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Ki Tissa (When You Take) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Ki Tissa

Exodus, 30:11-34:35

This Week’s Torah Portion | February 21 – February 27, 2016 – 12 Adar I – 18 Adar I, 5776

In A Nutshell

The portion, Ki Tissa (When You Take), begins with a request of each one of the children of Israel to donate half a shekel for the building of the tabernacle. The portion mentions some other details about the tabernacle such as the anointing oil, the table, and the menorah and its vessels, appointing Bezalel, son of Uri Ben Hur, as chief craftsman, Ahaliav Ben Ahisemech as his assistant, and commanding the children of Israel to observe the Sabbath.

Later, Moses ascends to Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the covenant but delays in his return, so the children of Israel seek proof that the Creator exists and demand of Aaron to build a golden calf. Aaron agrees, takes their gold vessels, melts them, and builds the golden calf.

When Moses returns from the mountain and sees it, the tablets of the covenant break. The Creator wishes to destroy and ruin the entire people of Israel, and Moses pleads for their souls.

Moses speaks to the Creator “face to face,” and wishes to conceal himself.

At the end of the process, the Creator agrees and makes a covenant with the people of Israel. The Creator also promises Israel that they will enter the land of Israel, and repeats the commandment of the three Pilgrimage festivals (Shalosh Regalim) and the prohibition of idolatry.

Moses stays with the Creator on Mount Sinai forty days and forty nights, writes on the tablets, and comes down from the mountain. It is written, “And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of the testimony in Moses’ hand … that Moses did not know that the skin of his face beamed while He talked with him” (Exodus, 34:29). It was so much so that he had to hide himself from the people once more because they feared speaking with him.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

Those who do not know the language of Kabbalah will find it hard to understand that the text actually discusses a person’s inner development. It concerns our nature, which is the will to receive, an egoistic desire that requires correction. The Torah speaks only of the correction of the desire, 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 would reform them.”[2]

The purpose of the correction is to transform our evil (egoistic) inclination, which aims only toward self-gratification and exploitation of the entire world for itself, and turn it into love of others, as in “love your neighbor as yourself.”[3]

The Torah speaks of a process that is not simple, but which all of us experience. The general crisis we are in will cause us to come out to the light, to correction, similar to the exodus from Egypt. Today we are all standing before Mount Sinai with a huge ego, with all the Kelim (vessels) we have taken from Egypt. During the millennia of development, humanity has accumulated a massive ego; now we have no clue what to do with it, other than escape it.

When we are drawn toward Mount Sinai we discover a mountain of hate between us. Only the point within us, called Moses, pulls us forward toward connection with something higher, a higher degree—human degree of similarity with the Creator.

We are all still as beasts,[4] operated entirely by egos, our nature. Instead, we must be as a free nation in our country, free in its will. “Such is the way of Torah.”[5]

To do that, one who wishes to ascend to the human degree, and discover the Creator and the worlds around us must follow the unique line known as “half a shekel,” meaning neither to the right nor to the left, but the joining of the two. The will to receive, too, takes part because it is “help made against us” (Genesis, 2:18), and against it you need the reforming light.

We have two lines: on the left is the will to receive; on the right is the light. The more we combine them, the more we correct the will to receive to similarity with the light—working in order to bestow. It is written, “And the night will shine as the day; darkness as light” (Psalms, 139:12). This is how we advance. This is the first correction—no more and no less, but precisely half. We advance when we achieve that correction, that method of advancement.

Subsequently, the tabernacle and its vessels must be prepared, including the oil and all that comes with it. The role was given only to Bezalel. Bezalel within us is that which is Betzel El (in the shadow of God), under the shadow of the Creator. Bezalel replicates the qualities from the Creator, who appears to him, and this is why he is called “wisehearted.” He knows the right combination between the heart, the desire, and the wisdom, namely the intellect. Bezalel properly combines the right with the left, and has wisdom of the heart. This is why he is the one who can establish the tabernacle.

The tabernacle is the arrangement of the soul that we build within us from our 613 desires. It is built according to the right qualities, in which all the parts are connected in synchrony with the Creator. This is how we become similar to Him.

Our evil inclination has 613 qualities we must aim in order to bestow, toward love of others. Only those who have the quality of Bezalel—copying the qualities of the Creator onto oneself and becoming as His shadow—can do it.

