• Death
• Blessing
• Bed
• The Cave of Machpelah
• Fear (of revenge)

Death

Death is a state of departure of the light from the soul. This does not refer to the death of our protein body, since the Torah does not deal with the life of the physical body but with the soul, with the filling of the light. Our desire is filled with the upper light, called “life.” The departure of the light is called “death.” People in our world are detached from life. This is why it is written that the wicked in their lives are called “dead.”^[3]
However, those who obtain the soul using the wisdom of Kabbalah, who draw the light that reforms, are the ones who achieve Arvut (mutual guarantee), the love of others. They have a Kli (vessel), a receptacle in which to discover the upper light, Godliness, which is life.

Blessing

A blessing is the force of bestowal that a person receives, through which one begins to sense the upper world. The spiritual world is all blessing, all Bet (the first letter in the word Beracha [blessing]), all Bina. This is why the Torah begins with the letter Bet, with Beracha.

Bed

A bed is a state where one ceases to work with one’s Rosh, Toch, and Sof (head, interior, and end, respectively), meaning in an upright position, when one has lights that develop from above downward. When the Rosh, Toch, and Sof are on the same level and the lights NRNHY depart, what is left is only “a pocket of life.”

The Cave of Machpelah

The connection between Bina and Malchut is called Machpelah. The will to receive and the desire to bestow stand together at the degree of Malchut, and there is the entrance to the upper world, the world of Bina. Therefore, on the one hand it is burial, and on the other hand it is the door to eternity.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Crop
• Blessing
• Promise
• Weeping
• Slave

Crop

Crop is a plant that grows out of the still. It is the ability to rise from the will to receive, our egoistic desire, which is the still. If there is a seed in the still and you give it water, minerals, and the proper cultivation, a plant will grow out of it—the next degree in the evolution.

Everything emerges from the still. The will to receive is the general substance, and the forms that come out of it—vegetative, animate, and speaking—are forms of the desire to bestow together with the will to receive. The will to receive gives all the substance. If, for example, the form is vegetative, its next form will be an animal, followed by the speaking form.

Blessing

The blessing is the upper force that comes from Bina. Bet is Beracha (blessing). Without this upper force, there is no growth. It is similar to water, which represent the force of Bina in our world.

Promise

This is the promise that Joseph was given that he would be able to come out of Egypt. The big problem is how to work with our egos and be certain that it does not “swallow” us down the line. This is why Joseph was told, “Go down to Egypt for a certain time and then return to the land of Israel with great substance.”

Weeping

Weeping is a state of Katnut (smallness/infancy), when one shifts from state to state. In between, one must be “small,” like an embryo, or like a newborn baby that is crying. These are signs of Katnut. At that stage, a person still has no Mochin (Light of Wisdom); one still does not understand where one is or why one exists. Such a person is in regret, in plight, in a narrow place where there are insufficient Hassadim (mercies), hence the crying.

Slave

A slave is our desire. In general, we always speak only about the desire. The whole of creation is but one will to receive divided into 613 desires. A slave is one of those desires, which is under the complete control of below. It is below either on the side of Pharaoh or on the side of the Creator. that is, either it is a servant of the Creator or a servant of Pharaoh. It cannot be in the middle.

From The Zohar: Take Wagons … for Your Little Ones

Israel were under the rule of this heifer for REDU (Gematria, 210) years when they were in Egypt. …It was only in order to scrutinize that wagon, which is VAK of the left, that Israel were under the Klipa of Egypt for several times and several years, as more than this measure, called “wagon,” is forbidden to take out of Egypt.

Zohar for All, VaYigash (Judah Approached), item 112

Our exile was to last 400 years, like four Behinot (discernments), but we spent only 210 years in exile. This is the root of all the other exiles.

• Years of Abundance and Years of Hunger
• The Sages of Egypt
• Grain and Hunger
• Brothers
• A Meal

Years of Abundance and Years of Hunger

Years of abundance and years of hunger are the ups and downs that we must go through, which divide into years. The number seven represents the Sephirot Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.

These years connect Zeir Anpin, which contains six Sephirot, with Malchut. This connection creates a new Kli between the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of the creature.

The wisdom of Kabbalah refers to the six qualities as “the Holy One blessed be He.” The seventh quality is the Shechina (Divinity), which is currently Pharaoh, also known as “Divinity in exile.” After the correction, Pharaoh becomes a holy place—in order to bestow—the place of our souls, the place of connection between us.

The Sages of Egypt

The sagacity of Egypt is called “external wisdom.” It maintains that you need not change within in order to obtain all the good in this life and in the spiritual life, that you can settle for the intellect. Study without changing; don’t think about the correction of the heart, about your ego, that you need to change; study a couple of pages and you will be happy. This, in essence, is the wisdom of Egypt, as it is written, “there is wisdom in the nations—believe.”^[5]

Read the rest of this entry »

• Joseph
• The Striped Tunic
• I Seek My Brethren

Joseph

Joseph is Yesod, a quality that summarizes all the good qualities in us, the qualities of bestowal. It is a collection of all the qualities of bestowal, and because it has nothing of its own but the collection of prior qualities, it can connect with the quality of reception.

This quality can connect within it all the qualities of bestowal in its higher part, and all the qualities of reception in its lower part. It is Joseph because it collects all the qualities within it.

Joseph is also called “the foundation of the world” because the world truly appears in this quality, which is a collection of two forces—bestowal and reception—where the Creator and the creature meet.

The Striped Tunic

The striped tunic is three stripes, which are actually two, seemingly black and white, because it is made of wool, which is both black and white. However, out of the black and the white emerges a middle line that does not really exist. It does not exist in the tunic, but it is the human who makes it. When wearing the striped tunic, a person becomes the middle line between the two stripes.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Struggle
• Reconciliation and Peace
• Israel
• Circumcision

Struggle

The struggle is an internal one between the ego, which pulls us toward worldly pleasures such as food, sex, family, money, respect, knowledge, and power, and the purpose of life, which is to discover the upper realm, to which we need to rise, to a complete, eternal life.

Also, we need to do it now, as it is written, “You will see your world in your life” (Masechet Berachot, 17a). Here in our lives is where we discover the eternal life of the soul, which is why we live in two worlds. We need to come to a state where the death of the body does not feel to us as death at all, as if we have lost anything of ourselves. Rather, we remain because we discover that the upper degree of life is several times greater than the sensation of the physical life.

This is the goal we should achieve, and we can only achieve it through a struggle by a group, a society, by studying the right sources. To rise above the physical, corporeal life, we must not slight them, but use them in order to rise.

Reconciliation and Peace

Reconciliation and peace mean that for now, we cannot cope with our evil inclination and turn it into a good inclination, using it in order to bestow, since we have to turn the qualities that existed in us as negative—which we were using only for our own pleasure and against others—into qualities of bestowal upon others.

Read the rest of this entry »