The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 451: On the third watch, the Cherubim strike their wings and sing, as it is written, “Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord … from the rising of the sun to its setting.” Then all the angels that stand on the third watch sing.

In The Study of the Ten Sefirot, we can study the spiritual actions by way of the three lines, the Lights, the Kelim (vessels), the screens, and the Reshimot (spiritual genes, reminiscences). However, The Zohar describes the same actions through the holy still, vegetative, and animate objects which are the forces in one’s work. In other words, the various parts of the soul are named after the various types of the still, vegetative, and animate objects of nature and man.

It is difficult for us to conceive of them as terms in spiritual physics, like those in TES. In the ARI’s The Tree of Life, we see how hard it is to depict the variability of spiritual actions in the language of Sefirot and Partzufim.

For this reason, there is another language in the spiritual world: the language of branches. Here, we take a particular branch of the spiritual world in this world, where each branch has its own particular name. Thus, in every case, even the smallest spiritual detail has a particular name intended specifically for this spiritual quality or action. We use these names and end up with a language that is more simple and precise.

If we were to rewrite in the language of Kabbalah all that Moses had written in the Torah, we would end up with a voluminous book. However, using the language of branches, everything is expressed very concisely. A person who senses spiritual reality has a much easier time perceiving the text which describes the Upper World with corporeal names. After all, the two worlds are parallel, and he who senses the Upper World sees their correspondence.

The other advantage of the language of branches is that the same names are applicable in all the worlds and degrees for every branch corresponds precisely to its root. Therefore, as we read The Zohar with the Sulam Commentary which combines the language of Kabbalah that clarifies the picture from this world described in the language of branches, we begin to see that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the ARI, and Baal HaSulam all write about exactly the same thing.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/28/10, The Zohar

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Question: Reading The Book of Zohar with the right intention turns into the “potion of life.” What does “the potion of death” mean while reading The Zohar?

Answer: The Zohar can work like the “potion of life” or the “potion of death,” and using the Light of the Torah can be good or bad. All that adds strength to our nature can turn out to be useful or harmful, meaning to turn it into the “potion of life” or into the “potion of death.” This is the reason why we always refer to intention (rather than action) as the most vital thing.

We don’t even realize the extent to which we all live in the world of intentions. Sometimes I am repulsed by something, but my attitude changes dramatically when I begin to understand that it was done with a good intention. Has anything changed? Only my perception of the intention that lies behind the action.

Thus, the only difference lies in intention: What exactly do I anticipate from an action? The difference is in using the Light as the “potion of life” or as the “potion of death.” It’s the different between two worlds.

Our advancement happens only within intention to the degree of our ability to share, differentiate, and sense it in order to feel the tiniest fluctuations of our personal intention rather than the intention of our environment.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 442: This is so because since the day the Temple was ruined below, the Creator swore that He would not enter Jerusalem above until Israel enter Jerusalem below. It is written about it, “A holy man among you who is holy, and I will not come into a city.” That is, even though there is a holy man among you, I will still not come into the city—Jerusalem above—until Israel enter Jerusalem below.

When we were children, adults used to tell us various things which we didn’t understand. However, time after time, they explained to us what we should do or think one way or the other. The same happens when we read The Book of Zohar. We are simply told about something concealed from us, something we don’t know or recognize, but, gradually, it enters us.

This is the most natural form of teaching for every person. It doesn’t matter what world he lives in and what he studies. After all, he doesn’t have any preliminary preparation for new knowledge and sensations. He doesn’t have the correct instruments or properties of perception (Kelim, vessels). A person needs to develop the mind and sensations. Then, he can sense a new phenomenon and later study what it means.

Therefore, the first stage is reading or listening about something unknown to us and feeling dumb; we should appreciate this. This is the natural process of treating our children, and it is clear to us that this its the way it should be done. We explain things to them again and again.

