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Shmini (On the Eighth Day) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Shmini

Leviticus, 9:1-11:47

This Week’s Torah Portion | March 9 – March 15, 2014 – Adar II 7 – Adar II 13, 5774

In A Nutshell

The portion, Shmini (On the Eighth Day), deals with the events of the eighth day after the seven days of filling.[1] This is the inauguration day of the tabernacle. Aaron and his sons offer special sacrifices on this day. Moses and Aaron go to bless the people, and finally, the Creator appears to the people of Israel.

Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu sin with offering on a foreign fire, and the fire consumes them. Aaron and the remaining sons receive special instructions how to conduct themselves in the situation, and among others orders, they are forbidden to mourn.

The portion tells of another misunderstanding between Moses and Aaron and his sons concerning eating the sin offering. The portion ends with the rules concerning forbidden food, detailing the animals, beasts, poultry, and fish that are forbidden to eat. Rules of Tuma’a (impurity) and Taharah (purity) are also briefly explained.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The portion mentions many details concerning the tabernacle and offering sacrifices, what is forbidden and what is permitted. How should we understand it internally?

We need to examine which of our 613 desires we need to correct, and how. It was said about man, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice,”[2] so we may correct our evil inclination—the egoistic desires—in which we think only of ourselves and cannot perform a single act of giving and love of others.

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Glossary – Shmini (On the Eighth Day) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Inauguration of the Tabernacle

“Inauguration of the tabernacle” is the point from which we can bring offerings, meaning correct our desires in actual fact. In that state we can correct each desire by making it similar to bestowal, love of others, the Creator. We become similar to the Creator in that desire, understand the wholeness of creation, the eternity of creation. We ourselves become as the Creator, as it is written, “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God” (Hosea, 14:2). This is what we should achieve, and these actions bring about great joy.

So it is not a coincidence that the revelation of the Creator is mentioned on the same day as the inauguration of the tabernacle. But what does revealing the Creator mean?

Upon beginning to perform the work of the tabernacle we discover the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form. As we perform the same acts as the Creator, the Creator “dresses” in us, and we begin to feel that our actions create our situation, our place, and our status. One who performs acts of bestowal and love, correcting one’s evil inclination, becomes like the Creator. This is why such a person is called “man” (Adam), from the word Domeh (similar) to the Creator.

It is said that Nadav and Avihu sacrificed with foreign fire. What does it mean?

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Tzav (Command) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Tzav

Leviticus, 6:1-8:36

This Week’s Torah Portion | March 9 – March 15, 2014 – Adar II 7 – Adar II 13, 5774

In A Nutshell

The portion, Tzav (Command), deals with rules of sacrificing, especially those related to priests. The portion mentions the commandment to donate the fertilizer, the gift offering, sin offering, guilt offering, peace offering, and the prohibition to eat animal fat.

Tzav also mentions punishments for those who eat non-kosher meat, as it is written, “The soul that eats from it shall bear iniquity (Leviticus, 7:18). One who eats fat from the offerings, “The soul that eats shall be cut off from its people” (Leviticus, 7:25), and one who eats the offerings’ blood, “That soul shall be cut off from its people” (Leviticus, 7:20).

Subsequently, the portion deals with the seven days of filling, and the inauguration of the tabernacle. The Creator commands Moses to assemble Aaron and his sons the priests, and the whole congregation at the door of the tent of meeting. Moses washes Aaron and his sons and dresses them with the clothes of priesthood. Moses puts the anointing oil over the tabernacle and all that is in it, and sanctifies Aaron and his sons, showing the priests—following the Creator’s command—what to do with the various organs of the offerings.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The Korban (offering/sacrifice, from the word, Karov [near]) is the way to draw near the Creator. There is nothing but the offerings. Today we are in the worst state. There is nothing worse than this world and our current state. We must come out of that state and advance toward the Boreh (Creator), from the words Bo Re’eh (come and see). We will discover the Creator according to the changes and corrections in us because the upper force, namely the upper light, is in complete rest, and all the changes occur in us, as it is written, “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi, 3:6).

