Glossary of Terms Used in the Hukat Weekly Torah Portion

• Place
• Purity
• Impurity
• Death
• Water
• A Rock
• A Boundary
• A Serpent
• Healing
• Inheritance
• This Is the Statute of the Law

Place

A “place” is a desire. Each desire is a place in which something appears, whether good or bad.

Purity

The power of bestowal.

Impurity

The power of reception

Death

Death is inability to work in order to bestow.

Water

A Rock

A rock is a will to receive that needs to be corrected so it can be used in order to bestow, meaning to use the water that comes out of it in the act of bestowal. There are two modes of action in order to perform an act of bestowal: 1) striking the rock, which are waters of Meribah (quarreling) or waters of Gevurot, 2) speaking, which are waters of Hassadim (mercy), waters of bestowal, the water of life.

A Boundary

A boundary is a place in which one must stop one’s act of bestowal for lack of strength to aim in order to bestow. It is a point where one must restrict oneself and refrain from using one’s desire any further.

A Serpent

The egoistic will to receive that destroys a person and consumes him is the serpent. The serpent exists at the core of the will to receive that exists in every person.

Healing

Healing is a correction. If we use that same serpent correctly, in favor of people’s lives, it becomes a good force. It is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice,” because “the light in it reforms it,” meaning reforms the serpent. That is, the evil inclination becomes a good inclination.

Inheritance

Inheritance is what we receive from a higher degree, from the father or the grandfather. In spirituality, too, there are degrees. If a person receives strength from a higher degree, a force that lets one ascend, it is called “inheritance.”

This Is the Statute of the Law

“The creatures were created with a nature of being receivers … Since it is impossible to go against Nature, he has given us the advice that through Torah and Mitzvot we will be able to turn the nature within us.” [1] This is why the laws of the Torah are considered laws only when the evil inclination asks … and then one needs to take upon himself everything as a statute, which is Hassadim, bestowal, where everything is only above reason, which is called “faith.”

[1] Rav Baruch Ashlag, The Writings of Rabash, vol. 3, “This Is the Statute of the Law, no. 2” p 1825

Glossary of Terms Used in the Korah Weekly Torah Portion

• President
• Counters’ Envy
• Korah
• Plague
• Fire from Heaven
• Holy
• Atonement
• Staff (rod)
• Blossoming
• The Meaning of “Peace, Peace, to Him That Is Far and to Him That Is Near”

President

A “president” is the quality that currently controls all the other qualities.

Counters’ Envy

This is the desire to count how much we have gained, how much we receive, how much we give, how much we advance in spirituality. We advance specifically through envy; it is good envy. Our envy of our environment prompts us to be more spiritual.

Korah

The will to receive that appears opposite (in contrast to) the quality of Moses. It is through this dispute that we advance.

Plague

A plague is a manner of correction. The correction detaches and sets my intentions to receive in order—corrects them to be in order to bestow, either on the degree of Bina, or on the degree of Keter.

Fire from Heaven

Fire is Gevurot that appear on the left line, without Hassadim. There can be mitigated Gevurot and good Gevurot. It’s a correction, the correction force that comes from the left.

Holy

The degree of Bina, bestowal.

Atonement

The light that comes and gives us the strength to atone for our iniquities, to turn them from reception to bestowal. All our iniquities, our ego, everything that was in us, has now become bestowal.

Staff (rod)

The staff is the middle line by which one achieves the goal. If we properly connect to it all the qualities, all the discernments, it blossoms.

Blossoming

The middle line that shows us we are being filled with light.

The Meaning of “Peace, Peace, to Him That Is Far and to Him That Is Near”

“What is a dispute? It is removal and rejection above and below … removal and rejection of the peace … the peace of above—the middle line, which is called Torah, making peace between right and left—and of below, of Moses. …A dispute is wherever there are two opposites … A dispute is necessary … because it is impossible to correct anything unless you know the fault. Therefore, when we know the dispute between the desires, we can make peace between them.”

Rav Baruch Ashlag, The Writings of Rabash, vol. 2,
“What Is ‘Peace, Peace, to Him That Is Far and to Him That Is Near,’ in the Work?”, p 1361

We must respect disputes but make them constructive, as it is written, “A contradiction of elders builds” (Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim, 40a), and by that we reach the goal.

