Dvarim – Moses Cannot Find Men of Understanding

Moses asked the tribes, “Designate for yourselves men who are wise, understanding, and known to the tribes” , but all he found was “I selected wise and well-known men from among your tribal leaders, and appointed them as your leaders”. Why is it that he found nobody who could “understand things?” Even though they were wise?

There was a need for this in the spiritual worlds. One cannot acquire either wisdom or understanding unless he already has some of it in himself. As it says in the Torah about Betzalel, who was building the Temple, “Betzalel ... to whom God has granted the wisdom and understanding", and about his helpers, "Skilled individuals upon whom God had bestowed a natural talent.” Those who already possess wisdom and understanding can increase it, through study or prayer, and expect that they will be given more. Only adding to one's capacity is possible, but not giving it where there is none. However, these people will indeed be given in great measure, they will be “filled with the spirit of wisdom and comprehension”. Still, the Torah mentions only “comprehension” that Moses' generation had, but “understanding” was missing.

The spiritual entity of Supernal Mother was connected to “comprehension,” but it lacked “understanding”. Thus, her essence, or foundation, was not revealed in the world, and did not lead to her union with the Supernal Father. Instead, the foundation of the Supernal Father was extended and revealed, to achieve the union. That union led to the creation of the generation of Jews who were absorbed in spiritual matters in the desert for forty years. That is why they are called “Generation of Knowledge,” even though “understanding” had to be absent from the mix. Instead, this understanding was left for later, to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, his companions, and to the later students of Kabbalah.

Art: Vasily Polenov - Portrait of an Old Jewish Man

Balak – Rachel Stole Lavan's Fetishes

"Rachel stole the fetishes that belonged to her father."

Earlier, we discussed Balam and the Evil in the world and Balak and the hatred they both had toward Israel. We also mentioned the connection of both, through reincarnation, to Lavan. This explanation goes back to Rachel stealing the fetishes (teraphim) of her father, Lavan.

But first, why did she do it? Some say that she wanted Lavan to stop worshiping idols; others – that she did not want him to use them for divination, to find out where Jacob was (and indeed, he did not know). Josephus says that she did it to gain her father's pardon.

What does this all have to do with the story of Balak?

Rachel and Leah are sisters, but they are also spiritual entities that complement each other in the spiritual worlds. Leah has a connection to strict judgment (her daughter was called Dinah, which means Judgment), and this is most manifest in the spiritual world where Leah's domain ends, and Rachel's begins. This is Leah's heels, the place of least sensitivity and reduced light. They push and pierce through (“bolkim” in Hebrew) and reach the head of Rachel.

Evil forces immediately cling to the reduced light and have some hold in Leah's heels. They thus can push and pierce through into the head of Rachel. That evil force, hinted at by “bolkim,” is Balak. Thus he finds the place to dwell and to try to achieve dominion. The place where Leah's feet go into Rachel's head is called "Teraphim," or fetishes. When Rachel stole the Terafim, she took away this area, all to herself, and now the Evil could not enter there and could not cause trouble.

But why is it Balak who waits for diminished light between Leah and Rachel? Balak is a descendant of Jethro in some sense, he is connected to the bad side of Cain, and his name contains multiple hints to the highest spiritual universes. Evil is thus connected to good, has its root in goodness, and good itself cannot exist without evil existing in the world. Our task is to recognize that but to limit the power of evil by adding to the good forces through our study, and especially the study of Kabbalah.

Art: Charles Le Brun - Daughters of Jethro

Korach - Argument Between Heaven and Earth

“Korach had a confrontation with Moses“

To understand the argument between Korach and Aaron, we need to go back to the creation of the world. God created the sky, to separate between “Upper Waters” and “Lower Waters.”  The first represents Mercy, which the second – Judgment. Mercy wanted to justify everyone, even the bad. Strictness wanted to judge everyone, even the good, and be as exacting with them as a hair's breadth. God created a “firmament,” or the sky, to separate and to reason. The sky represents Beauty, the quality of proportionality and balance.

Shakespeare hints at this argument in his sonnet, “Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war.”  There, the heart represents Mercy, and is connected to Wisdom. Eye, on the other hand, represents Judgment, connected to Understanding. The argument is decided by “a quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart.” It would seem unfair, at first glance, that the mediator would live in the quarters of one of the contestants. However, Mercy must be superior to Judgment, for them to function well together.

As a result, Judgment agrees to spare the righteous, while Mercy has to give the bad ones over to punishment – on the condition, however, that it serves as correction. In the course of the disagreement, Judgment gets argumentative and angry, which manifests in the creation of the Gehinnom.

Korach represented argumentative Judgment, while Aharon, who never said a bad word to anybody, represented Mercy. Moses, who saw them argue, immediately recognized this as the argument that had already happened at the creation time, and decide to intervene, since he represented balance and Beauty, as his mother saw when he was born, “the boy was good,” meaning, “completely good, beautiful and balanced.”