Nearing the Creator depends on our qualities. Therefore, we must all change ourselves and correct all the negative and egoistic desires in us, according to the order the Torah narrates. The word Torah comes from the word Horaa (instruction) how to correct our egoistic desires, turn them into aiming toward bestowal and love, and shift from unfounded hatred to absolute love.

The bad global crisis is happening due to unfounded hatred among everyone. There is abundance in the world, but we cannot share it among us. We cannot establish social justice, connection, unity, and arrange ourselves and our lives better because of our characters, as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis, 8:21). To correct the heart, which symbolizes our 613 egoistic, corrupted desires, we need the Torah.

The Torah is the “light that reforms.”[1] One who treats the Torah properly discovers one’s wickedness, as it is written, “The world was created only for the complete wicked or the complete righteous.”[2] That is, we must discover that we are completely wicked, created with an evil inclination. Then, “I have created for it the Torah as a spice”[3] because “the light in it reforms them.”[4] Then we come to a state of complete righteous. This is how we must see it.

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Glossary – Tzav (Command) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Donation

“Tarum (“raise” but also “donate”) the Creator.” To advance toward the goal, we must engage in the uniqueness, importance, and greatness of the upper force, that there is none else besides Him, He is the only operator in reality, we are in it, and we are totally operated upon. To the extent that we acquire His qualities, we become independent. That is, we take on ourselves the actions we can carry out correctly, and we begin to do them by ourselves until we become like Him, until we can do everything He does.

This is how we begin to recognize and understand that degree, the whole of reality, the purpose, the beginning and the end, the cause and the consequence, the whole process we are going through. Thus, we become as great, wise, strong, and united as the Creator. This is true for each of us, and for all of us together.

Once we have all corrected ourselves and achieved the complete end of correction, and all of us together have become completely like Him, another development awaits us. We need to correct ourselves, acquire power and wisdom to perform another, very special work after the end of correction, after the Third Temple, but for now our perception is inadequate to comprehending the reality we will discover at that time.

The Inauguration of the Tabernacle

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VaYikra (The Lord Called) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

VaYikra

Leviticus, 1:1-5:26

This Week’s Torah Portion | January 19 – January 25, 2014 – Shevat 18 – Shevat 24, 5774

In A Nutshell

The portion, VaYikra (The Lord Called), deals with rules of sacrificing and the priests serving in the tabernacle. Some offerings are optional; some are mandatory. Some of the offerings are burnt to ashes on the altar, and some remain for the priests and the giver of the offering.

The rules of offerings speak of a “burnt offering” that a person brings voluntarily from the cattle, flock, and poultry. There is also a “gift offering,” which a person brings voluntarily from the flora. Also, there is the “peace offering,” which is an offering that a person brings from the cattle, sheep, and goats. The “sin offering” is an offering brought by one who sinned by mistake. That person makes an offering to atone for the sin.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The portion, VaYikra (The Lord Called), teaches us about the work of the offerings, which are also the main topic in the Talmud. We learn all the works from the works of the Temple.

People are nearing the purpose of creation and Dvekut (adhesion) with the Creator, to the human level, a life in a totally blissful world, and experiencing all the worlds and the sensation of nature as complete and eternal, as it was prepared for us. That nearing is called Korban (offering/sacrifice) from the word Karov (near).

We are approaching it step by step by correcting our nature. There are 613 desires in us, which we must correct one at a time, each desire with all of its parts. Our desires divide into four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. The work of the offerings teaches us how to sacrifice and correct them so they are in bestowal and love. The rule in our work is to correct our nature and achieve the state, “love your neighbor as yourself; it is a great rule in the Torah.”[1] By that, we become similar to the Creator and achieve Dvekut with Him.

The correction of the egoistic desire from receiving for myself into bestowal upon others is called an “offering” that a person offers. The offering may come from several sources. It may be from the still, as it is written, “On all your offerings you shall offer salt” (Leviticus, 2:13), or water or oil. It can also be from the vegetative or processed plants, such as the showbread. From the animate, only a certain kind is offered. The priests’ and the Levites’ daily work in the Temple is to sacrifice the flock and the cattle.

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