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Glossary – BaMidbar (In the Desert) – Weekly Torah Portion

Tribes

Tribes are a part of the will to receive, which is divided into HBD, HGT, NHY. In all of them there is HaVaYaH (Yod–Hey–Vav–Hey), and HaVaYaH times three is twelve. Our general will to receive is divided into twelve parts that—when corrected—are called “tribes.”

The Holy of Holies

The Holy of Holies is GAR of Bina, the absolute quality of bestowal.

Army

The army is all the desires that can join the head, faith, the shepherd.

Banner (Flag)

A banner is the task that I assume. Each part and each group in the twelve tribes has its own banner, which indicates how each part progresses and corrects itself. The banner is unique to each tribe, hence the division into twelve tribes remains even after they achieve the corrected desire, the land of Israel.

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BeHukotai (In My Statutes) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

BeHukotai

Leviticus, 26:3-27:34

This Week’s Torah Portion | May 4 – May 10, 2014 – Lyar 4 – Lyar 10, 5774

In A Nutshell

The portion, BeHukotai (In My Statutes), deals primarily with the topic of reward and punishment for the children of Israel according to their behavior—whether they follow the ways of the Creator. It is written, “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and do them” (Leviticus, 26:3). The portion begins with presenting the reward: “Then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit” (Leviticus, 26:4). Opposite that is the presentation of the punishment: “But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments” (Leviticus, 26:14), “I will appoint terror over you: the tuberculosis and the malaria,” (Leviticus, 26:16), and the worst punishment of all—exile.

If the people of Israel repent, the Creator promises to remember the covenant He has made with them and forgive them. It is written, “Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God” (Leviticus, 26:44). The portion ends with additional laws concerning vows, ostracism, tithing, and others.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The issue of reward and punishment was not presented at the beginning of the Torah because it is impossible to understand it unless you are able to make free choice. Without this ability it is pointless to instructions on this issue. First you must learn the laws and judgments. Then, if you keep them you will be rewarded, and if not, you will be punished. You cannot punish in advance. First one needs to reach the spiritual degree of shifting from unfounded hatred to brotherly love, to “love your neighbor as yourself,”[1] which is the whole Torah. This is the way we must walk: we must correct our evil inclination and turn it into a good inclination through the light that reforms[2], by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of light.

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Glossary – BeHukotai (In My Statutes) – Weekly Torah Portion

Reward

Reward is what a person wants to have. You cannot give a person something that that person does not want. A reward is the thing that one desires. It is a good execution of the thing toward which that person would like to advance. That person cannot be elsewhere because he or she is correcting the desire. The execution itself is the reward, as it is written, “The reward of a Mitzva (commandment)—Mitzva.”[9] The reward of a Mitzva (commandment) is to know the Metzaveh (commander). To know means to connect, as it is written, “And Adam knew his wife again” (Genesis, 4:25).

Punishment

Punishment is the opposite of reward. It is what a person neither wants nor likes. It is a degree where a person understands that progress is rewarded, and the opposite of that is the punishment. The reward and punishment are not egoistic, where a person does something and receives the reward elsewhere.

Fear

Fear means being afraid of failing to correct. Everything happens due to our effort and request of the light that reforms to come and correct us. It is possible that we did not work sufficiently in order to draw it.

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BaHar (On Mount Sinai) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

BaHar

Leviticus, 25:1-26:2

This Week’s Torah Portion | May 4 – May 10, 2014 – Lyar 4 – Lyar 10, 5774

In A Nutshell

The portion, Bahar (On Mount Sinai), deals primarily with what appears to be laws of finance. It begins with Moses being on Mount Sinai, receiving from the Creator the Mitzva (commandment) of Shmita (omission of cultivation) of the land every seventh year, and the Mitzvot (plural of Mitzva) of Yovel (jubilee, 50th year anniversary). The Creator gives His blessing to it so that the sixth year will be so productive that enough produce will grow to last for the next three years, to observe the Mitzvot of Shmita and Yovel without worrying about sustenance.

Later, the portion details laws of selling a house or property, redemption of a house or a field from one person to another, laws of the lot of the Levites, forbidding selling of towns or houses that belong to them, laws of selling a person from Israel to slavery, how to treat such a person, and laws prohibiting idols, pillars, and figured stones.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The laws that this portion details are spiritual laws. Shmita [1] is a profound and sacred matter. It exists only in the land of Israel, in a desire aimed toward the Creator, in order to bestow, toward love of others. The Shmita can occur in a desire only in a process of correcting the soul.

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Glossary – BaHar (On Mount Sinai) – Weekly Torah Portion

Economy

In spirituality, economy relates to the question, “How do I sustain my soul?” The light may enter the soul only when it is in Dvekut (adhesion) with the Creator. To the extent of Dvekut with the Creator, so is the measure of fulfillment by the Creator. This is how the Creator “sustains” the soul. It is possible to achieve it by correcting the desire. As a person corrects each desire from reception to bestowal, one is promptly filled with the upper light to the extent of one’s correction. This is called “sustaining,” and this is the proper economy.

Selling of Property

When we cannot work with a desire because it is too big or because it offers such a pleasure that we cannot work with it, we sell it. There are corrections in our desires that belong to the great desires, Levush and Heichal. We leave them out of the boundaries where we are working, taking them out of our domain and depositing them for the time being.

Shmita (Omission of Tilling of Land every Seven Years)

Shmita is connection to the degree of Bina, when the upper light corrects everything that happened and gives us strength for the next degree. This is why there are special rules concerning debt and selling of items, under the tutelage of Bina, the great quality of bestowal.

Crop (Yield/Grain)

Crop is reward in the will to receive. Through it, a person begins to actually work with the vessels of bestowal in order to “feed” the world.

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