The Zohar—A Tool For Working On Yourself

Question: One reads The Book of Zohar as a fairy tale; for another, it is not important to understand, but to get feelings from it. How does one not turn The Zohar into a book for meditation, but make it a tool for working on oneself?

Answer: First of all, you need to read this book with others. Preferably, do it in groups of ten, not mixed, but separate men’s tens and women’s tens.

The essence of The Book of Zohar is not its literal translation and meaning. If we organize ourselves correctly and listen to it in any language, even one we do not understand, this book will affect us. In fact, it represents a bridge between the spiritual world and our points in the heart that yearn to attain it.

The Book of Zohar performs the function of a tube through which the Light from the upper world passes into our heart, into the heart’s point that asks about the meaning of life. This point starts to grow and we gradually better understand what the meaning of existence actually is. It is continuous work on ourselves, but we have time. Why is this life given to us? To understand why it is given to us.

I see in my students, how The Book of Zohar influences them and they start to feel the internal taste of it, which in Hebrew is called “Han de Kedusha” (the charm of the upper illumination). Though it is not clear, we explicitly feel that this book carries something in it that expands our feelings. And although we do not know what it is filling with, something is happening. This is the gradual influence of The Book of Zohar on a person.

Later on, our desires, feelings, and various inner instruments will become more suited for the study of The Book of Zohar and we will perceive the results from reading it very clearly.

Study does not consist of becoming familiar with the text of The Book of Zohar and acquiring knowledge about the wisdom of Kabbalah. Its study is the entry of the upper Light inside us through the tube, which is The Book of Zohar, and then the Light develops new sensations in us through which we start to feel the upper world.

Question: When I read the book, Delicious and Healthy Recipes, I start to salivate, meaning that I feel pleasure. Can we say this about The Book of Zohar, that it loves my soul, but I don’t feel it because I don’t have these tastes yet?

Answer: I would say that it is much better because when reading that recipe book, a person thinks  about whether he or she will ever taste this food. By studying The Book of Zohar, a person starts to evoke the influence of the upper Light on oneself right away. By influencing you, the upper Light builds new desires and possibilities in you. The desires that are inherently built in us get uncovered during the reading of The Book of Zohar and we start to reach for it.
[207622]
From the Lesson in Russian 2/5/17