GEVURAH: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar, item 59

Morning Lesson February 18, 2022, Transcription

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio

Part 1:

Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #59

1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we see how much this introduction is an introduction that is made of many parts and many topics. Baal HaSulam here touches almost everything he even gave us here a very short overview of the construction of the worlds, the building the structure of the worlds and before that a scientific and philosophical review. He touched almost everything and now he is also entering a part in order to explain to us a little bit of history about the history and the essence of the book of Zohar itself.

Reading Item 59 (01:17)

2. (02:06) Yes indeed there has been a dispute about this for thousands of years you might say or at least hundreds of years that has been going on since the Middle Ages and until now that the book of Zohar that was revealed in the last time in the Middle Ages in the days of Rabbi Moshe De Leon which is already the 12th century, they started to ascribe the book of Zohar to him even though certainly it couldn’t be with all due respect to him he was a great Kabbalist and he understood and he was in the Wisdom of Kabbalah but nevertheless not on the same level as the book of Zohar needs to be or requires as the one who wrote the book of Zohar who shaped it designed it has to be. And therefore Baal HaSulam says that those who understand the Wisdom of Kabbalah they also realized that such a book can be written by no less than Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

Item 60 (03:36)

3. (05:56) Yes in short what Baal HaSulam writes is that it cannot be that the book of Zohar would be written by anyone who is on a lesser degree than Rashbi, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and you cannot ascribe the book of Zohar to Rabbi Moshe de Leon or those who were before him or after him. It is not according to the same height, with all due respect to those Kabbalists but he says that it could be no less than Rashbi, the one who wrote the book of Zohar, and he says that if we would know that it was written by one of the Taamim sages from the time of the Mishnah or one of the prophets or in general, even from Moshe himself, Moses, then we would be even more certain that the book of Zohar comes from an inner source. Therefore he says ascribing the book of Zohar to Rashbi is something that should be clear to everyone.

4. S. (07:28) It is like Baal HaSulam is explaining here that because this book is so deep it belongs to previous Kabbalists then Moshe de Leon so then he explains that in such a deep composition that suits them, like people such as Moses, something’s not clear here?

R. The knowledge of the sources, it declines over the generations. Therefore Adam HaRishon, let’s say the first Kabbalist, he was truly the closest and one who knew all the sources in each and every generation following him. It was less and less and less until we reach Moses and then later on, a few generations later, we reach Rashbi who is already after the destruction, after the ruin, after everything we have been through. We have distanced from the feeling of Godliness from the attainment of Godliness and certainly in the time of Rabbi Moshe de Leon, which are the Middle Ages already in Europe, in Spain, there was already such great concealment that it’s impossible that a man, on a level like him, would be able to open up and that disclose such things.

Even though we also have such a passing from generation to generation, such a tradition that the book of Zohar was written by Rashbi. When it was revealed once more, because the book of Zohar went through all kinds of special states when it was concealed and revealed, they didn’t know about it and suddenly it was revealed again, famous again. Because these were such times, such periods of times, such years where this is how it happened because in general not only with it, but with other books and manuscripts, there was no connection, no such communication as we have today between a people and between a scientist. Therefore when the book of a Zohar was revealed once more through Rabbi Moshe de Leon, they thought that he was the author.

5. S. (10:27) The attainment of the book of a Zohar, what does it belong to exactly, what are we capable of reading this book or is it talking about attainment?

R. We still cannot quite read the book of Zohar in order to understand it because we don’t yet have vessels of bestowal, vessels of above reason. We are only coming closer to them to the extent that one begins to feel what he is reading in vessels of faith above reason, then to him it opens up, then he understands that this is not just about the stories but that this speaks of discernments, about the upper providence and guidance, meaning about the upper world.

6. S. (11:38) Does this mean that Moses received from the Creator Himself, what does it mean?

R. What was revealed to Moses it’s considered that it was revealed to him, that the Torah was revealed to him. This means that he started to discover within himself those inner discernments about reality with the upper force. That by his connection with the Creator, this is how he passed his revelations, his attainments, to the people, those that were around him. These are ordinary things just like we expect that we will discover it by rising to the forces of faith above reason, to the forces of bestowal. By this we discover the reality that exists in the force of bestowal and about that later on we can write and teach.

