Question: Why do we study the Sulam commentary on the Zohar?
Answer: It is impossible to teach the book of Zohar itself. Baal HaSulam wrote the Sulam (Ladder) commentary especially so that we can study the Zohar in our generation as well.
Question: Are there other ways to understand the Zohar?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Why?
Answer: The method of Baal HaSulam is misunderstood. Due to the absence of spiritual attainment, many perceive it as a dry method, too schematic and unemotional. They perceive it as a method that doesn’t bring one to be moved in his heart. But it all stems from a lack of understanding.
The thing is that studying Kabbalah means attaining what the books speak of, not just knowing what is written in the books, like you would study physics for example. With Kabbalah, you become the subject of the research as you study, so the situations occur inside you.
Some say that reading means studying and that this is all you need to do, and then something happens above, which we do not understand. But this contradicts the desired outcome of the study, the purpose of the study, and what we should be doing.
One should rise to the spiritual world while living in this world, in this corporeal life. That, in fact, is the purpose of the system of Kabbalah, and it can only be achieved through the right study, with the real books, written by Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai), the Ari and Baal HaSulam.
Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, the Ari from Zephath and Baal HaSulam are appearances of the same soul. Baal HaSulam himself wrote it, and indeed when reading the writing of the Ari and Baal HaSulam, we can see how close they are. Today the Zohar is incomprehensible without the Sulam commentary.
It is impossible to understand the parts of the Zohar that are written in the language of Kabbalah (such as “Safra De Tzniuta”) without studying Baal HaSulam’s Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot).