The Wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us, that the most important written source to guide us on the spiritual path is The Book of Zohar. We also learn that that Zohar is not really a book, but a while system that can induce inner changes in us, if we approach out properly.

The Significance of ”Letters” in the Book of Zohar

Let us now approach the first reading of The Book of Zohar. The excerpt below is taken from the portion VaYikra [The Lord called], and discusses letters.

“Ask for a letter from the Lord your god; ask either in the depth, or raise it above. What is the difference between the first generations and the last generations? The first generations knew and observed the high wisdom; they knew how to put together the letters that Moses was given in Sinai. …And we know that in the upper letters that extend from Bina, and in the lower letters that extend from Malchut, it is wise to conduct actions in this world.”

Where do letters come from? They come from the upper force. I must demand of the upper force to give me letters.

Letters Are Forms Resembling Spirituality

What are “letters”? Letters are forms by which I turn my substance—the will to receive, the ego—into being similar to the upper force—the power of love and giving. Each letter is a new form of giving that I have built within me, and in which I am somewhat similar to the upper force.

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Genesis, 44:18-47:27

This Week’s Torah Portion | December 21 – December 27, 2014 – Kislev 29 – Tevet 5, 5775

In A Nutshell

In the portion, VaYigash (Judah Approached), Joseph asks his brothers to leave Benjamin, having discovered the silver goblet that he himself hid in his belongings. Judah explains to Joseph that he cannot leave Benjamin behind because he is responsible for him and he promised his father to bring him back safe. Judah tells Joseph that they had already lost one brother, not knowing that Joseph is the one managing the event behind the scenes.

Joseph decides to expose himself to his brothers. He tells them how his selling for slavery turned out for the best, and that now he can support his family because he is in charge of all of Egypt. After the reconciliation, Joseph sends the brothers to Jacob with carts and goods, and asks Jacob to come to Egypt.

At first, Jacob cannot believe the story. But once the brothers present him with Joseph’s gift, he is delighted and wants to go to Egypt to see Joseph before he dies. On the way to Egypt, Jacob stops and offers sacrifices. The Creator appears to Jacob and promises him that his descendants will be a great nation in Egypt, and that eventually they will all return to the land of Israel.

Jacob and the brothers arrive in Egypt, in the land of Goshen, where Joseph meets them. He bursts in tears when he sees his father after all those years. Joseph tells them that Pharaoh wants to meet them.

To prepare for the meeting Joseph tells the brothers and Jacob to say that they are shepherds and wish to live in a separate place from the Egyptians, in the land of Goshen. Joseph introduces his father and brothers to Pharaoh, who agrees that they will live in the land of Goshen.

The hunger continues and Joseph provides for everyone. The Egyptians and all the others give up their money and eventually themselves as slaves to Pharaoh.

At the end of the portion Joseph establishes a system of taxation by which Pharaoh holds all the assets; he provides the Egyptians seeds for their crops, and they give him one fifth of the crop.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The portion describes both the internal process of man’s development, and the general process in the correction of the world. Man and the world are one, the particular and general are equal.

This is a special portion, which is still pertinent. It deals with the spiritual force entering an ordinary person and beginning to correct that person.

For the purpose of connection, a person needs both the physical force and the spiritual force, like heaven and earth. The two forces—of the Creator and of the creature—conjoin, and the human will grow out of them. This is really the purpose of our development, to connect the material substance with the human form, which is similar to the Creator.

It is not simple to make those two forces meet. Creation consists only of these two forces—the giving force, the Creator, and the receiving force, the creature, which the Creator created on purpose as a replication of Himself.

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What Is the Book of Zohar?

“Studying The Zohar builds worlds.”
– Rabbi Shalom Ben Moshe Buzzaglo, The King’s Throne

Ten Kabbalists, headed by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), joined together at the highest spiritual degree. From their union, they wrote The Zohar for us. The Zohar is not merely a book. It is a closed system, from our level to the highest level of reality. It is a system designed to launch us into experiencing unbounded existence, both in understanding and feeling the whole of Nature.

Why the Book of Zohar Is So Special

The book is built in a very special way. It speaks of things that seemingly happen in our world: stories about people, animals, trees and flowers, mountains and hills. However, in truth, it tells us about the soul and the higher forces.

Thousands of years after the writing of The Zohar, the greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, Baal HaSulam, wrote the Sulam [Ladder] commentary on The Zohar, where he explained The Zohar in the language of Kabbalah. The language of Kabbalah helps us put the pieces together and understand what is really being said in The Zohar.

A Book That Inverts Your Perception Of Reality

When you read The Zohar with the Sulam commentary, even without first understanding how everything unfolds, The Zohar begins to change our perception into an opposite perception. It changes our attitude toward the world. The Zohar provides examples that connect us to our next state, a more evolved state in giving.

It is similar to the way we rear our children. We continue to show them examples of a slightly more advanced state in order to develop them. Thus, we gradually bring them to more evolved states. The Zohar affects us similarly, unveiling the next degree that awaits us.

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Dr. Michael Laitman: 

Do you ever think that your hand feels odd because you have only five fingers? Probably not. Although we can increase the range our five senses perceive, we cannot really imagine what perceptions we lack. It’s impossible to recognize the true reality because it isn’t something that we feel the absence of any more than we feel the lack of a sixth finger.

Because imagination is the product of the five senses, we can never envision an object or creature that is not in some way already familiar. Think of the most creative children’s book illustrator or the most abstract artist you know. Do their designs in some way resemble things that exist in the physical world? Try to imagine the wildest thing, and you will still create something already known or that you can puzzle out from your experience of everyday reality.

Quite possibly, you and I receive many sensations from external objects. But because our senses do not have the same qualities as those objects, we do not perceive them. We perceive only that part of the object that resonates to qualities we already have. For a complete perception of anything, we need to first be complete within. In other words, we have to be aware of all the forms of reality that exist in us, and then our picture of reality will be complete.

So how do we attain the sixth sense that enhances our perception beyond conventional reality? In fact, it exists in everyone but is hidden. With right intention we can bring this dormant sense into action.

Through persistence and study, we begin to gain perception of the world of the Creator—the world of giving. In Kabbalah, that world is called “the Upper World.” By study and development of the sixth sense, we gradually begin to feel and to understand the Upper World.

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Dr. Michael Laitman: As of now, the ecosystem of the Earth is collapsing, being crushed, shattered, and annihilated. Our incorrect relationship to nature causes terrible problems. We have already reached the North and South poles, where they are getting ready to drill for oil.

But on its own, planet Earth possesses an amazing characteristic of renewal under the influence of positive signs that descend from above. So a person’s task is to invite these signs, not to clean the Earth of garbage. This won’t work. As much as we clean it, it becomes filthier and filthier, for chemical and biological cleansing damage the ecology even more.

Rather, the idea is that everything found on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature can regenerate and recover at an amazing speed. And this is possible only if a higher spiritual level brings positive signs.

The moment that humanity becomes harmonious through integral consolidation, the entire ecology will, in fact. immediately become balanced and the world will begin to blossom and spread a pleasant fragrance. It is not necessary to be concerned about it in particular, just as it isn’t necessary to be concerned about anything that is found below the spiritual level. If we make a correction on the spiritual level, the corrections will pass down and immediately cause changes on the physical level.

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