Torah & Kabbalah

Vaera - What Are We?

2012-01-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

"God spoke to Moses and said to him, 'I am YHVH. I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai), and did not allow them to know Me by My name YHVH.”

The forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, originate spiritually from Supernal Mother, Ima Ilaa, which is the name of God with the gematria of 63 (יוד הי ואו הי). The three letters yud (ייי) found in this name are the three forefathers.

The first letters of their names, together with another name of Jacob - Israel are alef, yud, yud, yud, with the gematria of 31 (אל). That is the name “El,” and it explains the meaning of “I revealed myself as El.” Abraham, who is the first, is thus called “Chesed El” - the Kindness of God.

It is also known that the Supernal Mother is crying on her chair, and there her name is “El Shaddai” - “God Who has it in His power to fullfill His promise,” but this appearance to Abraham was only by way of substitution, in a vision, “bamachaze” - which is in Aramaic, and not Hebrew, that is, a substitution.

The last letters of the names of the forefathers, M, K, B, are SH, D, Y (Shaddai) but also by way of substitution, in the alphabet called “At-Bash”, where the first letter of the alphabet is substituted with the last one, and so on.

The gematria of the name Moses (Moshe - 345) himself is also El Shaddai - 345, but without substitutions, in the revealed manner. Moses encompassed all the powers of the forefathers. However, he also had an added name “Mah”, with the gematria of 45 (יוד הא ואו הא), when he said, “And we, what (mah) are we?” That was what he added over the forefathers, making him the greatest of the prophets.

Art: Domenico Fetti - Moses Before The Burning Bush

Shemot – Childbirth

2012-01-12T13:30:00.001-08:00

As we mentioned before, there are seventy ways to interpret the Torah, one of them is that Exodus is parallel to the soul being sent to Earth for spiritual growth. Another way is to view Exodus as an allegory of actual childbirth. Thus, the Ten Plagues become a parallel to this also.

The first of the plagues was the water of the Nile turning into blood, and similarly the beginning of birth is signaled by the breaking of the waters, which may also contain some blood. Without this, the child might suffocate. In the spiritual world blood is often connected to the Evil Impure forces, the power of which needs to be broken for the process of redemption to begin.

Then came the plague of the frogs (צפרד"ע), which can be read as (צפר ד"ע), meaning the “bird” (צפר), or the “voice” of 70 (ד"ע). These correspond to the seventy screams of birth, and to the seventy words in the psalm “God will answer me in the time of distress”.

The plague of darkness corresponds to the baby's distress during birth, when it begins to perceive itself as going from light to darkness.

Finally, the plague of the killing of the firstborn corresponds to a great number of evil forces that surround the child the at time of birth, all being killed. Still, the major Evil Urge remains alive. This is the meaning of the phrase, “And the first baby that came out was red, all covered with hair,” - first comes the Evil Urge. That is also the meaning of Pharaoh remaining alive of all the firstborn of Egypt. God wants man to be fighting with his evil inclination for the first thirteen years of his life, until the Good Inclination joins him at thirteen and one day.

The time of Redemption (birth) is the spring month of Nisan, when the "Ma'adim" (Red, or Mars) star achieves prominence. The seven stars (planets) are abbreviated as שצ'ם חנכל, the letter mem (ם) stands for Ma'adim.

Art: Nicholas Gysis - New Arrival

Vayigash – When Two Kings Meet

2012-01-03T07:03:00.000-08:00

"Judah walked up to Joseph and said, "Please, your highness, let me say something to you personally."

As we learned before, the meeting of the two brothers, Judah and Joseph, reflects some events that were happening in the spiritual worlds, namely, Judah represents Kingship, ruling the world, and Joseph represents Righteousness, or the Foundation of the world. Kingship is also related to the Female, and Foundation – to the male components of the world, which creates imbalance and tension.

This is described in the Psalms, “Behold, the kings assembled (to attack Jerusalem), they passed by together.” Now the Zohar gives it a different meaning: the two kings are Judah and Joseph coming together, and they “passed by” in the sense that they overlooked the mistakes people made (as in “God passes over and overlooks transgressions”), that is why they are “together” – in love and in unity.

Now we can better understand why the first word uttered by Judah was “please”, “bee” (בי) in Hebrew. The gematria of this word is 12 (2 + 10), and Judah was hinting at all the possible permutations of the name of God representing mercy, Adonay (יהוה), like this:

1-יהוה
2-ההוי
3-היהו
4-והיה
5-יההו
6-ההיו
7-הוהי
8-וההי
9-יוהה
10-היוה
11-הויה
12-ויהה

Judah said “Let me, who is your slave, or your servant (עבדך), talk to you.” He was following the construction of the phrase “God, we are Your servants, the creation of Your hands.” He was saying to Joseph, “I am your task (עבודתך) in the world” – from “your servant” to “your work” to “your task” – therefore, take me seriously and treat me kindly.

Art: Petrus van Schendel - A Servant Girl By Candle Light

Miketz - The Second Dream of Pharaoh

2011-12-25T07:15:00.000-08:00

“He fell asleep again and had a second dream.”

In the second dream, Pharaoh saw seven fat, good ears of grain growing on a single stalk, but now the river is not mentioned. Previously we discussed the meaning of Pharaoh's standing “on the river” in his first dream, but where is this river now?

The river Nile in the dream stands for Foundation, the life-giving force, the place of birth. In place of the river, in the second dream the ears of grain come from a stalk, kaneh (קנה). That, too, is a reference to Foundation. The gematria of the word stalk, kaneh, is 155. After you add to it 1, reprresenting the essence of the stalk, you get 156. That is the same gematria as the name of Joseph (יוסף). Joseph, too, was connected to Foundation: in the spiritual growth of humanity, he represented the Foundation of the Cosmic Man, Zeir Anpin.

This is where the second dream differed from the first. Now it was saying, “These things will come about through Joseph.” The ears were growing on a single stalk, literally “one” (אחד) stalk. This was the symbol of unity, and it is this that allowed Joseph to state with certainty, “The two dreams are one, and there is no division between them.”

Art: John Anster Fitzgerald - The Artist's Dream

Vayeshev – First Letters of the Words

2011-12-17T21:58:00.001-08:00

“These are the generations of Jacob, Joseph was 17...”

The first letters of this phrase are “ati yavesh” (אתי יבש), and the word yavesh (יבש), which means “dried-up” tells us that through the selling of Joseph, the upper stream of spirituality was destroyed and dried-up. That Joseph was 17 – a precise age which we don't need, since he is called “young lad” immediately after, is teaching us something else: the gematria of 17 is tov (טוב), or good. Joseph was that Righteous about whom the psalms say “Tell (call) the righteous that (he) is good.”

All generations, physical as well as spiritual, are created with the help of the Foundation. By stealing and selling Joseph, the brothers created a blemish in the upper spiritual Foundation. Joseph continued the spiritual stream of Jacob, and by being Righteous and by representing the Sefirah of Yesod (Foundation), he was in some sense their father, not brother. What the brothers ruined was the multicolored coat, or “ketonet pasim”. “Pasim” are the first letters of the phase “pitchon sigron yosef moshe” (opening, closing, Joseph, Moses), which is another name of the angel Metatron, and through the connection to the soul of Adam, Joseph and Metatron are one and the same.

Art: Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez - Joseph's Bloody Coat Brought To Jacob

Vayishlach – The Meaning of a Present

2011-12-12T07:46:00.000-08:00

"...Jacob selected a present for his brother Esau from whatever came into his hand."

There are 310 worlds under the Throne of Glory, just as the numerical value of the word shai (שי) - present. Of these, 103 are the worlds of strictness; their influence ascends in the world after midday – the time of the influence of Isaac, the time of Minchah (offering, מנחה) prayer, whose numerical value is 103 = 40+50+8+5.

In general, all the judgments in the world come from the special five letters of mantzpach (מנצפך), and the first two letters of this group are the “man” (מנ) of minchah (מנחה). Following the “man” is the letter chet that represents the nose, and then the letter hei – the mouth of the Cosmic Man, and from these two come the sweetening of all judgments. At the end of days the mixed judgments of the minchah will change and become nechamah (נחמה) - consolation.

That is the meaning of the phrase “from whatever came into his hand”: Jacob took the strictness of the minchah, but with only one hand, and gave it to Esau, whose character was harsh, saying “Give him his due.” Esau hinted to Jacob that had he wanted to, he could draw strength from all of the 310 worlds, not only from the 103 strict ones, by noticing faults in others. Esau said, “I have (יש לי) a lot” hinting at shai (שי). Jacob pre-empted this, by enumerating his presents to Esau with the eight words that all end with the letter mem, hinting at the 8 unclean creepy crawlies mentioned in the Torah. Jacob also pointed out that there are eight words of holiness, used by the Torah to describe an offering (minchah) that also all end with the letter mem. Additionally, Jacob chose the word minchah to inflict a blemish (mum, מום) in the presents to Esau, so that they would not be fitting as idol sacrifices. And, so that the we would not think that eight worlds of holiness also received a blemish, he preceded to describe them as pure (temimim, תמימים).

Art: Auguste Toulmouche - Consolation

Vayetze - Jacob Setting the Stage for the Future

2011-12-04T22:53:00.001-08:00

"Jacob set off briskly, and headed toward the land of the people of the East."

Literally, “Jacob took up his feet” - with his actions, Jacob was setting the events in the relatively near future, and the distant one, at the end of days. His fast departure was creating for later an equally fast departure from Egypt. His going to the east later led to going to receive the Torah.

The meaning of the well in the field and the large stone on top of it can be explained as follows. The stone represents all the hard questions and the possible answers that one finds on his way to truth. Since there are so many questions and so many possible answers, everybody seems right, but the truth remains unattainable. With his single-handed rolling of the stone, Jacob represented later great thinkers who could illuminate the minds, making things crystal clear, and water the flocks. That was only true in their generation however, since repeated arguments and repeated answers again obscured the truth and again made it unattainable.

In the future Jacob will be reincarnated and this time he will break the stone as a hammer that splits the rocks. He will then roll off the stone from the mouth of the well, this time without any questions or hard-to-understand concepts, and all his explanations will be true.

This is also hinting to the phrase “I am God your Lord.” The four letters of God's name “Havaya” (יהוה), are hinted to by two stone tablets and the ten commandments on them. Each tablet thus contained five commandments. The size of each tablet was six by six hand-breadths, altogether third-six, and the two tablets measured 72 (עב). That is the secret of the phrase “God said to Moses, 'I will come to you in a thick (עב) cloud, so that all the people will hear when I speak to you. They will then believe in you forever.'”

Art: Feodor Alexandrovich Vasilyev - Storm Clouds

Toldot – The Supernal Unions and the Light of Chanukah

2011-11-27T22:39:00.001-08:00

There are three Supernal Unions between the Cosmic Woman (Nukva) and the Cosmic Man (Zeir Anpin). The lower one is the union of the six directions of the body, higher than that is the union of the Intellect, and the highest is the union of the Crown, or Will.

The explanation of it is that the Cosmic Woman starts out young and grows. At first, she reaches only the six directions of the body, and that is a relatively light union, which we help achieve in the Amidah prayer said quietly, in whisper. This is the union of the letters of the names of God Havaya (יהוה) and Adonai (אדני). Together their gematria is 26 + 65 = 91.

When she grows up more and comes in contact with the intellect, or the brain of the Cosmic Man, she herself gets the name of Elohim. This is the union of the names of God Elohim (אלהים) and Havaya (יהוה). We help achieve it in the repetition of the Amidah prayer by the one who leads it. Their gematria is 86 + 26 = 112.

Finally, when she grows to the full height of the Cosmic Man, she comes in contact with his Crown, or his Will, and this is the union of the names Havaya (יהוה) and Ehyeh (אהיה) - I will be. Together they constitute 26 + 21 = 47.

The gematria of the three unions together is 250 (91 + 112 + 47. This 250 can also be written as נר, or the letters nun-resh, which means light, or candle, and this is the light of Chanukah. Now there is a rule that Shabbat candles are lighted before the Chanukah candles. As we have seen, on Chanukah the Cosmic Woman grows to her full height through the light of Chanukah. However, on Shabbat she achieves this by herself, being "in the bosom of her husband," and that is why it is better to light the Shabbat candles before the Chanukah ones.

How late can one light the Chanukah candle? While “the foot has not disappeared from the street' – that is, while there are still people passing by who can see the candles. The gematria of the word foot, “regel” (רגל) is 200 + 3 + 30 = 233. This is the same as the two names of God, one of 72, the expansion of yud-hey-vav-hey with letters yud (יוד הי ויו הי), and another of 161, the expansion of Ehyeh (אהיה) with yud (אלפ הי יוד הי), and 233 = 72 + 161. Once the Cosmic Woman reaches that highest union, hinted to by the phrase "until the foot disappears," this means that the lower unions are already in place, and all external influences are subdued.

Art: Godfried Schalcken - A Lady holding a Candle

So who wrote the Zohar?

2011-11-18T10:22:00.001-08:00

There are unusual references in the Zohar to Sages who came much later than Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. There are mentions of Rabbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish, who lived a few hundred years later, and even to the Sages called Geonim (geniuses) who lived almost a thousand year after Rabbi Shimon.

Here are some explanations that I've read at 5:30 AM, a very right time for such things, waiting to board the plane back to Houston.

After Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his students died and entered Gan Eden, they kept a running commentary on the Zohar, adding to it as they saw fit. The book was in the possession of a few select Sages, but they kept discovering new things in it. This is no doubt real magic, but why this should not be the case, since they were all wizards during their lifetimes? (Mikdash Melech)

Rabbi Shimon kept revealing secrets to his students after this death. That is the “later composition” as opposed to “first composition” mentioned in the Zohar. The parts about the later Sages were added when these Sages were already living (Sichot HaRan, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov).

Rabbi Abba, who was tasked by Rabbi Shimon with writing down the teaching, lived for 300 years. He transmitted the book to Rav, when Rav traveled to Babylon, where he revealed it to select Sages, and later it came into the hands of the Geonim. They kept adding commentaries into the text, because the nature of the teaching is that it is a living book (some find problems with this explanation, because of the lack of attributions).

The complete Zohar was authored by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, no excuses, but he knew the future and wrote the teaching of the Sages who were to come later. For Rabbi Shimon, there was no difference between the past and the future, and he quoted from both (Rabbi Chaim Vital). (My commentary: it was important for the book to be hidden all this time, because it should not exert undue influence on future events that are described in it.)

These explanation are from the book “Shaarei Zohar” by Rabbi Daniel Frisch, who in his translation of the Zohar called “Matok MiDvash” (Sweeter Than Honey) prefers the practical explanation, and marks stories from later time (such as those of Rabba bar bar Channah) as external additons.

Art: Louis Charles Moeller - Stubborn

Vayera – Bring Joy to Father and Gladden Mother

2011-11-14T21:11:00.001-08:00

“God appeared to Abraham in the Plains of Mamre...”

The only improvement and correction that we need to do in the world is to help the Cosmic Man (Zeir Anpin) and the Cosmic Woman unite – since all of the good influences and our souls themselves come to us from them, and they are our Father and Mother. As Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai explained, “Your father will rejoice and your mother will be glad” is talking about the Holy One Blessed Be He and the Community of Israel.

As Rabbi Shimon warns, we should have no doubt about the unity of God, even when we learn about different spiritual entities, but understand that they are God’s ways of interacting with us, and creating ways for us to reach out to God. Thus, the "Holy One Blessed Be He" refers to that manifestation of God called the Cosmic Man, whereas God himself cannot be determined or grasped at all, and is instead called “Ein Sof” or “No End”.

