During our reading of The Zohar, we should constantly exert effort to see the connecting system of souls or the spiritual “network” behind each word. Behind the names of Shimon, Reuben, or Gad, the “right hip” and the “left hip” of Israel’s camp, certain actions, or “snakes” there stands not a bad or good desire, but its motion and its aspiration relative to the action of the moment.

Therefore, it is desirable to perceive The Zohar as a story of our connection, a story about the picture or pattern that is expected to unfold between us. There is no doubt that we always reside in this state and only have to uncover it. For this very reason we read The Zohar: to aspire for the revelation of its narrative.

And now, we need to do our best to connect this story with ourselves and not to be tangled in it thinking that The Zohar is talking about some distant places and events. All of this is occurring right now between us: within our connection, mutual guarantee, and our collective movement.
[23256]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/10, The Zohar

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Question: How far do I have to go in ascending above reason if the group seems flawed to me? It is written, “Do not sit at a gathering of fools.” What if the friends are harming my spiritual progress?

Answer: You’re right, yet a person has to understand that this state was sent to him from Above. He never sees the truth. If instead of constantly criticizing others, he accepts them above reason, then even a tiny spiritual spark from his friends will help him to advance.

We have to perceive reality the way it is. I was not placed in random, accidental conditions, but in a situation the Creator created for me. He is the one who determines what I see and feel. Therefore, one can and must always advance above reason. While I help build the group and employ constructive criticism, at the same time in the spiritual regard, I must always view the current state as the most effective and the best for my advancement.

Difficult confrontations and collisions in the process of the group’s formation and activity do not belong to spirituality. This is material work, but in the process we build, destroy, and build again.

At the same time, in a completely different dimension, each of us considers the friends great, bows his head before them, and sees them as “angels” sent by the Creator.

We are talking about two dimensions of perception and we have to learn to separate them from one another. On one hand, the group is a structure in this world. On the other hand, the group is a connection of souls that I must be included in. These dimensions of the group’s perception require different attitudes.

I may not agree with the forms of dissemination, with the friends that skip lessons and don’t fulfill their responsibilities to the general structure, but when I unite with them for the sake of my spiritual progress, I have to advance above my own opinion and knowledge and lower myself before them.
[#23064]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/10, “The Matter of Above Reason”

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While reading The Book of Zohar, the most important thing is to think about the connection between us in order to become “as one man with one heart.” The Light that Reforms is nearby and everything depends on our efforts to unite with one another in the system of Adam HaRishon.

This Light influences precisely the broken connections among us. If we try to unite and are unable to, then the Light unites us. It says in Item 155 of the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that a person is influenced by the Surrounding Light to the extent he aspires to know what he studies. What does it mean “to know what you study”? It does not mean to acquire knowledge, as in our world.

In spirituality everything is attained through connection. Therefore, “to know” means to connect, as it is written, “And Adam knew Eve.” Therefore, the more we aspire to connect with one another through the desire for bestowal and love, the more we awaken the Surrounding Light and then the Light of Wisdom (Ohr Hochma). This Light appears and operates only in the place where we desire to unite but are unable to.

Therefore, there is no sense trying to study The Book of Zohar as a science or wisdom since we don’t understand its language or what it is talking about. To understand it, we have to be in the same world.

Therefore, we have to try to unite with one another. Then the Surrounding Light will come precisely into the places where we lack a connection among us. The Light will unite us with each other, and through the restored connections we will feel the quality of bestowal, the Creator, the Light of Hassadim, and then inside it we will reveal the Light of Hochma.

Therefore, our entire study must be preceded by the desire to unite with each other, and we should not forget about this while studying The Zohar. Baal HaSulam writes the following in Item 17 of  the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“: “Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith,” meaning in the quality of bestowal, which he desires to attain as a result of the study, so it becomes his life.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: There is one’s personal intention and intention of the group. What should be the group’s intention during the Zohar study?

My Answer: It should be the same. The group’s intention cannot be different. A group is a sum total of the individuals in the group; it only amplifies everybody’s individual intention.

I have to connect with others because my intention does not carry enough power to attract the Light that Reforms. This Light reveals to me everything that I read in The Zohar. If my friends passed me their intentions, and their intentions united within me, I would immediately reveal the inner essence of a story that I read in The Zohar. It would happen instantly.

The problem is that they don’t wish to supply me with their intentions in the same way that I’m unable to pass them mine. Perhaps I’m talking about it, but it does not really bother me that much.

