5 Minutes Of Light From The Daily Lesson: Behind The Scenes With The Zohar
Posted on December 9th, 2009
A question I received: How does The Book of Zohar want to direct us?
My Answer: The Zohar directs us only to revealing the world inside us and there finding all the possible inner notions – myself, the world, a the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. After all, everything we can only imagine now, including ourselves, is inside of us.
If I relate to The Book of Zohar in this way, knowing that it reveals myself to me, then the book will tell me about me. Everything I read in The Book of Zohar takes place inside me. I am essentially a screen, and the force of desire depicts various forms, images and actions on my screen. On different levels of my desire to enjoy, this force either depicts inanimate objects, or the vegetative world, or the animate world, or the human world. All of these pictures appear inside of my desire to enjoy and they are drawn by the force of desire.
Similar to how we see images on a computer screen, there is a “photo camera” inside us that creates an illusion of the reality that appears before us. But in actuality, there is no reality; it is all our desire to enjoy receiving these impressions from the force that acts inside it, depicting various images inside the desire. We, in turn, discern these images as inanimate objects, plants, animals and people, depending on the level of desire that they are depicted on.
Therefore, while reading The Book of Zohar, I have to imagine that I am a small world and everything is inside me; the ocean, mountains, colors, sounds, trees, people and all events are taking place inside me. Then I will gradually start to shift from images that are being described by The Zohar to qualities and forces. Instead of responding to the words of this book by imagining animals, people, trees and all the things happening to them, I will gradually begin to discern these qualities within me. In essence, there are just two qualities – reception and bestowal, but they can be present in varying degrees and expressed in different ways.
We have to try to recognize everything that is being described by this book. As soon as we really make the transition to the world of forces, we will begin to see the truth and to understand that all the images we now see are an imaginary world, and in reality, it is all just forces. And then, behind these forces, we will gradually start to discern the One, Single Force – the Creator.
That is how we have to read The Book of Zohar.
We will not be able to reveal the spiritual world without studying The Book of Zohar. It’s not because this book is so powerful and able to accelerate our development so greatly that instead of walking on foot or riding a horse, we will be flying on a plane. Rather, without it, we will be simply unable to concentrate on the inner, spiritual reality and we’ll see just the external screen that shows us this material, illusory world.
We will never be able to break through this screen and reveal the forces that operate behind it, creating the projection of this movie (this world); or to break through even farther, past these forces and qualities to the ray of Light, the projector; and then even farther – to the Creator, the source of all forces, qualities and meaning.
How is it possible to go from the external picture to the forces, to the Creator’s thoughts, intentions and actions relative to us, in order to understand why He is showing us this movie? What does He want to tell us by showing us all of these animals, people and everything happening in this world? Why does He give us the sensation of our life, as if we have a past, a time when we were born, our current lives and the feeling that eventually we will have to die, and meanwhile we are surrounded by an entire world and other people. Why does He make us see this dream?
I am being told that my entire life of today is not real! I want to break through this life to the truth and find out: What is it that He wants? Why did He tie me to strings to control me like a puppet, making it seem as though I am alive? Why does He do everything in this way, and who is He? And what next?
These questions will lead me to the answer.
As counter-intuitive as it may seem, if I want to ascend to the next spiritual degree and receive greater Light, I need to “come outside,” exit the state where I had fulfillment, the Light of Hochma, and ascend to a degree that doesn’t have the Light of Hochma, but only the Light of Hassadim. Then I am guaranteed to never fall from my spiritual degree, and nothing could ever harm me.
Indeed, nobody can harm me but me! A person is a tiny world. Everything I see outside of me actually exists within me, within my sensations. This whole world only appears external, but it actually exists within; I merely imagine it to be outside. When we begin to acquire spiritual sensations, we will feel that these qualities and phenomena transpire within. It seems obvious that everything exists outside, including the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, as well as all the people in the world, all the stars and the entire universe. After all, how could I possibly fit all of that inside!? But in fact, I do feel all of these things inside me. It is a great folly to view the world as external. Even classical science, which examines the physical world, is beginning to agree with this viewpoint, something The Book of Zohar wrote about over a thousand years ago.