S. But didn’t other Kabbalists receive directly from the Creator?

R. Not in such a way like Moses, no. There are degrees in our connection to the Creator these are called the degrees of a prophecy in seeing hearing through all kinds of such degrees certainly it is not about our hearing and seeing but rather it means the light of Hochma in the light of Hassadim and in all kinds of different degrees and combinations between them. According to that Kabbalists understand the situation, the degree of each and every one of them and therefore this is how we also more or less relate to them. Moses was the first prophet. A prophet is a person who has a direct connection to the Creator either on the degree of seeing or on the degree of hearing, either with the light of Hochma or the light of Hassadim and the other Kabbalists, they were on lesser degrees than Moses and all of those who were truly next to him up to our times. Through the connection between all of them, we later reach a single Kli and all of them will have a single attainment, a single feeling, a single understanding of the upper force and everyone through everyone.

S. Even Rashbi?

R. What do you mean even Rashbi?

S. Then Rashbi didn’t reach the same degree as Moses?

R. No, there is no one who attained more than Moses. Later on there is the decline of the generations as we call it. However there are those who nevertheless standout more than the others, for example Rashbi. So he had special conditions in the emergence of his soul so that it received and attained more than everyone, all of his contemporaries like Baal HaSulam. Let’s say how come in the 20th century a person appeared who has such a level of attainment like Baal HaSulam so there are those also but usually there is the decline of the generations and every generation that follows that is on a lesser degree than before that’s on the one hand. On the other hand they have a greater opportunity to ascend, and they have greater disturbances and therefore by overcoming these disturbances they are able to attain a greater degree. So we have something and it’s opposite and this is how we, therefore, see it in reality, that usually there is a decline, a regression of the generations from Moses and onwards or we, you can even say from Adam HaRishon and downward. On the other hand, we see that we know that in every generation or every few years or every few dozens or hundreds of years there is some special individual who discovers more than even his predecessors like Rashbi or like Baal HaSulam.

7. S. (17:38) What enables Baal HaSulam this understanding of who wrote the Zohar and what degree was he in?

R. The problem is that in respect to the Wisdom of Kabbalah it is not like physics or like all kinds of other sciences but rather in the Wisdom of Kabbalah, each one can jump and say that I know, I attain, I have some connection with the Creator. He told me this, he told me that and through that you have many such false prophets. Therefore there is a problem here, that from generation to generation appear such people, some normal, some crazy and they say they have a connection with the Creator. Through that they received a certain message, and they want to convey this message to humanity and therefore, there is a problem here for the Kabbalists, they need to cleanse the Wisdom of Kabbalah because nobody can understand it except for them. and there are many who therefore jump, and they say yes, we understand it and we want to reveal it.

Therefore there are many books of the Wisdom of Kabbalah written which you can hardly find any words of truth. When I started to study the Wisdom of Kabbalah, I would buy books and I had a library in my living room, in my apartment and I think there was about three or four thousand books only about the Wisdom of Kabbalah. All kinds of books, whatever I would see in all the different bookstores I would take it, I would buy it until I started to get to know through Baal HaSulam the Wisdom of Kabbalah and then I simply got rid of all of these books. I moved to an apartment, and I left my entire library, besides the books of Baal HaSulam that I took with me, all the rest I just left there and whatever happened to them I don’t even know, it doesn’t matter to me, this is what we can say as of today.

8. S. (20:40) The path that leads us to the end of correction eventually, will we once more get to the degree of Moshe?

R. Even more than that we need to reach all of us together to the revelation of the whole of reality, meaning of the entire vessel in which the entire light of Ein Sof is revealed.

9. S. (21:13) One of the times I was exposed in the past to the claims of Rabbi De Leon and why is he associated with the Zohar the claim was funny they said that the descriptions in the Zohar of the views and all those things they are not in the place that Rashbi was but rather in Spain. I want to ask you, one day will they start to relate to the Zohar, let’s say as not being in this world whatsoever, that wasn’t written about this beastly world of ours with the views and these descriptions, can that happen?