The Cosmic Man and Woman achieve unity only at specific times and through our efforts, but the Supernal Father and Mother are higher entities who never separate from each other. However, even that is not exactly true. The verse about sending away the mother bird, “You will send away, send away the mother” is in the spiritual sense talking about the Cosmic Woman and the Supernal Mother, and both are at times separated from their male counterparts. Rather, there are two categories of the supernal union, and it is the higher one that never stops. Thus, out task is to make all spiritual entities ready to be united. The essential step of bringing about the supernal union was Abraham’s circumcision, prior to which the union was prevented. That is reflected in the names of Abraham’s confederates. The letters M-N-Z-P-CH represent the judgement that needs to be sweetened, and it was Mamre, whose name has the same gematria, who gave Abraham the advice.

Art: Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry - The Lovers Looking at Each Other

Lech-Lecha – Three Unions

2011-11-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

“I will make you into a great nation.”

Previously we discussed how Abraham was able to create joy in the Universe, and how his name hints at the union of the spiritual Cosmic Man (Zeir Anpin), and Cosmic Woman, which he helped achieve.

With the giving of the Torah, the opportunities for such unions became more readily available. They are achieved, in different fashion, on New Moon, Rosh HaShana, and on Three Holidays. Abraham was able to achieve this in his days, but since his own main characteristic was kindness, it followed that he supplied mostly Kindness to the union, and the Cosmic Man, who benefited from it, grew mostly in his Wisdom, which is connected to Kindness. That is what God told Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation,” emphasizing “you” personally, with your unique qualities.

Isaac, too, was able to achieve this union, and his contribution came from Strength, which was his main part, resulting in the Cosmic Man's growing in Understanding, which is connected to Strength. However, something new happened in the days of Jacob. His quality was that of Balance, which is alternatively called Beauty, Truth, and Completeness. His bed and progeny was complete (twelve tribes), and he was able to reconcile Kindness with Strength. For the Cosmic Man it meant that Knowledge was added to his brain. The balance was greater than the some of its part, because now a complete whole could emerge.

Nevertheless, it was Abraham, who received an extra letter “hey” in his name, and his “hey” hints at Understanding, “Binah,” which is mostly responsible for the Cosmic Man's maturity. Its lower-level manifestation starts in Victory, Glory, and Foundation, which in a human body correspond to the right leg, the left leg, and reproductive organs, and from there the Understanding proceeds to the brain. That is why, after Abraham merited to arouse the Upper Union, he was given the letter “hey” in his name. In truth, Isaac and Jacob did not heed an extra letter manifestly, because they already received this influence from Abraham.

Art: Frederic Bazille - Family Reunion

Noah – Pleasure and Rest

2011-10-30T11:55:00.001-07:00

“These are the chronicles of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, faultless in his generation. Noah walked with God.”

Noah is the first person who is mentioned as being righteous, and this is the first time that the concept of righteousness is mentioned at all. The concept of righteousness was implicit in the creation of the world from the very beginning. For example, God said, “It is not good for a man to be alone, I will make a wife for him.” Thus, it was implicitly made clear what God considered "good": for a man to get married and establish a family.

The next righteous person mentioned is Adam's son Seth, about whom it says, “And Adam had a son in his likeness and form,” that is, just as perfect as Adam when he was created, but again, this is implicit. Actually, all ten leaders of the generations, mentioned between Adam and Noah, were righteous – and that is why they are mentioned – but the concept that a man is created to be a “philosopher”, a “decent person”, a “moral person”, mentioned in various philosophical and religious teachings, is made obvious here for the first time. Why is this?

Noah represents the concept of Foundation, or Righteousness, of the Supernal Father (Aba Ilaa), a spiritual entity that God constructed out of the remnants of the initial souls that broke up, because they could not imitate God in doing good to others. Now the new spiritual entities could interact with each other, could mature, and thus could interact both with the humanity and the Creator. The righteousness of the Supernal Father is the reflection of the righteousness of God, and is the strong feeling of “right” and “wrong” that each human has inside.

The Foundation of the Supernal Father extends into and gives life to the Foundation, or righteousness, of the Cosmic Man (Zeir Anpin), which can be thought of as the sum total of human spirituality interacting with the Divine. The righteousness of the Supernal Father is shared with the Supernal Mother (Ima Ilaa), and it also is the source for the righteousness of the Cosmic Female (Nukva), who reflects God's presence in this world.

The name of Noah embodies the above concepts, because it means “pleasure” or “rest”, “menuchah” in Hebrew. On the physical level, the curse of Adam was lifted from the earth in the days of Noah, and Noah also invented the plow, to simplify the working of the land.

Art: Giorgio De Chirico - Love Song

Nitzavim – 370 Lights

2011-09-23T07:58:00.001-07:00

“After all these curses come upon you... God will collect you from the lands of all nations of the world, to which He had dispersed you... and bring you to the Land of Israel.”

This short passage contains the phrase, “God will bring you to the Land of Israel.” This is the 5708th phrase from the beginning of the Torah, and the year 5708 (1948) corresponds to the year of the establishment of the State of Israel. The passage itself consists of ten phrases, and each phrase the name of God Adonay (יהוה). Some of the phrases contain the name of God twice, making up 14 names of God, with the gematria of 14 * 26 = 364.

Further, God promises to increase the fruit (פרי) of your hands, your womb, and your animal, and these three fruits with their three letters yud (ייי) is one of the syllables in the 72-letter name of God. The first letters of the passage “God will again rejoice” (ישוב יהוה לשוש) constitute another syllable (ילי) of the 72-letter name of God. Together, these six letters complete the 364 and bring it to 370.

These are the 370 lights that anyone who turns away from bad and becomes good deserves, and the 370 lights are extended to him from Above. The source of these 370 is in the highest spiritual entity, Erech Anpin, or Long Face, hinted to in the phrase “God will again pity and love us.”

Art: Ignace Henri Jean Fantin-Latour - Fruits and Flowers

Ki Tavo – Eleven Curses

2011-09-15T10:22:00.001-07:00

“Cursed is the person who makes a sculptured or cast idol.”

This is one of the 11 curses that was given on the mountain Eival. The 11 blessings negating these curses were given on mountain Gerizim, and they were the complete opposite: “Blessed is the person who makes a sculptured or cast idol”. There were also 11 goat skins used in the construction of the Tabernacle, and 11 spices in mix used for daily incense burning. Why are there eleven? One would expect ten, since there are ten Sefirot, the ways of God in the world. As the Sefer Yetzirah insists, “There are ten sefirot and not eleven”. There is a spiritual rule, “One who increases diminishes.” How can it be violated?

In truth, just as there are 10 ways of Holiness in the world, or 10 Sefirot, so there are 10 ways of evil, corresponding to them. There is an additional spark of life of holiness that gives life to all the 10 ways of evil. The secret of this is in the phrase “And His Kingship is ruling over everything” that is sung of Rosh HaShanah.

However, there is a difference between the 10 ways of good and the 10 ways of bad, in that the 10 ways of good are called Thusness and Essence, and they are also called Vessels. It is this Essence that sustains and makes the good alive, and being of the same kind, it is mixed with them, and this is represented by the 10 coverings of the Tabernacle. It is different with the 10 ways of evil, whose Essence, being good, does not mix with them, but hovers above them, and this makes the whole group consist of eleven parts. The eleven curses, goat skins and spices all work on the bad, to subdue and ameliorate it.

Art: Barbieri - The Spice Shop Paolo Antonio

Ki Teitze – Beautiful Woman Is Your Soul

2011-09-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

“When you wage war against your enemies, God will give you victory over them, so that you will take captives.”

As a child, man is given over to his evil inclination, as in “sin is waiting at the entrance to the world,” and he does not start on the road of self improvement – if at all – until he matures. That is the meaning of “when you wage war against your enemies,” who are your evil inclination and the members of your body, accustomed to self-gratification since childhood. However, “God will give you victory over them” – when one tries, he can indeed become better. Then “you will see a beautiful woman” - that is your soul. She will have to “trim the hair of her head,” that is, get rid of erroneous preconceived ideas. “She will have to pair her nails,” that is, to abstain from the overabundance of even permitted physical pleasures. And she will have to change the dress in which she was captured – that is the garment that the soul had created through her previous wrong deeds.

Now she will cry for her father – that is God, and her mother – that is the humanity. She will do this for a month – and that is the month of Elul, which precedes Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. She will cry for a “month of days” - that is, the soul should rush as if she only has days, not years, in which to prefect itself.

Art: Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Blanzifiore

Shoftim - Courts and Judgement

2011-09-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

The Large Sanhedrin, or the Supreme Court of 71 judges, represents Understanding. Understanding, in turn, is the secret of the Supernal Judgment, as reflected in the name of God “The King of Judgment” which we use between Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur. Understanding and Repentance are spiritually synonymous, and these are the days when Understanding rules. The 71 judges in the Sanhedrin reflect the name of God Adonai (יהוה) with its gemetria of 26 plus the deep knowledge represented by the expansion of this name (יוד הא ואו הא), with the gematria of 45, and 26+45=71.

The Smaller Sanhedrin courts of 23 were first consulted on every matter, even that of capital punishment. The requirement for the 23 arises because the 10 are the minimum to acquit, two more are needed to find guilty, which gives 22, and since the court cannot have an even number of judges, they add one more.

However, there is a deep meaning for this number. The name of God usually connected to the quality of Mercy is Adonai (יהוה), and its expansions, for example, the one above (יוד הא ואו הא) have 10 letters. So 10 are needed to acquit. The name of God connected to strict judgment, Elohim (אלהים), has 13 letters in the expansion (אלפ למד הי יוד מם). Thus 23 judges can properly combine the Mercy and the Judgment and arrive at a just result.

Art: Charles Hunt - A Plea For Mercy

Re'eh – Intentions for Kosher Slaughter

2011-08-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

Previously we learned about kosher slaughter as a step in the soul's reincarnation from the animal to a man. However, there are also more specific intentions that a slaughterer must have in his mind at the moment of slaughter.

When he cuts, he must think that the place of slaughter is the neck, garon (גרון) the gematria of which is 259. This is equal to three time the name of God Elohim (אלהים), the gematria of which (plus the whole) is 86 * 3 + 1 = 259. These are the three aspects of consciousness of the Cosmic Man, Zeir Anpin, which he possesses in his youth. They are called “youthful, or childish consciousness,” and they need to be replaced by mature, or wise consciousness. They are found in the neck of Zeir Anpin, because this is what connects his body – behavior – to his brain – mind.

The slaughterer should also think that the “childish consciousness” often results in the wrong behavior, and thus represents the judgments found in the world. He should bring down the wise consciousness, also in three aspects, thus sweetening and correcting the judgements found in the neck of Zeir Anpin, represented by the neck of the animal. The result of this is the combination of the name of God Adonai (יהוה) and Elohim (אלהים) three times, which (together with 1 for the whole) have the gematria of (86 + 26) *3 + 1 = 337, the same as the gematria of “kosher slaughter”, or “shechitah” (
השחיטה).

It is well known that the name of God Adonai represents Mercy, whereas the name Elohim represents judgment. By combining the two, the slaughterer achieves sweetening of the judgments found in the world, thus effecting cosmic changes through his actions.

Art: Sir Anthony Van Dyck - Youthful Self-Portrait

Ekev – All That Mitzvah

2011-08-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

“All that mitzvah that I am commanding you today – you must guard and keep it.”

The grammar seems not to fit here, and it should say “All those mitzvot” instead. However, this teaches us a rule. A person who started a mitzvah must finish it, because a mitzvah is ascribed to the one who finishes it. That is why the Torah said, “All that mitzvah” – and not part of that mitzvah.

Another way to understand this is to connect it to the prohibition discussed just prior – to distance one from idol worship. One who denies idol worship – which is defined as ascribing spiritual powers to any physical object or spiritual entity, as existing on its own, without being sustained and empowered by the Creator of all things – such a person is considered as if he observed perfectly the whole Torah.

Yet another way to understand “all that mitzvah” is to say that we are talking about the study of Torah. That is why it says, “All” – to include the Talmud and other oral teachings, which were later transcribed into writing. Then “guard and keep” means “learn and do and be careful not to forget what you learned.”

Art: Paul Seignac - Learning To Count

Vaetchanan – Moses Returns to His Youth

2011-08-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

“At that time, I (Moses) pleaded with God.” Moses knew a special way of prayer that is delivered directly, through the passageway we've described before. “But God had turned Himself against me because of you.”

As is known, Moses has moments of immaturity and maturity. This is also true for all souls, and in this they are similar to Zeir Anpin, the Spiritual Man, who passes through the stages of pregnancy, youth (immaturity) and wisdom (maturity).

God gives wisdom to the true leaders of the generation, but only in accordance with the merits of the generation. When the generation of the desert worshiped the Golden Calf, they caused Moses to regress and go from maturity back to immaturity and further into the state before being born. He lost all the Lights of Wisdom that he previously possessed, and returned to his immature youth. The state of before-being-born of Zeir Anpin is in the womb of Ima Ilaa, the Supernal Mother. That is the secret of the phrase, “But God turned Himself (vayitaber) against me,” literally, “made me return to my pregnant mother.” For just as the wrongdoings of the generation cause Zeir Anpin (the spiritual sum of the humanity) to regress and return to immaturity, so too it applies to the leaders of the generation.

Art: Paul Gavarni - Pregnant woman with her mother

Dvarim – The Limited Blessing Of Moses

2011-07-31T05:35:00.000-07:00

When Moses said, “May God, Lord of your fathers, increase your numbers a thousandfold, and bless you as He promised”, the Jews objected, “Are you putting a limit (admittedly large) on the blessing?” To this Moses answered, “It is in my possession, a thousandfold blessing, and that I am giving to you. Beyond that, the blessings should come from the level of Aba Ilaa, Supernal Father."

Moses himself is on the level of El Shaddai. This is the name of God Who gives blessings until your lips begin to say “Dai,” or “Enough.” The gematria of Moses (םשה) is 40+300+5=345, and the gematria of El Shaddai (אל שדי) is 1+30+300+4+10=345.

If you spell out the name of El Shaddai (אלפ למד שין דלת יוד), you will get 1000 (1+30+80+30+40+4+300+10+50+4+30+400+10+6+4=999, plus 1 for the complete word). A thousand in Hebrew is Aleph, and the Hebrew alphabet, which starts from Aleph-Beth is a different way of saying Aleph-Binah, Beginning of Understanding, or Learn to Understand. That is how far the power of Moses reached – to the level of Ima Ilaa, or the Supernal Mother, who represents Understanding. Beyond this is the level of the Supernal Father, and that is where Moses asked that the blessing will continue.

Art: Franz Marc - Portrait Of The Artists Mother

Pinchas – Jealousy

2011-07-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

As learned earlier, the word Jealousy appears three times in the introductory verse of the Pinchas Torah portion, and there is a meditation from Baal Shem Tov, closely connected to the name of God “Jealous”. In principle, it works like this.

It is known that Evil exists only in the lower spiritual worlds, but that in the upper one, called Atzilut, or the World of Nearness, all is Good. By taking the subject of prayer and lifting oneself together with it into the World of Nearness, one comes to the state where Good and Bad are indistinguishable, because the Bad there is also Good. Then on his spiritual descent into the physical world, one finds that the necessary changes have been accomplished.

Even the meditation itself, without the use of a mikvah, is beneficial to the person, and even without accomplishing any other results. Some say, even no meditation is beneficial.