From Today’s Daily Lesson:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntTyAiiKkW0]

Question: Martin from Czechoslovakia is writing, “I don’t understand why someone would want to reach such a state. Why would I want to nullify myself before someone I don’t know, and who sends me suffering?” He adds another sentence, “If I’m a thief, then at least I can be proud of that, but who wants to be a slave?”

Answer by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD: I agree with him. I have no problem in saying that he’s right. “A person’s pride will humiliate him.” The matter is in defining what is it to be a “slave,” what is it to be a “man,” what is it to be a “woman,” what is it to be a “thief,” etc. It’s a matter of definition.

“Slave” means knowing that the will to receive now controls me. That it controls, and not that I’m the landlord. I firstly differentiate myself from my ego, and see that this ego controls me. I want to see like this or like that, and my nature comes and makes of me whatever it wants. I see how this occurs in humanity: We want to try, to be in something different, but we’re incapable. Our nature conquers us and makes of us everything.

So I’m a slave to my nature, right? A slave. So he can already stop thinking that he’s a man, and that he’s free. He’s not free, but he’s blind to that. He doesn’t see how he’s completely addicted to his nature, and that he’s a beast carrying out commands. That’s one thing.

The other thing is that if he were to know that this slavery he’s currently in ruins him and eats away at him, then that would end his life without any compensation. If he’d look at it properly, then he’d understand that there might be another state, that it’s possible to exit it. It doesn’t matter what state he’d enter into, but the main thing is that he’d exit his current state. Why wouldn’t it matter what state he’d enter into? We hate the state of bestowal a lot, but I need to hate my current state more than the state of bestowal, so how do I do it?

So he’s right. I don’t know who the second landlord is. I only have the opportunity to sell myself to this second one, and thus I’d disconnect from the first. So I need to choose between them – that’s my choice. If by doing so, I don’t feel myself as turning into a slave of the second essence, of bestowal, then it’s not a decision.

Decision – I’m free in that I can choose between the two. Suddenly one identifies oneself within a very small range, a decision of whom to belong to, and thus begins his work. It’s a very internal, psychological thing that a person goes through, and he begins understanding that he’s sold to one or to the other. He begins building himself in that. There are many things here. That’s already the middle line.

Taken from today’s daily lesson, on Baal HaSulam’s 18th Igeret (Letter) from 1926.

Today’s Daily Lesson Featured:

• Preparation on a quote by Rabash (Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag)
  Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio
• Baal HaSulam’s 18th letter from 1926
  Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio
• Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 4, Part 12, Page 1201, Item 194
  Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio
• Baal HaSulam’s article, “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot”
  Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio

…with commentary by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, as well as questions by students of Bnei Baruch and live viewers on Kabbalah TV.

The lessons will be continuing daily at 8:10pm until 11pm EST, Saturdays through Thursdays, on Kabbalah TV, and will be available for free download in the Kabbalah Media Archive.

Kabbalah LIVE Video Q&A Celebration
Wednesday, September 02.09 – 8:00pm EST (U.S.)

The Machsom: Numbers and Statistics
Taken from Laitman.com

Machsom (Hebrew for “barrier”) is the barrier that stands between this world and the spiritual world. Here’s what Rav Michael Laitman wrote about the Machsom in this must read post…

A question I received: You’ve been the leader and mentor of the Bnei Baruch group for nearly twenty years. Maybe it’s time to make a public summary? How many people have crossed the Machsom over this period of time, and how has the world changed as a consequence? Or is this no longer the objective today? Are you now simply trying to change the world without your students’ personal correction?

I understand that this question will be deleted, but at least someone will read it. But if you do decide to publish an answer, then please don’t beat around the bush: give us real numbers and results, and the actual improvement in the world.

My Answer:

* Number of students in the world – around 2,000,000.
* Number of groups in the world – 73.
* Number of people who have crossed the Machsom – 19.
* Number of people who are about to cross the Machsom – 210. The rest will cross it by the year 2012.
* Annual growth of students – 700-900%.
* Number of hopeless students – 1. It’s you.

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