R. First of all I think that even that is untrue. I also heard these descriptions that the Zohar was written by someone who lived in Spain because what it speaks there is, it speaks about the landscapes of Spain not the landscapes that were in the land of Israel. I think that is not correct, that first of all the landscape and the nature that was in the land of Israel more than two thousand years ago at the time when the book of Zohar was written and all the more so at the time about which the book of Zohar speaks, it is congruent with how it was here that’s on the one hand. On the other hand, it’s not about the landscape and they always say that it’s a wonder, that this is a rumor and I guess they have nothing more that they can say some stronger statement than about the scenery, they don’t understand better than that. We need to hear the view of the Kabbalists and not the way that they think.

Rabbi Moshe de Leon didn’t write anywhere that he wrote the book, he only discovered it, he found it and as we hear from Baal HaSulam also, we read about it that he passed away, and his widow, she needed money and she started to sell his library the books back. Then were something that was valuable, expensive and so she also sold the book of Zohar and she received money for it. Apparently, that gave her the possibility to keep on living in a respectable way and so this is how the book of Zohar became revealed. Otherwise it would not have been revealed because Rabbi Moshe de Leon, he kept the book of Zohar, he knew the value of the book of Zohar. He himself wrote a few things from which we know that he nevertheless was understanding and feeling the Wisdom of Kabbalah and also, he understood the value of the book of Zohar. He never claimed that the book of Zohar was his. What, Kabbalists can say that? People who don’t understand it who followed him, they already attribute the book to him because he revealed it and he brought it out of hiding.

S. (25:00) My question Rav, my second question is actually, do you think that one day people will relate without a point in the heart will simply relate to these books as everything that’s written there all the details of still, vegetative, animal, views, animals everything that it’s talking about, the forces of the soul of corrections of the relations between the Sefirot who knows what certainly not aimed at this thing. Do you think one day they can relate to this thing in such a way because it is very difficult?

R. I think that nevertheless people will receive such a feeling so that they’ll be able to penetrate through those depictions that we see in the pages of the book of Zohar so that through these depictions they will be able to see the relations between the forces of nature and how this influences them and how they can influence it, it’s kind of an allegory. In this way we are told how we should relate to nature, it is very similar to how we tell children about it, how the trees and the plants and the animals and clouds speak it is the language of nature and this is how people will also relate to that.

10. S. (26:32) As long as there is no question about the content of the book of Zohar, what does it matter to us, 2000 years later who wrote it. He or that’s one or that’s one there, why does it matter who wrote it?

R. The Kabbalists in all of their books, they relate the book of Zohar with great respect and other people who are not Kabbalists, strangers who look at it they do not find any special in it. So there is a problem here nevertheless, that the book of Zohar is the foundation of the Wisdom of Kabbalah and so what is this Wisdom of Kabbalah, what is this talking about? This book itself appears to be something that is closed, that is obtuse, so we have a problem how can we explain it. Look how much Baal HaSulam labored to at least explain something about the book of Zohar, he was successful but in a very limited way. How much this book is suitable for our generation, entirely not suitable, so we have to somehow reach a state where maybe we can bring closer this text, this book to our generation. This is why we also did something about that but who are we, who could say that we are able to open the book of Zohar in such a way that it would be wide open to all audiences, we are not done with that work yet.

Reading Item 61: (28:29)

11. R. (31:38) Yes, for the time being there are no questions so let’s continue reading.

Reader continues: (31:47) “It is also the conduct in each…”

12. R. (32:11) In the lower half of the Partzuf.

Reader continues: (32:17) “This is before the vessels…”

13. R. (34:22) How come there are no questions, is it not clear or not explained properly, what would you like it to be, should I complete it?

14. S. (34:37) What is the difference between the Wisdom of Kabbalah and the book of Zohar?

R. There is no difference, the Wisdom of Kabbalah is a wisdom, a science that is explained in many sources, one of the primary sources of the Wisdom of Kabbalah is the book of Zohar. Just like you have physics, and you have many books that talk about physics, this is it.

