There is a concept called “opening the Book.” To open means to attain its depths, its essence, to come to know whose force is contained within it. After all, a book is the source of wisdom, the source of knowledge, and the revelation of what stands behind it. A book is a concept consisting of three components: the book, the storyteller, and the story.

So, who is the storyteller, what is the story about, and who is telling it? There is the one who wrote the book. He wrote based on his impressions of something. That which he was impressed by has the source, the source that created this image from which he was impressed and that he described in the book. And there is the one who opens the book, the so-called Book of Heaven, reads it, and explains and tells you about it. He can tell you something by describing it in the book. And you read what he wrote.

It can also be so that you do not read it, but already enter inside this author, this storyteller, and have to identify yourself with him. If you do not identify yourself with Rabbi Shimon, you will never know what is written in The Book of Zohar. After all, it comes dressed in him.

That is why there are two constituents here (although there are actually many more of them since it is the Creator who “wrote” it). Minimally, we must clothe into Rabbi Shimon. To the extent that we can identify ourselves with him, respect him, reach toward him, and try to merge with him, we begin to receive impressions, to feel and attain what he conveyed in The Book of Zohar through various hints that can be conveyed in a written form.

We must reach such a state where we won’t be able to listen to The Zohar without the concept called “Rabbi Shimon.” Also included in this concept are his students, as his students are included in him.

The spiritual vessel from which we receive the impact is called “Rabbi Shimon.” This is not a person, but a sort of cloud of qualities, forces, and spiritual definitions. This system, as a whole, is called Rabbi Shimon.

I am connected to this system. I receive nourishment from it, and so it is very important for me to adhere to it. The more I merge with it, feeling that I am in contact with Rabbi Shimon in particular, then, accordingly, the more I will perceive what is inside of him. Moreover, it won’t be the external impression of reading the text of The Zohar, but a more internal attainment.

The fact that we separate something that conveys spiritual impressions to me into several components: the book, the storyteller, and the story, helps me to unite with this impression; it does not distance me from it. This is one more way to use the concept called “opening the Book.”
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/12, The Zohar

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