Achieving this is done by connecting to the Shechina (Divinity), Malchut of Atzilut, who begins to replicate these qualities from Zeir Anpin of Atzilut. Zeir Anpin has six Sephirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, and Yesod, where Malchut comes last and replicates. This is why our work is to replicate these six qualities from Zeir Anpin—called HaKadosh Baruch Hu (The Holy One, Blessed Be He), or Zeir Anpin of Atzilut—in the appearance of the Creator on all the workdays.

The wisdom of Kabbalah presents our goal—the revelation of the Creator to the creatures in this world. Through our senses, when the Creator is revealed to us, we join and increasingly attach ourselves to the Creator.

When we conclude replicating the six qualities comes the concluding seventh quality, the Sabbath. The Sabbath concludes itself by itself from above. This is why it is considered “awakening from above.” A special light comes and sets the six qualities in the right order, and there is nothing more we need to do.

This is why the prohibition on working during Sabbath is tantamount to intervening with something that belongs to the upper light. We work for six days setting up the right and left lines, directing the will to receive and the light, the mind and the heart. Finally, we present our work, and then “The Lord will conclude for me” (Psalms, 138:8). This is when we receive the completion of the degree. This is the process we must undergo through the correction of the entire soul, week by week until we conclude the six thousand years.

We must also consider that our soul consists of desires from the evil inclination that cannot be spotted by ordinary scrutiny. They require special examination that only the golden calf can make.

Although the Torah presents it in this way, the golden calf does not represent a fall or a decline, nor does it blame anyone. Any person who experiences this process must go through all the descents and falls, just as it happened with Pharaoh in Egypt, and with the children of Israel in the desert after the events of Mount Sinai.

Even when we move from Mount Sinai to the forty years in the desert we will continue to experience states that seem negative. Each time uncorrected desires surface, we “fall” into them, so we have no choice but to discover them and correct them. It is written, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and will not sin” (Ecclesiastes, 7:20), or “A person does not comprehend words of Torah unless he has failed in them.”[6] Thus, first we must fail, scrutinize the failure and correct it, and then we are guaranteed to not repeat it. We are guaranteed to be kept because that desire has already been corrected into having the aim to bestow through which we progress toward love of others.

When we discover that despite the work we have done, we have not revealed the Creator, it is considered that Moses did not return from Mount Sinai. That is, we are drawn back to the intention to receive, the egoistic desire, called “the golden calf.”

Our corrupted desires are called “mixed multitude.” They ask, “Where did Moses go?” They claim we must keep going as we understand it, within us, following our reason and intellect, instead of above reason.

When we return to working within reason we are delighted. It seems to us that this way we understand and feel everything. We may not be ascending to higher degrees, but at least we are in a world that suits our egos. It is a very appealing state. We can see for ourselves how difficult it is to explain to people what nature is compelling us to do now, what is the method of correction and how we can rise to the next level. The Creator, nature, Elokim (which is nature in Gematria) is pressing us and wishes to raise us, and we are seemingly resisting it with a golden calf, celebrating and rejoicing.

When the point in the heart appears, it collides very powerfully with the egoistic desire that has broken out once more. That collision is the shattering of the tablets.

The collision is between the point in the heart—through which we desire to rise and cling to the upper one, to a higher degree, to discover worlds, infinity, and be in a realm of bestowal—and the revelation that we are actually at the point of being a golden calf. We cannot tolerate that contrast, and as a result, all the elements in which we were previously in Kedusha (holiness) shatter.

Those who sinned in the calf were sentenced to death. Subsequently, Moses called, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” (Exodus, 32:26). This is the correction of the desires that have appeared now, that are connected to the golden calf, and with which it is impossible to continue.

Following the correction of all the other desires—the three thousand discernments that Moses killed—he ascends to Mount Sinai yet again. Internally, it means that that point within us rises once again and we receive the tablets of the covenant once more. We rediscover Godliness, the Creator, and begin to come down with the second tablets.

Yet, there is a big difference between the first tablets and the second tablets—Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). The first tablets and the golden calf took place on the ninth of Av (11th month in the Hebrew calendar). The occurrence of the first tablets happens from Shavuot to the ninth of Av. Those of the second tablets take place from the ninth of Av to Yom Kippur. Forty days plus forty days are the time frame of correction from which it is possible to continue.