15. S. (35:19) How do we know that we are the last part of the vessels, the deepest, the most egoistic ones, why are we fit?

R. We do not know this yet, the Kabbalists tell us this, to us we do not know this ourselves to what do we belong because for this we have to see the whole reality and where we are relation to this reality. Only the great Kabbalists who are capable of attaining this whole picture, of feeling the whole reality and where we are in it, they tell us where we are. Just like with a baby, you take it in your hands, it has no idea where it is, but you give it all the pieces of knowledge or the facts about life. It is the same with us because we are on the hands of the Kabbalists, so they gradually explain to us where we are.

S. Is this the reason why the Baal HaSulam says that after the holy ARI we can already publish to the whole world the Wisdom of Kabbalah?

R. Yes, this is how he says this is how he says in all of his manuscripts, in all of them he said that the time has come for us and we can disseminate the Wisdom of Kabbalah without any limitation to everybody, to all of the people in the world and we have to implement it.

16. S. (37:11) According to what we read now, is there some connection between the corrections?

R. Yes there is, not that it must happen this way but there is some connection just like we see it also in the text.

17. S. (37:50) When they talk about the greater light, what is the addition compared to a smaller light?

R. First of all this is the difference between GAR and ZAT, the upper three and the lower seven, there are lights that are only the lights of Hassadim which are small. Then there are lights that are the big lights of Hassadim that can reveal in them also the light of Hochma and there are already the lights where the light of Hassadim and the light of Hochma reveal each other together, this is the difference between the ladder of degrees.

18. S. (38:36) What forbids or allows them to talk or write about such things?

R. The Kabbalists through the generations are in connection with the higher force and are with it in partnership, in an exchange, that they feel the higher providence, the higher system in what manner it bestows through them to the whole of mankind. They are responsible for that connection therefore more or less they open this connection to the benefit of the people that could come closer to the Creator.

19. S. (39:40) Did Rabbi Shimon and all the friends make all the corrections and they locked them inside the book of Zohar?

R. All the corrections they could not do because we haven’t done all the corrections yet and there are the generations even after ours maybe, although we can already be the last generation. Anyway that is how we need to understand it until as long as there are generations, as long as there are people in this world that can reveal reality and bring it closer to the final adhesion to the Creator, we have something to do, and we have to elevate them all to the height of the Creator.

S. Is the Book of Zohar the left line?

R. No, this is not the topic, you are too smart.

20. S. (41:00) There is something I don’t really like; it is kind of between the lines. Baal HaSulam says that he is at the level of a Rashbi, he is at the level of the ARI and on the level of Moses. How can a person say about himself, where does it come from?

R. It seems that he probably knows, I do not have an answer to that but if he writes as much as he did and explained in his books, he is certainly a huge Kabbalist we are talking about and if he wrote a commentary to the whole of the book of Zohar it also tells what degree he was on and who was more or less and what is the relation between them, I do not know. Who am I to start to scrutinize such things where I am the smallest of them all?

21. S. (42:50) You wanted to know how come there are no questions so I wanted to say that when we started to read the text of the Kabbalists, I am not conscious, I cannot find myself. I do not know how to receive the text to make sense out of them.

R. You need to read more and then you’ll get used to it, it is a special language you have to learn. I understand you, it is hard, but we do not have a choice, we have to acquire this profession, to connect to the source materials, to the text of the Kabbalists because this is actually the most important thing in life. Through this, we will know how to discover the single upper force operating on everybody and we are all dependent on the force.

22. S. (43:59) What is the relation on the degree between one who writes a commentary like the Sulam commentary to the book of Zohar, that Baal HaSulam wrote, relative to the person who wrote that book. How can someone who comes in a later generation interpret a book that comes from the prophet, how can they do it?

