Most of you know the story of the letters of Abraham, the man who was with Rav Ashlag. The student is here for Chanukah, and yesterday she shared a story with me. She said the only reason people know Rav Ashlag is because of Rav Brandwein. Abraham told her this story.

As an aside, we know Rav Ashlag didn’t have any money. If you came to study with Rav Ashlag, you had to pay a lot of money. His students were all very poor, but he said the only purpose for studying is to spread the Zohar.
Because they couldn’t afford to pay, they would gather whatever money they had; one student would study and then tell the others what Rav Ashlag taught. We have to ask ourselves if what we are doing is spreading this further.

Rav Ashlag didn’t have the money for the printer. The printer would print until the money would run out. One day Rav Brandwein came to the printer dressed in his work clothes as a mason, with his monthly paycheck. He gave his paycheck to the printer and said, please, continue the printing, but don’t tell Rav Ashlag. The next month he did it again. Rav Brandwein came dressed straight from work and asked, please continue the printing.

The question we have to ask ourselves is how many of us appreciate the Light? How much do we appreciate the power that is the Zohar. This is the time of the revelation of the concealed Light, the Or HaGanuz, the Light all of us and the world needs. This is the Light that is instilled in the Zohar.

How much are we willing to do?

The first question we have to ask is how much appreciation do we have for the energy that is the Zohar? What are we willing to do? What are we willing to give up to get this Light out into the world? When we hear stories like this we realize how far we are. How much are we willing to do?

I want to share with you a section from the Zohar Hadash, that is not printed yet in our set. And the wise shall shine like the Light of the firmament. Who are the ones who understand? Who are the wise? It was Rabbi Shimon and his friends. When they came together to reveal the Light of the Zohar, the concealed Light that we begin the process of the revelation on Chanukah, a desire, an awakening, an agreement from above was revealed.

Rabbi Shimon received the permission to reveal these great secrets, these great Lights. All the angels from above, all the righteous that had ever lived, they all came to assist this revelation. The Zohar says the reason why they came was because in this world and in the supernal world there is great pain.

Through the study and the revelation of the Light of the Zohar, there will be freedom for the whole world

The pain that was in this world was so great at the time, and the pain they saw that would be in this world, they knew they had to reveal the Zohar. The Creator and the Shechinah agreed that this Light must be revealed. The Creator brought together the supernal Lights and the lower Lights to remove the pain from the Shechinah, from the collective energy, and from our world; to bring freedom both to the Shechinah and to those of us who live in this world. Through the study and the revelation of this Light of the Zohar, there will be freedom for the whole world.

The Zohar says, when the Zohar is truly revealed in the world many people will gather around it. As it says at the revelation on Mt. Sinai, those who are with us, and all the souls that weren’t there, every soul that has ever been in this world, from beginning to end, had the permission to connect to the Light of the Zohar when it is revealed.

When I read many people will gather around and study it, I asked, and we all have to ask ourselves, has it happened yet? Have many people gathered around the Zohar to reveal the Light? Unfortunately, the answer is no. It has not happened yet.