From The Zohar: Half a Shekel

Half a shekel, half a hin, means half a measure. The Vav is the middle between the two Heys because the Vav is the middle line, called “scales,” which weigh the two lights, right and left, being the two Heys, so the left will not be greater than the right. This is why he diminishes the left, so it will not shine from above downward but only from below upward.

Zohar for All, Ki Tissa (When You Take), item 4

Our big will to receive, the ego, is on the left side. The light, which we can draw if we work correctly, according to the instructions of the wisdom of Kabbalah, is on the right. These are the two Yods, as in the letter Aleph, with the diagonal in the middle as the Parsa (partition) [alef]. We must join the light from above, the upper Yod, with the will to receive from below, namely the lower Yod (sometimes written as Dalet, which is Behina Dalet, the Malchut in us, instead of the Yod). The diagonal line keeps the balance between them, thus creating the line.

This is why Aleph is the first letter in the alphabet. The portion, Ki Tissa (When You Take), is the beginning of the actual Torah because it engages in the building of the tabernacle and its filling. This is why we must constantly maintain that half, so the right is not more than the left or the other way around. If there is a surplus of desires to receive that we did not correct to the fullest possible extent, then we are not in the desire to bestow. If we take from the will to receive more than we can correct, we are in a state of recognition of evil. It has to be a very precise operation.

Once we restrict all our desires and avoid using the desire in order to receive, but only in order to bestow, we can continue sorting out those small parts of our desire from light to heavy, and join all the corrections to the light.

This is the letter Vav with the punctuation marks, Holam, Shuruk, Hirik, or Kamatz, which is as the Parsa. The light has to be above it because all the corrections are in ascent. In our world—our situation—we will never achieve the revelation of Godliness. There might be various psychological phenomena, but the revelation of Godliness can happen only if we rise above the Parsa.

Following the restriction, once we have the middle line, when we join a group and act in it—as Kabbalists suggest we should—when we try to come out of ourselves and be above reason, above the diagonal Vav, from below upward—we receive the revelation of the spiritual world.

Questions and Answers

Beresheet (Genesis) speaks of the creation of the world. In the desert, things take a long time to unfold, with numerous details along the way, as the portions describe. What do those details symbolize?

The Torah cannot tell us about all that we are going through. It only explains the milestones. It is similar to driving on a road where each mile or several miles are marked by signs.

Why are various garments and a description of the altar mentioned in the desert?

It is the correction of our soul. We have received a system of 613 desires, and each of them consists of all the others, and all are connected. That system is completely broken. It is as though we were given an electronic or mechanical device that is completely broken and we have no clue how to fix it. We would look at it dumbfounded without knowing how to approach it.

This is why we are taught how to do it: “Look at this, fix that, than this, but first that.” There are so many details in our soul, and all of it must become similar to the Creator in its inner structure, in how it works. And although it is the opposite substance from the Creator, “existence from absence,” it must come to resemble the “existence from existence.”

We cannot understand how important our world is, with all its complexities and myriad connections, every atom and every cell in the universe. This is why there are so many details in the correction of the soul. One who walks this path takes part in it and discovers it, and it arouses immense excitement and a sense of harmony and fulfillment.

How do you explain that everything exists and happens simultaneously—the point in the heart is on Mount Sinai, the highest connection, while other desires in me are building a golden calf?

This is the detachment within, where the Moses in us disappears. When Moses disappears we lose contact with the Creator, as this is the only point that connects us with Him. As soon as we disconnect, we find ourselves immersed in our desires, falling into the golden calf. These are the Kelim (vessels) we have taken out of Egypt, Kelim that want the light of Hochma (wisdom), namely pleasure for ourselves alone.

How come the desire obtains contact with the upper force and promptly afterward falls into connection with the golden calf?

There are no delays. There is either Kedusha (holiness) or Klipa (shell/peel). There are no in betweens. We must get used to constantly being in one of the two states; there are no others in our world.

Are Moses’ ascents and descents on Mount Sinai the ups and downs we are talking about?

