust outside by the force of The Book of Zohar. This is because The Zohar selects only those who aspire to unification, those who will stay on the path and aspire to the goal even more with time, becoming stronger and more focused. One who doesn’t aspire to unification in order to reach the goal will be thrust outside by the force of the movement, and thus, will be pushed away from the group.

The Zohar contains a force that attracts a person to the center. Its force creates a group because it was written by a group of the greatest Kabbalists in history.

Therefore, before one starts reading The Book of Zohar, one should check his inclusion in the group and his position in relation to the goal. As it is written regarding the reception of the Torah, “To be as one man with one heart” – this is the necessary condition for revealing the spiritual world.

Otherwise, it is written, “Here will be the place of your burial,” which means you will be thrown out by the same spiritual force and will return to your dead world.

During the previous years, we did not feel this strict selection in the process of studying Kabbalah because we were still in the period of preparation. However, now that we are studying The Book of Zohar, its force immediately reveals who is for it and who is against it. A person is judged “to live or to die” (spiritually) by this principle only.

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A question I received: You said that we need to study The Zohar with others in order to try to unify all of the points in the heart. But it is very difficult for me to make this connection because The Zohar feels very personal, like something inside of me, so how can I connect it together with other souls?

My Answer: It is true that one needs to think about uniting with others, that a person needs to exit from inside oneself, to be in the right line, in bestowal. But the left line is my personal search for what The Book of Zohar talks about, a search for all these qualities inside me.

These two lines do not intersect; the right one is exiting from inside oneself, and the left one is self-exploration. The right line is the entire world outside me, and I am simply the initial point of the soul, while the left line is the entire world inside of me and there is nothing else – only me. These two lines can only be connected by the Upper Light that surrounds us, but until this happens we see that it’s impossible. However, we still have to try to combine them and wait for this union to come from Above.

This contradiction will continue to grow more and more; everyone will feel it to the full degree. We will pass through many states; sometimes we will be successful, but other times we will not succeed. Sometimes we will think of unity, and other times we will only think about our own impressions as we begin to feel the entire universe inside us. I read The Zohar, forgetting about the others, only feeling how it resonates inside me, without any connection to the others. We need to pass through both of these opposite states until a third element comes and connects the two together; it is called the Creator, the middle line that clothes in a person.

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Sometimes people come to the lesson with what appears to be fatigue. But it’s not fatigue. As Rabash said: If someone were to tell you that your house was on fire, you would jump up and run! Therefore, this is not fatigue, but only a lack of desire.

When people feel that they don’t understand or feel the material, as though they are in a thick fog, these feelings are symptoms of the desire’s dullness. “I’m not really interested, I don’t feel well, I have more pressing matters to deal with, I need to rest, tomorrow I’ve got a big day at work” – all these excuses are nothing but a lack of desire.

When I feel this way, it means that I am deliberately given the opportunity to find the desire, to want to obtain it, and to realize that I must find it myself. Finding the desire is only possible by opening a Kabbalah book, even when I don’t want to read or understand it, and when I don’t see or feel anything in it. Gradually, by forcing myself to read a little more, and a little more, and a little more – letter by letter, word by word, I search and wait to be overtaken by the desire described in The Book of Zohar.

I am aware of all these steps, tasteless as they are, without feeling or understanding them. However, it is precisely in this lack of taste, sensation, and awakening that I begin to feel the Creator’s attitude toward me. I realize that He still gives me the opportunity and a precise place to apply my own effort in all of these states.

This is my mutual work with the Upper Level, where I begin to connect to the Creator even in the states when I don’t feel that He is “Good that does Good” and “There is none else besides Him.” In this manner I come to the correct desires.

The fulfillment, the Upper Light, is in absolute rest. All that’s missing are the desires, the vessels (Kelim)

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYeshev (And Jacob Sat),” Item 143
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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A question I received: Every movie has a protagonist. Who is the protagonist in the movie of life?

My Answer: Every regular person that lives this film is the protagonist. However, he doesn’t sense that he’s an actor; he’s convinced that his life is real!

That is why life is like a dream. When we have a vivid dream, we experience strong emotions such as joy and fear, and wake up under the dream’s impression, whether good or bad. In the same way we will eventually wake up in Gmar Tikkun (the End of Correction) and realize that this life was merely a movie.