However, it all depends on how people argue. If they are at war with each other, in order to find the higher truth, then they will see it, when it presents itself in the words of their counterpart. Such were the arguments between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, who respected each other, studied the other's point of view, and were at times convinced. Korach was not a perfect reflection of Judgment, but was in it for his own honor, and he did not heed to Moses at all. That is why he had to fall into that same Gehinnom that was created by Judgment. Still, there was some good intention on his part also, and he has a corresponding place in the Future World.

Art: François Brunery - A Delicate Balance

Kabbalistic Diet

Rav Avira said (sometimes he said it in the name of Rabbi Ami, and sometimes in the name of Rabbi Asi – because he heard it from both): Ministering angels said to the Holy One Blessed Is He, “Master of the World! In your own Torah you have written, 'Do not show favoritism, and do not take bribe,' but you show favoritism to Israel, as you yourself say in your Torah, 'May God show favor to you and turn His face to you.'”

God answered, “What can I do? How can I not show them favor! I told them in the Torah, 'You will eat and be satisfied and bless God.' I told them to eat their fill, and only then bless God, and they are exacting with themselves, and bless Me when they eat an olive volume, and an egg's volume. The person's body is not satisfied until he eats his fill. However, these righteous understood 'and be satisfied' as 'be a little satisfied,' and interpreted My words as in regards to the soul, not the body. Do you remember how we created the world? I was for it, and you were against, and really you, the angels, were right: I should not have created the world. However, I saw the souls of the righteous, fell in love with them, and created the world against logic. How can I not show favor to them now?”

We see from here that when a person eats little, and understands a minor satisfaction as being enough, this causes the awakening of God's favor for him.

Art: Jozef Israels - The Frugal Meal

Behaalotcha – Face to Face

“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.'”

The subject of the Menorah was started in the portion of Tetzaveh. There we said that the Menorah represented the Cosmic Female and explained the meaning of the beating of the olives to prepare the oil. More specifically, the Menorah represents Rachel. This means that the spiritual qualities of the world embodied by the Matriarch Rachel were later found in the Menorah. Rachel is the Female companion of the Cosmic Man, who is also called Zeir Anpin (Small Face).

At earlier times, the Cosmic Man and his Female were standing face to face with each other. Then the Menorah was not needed. However, later the Cosmic Female and the Cosmic Man stood back to each other because they were afraid of the Evil Husks attacking the Female. The Menorah at the time of the Temple rectified the situation.

The seven branches of the Menorah represent the lower seven Sefirot  (God's manifestations in the world) of the Female, from Kindness to Rulership. They are arranged in groups of right (Mercy), left ( Judgment), and center (Beauty, or balance and proportionality). The branches are endowed with the five aspects of Strength, characteristic of the Female, who limits and shapes the world.

The five attributes of Kindness from the Mind of the Cosmic Man likewise descend to his seven Sefirot and are manifest in the lights of the Menorah. With their fire and flame coming from the wick, the seven lights represent the seven qualities of the Cosmic Man.

Today, when there is no Menorah, the union can still be accomplished by the Cosmic Man and his Female ascending to their supernal Mother and Father, who shade and protect them for the time of their visit. Those who know do this in the prayer, through a “unification” mediation in Shema and in the Tachanun, where they enact the actions of the spiritual entities (Partzufim) mentioned above.

Art: Joseph Ritter Von Führich - Jacob Encountering Rachel with her Father's Herds

Why One Should Not Sell His Copy Of The Zohar

Having described the chain of the printing of the Zohar, about seventy printed editions in Montoba, Livorno, Krakow, Amsterdam, and Vilna – some of them more correct and some with errors – “The Gates to the Zohar” concludes with the words of the Chida:

In one old manuscript I saw the following story. One Sage had an edition of the Zohar, which he sold. At night he was tortured by evil dreams, in which they called him an animal, “Behemah.” Next day he recounted his dream, and one Sage told him that they were reproving him for having sold the Zohar. And the word “Behemah” meant “I have removed the sacred portions from my house,” ("Biarti Hakodesh Min Habait"). He went back to the buyer, pleaded, and bought the books back. Thus far goes the story.

Of course, in the context this means good: the farmer has given all the charity presents that he was supposed to, and his house is now clean of these holy portions. However, the same verse may have a different meaning in a different situation.

Art: Louis Robert Carrier-Belleuse- Le Bouquiniste (The bookseller)

Silence

In his biography ofJoyce, Richard Ellmann describes the following scene, which took place when Joyce was fifty and Beckett twenty-six, and which could have come straight from the theatre of the No:

"Beckett was addicted to silences, and so was Joyce; they engaged in conversations which consisted often of silences directed towards each other, both suffused with sadness, Beckett mostly for the world, Joyce mostly for himself. Joyce sat in his habitual posture, legs crossed, toe of the upper leg under the instep of the lower; Beckett, also tall and slender, fell into the same gesture. Joyce suddenly asked some such question as, 'How could the idealist Hume write a history?' Beckett replied, 'A history of representation.'"