Weekly Torah Portion Lesson – 07.02.10
Posted on July 2nd, 2010
The Torah talks only about how to unite all the souls together and mend them into a single soul. It is written, “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah for its correction because the Light in it Reforms.”
The Light of the Torah returns us to a single desire. The whole narration of the Torah is devoted exclusively to describing the process of unification among the souls. The Torah talks about the forms of connection between parts of ZON (Zeir Anpin and Nukvah) in all spiritual states. Therefore, the Light from these states of connection restores the connections between us and returns us to the source: the Creator.
It is difficult to imagine how unification of a single soul’s fragments can be elucidated so extensively, yet, the whole Torah tells us only about this. Although the Light of the Torah comes from a single soul, it passes through the systems that were created after its breaking. For this reason, it has adapted to our broken state and has the ability to correct it.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Torah Stories Turn Into Revelation
Shamati #22: “Torah Lishma”- Lesson
Moments From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson: “The Torah”
The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out) – Part 1,” Item 127: For this reason, Leah did not appear but Rachel, to attract Jacob’s eye and heart with Rachel’s beauty, so he would set up his dwelling there. And thanks to her, Leah, too, was coupled with him and bore all these tribes. How did Jacob know who Rachel was? After all, he did not know her? The shepherds told him, as it is written, “And, behold, Rachel his daughter comes with the sheep.”
All these properties - “well,” “water,” “Haran,” “Jacob,” “Lavan,” “Rachel,” “Leah,” “shepherds,” and “herd” - are within us. The Torah explains how to distinguish and sort these forces within ourselves.
It can be likened to a construction set. We have to discern our inner desires and, by referring to the picture that the Torah draws for us, position each of them in the right place. We continue doing so until we get the whole internal picture that shows the connections between all the desires and properties that the Torah describes, between – the “herd,” “well,” “water,” and so on – at their inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, in the entire spiritual reality.
As soon as I organize this picture correctly according to the Torah instructions, I am captured in a film sequence and I move to the next frame. This is how we advance from one sequence to another one, one degree after another. At each step, the Torah tells us how to develop from one level to another through inner changes.
By changing our internal forces and properties in accordance with the Torah story, we advance along with the Torah narrations. This is when the Torah stories turn into revelation.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What Does It Mean To Study And Engage In The Torah?
Kabbalah Moments: "True Torah"
Kabbalah Moments: "Using The Torah"
The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Balak,” Selected Excerpts
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio
A brief summary of the weekly Torah portion of “Chukat,” Part 7: Then again, the nation starts to complain about being taken from Egypt. In return, the Creator sends snakes that kill many, and then the nation asks Moses to pray for the affliction to be removed. Moses prays for them and receives instructions on how to remedy the situation with the help from a “serpent of brass.”
Throughout the entire spiritual path, a person becomes confused with multiple questions and doesn’t know what to do. He bends under this load, eliciting the appearance of “poisonous snakes,” desires for pleasure instilled into the very foundation of creation. However, by seemingly creating a “serpent of brass” a person can help himself. He begins to understand and feel that everything he perceives is not really alive, but is in fact a “statue.”
If the snakes come from the outside, they appear to be a manifestation of the Upper Force. When a person tries to create them on his own, it becomes clear to him that they have nothing to do with the Upper Force, but rather they are a product of his own imagination, and that they come to him as a silly obstacle on this path. That is why as soon as Moses crafted a serpent of brass, the problem was resolved and the people of Israel no longer had this trouble.
This is one of the ways that the Torah uses to explain to us how to defend and correct ourselves. The “brass serpent” is an extremely interesting method for taking over our “evil desires” (our egoism). We build our own opposition to enable us to acknowledge that it is only an illusion. You can tell the difference since you are the one who builds the “idol.” Call it “occupational therapy” if you want. This is how a person rids himself of the problem by evoking a “serpent” from within. It goes without saying that all these actions are internal.
A comment I received: On the one hand, it says, “Don’t make an idol,” but in this situation, it is the Creator who orders Moses to make an idol.
My Answer: This is correct. Sometimes we need to behave like we do with our children. To stop their fears, we deliberately force them to do what they are afraid of: “Let’s get closer to this dog and you’ll see that it won’t hurt you.”
You look at images and think that they are sent to you by the Creator and that a “snake” is a manifestation of the Upper Force which controls you. But the Creator says: “No, do the same thing and you’ll see that it is you who imagines it; you draw the picture of this snake. In fact, there is nothing there; it only seems like there is to you.
If you make an “idol,” you will see that it is empty, that these "poisonous snakes" that come and frighten you contain nothing except for what you put into them yourself. You created them, not the Upper Force. Build them and you’ll see that it is true. A “serpent of brass” is a cure that allows us to treat our egoistic desires correctly.
From the Evening Zohar Lesson 6/14/10
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Serpent Is The Angel of Help
Laitman.com Post: Break Free From The Grip Of Deception
Kabbalah Moments: "Through The Ego"
Baal HaSulam explains that the study of the Torah (Kabbalah) differs from all other activities in this world. No special qualities of this world can help a person study the Torah, be it intelligence, wisdom, creativity, a sharp mind, erudition, or knowledge. Only the Light, by acting upon a person, can help him advance. This advancement is in correction and not the accumulation of knowledge.
