The Greatest Light the Creator Has Given Us

By Michael Berg

The portion Yitro is an important one; it is the one in which the Revelation at Sinai, what is called the 10 Utterances, the moment when Bila HaMavet La'Netzach, the removal of pain, suffering, and death from this world, was revealed. Therefore, on Shabbat Yitro, when it is the time of the revelation of the Light of Bila HaMavet La'Netzach, there is a concept I’ve been thinking about. We are conscious, of course, of the power of the Zohar and the importance of studying the Zohar, but are we really igniting a greater and greater passion for, and connection to, the power of the Zohar? 

"Are we igniting a greater passion for the Zohar?"

There is a section from the Ramchal, the great kabbalist Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, that speaks about the importance of study, and more powerfully, as it relates to the Light of the Zohar.  He tells us that amongst all the great Light and gifts the Creator has given us, there is one that is greater than all the others. It is the most elevated, powerful, and important of all the gifts that the Creator has given humanity. What was given on Sinai, the revealed forces within the Light of the Zohar, he tells us, is the greatest gift that the Creator has given this world; the Creator attached the most elevated Light into the words that are within the Zohar. There is one gift, one place where the Creator has attached His most elevated Light, Light more elevated than anything else created in this world, and that is within the Light of the study of the Zohar. 

Therefore, we need to envision this and really use our consciousness about what the Creator has done every time before we open the Zohar. We have to understand that the Creator has attached each word and letter to the most elevated and important Light He has to give to us. And whether we are scanning, reading, studying, or saying the words, we have to see the great Light attached to each one of these letters and words. 

So, if we look at each letter and word, they all have Light. But it is a reverse pyramid of Light. The more one delves to understand, the Ramchal tells us, the more of that Light we are drawing into ourselves. Yes, by scanning, we connect to one level, by reading, we connect to another, and by understanding, we connect to a greater level. And while it is true that each one of these letters and words has great Light attached to them, there is still greater and greater Light. So, the simple connection is one level, the deeper connection is another, and the deepest understanding is yet another level. 

Therefore, the greatest Light that the Creator has attached to these words is dependent on how much of an investment of effort, mind, and understanding we put into it.  This gift, this infusion of Light that the Creator has put into this world, has many possibilities of connection and Light. And the levels of Light depending on the level of investment of effort that one puts towards the desire to understand.  However, the Ramchal explains, we have to know that even at the lowest levels, there is no study that does not draw a great Light. While of course the greater the investment of effort, time, consciousness, and understanding, the more Light attached to it that is revealed, the guarantee is that any type of connection to the Light of the Zohar will draw down this greatest gift.  

"Each letter and word, they all have Light."

So, while every aspect of the study will draw a great Light, it is a growing level of connection that one can achieve by investing more effort into the study. But what is important to understand - and this is why consciousness is so important – is that the words of the Zohar as they exist as words are not that special. Even the literal understanding of the great secrets the Zohar reveals, yes, are important and special, but they are of a much lower degree than the Light that the Creator has attached to them. 

It is important to understand that it is not about what is there, but rather, about the decision of the Creator to choose to attach those letters and words to great Light. Rav Ashlag says it is a double gift that the Creator decided to give: attaching this great Light to words that also awaken us to spiritual connection and have great secrets within them. But the reality that the Zohar has great secrets and that it has great spiritual wisdom is a completely separate thing from the choice that the Creator made to attach these letters and words to great Light. 

Rav Ashlag explains we have to have clarity about these two separate and distinct realities about the Zohar: we can read the great Light and wisdom and have inspiration, understanding, and secrets, but that wisdom, understanding, and so forth, existed separately from the choice that the Creator made to attach the words to great Light. To explain this in an example, it is like a balloon at a party being tied to a chair. There is no connection between the chair and the balloon, except that somebody decided they were going to make a knot with some string and tie the balloon to a chair. There is nothing innate in the chair that necessitates the balloon to be attached to it, except somebody deciding they are going to attach it. 

