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Balak Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Numbers, 22:2-25:9
This Week’s Torah Portion | June 16-22, 2013 – Tammuz 8-14, 5773

In A Nutshell

The portion, Balak, begins with the people of Israel conquering the land of the Amorites. Balak, king of Moab, understands that the children of Israel are nearing him, and prepares to face the nation that came out of Egypt. He sends messengers to Balaam, son of Beor—who was famous for his great wisdom and power of his curses—and asks him to curse the people of Israel.

Balaam leaves for the land of Moab having accepted the harsh stipulation to say only what the Creator will permit him to. Along the way his mare stops. Balaam beats her but the mare won’t move. Balaam cannot see the angel stopping the mare. The mare opens her mouth and speaks to him, and instead of cursing Israel he blesses them.

Balak is furious with Balaam. As a compensation, Balaam tips him that Israel has a weak spot: the daughters of Moab. Balak sends the daughters of Moab and the people of Israel fornicate with them so much that even Zimri, son of Salu, one of the presidents of the tribe of Shimon, takes a Midianite woman.

This situation leaves Pinhas, son of Elazar, with no choice. He takes a spear and stabs them to death, thus stopping the plague that has spread in the nation claiming twenty-four thousand lives.

Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

This story does not happen on the corporeal level. It is not about a process unfolding between two nations, but rather an internal correction process that one experiences. The story itself comes to show us how to correct the evil inclination. It is not a tale about children or grownups, nor is it a story about nations, countries, wars, prostitutes, or mares. All it describes is the correction of the evil inclination. It is the only thing that the Torah (Pentateuch) describes from the very beginning, from Adam—who began the correction—to the end.

The text speaks of a person who went through this path as Adam HaRishon (Adam), as Abraham, and as Moses, and who went through the whole process in Egypt and in the desert. During the gradual correction of the desire, a person gradually nears the land of Israel until one is faced with the “conquest” of the land.

The “desert” is a desire that a person still cannot use correctly, and therefore cannot see the fruits of the work with it. These corrections precede the ones known as the “land of Israel.”

The spies discovered that the land of Israel is a desire that, if aimed entirely at the Creator, yields beautiful fruits [Israel means Yashar El (straight to God)]. A person who approaches that correction initially acquires the land of the Amorites followed by the land of Moab, which is a higher degree. Man’s egoistic desire known as “the king of Moab,” Balak, begins to seemingly rebel against him because it does not want the corrections.

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Glossary – Balak – Weekly Torah Portion

Glossary of Terms Used in the Balak Weekly Torah Portion

King

The force that governs a degree.

Messengers

The forces by which actions are performed on a certain degree, a certain state of a person. A person’s state is called a “degree.” The one who governs each degree is called the “king of the degree,” which is usually the Sefira (singular of Sefirot) we call Keter (crown). The messengers are forces acting within that degree. By and large it is the eight Sefirot from Hochma to Yesod.

Curse

The egoistic force that works in order to receive, which governs a person, and for whom it acts as a curse.

Mare

Our substance, the donkey’s female. It is the actual will to receive that feels and distinguishes between the forces within us.

Angel

The force that acts in a degree and is directed by the ruler, the Keter, the king.

Blocked Road

The way by which one is going to correct one’s will to receive, with the intention to reach the next degree, greater Dvekut (adhesion), greater clarity of vision in spirituality, but he cannot reach it. That is, in this manner it is impossible to advance. A person finds that to reach the next degree, one needs a new substance.

Deviating from the Way

Advancing on the path toward bestowal when suddenly something goes awry and a person discovers he has strayed from the path. However, this discovery is already a correction in itself.

How is the discovery of the deviation a correction?

By discovering the deviation, a person knows how to continue. Our effort toward the goal is like a guided missile. The missile must constantly detect its deviations and correct them. If it moves in a straight line it cannot hit its target. It is the same for us: we cannot move in one straight line toward the goal. Rather, we must constantly examine our deviations, and only through them. This may seem like a contradiction, but only in this way do we advance toward the goal.

Oath

When the will to receive, Malchut, connects to Keter on a single axis and is ready to follow Keter’s will above reason.

The Creator Plays with the Righteous in the Garden of Eden

“Once the Creator smelled and played with them, and with all their secrets of wisdom, He appears before them and they see that pleasantness of the Creator. Then they all rejoice in great joy until their brightness and light spread. From that spreading, their brightness and light of their joy bear fruit and buds in the world, which are the souls, and those fruits come under the wings of Divinity until the proper time.”

Zohar for All, New Zohar, Balak, item 6

We are the broken souls in the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya in this world. We must rise to the state of Malchut of Atzilut, to that Divinity—that correction—by connecting our souls in unity, in mutual guarantee. Along the way we will conquer the Sinai Desert and the Land of Israel.

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Hukat (The Statute) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Numbers 19:1-22:1
This Week’s Torah Portion | June 9-15, 2013 – Tammuz 1-7, 5773

In A Nutshell

The portion, Hukat (The Statute), deals with Israel’s continuing journey, with the Mitzva (commandment) of the red cow (heifer), the laws of the impurity of the dead, and the episode known as Mei Meriva (waters of Meribah [Heb: quarrelling]). In the episode, the children of Israel complain about the lack of water, and the Creator commands Moses to speak to the rock. However, instead of speaking, he strikes the rock. Moses and Aaron are punished for this act by being banned from entering the land of Israel. The people of Israel reach the land of Edom, and the king of Edom forbids them to pass through his territory.

Aaron dies, and Elazar, his son, succeeds him as the high priest. The people of Israel continue to complain about the difficulties along the way, and the Creator sends snakes to bite the people. Moses makes a copper snake and shows it to the people, and anyone who sees the copper snake is healed.