Art: Claude Oscar Monet - Meditation - Madame Monet On The Sofa

Meditation of Baal Shem Tov

2011-07-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

Taken from Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's "Meditation and Kabbalah" - with gratitude

Arizal's Meditation for Friday Afternoon, Requires Immersion in a Mikvah

2011-07-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

Taken from Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's "Meditation and Kabbalah" - with gratitude

Balaam – Why is Evil Given So Much Power?

2011-07-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

Previously we learned the story of reincarnations of Cain, Abel, Jethro, and the family of Abraham, leading to Balaam and Balak. They had great powers, Balaam being a prophet equal to Moses, and Balak – a magician who exceeded even Balaam. Why were they granted such powers?

Balak is called the son of Tzipor, and Jethro's daughter, whom Moses married, is called Tziporah. In some spiritual sense, Jethro is the father of Balak. Jethro's place in the spiritual hierarchy is very high: he is in the foundation of the Supernal Mother, and he is also the spiritual essence of Cain. The Foundation of the Supernal Mother is the name of God “Ehyeh” (אהיה). If you spell this name four times: two times with the letter yud 161 + 161 (אלפ הי יוד הי, אלפ הי יוד הי), once with aleph, 143 (אלפ הא יוד הא), and once with hei, 151 (אלפ הה יוד הה), you get the gematria of Jethro, 616 (יתרו).

Balak, who was in a sense Jethro's son, is thus also derived from Supernal Mother. Next to him (and in the spiritual universes "next" means in some way similar) is Leah, who represents the Rulership coming out of the Supernal Mother, extending until her feet. The lights that extend from the Supernal Mother to Leah, rooted in Zeir Anpin, Cosmic Man, are four, all expansions of the name of God Adonai(יהוה), and the numerical values of the expansions are 72, 63, 45, and 52, which together constitute 232, the gematria of Balak (בלק).

Leah, whose daughter was called Dinah, which means "Judge", represents the harshest judgements. Her feet (symbolizing the final purpose) push against the head of Rachel. The word "push" is (בולקים), and this is the root of Balak. Thus, because of their need for making spiritual progress, the spiritual forces give birth and prominence to evil, which is granted big powers on the way to final good.

Art: Jacopo Tintoretto - Two Prophets

Chukat - You have to make the good out of the bad

2011-07-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

“You have to make the good out of the bad because that is all you have got to make it out of” from “All King's Men” by Robert Penn Warren seems to ring true, but it is hard to understand how the good can come out of the bad. In fact, Warren's book is a proof that this is not possible. However, mystics are all talking about the same things, and it must be true in some other worlds.

In many respects the Red Heifer features the opposite side, “the back” of the good. This is not the complete bad, only second best, but compared to the real thing, it is the “back” of it.

The Red Heifer is burned not in the Temple, but on the Mount of Olives, opposite the Temple. The person supervising the burning is not the High Priest but the one next to him; in the original formulation in the times of Aharon, it is not him, but his son Elazar.

As we learned before, the Red Heifer is the “back” of holiness, and as such it can lead to complete purity – provided that it itself is completely annihilated, and only its ashes remain.

The “Malchut,” or Rulership is the lowest Sefirah, and it represents the “back” of the highest expansion of the name of God (יהוה), when it is spelled with the letter yud, thus forming the name whose gematria is 72 (יוד הי ויו הי). If we then take the “back” of that name, substituting each letter with the previous one (טהג דט הטה דט), we get the name whose gematria is 62. If we continue and take the back of the other three expansions, with gematrias of 63, 52, and 45, then their “back” expansions, totaled, give the gematria of “parah adumah,” Red Heifer.

Thus the Red Heifer is all composed of the secrets of the “back,” or second best, and perhaps for that reason it escaped the understanding of the first among the Sages, King Solomon. The reverse order of things is reflected in the description of the cow, as follows, “cow” is Rulership, “red” is Glory, “pure” is Foundation, “without a blemish” is Strength, and “which never had a yoke on it” is Understanding.

Art: John Frederick Herring, Jnr. - A Bull And Cows In A Wooded Landscape

Korach – Cain Acknowledges that He Was Wrong

2011-06-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

As we learned before, Korach was a reincarnation of the bad part of Abel. Moses, who was Abel's complete reincarnation, kept Korach in check, until the soul of Cain attached itself to Korach, after which Korach felt himself empowered to rebel against Moses.

Moses' counterpart, Jethro, was the reincarnation of Cain. That is the meaning of Jethro being the head and priest of the Midianites – who represent Cain. At this time, Jethro threw Moses in prison for ten years, and Tsiporah was the one to saved Moses. Later, when Jethro made peace with Moses and aligned himself with him, the soul of Cain left Jethro and attached itself to Korach. That is the meaning of “and Korach took” - he took the soul of Cain.

Now Korach and his followers “rised up against Moses” - parallel to Cain rising up against Abel. Further, God said to Cain, “The blood of your brother and of all his unborn descendants scream against you from under the ground.” Parallel to this, Korach went down under the ground. While there, every month Korach and his followers proclaim, “Moses is true and his Torah is true, but we are false”- in parallel to what Cain had said that there is no Judge and no Judgment, when he killed his brother.

Art: Pierre Louis Cretey - Cain Slaying Abel

Shlach – It was the season when the first grapes begin to ripen

2011-06-19T20:13:00.001-07:00

“God spoke to Moses, saying, 'Send out men for yourself to explore the Canaanite territory that I am about to give the Israelites.' ... It was the season when the first grapes begin to ripen.”

Why did the Torah say, “And those days were the days when grapes begin to ripen?” Why “those days were the days?” The answer is that the words “those days” refer to the special days that we already know about, the six days that correspond to the six directions in the spiritual image of Zeir Anpin, the Cosmic Man, or in some sense the Humanity. The time when he has only six spiritual components are the days of his youth and immaturity, without the influence of the intellect, which he will receive from the Supernal Father and Mother.

All the six days and the six directions were mixed in the Tree of Knowledge, with which Adam made his mistake, and this accords well with the opinion that this tree was the vine. Wine is connected to Rulership, and it was also there that Adam made his mistake – by his attempt to fix it and to take its first fruit before proper time.

Sources: Rabbi Daniel Frisch, Moshe Cordovero, Mikdash Melech, other commentators.

When the spies tried to pick up a cluster of grapes, the cluster, sensing their bad intentions, refused to be picked up. The spies then asked Joshua and Caleb to lift the cluster, which they were able to do. Being upset, the spies decided to kill Joshua and Caleb. Joshua spoke to the cluster and told it, "If you will be the cause of our death, we will not inherit the portion of the land in which you grew." The cluster then relented and allowed itself to be carried by the other spies.

Source: Meam Lo'ez.

Art: Raphaelle Peale - Still Life With Grapes And Dish

Behaalotcha - When You Come to Light up the Lights

2011-06-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

God spoke to Moses, telling him to speak to Aaron and say to him, 'When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall illuminate the menorah.'

To explain this, Rabbi Yehudah quoted from the Psalms, “Mighty sun is like a bridegroom coming out of his marriage canopy,” and to explain this in turn he said “Happy are those who learn the Torah of God, which is the Tree of Life.” One who grabs it inherits this world and the World to Come. To grab it and to go up on it, one needs to learn it, and to constantly meditate and repeat it so as to remember – because this is called “grabbing.” The gematria of “The Tree of Life” is 233, and this is the same gematria as “Remember”.

Now, the Tree of Life is the Spiritual Man, Zeir Anpin, who inherits his mind from Supernal Father and Supernal Mother, and he transmits this light to the whole creation below, and that is the mighty sun who sends his light to his queen, the Female, Nukva, and in doing so illuminates everything. Through their contact, they light the lights of the Female, or the Rulership, and that is the meaning of "When you come to light up the lights."

That, in turn, is compared to the Torah, which is called “Beauty” - because beauty is ideal proportions and perfect balance. In the spiritual words it is achieved by studying the opposing tendencies of Kindness and Judgment and by finding a new entity, Beauty, where both Kindness and Judgment are equally balanced.

Art: Winslow Homer - Sunlight And Shadow Oil Painting

Naso – The Spiritual Makeup of the Tribe of Levi

2011-06-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

"God spoke to Moses, saying, Also take a census of Gershon's descendants by families."

Levi the son of Jacob had three sons, Gershon, Kehat, and Merari. They were to play a unique spiritual role in the community of Israel and therefore were not to be counted together with the other Jews. That is because the tribe of Levi represents the spiritual quality of strength and strict judgment. Why is this so and why is it important?

Levy represents the middle matzah at the Seder, and it is the one that gets broken. Strict judgment should be never allowed to act with full force. That is why Abraham, who represented Kindness, was asked to bind his son Isaac, who represented Judgment. Similarly, the tribe of Levi was broken into two parts, the Kohahim and the Levites.

The Levites carried the pieces of the Tabernacle - quality of Strength – and in the Temple they sang, which also represents Strength. How so?

The words “song” (שיר) is connected to the name of God Elohim, representing Judgment, because the letter ש is the same as the gematria (300) of Elohim spelled אלף למד הי יוד מם. The letter יר is 200, and that is Elohim spelled א אל אלה אלהי אלהים.

Power itself extends in five directions, represented by letters which change their shape at the end of the word – מנצפ"ך. Each of the three families Levi has the five aspects of strength, and all three are connected the the spiritual entity of a Cosmic Female, which also represents Strength in the Woman-Man relationship. The first of the family of Levi is the brain of the Female, which is formed before all else, and which has an indelible influence on her. The second aspect of strength comes from her relationship with the Cosmic Man, or Zeir Anpin. The third one is what gives her the power to conceive and give birth. The letters מנצפ"ך taken twice give the numerical value of the family of Gershon גרשון, who started the count. Thus this count helps and advances the development of the spiritual entities of the Cosmic Man and the Female, of which we all form a part.

Art: Raphael - Portrait Of A Pregnant Woman

Bamidbar – Counting the Tribes in Multiple Passes

2011-05-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

"This was [the result] for the descendants of Reuben, Israel's firstborn."

All of the tribes are recounted in this manner: for the tribe of Shimon..., for the tribe of Gad, but the last tribe of Naftali is special, and it is counted without the word “for,” that is, “the tribe of Naftali...”

This letter (lamed) in the Torah tells us what algorithm they used for counting. First they went through every tent and wrote down “so-and-so, son of so-and-so.” In taking this first raw count, they did not divide the people into tribes. It was a complete, unsorted count.

Then they went through the same book again, twelve times, one time for each tribe. Thus, they were counting “this man goes for the tribe of Shimon.” Then they would mark off his name on the margin of the list, to indicate that he was already counted.

When they came to the last tribe, there was no need to direct the scribe to which tribe the men belonged, because they all belonged to the last tribe, the tribe of Naftali.

We see that when dealing with one's name, it is proper to concentrate only on this name. When dealing with one tribe, it is proper to count members of only that one tribe. Each individual's name is of utmost importance, to the exclusion of everything else, since the name is the essence of this person, and each person can claim “for me the world was created.” The same is true for a group, like a tribe, and each has its own unique importance.

Later insights on this can be found here.

Art: Lambert de Hondt - The Creation

Meditation for Lag B'Omer – Gratitude ad Infinitum

2011-05-21T22:46:00.001-07:00

The Sefirah associated with Lag B'Omer is Glory witin Glory (Hod shebe Hod), or gratitude inside gratitude. When a man is grateful to God, he should add that he is grateful for the possiblity of standing in front of God and being grateful. He thus completes and perfects his gratitude with gratitude.

However, he does not have to stop there. He can now be grateful for his capacity of being able to be grateful for being grateful. This chain has no end. It is reminiscent of God's desire to create the world, which had to be preceded with a desire to have a desire, and so on, also ad infinitum.

Compare this to Littlewood's idea of gratitude with potential infinity.

“The following idea, or coda to the series, was invented too late (I do not remember by whom), but what should have happened is as follows. I wrote a pater for the Comptes Rendus which Prof. M. Riesz translated into French for me. At the end there were 3 footnotes. The first read (in French) 'I am greatly indebted to Prof. Riesz for translating the present paper.' The second read 'I am indebted to Prof. Riesz for translating the preceeding footnote.' The third read 'I am indebted to Prof. Riesz for translating the preceeding footnote,' with a suggestion of reflexiveness. Actually I stop legitimately at number 3: however little French I know I am capable of copying a French sentence.” (Littlewood, Mathematical Miscellany).

Why does Littlewood stop at 3 while we continue ad infinitum? Obviously, because he is grateful not for the quality of being great, but for translating his gratitude. It is because our gratefulness is for gratefulness itself that we get into the infinite loop – which is better at stretching the mind than the finite.

Art: Gustave Courbet - Eternity

Bechukotai – Why is God Promising Physical Reward

2011-05-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

“If you will follow My statutes... I will give you rains in their proper time.”

We need to understand these words, for it seems that God is greasing Israel with words, and is trying to convince, almost to seduce them, by saying “If you will do so-and-so, you will have this and that.” Another thing that we need to understand is why God is promising only physical blessings.

However, here we have a hint to the reincarnation. As is known, the reincarnated soul may begin in two inanimate states, silent (earth) and sprouting (vegetation). Then it may become a living animal and if it deserves, a human, and in that state it can achieve perfection, in its appointed time.

That is why the Torah said, “If you will follow my statutes, I will give rain in its proper time, the earth will produce vegetables, and trees will grow fruit, and you will eat and be satisfied.” The souls that are found in nature will ascend and be elevated to the level of man. That is why the Torah continues, “and you will eat bread to satiety, and you will live securely in your land.” The wise student will understand.

Art: Paul Gauguin - Tropical Vegetation

Behar – Seventh Day and Seventh Year

2011-05-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

“It is God's sabbath during which you may not plant your fields, nor prune your vineyards.”

There is the seventh day called Shabbat, but there is also the seventh year that is called “Shabbat for God” and “Shabbat for the Land.” Why is the seventh year called Shabbat, indicating some similarity between the two, and what is the difference between them?

Shabbat is the time when all the spiritual worlds transform and go upwards, compared to their weekday position. For example, the Sefirot of Victory, Glory, Foundation, and Kingship of the lowest world, the World of Action, ascend to the place of Mercy, Strength, and Beauty. In their turn, Mercy, Strength, and Beauty go up to to the place of Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge. These upper three Sefirot, Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge, leave their World of Action and are transported into the next world, World of Formation, and so on. Even the highest world, the Long Face of the World of Nearness, goes yet higher, and the Supernal Father and Mother take its place, as is known.

The seventh year is called Shabbat, because it shares this quality with Shabbat that on this year the spiritual worlds also ascend to higher levels. However, the seventh year is different in that only the first three worlds, Worlds of Creation, Formation, and Action, go up. The upper world, the World of Nearness, stays in its place, and we too have no power to uplift it, and only on Shabbat does this world also experience an uplifting.

Art: Felix Edouard Vallotton - The Artist's Parents

Emor – Yom Tov is Imma, Shabbat is Abba

2011-05-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

“These are God's festivals that you must call out as sacred holidays at their appropriate times.”

The words “These are the festivals of God” (Eleh moadei Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey) spell out the word “Imma” with their first letters. Thus on a Festival the spiritual entities of the Cosmic Man and Cosmic Woman rise only to the level of Supernal Mother, but no higher. In addition, the Mother is represented by the expansion of God's name with aleph, like this: yud-vav-dalet, hey-aleph, and so on, with the gematria of 63. With the 10 letters of the expansion it makes 73, or the gematria of Yom Tov (Holiday) itself.

However, when you call out Holidays with your prayers, you allow the children (Man and Woman) to rise higher and come to the Supernal Father also. Thus the first letters of “them in their times,” (otam b'moadam) make the word Av (Father). On Shabbat the children go higher, to the Father, just because of Shabbat, “because it is holy.”