Therefore, the study of the Torah can be likened to a medical procedure that we undergo. Our coming to a Kabbalah lesson is similar to a person who comes to a doctor for a treatment. If a person desires it and prepares himself each time, expecting that it will make him better, then after many procedures (many Kabbalah lessons), the correction occurs.
Thus, we also need to check ourselves and determine if we approach the studies with the correct intention. Our intention is particularly important while studying The Book of Zohar since this is the most powerful and effective means for working against our nature. It is also necessary to check and evaluate ourselves after the lesson, after this “medical procedure.” “Have I advanced in some way toward the goal, toward love and bestowal, and toward the willingness to unite with the group? Do I feel an increased greatness of the goal?” If so, I feel the importance of the goal, the significance of spirituality, and the Creator to a greater extent, and this gives me energy and the desire to advance.
How much we understand The Book of Zohar is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if a person doesn’t know the original language of The Zohar or if everything it tells us about seems very distant and unfamiliar. Even people who have studied the Torah in its simple interpretation their whole lives, also don’t know what is written in The Book of Zohar. They are even more confused than those who have never studied the Torah.
Thus, we should open our hearts (rather than our ears and minds) to receive the medicine. It’s needed so that our egoistic heart can be transformed into an altruistic one, under the influence of “the wonderful quality” (Segula) contained in The Book of Zohar. We should accept every word that we read in The Zohar as a drop by drop infusion. Indeed, the Light comes to us drop by drop, and thus, they are called “drops of fortune” (“Mazalot,” from the word “Nozel” – dribble). For this reason, we should wait patiently for this medicine to affect us, drop by drop, until we reach “complete success.”
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: When The Heart Understands
Laitman.com Post: The Healing Light Of The Zohar
Kabbalah Moments: “Taking The Medicine”
A question I received: How is it possible that someone could use Kabbalah and the Torah egoistically? Can someone who doesn’t possess a spiritual screen and the force of bestowal draw the force of the Upper Light for his own sake? Isn’t there is a whole system of worlds and restrictions to prevent us from receiving the Light egoistically?
My Answer: If you pick up the Torah and wish to receive power from it, you will get it since you are reading the primary source related to the spiritual world. It was written by a person who was in the process of attaining the Upper World. If you use it individually, in order to fill your egoism, for the sake of your own purposes, then you are using only a miniscule amount of the force it contains.
Even still, we do see how much more egoistical it makes people when the place of the “mistress” is taken by the “handmaid.” A person not only doesn’t receive correction from it, he becomes even worse! He thinks that now he owns this world and the future one, and that he deserves a reward; he feels proud before others and considers himself a chosen one, who is above them.
It is the Torah who is doing this to him; it becomes a deadly narcotic for such person. If, however, he wishes to use the Torah correctly, he does so in the group that builds itself as a common soul, as it is written about when receiving the Torah: as one man with one heart. This is the kind of engagement the Torah is given for; otherwise, as we are warned: in it there will be the place of your (spiritual) death!
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Will You Use Kabbalah As A Potion Of Death Or Elixir Of Life?
Laitman.com Post: The Art And Science Of Spiritual Healing
Kabbalah Moments: “True Torah”
A question I received: If only Kabbalah is necessary for the correction of the soul, why did the sages of the past create so many commentaries on the Torah, Mishna, and Talmud? How does this all help us?
My Answer: If, after several years of studying Kabbalah, you reach the correction for sake of bestowal (Lishma), you’ll be able to open the Talmud and delight in it. You’ll begin to understand all the laws described in it according to their inner essence, the science of Kabbalah. You’ll grasp what these great sages of the past wrote about.
At present, their language simply confuses you and conceals the world of the truth from you. Later, you’ll understand it all because you’ll reach the degree at which the sages wrote their commentaries. You’ll experience the same states that inspired them to write them. For you, these texts won’t be any different than the Kabbalistic articles.
Using words such as a “bull,” “donkey,” “cow,” “harm,” “Temple,” the “Great Assembly (Sanhedrin),” “fields,” and “property,” the sages expressed the process of the correction of the soul. The entire Torah speaks solely about the correction of the soul and its equivalence with the Creator; it is all names of the Creator.
When one commentator argues with another, this depicts the eternal argument between the left and the right lines, the measures of reception and bestowal, and clarifies how to combine them correctly. The Talmud explains the spiritual processes in the most precise details. Right now you are so tangled in them because you think that it’s talking about a thousand different opinions. Later, you’ll understand that this is not a thousand points of view, but a look at the same, single phenomenon that can be corrected from a thousand different angles.
These are not sages arguing between themselves, but the souls of the common system explaining to you how each quality is related to all the others, or, in other words, how each organ, an individual soul, is related to the work of the collective soul Adam.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Direct Path To Attain Bestowal, Love, And The Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: Light Instead Of Suffering
Kabbalah Moments : “What Kabbalists See”
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
