חסידות אויף דניאל 12:3

Make sure to always adhere to good character traits and right conduct and do not let a day go by without doing a mitzvah-commandment, be it a minor mitzvah or a major one. The mnemonic by which to remember this is the verse,⁴Mishnah Avot 2:1 “Be as radiant-Zahir-זהיר from a minor mitzvah as from a major one.” The word Zahir-זהיר, which is usually translated as “careful,” is related, in its root, to the terminology of the verse,⁵Daniel 12:3 “And they that are wise will be radiant-Yazhiru-יזהירו as the radiance-Zohar-זהר of the firmament.” This is to say that the soul should be as radiant and illuminated by the performance of a minor mitzvah as from a major one, for “the Merciful One desires the heart.”⁶Zohar Vol. 2, 162b; Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 106b.

Chapter 2²⁸⁷In Chapter 2, R. Shapiro defines Kabbalah as a form of divine revelation, as he has done vis a vis Talmud study in Chapter 1. Encounter with kabbalistic texts and learning is therefore encounter with divinity, accessing latent capacities for such connection within the learner and ultimately transforming him.
In the holy books, “Kabbalah” is called “the learning of Kabbalah” or “wisdom of Kabbalah.” In fact, when referring to the kabbalistic masters, the Zohar applies the idiom “a sage is superior to a prophet.”²⁸⁸Talmud Bava Batra 12a. All this could cause us to erroneously imagine that (kabbalistic learning) is merely an intellectual, analytic activity; and certainly an individual person could imagine this, as he perceives intellectual material before him when studying Kabbalah. In the beginning of the aforementioned introduction to Tikkunei Zohar, the author explains the verse “And the knowledgeable (maskilim) will be radiant like the bright expanse of sky:”²⁸⁹Daniel 12:3. “And the maskilim: These are R. Shimon and his fellows. Heaven granted permission to all the souls dwelling above to descend among them, and to all the angels to descend in hidden fashion, by way of the intellect. The Holy Blessed One gave permission to all the holy names… and monikers to each reveal its hidden secrets, according to their respective levels. Permission was granted to the ten sefirot to reveal to them their hidden secrets, not to be revealed further till the generation of the Messiah.”

This is not true of the Zohar, including the Zohar Hadash and Tikkunei Zohar,⁴¹⁰Sections of the Zoharic corpus of an apparently later provenance than the core of the Zohar. in which prophecy is apparent. This is due, first and foremost, on account of the actual prophetic visions which our sages saw and the utterances they heard. Secondly, the tales in these texts—as much as those of the Sages are wondrous and obviously prophetic, above human intelligence—those of the Zohar, along with its tales, are much more wondrous. Almost none of them have any relation to this world and human intellect. Almost all of them speak of the upper worlds, and not only of Eden and Gehenna but of the other worlds as well: of the desire of Knesset Yisrael [i.e. Shekhinah] for her beloved the Holy Blessed One, and how it is wearied in exile from its great desire, and His desire for her; and how in the future He will raised her up; and of the songs of the angels above; and the descent of the soul to this world at the time of birth; and of its ascent at the time of death. This is why the talmudic sage [tanna, i.e. R. Shimon b. Yokhai] began the Zohar and Tikkunei Zohar with the verse, ““And the knowledgebale (maskilim) will be radiant like the bright expanse of sky”⁴¹¹Daniel 12:3. For this is a heavenly work, telling of all that happens above, as well as all the effects of all that happens below on the world Above. It contains not just snippets of what happens above but rather describes things in such detail that the reader becomes like a resident of the world above, able to describe everything in full detail. When one learns Zohar, he feels as if he has been removed to that holy world.