Zohar: A Means Of Spiritual Development

Question: What does the word “Zohar” mean?

Answer: Zohar is the upper radiance that descends upon a person. By correctly studying this book, he receives a certain impact from it, which in the Aramaic language is called Zehara Ilaa, the upper glow.

The fact is that a person in our world does not possess any spiritual properties and this refers to the animate level.

In total, the four levels of development of nature are distinguished as: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. The inanimate level is all non-living matter. The vegetative level is everything that relates to botany. The animate level includes all kinds of living creatures, that is, everything pertaining to a normal animal organism that is born, lives, and dies, including the human body.

Therefore, in taking care of our body and living inside it, we are clearly on an absolutely animate level. But in each one of us, there is also a spiritual potential. It is revealed in the form of a question about the meaning of life.

This question arises, practically, in every person, but later on, we “jam” it, bury it, and do not let it show up because it causes us great suffering: “What do I live for? Why? What kind of life is this?”

It turns out that through this question, through a very small, specific desire, we have some connection with the upper world. This desire is called a point in the heart, but we do not develop it.

However, there are people who cannot accept the lack of an answer to this question. Of course, one can end this life. Isn’t this life given to them, too? It turns out that they have no choice but to seek an answer. But in order to find it, a person must exert great effort until he finds a group, teacher, and books.

In principle, all Kabbalistic books come from The Book of Zohar. If in one of them it is written: “It is said in The Book,” then it is The Book of Zohar that is meant. The word “Book” is not even mentioned together with Zohar because it goes without saying.

Other works are not even considered books because this Book is special. It connects a person with the upper world and teaches him how to attain it. Then, it justifies its name, Zohar, radiance, because a person begins to receive a glow from above, developing him spiritually.

Thus, from a small, specific desire for spirituality, a real, strong desire develops, and a person is born spiritually.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/2/17