Actually, we will reach this realization even earlier, when The Zohar illuminates our actual state for us. But for as long as we exist in this film and sense ourselves as part of it, we cannot disconnect from it and we therefore view ourselves from outside.

When the Light makes the smallest correction in us, and we attach some part of an external desire to an internal one, we begin to see this dream for what it is, and realize the delusion we’ve lived prior to this discovery. Currently we are deluded not only with respect to the surrounding world, but also with respect to ourselves. There are so many layers of falsehood in us that we don’t know our true selves at all.

In a dream we may see ourselves as heroes – charging somewhere on a horse, flying to the moon – but that’s only a movie, and we wake up in our beds. However, as we attach ourselves to the external Kli and make it internal by loving our friends as ourselves, through this connection we reveal the Upper Light. That is when we wake up from this dream and begin to live in the world of truth.

Indeed, desires can only be united if we attain bestowal in them, because we thereby attach ourselves to an external part, which we hate. We then begin to care about this external desire more than about ourselves and we’re willing to give our friends everything we have.

We correct the illusion that is our egoistic desire. The Creator gave us this split reality only so that we can attain Him. In reality, all our Kelim are on the outside. Each of us must only change our attitude towards ourselves: Instead of loving ourselves as we do now, we must go outside of ourselves, and bring inside those who presently seem as being outside. That is how we correct all of our Kelim.

Inside them, we will sense the Creator, the Upper Force that acts within us, the intention to bestow with which we will unite as one.

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Three questions I received on the right way to interpret the Torah and other holy books:

Question: I am very confused about the “oral Torah” or The Talmud. I understand that the Torah is a gift from the Creator guiding us towards the right path in life and we are to sometimes understand the stories from the Torah on a metaphorical level, not a literal one. Then how do you explain the literal aspect of The Talmud and that it seems to have been written by Rabbis? As I understand, the priests and Sanhedrin were corrupt – which is what caused the destruction of The Temple.

My Answer: We have recently started reading The Zohar. By reading it together with us, you will also be able to see how the other holy books were written.

Question: I have been reading your posts and finding them rather interesting. As I can see from the pictures, you are Jewish, so my question is this: What does Kabbalah have to do with the religion of Moses? Is it like a manual for humans to read the Torah?

My Answer: It’s impossible to understand the Torah without Kabbalah, because on the outside, the Torah appears to be a historical tale, whereas Kabbalah reveals it to us as a method of correction and a textbook on the structure of the Upper World.

Question: In the Torah, who (or what force) was Melchizedek? And why did Abram pay tithes to him? The Torah says Melchizedek was a priest of God, but I thought Abraham was the first to discover, let alone attain, the Creator.

My Answer: Melchizedek personifies the Creator’s quality of justice. Similarly, all the characters in the Torah are not men or women, but descriptions of human qualities. Everything that is written in the Torah is describing specific, consecutive changes that happen inside a person.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Why Are There So Many Words In the Torah?
Laitman.com Post: The Hidden Power Of The Torah
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is The Most Precise Language For Expressing Spirituality
Interview with the Future: “The Language of the Kabbalah”
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
Great Kabbalists Throughout History (5:41)

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A question I received: What is the purpose of looking within ourselves for what’s written in The Book of Zohar before we cross the Machsom?

My Answer: Without this inner search, we will never cross the Machsom. The Machsom is inside of us and we have to make attempts to cross it by discovering within us what is written in The Zohar.

Do you really think that we could just sit there and wait for the time to come when we will cross the Machsom? It will never happen that way, and therefore, it’s useless to wait. The Creator could never reject our effort; therefore, without effort, it’s impossible to attain spirituality. Our current task is to make efforts, meaning, to try to direct our desire in a way that will allow us to comprehend, realize, sense, perceive and attain the spiritual properties that The Book of Zohar describes.

We want the Light to come and return us to the source – to build these qualities within us. This is what it means to “cross the Machsom.” Everything is defined and felt through desire. The Creator created only desire, but we have to shape it so as to reform it from earthly to spiritual. Then, we will sense spirituality.

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