Genesis, 12:1-17:27
This Week’s Torah Portion | Nov 03 – Nov 09, 2024 – 2 Heshvan – 8 Heshvan, 5785

In A Nutshell

The portion, Go Forth, begins with Abraham being commanded to go to the land of Canaan. When Abraham reaches the land of Canaan, the hunger forces him to go down to Egypt, where Pharaoh’s servants take Sarai, his wife. In Pharaoh’s house, Abraham presents her as his sister, fearing for his life. The Creator punishes Pharaoh with infections and diseases, and he is forced to give Sarai back to Abraham.

When Abraham returns to the Canaan, a fight breaks out between the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle and the herdsmen of Abraham’s cattle, after which they part ways.

A war breaks out between four kings from among the rulers of Babylon, and five kings from the land of Canaan, Lot is taken captive, and Abraham sets out to save him.

The Creator makes a covenant with Abraham, “the covenant of the pieces” (or “covenant between the parts”), which is the promise of the continuation of his descendants and the promise of the land.

Sarai cannot have children, so she offers Abraham her maid, Hagar, and they have a child named Ishmael.

Abraham makes the covenant of the circumcision with the Creator and is commanded to circumcise himself and all the males in his household. His name changes from Abram to Abraham, and his wife’s name changes from Sarai to Sarah.

At the end of the portion, the Creator promises Sarah that she would have a son whose name will be Isaac.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

All the stories of the portion before us happen within us. In the correct perception of reality, this world does not exist, and neither do history or geography, nor the story of the portion. All of them are occurrences that take place within us.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that perception of reality is a profound matter, relating to our innermost psychology, to our senses and to our physical structure.

The Torah speaks the truth about the way we developed, and all the people and events that it describes are our mental forces. Abraham, for instance, is the tendency to develop toward spirituality, the desire to approach and discover the Creator.

The story of Abraham in Babylon is really the revelation that only one force exists and manages the world, and the desire to discover that force. Anyone who feels the desire to discover who is managing one’s fate and why, or is asking, “What is the meaning of my life?” is at the same starting point of Abraham, and the force of Abraham is working within that person.

Would you pass up the opportunity to attain over a year’s worth of spiritual advancement in just 3 days?

That’s exactly what you have a chance to do at this year’s BIGGEST KabU event: the Kabbalah Retreat 2021!

You’re invited to gather in-person at the beautiful Iroquois Springs in Catskills Mountains, New York, or virtually from the comfort of your own home, for 3 days of applying the method of Kabbalah in practice, on October 1-3.

The 3 days are packed with lessons, workshops, and other activities, meticulously organized for your optimal spiritual advancement.

At the retreat, you’ll

• practically apply the wisdom of Kabbalah at a much faster pace than by studying alone,
• learn how to connect the study of Kabbalah to your everyday life,
• deepen your knowledge of Kabbalah through gaining a much deeper connection experience than in daily study, and you’ll also
• get to know your fellow Kabbalah students and instructors up close!

If you’re a KabU member, then trust me – you don’t want to miss this.

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See you there!

We at the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center are so excited about the upcoming Kabbalah Campus local courses, which begin on January 20 in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Orlando, that we can’t wait to get started!

So on Tuesday, 1 December 2015, we’ll be holding a free public preliminary live Q&A session, titled “What Is the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything!?” with you to celebrate the upcoming course.

We invite you all to post just one question that’s itching away at you, and get it answered at the live event.

Maybe you have a question about the meaning of life, about Kabbalah, or how you can be helped in a certain situation you’re facing, or how to understand all kinds of events occurring in our world from their root, or any variety of concepts, such as whether we have free choice, how we perceive reality, why we feel pain and pleasure, and countless others…

Kabbalah encourages the asking of questions to progress, so here’s an opportunity to ask your first question and get it answered live!…

Just write the question you have on the question asking page, and you’re in!

Go Here to Ask Your Question »

AND… By sending your question, you’ll go into the draw to win a number of book & CD giveaways!

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Mark,

Your friend at the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute

Numbers 4:21-7:89

This Week’s Torah Portion | May 24 – May 30, 2015 – 6 Sivan – 12 Sivan, 5775

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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A Kabbalist Is Someone Who Shares in the Management of Nature

All parts of creation, ourselves included, are sustained and managed by a force called nature, or Creator, whose attribute is bestowal (in Hebrew the word is Hashpaa, which comes from the root word Shefa, bounty). When a Kabbalist attains a certain degree of correction and has acquired a certain amount of will to bestow, meaning to give, he or she can join in the management of nature. Being in the degree of speaking, the Kabbalist can be included in the degrees of still, vegetative, and animate, according to his or her degree, add much bounty and change the laws of nature. Through the Kabbalist, nature becomes more merciful.

Depending on how corrected he or she is compared to them, a Kabbalist can raise other souls as well. The amount of influence a Kabbalist has on others depends on the degree of his or her soul and its uniqueness, meaning what part of the soul of the first man it comes from—Rosh (head), Guf (body), Raglaim (legs), or some other part. The Kabbalist’s degree of correction greatly influences the rising of the souls and their readiness for correction. This is one way the Kabbalists help the world.

Finding the Right Prayer that Will Bring You Closer to Nature

The stronger the illumination of the upper light, the more one is able to discern right from wrong. Just as when one walks using the light of a flashlight and can see only as far as the light reaches, so our egoism determines how well we can tell right from wrong. In other words, seeing our true nature, how evil we are, and feeling a need to correct those things only happens in proportion to the degree the Creator is revealed to us. Therefore, if we ask of the Creator to reveal Himself to us so that we can see ourselves for what we are and correct ourselves, and not for egoistic pleasure, then that is the prayer He answers.

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