It is about alternating revelations and concealments. It is similar to the festival of Purim and the story of Esther, who is also revelation in concealment. There cannot be revelation if it is not preceded by concealment. Had Moses not ascended Mount Sinai there would have been no golden calf. But without the golden calf we would not know what to correct. This is how we always progress, on two “legs.”

[1] Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Kidushin, 30b.
[2] Midrash Rabah, Eicha, “Introduction,” Paragraph 2.
[3] Jerusalem Talmud, Seder Nashim, Masechet Nedarim, Chapter 9, p 30b.
[4] Psalms 49:13
[5] Zohar for All, Pinehas, item 247.
[6] Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Gitin, p 43a.

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Tetzaveh (Command) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Tetzaveh

Exodus, 27:20-30:10

This Week’s Torah Portion | February 14 – February 20, 2016 – 5 Adar I – 11 Adar I, 5776

In A Nutshell

In the portion, Tetzaveh (Command), the Creator provides Moses with additional details regarding the tabernacle, and commands the children of Israel to take olive oil to light the everlasting candle in the tent of meeting outside the veil, so it may burn from dusk to dawn.

The Creator instructs Moses to appoint Aaron and his sons, Nadav, Avihu, Elazar, and Itamar to be his priests. He elaborates on the commandment of preparing the holy garments “for honor and glory” (Exodus, 28: 2): the vest, fringe, coat, and the rest of the garments of the priest.

Afterward comes an explanation on the sanctification of Aaron and his sons for their role in the tabernacle, including the offering of an ox and two rams on the altar of the incense that will be positioned inside the tabernacle before the veil, and how the incense is to be made. Finally, the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is mentioned, which is to take place once a year.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The portion, Tetzaveh (Command), is very matter-of-fact, short, and pragmatic. The whole of the substance of creation is the desire to receive. This is the solid basis from which we should begin. We feel the will to receive within us divided into four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. All our desires are divided in this manner, and we give them the shape of bestowal, namely to aim them toward giving. All desires must be aimed toward our connection “as one man with one heart,”[1] with love of others, as in “love your neighbor as yourself.”[2]

To the extent that we correct each one of our desires, we shape the image of man—becoming similar to the Creator. This is Adam HaRishon (the first man), who shattered and divided into myriad souls. Our purpose is to reassemble those souls into that single soul. We achieve this by annulling our egos and connecting all our desires. The connection is on the levels of still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. In these degrees we gradually reconnect everything into the new reality that the Torah narrates.

First, the oil for the lamp is a special oil, which must be lit in a special way. Subsequently, from the emitted light we can prepare the priesthood garments that clothe the will to receive.

The will to receive remains the same whether it strives to benefit others or itself. The difference lies in how we use it—for our own sake or for the sake of others. That is, do we want to use it to benefit ourselves although it is detrimental to others, or do we want to benefit others? There are two options with myriad variations.

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Teruma (Donation) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Teruma

Exodus, 25:1-27:19

This Week’s Torah Portion | February 7 – February 13, 2016 – 28 Shevat – 4 Adar I, 5776

In A Nutshell

The portion, Teruma (Donation), deals primarily with the building of the tabernacle. The Creator instructs Moses to tell the children of Israel, “And they shall take for Me a donation from every man whose heart moves him you shall take My donation” (Exodus, 25:2). The donations were intended for the building of the tabernacle and its tools—the ark of the covenant, the ark-cover, the showbread table, the Menorah (lamp), the boards of the tabernacle, the sockets, the veil, the copper altar, and the hangings of the court. The Creator also tells Moses how to build the tabernacle. The portion is called Teruma (donation) because of the commandment to donate. 

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

All we have is the building of the tabernacle. This is where the Creator is revealed, and this is where He resides. We must build it through a donation, and by raising the importance of the quality of bestowal and love of others (in Hebrew, the word Teruma (donation) also pertains to Harama (raising), as in, “raising the Hey”)[1]. The more we extol the quality of bestowal and use it properly, the more we correct our Kelim (vessels), namely our desires, which we currently use for ourselves, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination…”[2] The building of the tabernacle explains the process of our correction from the easiest to the hardest as we gradually build the tabernacle from our lightest, to our heaviest, greatest, and most egoistic desires. The donation to the tabernacle must come from the heart, which contains all the desires. Only one who is driven by impulse in the heart is permitted to offer a donation, and from this “investment” one builds one’s Kelim. The Kelim are the connections between us, which establish the tabernacle. In the tabernacle appears the upper force, the Creator, according to one’s equivalence of form. That is, we discover the Creator to the extent of our similarity to Him. The Creator is a hidden force. We are not inherently born with tools to discover Him because we do not possess qualities that are similar to His. For example, we hear sounds because our eardrums react to certain frequencies. Likewise, we can tell different smells because we have olfactory neurons that detect them. These are our Kelim (in Hebrew, Kelim means both “vessels” but also “tools”). However, we are devoid of tools to “detect” the upper force, the Creator, the source of energy. Continue reading “Teruma (Donation) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion”

