Question: It is written in the book of Prophets, Joshua: I have given into your hand Jericho and its king, the mighty warriors… And only you keep (yourselves) from the devoted thing, lest you make yourselves condemned when you take of the devoted thing. What does it mean to “keep from the devoted thing”?

Answer: The devoted thing is an egoistic desire that cannot be corrected. If you take it, in no way you will be able to overcome it. It will stick to you like a leprosy, like something that you cannot get rid of. You will start thinking that it is yours, and this is the worst thing.

The fact is that you did not have this desire before, but as soon as you stick to it, it becomes yours.

Question: Further, the book of Prophets tells us that a person called Achan sinned and took of the consecrated thing…, a goodly Babylonish garment, meaning clothing, …and two hundred shekels of silver, meaning money, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, meaning wealth. What does it mean?

Answer: Clothing is a covering (Levush) with which you can dress anything, and it will look like an external garment, not an internal one. That is, you put it on and immediately become a complete egoist without even realizing it.

Money (Kesef) from the word “Kisufa, Kisui” (covering). In principle, this is the same as the garment, only more insidious. It buys you and you start working for it. That is, you find money, get it, win it, take it away, and it seems to you that it is yours. Yet in fact, you belong to them.

But gold (Zahav) is above everything – “Ze Hav,” which swallows everything. This is the representation of absolute blindness before wealth. If a person falls for gold, he is irrevocably lost.

Comment: It would seem that the people of Israel have already passed the stage of building the golden calf.

My Response: It does not matter since the final correction has not happened yet. The building of the golden calf will be finally corrected only in the last generation. In total, all this is the devoted thing.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/19/21

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According To One’s Qualities
Prohibited Desires
To Defeat The “Golden Calf”

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