The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statutes),” Item 5: …and the awakening of the act above depends on the words of the mouth. As we need to evoke the higher holiness with deeds and words, those who come from the side of impurity should awaken their side with deeds and with words.”

The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 41: Such are the ways of the Creator. If He gives wealth to a person, it is to nourish the world and to do His commandments. If he does not do it, but takes pride in his wealth, he will be struck in it, as it is written, “Wealth kept for its owner is to his hurt.”

A question I received: What is so special in one’s effort? What does it change in a person?
My Answer: What counts is not the effort within our desires, but rather the effort in our aspiring to clarify the difference between us and the Light, the creature and the Creator. That is, our effort is directed only toward the point within the creature where the difference between “existence” (Yesh Mi Yesh) and “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain) is revealed.

The study of The Zohar consists of several stages. In order for the Light to affect us, we need to continually return to the text. The Light performs its work time after time, and we begin to feel the text with a better understanding.

Lecturer: Rav Michael LaitmanDate: 2010-03-21Video: ENG 52.72MB Audio: ENG 9.45MB

The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 220: …‘I said that you are all angels and sons of God,’ meaning upon the reception of the Torah. And since you damaged yourselves, meaning sinned, you will indeed die as humans. Hence, that evil serpent that darkened the world cannot govern anyone who engages in the Torah.

Lecturer: Rav Michael LaitmanDate: 2010-03-17Video: ENG 105.45MB Audio: ENG 9.83MB

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 37: He taught him every profound and sublime secret in the Song of Songs and adjured him to not use any verse in it, so the Creator will not destroy the world because of him, since He has no desire for people to use it because of the great sanctity in it. Afterwards, Rabbi Akiva went out sobbing and his eyes were shedding water.

There are special souls, which are very valuable for the entire system of souls since they bring this system to life and help the other souls to reach revelation and attainment and consciously join the process of development. There are many special souls, but we only know some of them. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains this system. These special souls open the gates of attainment and perception of spiritual existence to us.

We need to perform very specialized work under a very specific set of conditions to reveal the influence of the Upper Light upon us. Thus, the absence of any feelings, flavors, or understanding while we study The Zohar doesn’t mean a thing.