How to Enter The Book of Zohar

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.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, The Zohar

Spiritual Geometry: From a Pyramid to a Point in the Heart

I join the group and with its help I start forming the image of the Creator in my mind. Meanwhile, I don't wish to unite with the group, to listen to the friends, or to accept their opinion above my own mind. Yet, gradually I develop a clearer, more detailed understanding of the notion of "group," where I must keep annulling myself. As a result of this opposition, I gradually discern the place of my free choice

Baal HaSulam explains that free will implies choosing the group. At the current stage, the general understanding of this is: Join the group, realize yourself inside the unity, and everything will be fine. But in truth, all the worlds or all the 125 steps of spiritual ascension to the goal are located exactly between me and the group. When I adhere to the group inseparably and irreversibly, I will reach the full correction, the World of Infinity where we are united together in one point.

All of the worlds are laid out along this path and they are all yours. Our entire work lies in unifying with each other. In our times all of mankind is standing at the threshold, as it were, in the form of a pyramid. We, the souls who are a little closer to starting this work, are the upper part of the pyramid. The remainder of the pyramid below is the rest of the world. The difference is that we at least are trying to unite, while the rest of the world isn't even thinking about it. Yet, the world is experiencing extreme pressure through suffering and the global crisis.

Why is it global? It's because mankind is being shown that it must come together, that this is imperative in our era, and that our aim is unity. Granted, this is a long and difficult process, but nonetheless, it has been set in motion. This point is being rubbed into every person's face.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/10, "Waste of Barn and Winery"