• Donation
• Atonement
• The Ark of the Covenant
• Menorah (the sacred lamp)
• Sockets, Veil
• His Heart Moves Him

Donation

A donation is what a person can set aside, sacrifice of one’s ego and correct it into working in order to bestow. Each time we must set aside for correction more and more of our heart until it is entirely “a heart of flesh” instead of the current “stony heart.”

Atonement

The collective soul was shattered; we are all broken. Atonement means we must correct the intention of those broken vessels, broken desires—the 613 broken desires which are our soul.

We must bond with the other and thus discover the Creator, who appears in neither, but rather in the unity between us. Gradually, we must all build the tabernacle, and in it attain the revelation of the Creator. It is written that the Creator tells us each time, “Do this or that work and I will come and appear before you there, and tell you what needs to be done.” The common work of people is what yields the revelation of the Creator between them, and what clarifies the next step.

The Ark of the Covenant

This is where the upper force comes from; the place from which the Creator appears.

Menorah (the sacred lamp)

This is the disclosure of the upper force within one’s Kelim (vessels). It is the revelation of the Creator, who appears as the seven Sephirot of Zeir Anpin, in seven qualities—each representing the Menorah.

Sockets, Veil

It either concerns the will to receive or the Masach (screen) over it, which turns it from working in order to receive to working in order to bestow. There are only three elements in the whole of reality: the substance, namely the will to receive; the quality of bestowal that may be on it, meaning the Masach; and the upper light, the Creator, who appears as the force operating in the operated, who are we, to the extent that we are open to accept that outside force.

His Heart Moves Him

The heart is all of man’s 613 desires, which are all that we have. We want to gradually bring our hearts closer, from easier to harder, through all 613 desires, through 125 degree, in three lines, in Yod–Hey–Vav–Hey. This is how we become corrected.

The correction is not done by us. We must take into account all the others who are with us in the net, and this is what we must correct. We do not correct ourselves, but our connections with others. The decisive element is how we correct ourselves, how we can connect to others. Our correction unfolds only according to others. That is, the correction is of our connections, not of ourselves.

From The Zohar: A Persimmon and a Sedan Chair

20) “King Solomon has made him a sedan chair from the trees of Lebanon.” A sedan chair is the lower palace, Malchut, like the upper palace, Bina. The Creator called it “the Garden of Eden,” and He planted it for His delight. His desire is to play in it with the souls of the righteous, where they all stand and are inscribed within it. A persimmon is the upper palace, which is covered and concealed, Bina. The sedan chair, the lower palace, is Malchut, in which there is no support until it is supported by the upper palace.

Zohar for All, Teruma (donation), items 20-21

Supporting is the “round” quality of Bina, GAR of Bina and ZAT of Bina. Malchut, which is our entire Kli (vessel), namely all creations, connects to the upper force, Bina, the quality of bestowal. The more Malchut connects to Bina, the more she ascends to Bina along with other desires for correction, the more a connection is made between the sedan chair and the persimmon.

The persimmon itself is closed. This is the upper persimmon, GAR of Atzilut. It is the entire thought of creation, a state that will appear only at the end of correction. However, through the ascent of Malchut we gradually belong to it, and gradually receive from it, although it appears only in the sedan chair, Malchut.

Because the center is the connection between us, the tabernacle that appears between us, how do we correct ourselves?

The whole Torah speaks only of “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice because the light in it reforms.” Why does it reform? In order to reach a state of “love your neighbor as yourself, the rule of thumb that guides us every time.

This special portion details how we correct ourselves, teaching us about the anatomy of our hearts, about our desires, their shapes, and the degree to which we can correct them.