What is the meaning of all this? God has created the five spiritual entities in the world, of which we and our souls are a part. We allow them to find each other, and are blessed in return.

Art: Jozsef Rippl-Ronai - My Father And My Mother 1897

Kedoshim – What to Do on Shabbat

2011-04-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

"Every person must respect his mother and father, and keep My Sabbaths. I am God your Lord."

One who learns Torah on Shabbat, understands new things, says new insights, and perhaps even learns Kabbalah on that day, causes great respect for his mother and father.

Everyone is given an additional soul on Shabbat. It is this soul that makes his Shabbat learning special. When Shabbat ends, the additional soul returns to Heaven, and the righteous there ask it, “What did you learn? What new thoughts and insights have you suggested?” The soul retells everything it did, and its words bring this extra honor to the person's parents.

That is why the two subjects are connected in the Torah: one shows great respect to his mother and father by observing Shabbat, that is, by learning Torah on that day.

Art: John Frederick Peto - Still Life With Candlestick And Book

The Kabbalah of Sefirah

2011-04-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

There are fifty days from going out of Egypt till receiving the Torah on Sinai, and one counts them as he counts the days to his birthday, for on that day the world was created, at least according to one view.

There are two reasons for this counting (sefirah): to arouse in oneself the love for Torah, and to purify and prepare oneself for the receiving of the Torah. In each of these days one can reach a completely new spiritual level, since each of these days has the power of eight. Thus they are are a blueprint for the year. Everyone may encounter in these days difficulties corresponding to his spiritual nature.

The key to each day is in the Sefirot that it represents. For example, today is the fifth day of the counting, Hod in Chesed, or Praise in Love. On it one should concentrate on praising God, making up for others who do not do so, and this will bring him to love God. Thus he is correcting Love through Praise.

Art: Louis Charles Moeller - The Appraiser

Acharei Mot – The Torah Spoke of the Four Sons

2011-04-15T12:58:00.001-07:00

"God spoke to Moses right after the death of Aaron's two sons, who brought an [unauthorized] offering before God and died."

The letters of the name of the son who died, Nadav, constitute the words “four sons” - “dalet,” four, and “ben” - son. The Torah spoke about four sons, that is, Adam and his three sons, and their souls were all collected in Nadav and Avihu. The name of Avihu is also a hint at Adam, because it can be read “avi hu” - he is the father.

Whatever Adam did wrong, these also did wrong. And what was it? - Strange fire, the other woman, that is, the first Eve, called Lilith. Adam was united with Lilith before Eve, and that is why he said about Eve, “She will be called a woman” - she, but not the other, Lilith.

The Sages called Adam “restoring his circumcision” because of his prior connection to Lilith, with whom he gave birth to multiple demons. A man (ish) and his wife (ishah) constitute real fire of love together – if God puts his name between them. But without God's name, it constitutes just fire, “ash,” and this is the strange fire of Adam.

Naduv and Avihu were the greatest people of their generation, but they repeated Adam's mistake, and did not get married. In addition, they were drunk with wine – and that again was the sin of Adam, on the opinion that Eve gave him grapes from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, having made it into wine. Wine has a dual nature, but Adam leaned on the physical side of it.

Additionally, Adam tried to bring everyone, good and bad, into God's presence, and this was a mistake which caused his own exile, and later also other exiles. In this he was not alone, for Moses and King Solomon also tried to bring too many people to God.

Art: Adriaen Jansz. Van Ostade - An Elderly Man Seated Holding A Wineglass

Nissan as the Month that Has It All

2011-04-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

“This month will be to you the head of all months...”

Just as the head has in it the image of the complete body and controls it, so too the month of Nissan has in it all other months. Each month has a “key phrase” that corresponds to one of the 12 permutations of the Name of God. This is reflected by the Gematria of the Nissan key phrase and the Gematria of the names of all other months combined being one and the same, 1952.

This was the gist of the complete exposition that came to me from Rabbi Menachem Kranz, whose lectures on Kabbalah can be found at the Jewish Heritage Foundation site. So here it is.

Mark, I thought you would enjoy this דבר תורה, I am amazed by how well it fits so I have said it by my Shiur before פרשת החדש for a number of years already, so enjoy.

We read on this שבת the פרשה of ראש חדש and the תורה says as follows, החדש הזה לכם ראש חדשים ראשון היא לכם לחדשי השנה I saw in the ספר אור מלא a beautiful רמז to how we can see that this month of ניסן is the ראש, head of all the months, the head has inside of it all the of the of the rest of the body inside of it, but only on the potential level, so somehow we have to be able to see in the month of ניסן a hint to all of the rest of the months.

If you look in a lot of סידורים in נוסח ספרד, like the Artscroll all hebrew siddur, by מוסף for ראש חדש you will see that it brings down to have in mind a different one of the 12 permutation for the שם הוי"ה by every month, (a 4 lettered word should have 24 permutations but since there are 2 of the same letters so it cuts the amount in half, and that's why there is only 12 permutations for the שם הוי"ה) and they come from different פסוקים from their acronym. The first three all start with the letter י, the next three ה, the next three the letter ו, and the last three permutations start with the letter ה.

The month of ניסן it says comes from the acronym of the פסוק: ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ ירעם הים ומלאו, the first letters of the first four word spells out השם's name in order, but yet in here is a רמז for all of the rest. As follows, if you start from the second letter and count the first letters it comes out in the order of הוהי and from the set that begins with the letter ה which corresponds to the month of תמוז that's the order of its permutation. Now if we start counting from the third letter we get a permutation in the order of והיה which is the permutation that is for the month of תשרי which is the first of the ones that start with a ו, and lastly if we start from the fourth letter we have the order of היהו which is for the month of טבת the first of the last three which start with the letter ה. So all in all we have seen the a רמז here for the four main month, they are also the four month that the seasons are called by like תקופת ניסן and so on, as they are the heads of the permutations that begins with the different letters. Now if we would add up the גימטריא (numerical equivalence) of the those four months they equal to 1944, add to it another 8 to represent the other 8 months that aren't the main ones, it all equals up to 1952 which is the גימטריא of the whole פסוק. ישמחו השמים ותגל הארץ ירעם הים ומלאו. So we see here how the month of ניסן is the ראש of all the חדשים and they are all hinted in the פסוק that represents the month of ניסן.

We'll go word for word,

ישמחו=364
השמים=395
ותגל=439
הארץ=296
ירעם=320
הים=55
ומלאו=83

Together they equal 1952

Now let's count the four main month ניסן=170
תמוז=453
תשרי=910
טבת=411

Altogether it equals 1944, now add 8 to it which represent the other 8 month, and you have exactly 1952.

For someone to come up with this it had to be with רוח הקדש. It amazes me every time I go through it, it just fits so perfectly. May we finally see the גאולה as it says בניסן נגאלו ובניסן עתידין לגאול!

Art: Alfred Sisley - The Small Meadow In Spring

Tazria - Seven and Eight - Originals

2011-04-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here are the pages of the original for reference, click on them to see full-size.

Tazria - Seven and Eight

2011-04-01T06:20:00.001-07:00

“When a woman conceives and gives birth to a boy, she shall be ritually unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during the time of separation when she has her period.”

Adam was created from the earth outside of the Garden of Eden, and later God brought him in. Why is this so? Would it not be better to create Adam from the earth of the Garden, which was obviously of better quality? However, the reason for this is that Adam was destined to make a mistake that would cause him to be exiled from the Garden. Had Adam been created from the earth of the Garden of Eden, then later, after his mistake and exile, he would not be able to repair the damage he has done.

When the Snake seduced Eve, he injected in her bad spiritual qualities that led to a mixture of good and evil. Now she would give birth not only to righteous individuals, like she and Adam, but also to evil people. There are connections between the seventy nations of the world, the seventy members of Sanhedrin, the seventy years of exile, the seventy years of the “spiritual sleep” of the exiles, and seventy or eighty years of a man's life, hinted to in the psalms, “the life of a man is seventy years, and with strength – eighty.” They deal with the mixture of good and bad, and that explains why circumcision happens on the eight day, which is free from the influence of seven/seventy.

Art: Francesco Curradi - The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

Pekudei - The Counts

2011-03-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

"The 100 talents were used to cast the bases for the sanctuary and the cloth partition. There were a total of 100 bases made out of the 100 talents, one talent for each base."

Here we have the secret of the name of God Adonai and the number 100, as we have learned before.

Connected to this is the story of the four Sages who entered the Garden of Mysteries. Since Adam made a mistake, and we are still enjoying the fruits of it, these Sages decided to correct this. They may have wanted to correct the mistake itself, or they may have wanted to repair the consequences of it in the soul of Adam, which includes all souls of humanity till today.

The mistake of Adam was in giving the crown of Rulership to the Cosmic Man, Zeir Anpin, before he was ready for it, that is, before the consciousness of the Supernal Father was given to him. Therefore, the only way to fix it was to enter the consciousness of the Cosmic Man, elevate it, and fix his crown from the inside, thus fixing everything. Anybody who wants to effect this correction needs to interact with the four mentalities of the Supernal Father, possessing Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge.

Each of the four Sages wanted to correct one mentality, and this was wrong, since each needed to correct all four. The three of the Sages made a serious mistake while attempting this and got harmed in the process. Only Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left in peace. He was in fact capable of correcting all four mentalities, but the angels pushed him away. God protected him from the angels – because Rabbi Akiva was able to correct all four mentalities, even though he only did one. Arizal goes on to explain the mistake of each of the Sages, the greatness of Rabbi Akiva, and the strength of God expressed in the number 100.

Art: Sandro Botticelli - Three Archangels

Joseph and Zuleika - the sources

2011-03-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

People have asked about sources, and here are a few. "Medrash Says" talks about the story of Zuleika and her friends all falling in love with Joseph. (Jami has it in more poetic details).

Jami can be read on google books - I am showing the first page, and not all pages can be accessed anyway.

Gilgulei Neshamot by Rabbi Meir of Fano is the source for Zuleika/Rahav/Yosef/Yehoshua connection, but I could not right away find that place - so I am showing something else I found about Rahav. I have the original of that book also, but I am posting the translation.

Joseph and Zuleika

2011-03-06T21:32:00.000-08:00

Jami (1414-1492) described the story in his poem Yusuf and Zuleika. The Medrash story about all Zuleika's friends cutting their fingers is retold as follows:

The poem now pursues the Scriptural account of the life of Joseph, or Yussuf, whose supernatural beauty is, however, described as being the especial gift of God, and recorded to have been so great that no woman could look on him without love. Zuleika, therefore, only shared the fate of all her sex. Some writers say the ladies who clamored so much against her for her passion were, when he first entered the chamber where they were all assembled, in the act of cutting pomegranates, some say oranges, and in their admiration and amazement cut their fingers instead of the fruit! Yussuf is considered the emblem of divine perfection, and Zuleika's love is the image of the love of the creature toward the Creator: some go so far as to say that we ought to follow her example, and should permit the beauty of God to transport us out of ourselves. The rapid change from prison to high estate of Yussuf they consider a type of the impatience of the soul to burst its fetters and join its Creator. Yussuf was always surrounded with a celestial light, typical as well of the moral beauty and wisdom which adorned his mind. He is sold as a slave, and Zuleika becomes his purchaser, to the great rage and envy of all her rivals, amongst whom was included the Princess Nasigha, of the race of Aad. The beautiful Yussuf now enters her service, and, at his own desire, a flock of sheep are given to his special keeping, his admiring mistress wishing, by every indulgence, to attach him to her. The nurse of Zuleika is the confidante of the passion which she cannot control, and which, at length, in an imprudent moment, she discloses to its object himself. His father, Jacob, or the angel Gabriel in his likeness, appears, to warn him of his danger, and he flies, leaving his mistress in an agony of despair, rage, and grief. She thus exclaims: Is this a dream?—another dream,

Now continue with the poem,

Like that which stole my senses first,
Which sparkled o'er my life's dull stream,
By idle, erring fancy nursed?
Was it for this my life I spent
In murmurs deep, and discontent—
Slighted, for this, all homage due,
From gen'rous, faithful love withdrew?
For this, no joy, no pomp have prized;
For this, all honors have despised—
Left all my soul, to passion free,
To be thus hated—spurned-by thee?

The story of Yusuf and Zuleika ends when Zuleika, old and imprisoned, sees Yusuf in his kingly attire. She runs to him, and Yusuf, recognizing that she is the true love, marries her. Zuleika becomes young again through a miracle.

The Sefer Gilgulei Neshamot tells that the reincarnation of Joseph was Yehoshuah, and the reincation of Zuleika was Rahav, one of the four most beautiful women in history. Yehoshuah married Rahav, making the poet correct.

Vayakhel – Crime and Forgiveness

2011-02-27T18:50:00.001-08:00

“Moses said to the Jews: Look! God has selected someone to build a Temple for you, and that is Betzalel, the grandson of Chur.”

Chur was the person whom the Jews had killed just a few days before for protesting against the worshipping of the Golden Calf. When Aaron saw the murder, he reasoned that he too might be killed, and made a Golden Calf. Now Chur's grandson, a boy of thirteen, was called upon not to avenge, but to gain forgiveness.

That is why Moses said, “Look!” - it will be a sign for you, a remembrance, that the son of the man whom you killed will be building a Temple to bring you forgiveness. The only way for you can achieve forgiveness is if the prosecutor becomes your defender. No further progenitor of Betzalel is mentioned, to emphasize this. Gold is mentioned before silver in all descriptions of the Temple to remind the Jews about the Golden Calf, even though everywhere else silver comes before gold, “Mine is silver and mine is gold, say God.”

In the future the Jews were to worship the Golden Calf yet again, in the time of Yeravam, in the portion of Dan, and Betzalel's helper, Oholiav from the tribe of Dan, was toiling to obtain forgiveness for them before this second worship occurred, in keeping with the rule that God creates a cure before the disease

Art: Honoré Daumier - The Defender

Ki Tisa – The Three Offerings

2011-02-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

"When you take a census of the Israelites to determine their numbers... Everyone included in the census must give a half shekel."

The word “offering” is mentioned three times, to tell us that there were in truth three different offerings. The first one went to build the Tabernacle. The second one – to buy daily sacrifices to be brought in the Tabernacle. And the third one – to make the silver sockets where the beams of the Tabernacle would stand.

Concerning the daily offerings, which atone for people's transgressions, the Sages have said, “No man in Jerusalem would remain there overnight without having his sins expiated.” To this offerings the words of the Torah “redemption for your souls” apply. The sockets atoned for the sin of the Golden Calf, and these are described as “The offering of God, atonement for your souls.” The daily offerings, connected to 20 gerah coins, represent the expansion of the letter yud (יוד - יוד ויו דלת). In turn, the sockets, “adanim” are related to the name of God “Adonai”, and are connected to a complete 100 with the expansion of the expansion, as we have learned before – to recap,

1=א
ד=4
נ=50
י=10

אלפ דלת נונ יוד

אלפ למד פא דלת למד תיו נונ ואו נונ יוד ואו דלת

65+35=100

Art: The erection of the Tabernacle from the Figures de la Bible; illustrated by Gerard Hoet

Meditation on a Candle

2011-02-15T06:39:00.001-08:00

The wick of the candle represents the physical world. The blue flame nearest to the wick is the first spiritual world above our physical one, of the Sefirah of Malchut – Rulership. Above it is the flame in the shape of a letter vav, or a straight vertical line. The numerical value of vav is 6, and it corresponds to the next six Sefirot, that is, Kindness, Strength, Beauty, Victory, Splendor, and Foundation. Next is the hottest white flame, which corresponds to the Sefirah of Understanding.