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Mishpatim (Ordinances) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Mishpatim

Exodus, 21:1-24:18

This Week’s Torah Portion | January 31 – February 6, 2016 – 21 Shevat – 27 Shevat, 5776

In A Nutshell

In the portion, Mishpatim (Ordinances), the Creator gives to Moses a collection of laws and judgments pertaining to various topics: between man and man, Hebrew slaves, Hebrew maidservant, murder, theft, lending money, and others. The Creator also dictates laws concerning man and God, meat and dairy foods, the Sabbath, Shmita (year of omission, refraining from growing crops), etc.

Moses conveys to the children of Israel the message that the Creator will help them enter the land of Israel, and warns them about practicing idolatry. Moses reads before them from the book of covenant, and the people reply, “We will do and we will hear” (Exodus, 24:7). Moses builds an altar and offers sacrifices to the Creator, and a covenant is signed between the people and the Creator. Moses carries out the Creator’s command, ascends Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the covenant, accompanied by his servant, Joshua, and stays there forty days and forty nights.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

In the portion, Mishpatim (Ordinances), Moses ascends Mount Sinai although he had already received all the laws and ordinances and the children of Israel had already kept the Torah and the laws regarding the offerings. This tells us that laws and ordinances are one thing, and the Torah is another.

The portion details all the laws of the spiritual world, everything a person needs to do. In order to be able to do it we must receive the Torah. The Torah was given because “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice.”[1] That is, one is shown who one is compared to what one should be at the degree of “man,” in a state of loving others and connection among everyone, a state of correction of all the egoistic desires.

This is why the laws come first. One who begins to study the wisdom of Kabbalah understands that first one must correct oneself, one’s attitude toward the group, toward the people, and toward the world. There are many internal corrections of the evil inclination that one must perform. When one understands what one must do is when the time of reception of the Torah arrives. A person learns to receive the light that corrects one during the study.

This is how we gradually obtain the upper world, the Creator, the upper force that fills the upper world. This is why it was said, “We will do and we will hear”: first we must do, and then—in the corrected Kelim (vessels) that we build—we discover the Creator filling those Kelim.

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Jethro Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Jethro

Exodus, 18:1-20:22

This Week’s Torah Portion | January 24 – January 30, 2016 – 14 Shevat – 20 Shevat, 5776

In A Nutshell

The portion, Jethro, starts with Jethro, priest of Midian, coming out with Zipporah and Moses’ two sons to meet Moses and the nation, which has come out of Egypt. Jethro gives to Moses some organizational tips regarding how to judge the people, explaining that he should divide them into ministers of thousands, ministers of hundreds, ministers of fifty, and ministers of ten.

The children of Israel arrive at Sinai Desert on the third month of their exodus from Egypt, as it is written, “And Israel camped there, before the mountain” (Exodus, 19:2). Moses climbs Mount Sinai and the Creator tells him, “And now, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be to Me a Segula (chosen/virtue/remedy) out of all the nations, for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel” (Exodus, 19:5-6).

Moses informs the elders of the people about the words of the Creator, and they say, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). The Creator commands the people through Moses to sanctify themselves for two days, and be ready on the third day, for this is when the Creator will appear before the whole nation.

On the third day, the children of Israel stand at the bottom of the mountain, but they do not want to meet the Creator face to face, so Moses and Aaron climb Mount Sinai and Moses brings down the Ten Commandments.

The children of Israel ask Moses to speak to them instead of the Creator because they are afraid to die. Moses explains to them that they need not fear because the Creator is coming down in order to test them, and to set the fear of Him in them so they will not sin.