Herein lies the essence of unification. In uniting with others, I receive their intentions. Alone, I cannot reveal anything. It is the intentions that we receive from each other, nothing else. It is only through the web of intentions that I can connect with the other person, and this connection occurs only when I’m ready to supply others with life energy so that they all live in spirituality.

By thinking in this manner, I pass my intention to everybody. I unite with the others in a network of a living organism and then it becomes alive. I enliven it. Then each of my friends possesses a life force since each of them has an opportunity to pass the Light further.

The force of life or the Light exists among us. We can reveal it only according to our intention, our attitude toward each other.

It can be likened to an electromagnetic field. The field can’t be identified without an electric circuit with its conductors which allows the electric current to flow in the network, to move and perform work in the magnetic field. A metal conductor moving in the magnetic field passes electric current; free electrons are moving in it. These are exactly the same processes.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, The Zohar

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To be fulfilled by the Light of Infinity depends only on our connection. It is for this reason that before we begin to read The Zohar, we must imagine connecting our points in the heart in our desire to unite into one soul and merge with the Creator, the One. And in doing so, then the only thing remaining will be: He and His Name as a single whole. We do not see physical bodies, only individual aspiration towards the Creator which binds us into a single desire. If we were to unite this way, we would discover the Light of the World of Infinity amongst us.

The tighter we come together in our connection, the higher we ascend in the spiritual world. This is because there is no top or bottom there. These words only represent our attitude towards the value of bestowal.

We now need to discover that everything happens in this one common desire and that there is nothing other than it. The only thing that exists is Malchut of the World of Infinity which divides into worlds, Sefirot, Partzufim, and different states. But all these things are located in the same place, the same desire. The Zohar is only concerned with revealing this desire, while we wish to connect to it and to imagine what happens within it.

Connecting to the desires of others does not mean that I am connected to these people with binding strings. Rather, I incorporate and embrace their desires as my own, and I then become the entire Malchut of the World of Infinity.

It’s like a mother who receives her child’s desires while he is physically inside her until he is born. This perception of your neighbors’ desires as your own, where you internally don’t differentiate between yours and theirs is called “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

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It may seem that it’s more enjoyable to read The Zohar peacefully, without exerting any effort. But we must demand the intention for every word, and it’s not simple. We shouldn’t consent to simply read The Zohar and let the words “flow” through the ears. Rather, each word should be an opportunity to “break into” the text, an entrance into it.

As I’m reading, I have to see every word as a niche for filling myself with the intention, unification, and connection. I have to realize that every word can add to this connection.

This is the only way we should read The Zohar. Then the Light will come and unite the two opposite properties, Abraham and Isaac, as well as everything that is included between them, into the property of the middle line called Jacob or Israel.

The miraculous property of The Book of Zohar lies precisely in the middle line which unites good and evil together. And it is precisely in their correct connection that we reveal the Creator, the source of everything.

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What is the Light that Reforms? In what way does it reform us and how? Imagine the common soul as a circle consisting of broken pieces that are unconnected. We have to restore this connection in order to feel eternal life within the common soul.

Imagine that a sculptor has made a statue of a person and then broke it into pieces. Instead of a whole statue, there is now a pile of broken pieces. These pieces are living souls that desire to assemble back together into a whole statue, but they just can’t manage to “stick” to each other. When they attempt to unite, they discover giant forces of repulsion among them.

They are trying to come closer to each other and to recreate the statue of a person who is similar to the Creator, but they aren’t able to do it. And that’s because they don’t have the glue that will make them stick together.

After numerous attempts to come closer and stick together, the parts become convinced that they are unable to connect together on their own, yet only unity will save them. They then realize that only the Upper Force, the force that created the statue in the first place, and the force that deliberately broke it, will be able to glue these parts back together into a single whole.

However, it will do so only when the parts request it. This request is called asking for the Light that Reforms.

If we desire to unite and ask for help in doing this, then we are asking the Creator to be the force that will unite us like glue. This is how we return to the initial form of the statue – the common soul of Adam HaRishon.

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A question I received: The Zohar Convention 2010 is getting closer and it feels like a holiday or festival is approaching. In what state should we strive to be during this period?

My Answer: The most important thing now is to focus on the intention. It’s wonderful to feel like you are going to a holiday or a festival, but in truth, we are coming together to do serious inner work. Therefore, our primary concern should be our intention; this is more important than anything else.

There is only one thing that’s of importance: During these three days, will I be able to have the right intention together with thousands of other people who are together with me in one hall, and with millions more people around the whole world who are also joining us internally.  Only the right intention will deliver us to the goal because it draws the force that corrects and unites us, establishing the connection that broke.