The problem is that a child has an aspiration to know, to learn, to see us as big people, and to follow our example. In our spiritual upbringing, we, adults, have to create such an inner aspiration by ourselves. This is possible only when using envy in the group.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 462: Happy are the righteous who are rewarded with that upper light, the illuminating mirror that shines to all sides, to the right and to the left. Each of those righteous receives in his share what he should, meaning receives according to his actions in this world. And there are some who are ashamed by that light of which their friend received more to illuminate.

We want to know all of these details, to understand where they are situated, where the root and the branch of every word and its spiritual quality is. We look for all these gradations of qualities that The Zohar speaks of within ourselves.

Obviously, they are all found only within us, at the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of our desires. We perceive only the reality that exists inside our soul. Even now, we remain inside our soul, inside this Kli (desire); all the phenomena occur in it.

However, alongside this inner search, we must always remain hopeful that the Surrounding Light will influence us and open our eyes. It is not with our reason that we wish to reveal the Upper World, to find all the gradations of its qualities, and to get our bearings in the common soul. Rather, what we want is for the Light of correction to shine upon us. This is referred to as “awaiting salvation.”

It is said that after death the soul “in the heavens” is asked only two questions. “Did you study the Torah (did you draw upon yourself the Light that Reforms)? Were you awaiting salvation (for when this Light will correct you)?” We must always remain in this intention.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 401: So the Creator is the one who gives the woman to the man and the couplings come from Him. This is why it is written, “And a wise wife is from the Lord.”

Everything that occurs in all of the worlds should be interpreted solely in relation to the connection between us. This is because all the worlds were created after the breaking of a single Kli (the will to receive, our soul) into multiple parts. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how to restore the broken parts to wholeness.

“A woman” or “a wife” is a desire that “the man” or “the husband” has to correct. “Woman” is the broken (egoistic) desire that becomes revealed between me and the friends in the group in its uncorrected state. I have to correct it, find the Light in it, and fill the “woman.” I am the desire to correct, the desire to receive the force of bestowal, the intention. With it, I will be able to correct the intention “to receive for oneself” (“a woman”).

I discover the broken links between myself and the friends. I perceive them as my uncorrected “female” part; I treat these flaws as mine since “one judges according to his flaws”; I intend to correct them; I construct a “corrected woman” from them. Then, in these corrected desires, I attain adhesion with the Creator according to the rule: “Husband and wife, and the Shechina between them.”

The place of the breaking is supplemented by a screen. I perform the adhesion (Zivug) with the Light in this desire that has a screen and thereby reveal the Light within myself. This means that I have already gained a degree of adhesion.

The corrected desire is filled with the Inner Light, and thus I reveal the Creator within myself, the creature. This is what is called the realization of the wisdom of Kabbalah or the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.

What does it mean that “the Creator is performing Zivugim” (couplings, adhesions)? This means that He is setting a person up for desires that will lead him to the revelation of the Upper Light which fills the entire creation. But in order to reach the simple Light, we have to undergo, understand, and know all the kinds of relationships there are in reality. This is similar to how a simple, white color includes into itself all of the others.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter "VeYechi (And Jacob lived)," Item 442: At the end of correction, when the whole of Malchut is corrected, the Zivug of GAR de GAR will return, meaning that [the Creator will enter] Jerusalem above, and this explains, “I have sworn to David My servant,” the oath that the Creator will not enter Jerusalem above until Israel enter Jerusalem below.

This is talking about the correction in three lines. We receive two lines or forces from Above. But the ability to cut off the left line and attract the right line, and then to combine the right and left lines the right way in the middle line – all of this happens only through the model or formula that we reveal between us.

I don’t know what the middle line is. No one brings it to me ready-made and it does not come to me from Above because otherwise I wouldn’t have a place in which to recreate myself, to conduct my search, to make efforts, and to make revelations on the path.

The middle line is very unclear. You were given two forces and they are at your disposal. However, you can destroy the world using either one. How then do we reach the state where we find the right combination of two lines – in the screen de Hirik, from below upwards? How do we even start to connect these two opposite lines?

This is the work done between the souls because it can be actualized only in the connection between them. The right and left lines exist in the form of natural forces, while the middle line can only be created in the connection between the souls.