Then comes the light radiating from the candle, and this is the power to perceive, or Wisdom. Finally, there is the concept of the flame itself, and this corresponds to the highest Sefirah, the Crown, or Will.

All of these parts are united only through a wick. By contemplating a flame in this manner, one can bind himself to the Ten Sefirot.

The word used for the candle in the Sefer Yetzirah here is “gachelet,” or coal, and its numerical value is 441. The numerical value of the word Truth, “Emet” is the same. It is Truth that binds all opposites together. This is indicated in the word itself, for letter Aleph of Emet is the first letter of the alphabet, and letter Tav of Emet is the last letter of the alphabet. This is also the concept that the highest and the lowest meet and flow into each other. That infinite chain of transformations can also be used as a mental exercise, or meditation.

Terumah – The Secret of Tefillin

2011-02-04T09:29:00.001-08:00

“God spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelites and have them bring Me an offering. Take My offering from everyone whose heart impels him to give.”

“Take for me an offering...” hints to the Tefillin. There are three levels in the secret of Tefillin. The first is the Tefillin worn on the head, the second – on the arm, and the third one is the knot of the head Tefillin.

The two boxes of the Tefillin correspond to the two Temples that have already existed. Their place on the man's body is where "the kings", or the controllers are, that is, the heart and the brain. About the Tefillin the Torah said, “And the people of the world will see that the Name of God is written on you, and they will fear you,” and about the Temple the Torah said, “You should fear my holy place, the Temple.”

Corresponding to the three levels of Tefillin, the Jews brought three different offerings (Terumah). The hints to this are found in the spelling of the offerings' description, and it also helps understand the greatness of the Tefillin themselves.

Art: Carl Haag - A Jerusalemite Shepherd Winding the Phylacteries for the Hand

Mishpatim – The Jewish Slave

2011-01-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

"These are the laws that you must set before [the Israelites]: If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years, but in the seventh year, he is to be set free without liability."

The slave who works for six years is a hint to one who learns the Mishnah, which consists of Six Orders. Learning the Mishnah can be called necessary but ungrateful labor, because it is only a preparation for future study of the Talmud and Kabbalah. One cannot decide the final law from it, nor does one know the various situations in which a particular Mishna is applicable.

The “six-year slave” is also a hint to a soul that was part of the Cosmic Man (Zeir Anpin, the spiritual entity comprising all souls), but then, due the soul's ruining the six attributes – Kindness, Judgment, Beauty, Victory, Splendor, Foundation – it had to come down into this world. Working for six years represents the soul working on each of the aspects of the world, and correcting every one of them.

But if the slaves refuses to leave his owner - that is, if the soul refuses to uplift itself and work on improving itself - then the master brings it to judgment and takes it to the door to make a hole in the slave's ear and keeps the soul in the cycle of reincarnations. The soul is destined to be reborn again and again, repeating its own mistakes.

Still, the soul of this Jewish slave has connection to holiness – to the source where it came from. Therefore, its efforts, even unwilling, are finally rewarded – and that is why the Jewish slave goes out to freedom in the Jubilee year. It may seem like an eternity – and that is what the Torah has actually said, “the slaves serves his master forever.” But this “forever” is not to be taken literally. Later on, describing the Jubelee year, the Torah says that “every man returns to his family.”

Art: Bartolome Esteban Murillo - Return of the Prodigal Son

Yitro – Who is Yitro?

2011-01-20T11:34:00.001-08:00

"Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, sheik (priest) of Midian, heard about all that God had done for Moses and His people Israel when He brought Israel out of Egypt."

The Other Side has as one of its servants someone called “Priest of Midian.” The general rule is that every element of holiness has a corresponding element on the Other Side, and in this hierarchy the “Priest of Median” corresponds to the Foundation of the Supernal Father. The name of the Foundation of the Supernal Father on the side of holiness is “Love,” but on the other side his name is “Jealousy and Strife.”

Yitro also had the title “The Priest of On.” Similar to the opposing positions of Good and Evil above, the “Priest of On” has as its counterpart on the side of Holiness the Foundation of the Cosmic Man. Accordingly, the Foundation of the Cosmic Man is characterized by the phrase from the Torah “Beginning of my strength (oni),” whereas the Priest of On has his expression in the verse from the Psalms “Those who do evil (spelled in the same way as 'on', but pronounced 'avon').

The Forces of Good always want to be together, and the righteous have a part in that with their actions, which brings about the supernal union. Corresponding to this, the Forces of Evil also want to cling together, but are not successful in this, since they do not have the light of love. For they only imitate the good, but lack its inner qualities, and are compared to a monkey imitating a man. Therefore they remain separated, as the verse in the Psalms indicates, “they will be separated and spread out, all those who do evil.” This is all hinted to in the name “Priest of Midian.”

Art: Petrus Renier Hubertus Knarren - Jealousy

Beshalach - Diagram

2011-01-17T10:56:00.001-08:00

Beshalach – original

2011-01-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

Beshalach – The Way to Get to Israel

2011-01-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

"When Pharaoh let the people leave, God did not lead them along the Philistine Highway, although it was the shorter route. God's consideration was that if the people encountered armed resistance, they would lose heart and return to Egypt."

It was bad for the Jews that Pharaoh let the “people” - meaning the mixed multitude of slave nations – go with them, since it was because of them that God did not pity the Jews and did not bring them directly into Israel. Rather, God considered that “people” - that is, the mixed multitude - would change their minds and return to Egypt.

When Moshe saw that they would be forced to go through the desert, in the direction of the Sea of Reeds, and will have to cross it, he took the remains of Joseph with him, so that Joseph would help him split the sea, as the verse “the sea saw and ran away” implies.

The Philistines are spiritually compared to hair, and their verse is “hanging hair locks,” with the accompanying spiritual affinity to Leah. The Jews now needed to go to Israel, which is connected to the qualities of Rachel, and the danger was that when going through the land of Leah, they would get stuck and go back to Egypt. Moses, who represents the Foundation of the Supernal Father, was on a level that is too high and abstract. He could get to Israel only through the Foundation of the Cosmic Man, which is represented by Joseph. He thus took the remains (literally, the essence) of Joseph, clothed himself in the Foundation of the Cosmic Man, and thus was able to direct toward Rachel – Israel.

Art: (Jacopo Carucci) Pontormo - Joseph in Egypt

Page of the original relevant to the previous post

2011-01-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

The page of the original, as supplied by Rabbi Kranz, with this explanation:

Dear Yudy

I'm attaching a pic of the Sefer ליקוטי תורה from the אריז"ל which is the source of where Mark took the פרשת שמות Dvar Torah from. In big bolder letters ( I don't think my pic is clear so here is what it says there: להיות כי ע' פנים לתורה וא' מהם היא רמז והנה ירידת ישראל למצרים היא רומז אל הולד בעודו תוך בטו אמו ביו המצרים ההמה וע"ז נפרש מ"ש) it says explicitly like Mark said that there are 70 ways to דרשן and this is one of them. In other words the אריז"ל is using it as a משל to describe growth of a baby in his mothers womb, but what Mark wrote by פרשת בא is talking about were פרעה and the מצרים had their grasp on קדושה so they were able to control כלל ישראל.

But to explain it a little more, when there are a lower level of מוחין to the פרצוף ז"א then the other side can have a grip on ז"א. But only on his neck, but that's the area where the 3 parts of the מוחין which is the חב"ד pass through when they go through the neck, whether its going up or down (why it goes each way I'm going to leave alone for now) the most vunerable place is by the neck just like a chain is as strong as its weakest link, so the weakest place is the neck, its the most narrow place on the body were all the vital messages and so on have to pass through so פרעה represents הער"ף the neck, and his 3 שרים represent the 3 most vital parts that pass through there which is from the מוחין דקטנות which are made up of שמות of אלהים.

But even if we take it on the משל level I think it could be bringing us an important lesson, of how the יצר הרע works, he wants to cut off our connection that we have between our mind and heart, so we just listen to our desires and not our mind, but that can only happen when we only have מוחין דקטנות but when were on a higher state of מוחין דגדלות then its much harder fro them so the key is to be on a higher state of mind as much as we can, and not to lose our constant שותי ה' לנגדי תמיד!

May we be זוכה to attain that level.

I hope I brought some clarity to what's bothering you.

Menachem Sholom Kranz

Bo – The Source of Pharaoh's Power

2011-01-06T19:13:00.000-08:00

"God said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh' "

Pharaoh did not know the name of God denoted as Y-H-V-H (יהוה) and denied its power, since he said “I do not recognize God (יהוה).” He did, however, recognize the name of God Elohim (אלהים), since his magicians told him, “This is the finger of God (Elohim).”

This is because Pharaoh was drawing his sustenance from the Cosmic Man, but only from his youthful, unrefined mind, which consists of three parts, called meat steward, wine steward, and bread steward. All of them represent the name of God Elohim, the name that denotes the natural course of events, cause and effect, and crime and punishment. Even when through the plagues Pharaoh was ready to accept the name of God Y-H-V-H – which denotes God's presence in everyday affairs – he was only ready to accept the judgment and punishment parts of this involvement, since he said “God (Y-H-V-H) is correct, and I am a sinner” - and the first letters of this phrase spell out Y-H-V-H (יהוה).

Thus even in his defeat Pharaoh was insisting on his understanding of God as a Vengeful Judge. To counteract this, God said “I will bring my signs (אותותי), which should be read as "signs of the letter yud" (אותות - י), and the gematria of yud is 10, corresponding to the spelling of the name Y-H-V-H (יוד הי ויו הי), which has 10 letters. This is also hinted to by the frogs that went into “your midst” - literally into the midst of Pharaoh.

Art: Alois Stoff - In Search Of The Pharaohs

VaEra – The Source of Prophesy

2010-12-31T13:26:00.000-08:00

“God spoke to Moses and said him, 'Now you will begin to see what I will do to Pharaoh.“

In order to receive prophecy, one needs to engage in contemplative meditation and to become a good and righteous person. There were schools of prophecy in Israel, and there has been a total of one-and-a-half million of prophets. Only the prophecies of the 24 prophets that were relevant to all times became canonized in the Writings.

When prophecy does come to a person, it comes from the “sapphire brick” under the feet of God. The Throne of Glory was seen as made of sapphire. The sapphire is blue, and it may be that they saw a vision of the sky as being below God. This stone is related to wisdom, and the Hebrew word sappir is related to sefer, a book. Some say that this 'sapphire' is like a 'third eye,' through which mystical vision is attained, and indeed, this third eye is associated with a sapphire blue color. It involves meditating on a single point and complete quietness of mind.

However, this is not the ultimate prophecy, since another name of the sapphire is “Glass that is not completely transparent.” The prophecy of Moses was from a higher world of Beriyah, the Word of Creation. The Sages say about Moses that he deserved to get Understanding, which is connected to the World of Beriyah, and to the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

The Torah phrase above hints to the different levels of God's communication with Moses. “God spoke to Moses” - Understanding. “And He said to him” - hints to the secrets of the highest Sefirah of Crown, or Will.

Art: John Singer Sargent - Blue Gentians

Shemot - Going Down to Egypt as a Soul Going Down into the World

2010-12-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

“These are the names of Israel's sons coming to Egypt with Jacob, each man came with his house.”

There are seventy ways to learn the Torah, the four most well known being "simple meaning," "hint," "moral lesson," and "secret." Here we have learning by the way of "hint." The story of the sons of Jacob going down to Egypt is a hint to the story of a baby who is still in his mother's tummy, limited by its walls. The word Egypt, Mitzraim, literally means “borders,” or “limits.”

Just as a body has 248 main members and 365 connecting tissues, the same are present in the soul itself, and they represent various strengths of the soul, which is going down into the world with its limitations.

“With Jacob” means that the strengths of the soul come into the body while it is yet unborn, and
"with Jacob" means "with the Good Inclination." "Coming" (and not "came") means that all the time that a man grows and develops, his souls keeps coming to him. Even though a man is holy, it is God who makes him holy. This is hinted to by the phrase “There is no one as holy as God, and there is nobody but Him.” Thus the strengths of the soul keeps coming to the baby as it develops, until he is born, when he becomes “man came with his house.”

And then “A new king who did not know of Joseph came into power over Egypt.” That is the Evil Inclination, an old and stupid king “over Egypt” - that is, while still unborn and limited by the tummy. “Who did not know of Joseph” means that he did not know God. Then the new stupid king says to his people – who represent the forces of impurity - “Look at the Children of Israel” - who represent the strengths of the soul - “They are stronger than us!” What does he do? He says, “Let's build cities” - body, and the name of one city is “Pithom” - “Pi tehom” - a mouth without end to its desires. The name of the other city is “Ramses” - “Ra” - bad, “Mses” - desires.

However, “the more they oppressed them, the more they grew” - just as man is given more desires that serve the Evil Inclination, at the same time he is supplied with more soul, allowing him to reach ever higher spiritual potential.

Art: Salomon de Bray - Joseph Receives His Father and Brothers in Egypt

Vayechi - The Good Years of Jacob

2010-12-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

"And Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years..."

Jacob was a reincarnation of Adam. Adam was created on a Friday, sinned the same day, and was exiled from Gan Eden together with Eve. He then separated from his wife for 130 years, and these are his bad years, until the wives of Lemech told him to reunite with Eve - when he was trying to convince them to reunite with their husband Lemech.

These are the first 130 years of Jacob's life. When Jacob came to Egypt and met Pharaoh, he said that he was 130, and that his years were short and bad. That is what Jacob meant, that they corresponded to the 130 bad years of Adam.

Having fixed, through his life, the bad years of Adam, Jacob now had his own life, as the Torah says, "And he lived." These years were his good years. The Gematria of "tov" - good - is 17.

There is another hint to this relationship in the words of Lavan, when he said, "Good if I give her to you (Jacob), rather than to another man (Esau)." The two sisters whom Jacob married are the two large drops that fell away from Adam, and now Jacob has brought them back through his marriage.

Art: Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Dante's Vision of Rachel and Leah

Vayigash – Yehudah's Hints

2010-12-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

Judah walked up to Joseph and said, "Please, your highness, let me say something to you personally."

Judah represents Kingship. He was appointed king among his brothers, and in the future King David and all the Jewish kings, David's descendants, will come from him. Joseph, on the other hand, represents Rulership (Foundation). He was the viceroy of Egypt. He was also Joseph the Righteous, which is Foundation, according to the phrase “The righteous one is the foundation of the world.”

Thus their meeting is the meeting of these two spiritual entities. As the Zohar states, the verse in the Psalms, “Look, here are kings united together” refers to this meeting. When those two entities unite, there is no room for anybody else – which explains why the brothers commented “Let them fight, we don't care.”

The first thing that Judah said was “Please, your highness” - bi, adoni (בי אדני). The word bi (בי) has the gematria of 12, hinting at the 12 possible permutations of the name of God (יהוה). The first letter can be one of 4, the next – one of three, and so on. This is called factorial, denoted as 4!, and 4! = 24. However, two of the letters are the same, so the correct formula is 4!/2! = 12.

Judah continues, “I am your slave” - because the Kingship is nobler than Rulership but is subservient to it. The first letters of his speech (ואיובאי) have the gematria of 36, hinting at the fact that he was righteous. The second letters, third, fourth, and fifth also carry hidden messages.

