June 22, 2013 at 9:22 pm · Filed under Torah Portion
Numbers, 25:10-30:1
This Week’s Torah Portion | June 23-29, 2013 – Tammuz 15-21, 5773
In A Nutshell
In the beginning of the portion the Creator thanks Pinhas for stopping the plague and gives him a “covenant of peace,” and a “covenant of an everlasting priesthood” to him and to his descendants. All the while, the children of Israel are preparing to fight the Midianties.
Following the instructions of the Creator, Moses divides the land into lots, following censuses held in the people by tribes and by families. At the conclusion of the censuses, the daughters of Zelophehad, from the tribe of Menashe, complain to Moses that their father died and as women, they did not receive their lot. Moses looks into the matter and the Creator rules that to do justice, the daughters of Zelophehad will be given a lot in the land, which will be named after their father.
The Creator commands Moses to climb up the Mountain of Avarim to see the land of Israel, which he will not enter, and to appoint Joshua, son of Nun, as his successor.
At the end of the portion there is a detailed description of the offerings that needed to be sacrificed each day and on different occasions during the year.
Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman
According to The Book of Zohar, the portion, Pinhas, is profound and evokes many questions. The story tells of people such as Pinhas, who are seemingly greater than Moses. The Creator blesses and praises him that he is as great as Joshua, that he is replacing Moses, who is climbing down from center stage. There is also the issue of women’s rights, some of whom can be as the men, receiving a lot.
As we know, the Torah does not speak of corporeal events or physical bodies, but of souls. The souls are what is important, the eternal part in each of us. This is why we need to understand that the text describes the “human within us,” which must experience all the portions of the Torah along the spiritual development.
This portion speaks of a very special point that awakens in us, a special desire called Pinhas. Read the rest of this entry »
June 22, 2013 at 9:06 pm · Filed under Definitions
Glossary of Terms Used in the Pinhas Weekly Torah Portion
Covenant
A covenant is the connection between the Creator and the creature. When people oppose one another, they are considered distant. The more alike they are, the closer they become. When they are similar in only one way, it is as though two circles begin to overlap. If they are completely equal, they are in a covenant, in unity. A covenant is unity. It is a match between the qualities of the creature and the qualities of the Creator. Achieving such a state makes a person similar to the Creator, and then that person is called Adam (man) from the word Domeh (similar).
Everlasting Covenant
An everlasting covenant is the one that the Creator had with Pinhas. It is a degree in which the quality that a person has acquired never disappears and never becomes corrupted.
Lot
A lot is the will to receive that has been corrected into working in order to bestow on a degree that does not disappear, and which does not need to be reacquired.
Family, the Family of Zelophehad, the Family of the Gershonites
The creature is only a single desire that was created, called “one soul.” That soul is divided into many interconnected parts, like cells in our bodies. Some cells are similar, close, helping and supporting one another, existing in wholeness and working in mutuality, in a special connection. These are called “family.”
These “cells” are parts of one soul that work among themselves in a special mutual work that is at the same time independent, like our children. We come from different areas and no one chooses anything, but it happens, according to the hierarchy by which we hang down through the worlds from above downward.
Changing
This is the next degree. Today a person is one way and tomorrow it is as though he is another way. He changes himself.
Leader
Each degree comprises ten Sefirot. Keter is the leader, the one who illuminates to all the degrees through Malchut, where the execution actually occurs. Keter has heads of tribes, hundreds, thousands, and so on, and in the end, the execution is in the people.
