Pekudei - The Counts

"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 its fruits, these Sages decided to correct this. They may have wanted to correct the error itself, or they may have wanted to repair its consequences 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 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, which was wrong since each needed to correct all four. The three of the Sages made a severe 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 could fix all four mentalities, even though he only did one. Arizal explains 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

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

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

“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