The Creator instructs Moses to tell the children of Israel that because they saw Him speaking with them they are forbidden to make gods of silver and gold. Instead, they must build an altar on the ground and sacrifice on it.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

Jethro, priest of Midian, is not from Israel. He is from the will to receive in order to receive, a Klipa (shell/peel) that has been mitigated by Moses. Jethro rises and connects to Moses through his Nukva (female), his daughter Zipporah, with whom Moses has two sons. This is the big and broken will to receive that the Moses in us is gradually correcting.

When Moses comes to Jethro after he has fled, a connection is made between the point in the heart, Moses, and the ego. Thus, a correction is made so that afterward it will be easier for a person to make corrections on the more advanced stages.

The correction helps one begin to divide oneself into tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands, meaning to build the structure of the soul. The whole Torah deals with the construction of our soul and how we turn our egoistic desire into a desire with the aim to bestow. When the desire acquires the aim to bestow, it is called a “soul.”

The force of reception is called the “self,” “this world.” Everything I see and everything I feel is the force of reception. The force of bestowal is exit from reception. When I work in order to bestow, in “love your neighbor as yourself,”[1] I obtain my soul. My inner Moses is pulling away from the quality of reception toward the quality of bestowal, bringing me out of myself, and allowing me to see the upper world and begin to feel the Creator.

The Book of Zohar speaks about it in great detail in the portion, Jethro, but it is still not easy to grasp. It concerns the three lines, the structure of the soul, reception, bestowal, and the middle line, which is the proper combination between them. The Zohar describes how to divide the soul—first into ten Sephirot, according to the Ten Commandments, then according to the three lines, which is thirty. There is also a division into Rosh, Toch, Sof (head, interior, end respectively), and there are many other inner divisions that include the Sephira (singular for Sephirot) Daat.

When we relate to ourselves as coming out of Egypt, examining ourselves from the outside, we examine how we can use our egos to advance us spiritually, toward the aim to bestow. We go through difficult situations such as the escape from Egypt, the tearing of the Red Sea, until we reach Mount Sinai. This is how we build ourselves on the way to correction—through Jethro’s counsels, as well as though actions.

Being at the foot of Mount Sinai requires preparation. This is the “main event,” when we meet the Creator. While we are in the dark, we do not understand why we need to advance. We follow the point in our hearts, Moses.

In a sense, Moses helps us out of Egypt when we escape in the dark. However, we are not conscious participants in this process. At the foot of Mount Sinai is where the upper force first appears to us. This is when we begin to understand our own essence and the essence of the upper force, as well as how to relate to our situation and the way we need to move forward.

In this portion, the first awareness happens. With it awaken all of man’s desires, called “the people,” or the “nation,” and they are afraid. These desires still cannot connect to the Creator; they cannot see or hear Him. They tell Moses, “You speak.” This is the state at which we arrive from the exile, Egypt, our ego. We begin to hear a little bit only by coming down from Keter (crown), which is the Creator. This process unfolds through Hochma and Bina—when Moses and Aaron begin to bring down the great light that appears to the will to receive as laws, as the Ten Commandments, beginning with the first commandment, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus, 20:2), and ends with the final commandment.

The Ten Commandments include all 620 Mitzvot (commandments). These are 620 corrections, which are 613 plus seven Mitzvot of our sages, by which we have to correct our desires. That is, we consist of 620 desires that divide into 613+7 desires.

The 613 Mitzvot connect within them into 248 and 365, and these comprise the structure of the soul. The soul itself consists of ten parts, ten Sephirot, and their correction is called Ten Mitzvot, or Ten Commandments, which are the primary Mitzvot that were given to man. We ascend according to our position, by how we stand before the light that appears to us. Hearing is the degree of Bina, and seeing is the degree of Hochma.

One who has gone through the entire process and has come out of Egypt rises above the ego and is willing to receive the program of bestowal, the program of connecting with the whole of humanity. Such a person is ready for the revelation of Godliness in the connection between all people, as it is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself; Rabbi Akiva says, ‘It is a great rule in the Torah.’”[2] This rule is both the foundation and the result of keeping the Ten Commandments, with the goal being Keter, achieving love, and through the love of others to achieve the love of the Creator.