And therefore, the Ramchal says, the real power of the Torah, and specifically the greatest Light of the Torah - which is the Light of the Zohar - is not its words, teachings, or secrets; it is the choice that the Creator made to attach these letters and words to His greatest Light. As such, other than that decision the Creator made to tie these letters and words to His greatest Light, it could be like studying any other great book of wisdom.  Because there are many books of wisdom, but none have the decision of the Light of the Creator to attach His greatest Light to them. That is what is so powerful about the Zohar. But if we do not have this consciousness, then we are learning wisdom from a book where, yes, we are connecting to powerful secrets, but that is not what the Zohar is about… and we have to have this consciousness and clarity because other books of wisdom do not have the innate gift of each word being tied to great Light by the Creator. 

What the Creator has done with the Torah, and specifically with the Zohar, the Ramchal tells us, is attach the words and letters to a Godly, elevated, supernal Light. As such, the Ramchal says that a person who understands this, with the right consciousness, should be shaking when they come to connect and read from the Zohar, because this is what we are doing when we are reading and studying from the Zohar. With each letter and word, we are drawing down this great Light the Creator has attached to that letter or word. 

"The great Light attached to these letters and words will too be drawn to us, and the great Light of the Creator that is internal to all of us will become greater and greater, and correction and Light can be drawn down to the entire world."

If we open up the Zohar and just make a connection, since it is such a powerful book with so much Light, yes, we are going to get some Light. But the real opportunity is for us to take a moment before we open up the Zohar, and remember this consciousness: these letters and words that I am about to connect to, the Creator has decided to attach the most elevated and powerful Light into, and therefore as I read, study, scan, and connect to them, my consciousness is to use them to draw down the great Light the Creator has attached to them. If we do this, the Ramchal says, then the great Light attached to these letters and words will too be drawn to us, and the great Light of the Creator that is internal to all of us will become greater and greater, and correction and Light can be drawn down to the entire world. However, if we do not have this consciousness, that great Light cannot be drawn by us, and rather, it will simply be just another form of a study done by another person. 

Shabbat Yitro is when the literal Torah was revealed at Sinai; but more importantly, the soul, the great Light of the Torah, which is the Light of the Zohar, was revealed. Therefore, what we want to ask for on this Shabbat, and with this teaching, is to gain the consciousness to constantly become reignited in the power that we are able to reveal, through the connection to the Zohar, the greatest Light of the Creator that is available.

The Strongest Instrument

By Mordechay Balas

The Zohar portion of Naso means “to elevate” in Hebrew. As Rav Berg teaches, we can learn much from the name of the portion, as well as the first verse in that portion.

One of the main gifts of this week is an opening in which we can become more elevated. There is a well known passage that shows us how, through the use of the right tools, we can elevate.

Naso – Volume 17, Verse 90

“But the wise shall understand,” since they are from the side of Binah, which is the Tree of Life. For them, it was said, “And they who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament” with your composition, OF RAV SHIMON BAR YOHAI, which is the book of the Zohar, from the light of the supernal Ima CALLED repentance. They do not require a test and, because the children of Yisrael in the future will taste from the Tree of Life, which is this book of the Zohar, they will leave the exile with mercy. It will hold true about them that “so Hashem did lead him, and there was no strange El with him.”

In this section, the Zohar speaks about the unique time that we are facing now. It is called the “time of Messiah”, “time of Revelation”, “time of age of Aquarius”, … those who would connect to the Light, and those who will not. During this test – that all of us are undergoing – those who are open enough and transform enough will be able to receive the enormous amount of energy and Light revealing itself in the cosmos. Those who are not connected, therefore, will not be able to handle this enormous amount of Light. It is as if one were being exposed to an enormous amount of physical light after having been in a dark place for too long. However, if a person were already around enough light, when he is then exposed to more light, he can handle it.

Whether we want it or not, we are close to the time when the whole world will have to go through a transformation, a positive transformation.