R. I do not know, I know only one thing, that there is the rule and what stands out of the rule. There are people like this, they are the exceptions, like Moses is also an exception and after him all other prophets and after that all those great ones from generation to generation. There were many Kabbalists and slowly, slowly their number and their height disappeared, and deteriorated until in our times there is barely anybody. This is what happens because it is known that the decline of the generations is happening as more and lower vessels are revealed, there is a problem for there to be special and high Souls to be revealed. We will see that maybe we will merit that high Souls will be revealed between us as well and we will attain practically those things in these books and even higher than that, there is no limit. The Creator does everything that is needed to bring the whole of humanity to be adhered with him.

23. S. (46:08) Beyond historical scrutiny of these things, what should we try to feel? What should we ask that their friends feel out of these texts?

R. We need to learn a few things from here, first of all that there is really a very strange form that is not understood to us. It is not clear to us why, in a way that matters, that at the height of the world, when there is nothing more precious than that, they are being revealed to us where we are the address eventually. People of this world, disconnected from spirituality, that we need to receive this knowledge, this information, the connection to the system of governance and the providence in such a strange way. We do not understand this, but we need to receive this, we need to learn this and try to reveal in our flesh, in the connection between us as we connect to the extent in which these things, these higher things settle, connect, and get clarified more and more. Not in a regular way according to our own logic and intellect but instead according to spiritual qualities, spiritual laws which have yet to be revealed, many of them. Because it speaks about correction, it is the connection of the shattered vessels. Therefore we need to simply learn to accept it as it is and slowly, slowly it will be revealed in each and everybody according to the person’s root of his soul and then is very difficult to pass it on to others because it belongs to attainment, each to the extent that he is ready for the higher attainment will be able to feel it, understand it and receive this delivery this transfer.

S. That the friends in the ten should attain this faster, can I ask for this?

R. Of course.

S. So this is the prayer that I want my friends to be in attainment, to receive it through this strange form, so that they can acquire it above reason?

R. Yes, that this is a very nice prayer, just continue.

24. S. (49:12) It says that the vessels of HBD HGT are covered from the light and the higher light starts shining only from below the Hazeh, meaning in its NHY, can you explain?

R. No, we will learn this, this is a very broad topic on its own, he’s just mentioning it by the way with half a line about it.

25. S. (49:46) Why is it so relevant who wrote the book of Zohar, the Kabbalist himself did not put his name on the book so why do we try to do that?

R. It is very important because, so that all kinds of so-called wise guys will jump up and add with their foolish message, additions to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. We can see that many books are seemingly published under the name of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, they take sources even from the sources of the Baal HaSulam and write commentaries, additions, addendums that are clearly with no attainment on the degree that these words are supposed to be which Baal HaSulam writes and Rabash also wrote about it. That the Baal HaSulam did not write one word but from the internality of his attainment and here there are people who are giving an interpretation to the writings of the Baal HaSulam and an interpretation to the study of the Ten Sefirot. Such addendums as if they were at this height of scrutiny like the Baal HaSulam because less than that there is no point in adding anything. Therefore there is a problem here, it is not responsible and great confusion that they can explain and pass on to other generations.

S. Is there a reason that this Sage did not put his name on the book?

R. It is not a matter of signing or not, the book of Zohar itself, it is not a book, it did not get published in a publishing house as there was no such thing two thousand years ago. They sat in a cave and wrote and they themselves wrote in whatever way that they wrote which Rabbi Shimon said and the Rabbi Abba, Rabbi Elazar the way they arranged it. From these papers and whatever they had to write on, what ink and what form of paper they used, it is from that that the body of this book was made out of. The truth is that the book is all written on pieces of some papyrus or some form of cloth paper and somehow it was discovered later that they used it for some wrapping of food and selling it in the market.

This is how it was revealed, and it is a very small thing, that book of Zohar was very small on this parchment paper they used. The whole Torah, the whole prophets, and all other parts, all the parts of the Torah were written that way. The whole book of Zohar was written as the complete commentary to all the parts of the Torah, and we discovered only small parts from here and there, some excerpts. From that this book of Zohar was assembled and what I want to say that therefore it is not a written about it in an organized way, who wrote it who read, who processed it, who edited it, but instead it was already added later by later Kabbalist Baal HaSulam also creating some order in it and this is it. Again I am saying that we do not have too much of an approach to this because we are not on a degree that we could open the book of Zohar whereas the previous generations had the ability, the Baal HaSulam had the ability and let’s hope that we come to a state when it is clear to us what is written in the book ,it will gradually clarified and we will also be able to understand it and talk about what the book contains in it.