Art: Franz Anton Maulbertsch Joseph And His Brothers

Miketz – At The End of Two Years

2010-12-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

"Two full years passed. Then Pharaoh had a dream. He was standing near the Nile"

There are 365 days in a year, which in gematria is (שסה). Two years are 730 days, that is (שסה+שסה) . Together with the 6 letters of these gematrias, we get 736, which is the gematria of God's name Adonai - 65 - (אדני), together with the full spelling of this name – 671 - (אלפ דלת נונ יוד) and 65 + 671 = 736. That is the true meaning of “two years,” which is also called “end of days” both below and above.

The Pharaoh was standing literally “on the river” - since he can only stand through the power of the river, and the river is Joseph, who is also called “lion” by the prophet Amos, and “lion” (יאור) is transposed into river (אריה).

The seven healthy (briyot) cows are a hint to the seven qualities of the world of Beriah (Creation), so the word “briyot” should be understood literally. The seven thin cows are a hint to the word of Yetzirah (Formation). The same is true of the next dream about stalks of grain. All sustenance of the world of Yetzira comes from the world of Beriah, and that is the meaning of eating in the dreams.

Art: Aelbert Cuyp - Cows In A River

Vayeshev – Zeir Anpin Goes to Egypt

2010-11-26T06:54:00.000-08:00

“These are the chronicles of Jacob: Joseph was 17 years old.”

The Sages said, “Everything that happened to Jacob happened also to Joseph.” This is also true in the spiritual worlds, where Jacob represents the process of Zeir Anpin's maturing, and becoming wise and kind.

Jacob went down to Egypt with 70 souls. By then his part in Zeir Anpin amounted to Kindness, Strength, and two-thirds of Beauty, the hidden qualities of Zeir Anpin. The gematria of the name of God, יהוה, taken two times is 26 * 2 = 52. Add to this two-thirds, roughly 18, and you get 70.

The number of year that they were going to spend in Egypt is 430. This number is the gematria of the name of God אלהים, taken 5 times. These years were necessary for Zeir Anpin's maturing. The Understanding that Zeir Anpin was going to achieve there is represented by all possible permutations of this name of God, אלהים. Since one can take any of the 5 letters as the first one, this gives 5 possibilities to start. The next letter is one of 4, and this leads to 5 * 4 = 20 permutations. Then comes 3, then 2, and the result is 5*4*3*2*1=120, or 5 factorial (denoted as 5!). This is hinted to in the phase, “You placed him a little lower (מעט) than the angels (אלהים)”. The gematria of "a little lower" (מעט) is 119.

The growth of Zeir Anpin's Understanding begins to control his whole body, by going down through his neck, and pushes the non-rectified parts to the lowest areas of Victory, Glory, and Foundation, which are represented by Pharaoh's three Princes: the Prince of Wine, the Prince of Bread, and the Prince of Meat (Potifar). At the same time the lower levels reflect the higher ones, and the Prince of Wine (Wisdom) was returned to his place – since Wisdom is internal and is not directly under the control of man. However, the Prince of Bread was hung (תלה), literally, “brought up” - since Understanding and Judgment require more perfection and are brought about through man's work.

Art: Leonardo Da Vinci - Muscles of the neck and shoulders

Zeir Anpin

2010-11-26T05:59:00.000-08:00

But what is Zeir Anpin? It is a spiritual entity roughly equivalent to how humanity interacts with God.

Vayetze - Early Life of Zeir Anpin

2010-11-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

"Jacob left Beer-sheba and headed toward Charan."

At first, Zeir Anpin, or the Cosmic Man, has immature intelligence, or "small brain." But what is Zeir Anpin? It is a spiritual entity roughly equivalent to how humanity interacts with God. The brain of Zeir Anpin is represented by the name of God - Elohim - repeated three times. The gematria of Elohim is 86, and three times that is 258, and this is exactly the gematria of Charan. Thus Jacob's going to Charan represents the progressing maturity of the Cosmic Man.

Jacob himself comes from a higher level, the Supernal Father, who is the father of Zeir Anpin. In fact, Jacob derives from the qualities of Victory, Glory, and Foundation of the Supernal Father, and this is the secret meaning of the phrase, "Jacob came out of Be'er-sheba," since Foundation is called "Be'er" - the well.

The last letters of the phrase, "And Jacob left," ו'צא 'עקב מבאר, constitute the word "Be'er," but they can also be read as אבר - organ - or foundation. Jacob leaving Be'er-sheba and going to Charan thus represents a progressive stage of the Cosmic Man's maturity, leading to his acquiring a "big brain," a process in which Jacob is instrumental.

We thus see that the physical Jacob represents spiritual changes in the world which occur through him and are hidden in him. In the same way, higher levels of spirituality hide inside lower levels and pretend that they are not there. Their relationship to the lower levels are that of the soul to the body, and in fact they are called the soul of the previous level.

Art: Eugene Delacroix - Jacob Wrestling with the Angel

Toldot - The Beard of the Long Face

2010-11-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

These are the chronicles of Isaac son of Abraham: Abraham was Isaac's father.

Why is the fact that Abraham was Isaac's father repeated? Why, regarding Isaac's prayer for children, it says that he "turned over God's will," and not that "he prayed?" And why do the Sages insist that "Children, life, and sustenance depend upon luck and not merit," and why are "children, life, and sustenance" mentioned in this order? To all these questions Arizal gives answers, but to begin to understand them, we need to know about the Beard of the Long Face.

The Long Face, or Erech Anpin, is the spiritual entity that is higher than Supernal Father and Mother, and he hides in such a way that only the Father and Mother are seen, and they, in turn, hide in the spiritual entities of the Cosmic Man - also called Small Face - and his Female.

The structure of the beard of the Long Face reflects the secret nature of the world, and it was described by Rabbi Shimon to his students assembled in the glade, as related in the book "Edra Raba" - "Big Glade."

There are two kinds of "Luck," one consisting of thirteen parts, and another of eight, and both are found in the beard of the Long Face.

Isaac represents the eight-part luck, Understanding, and Judgement, and Rebecca is the thirteen-part luck and Rulership. When the two, having great love, combine, their love is on the level of a "Thousand," and it is higher than most other spiritual entities just mentioned. The hair of the Long Face represents light. The number "thousand" is born by the permutations of the Divine names in this hair. When the two lucks combine, they form "Merit," and when their lights combine, they form "Luck."

Thus, when Isaac prayed for Rebecca to have children, he combined the two lucks, 8-part and 13-part, overturned them, and by introducing Wisdom, caused their fusion and created Mercy.

Art: Jean Baptiste Camille Corot - Rebecca

Chayei Sarah – The Balance of Good and Evil

2010-10-28T19:12:00.000-07:00

Why was Sarah not allowed to give birth until she was 90? It has to do with the balance of good and evil in the world. In the course of the explanation, we will find out about the meaning of the A-T,B-SH. We will not reach a complete explanation yet, but will find out something very important instead.

To arrive at a hidden meaning of words, the Kabbalah sometimes uses the reflection where the first letter of the alphabet becomes the last, the second letter become the one before the last, and so on. Therefore, א becomes ת, and ב becomes ש, and so on. This method is called את-בש.

The first three letters of the alphabet, aleph (א), bet (ב), gimel (ג) have the combined gematria of 6, vav (ו). This hints at the six directions (winds) of the world (space), which were kneaded together with the heaven and earth. After that, the earth (physical matter) was formed, which corresponds to the letter dalet (ד), and dalet includes the four principal elements - fire, wind, water, dust (ארמע).

Then comes the letter hey (ה), which is found in the word "He created them" (בהבראם), which can also be understood as "With hey He created them" - this is the second letter hey in the name of God, the "small hey."

These are the five letters of holiness, standing at the beginning of creation. Then come the four letters of the evil forces (תשרק), hinted at by "empty and void". Thus, with the letter aleph came the letter tav (ת), the evil deceiving husk. This is the rule: when holiness ends, evil, or concealment, begins.

Then came the three letters representing falsehood, sheker (שקר), the next letters at the end of the alphabet. In the letter kuf (ק), there is a long hanging vav (ו), which represents the snake, who spoke falsehood and walks on his belly. It also hints at Haman, who is a snake, and who prepared for Mordechai a gallows of 50 amot high.

Since the evil has no power to act on its own, at the beginning of "falsehood" (שקר) stands the letter shin (ש), which is also a letter of holiness.

Art: Paul Gauguin - Fire By The Water

Vayera – Some Practical Magic

2010-10-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

“God appeared to Abraham in the Plains of Mamre...”

In contrast to his own rules, Arizal here gives a few pieces of advice that relate to practical Kabbalah.

The first words of this Torah portion have a holy name of Ariel encoded in them: ויר"א אלי"ו = אריא"ל, and the extra letter vav, ו, corresponds to the name of God called “Av” - with the Gematria of 72 - יוד הי ויו הי.

There are many omens that one can performed based on this name. If one feels that his evil inclination is getting the better of him against his will, he should concentrate on the letter vav, corresponding to the name of God “Av”, and say to himself the name Ariel eleven times.

Second: if one has an enemy, he should write the name Ariel on a clay vessel twenty-one times, together with the name of his enemy, and throw it with force, so that it breaks, at the door of his enemy or at a place where he passes, and he will see miracles.

Third: after one immerses himself into a mikvah, he should repeat this name 242 times, as the gematria of Ariel, and this is very good for his soul.

Fourth: when one wakes up and arises from his bed in the morning, he should repeat this name 242 times, and fortified by this, he will understand everything that his eyes are going to see this day.

Fifth: when one wakes up in the middle of the night to say his midnight prayers, called Tikkun Chatzot, after he finishes his prayers and says the confession, he should mention the name 11 names, then 23 times in the “Who hears prayer,” - and that will help in the correction of his soul.

Sixth: saying this name 242 times helps to enlighten his eyes, and it also has many other beneficial effect – “Only I have not seen them all” - adds Rabbi Chaim Vital - “And may the Blessed God enlighten our eyes with His Torah!”

Art: Gustave Caillebotte - Bathers

Mysticism Explained by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

2010-10-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's knowledge was encyclopedic, he has written 111 books on all areas of Judaism, from popular booklets to Torah translation to Kabbalah. His photographic memory held thousands of pages, some from rare unpublished manuscripts from various libraries of the world. In his TV interview he gives an introductory overview of Jewish mysticism, and his every word is fresh.

Part 1

Part 2

Lech-Lecha – “The Land Which I Will Show You”

2010-10-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

The spiritual entity Zeir Anpin – Small Countenance - is one of the five spiritual entities that exist in the Cosmic Worlds. After God has created the world for the first time, the souls, not being able to resemble their Creator in His ability of giving, did burst, or break. God reconstructed five entities from the shards, and now they could give to each other. Zeir Anpin is one of them.

Abraham, Rachel, and Leah are not only personalities, but are also physical representations of the spiritual regions in Zeir Anpin. Initially Abraham was lower in Zeir Anpin than Rachel. Now God is telling Abraham that he should leave the lower land and direct himself to the upper Land, Israel, represented by Leah.

That is why God called this land “which I will show you.” At the time of Abraham, Zeir Anpin did not have fully developed brain, or capacity to understand, and the area of Leah in Zeir Anpin was not revealed nor seen – because it can only be understood with a fully developed capacity for understanding. That is what God meant when he told Abraham, “I will make you a great nation” - that Abraham will develop the brain of Zeir Anpin, and through this development all will be able to see and understand the spiritual quality represented in the world by Leah, who in turn represents the Land of Israel.

Art: Henry Mosler - The Broken Sabot

Anna Karenina as a Fight Between Morality and Mysticism

2010-10-04T09:21:00.000-07:00

The first words of the novel, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way “ can be alternatively interpreted as an attention-catcher, a banality, or a plainly wrong statement of the writer whose life does not fulfill his ideals.

However, based on the assumption that the work of a genius touches us to the core because it itself touches on the ideas which serve as a foundation of the world, we can interpret it as complete and absolute truth. Accordingly, it should be read as, “(Seemingly) happy families are all alike; every unhappy family (author trying to resolve the question in a real, deep, way) is unhappy in its own way (requires an individual approach, which can be worked out only through sufferings required to obtain knowledge)”. Don't get scared, not necessarily physical suffering, but in the sense of "more wisdom - more sorrow; more knowledge - more grief."

Every person can give an obvious answer about what is right and what is wrong. Anna is her husband's wife, given to him by God, and it should stay that way. This is wrong, however, too obvious to be true. Every time a person brings in God to support his stance against others, he is prejudiced and is therefore wrong.

Vronsky is obviously Anna's true love, and true partner, if only because they are indeed lovers. The conflict here, one might say, is that Vronsky has not completed his correction, he is not perfect, whereas Anna is. The only reason she is reincarnated is for him – and he blows this chance, probably again and again.

Tolstoy is probing the veracity of this answer from many points of view, represented by the others in the novel. Will he get it? Let's wait for the next 50 pages.

Art: Heinrich Matvejevich Maniser - Anna Karenina

Why did God create the world?

2010-10-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

“To contemplate Glenn is to ask why God had to make the world, and why in just six days. And was He too but the victim of, the sacrifice to, a yet greater power, for if nothing can be totally self-generating, if God and Glenn are/were celibate, is it not reasonable to believe in the constant, greater creative element which permeates our universe and of which we, in our ordinary lives, recognize only the expected and accepted, in the usual acts of living and dying but which in rare individuals takes over completely and in which the creative is revealed in all its awesome purity and power.”

Yehudi Menuhin

Supernal Mother - Understanding - Becomes King

2010-09-27T04:38:00.000-07:00

After one says the first four words of a blessing, and the Kindness, Strength, and Beauty return to their source, the Supernal Mother, then she is called King. That happens because her children are now with her, and they are blessed to an extent where they can in turn bless the lower worlds.

For this is the quality of Kingship - it is manifest when the king is accompanied by nobles who are endowed with riches, when they have everything that they need, without anything lacking.

Since another name of the Supernal Mother is Understanding, then it is by Kindness, Strength, and Beauty being endowed with Understanding that they become rich with the Brains of the Supernal Mother, and can in turn perfect the lower spheres.

All that is the result of a properly pronounced blessing on food and other pleasures.

Art: Allan Ramsey - Queen Charlotte with her Two Children

The Secret Meaning of Blessings, the Result of Saying the First Four Words

2010-09-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

After the first four words of the blessing have been said, Kindness, Strength, and Beauty are blessed. They take that blessing as a source of strength, unite themselves together, and return to their source, the Foundation of the Supernal Mother.

Without the blessing, they lack the strength to go back. However, with the blessing, they become cleansed of the external influences and receive additional blessings, true blessings, three blessings, since now the three of them are united. They then take these blessings back to the lower spheres. This is hinted to in the verse “You will not see My Face empty-handed.”

Art: Jozef Israels - Three Women Knitting By The Sea

Haazinu – Secrets Are Not For Everyone

2010-09-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

"Listen heaven! I will speak! Earth! Hear the words of my mouth!"

Why is it that heaven should “listen” while the the earth should “hear?” Arizal asks fourteen more such questions about word usage before he begins his answer.

In the Torah there are revealed and hidden parts, that is, simple meaning and secrets, and the secret is not for everybody, but only for people who are themselves like angels. The simple meaning, however, is for common people. It is about this secret meaning that the angels objected when God wanted to give the Torah to Israel. They said, “What greatness will it be for Your Name?” - that is, for the Torah, which is all the names of God - “Why are its secrets given to men on earth?”

The paradox that the angels did not comprehend was that since the simple meaning of the Torah was not fitting for them, since they are not mortal, the Torah had to be given to men, to whom the simple meaning applies, and the secrets were given with it.

