When The Heart Understands

The Zohar, Chapter "VaYikra", Item 147-149: The Yod of the Holy Name connects in three ties. For this reason, there is one tip in it above, one tip below, and one tip in the middle, since three ties hang down in her. The tip above is the upper Keter, above all the upper ones, the head of all the heads and stands atop all of them...The bottom tip is the other, bottom tip of the Yod. It is Bina, the head to water the garden, Malchut. This is the fountain of water from which all the plantings are watered, since all the Mochin of ZON and BYA extend from the Bina...

The letter "Yod" is Hochma of the world Atzilut, its "hidden mind." The Light of Infinity enters through the upper point; the Light of Bina exits through the bottom point; and flowing through Zeir Anpin, it waters the garden, Malchut.

It would be possible to describe the entire system in details like this, but we are studying The Zohar in order to arouse the Light that Reforms, not to study some dry theory. We study The Zohar not to gain theoretical knowledge of spirituality, but to actually experience it! When we begin to feel what The Zohar is telling us, we will feel bestowal and reception within us, and the difference between them. Only then will we be able to read and unveil the whole picture, which will appear as sensations. We will study The Zohar in order to understand what we are feeling! Then I will start studying Kabbalah as a science; I will add mind to my feelings.

But first I have to receive the sensation! The mind follows. Otherwise, it would simply be theoretical reasoning without practical comprehension. We would get stuck in these diagrams and remain in this world to intellectualize, as if we know what is going on "there" in the spiritual world.

We don't need to know what is happening there: We have to be there! There is a great difference between those who are perceiving the spiritual world and the theorists who are just learning about it in The Zohar. The latter are the type that Baal HaSulam encountered in Jerusalem when he arrived in Israel. They were studying The Zohar and knew all its books and writings of the ARI by heart. But when he asked whether they perceive it, they replied: "There is nothing to perceive here! We just memorize the text."

But for us, it is first and foremost important to achieve the ability to perceive the spiritual world. The Zohar has to enter us, and we must begin living in it. Then, we will study what we feel and how to change these feelings, how to walk in spirituality.

We cannot research what we don't perceive. Since we are the substance of the will to receive, we must perceive the reality within it. Only then we will be able to study what constitutes our perception.

Bina derives from the word "Havana, understanding," as it is written: "the heart understands." This is why we study The Zohar; we study in order to be able to bestow and perceive the Creator. Later, you and I will discuss every page of The Zohar, and we will see how much it contains-the entire symphony of feelings.

 -from the 1^st part of the daily Kabbalah lesson, The Zohar

The Genius In Simplicity

All comes out of HaVaYaH (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey), the universal, singularly existing system, and everything takes its beginning in the root, the tip of the letter "Yod." This is Keter, the "essence of the essence" (Yesh mi Yesh). There is the Light and the desire (Kli), "existence from absence" (Yesh mi Ain), which are expanding together. The Light affects the desire, and it takes various forms; that is, the will to receive constantly changes its properties in similarity with the Light.

The Zohar explains how all properties come from the Light, which created the will to receive, "existence from absence," and how the Light works on it. This is truly a symphony of development: the impact of the Light on the desire, the lack of filling that changes under the influence of the Light, acquiring different forms and properties, including the properties of the Light and its own previous forms, that influence the next states even several steps ahead.

The Zohar explains to us how from only two forces-the will to bestow and the will to receive-come all the diversity of the creature. And all of it is directly connected with us since in our world there is also nothing except the two forces: black and white, one and zero, good and bad. It doesn't matter what levels we are talking about; all of creation, all of our impressions, sensual images and pictures of the perception of reality, all of this consists of two forces.

The Kabbalists were able to describe these two forces beautifully in the form of letters. As a result, when we look at these shapes, they come alive and become filled with the spirit of life. You begin to recognize inside each letter, how these properties-the Creator and the creature-are connected with each other. You begin to recognize how they are mutually intertwined and penetrate each other, in which direction, in what way, where they merge together, and where they don't yet, and what restrictions there are.

We don't have the words to express these relations. But a letter, a symbol, gives you a model. And then, by absorbing this model, you enclose within yourself the entire accumulation of feelings, relations, and everything that exists within the letter. A letter contains everything. It only seems a simple form, but this simplicity encloses thousands of previous forms that were acquired during its descent from Above downwards.

In Kabbalah, everything derives from vital necessity. By observing nature, the content of man and his perception, the Kabbalists saw that there was no other way to express the connection between the Creator and the creature except with the help of such symbols, these letters.