Glossary of Terms Used in the VeZot HaBracha (This Is the Blessing) Weekly Torah Portion
Conclusion, or Conclusion of the Torah
This refers to the conclusion of the guidance. It is the end of the first corrections in our preparation, during which we acquire the first correction, and after which we enter the land of Israel, where we continue the corrections. At this conclusion we experience the first correction in our 248 organs and 365 tendons, our 613 desires. It is called “bestowing in order to bestow,” or the “degree of the desert.”
Blessing
A blessing is pouring down of upper light on our matter (substance), our lives. It is impossible to execute any correction or anything good in the world unless we go along with the upper light, which is the operator and the doer.
There is a very nice essay in the “Introduction of the Book of Zohar,” called “The Essay of the Letters,” which explains that the Torah must begin with the letter Bet because only in the upper light that comes from the Creator, the degree of Bina, can we make corrections.
Tribe
Just as our bodies consist of different organs such as brain, heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs, the “body of the soul” consists of twelve primary parts, known as Hey–Vav–Yod–Hey (HaVaYaH), in each of which are three lines. Because HaVaYaH consists of four letters, if you multiply it by three lines in each letter, you get twelve parts.
120
120 is 3×40. Each Partzuf (face), each soul, divides into three parts: Rosh (head), Toch (interior), Sof (end). The complete correction in Rosh, Toch, Sof, is forty, which is the degree of Bina. We become corrected through the degree of Bina, through the blessing.
Death
When a person stops using the current degree and ascends to the next degree, it is considered death. The previous degree is regarded as deceased because it is no longer used.
Leader
This is the Rosh (head) of the degree, like a head. Israel is called “the leader of the world.” Israel contains the letters of the Hebrew words, Li-Rosh (I have the Rosh). A leader is the thought, the intention that leads, and everything is judged according to the intention.