This is the meaning of “Listen, heaven!” Moses is talking to those special righteous people who, while on earth, are similar to angels in heaven. “Listen” implies that these things are not said out loud, but from mouth to ear. And “I will speak,” (“Adabeira,”) implies things which are hard to understand. In contrast, the simple meaning can be heard by common people, that is why they can “hear the words.” To the secrets, however, the following principles apply: "not every brain can sustain them," and "not everyone who wants to occupy himself with the names of God should do so".

Art: Karl Witkowski - Secrets

The Secret Meaning of Blessings, fourth word, אלהינו

2010-09-07T04:39:00.001-07:00

This word, אלהינו, represents the Strength, or strict judgment. However, when we say the blessing, the strictness of this word becomes mixed with יהוה, Mercy, and Mercy, in turn, is intertwined with Strictness, until they become one.

The influence of the blessing that we pronounce reaches down up to Mercy, Strictness, and Beauty of the Cosmic Man. Once it has reached here, the lower Sefirot – Victory, Splendor, and Righteousness, are blessed with them, and receive the flow of blessings that is due to them.

Art: Rembrandt Van Rijn - Jacob Blessing the Children of Joseph

Nitzavim – The Revealed Things Belong to Us

2010-09-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

Hidden things may pertain to God our Lord, but that which has been revealed applies to us and our children forever. [We must therefore] keep all the words of this Torah.

The hidden things are fear and love of God, because these things are in the heart of man. The revealed things are Torah and mitzvot, which can be observed by all.

In addition, the hidden things hint at the five Strengths, represented by letters מנצפך, which are found in the spiritual entity called Supernal Mother, and, being that she is hidden and removed, they are also called hidden. The spiritual entities of Zeir Anpin (Cosmic Man, or Small Countenance) and his Female are related to the totality of all Jews, and thus can be in some way observed in the world. But the Supernal Mother pretends that she is not there, and is thus called hidden. However, there is yet a spiritual entity even more hidden than she.

There also five other Strengths in the Cosmic Woman, a spiritual image that is closer to our world, and these are thus called “revealed.”

Art: William Merritt Chase - Hide And Seek

The Secret Meaning of Blessings, third word, יהוה

2010-08-31T04:45:00.000-07:00

The word יהוה represents synthesis, harmony, and beauty. Its source is kindness. It also implies all aspects of faith, since the essence of the belief of the Jewish people is in the name of God, יהוה.

Thus, when pronouncing this word, one should concentrate on the meaning above, and on all the additional names of God that are derived from יהוה.

Art: Odilon Redon - Meditation

Ki Tavo - The Female Lights and the Kohen

2010-08-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

"The priest shall then take the basket (with the first fruit) from your hand and place it before the altar of God your Lord."

The mitzvah of the first fruit contains in it the secret of the return of the lights of the Female to kindness - represented by the Kohen - so that evil forces cannot cling to her. The gematria of הטנא - the basket - is the same as אדני - My Master, the name of God.

Rabbeinu Bechai explains this further. The first fruit remind us of God, who is First, and of the first three letters in God's name giving power to the fourth one. The Kohen taking the basket and waving it is symbolic of God setting the world in motion, for God is also called Kohen. The world is created for the sake of two "firsts" - Torah (which is called the beginning of His way) and Israel (called the beginning of God's harvest). In the same way, the basket is a container serving to receive the first fruit.

Furthermore, God not only directs the world from the outside, while being removed from it, but also penetrates every aspect of the world. The hint to this is in the basket being made of twigs, with a number of holes in between. God is described in the Song of Songs as "peering through the lattices."

Art: Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Girl At A Lattice

The Secret Meaning of Blessings, second word, אתה

2010-08-22T21:53:00.001-07:00

The major intention of this word is Kindness. After the blessing starts to come down into the world from the Foundation of the Supernal Mother, it begins to be revealed. The Foundation of the Supernal Father, called “baruch,” is closed and hidden. That is why it is expressed in the form of “baruch” - blessed, and not “titbarach” - may He be blessed. The source of this blessing is always hidden, never revealed, and is constantly flowing.

The second word, “atah” - you – is the beginning of revelation and connection with the outside world. Accordingly, the world “atah” is connected to Kindness and expresses Openness. And who is this “You?” - This is the secret of Kindness, and it is called “Kohen.” The hint to this is in the phrase “You are a Kohen (priest) forever”, which has been said about Abraham. It is connected to the right hand of the Cosmic Man (Zeir Anpin), where Kindness begins to be revealed into the world.

Art: Vincent Van Gogh - Two Hands

Ki Teitze – Beautiful Captive

2010-08-20T05:47:00.000-07:00

"When you wage war against your enemies, God will give you victory over them, so that you will take captives. If you see a beautiful woman among the prisoners and desire her, you may take her as a wife."

According to the view that the first intimacy is allowed right away, the Torah saw that man will not be able to control his Evil Inclination, and allowed this act. If so, then anything prohibited by the Torah, once a person can't control himself, should be allowed!

Additionally, why did the Torah promise a punishment of being taken back to Egypt, where nobody will want to buy you, and did not mentioned the other three exiles?

The four exiles correspond to the four letters in God's name. Egypt corresponds to the point at the end of the letter yud, which is special and most important of all the elements in God's name. In Egypt, the Jews have already selected all sparks of holiness. Although in any exile God's presence is with them, to find out the sparks of holiness in the converts, in Egypt there are none left, and thus “there will be no buyers.”

Back to the beautiful captive, this law applies only to voluntary, not defensive wars. And to such wars only completely righteous people could go. Anybody who had any fear of having transgressed any Torah law, such as talking between two prayer sections, was required to leave the army and go back. If so, the evil inclination overpowering them could only be a sign that this woman had unrectified sparks of holiness in her.

By allowing first intimacy right away, the Torah hoped that these sparks will re-connect to their source, and the woman will join the Jewish people. Still, a wayward and rebellious son was likely to come out of this union, because of the unrectified parts in their souls.

Art: Boreas - John William Waterhouse - Boreas

The Secret Meaning of Blessings, first word, ברוך

2010-08-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

By “secret meaning” the Faithful Shepherd, or Moses, means the intentions that one needs to have in mind when pronouncing them, to arouse the source of blessings above, and to make it pour below. It applies when enjoying something in this world, or when performing a mitzvah.

Thus, ברוך, Blessed, represents the highest source of all blessings, the Foundation of the Supernal Father, called, “The Way,” through which the blessing directs itself into the Foundation of the Supernal Mother, the flow that never stops. It lights all the lights of the Cosmic Man, and through him – that of the Cosmic Woman.

Art: Kings Fairy Tale - Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis

Shoftim – Appoint for Yourself Judges and Guardians in All Your Gates

2010-08-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

“Appoint for yourself” is in singular (תתן לך), as if one can appoint judges all by himself. Obviously, that is not true, so why was this language used?

As Rav Chaim Vital explained, this is a hint. Everyone in the Nation of Israel has many Gates: Gates of Seeing, eyes; Gates of Hearing, ears; Gates of Speech, mouth; Gates of Smell, nose; Gates of Feeling, hands and feet.

Therefore, everyone needs to appoint judges and guardians at his own Gates: guard himself from seeing unseemly things; from hearing improper things; not to say foul words or bad things about others; not to smell the perfume from someone he should not; not to touch prohibited things, and not to go to wrong places.

What is the reward? - “Open the gates, and let the righteous enter!”

One also becomes deserving of the 310 worlds, reserved for every one who is righteous, and the gates of these worlds become open for him, since each world has a gate.

Art: Sebastien Stoskopff - Summer or the Five Senses

Don Quixote as an Allegory of the Four Spiritual Worlds

2010-08-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

The Faithful Shepherd (Moses) said to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the Zohar:

"Too bad for those Sages who only eat the straw of the Torah and do not learn its secrets. For they rely only on their intellect and logic, eating from the Tree of Good and Bad, that is, wheat (חטה). But חטה consists of error (חט) and good (ה), and thus they inevitably have an admixture of falsehood in their learning."

"For the King and the Queen (Cosmic Man Zeir Anpin and his companion Nukva) in the World of Nearness do not ride on a donkey but on a horse. It is their servant, the angel Metatron, who rides on a donkey."

We thus see that the Knight on a Horse (Don Quixote) and the Servant on a Donkey (Sancho Panza) are parallel to the four spiritual worlds: Nearness and Creation on the one hand, and Formation and Action on the other.

"And if you tell me" - continues the Zohar – "that the Messiah should also arrive on a donkey, and that the Messiah is called poor (עני), hinting at the three hardest tractates of the Talmud (ערובין, נדה, יבמות), thus including all Talmud – that is only the beginning of his arrival, for he is not called King until he rides on a horse."

Many works of literature, fairy tales and myths contain hints to spiritual truths known to all mystics, and they resonate within the human soul.

Art: Salvador Dali - The Impossible Dream

Re'eh – Animal Slaughter as a Step in Reincarnation

2010-08-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

“When ... your natural desire to eat meat asserts itself, so that you say, 'I wish to eat meat,' you may eat as much meat as you wish.”

All that is created in this world contains in itself a mixture of good and bad. Therefore, the purpose of each creation is to improve on its physical nature and to progress spiritually. Human souls may be reincarnated in the bodies of domestic animals, wild animals, and birds. The kosher slaughterer, or the shochet, needs to have these two intentions in mind: to improve the physical nature of the world by sweetening the judgments found in it, and to complete the punishment of this reincarnation, preparing the soul to come into the body of a human at the time of birth, as other human souls born to proper people.

When the shochet sharpens his knife on the sharpening block, to remove a dent, and at the time when he examines his knife for dents, he should have in mind that dent (פגם) has the value of 123, or 3 times the word מא, and the value of this word, 41, corresponds to the number of letters in the name of God, its expansion, and the expansion of the expansion. All these names have the aspects of judgment in them, and the shochet should have the intention to sweeten these judgments. He then converts them into the names of 42 letters, which are all mercy.

Art: Jacopo Bassano - Animals Entering the Ark

Ekev – The Blessings Are From Balaam

2010-07-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

“God will love you, bless you and make you numerous.”

All benefits that Israel enjoys in this world come from the blessings of the evil Balaam. Any merits that they accrue, however, are preserved and wait for them in the World to Come. That is the meaning of what the Torah said, “God will preserve you” - meaning, preserve your merits for you.

The Sages have learned this teaching about Balaam from the use of the same word "love." Here it says, “God will love you and bless you” and about Balaam it says “And God overturned the curses of Balaam and made them into blessings, since God loves you.” We do not find anywhere else in the Torah blessings next to love, except in describing the incident of Balaam and this “God will love you and bless you.”

Art: William Brassey Hole - Balaam blessing Israel

Vaetchanan – The Way of Prayer

2010-07-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

“At that time I pleaded with God, saying...”

There is an angel appointed to watch over prayers, and he brings them up from the Earth to the Heaven, in a spiritual journey of 500 years. The angel does this with the power of two letters in God's name, yud and hey, and it was with these letters that God created the world. The 500 years plus the letters yud and hey gives 515.

These angels are described as “their legs were straight (ישרה),” which has a numerical value of 515. This is why Moses said, “I pleaded (ואתחנן)” - which also has the numerical value of 515 – that Moses pleaded with the angels to bring up his prayer (תפלה) - which again has a numerical value of 515. “At this time” means at the time when the prayers go up with the help of the angels, who do this with the letters yud and hey.

Art: Salomon de Bray - Jacob's Ladder

Dvarim – The Secret of Eleven Days

2010-07-16T06:16:00.000-07:00

Moses began to review the Torah when he was an “...eleven day journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by way of the Seir highlands.”

In this phrase, Moses hints at the initial breaking of the vessels. When the original souls, out of their desire to give and to emulate their Creator, burst, this good intention created Evil. There are eleven kinds of this Evil: seven are hinted to at the beginning of the Torah by the account of seven kings who died, and four more correspond to the other side of the Supernal Father and the Supernal Mother. The word “Horeb” has a connotation of desolation, thus “eleven days journey from Horeb.”

The “way of Seir” is a hint to Esav, who represents the chief evil. The word “way” always means a female, and together this is a hint concerning the angel of Esav (Samael), his female companion, and their cohorts. Here Arizal directs the reader to meditate on these concepts, to gain more understanding. This agrees with the way of the Kabbalah, which is taught only to “those who have initial knowledge of it, and even to them – only as hints.”

The Destruction (Horeb, Hurba) was needed so that “the day would give its light after the night,” that is, so that Good would exist on the background of Evil. This is the meaning of the teaching that God was occupied with creating worlds and destroying them, before He created this one.

The word “Kadesh” hints at the secret of the final redemption. As is known, Messiah will come when “all souls in the body (of Evil) are reincarnated and sanctified” - “until Kadesh” means “until they are sanctified.”

“Barnea” is a hint to multiple exiles: “Bar na v'nad” means constant uprooting and replanting – until the end of the exile, which should also be a subject of one's meditation.

Art: George Inness - Sunset at Etretat

Matot - The Secret of Oath

2010-07-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

"If a man makes a vow to God, or makes an oath to obligate himself, he must not break his word." However, a Sage can annul his word. If a woman makes a vow, a Sage, her father, or her husband can annul it.

In the relationship between the Cosmic Man and Cosmic Woman, the Man represents Wisdom, and the Woman – Understanding. Thus, any vow or oath is expressed through Understanding, on the condition that it agrees with Wisdom. If it does not, the Sage can annul it.

The seven breaths that emanate from the mouth of the Cosmic Man turn into an all-encompassing light between him and the Cosmic Woman. These are the seven breaths that are mentioned by King Solomon, and they are the secret meaning of an oath, “shevuah” - seven. Thus there is a mitzvah to swear in the name of God.

One who swears falsely takes himself away from the seven breaths of holiness, and as if clothes the Truth in the seven garments belonging to Forces of Evil, about which King Solomon said, “That, too, is vanity (breath) and evil of spirit.”

Art: Gabriel Metsu - Man and Woman Sitting at the Virginal

Pinchas – The Name of God is Jealous

2010-06-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

“Pinchas (a son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest) was the one who zealously (jealously) took up My (jealous) cause among the Israelites and turned My anger away from them, so that I did not destroy them in My demand for exclusive worship (jealousy)."

The word “jealousy” (קנא) is mentioned three times in this verse. That indeed is the name of God in the Torah. The Gematria of jealousy (קנא) is 151. It can be found in the names of God in the three following ways.

The name of God “I will be” (אהיה) spelled out by its letters (אלפ הה יוד הה) has the Gematria of 151.

The name “I will be” (אהיה) spelled according to the value of each letter (א ההההה יייייייייי ההההה), equals 151.

The same Gematria 151=86+65 is obtained if one combines the two names of God representing strict justice (אלהים=86), and mercy (אדני=65).

The sign by which to remember this is from the Song of Songs, “I went down to the garden of nut trees”. The word “garden” (גנת) has the Gematria of 453, or three times קנא = 151.

Art: Vincent Van Gogh - Memory Of The Garden At Etten

Balak – The Three Haters of Israel

2010-06-23T06:05:00.000-07:00

“When Balak son of Tzippor saw all that Israel has done to the Amorites... he sent emissaries to Balaam”

Balak and Balaam were exceptional wizards and wise men. They also hated the Jewish Nation without reason. The only one who exceeded their hatred was Amalek. This is reflected in their names. Amalek can by understood as Am Lak – nation that attacked us. Balak – Ba Lak, meaning, he came and attacked us. Balaam – Bal Am – he who confused the people.

Their nature can be explained if we look at the reincarnations of their souls. That of Amalek was the worst part of Cain, and in addition he had an admixture of the five different types of the mixed multitude, which included Amalekim, Refaim, etc., making Amalek the greatest hater of Israel. Balaam hinted to this in his prophesy, “And the Kenites removed themselves from Amalek” - that the best part of Cain was reincarnated in Yitro, while the worst went to Amalek.

