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Having a spiritual connection means that both partners know the reason for their existence – to embark on the spiritual journey and attain the spiritual goal of life. Then the verse “Man, woman, and the Divine Presence between them” will come true.
Continue reading “Man, Woman, and the Divine Presence Between Them”
Numbers 4:21-7:89
This Week’s Torah Portion | June 12 – June 18, 2016 – 6 Sivan – 12 Sivan, 5776
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.
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.
Continue reading “Nasso (Take) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion”
Salvation from all troubles is only in the likeness of the human being with nature, attaining the property of bestowal and connection.
We have to become similar to nature. No matter how much we try to run away from it, we will have to come back. It’s worthwhile for us to learn from nature. After all, we can’t escape it. We are just small parts of the great whole. If we will know this and keep it in mind without trying to jump over our heads, if we act precisely according to nature, then we will reach the perfect state.
Continue reading “Your Guide to the Perfect State”
Numbers, 1:1-4:20
This Week’s Torah Portion | June 5 – June 11, 2016 – 28 Lyar – 5 Sivan, 5776
The portion, BaMidbar (In the Desert), begins with the Creator commanding the children of Israel by tribes to bring men who had served in the army and were at least twenty years old, and appoint them as heads of tribes and presidents. Following the nomination, Moses is requested to explain to them where each tribe should be during the journey and while stopping in the desert, how to arrange themselves by tribes and banners according to the four directions, with the tabernacle in the middle.
The portion reiterates the role of the Levites, who are to serve in the tabernacle. The tribe of Levi is special because it has no place or lot of its own; it is to serve everyone and help everyone, especially the priests in the tabernacle. The role of the Levites is to assemble and disassemble the tabernacle at each stop during the journey of the children of Israel. They must follow strict rules that explain what to do with each part of the tabernacle and how to keep the vessels of the tabernacle.
The Torah is divided into two parts: external and internal. The external Torah is the one we read and know. It is the Torah that our fathers (ourselves in previous incarnations, since our souls reincarnate from generation to generation) observed in the past. However, there are things to sort in it. The Torah describes the journey of the children of Israel in the desert and how they should conduct themselves there. It details how to build the tabernacle, divide into priests, Levites, and tribes, how to set up the camp, and how to continue the journey where each one moves from place to place under the tribe’s banner up to the boundaries of the land of Israel and the onset of its conquest.
The inner Torah is actually the main thing. Through it we correct and adjust ourselves internally in order to discover that upper force from which we receive the Torah in actual fact. That is, it is about revealing the Creator to the creatures. Here we are talking about man as a small world, where all that is described in the Torah—priests, Levites, Israel, and the twelve tribes—is within us as replications. The inner Torah touches each of us and instructs us what we must do in order to discover the upper force here and now.
One who has not corrected him or herself is certainly immersed in the ego, the evil inclination, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice.”[1] That state is called a “desert.” The sensation of the desert is the place of the Klipot (shells/peels), meaning uncorrected desires. While in that feeling we have nothing to revive us, to give us spiritual life. Even if we have material abundance we still feel that we are in the desert.
Continue reading “BaMidbar (In the Desert) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion”
The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t tell us to decrease our egos, but how to use them correctly.
We can advance only by the cruel egoistic desires of this world and beyond it: the desires to attain, to understand, to ascend above life and death. A person who suppresses his ego cannot advance.
Therefore, we don’t restrict our egoistic actions. On the contrary, the more the ego pushes us, the better.
It turns out that if we become greater egoists, we understand how to use our ego in a new more efficient way, and we don’t enjoy in it but above it.
Continue reading “Use Your Ego to Rise Above Life and Death”