January 15, 2025
January 25, 2014 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Donation
A donation is what a person can set aside, sacrifice of one’s ego and correct it into working in order to bestow. Each time we must set aside for correction more and more of our heart until it is entirely “a heart of flesh” instead of the current “stony heart.”
Atonement
The collective soul was shattered; we are all broken. Atonement means we must correct the intention of those broken vessels, broken desires—the 613 broken desires which are our soul.
We must bond with the other and thus discover the Creator, who appears in neither, but rather in the unity between us. Gradually, we must all build the tabernacle, and in it attain the revelation of the Creator. It is written that the Creator tells us each time, “Do this or that work and I will come and appear before you there, and tell you what needs to be done.” The common work of people is what yields the revelation of the Creator between them, and what clarifies the next step.
The Ark of the Covenant
This is where the upper force comes from; the place from which the Creator appears.
Read the rest of this entry »
January 18, 2014 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Law, or Rule
We are living under laws. The whole of nature is a law. The Creator is a law; the creature is a law; everything is one law—the law of equivalence of form with the upper force. The upper force is the primer, the foundation, and we constantly measure ourselves and all other laws in relation to it.
The laws are particular instances of a single law—the law of equivalence of form. The whole of creation must achieve balance, equivalence, similarity to the force of the Creator. Each of us, at our own degree, must achieve bestowal and love.
What is the difference between law and judgment?
We must accept the law of bestowal and love as superior to the ego. Hence, what controls the ego and sustains it, what gives it the form of bestowal instead of the form of reception is the force of Din (judgment). Man must restrain the ego, keep it at bay, and build above it a new Kli (vessel).
Is this natural, coming from nature?
No, what nature has given us is the ego, the will to receive. In order to turn it into a desire to bestow we must have the influence of the upper light. We need an outside force to come and help us, the light that reforms, which reforms that negative force and turns it into a good one. It was a good force once; this is why it is called “reforming,” turning back to good. Now it is our task to turn the negative force into a positive one. This is our work.
Read the rest of this entry »
January 11, 2014 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Jethro
Jethro is the will to receive that can be sanctified and join Moses, and with him make the connection between the upper system—Keter, Hochma, and Bina—GAR of the soul, and the will to receive, which is the people below, ZAT of the soul. Jethro was included in Moses when Moses lived with him; he is like the force of Malchut that is included in Bina, which is why Bina can connect to Malchut and bring it the new system.
Mount Sinai
It is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice”[7] because “the light in it reforms them.”[8] The evil inclination is Mount Sinai, all the hatred that appears between the nations of the world and Israel. The nations of the world are our desires to receive, and Israel is our desire to bestow. Therefore, if a gap between them appears in a person—between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow—that person feels the hatred and can be said to be at the foot of Mount Sinai.
The hatred appears when we want to connect, when we are standing around the mountain and must achieve Arvut (mutual guarantee). This is why it is written, “He said to them, ‘If you receive the Torah, good. And if you do not, there will it be your grave.’”[9] That is, if you do not connect as one man with one heart, here you will be buried.
The hatred is toward unity. If a person does not want to connect, that person will not discover one’s hatred of others and will not arrive at Mount Sinai, and will certainly not achieve corrections. This can tell us how far we all are from Mount Sinai.
Read the rest of this entry »
January 4, 2014 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Philistines
Philistines are our egoistic desires. Even once we escape the rule of the will to receive they are still connected to bestowal. It is called “bestowing in order to receive.” When we give, we reach out to others. But when we begin to give we see that we can also gain by it. Therefore, we must rise above the desires that are found outside the boundaries of Egypt, too, though the correction in them is different from the one that took place in Egypt.
We could not discover these desires while in Egypt because we were “buried” under our egos. When we emerge from the ego, we see how it pulled all of us through the forty years in the desert, and even afterward, in the land of Israel, when we conquer the land.
The Song of the Sea
The Song of the Sea is thanksgiving. It is gratitude for crossing the border, never to return to Egypt. At times we might cry over the past, as it happens in this portion, but there is no way back. We make the final exit from Egypt. After the escape, we begin to feel the spiritual world and not just the existence of this world, and this feeling induces an outburst of joy.
MAN
MAN is Mey Nukvin (Aramaic: female water). It is the will to receive wanting to rise to the level of Bina. When one feels that one can and must bestow in these desires, one requests that it will happen. Such a person needs the help of the upper force to make it happen, and then the force appears from above.
When one begins to use this force, it fills one with bestowal upon others, and this is called “eating manna.” But in this world we will never feel this way because in this world we are fulfilled by reception, while in the spiritual world we are fulfilled by bestowal.
From The Zohar: The Story of Haman
The most precious of all is the food that the friends who engage in Torah eat, food that comes from high Hochma, actual Hochma. This is because the Torah comes out of the upper Hochma, and those who engage in the Torah enter the essence of the roots, hence their food comes from the high and holy place.
Zohar for All, BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent), item 3
December 28, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Locust
In all the plagues of Egypt, a person feels how beneficial the plagues are. The plague comes because a person is immersed in the ego, in a special situation, and the plagues help one out of that state. The plague of Locust corresponds to Bina.
Darkness
In each state we have darkness. However, in states of darkness, it is a person’s personal darkness, from which one can escape to another state. Here the state of darkness comes when a person is confused, not knowing anything, as it is said in the Purim story when the people did not know who was right, Haman or Mordechai. In a state of darkness a person needs to obtain the light of Hassadim because the darkness comes from light of Hochma, and through the light of Hassadim a person comes out of it. That person needs Hassadim, understanding that one needs the light. And because that person is ready, the pillar of fire, or the cloud, appears.
Plague of the First Born
The Plague of the First-Born is the final, biggest blow. It is a blow that is the root, because the first-born is the man. It is the biggest will to receive at the level of Keter, after which there is nothing more to do in Egypt. It is here that Pharaoh surrenders.
Pharaoh is left without an army, without anything. Once the children of Israel leave Egypt, Pharaoh sends after them whatever he has left of his army, but afterward the mixed multitude join Israel, as well, and Pharaoh is left with nothing.
Read the rest of this entry »
« Previous entries ·
Next entries »