All the things and characters described in The Zohar, such as the Creator and the creation, Leah, Rachel, Yaakov, Israel, angels, evil spirits and various other forces, myself and all the worlds that I can possibly imagine – all of that exists only in my perception. Therefore, when I read The Zohar, I need to try and feel as though these things are happening within me, while outside – there is nothing! All the friends with whom I study, the television that plays the lesson for me – all of these things are my own sensations.
The Zohar: The Creator said to Noah: “Enter the ark with your entire household.” One of man’s qualities, which he defines as the Creator, turns to another quality in him called Noah. Noah is the quality of bestowal and love, and the aspiration to rise above one’s ego. One’s quality called the Creator speaks to this quality, called Noah, in order to elevate it even higher. This is why the Creator says: “Enter the ark!” which means – fortify yourself in the quality of bestowal.
It is written of the entrance into the ark: “The Creator (HaVaYaH), Zeir Anpin, said,” and it is written about the exit: “Elokim said,” referring to Nukvah of Zeir Anpin. It is written that the master of the house, Zeir Anpin, allows Noah to enter the ark. The ark is the quality of bestowal, Bina. If a person (the quality of Noah that aspires toward bestowal) enters the ark, Bina, then he feels that nothing can harm him – he is safe from all of his other qualities, which disagree with Noah. All the rest of man’s qualities are egoistic and can harm his spiritual progress; this is why he wants to separate the quality of Noah from them and advance only with this quality. He leaves the other qualities alone for now and makes a restriction on them, hiding them away.
Then the mistress, Nukvah of Zeir Anpin, tells him to exit. He entered with the permission of the master, Zeir Anpin, but exited with the permission of the mistress, Nukvah of Zeir Anpin. This is talking about two forces that influence a person: the force of Zeir Anpin and the force of Nukvah, judgment and mercy. By influencing us with these two reins, we advance closer to the goal.
Thus we have found out that the master brought the guest into the house, and the mistress led him out of it, as it is written. “Elokim said to Noah: Come out of the ark!” Elokim is the masculine force, the force that overcomes. She is permitted to bring the guest out, but she does not have the right to let him in.
Even though these two forces are opposite to one another, they act together in order to advance us. We cannot advance with just the help of the one force that pulls us forward. We also need the force that pushes us from behind. We are always being controlled by them as if by two reins. If we understand that these two forces are influencing us for our own good and balance the left force with the right one, then we will connect them together and build the middle line.
The Book of Zohar was written by a group of great Kabbalists the likes of which has never existed in all of history. They created a bridge of language, information, forces, sensations, and Light, connecting our sensations and our understanding of the revealed world, with the sensation and understanding of the concealed world.
When we study The Book of Zohar that they wrote and try to enter the state they want to convey to us, then we are like a baby that greedily opens his eyes and mouth in order to absorb what his mother is telling him. He doesn’t understand anything, but simply looks at her and expresses his joy through movement.
We have to make similar efforts to understand our teachers. To do this, we have to connect with each other the way the ten authors of The Book of Zohar are connected. Even if we read it without any explanations, we will gradually begin to feel new inner reactions and movements. From within us, from an unconscious and subconscious level, a new realm or world will begin to come though and become more habitual.
We call our lessons “a study of The Book of Zohar,” but in reality this book is not studied but revealed, and the revelation happens through our aspiration and readiness to feel the concealed world. The readiness must be expressed through the unity among us, similar to the unity among the authors of this book. It is a unity of all the point in the hearts – the aspirations toward similarity with the Creator. This is how Kabbalists describe the necessary condition for using The Book of Zohar correctly.