The people of Israel reach the boundary of the land of Moab and sing “the song of the well.” The people fight Sihon, King of the Amorites, and Og, King of the Bashan. Israel wins and inherits their land.

Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

This story details the primary correction in the corrections of the souls. Because our souls are initially the desire to receive, to enjoy, in order to correct it we must invert the intention of that desire toward bestowal. We must correct our souls to have the aim to bestow, to love others, by which will resemble the Creator. This will endow Dvekut (adhesion) with the Creator—which is the purpose of creation—to each and everyone in the nation. This is why we need to mingle and become integrated with the force of bestowal, called Bina, and with the force of reception, called Malchut.

Connecting the two forces—the two Sefirot just mentioned—results in four options: Malchut in Malchut, Malchut in Bina, Bina in Bina, and Bina in Malchut. When Bina is inside Malchut, it is the evil force because Malchut governs Bina, and when that happens, all the evil forces emerge.

While these forces may occasionally appear as good, they appear so only to lure and entice a person, leading toward the evil. It is a special Klipa (shell/peel), cunning and shrewd, which is in Malchut. This is how Malchut acquires Bina and uses it. This is also why it was said that evil can exist in the world only if it initially appears as good.

At first, the only forces that exist in man are the still, vegetative, and animate, meaning Malchut at the degree of still, vegetative, and animate. This is a straightforward will to receive. A person who possesses the power of Bina within the will to receive becomes very clever and very shrewd. Such a person knows how to appear as giving to others, as serving them, while in fact that person takes from others and uses them as much as possible. This is how the negative forces operate when the force of bestowal is “taken captive” by the force of reception.

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Glossary – Hukat (The Statute) – Weekly Torah Portion

Glossary of Terms Used in the Hukat Weekly Torah Portion

Place

A “place” is a desire. Each desire is a place in which something appears, whether good or bad.

Purity

The power of bestowal.

Impurity

The power of reception

Death

Death is inability to work in order to bestow.

Water

Water is a force that revives the will to receive and turns its intention from reception to bestowal.

A Rock

A rock is a will to receive that needs to be corrected so it can be used in order to bestow, meaning to use the water that comes out of it in the act of bestowal. There are two modes of action in order to perform an act of bestowal: 1) striking the rock, which are waters of Meribah (quarreling) or waters of Gevurot, 2) speaking, which are waters of Hassadim (mercy), waters of bestowal, the water of life.

A Boundary

A boundary is a place in which one must stop one’s act of bestowal for lack of strength to aim in order to bestow. It is a point where one must restrict oneself and refrain from using one’s desire any further.

A Serpent

The egoistic will to receive that destroys a person and consumes him is the serpent. The serpent exists at the core of the will to receive that exists in every person.

Healing

Healing is a correction. If we use that same serpent correctly, in favor of people’s lives, it becomes a good force. It is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice,” because “the light in it reforms it,” meaning reforms the serpent. That is, the evil inclination becomes a good inclination.

Inheritance

Inheritance is what we receive from a higher degree, from the father or the grandfather. In spirituality, too, there are degrees. If a person receives strength from a higher degree, a force that lets one ascend, it is called “inheritance.”

This Is the Statute of the Law

“The creatures were created with a nature of being receivers … Since it is impossible to go against Nature, he has given us the advice that through Torah and Mitzvot we will be able to turn the nature within us.” [1] This is why the laws of the Torah are considered laws only when the evil inclination asks … and then one needs to take upon himself everything as a statute, which is Hassadim, bestowal, where everything is only above reason, which is called “faith.”

[1] Rav Baruch Ashlag, The Writings of Rabash, vol. 3, “This Is the Statute of the Law, no. 2” p 1825

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Korah Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Numbers 16:1 – 18:32
This Week’s Torah Portion | June 2-8, 2013 – Sivan 24-30, 5773

In A Nutshell

The portion begins with the story of Dathan and Abiram, and 250 of the presidents of the congregation who rebelled against Moses and Aaron with what seemed like a just argument: Since the entire nation is holy, Moses and Aaron should have the same status as the rest of the people. The reply they received was that although they are all equal, Moses and Aaron are the leaders that can be in contact with the Creator. Following the mutiny, the ground swallowed the 250 presidents of the congregation, as well as Korah and his company, and the people suffered from a plague until Moses asked the Creator to end it.

The end of the portion debates the question of leadership in the nation. A test was held between all the staffs (rods) of all the leaders, and the only one that blossomed was Aaron’s staff, which signaled his unequivocal leadership.

Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

We can interpret the explanation of the Torah (Pentateuch) on two levels—the level of this world and the level of the hidden, spiritual world. On the level of our world, the story of Korah is very relevant even today.

For thousands of years, our world has been developing through our egos. 3,800 years ago we lived in what is now known as Ancient Babylon. This is when Abraham—the quality of Hesed (mercy)—rose, as well as the priests that followed him, who are also from the quality of Bina, Hassadim.

Abraham discovered that the whole world must develop and achieve a state of unity and connection, and shared his revelation with the Babylonians. While many followed him, they were only a handful compared to the majority that rejected his ideas. Abraham had to flee from Babylon, chased by Nimrod, the king of Babylon.

Abraham established a method for correcting human nature. Today we call that method, “the wisdom of Kabbalah,” whose purpose is to elevate man from the depth of egoism to the level of bestowal and love.

This ascent is in fact the goal of our development—to rise from the level of this world to the level of the spiritual world. Spirituality is bestowal and the love of others, by which we acquire eternity and wholeness. This is the meaning of the text in this portion, as well as in The Book of Zohar, which talks about freedom from the angel of death.

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