Vayakhel – Crime and Forgiveness

“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

"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 – is 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 offering, 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

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, corresponding 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, which is the power to perceive or Wisdom. Finally, the concept of the flame itself 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 the letter Aleph of Emet is the first letter of the alphabet, and the 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

"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 the heart and the brain. 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 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

"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?

"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