26. S. (55:21) What is the correct relation we should establish in the ten towards the book of Zohar?

R. It is too early for us for the time being, we need to read the instructions and the materials of the Baal HaSulam and the Rabash. We will get there, for the time being we are operating in the lack of time, we do not have time to devote time to the book of Zohar as well but soon we will take from there the main parts.

27. S. (56:09) Why do the people who study the Wisdom of Kabbalah in general, why should we even know about it? These historical events in some chronological time, it is very confusing and complicated. You yourself say that this history was distorted, and the chronology also does not follow the books so why should we know about this?

R. Throughout the years that we have been studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah it becomes a clearer and clearer how the world was created, how the Creator manages us, through what the writings of the Kabbalists are being revealed who altogether pass on to us this knowledge of the creation of the world, the construction of the world and the correction of the world. These things are very connected and then we later discover that all of this is a single system and the way it is concealed and revealed, how we understand and what is happening in our world through history. It is all a single system and all together it is all connected to one and other and this brings us the general picture. We begin to feel that this is what we have, and, in this picture, there is also us and the Creator and the book of Zohar and everything together. So let’s have patience, we will hear this and later on you will see how it adds to the whole form of the world.

28. S. (58:03) Why did I come in this generation, what is in my group that connects me to Bnei Baruch, to you, especially?

R. You came through with all of your previous incarnations to a state where already in this generation, in this incarnation the time that you came to the degree of a person in this world, you have the opportunity to reach a spiritual human being, the spiritual Adam, spiritual attainment to rise to the higher system and incorporate in the internality and perfection of nature. This is what you have come to, and this is why you came to us, and you are learning how to implement this.

S. I understand that this is not natural, so let’s say I am 19 years old now, when I first bought your books and read them, I was fifteen. I was fifteen when I read your first books, Baal HaSulam’s commentaries and it is not natural for a young man from Turkey searching for the Wisdom of Kabbalah, reading about it when he was fifteen. Is this because of me or because of my forefathers or from my root of the soul?

R. This does not belong to your fathers or forefathers or the fact that you are Turkish, it has to do with the higher providence, that the upper force brings all the souls closer without any connection between whether they belong to certain Nations or groups, ideologies, or relations. It has nothing to do with this, he brings closer the souls to their purpose, to himself. There is a single Creator for everybody, he has no difference between all the people, and he brings them closer to himself. Therefore we need to see how to come closer to him, all together we have only a single method to rise above our ego which he created on purpose so we could start to work and on top of the ego and thanks to it come to him, get to know him, recognize him and progress. It has no connection with you being Turkish or me being Jewish or there are Latin American or Indian friends and whatnot, from Baltic states and there is no difference. In the souls there are no differences and in the souls. It is just the difference between desires to the extent each and every soul has a specific desire and to the extent this desire is closer to the attainment of the Creator this is it. All these differences we see in this world are completely irrelevant only to give more work to overcome upon all the obstacles including the differences in languages and between the nations.

S. I didn’t mean that because of being Turkish but the environment I was born in, people do not know the Wisdom of Kabbalah, there are not the Kabbalists in my town or near me. Because of that I said that being in Turkey, in a Muslim Society why are boys searching for this? Maybe someone is searching for Jerusalem for example, it is normal.

R. No, it has to do with the root of the soul, the root of the soul only, that you have a spark in you that there is a little brighter and bigger than the soul of Adam HaRishon. You are drawn to reveal the Creator and it does not matter all the differences in this world between black, white, or red and yellow and between all the whole masses there truly are no difference. The difference is only with the extent of the desire and then one comes to cultivate and develop one’s desire then it happens, this is what we have to do all together.

