January 15, 2025
October 5, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Go Forth
Go forth from your desire, regardless of how fine it may seem to you. You must come to a new state, a new degree. Each time, “Go forth” indicates that you will constantly be on the way, going upward.
Canaan
Canaan is the land of Israel when it is still not fully corrected.
Hunger
Hunger means I cannot satisfy my will to receive, if I am as an Egyptian, or that I cannot satisfy my desire to bestow, if I am as a Jew, seeking unification with the Creator.
Sister
There are several names that we use to refer to the will to receive. Among them are “sister,” “wife,” and “servant.” The word, “Sister,” refers to the will to receive you can use with filling of Hochma (wisdom), as it is written, “Say unto wisdom, ‘You are my sister’” (Proverbs, 7:4).
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September 28, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Noah
“Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations” means that quality of bestowal that is now appearing in a person. Noah is righteous, from the right side, Hesed, in relation to that flood, in relation to those egotistical desires.
Flood
On the one hand the flood is water. On the other hand, it is water with the force of Gevura, the power of fire, the destructive egotistical power. It is an incorrect connection between left and right, where the left, the ego, dominates the right.
The Ark
The ark is the quality of Bina, bestowal, Hassadim (mercy). It is a mother who tends to anyone who joins her and is under her influence.
Forty Days and Forty Nights
This period marks the difference between Malchut and Bina. Bina is called “blocked Mem” (final Mem in Hebrew). Mem is forty in Gematria. The ascent from the quality of reception into the quality of bestowal, from Malchut to Bina, means ascending to the degree of forty.
The Crow
The crow is the part of the left that requires correction, compared to the dove, which is from the right. Therefore, when the dove governs instead of the crow, when it returns with an olive leaf, it is clear that the correction has been completed, and the ego is entirely under the domination of bestowal.
An Olive Leaf
The olive is used for many things, such as oil for lamps. Oil itself is one of the foundations of life. It is light of Hochma that can be inside the light of Hassadim, when we have come into a state from which we can keep developing. The development takes place through the light of Hochma, although the correction is done by light of Hassadim. These are always two opposing forces.
Rainbow
The rainbow marks the covenant. If I make a covenant with you, it is not because we enjoy being together, because in that state there is no need to sign anything. Rather, it is a guarantee for tomorrow. We fear that our relationship will deteriorate, or that we anticipate that it will, therefore our fore-signing will force us to maintain good and proper relations.
In Hebrew, a rainbow is called “an arch in the cloud.” The cloud does not symbolize a good situation, but the arch, the connection between us, which is over the cloud, ties us in a way that allows us to continue. We need that covenant, which is an everlasting covenant.
The Tower of Babel
This is the big ego that intensified during the time of Nimrod. The ego is constantly growing—evil waters, waters in Gevurot at the time of Noah, then the tower of Babel, and then the ego comes in the form of Pharaoh, then in the form of the Romans and the Greeks. The ego constantly grows and wears different facades.
September 7, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Glossary of Terms Used in the VeZot HaBracha (This Is the Blessing) Weekly Torah Portion
Conclusion, or Conclusion of the Torah
This refers to the conclusion of the guidance. It is the end of the first corrections in our preparation, during which we acquire the first correction, and after which we enter the land of Israel, where we continue the corrections. At this conclusion we experience the first correction in our 248 organs and 365 tendons, our 613 desires. It is called “bestowing in order to bestow,” or the “degree of the desert.”
Blessing
A blessing is pouring down of upper light on our matter (substance), our lives. It is impossible to execute any correction or anything good in the world unless we go along with the upper light, which is the operator and the doer.
There is a very nice essay in the “Introduction of the Book of Zohar,” called “The Essay of the Letters,” which explains that the Torah must begin with the letter Bet because only in the upper light that comes from the Creator, the degree of Bina, can we make corrections.
Tribe
Just as our bodies consist of different organs such as brain, heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs, the “body of the soul” consists of twelve primary parts, known as Hey–Vav–Yod–Hey (HaVaYaH), in each of which are three lines. Because HaVaYaH consists of four letters, if you multiply it by three lines in each letter, you get twelve parts.
120
120 is 3×40. Each Partzuf (face), each soul, divides into three parts: Rosh (head), Toch (interior), Sof (end). The complete correction in Rosh, Toch, Sof, is forty, which is the degree of Bina. We become corrected through the degree of Bina, through the blessing.
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August 31, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Glossary of Terms Used in the Haazinu (Give Ear) Weekly Torah Portion
A Stiff-Necked People
We have Panim (anterior) and Achoraim (posterior) sides. The Achoraim of the degree are the hardest Kelim, the most egotistical desires to receive and to not give. Stiff-necked means great difficulty, it is the biggest desires, the toughest ones, and indeed they are found in Israel and not in others.
Although we see that cruelty exists in everyone, it is far more so in Israel because when we come to these great corrections, we connect and scrutinize the worst Kelim, and we become a stiff-necked people. It is impossible to avoid it.
An ordinary person is not considered stiff-necked. Rather, only those who walk on the path of corrections become stiffer, increasingly discovering the evil inclination, as it is written, He who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him” (Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Sukkah, Chapter 5, 52a).
Guidance of the Creator
The guidance of the Creator means that there is none else besides Him. Along the way we only need to bring the catalyst between our actions and His, the demand that it will happen. Without our demand it will not happen, but in truth, the Creator begins and ends all the situations, and we only ask in between.
It is not just a request. We need to know what we are asking for and how He executes. This is how He knows we come to know the whole system, as well as the Creator.
Punishment
A punishment is the inability to bestow. There is nothing worse than a person being denied doing that, which is similar to the way we consider reception to be the most important thing.
Mount Nevo
This is the place of Bina, Moses’ place, where this force is found until it achieves complete redemption, and then it appears.
Gazing Over the Land
This is the correction of seeing, called “gazing.” Histaklut (looking) of Eynaim in the AHP is what Moses does; it is how he performs corrections over the land of Israel, so the people of Israel can enter the land of Israel with his blessing, his force, and can continue the corrections. Joshua is already going by the force of Moses and leads them.
Idol Worship
When a person turns to oneself or to any other force in the world but the one, giving force, which is hidden between us and must be revealed, it is idol worship. We must turn to it and ask it to be revealed, and this will comprise the corrections.
August 24, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Glossary of Terms Used in the Nitzavim-VaYelech (Standing-Moses Went) Weekly Torah Portion
The Giving of the Torah
The force around us, which we can draw, is called the “light” that reforms our evil inclination. If we want it, it is ready and we can use it.
Other Gods
God is the governor of man. A person serves other gods when one serves one’s own ego. Such a person keeps what he or she says without even thinking about it. We are such loyal servants that we do not even think that we have a master, who is another god, telling us from within what we should do.
When does one become free?
When one decides, “I do not want to do what is coming from within, following all kinds of traits, reactions, and impulses.” First one needs to test the verse, “Therefore choose life.” Is it truly for eternal, spiritual life? If it is, a person follows it. If not, then he does not. This is one’s point of independence.
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