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Glossary – BeHa’alotcha (When You Raise the Candles) – Weekly Torah Portion

Menorah (Lamp)

The menorah symbolizes the soul. It symbolizes the seven Sephirot of the soul that we need to know how to light, in which way, and in which order.

Korban (Sacrifice/Offering)

A Korban is the will to receive that person corrects, and through it becomes more Karov (near/close) to the Creator.

Second Passover

Second Passover relates to desires that a person finds are impossible or not needed to sanctify. It is desires that one did not recognize. However, they can be corrected later, on a more advanced stage in the process.

Impure

Impurity is a force that works in order to receive, the egoistic force that appears in us.

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Nasso (Take) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Naso

Numbers 4:21-7:89

This Week’s Torah Portion | May 25 – May 31, 2014 – Lyar 25 – Sivan 2, 5774

In A Nutshell

The portion describes the children of Israel’s preparations to set out on a journey from Mount Sinai to the land of Israel. The bulk of the work revolves around the tabernacle. The census in the tribe of Levi continues, and there is a description of the distribution of duties between the families of Levi, Gershon, Kohat, and Merari. The Creator gives an order to send the impure people outside the camp as preparation for the inauguration of the tabernacle.

Afterward the portion narrates different situations in which the people need the help of the priests and the tabernacle. The incidents are connected to negative acts such as stealing, a person swearing in the name of the Creator in vain and must offer a sacrifice, and a woman who strayed and is suspected of committing adultery and is therefore brought to the priest. There are also positive incidents, such as the story of the hermit, detailing the laws that a person who makes a vow takes upon himself, and the blessing of the priests, the blessing that the priests bless the people.

The end of the portion discusses the gifts of the presidents and the great celebration—the inauguration of the tabernacle. The portion ends with the conclusion of the preparations, when the people of Israel can set out to the land of Israel.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The Torah speaks only about our soul and how we should correct it. We do not correct the body because the body is an animal and acts according to its nature. We must reinstate the “portion of God from above” (Job 31:2); this is the soul.

We do it as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice”[1] because “the light in it reforms.”[2] When we begin to connect to others under the condition, “love your neighbor as yourself,”[3] we find how repelling we find this act. We do not want to see anyone, only use them for our own benefit.

This is our nature, as the Creator said, “I have created the evil inclination.” However, the more we study and try to draw closer to each other, and discover how utterly impossible it is, the more we feel our nature as bad, as ill will, evil inclination. Then we need a means to correct it, and this is the light that reforms.

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Glossary – Nasso (Take) – Weekly Torah Portion

Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai is a mountain of Sina’a (hate). If a person discovers all the evil within, it is considered being at the foot of Mount Sinai. However, it is possible to discover it only if the point within, called Moses, climbs up that mountain. There, in the chasm between the bottom of the mountain and its peak, under that condition one acquires the Torah. This happens because that person feels that he or she simply must correct, but does not know what to do. Such a person is worthy of receiving the light that reforms, called “Torah.”

Family

A family is a whole person consisting of a man, woman, children, a house, and the entire world. It is a complete Kli.

Impure

One who is impure is fraught with self-interest. Such a person defiles everything he or she touches because anything that that person wants is only for self-gratification instead of giving to others. Conversely, giving, or bestowal upon others, is called Kedusha (holiness), purity.

Camp, or Being Outside the Camp

A camp is the part of the will to receive that a person can define and say that in this part one is advancing only with the intention to bestow. That is, a camp is our corrected desires.

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BaMidbar (In the Desert) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

BAmitbar

Numbers,  1:1-4:20

This Week’s Torah Portion | May 18 – May 24, 2014 – Lyar 18 – Lyar 24, 5774

In A Nutshell

The portion, BaMidbar (In the Desert), begins with the Creator commanding the children of Israel by tribes to bring men who had served in the army and were at least twenty years old, and appoint them as heads of tribes and presidents. Following the nomination, Moses is requested to explain to them where each tribe should be during the journey and while stopping in the desert, how to arrange themselves by tribes and banners according to the four directions, with the tabernacle in the middle.

The portion reiterates the role of the Levites, who are to serve in the tabernacle. The tribe of Levi is special because it has no place or lot of its own; it is to serve everyone and help everyone, especially the priests in the tabernacle. The role of the Levites is to assemble and disassemble the tabernacle at each stop during the journey of the children of Israel. They must follow strict rules that explain what to do with each part of the tabernacle and how to keep the vessels of the tabernacle.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The Torah is divided into two parts: external and internal. The external Torah is the one we read and know. It is the Torah that our fathers (ourselves in previous incarnations, since our souls reincarnate from generation to generation) observed in the past. However, there are things to sort in it. The Torah describes the journey of the children of Israel in the desert and how they should conduct themselves there. It details how to build the tabernacle, divide into priests, Levites, and tribes, how to set up the camp, and how to continue the journey where each one moves from place to place under the tribe’s banner up to the boundaries of the land of Israel and the onset of its conquest.

The inner Torah is actually the main thing. Through it we correct and adjust ourselves internally in order to discover that upper force from which we receive the Torah in actual fact. That is, it is about revealing the Creator to the creatures. Here we are talking about man as a small world, where all that is described in the Torah—priests, Levites, Israel, and the twelve tribes—is within us as replications. The inner Torah touches each of us and instructs us what we must do in order to discover the upper force here and now.

One who has not corrected him or herself is certainly immersed in the ego, the evil inclination, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice.”[1] That state is called a “desert.” The sensation of the desert is the place of the Klipot (shells/peels), meaning uncorrected desires. While in that feeling we have nothing to revive us, to give us spiritual life. Even if we have material abundance we still feel that we are in the desert.

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Glossary – BaMidbar (In the Desert) – Weekly Torah Portion

Tribes

Tribes are a part of the will to receive, which is divided into HBD, HGT, NHY. In all of them there is HaVaYaH (Yod–Hey–Vav–Hey), and HaVaYaH times three is twelve. Our general will to receive is divided into twelve parts that—when corrected—are called “tribes.”

The Holy of Holies

The Holy of Holies is GAR of Bina, the absolute quality of bestowal.

Army

The army is all the desires that can join the head, faith, the shepherd.

Banner (Flag)

A banner is the task that I assume. Each part and each group in the twelve tribes has its own banner, which indicates how each part progresses and corrects itself. The banner is unique to each tribe, hence the division into twelve tribes remains even after they achieve the corrected desire, the land of Israel.

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