In our current state, part of humanity is discovering it is in Egypt, another part is discovering that it wants to come out of Egypt, and a part is discovering how to come out and advance toward Mount Sinai. We are beginning to feel we are in the dark, in a process we do not understand. Each day our need for the light is growing, for the revelation of the Creator, for it to shine a tiny illumination on our lives so we may understand what is happening to us.

We need to fix Jethro, the egoistic will to receive, as it is written, “If one should tell you, ‘there is wisdom in the nations, believe.”[3] If Moses did not connect to the desire called Jethro, he would not receive from him the knowledge of judgment and ruling, which is a necessary part for the reception of the Torah.

By disseminating the method of correction to the nations of the world, the method of Arvut (mutual guarantee), and by circulating the necessity for the wisdom of Kabbalah, we are doing the work that Moses did with Jethro. By that we will be rewarded with standing at the foot of Mount Sinai.

In the portion, Jethro, the people of Israel receives the Ten Commandments. This may be the most important portion because the Torah is correction. So why is this portion named after an “external” desire, Jethro?

Jethro is the priest of Midian, a Klipa that stands opposite. He is one of Pharaoh’s servants, similar to other forces that stood next to the will to receive and helped Pharaoh connect and elicit as much as possible from the desire to bestow—Israel. The Zohar appears to be writing bad things about him, but he is help made against us. After all, everything is within us.

What comes out of Egypt is Kelim (vessels), meaning desires. In the desires that come out there is still no intention to work with the will to receive. Moses, the force of Bina, wants to judge the will to receive, which is detached from him. Even while standing before Pharaoh, he wanted to draw the will to receive, though not in order to connect or to elicit anything from it, but to judge it. However, he was unsuccessful.

When we arrive at the state that exists between Moses and the nation that has come out of Egypt, including the mixed multitude and all the layers that oppose the process of bestowal and love of others, there has to be a special system built according to the will to receive, according to corporeality. Moses cannot build it; he can only give from above, seemingly “pouring down,” this is not absorbed in the people. As it is written, Moses grows tired, and the people, who cannot find the right connection, stands next to him all day.

We cannot find the proper relationship between our desire upward, toward the Creator, and our egos—in the family, at work, and in the rest of our worldly life. We need a system that will provide us with Jethro. The wisdom must come specifically from the will to receive, as it is written, “If one should tell you, ‘there is wisdom in the nations, believe.” Although it does not belong to the degree of Bina, it was previously included in it, when Moses spent forty years with Jethro. Moses grew to the degree of Bina with Jethro; now Jethro is seemingly paying back.

Does Jethro put order between Moses and the desires so that Moses can free himself for the real thing—the receiving of the Torah?

Jethro returns to Moses what he received from him when Moses was with him. Moses came to Jethro after fleeing from Pharaoh. He grew while at Jethro’s from the degree of Malchut to the degree of Bina, pure bestowal. He grew at Jethro’s home and “over” Jethro, through his connection with Zipporah and the two sons that he had—from the right and from the left, with him in the middle. Everything that Moses has given to Jethro and instilled in him is now returning to him—Jethro, Zipporah, and the two sons. There was a mingling of Bina in Malchut, and now Malchut is giving back to Bina.

In this way Moses can now build the entire system of connecting Bina to Malchut, and he is ready to receive the Torah. This is why the first encounter with the Creator is named after Jethro, since precisely because of the system that was built before, it is now possible to reach the state of being at Mount Sinai.

On the one hand, the children of Israel were afraid of turning to the Creator for fear of dying. On the other hand, it is known that the Creator receives specifically prayers that come from the heart. So where does the fear come from? Why were the children of Israel afraid?

Our will to receive is still not equipped with a Masach (screen) that can withstand the light. That is, the light still seems like darkness. What is the exodus from Egypt in the dark? There is no dark, but it seems dark to us because we are still not corrected. The Aramaic word Ohrta (night) is very similar to the Hebrew word Ohr (light). That is, at one time it is night, and at another time it is light, depending on how a person experiences it.

From The Zohar: And Jethro Heard

They all shook and looked at Jethro, who was wise and the great appointee over all the idols of the world. When they saw him approaching and serving the Creator, saying, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods,” they all veered away from their works and knew that they were futile. Then the glory of the holy Name of the Creator was glorified on all sides. This is why this portion was written in the Torah, and the beginning of the portion is with Jethro.