Both Balak and Balaam got the bad part of Cain and the bad part of Abel, and that is why both have the letters “B” and “L” from Abel. Balak the son of Tzippor was a grandson of Yitro, about whom a Psalm says “Even the sparrow (Tzippor) found a home”, Yitro took the good part of Cain, connected to Tzipporah, wife of Moses, and left the bad part to his progeny Balak.

Balaam's soul came from the root of Abel. When the Torah says that “There never arose in Israel a prophet like Moses”, it also hints that outside of Israel there did arise a prophet of similar power, and that was Balaam. The letters of the phrase, “she (Milcah) bore sons” to Nachor constitute the name Abel, to hint that the family of Nachor came from Abel and Lavan her grandson was later reincarnated as Balaam.

Art: Lady and her Sparrow - Sir Edward John Poynter

Chukat – The Secret of the Red Heifer

2010-06-17T06:51:00.001-07:00

"Speak to the Israelites and have them bring you a completely red cow."

The five special letters of the Hebrew alphabet are מנצפכ. They look different if they occur at the end of a word: םןץףך. Spiritually, they represent the Five Strong Judgments, corresponding in a human to feet, legs and the body. Their numeric value is 280, פר, or a Bull. Together with the five letters themselves, represented by ה, we get פרה, or a Heifer.

The word for Red, אדמה , is spelled without a letter Vav, and its numerical value is 50, which corresponds to the Fifty Gates of Wisdom. King Solomon, who wanted to understand the secret of the Red Heifer, did not succeed, and told about this in his words, “I said, I will become wise, but it is far from me.”

The Five Strict Judgments went out into the world before the Cosmic Man and Female joined together, and this corresponds to sending out from the camp those who were impure through contact with a dead body. To correct this, the Heifer had to be burned in strong fire. After it is burned, all that is left of her is the Secret of Holiness, one-fiftieth of what it was before. The word ash, אפר, consists of פר, Bull, and א. The Heifer, פרה, thus becomes Ashes, אפר.

Art: Flemish School - The Judgement Of King Solomon

Korach: Moses – Abel = Korach

2010-06-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

“And Korach undertook (literally, took) … and began a rebellion against Moses”

Abel had in him 37 sparks of goodness (הבל=5+2+30) and 308 bad sparks. Moses, who was a reincarnation of Abel, corrected all of Abel's sparks. The 308 bad sparks that were initially connected to Abel, are the secret meaning of the reincarnation of Korach, the gematria of whose name is also 308:

ק=100
ר=200
ח=8

The hint that Moses corrected all of Abel's sparks is in the phrase “and his mother saw that the boy was good,” and in addition the value of Moses' name 345 is 37 (Abel) plus 308 (Korach).

Thus the essence of Korach's soul also comes from Abel. However, at the beginning of the events described in this Torah portion, the bad part of the soul of Cain connected itself to Korach, and this is the meaning of “and Korach took” on which the Sages commented that Korach took, or acquired, a bad purchase for himself. At first, Korach realized that although he comes from the bad sparks of Abel, he is still subjugated to Moses. However, when the soul of Cain connected to him, he decided that he does not have to be subservient anymore, and started a rebellion, repeating the conflict between Cain and Abel. As a result, Korach was removed from the world.

Art: Pietro Novelli - Cain and Abel

Shlach – Spies, an Aborted Attempt

2010-06-01T06:43:00.000-07:00

God spoke to Moses, saying, "Send out men for yourself to explore the Canaanite territory..."

Out of love for the Land of Israel - which represents the spiritual essence of Rachel – Moses sent out the spies from the Generation of the Desert, who represented the spiritual essence of Leah. He wanted to connect the two. The spies were not successful in their mission, and only by their death they achieved the correction Moses had intended.

When Joseph told his brothers, “You are spies!”, he was hinting at this episode. The brothers' souls have connected themselves to the spies, in order to help them not to go completely bad. That is why the Torah calls the spies “Princes of the sons of Israel” - to hint that this is who they were. A soul can reincarnate in a person, and that connection is permanent, or it can attach itself to someone for a specific mission, and that connection depends on the person's deeds. When the spies gave bad report about the Land of Israel, the souls of Joseph's brothers departed from them.

The two spies who said only good things about Israel were Joshuah and Caleb.

Moses sent Joshuah in his own place, and the soul of Levy was attached to him. Moses himself could not go, because he was from the tribe of Levy, who anyway did not have a portion the Land, and thus had no need to spy it out.

Caleb was the reincarnation of Eliezer the servant of Abraham. Eliezer was from the cursed nation of Canaan, but when he arrived to the house of Rebecca and was told “Come, blessed of God,” he corrected his origin and became blessed. The soul of Judah attached itself to Caleb for this trip, and it did not leave him, that is why Caleb and Joshuah are called “Those who remained alive.”

Art: Aert De Gelder - Joseph weeping in his room, his brothers beyond

Pekudei - 100

2010-05-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

The 100 talents were used to cast the bases ("adanim") for the sanctuary and the cloth partition. There were a total of 100 bases made out of the 100 talents, one talent for each base.

The name of God, Adonai (אדני), has the numerical value of 65:

1=א
ד=4
נ=50
י=10

and spelling out the name Adonai,

אלפ דלת נונ יוד

then spelling out that spelling,

אלפ למד פא דלת למד תיו נונ ואו נונ יוד ואו דלת

you get 35 letters. Altogether 65 and 35 make up a 100.

The 100 bases, or sockets, represent Kingship, or Malchut, which is the secret of the phrase, "And now let the strength of God (Adonai) increase". The sockets also represent the Female, while the upright beams in them represent the Male.

Currently, however, the spelling of Adonai lacks the letter י in תיו, and the 34 letters that result are the numerical equivalent of דל, poor.

Art: Thomas Benjamin Kennington - The Pinch of Poverty

Vayakhel – Fixing the Sin of the Golden Calf

2010-05-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

Moses assembled the entire Israelite community and said to them, 'These are the words that God has commanded for you to do... build the Temple.”

Both Moses and his generation were spiritual representations of the Foundation of the spiritual entity called Supernal Father (Aba). Since they assembled (ויקהלו) against Aaron, Moses had to assemble (ויקהל) them, to return them to their spiritual source by bringing them closer to himself.

Moses had to assemble the whole congregation (קל עדת), because the essence of this generation was knowledge (הדעת). However, the mixed multitude (ערב רב) also had its strength in knowledge, because their gematria is the same as knowledge (ערב רב=דעת=474), and only by bringing them close to himself could Moses separate knowledge from knowledge.

Since they sinned with the word “these,” saying “These are your gods, O Israel,” Moses had to correct this with the word “these,” saying “These are the words.” Since, by worshiping the Golden Calf, they denied the whole Torah, Moses had to correct it with two things which are also considered as the whole Torah – Shabbat (for one who observes Shabbat is considered to observe the whole Torah) and the building of the Temple.

Therefore Moses told them, “Six days shall you work” as a commandment, not as a permission “work can be done” and promised to them that since for six days of the week they are sanctified by building the Temple, on the seventh day they will surely be sanctified with extra holiness and will receive an additional soul.

Art: Alexander Johnston - The Sabbath Eve

Ki Tisa - Lifting Up the Head with the Hair

2010-05-07T05:04:00.001-07:00

God spoke to Moses saying: When you take a census of the Israelites - literally, "when you lift the heads of the sons of Israel."

Why is counting referred to as "lifting of the head"? This has to do with the spiritual concepts that are represented by the hair of the head.

The upper Sefira of Keter, or Crown, has all ten Sefirot in it. Keter represents the Will. Before God created the world, He had to desire to do it. In order to have the desire to do it, He needed to have the desire for that, and so on. This includes an infinite loop and is a meditation device in itself.

Of the ten Sefirot, or ways in which God conducts the world, only Netsach and Hod - Victory and Glory, represented by the right and left legs in man's body, have the self-restricting judgment in them. The other eight continue to expand with kindness, and only these two can thus be made to come back as "Returning Light," bringing back with them the sparks of holiness that fell down. This is achieved by sweetening their judgments, by the power of Keter.

The hairs are like pipes that contain light, as in the letter Vav. The scalp of the head is analogous to the heavenly sphere, and the hairs, which make holes in the scalp, are analogous to the pipes, or letter Vav, transmitting spiritual influences below.

That is why the expression used is "when you lift the head of the sons of Israel" - to lift their head with the hair, to clear up the spiritual pathways from Heaven. This is achieved by counting, to which the hair is connected, by giving charity with the coin called Shekel - Weight, and by the various permutations of the Name of God. The hair also prevents the Evil forces from viewing the back of the head.

Art: Albrecht Dürer - Self Portrait in a Fur-Lined Coat

Tetzaveh – Clear Oil from Crushed Olives

2010-04-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

"You, [Moses], must command the Israelites to bring you clear illuminating oil, made from hand crushed olives, to keep the lamp constantly burning."

The Rulership, or the Cosmic Female, is represented by the pure Menorah, and her companion is Zeir Anpin, the Cosmic Male. The Victory (Netzach) and Glory (Hod) of the Male, which correspond to his right and left thighs, build the Female up.

Victory and Glory speedily fall into the Foundation of the Male, and having stricken it, come back up. The Light of the Female is not direct, but all encompassing Reflected, or Returning, Light. She receives this light when Victory and Glory are returning after having hit the Foundation, and that is the only way how she can receive it.

The olives thus represent Victory and Glory, which the Foundation strikes. Foundation is another name for the Righteous. Olives are crushes into small pieces, and produce olive oil, fit for the Menorah, which is the Female.

Art: Luigi Ademollo - The Menorah

Terumah - The Source of Blessing

2010-03-24T21:27:00.001-07:00

"...And you will take an offering for Me..."

The Trumah (offering) represents the Female secret in the world. There are two Female spiritual entities, Leah and Rachel, and they correspond to the two letters Hei in the name of God. The value of Hei is 5.

Each of the Females receives 10 aspects, because she is connected to the Foundation of the Male, letter Yud, whose value is 10. Thus, each female has fifty different aspects, and together the two of them have one hundred aspects.

Man (Adam) has the numerical value of 45, corresponding to the word Mah (What), as in “...What does God your Lord want of you but to recognize His presence...” However, the Sages interpreted it as not Mah (What) but Meah (Hundred). And in fact any blessing that comes to this world is connected to the number 100, or the two Females, Leah and Rachel, as in “...a hundredfold, because God has blessed him.”

For this reason we give the Trumah (offering) – to return the blessing to its source, so that the Evil Forces will have no hold on it. Thus the word Trumah (offering) is related to Harama (uplifting).

Art: Ignace Henri Jean Fantin-Latour - Two Young Women, Embroidering and Reading

Mishpatim – Killing the Killer

2010-02-28T20:05:00.000-08:00

“If one strikes a man so that he dies, the one who killed must also be killed.” - Literally “killed, he must be killed.”

This is a hint to Cain who killed Abel - for when Abel was later reincarnated as Moses, he was called “a man,” as in “...this man Moses...” First time Cain was reincarnated as an Egyptian, whom Moses killed, and the second time Cain was reincarnated as Korah, and again Moses killed him.

“But if he did not lie in wait, only God caused this to happen through him, then you will separate for yourself a place of refuge.”

God told Moses to separate three cities of refuge - literally for Moses himself. Angel Samael was acting as an avenger of blood for the Egyptian. The angel's claim was that Moses did it intentionally, and therefore he should be killed. But in truth Moses' purpose was to help the Egyptian's soul and to correct it, and that is why Moses killed him by pronouncing the explicit name of God, which made his killing unintentional. This is why “he did not lie in wait” - talking about Moses, but “God caused this to happen” - still talking about Moses, and thus “you will separate for yourself a place of refuge to run there (שמה) ” for Moses (משה).

Art: Frederick Arthur Bridgman - By the City Gate

Yitro - Further Transmigrations of Cain and Abel

2010-02-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

"And Yitro, the Priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, heard..."

The Priest of Midian is the name of a high spiritual force of Evil. Every force of Good in the Kingdom of Holiness has a force corresponding to it in the Kingdom of Evil. The force corresponding to the Priest of Midian is the Foundation of the spiritual entity called the Father of the Cosmic Man. The earthly Yitro had a connection to this power, which is the source of jealousy and struggle. The opposite of it is Love.

Yitro took with him his daughter Tzipora, Moses' wife, and brought her to Moses. Yitro was the reincarnation of Cain. After he abandoned his connection to the power of Evil, he began correcting his killing of Abel in the previous life. Moses was the reincarnation of Abel, and Cain killed him because of an extra twin sister that was born together with Abel. Tzipora was the reincarnation of this sister. In the previous life Cain took her away from Abel, and in this life Yitro brought her to Moses.

When Yitro came to Moses, he said "I am your father-in-law Yitro." The first letters of this phrase constitute, "achi" - (your brother), hinting to Moses that he is Moses' brother from before. As Cain, he denied that there is judgment in the world. As Yitro, he added to Torah laws dealing with judgments. Later he was reincarnated as Korach, and this was the “and Korach got a bad deal for himself,” that is, he took the soul of Yitro. Korach then arose against Moses, and this corresponds to Cain who arose against Abel. Once under ground, Korach was forced to proclaim that his judgment was true.

Art: Sebastano Ricci - Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro

Beshalach - The People of Israel

2010-02-10T19:03:00.000-08:00

“And it was when Pharaoh sent the people of Israel, and God did not want to lead them through the land of the Philistines...”

Every "and it was" (vayihi) sounds like a sigh and denotes some pain. Here the pain came about because Pharaoh sent “the People of Israel,” which are the “mixed multitude” together with the nation.

When the Torah mentions "Bnei Israel," the Sons of Israel, it means the earnest part of the Jews. When, however, it calls them “Am Israel,” the People of Israel, it means the people who do good for their own honor and as a means to achieve power. The People of Israel were those that could turn back to Egypt, and it was because of them that God did not lead the nation directly to Israel. The mixed multitude is called “Erev Rav,” because through their desire for power they achieve the positions of importance (Rav) throughout history.

When Moses saw that, he understood that he needs to take the remains of Joseph with him – because now Moses knew that it will be necessary to split the Red Sea, and it will happen in the merit of Joseph, "The sea saw and fled...”

Art: Antonio Fillol Granell - The glory of the people

Bo – For Seven Days You Will Eat Matzot

2010-02-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

“For seven days nothing leavened should be found in your houses, and anybody who eats leavened food, his soul will be cut off from the congregation of Israel...”

What does the concept of “cut off” entail? It is known that when a righteous person dies, his soul immediately goes up at the time of his departure, making waves of desire emanate from the Cosmic Female (Nukva) toward the Cosmic Male (Zeir Anpin), and causes them to unite.

This is discussed in the Book of Zohar in the following way. When the Righteous One (Cosmic Male) dresses himself with Jealosy and unites with the Female, this is connected to the qualities of Joseph, since the numerical values of Joseph and Jealousy are identical. That is why the Sages said, “A man may be jealous of his wife, because a special spirit of purity entered him.” A man who especially loves his wife causes himself to be jealous,and this jealousy comes because of the great love between them. We find then that jealousy can be a virtue and a sign of completeness, not a defect. The result of this is the complete union between the Cosmic Male and Female, which encompasses all the worlds. This love transcends physical love, and their souls are in constant union.

In contrast, those who are not righteous cannot ascend after their death and cannot create waves of pleasure, and this is the secret of being “cut off,” since they do not return to Heaven from which they were formed, and remain below.

Art: Paul Hermann - The Lovers