But the Zohar tells us about a deeply helpful tool in this section: Those who would be connected to the power of the Zohar will be able to handle the Light, the intensity, the pressure that the whole world is facing without having to go through the test of chaos, pain, and suffering. This is what all of Kabbalah is about and what The Kabbalah Centre stands for.

Kabbalah teaches that the fact that we are connected in some way to the Zohar doesn’t mean that there will be no more challenges in life. Rather, it tells us that the most powerful tool to go through transformation – without the horrible chaos and negativity that we might need to undergo for our Tikun (the process of amending and becoming the best version of ourselves) – is the Zohar. Personally and globally.

The exile that the Zohar refers to in this passage is the exile of our mind, or when our consciousness is far away from the Light. Through our connection to the Zohar not only do we not have to go through the test of chaos, pain and suffering, but also we receive the gift of extricating ourselves from the exile – our disconnection from the Light – in a soft, merciful way. It is much easier to learn the lessons of life if the awakening comes from within, and not from the universe.

It says in this section that when enough people are able to connect to the Zohar (and “to connect to the Zohar” means having possession of the Zohar, scanning the Zohar, studying from the Zohar, and applying the Zohar) on any of these levels, we will be able to remove pain and suffering from the entire world. Of course, each one of us needs to always take it to the next level – and the next level, and the next after that, and so on.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is information, it is the rules of the game of life, it is an understanding of right and wrong, it is the understanding of how to connect, of building an appreciation towards the Light of the Creator. But when we talk about the Zohar, we are not just talking about wisdom. We are actually talking about power, energy, and strength—because when we connect to the Zohar, we are actually connecting to the elevated soul of Rav Shimon bar Yochai. Rav Shimon was able to bring down the Light of the Creator for us in the most powerful form: the Light of Binah. Because the Light of the Creator is abstract, unlimited energy, the highest Light that we can ever feel in this world is the Light of Binah – the eighth level. Rav Shimon, through the Zohar and the ascension of his own soul to the level of Binah, was able to bring the energy of Binah down to us through the Aramaic letters of the Zohar. Because a human being reached that level, when we connect to the Zohar today we are able to access an enormous amount of Light.

Each one of us, whenever we do anything, should keep in mind that it is very important to know how much energy we are drawing because of our intention. Our soul will be transformed by helping others, but it is not what we are doing to help others; it is actually the level of purity we have when doing so that determines how much Light we will receive and how much energy people will get. In order to achieve a lasting effect when helping others, we need to make sure that our consciousness is in the right place, and that Light we reveal in ourselves will be transmitted to others.

Rav Shimon bar Yochai was not just a channel to give us the words of the Zohar and to connect us to Binah just as information or wisdom. Since he reached such a level of purity that he was – completely – a partner with the Creator, he was able to overcome any fear, any negativity, any opponent, and nullify his body consciousness completely. He was able to, in spite of the pain and suffering of the physical body, have his consciousness go beyond the physicality of the body. He reached a level that revealed a massive amount of Light through his soul, and that infusion is in the Zohar. That is the reason why the Zohar is eternal. That is the reason he was such a channel.

That is the power of Rav Shimon bar Yochai. He was able to achieve much power and strength because his soul came from the Light and the world beyond. The Zohar, for the kabbalists, is the strongest instrument, the strongest instrument, to plug into the Light of the Creator without interference of any human, limited consciousness.

That is what Rav Shimon bar Yochai represents for each one of us. The mission of the kabbalists since the beginning of time, the mission of The Kabbalah Centre, is indeed to effect change in people’s lives – but not through our own wonderful words or television programs about Kabbalah. Of course, we need these as well to bring about awareness, but we want to transmit the actual energy of Kabbalah. The actual energy of transformation, energy of the Creator, energy of our souls. The Zohar is the tool for us to transmit actual energy, actual power – and not just the wisdom of transformation, but the power of transformation.

So when each one of us scans our Zohar, we need to understand that we are not just connecting to the abstract force of God. We are actually able to access the power of God, the power of the Creator, the power of Binah consciousness, the power of freedom, the power of defeating our Opponent – not as intellectual concepts, but as actual strength and force, and it is THAT for which we are looking!