This can be called "group psychology." Here, through the search between us, we have to find how to create the eternal state, the right combination of these two lines through the connection between us.

The way to check our work is by revealing the right intention between us, "for the sake of the Creator." Then revelation takes place, we attain the middle line, and acquire the opportunity to use these two lines correctly.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, The Zohar

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Question: What are the blessings and condemnations that The Zohar talks about?

Answer: A blessing is a force that enables me to rise above egoism and connect with others. To bless means to give the strength to love and bestow. A condemnation is a reverse action, when a person is deprived of the opportunity to love and bestow.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, The Zohar

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Question: Do we have to feel what The Zohar describes within us, or should we seek the sensation of The Zohar in our connection with the group?

Answer: The Zohar tells us about various states that each of us undergoes individually. However, a person can prepare for this only through unity in the group, similar to the authors of The Book of Zohar, which they wrote while in the state of unity.

They wrote about bestowal, unity, as well as its various levels. The levels of unity are the 125 steps of ascension. At each rung, a multitude of a person’s desires and qualities come together in order to become equivalent to the Single Light.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 392: A wall is the Lord of all the land, Divinity, as it is written, “Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth.” Thus, the ark of the covenant, Divinity, is the Lord of all the earth, which is a wall, and for this reason, “Hezekiah turned his face to the wall.”

We must turn to Malchut, our collective spiritual vessel (Kli, desire) where we are all connected. This is called “turning to the wall” with a request that we want to wholly assemble it and to see that it separates us from the Creator.

As we restore this wall by uniting all our desires, it begins to link us to the Creator and transforms from a separating screen into a connecting one.

What is the condition that makes it possible? If we “recline,” meaning we do not perform any actions ourselves, then the Rosh (head), Toch (body), and Sof (extremities) of our spiritual Partzuf (soul) are on the same level. Thus, we turn our face to the wall and wish for our connection to truly become a connecting point to the Creator.

That is when the Shechina, our unity, becomes a vessel (Kli) of fulfillment.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 376: Wherever blessings are required, the Creator, Malchut, should be blessed first. And if the Creator is not blessed first, the blessings do not persist.

When we read holy books, we read about the states we will have to go through in the future. However, we don’t yet feel the text which the Kabbalists wrote in this form.

It is impossible to describe spirituality in any other way besides taking words from the material world. There are no words in spirituality. So how can someone narrate about it? How can one explain phenomena that do not exist in our world?

It is necessary to take something similar from our world and use those words to describe spirituality. In any case, a person who is not in the spiritual world does not know what is being described. He simply reads.

Nevertheless, if we read about spirituality even without feeling it, but desiring to adhere to those who revealed spirituality and wrote about it in their books – Rabbi Shimon and his students, the authors of The Book of Zohar, and Baal HaSulam, who added his commentary to The Zohar, if we desire to unite with them so their attainment and force would influence us, then we develop as naturally as children who desire to be next to an adult, to learn from him, and to get everything they can from the adult. That is how they grow.

Therefore, while reading The Book of Zohar, we must be as close as possible to its authors. In spirituality, someone who is close means he has the same quality; closeness is not measured by distance or proximity in space. In spirituality, I am considered close to someone if I have the same quality, if I am similar to him.

The quality of the authors of The Zohar is bestowal, whereas our quality is reception. So how can we become closer to them? I have to imagine that I am together with my friends and nullify myself before them. Then I attain a state where we are all together in one desire to unite, trying to adhere to the authors of The Book of Zohar. That is how we come closer to the state of unity that influences us. We are influenced by the state where we are more connected with each other, with bestowal, and with those who have the quality of bestowal – the authors of The Zohar and the text they wrote.

It works even though we do not understand what they tell us about, like babies, we desire to receive from adults. Then their entire force and the attainments they put into those books influence us and we start to change like a baby. This is our work, which takes place according to the same natural conditions and the same phases of development as in our world. That is how we advance.

Therefore, when reading The Book of Zohar, we mustn’t forget how to unite with its authors. Then we will reveal its inner meaning, will enter The Book of Zohar, and will become its participants.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, The Zohar

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