Glossary of Terms Used in the Ki Tetze (When You Go) Weekly Torah Portion
Son
A “son” is the next degree, or Ben (son), from the word Mevin (understanding). We can never understand what we are doing, both in corporeality and in spirituality. Only after we do, act, “By Your actions we know You” (Prayer Book, The Song of Unification on Sabbath). Through actions, we begin to understand. It is like children playing without understanding anything, but all of a sudden they grew smarter.
It is the same for us. This is why Ben, Mevin, is a degree that comes to us as a result of actions. It is also why it is written, “By Your actions we know You” (Megillah, 6b). Make an effort, act, and you will understand and see.
Beloved Woman and Hated Woman
A “beloved woman” is the will to receive with which a person can work in order to bestow. A “hated woman” is the will to receive with which one cannot work with the aim to bestow, which does not support a person because the person is weak. This is why there are prohibitions, to separate them and treat each of them differently.
It is the same with the sons, the firstborn sons from the loved woman and from the hated woman. It has to do with our desires, and it depends on how a person relates to it, how one can or cannot lift the will to receive toward correction.
Loss
In spirituality, a loss means that a person loses the ability to remain at a degree that one has already acquired. In other words, if a person loses something it deliberately comes from above. It is a kind of help to a person, and one needs to search. This is the root of the commandment to return a loss that has been found to its owner.
Just Sentence
“Justice” means that a person properly connects judgment and mercy, the right line and the left line, so that one corrects one’s will to receive to have the aim to bestow upon others in the optimal measure. In other words, under any circumstances, a person does the utmost act of bestowal.
Giving a Bad Name
“The Creator is not called a ‘King’ until He is riding His horse, which is the Assembly of Israel, meaning Malchut, as it is written, ‘To me, my darling, you are like my mare among the chariots of Pharaoh,’ which is all good, without any bad at all. When the Creator is out of His place, He is not a king. When He returns to His place, ‘And the Lord shall be king.’ And this is what is said about Israel, ‘All of Israel are sons of kings.’ Like the father, so the sons are not sons of kings until they return to the land of Israel.”
Zohar for All, Ki Tetze (When You Go), item 5