Zohar for All, Jethro, item 42

Jethro is the first will to receive that surrenders and accepts the sovereignty of the Creator. This is why this portion is named after him. The Zohar also mentions Gematria, why Jethro is called Jethro, why Zipporah is called Zipporah, and all the other events in the portion.

In this portion we hear that the children of Israel camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. What does it mean to camp there?

Camping is similar to what happens on Hanukah. It is clear that we cannot correct our ego at that time, but only take an advice, a way, a program, a goal that can be implemented over time according to the level of our understanding of the program. Only at the end of the desert, at the entrance to the land of Israel, does the people discover everything that Moses said to them in his final words prior to his demise.

From The Zohar: You Shall Not Kill; You Shall Not Commit Adultery

When that filth was removed from them, Israel remained pure bodies without any filth, and the soul inside the body was as the brightness of the firmament to receive light. So were Israel, who saw and regarded the glory of their master. This was not so on the sea because the filth was not removed from them at that time, while here in Sinai, when the filth stopped from the body, even fetuses in their mothers’ intestine saw and looked at the glory of their Master. All of them, each and every one, received as befitted him.

Zohar for All, Jethro, items 572-573

Spiritual ascension can be the result of two states—an awakening from above and an awakening from below. In an awakening from above, the light shines from above and sanctifies the person, giving one the force of bestowal through which one begins to look into the distance against one’s ego. Such a person sees the world outside oneself, the spiritual world. That person knows the upper force, the Creator. An awakening from below comes from the person through extensive work on connecting with others. When one collects awakenings from everyone, one reaches the same awakening as the one that can be received from above.

Naturally, our own work from below is more desirable and appreciated because if we collect the forces from the friends, and each of them collects strength from the friends, as well, and each has his or her own strength, that force becomes permanently theirs. Here a person is seemingly camping only to take advice as to what to do. To hear the advice, one must wake up. It is similar to the exodus from Egypt through a force from above, an external force that pushes us and pulls us. But afterward we must actualize the forces we have received during the forty years in the desert.

Something special happens at Mount Sinai, purification, a special force we receive.

The light that affects us is called “the light that reforms.” It is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice”[4] because “the light in it reforms them.”[5] It reforms the evil inclination and makes it good. Initially, we are all in the evil inclination, egoists, and all we need is the Torah, assuming it is the real Torah, as it is written, “If one should tell you, ‘there is wisdom in the nations, believe; there is Torah in the nations, do not believe.”[6]

A “person from the nations” is a desire to receive that wants to receive for itself. Israel is one who strives to achieve bestowal, love of others, and from the love of others to achieve the love of the Creator.

This is why those how are craving are called “Israel,” and they learn the wisdom of Kabbalah because it brings the light that reforms. This is how we become sanctified, acquiring the force of bestowal and rise through it. The greater the force of bestowal one possesses, the greater the love of others, and the holier that person is considered to be.

Summary

From this portion we can learn that to an extent, our connection between the desire to bestow and the will to receive has to constantly exist. The wisdom of Kabbalah does not tell us to ruin our egos, but rather to use it correctly. This is why it is called Hochmat ha Kabbalah (the wisdom of receiving); it is the wisdom of how to use the vessels of reception.

We do not need to avoid using the vessels of reception, or to be “above” the worldly life. Rather, we need to discover the evil inclination detaching us from connection with the rest of the world, as it was said to Moses, “And you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nations” (Exodus, 19:6). That is, the role of the people of Israel is to offer itself to the service of the rest of the world.

[1] “Love your neighbor as yourself. Rabbi Akiva says, ‘It is a great rule in the Torah’” (Jerusalem Talmud, Seder Nashim, Masechet Nedarim, Chapter 9, p 30b)..
[2] Jerusalem Talmud, Seder Nashim, Masechet Nedarim, Chapter 9, p 30b 
[3] Midrash Rabah, Eicha, Parasha 2, Paragraph 13 
[4] Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Kidushin, 30b 
[5] Midrash Rabah, Eicha, “Introduction,” Paragraph 2 
[6] Midrash Rabah, Eicha, Parasha 2, Paragraph 13