Not Understanding as a Tool in the Study of the Zohar

When we start with Zohar, which is so layered and concealed and needs so much preparation, the first thing that we will make is not understanding. There is a law, what I call eternal engagement: if a person perseveres in not understanding, willing to be in not understanding, and yet he still holds in himself the wish to understand, he is drawing the light that belongs to his spirit into him. In English it means that you stand under something. In Hebrew it goes straight to the core, the quality of bina, meaning that we need to stand under in order to understand. So the question is where to stand so you will be under.

When you say, I want to understand, you stand under the will to receive to himself. When you say, though I do not understand, I wish to understand, I want to stand under something else, this can actually carve in me a vessel of understanding. This is the gap. Even in English sometimes we do not understand, even in Hebrew sometimes we do not understand, not to speak about Aramaic. It did not do it accidentally. There is a gap here as well which actually demands work, a gap of understanding, a gap of attitude. It was actually to create the difference between rear and front. The Hebrew is giving it the face, and then you have the gap. The language of Kabbalah creates a different grip from the Hebrew.

So not understanding is a tool. Being actually saying, yes, I do not understand, I am not able to understand it, it is a calling. So I am asking to understand, but not on my terms, on the gap of what it wishes to tell me, for what I wish to know. This is another point in how the proper will is being created. It is not a given state. We want to understand not because we want to control it, but so we can fulfill our duty. What the light is doing is not giving us the understanding. It is carving in us a tool and a need in a more adequate position.