Glossary – Aharei Mot (After the Death)—Kedoshim (Holy) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Kadosh (Holy)

Holy means using the will to receive that was previously in order to receive. It is the reverse form of the ego—benefiting only others or the Creator. When it is in favor of others it is still at the degree of bestowing in order to bestow, the degree of Levites. But when we receive in order to bestow, it is at the degree of priests, the opposite the initial nature.

Holding a Grudge

We cannot correct ourselves if we are still “keeping score.” It is an internal energy. These are very deep corrections that astonish us when they appear because we suddenly understand how deep are our calculations for ourselves.

Prohibition on Divination

Divination is forbidden because it contradicts bestowal. If a person wants to bestow it makes no difference what will happen in the future. All we need is to connect with others and to give them. In that, we will find our new life. If we make any calculation, it is the will to receive.

One truly advancing toward bestowal is indifferent toward the future. All that that person wants is to bestow, to “be” in the other. In that state one has no connection to divination, as there cannot be any considerations. Hence, we should make the corrections within us because in each of us is the desire to know the future or to guess it.

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Tazria—Metzorah (When a Woman Delivers—The Leper) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Tazria—Metzorah

Leviticus, 12:1-13:59 – 14:1-15:33

This Week’s Torah Portion | March 23 – March 29, 2014 – Adar II 28 – Nisan 5, 5774

In A Nutshell

In the portion, Tazria (When a Woman Delivers), we learn about laws related to a woman who has delivered. If she delivers a boy, she is considered impure for seven days. On the eighth day the boy is circumcised and the woman begins a 33 day purification period. If the woman delivers a girl she is considered impure for fourteen days, and the purification period lasts 66 days.

The portion also details rules concerning afflictions. A person who is infected with something must come to the priest, who diagnoses the sore and knows the rules concerning each of them.

The portion, Metzorah (The Leper), is dedicated to the rules concerning leprosy, and what to do when one has been infected with it. A leper who has healed must be examined by the priest, then bring two birds. The priest slaughters one bird and dips the other in clean water.

The end of the portion discusses the impurity of nocturnal ejaculation and the rules concerning a woman in menstruation—anyone who touches her is impure until the evening.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

Why are the rules in the portions described in such detail?

The whole Torah is an instruction by which to correct our nature. Man was deliberately created with an egoistic desire; this is why we want everything for our own good, as it is written, “For the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis, 8:21). Creation itself is the evil inclination, the sum of our negative qualities. The inanimate nature, the vegetative, and the animate around us are completely neutral—neither good nor bad. It is managed by the laws of nature that act instinctively on all its elements.

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Glossary – Tazria—Metzorah (When a Woman Delivers—The Leper) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

A Woman in Labor

This is the will to receive that has received the power to develop and beget new acts of bestowal in every man.

Circumcision

The circumcision is a correction of a newly born desire. If it is a man, he must go through a special correction in his prevailing, to stop him from using his Sium, Yesod, in order to touch the Malchut where the greatest, and worst desires can be found, and which can be corrected only at the end of correction. Therefore, one who wishes to be Yashar El (straight to God, Israel), must make a circumcision, meaning limit ourselves from using the desire to bestow beyond the point of one’s Yesod. We also determine these signs as customs in our world.

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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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