We need to know when we are scanning the Zohar we are actually connecting to strength and power, and we need to beg for the power to be happy, the power to be giving, the power to let go of our ego, the power of certainty. It is the power that we need, not just the intellect behind it. So when we scan the Zohar, we are receiving and connecting to a human being who actually reached the level of Binah. As a result, he can help us to access the power of the Light, not just the concept of the Light. And that is huge!

The Kabbalah Centre has disseminated hundreds of thousands of Zohars all over the world; just the presence of these Zohars becomes like satellites for the energy of Binah. But if we think about it, God exists everywhere, so why do we need satellites for God? Because we need the actual bridge, an instrument that accesses the genuine power of the Creator, not his potential power. The Rav explained that God exists everywhere in a “suspended” way, meaning “waiting to be revealed” or “concealed”. We need strength to activate the power of the Creator. We can say that the Creator is within us, yet we can still be depressed. How do we activate that force of excitement and joy within ourselves? We need the power, not the intellect, of the Creator.

That is the power of the Zohar: by scanning it, by sharing this excitement with others, by being part of spreading the Zohar – we are effecting global change in the world. This is a remedy the Creator gave us – a remedy to eliminate chaos, pain, and suffering. Of course, if a person does not behave within the laws of human dignity and respect for other people, that power will not reveal itself. When we combine the power of human dignity and the power of the Zohar, the power of Rav Shimon, the power of Binah consciousness – any chaos can be removed. THAT is the big picture of spreading the Light of Kabbalah in the world.

The Purpose of the Zohar

The Purpose of the Zohar

By Rav Berg

In the Zohar portion of Naso, Moses tells Rav Shimon that we have the ability to eliminate chaos from our lives through the Zohar—through its wisdom and secrets, and by reading and scanning it.

Rav Shimon explains, in connection with the Zohar, that when you turn on the Light the chaos disappears; when the Light makes its presence felt in any condition, darkness— otherwise known as chaos—must, and will, disappear. But we are not referring to physical light, electric light, or candle light. We are referring to the Lightforce of God.

"We have the ability to eliminate chaos from our lives."

Included in the biblical portion of Naso is everything that is read on each of the eight days of the spiritual holiday Chanukah, which is known as the Festival of Lights. But contrary to popular belief, Chanukah is not about lighting the candles, lighting the oil, or even the victory. This is not what the kabbalists meant would reappear thousands of years later as a form of tradition. Rather, what they are referring to is a condition wherein the Lightforce of God makes its presence known.

Even if we make an attempt to connect to the Lightforce of God every day of the week, most of what we are doing is actually staving off the effects of darkness, and lessening the brutality of chaos. However, the Lightforce of God is not present every day, and there is no chance to eliminate chaos during the week. It is written in Genesis, “there was evening and there was morning.” What does this mean?

"Put your hand over the Zohar."

The Zohar tells us the meaning of this verse is that every day is a test; that we can eliminate the effects of darkness upon our personal lives, but we cannot get rid of darkness. The essential force that creates chaos in our lives will remain present during the week, and only on Shabbat and the spiritual holidays do we have the opportunity to tap into the Lightforce of God without an admixture of darkness. On these days, when we administer the right kavanot, or meditation, we gain the power to eliminate that aspect of darkness that can come on us at any given time.

It is because of the lack of human dignity that we need all the 23 volumes of Zohar. Whether you agree or disagree with a person, or whether that person hurts you for no reason, there is no justification in treating anyone without human dignity. Affording someone human dignity does not mean that you should not confront; however, you cannot abuse people and make them suffer.

Each time we behave with less than human dignity towards each other, we lose our ability to achieve immortality. However, God, in His wisdom, gave us the opportunity several times during the year to restore immortality to the world. The Zohar, the actual physical book, demonstrates this power.

Don’t just wait until you are in distress or having a tough time—put your hand over the Zohar. It may take you 20 minutes, but sure enough, on a physical level, you will literally feel the power of the Zohar.