Balak – The Three Haters of Israel

“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 be understood as Am Lak – a 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. 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 prophecy, “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

"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. Therefore, King Solomon, who wanted to understand the secret of the Red Heifer, failed 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 a 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

“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

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 to help them not 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 a 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 of 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 at 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

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

The name of God, Adonai (אדני), has a 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 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 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

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

Jews have previously assembled (ויקהלו) against Aaron, forcing him to create a Golden Calf. Now, 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. The essence of this generation was knowledge (הדעת). However, the mixed multitude (ערב רב) also had its strength in knowledge. In fact, their gematria is the same as knowledge.

ערב רב = 70 + 200 + 2 + 200 + 2 = 474 (erev rav, mixed multitutude)

דעת =  4 + 70 + 400 = 474 (knowledge)

Only by bringing them close to himself could Moses separate knowledge from knowledge.

Since they sinned with the words "these," saying, "These are your gods, O Israel." Moses had to correct this with "these," stating, "These are the words." Since by worshiping the Golden Calf they denied the whole Torah, Moses had to correct it with two things that are also considered the entire 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. Since they are sanctified by building the Temple for six days of the week, they will be sanctified with extra holiness and receive an additional soul on the seventh day.

Art: Alexander Johnston - The Sabbath Eve

Ki Tisa - Lifting Up the Head with the Hair

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 represented by the head's hair.

The upper Sefira of Keter, or Crown, has all ten Sefirot. Keter represents the Will. Before God created the world, He had to desire to do it. 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 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 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, 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