In the process of reading the text of this book, I provide small clarifications in order to help you “grab onto” the text, similar to the explanations of an adult while playing a game with a child.
Whenever Kabbalists write about The Book of Zohar, they do not refer to it as The Book of Zohar, but simply as The Book. This expresses their desire to show that there is no other book in the whole world!
The science of Kabbalah reveals an enormous new world to us, the spiritual world, which includes our entire world of today like a tiny grain of sand in the entire universe. But how can we attain a sensation of the spiritual world? It’s like a baby who has no knowledge or sensations that he can relate to the world around him. But gradually, he accumulates impressions of this world, hears and recognizes sounds, sees images, discerns colors, and feels the difference between cold and hot. He has to learn all of this from the impressions he receives.
At first, for example, he simply develops his senses and learns to discern the presence or absence of sound. Later he begins to discern various sensations in each sense. What makes a developed person different from others is that his senses are able to perceive finer things. To a musician, sounds awaken an entire world of sensations. An artist lives in the world of colors. A writer feels the shade of every word.
But all of this comes to a person gradually. We exist in some kind of reality, which gradually becomes revealed to us. It influences us, makes us progress and forms in us a capability of perceiving it. This is how the material reality, this world, is arranged; and we develop and reveal the spiritual world along the same exact stages and by the same laws.
There is a special book that consistently develops our sensation of the spiritual world in addition to this world. In essence, we are living in one, common world, but relative to us it divides into a part we can perceive and a part that is concealed from us. In order to reveal the concealed part of the world, we must start to feel it in a direct fashion, like babies. This is what the unique book, The Book of Zohar, does for us.
The Zohar: When man sinned with the Tree of Knowledge, he lost all his Light and was left with the lowest desire of all creatures (without a screen). He was emptied of Light and understood that he is the most despicable of all the creatures in the world (because the force of his desire was greater than his screen). Therefore he became the most cowardly of all the creatures.
All other creatures are stronger than man. This is really so. We don’t even realize how much weaker we are than other creatures, such as microbes, insects, birds, and animals, and how dependent we are on them for everything.
Our desire is the coarsest; it has the highest Aviut (thickness) and we don’t even have a screen to conceal it or protect ourselves from it. This is why the “human being” inside of us is so small and his desire is so weak that as soon as any animalistic desire emerges in us (such as the desire for money, fame, sex, or other pleasures), we immediately surrender to it, let it control us, and look for a way to satisfy it.
We do not have power over these desires; they can do anything with us. And that means that a man is weaker than all the other creatures – “a human being” in me is weaker than all my other inner desires.
The Zohar: And when a man sins, he is told that a mosquito is worthier than him. But if he did not sin and kept his screen, then he would have turned his desires into merits and would have attained the highest Light.
But when he sins, he loses the degree of the Light and is left with a huge, empty desire that turns into a defect. And then even a mosquito is worthier than him since it was created with a purer desire.
None of these animate desires inside me have free choice, and therefore we are not required to correct them. We have to correct only what belongs to the “human” level in us. Then all our other desires join the “human” level, which is the only level we should worry about.
We do have freedom of choice and a connection with the Creator on the level of the “human” desires. The other desires simply join and support the “human being” in us.
We have to perceive every word in The Book of Zohar in its spiritual sense because it is speaking about our inner desires, forces, and qualities. We have to try to find the connection between them. Where are my inner qualities which The Zohar calls animals, fish, man, the ark, and the waters of the flood?
I am discovering myself. I want to see myself from the inside like viewing an X-ray scan, because all of these things happen within me. There is nothing else in existence but me.
The Zohar speaks only about matter (desire) and the form of this matter – what “kind” of desire it is. But all of these desires are aimed “for my own sake,” and that is why they provide me with the sensation called “this world.”
If, however, I were to change their intention to “for the sake of another” (my neighbor or the Creator), then I would begin to perceive the “other” world through them instead of “this” world. The words of The Book of Zohar refer to nothing other than my qualities.
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