This connection was broken only in our perception. We are therefore correcting the “original sin,” and it can only be done through our intention, the raising of MAN, a plea, the “gate of tears.”

I feel that we are at an historic point and I am really concerned about its success. We have to be fearful regarding whether we will be able to attain what we have planned, because it is written that everything depends on the heavens besides fear of the Creator. If we are being given the opportunity to carry out this event, and we have been sent this idea, it means we really have reached the state of being able to study The Zohar and to reveal it to the nation. We can see how it opens people up and draws them toward the spiritual goal.

We want to give people The Zohar with care and love, the way we would treat our friends, loved ones, or outstanding individuals. This is an historic event because The Book of Zohar itself says that it is intended for the time of the End of Correction, the days of the Messiah, in order to lead Israel (meaning those who aspire “straight to the Creator”) from exile to freedom.

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A question I received: At the upcoming Zohar Convention 2010, how is it possible to carry out so much work and attain the spiritual level in such a short time, just three days?

My Answer: It does not depend on time at all. It will happen the moment we carry out an action of unity together.

When I was in Rabash’s group, we once went through a similar state. I asked him, “What do we need to do in order to realize this state?” He replied, “You need an attack!”

You have to do this yourselves; everything depends on each and every one of you. You have to go into this attack, aspiring to create a connection among you. Then it will happen.

Even people who attend the Convention just in order to take part in the general inspiration, to simply tune in to the common flow, by desiring to become part of it, they will perceive holiness on the first level. It is called the still level, Domem de Kedusha, because it doesn’t require any special abilities on your part. All you have to do is come there and “go with the flow.” Just by doing this, you can merit to come out of Egypt. A person who joins others will also run away from Pharaoh together with everyone.

When we hold a Convention such as this one, a special state emerges because even though we don’t feel spirituality yet, we greatly influence one another when we get together physically. It wasn’t an accident that the Creator made this world, where we are connected physically and can influence one another.

While we sit somewhere far away by a computer monitor or TV screen, we can’t feel each other so well because we don’t yet have the sixth sense. Therefore, coming together physically in one hall greatly influences us and awakens our inner aspiration to unite our desires.

This is why our world exists, because it is precisely the place where we can begin our spiritual work from scratch. In it, we don’t depend on spirituality and can discern and acquire every spiritual quality, making a free decision of wanting it or not.

We have freedom because we are outside of spirituality, and are able to connect with each other in the material world. From here we can begin our spiritual ascent if we desire to do so. If we don’t desire it, then we can keep living merely in our physical bodies.

It’s unrealistic for one person to do it alone, but together it’s easy.

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How does the “spiritual elevator” work? It’s like an incredible spiritual escalator where we are all connected in such a way that everyone can help each another ascend. Every person has his upper half within the Upper Level, and his lower half within the lower level.

Therefore, each of us is always connected to the Upper Level, because the upper part of his spiritual Partzuf (Galgalta ve Eynaim) enters the lower part (AHP) of the Upper Degree.

However, a person feels the AHP of the Upper Degree as darkness because it is more bestowing. A greater degree of bestowal is felt as darkness because we do not want it. Yet, if a person overcomes his egoism and makes himself “small” by using just the Galgalta ve Eynaim, just the bestowing Kelim, and if he desires to connect to the Upper Level regardless of what is happening on that level, then he cancels his ego, AHP, the egoistic desire. If a person does not wish to feel it, as if it does not exist, then he connects to the Upper One and they become one whole. His Galgalta ve Eynaim (Keter and Hochma) and the AHP of the Upper One (Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut) together form an whole Partzuf with ten complete Sefirot (Gadlut de Min Ha Aleph).

The Upper One, in turn, has the same kind of connection with the Upper One in relation to him. This way we all unite and operate as one common body. We are all connected as a chain where every link runs through another link and the two share a common part. The only difference between a regular chain and us is that there are no free parts at all inside the chain of our souls – my upper part is always connected to the Upper Degree, and my lower part is connected to the lower degree. There is nothing in me that’s free from being connected with one part or another. I am always completely connected to everyone else; in fact, this is my entire essence,

Our salvation lies in becoming aware of this connection. This is why regardless of my state, regardless of whether I feel good or bad, I must always turn to the people near me for help. They are the people who aspire to the same goal as I do. If I unite with them, I will be able to absorb all the energy that they have. I have everything I need to do this because I am connected to them; I just need to awaken this connection.

If a person finds himself in a state where he does not understand or feels anything, he is indifferent and experiences darkness, and he is in a bad mood, this means that he is not active enough. It all depends on him because everything that he needs has already been prepared for him.

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