29. S. (01:03:47) In the Latin community we have a very special activity of reading the Book of Zohar most people don’t understand it yet but these people who do not study with us every day, but they do take part in reading the Zohar do they also reach spiritual attainment?

R. Each and every one reaches spiritual attainment according to which one annuls his ego.

30. S. (01:04:39) It is said that there is no time in spirituality so what does the two thousand years mentioned here mean, is it time for corrections?

R. It’s a time of correction, you’re right and nevertheless we are in a time of the last generation and in the time of the Messiah, he will soon talk about this in the introduction as well.

31. S. (01:05:24) What is happening and why is there a great attraction from many people from different levels to read the Zohar even though they don’t understand what they’re reading but people are drawn to it greatly? I remember when Rav was there with nine Kabbalists from Bnei Baruch who were sitting and reading the Book of Zohar and Rav provided an explanation and it was so full of emotions, the feeling of ascent even to the ones listening to it.

R. What do you want to say to that?

S. Why are we being drawn so much to read the book of Zohar, not talking about Bnei Baruch but just general in the world?

R. There’s a special relationship to this book of Zohar under the upper providence, the Creator shines upon this book with a special light and therefore there is a special relationship towards it, a special respect towards it, yes.

32. S. (01:06:45) Why doesn’t the introduction of the Book of Zohar speak directly about the content of the book of Zohar, the introduction engages in many topics, encompasses many angles but why is it like that, how does that form an introduction to the Book of Zohar?

R. I don’t know, there’s the author who wrote the commentary to the book of Zohar, The Sulam, he wrote the introduction to his commentary and it’s up to him how he will tell it to us this way, that’s it. Therefore I don’t get into that, I learned what he writes from all the introductions and his writings there’s a certain impression in me, a general impression of what he wanted from us, what he wanted to tell us, what he wanted to share with us to advance and it’s not necessarily in one introduction that he can say that. He has a certain line of his own and he does that, and he doesn’t take into consideration our understanding of what needs to be in the introduction, no. Rather that’s his actual approach, accept the approach, drink it, read it, we really need to swallow it, to chew it, to learn to receive and then I don’t think we need to or can even critique it whatsoever. We are so small that we cannot understand why he writes this way or another. Moreover to critique him with complaints and scrutiny.

33. S. (01:08:52) How important is the question of the height of the author inside of the student, how to make a connection with the author while we read it?

R. We need to try and make a connection to Baal HaSulam while we are reading his books or his commentary to the Book of Zohar. It’s certainly very important. Because through this connection we will receive the inner light and attainment.

34. S. (01:09:33) Usually we are told that years do not refer to calendar times so the relation to years in our time does it relate to our time, is there some actual time limitation in which we can complete the correction?

R. Yes there is a connection between physical time and what we are reading in the book. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in a precise way, but it gives us some feeling of near or far, it should give us something.

35. S. (01:10:09) What does it mean to elevate the whole of humanity to the Creator’s degree?

R. They shall know Me from the small to the greatest. All the souls need to connect despite the bodies that are in repulsion to one another, the souls need to connect, to yearn for connection with one another and this is how we need to see ourselves coming to correction.

36. S. (01:10:48) Yesterday I heard you say that our generation is more ready than Baal HaSulam’s generation to receive the wisdom of Kabbalah. Today I heard you say there’s a decline in this generation and the magnitude of the attainment of the Kabbalists, on the one hand we are more ready and on the other hand we discover less, why is that so?

R. It’s correct, there is a connection between how we are in a decline and accordingly how much we can arise and attain because anyone who is greater than his friend his inclination is bigger, to the extent in which our desire is lower thus we can rise and be connected and a greater level of attainment.

Reading From the Sages Fruit (01:11:53) “From these words we can…”

37. R. (01:12:37) Yes that’s the attainment of Baal HaSulam before he attained something. He doesn’t consider what he thinks but only the attainment when he opens himself and receives a true upper providence, the revelation of the Creator. Then that is something he can write about and talk about, not for himself but rather what the Creator talks about. Let’s hope that we too will reach that and then understand the difference between wisdom and attainments, with wisdom everyone can be put in attainment, only those with attainment.

