Jethro
Jethro is the will to receive that can be sanctified and join Moses, and with him make the connection between the upper system—Keter, Hochma, and Bina—GAR of the soul, and the will to receive, which is the people below, ZAT of the soul. Jethro was included in Moses when Moses lived with him; he is like the force of Malchut that is included in Bina, which is why Bina can connect to Malchut and bring it the new system.
Mount Sinai
It is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice”[7] because “the light in it reforms them.”[8] The evil inclination is Mount Sinai, all the hatred that appears between the nations of the world and Israel. The nations of the world are our desires to receive, and Israel is our desire to bestow. Therefore, if a gap between them appears in a person—between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow—that person feels the hatred and can be said to be at the foot of Mount Sinai.
The hatred appears when we want to connect, when we are standing around the mountain and must achieve Arvut (mutual guarantee). This is why it is written, “He said to them, ‘If you receive the Torah, good. And if you do not, there will it be your grave.’”[9] That is, if you do not connect as one man with one heart, here you will be buried.
The hatred is toward unity. If a person does not want to connect, that person will not discover one’s hatred of others and will not arrive at Mount Sinai, and will certainly not achieve corrections. This can tell us how far we all are from Mount Sinai.
Being at the foot of Mount Sinai is a great degree, which comes after one has worked one’s whole life in Egypt, in the connection between people. And although he or she wanted to have a connection of love of others, it could not be done until that person realized that it could not be done at all. This is when the point that draws one out of oneself appears, and a person understands that it is possible to escape, and therefore escapes and rises above the ego.
Once we emerge from the ego, our relation toward our ego becomes increasingly apparent to us. What appears is the gap between the ego and the drawn to be outside the ego. That gap is called “Mount Sinai.” This is the state in which the Moses in us is above, trying to cling to the Creator at the top of the mountain, while the entire as-yet-uncorrected ego is below, just as the people could not connect to the Creator. However, it is already beginning to walk toward correction.
A People of Segula (chosen/virtuous/remedy).
Segula refers to the punctuation mark Segol. Segol is three dots [], representing the three lines by which we advance toward the goal, meaning right—the force of giving, and left—the force of receiving. Through them we build ourselves by joining the right and the left. It is customary to sing on Sabbath, “Come in peace, angels of peace, angels of the upper one.” Just as we walk on two legs and advance, we build the middle line by which we advance out of the two lines, two angels.
“Go out in peace” comes after one has built the middle line in four states—Yod–Hey–Vav–Hey—and has reached the end of correction. This is when one says, “Go out in peace.”
This is how one uses everything one has within to make corrections. We were given from above the right and the left—the force of bestowal, Kedusha (sanctity), and the force of reception, Klipa (shell/peel)—and it is for us to combine them. We do that in order to advance by constantly enhancing the combination between them, making it more beneficial. This is why the third line is called the “middle line.” The upper force is the two lines, two forces that help us connect properly. They are called Segula. We live only by them; if that force does not come, we cannot do anything below.
[7] Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Kidushin, 30b
[8] Midrash Rabah, Eicha, “Introduction,” Paragraph 2
[9] Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Avoda Zara, 2b