38. S. (01:13:25) How will we be able to connect to the author of the Zohar when we read it?

R. We need to learn for the time being we’re learning the materials that are around the Book of Zohar, we will approach the Book of Zohar. I think that some have already learned this and went through maybe even the whole parts, yes, and we’ll get there we will get there. Don’t think that reading in the Book of Zohar already opened your eyes, no. It’s a virtue in addition to all the work that we need to do, if we invest forces in connection between us then with that here too, it’s worth it for us to open this Book of Zohar.

39. S. (01:14:48) Throughout history, Kabbalists wrote books, but nobody studied while they were written except for a few students, why is it always revealed before its time?

R. There is a great confusion, a great mess and disorder in everything that happens in the wisdom of Kabbalah. The Creator is the general system of the whole world, and they are all built according to clear laws, rules and are revealed persistently one after another, that’s on one hand. On the other hand when we are in this whole system which is so precise to the very last detail, we are not in a clear well-defined path that we know every moment how we are advancing, what we do and what we are about to reveal. Rather truly something happens to us, yes, we’re very confused, all of this happens only in order to give us the possibility to leave everything and just rise to the degree of faith. Just to the degree of faith above reason and nothing will work out for us or connect for us according to our intellect, according to blocks or points or whatever else we want, no. Only one thing, when we leave everything and start to build the system in us in faith above reason. Meaning first of all the degree of Bina and afterward we join all the rest of our desires.

40. S. (01:16:59) How should we reach the light of Nefesh in order to understand the Book of Zohar, how to do this in the ten?

R. When the ten is engaged in mutual annulment towards each other it achieves a desire to bestow, a unique small desire from which it can turn to the Creator and then ask to increase the desire to bestow and so further and further to advance that way.

41. S. (01:17:46) How can we prepare the world to open the Book of Zohar because it depends on them believing in what the sages wrote that it will work on a person in a certain way?

R. We have to disseminate the greatness of the Book of Zohar and the wisdom of Kabbalah in general and how it can help humanity avert all the troubles that we are facing. We’re in a path of development called in due time which means by blows. From the littlest things to the biggest things and we are advancing to something that will appear as a huge blow. Kabbalists say we can transform this path of suffering to a good path, from due time to hastening the time, which is if we want to rush the times and that means that we are pulling ourselves, advancing ourselves towards the state of connection between us. According to the connection between us, the Creator will be revealed as well. To the extent that our world is engaged in separation for now to the point of wars, then of course that’s still far from the tendency that needs to arise in humanity. Let’s hope we can still change direction here.

42. S. (01:19:34) What does it mean that in the end of item 62 that the words will start to be revealed more in our generation to the full extent it is revealed?

R. This is what Baal HaSulam thinks. In truth, thanks to the generation and with the help of the books that he wrote, there is already an opening for his students, for the people who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah to come out and reveal to all of humanity what we have to do, what we’re facing. Only by connection by rising above our egoistic desire, we can connect and through our connection, we reveal the upper world, the system of providence and guidance, the upper system that operates us and then we can see how it all works for the better, for the good to the extent that we discover the true system.

43. S. (01:20:59) What should be our attitude towards people who say they study the Book of Zohar without guidance from a Kabbalist?

R. This is the whole problem that if people study the Book of Zohar without any explanation, without any guidance then they come up with all kinds of ideas that just bring confusion. They build all kinds of methods, religions, build belief systems and stories that you have so many of that, so much of that in humanity and that’s why Baal HaSulam wanted to put an end to this. That’s why he wrote the ladder commentary on the Book of Zohar where he explains that everything depends on the refinement of the soul, everything depends on how much we move towards each other and build a network of connection between us and where we discover the upper world that the Zohar is talking about. Altogether the Zohar refers to the upper radiance, the light that appears in our vessels, in our desires according to the equivalence of form between the vessel and the light.

44. S. (01:22:56) How in the study of the Zohar during the morning lesson can we unite the previous generations into the future ones?

R. Everything is possible only through connection, we will achieve connection and then we’ll know what and how to do next.