The Torah, “Numbers,” 22:28: The Lord opened the mouth of the she-donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?”

The word “she-donkey,” like the word “donkey” (Hamor), stems from the Hebrew word “Homer” – matter, and refers to to a person’s egoistic nature. The Creator operates as the vital direct force on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, so they don’t object to it. But the moment the she-donkey begins to talk, it is raised to the human level, the level of Balaam himself.

Compared to the other levels, it is possible to make mistakes on the human level because the Creator is concealed. The Creator is not concealed from nature itself, and in fact the laws that are revealed in matter are the direct revelation of the Creator.

The questions, doubts, and speculations come up on the human level, and so a person makes mistakes and corrects himself and then makes mistakes once more and corrects himself again.

The she-ass represents matter on all of the levels of life; it represents nature that is controlled by positive and negative forces that are balanced instinctively, aimed at clarifying actions according to the law of nature.

On the human level there are doubts and problems that must be solved. This is the reason that the she-as is much smarter than Balaam because the Creator is revealed in the animate level it is on, while He is concealed on the level of the speaking and is not revealed.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 22:28 – 22:30: The Lord opened the mouth of the she-donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?” Balaam said to the she-donkey, “For you have humiliated me; if I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.” The she-donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your she-donkey on which you have ridden since you first started until now? Have I been accustomed to do this to you?” He said, “No.”

As long as Balaam didn’t use his entire ego for his own sake, which Balak forced him to do, he didn’t have any problems and lived with his ego in peace. However, when the time came to use the ego against the goal of nature, trouble started. Today, everyone encounters these problems. This is the reason for the global crisis.

Question: Isn’t using the ego always against the goal of nature?

Answer: During our lives, we build houses, dress ourselves, create different machines, develop technology and communications, and seemingly improve the world. We use the ego in this way. We must gradually understand that all of this is in vain and is not the right fulfillment of the ego. Although this trend is against the goal of nature, this is how we approach it.

Question: Why did the she-ass stop and begin to speak? After all, the ego always works contrary to the goal of nature.

Answer: It is because the ego is on the level of the desert here. There are six parts to the desire—food, sex, family, wealth, honor, and knowledge—but there is an additional part, which is the yearning for the Creator, to be in His place, to remove Him from the top, and this is actually what the ego wants.

First, Nimrod, the symbol of egoism, embodies this desire, and then Balak and Haman who wanted to take the Creator’s place, that is, to use the ego to its fullest intensity in order to be filled. After all, there is nothing in nature but the ego. And if we fill it, the ego will continue to exist forever.

But we have a more sublime mission—to use the ego in order to bestow. This means not to imprison all of nature, all of humanity, and all of the worlds in the ego, but rather to turn it inside out and use it in infinity, eternity, and perfection. The ego doesn’t feel this mission, and therefore people don’t understand it.

The only ones who do understand it are several thousand who have the desire that is above the human desires for food, sex, family, wealth, honor, and knowledge. They also have a desire to attain the laws of the universe and to exist on a level of general harmony and perfection.

The people who yearn for this are called Israel, and therefore when the question about the fulfillment of the ego comes up through exiting the desire—exiting outside of ourselves and not by the desire to be filled as Balak and Balaam wanted—the she-ass in us awakens and asks, “How do you want to use me? What do you want from me?”

This means that, when a person works with his ordinary human desires, everything is normal. He uses the ego, plows it and rides it, but now the ego says, “You cannot use and exploit me anymore. I cannot go on or do anything.” Here, the ego is helpless.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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Midrash Rabba, Parshat “Balak”: When Balaam was advisor to the Pharaoh in Egypt, he advised the leader of Egypt to bathe himself in the blood of Hebrew children. He also insisted that Pharaoh should throw all newborn Hebrew males into the Nile.

The ego needs to get its vital force from the Creator that moves through the blood because the blood is the spiritual force of the body. As a person’s blood is the force that animates the body, the Upper Light also breathes life into the spiritual body and is called blood.

Therefore, the left line, which embodies Balaam and all of the nations of the world, advises Pharaoh to stand against Israel, which is the right line, and then connect with the Creator, the middle line.

Basically, Pharaoh represents superficial egoism. He would put a golden crown on his head or fill a pyramid with everything that he would need for the afterlife, and nothing else. This world with all its gold satisfies him.

But this is not enough for Balaam. The ideological forces like Balaam, such spiritual strength, are above egoism to a particular degree, so Balaam could talk with the Creator.

His essence is derived from the same upper source as Moses. It is possible to say that they are moving against each other: Moses is from the side of the Light, and Balaam is from the side of desire. These forces must be in alignment, matched, but this cannot happen except in a serious battle between Gog and Magog.

Then Balaam and everything below him must be defeated. This means that the ego, with its intention for its own sake, will die and no longer be able to use or even retain this intention for its own sake.

Question: What does Balaam’s advice to Pharaoh, to bathe in the blood of Hebrew children, mean?

Answer: The ego must begin to receive the life force from the Creator, which is symbolized by the Hebrew children, and Balaam wants to turn this power of Light toward himself and Pharaoh.

He insists that all of the newborn Hebrew boys must be thrown into the Nile. Boys symbolize the power to overcome the ego, the masculine side. Egypt symbolizes the power of the entire ego, and the Nile is its life force.

Thus, if the Nile is filled with blood, then the power of Din (Judgment) comes wherein the ego no longer can exist. Therefore, all vitality in the Nile dies.

It turns out that the life-giving force is filled with the characteristic of Din; no life force comes from above; there is no white Light, and the characteristic of Bina disappears. With this, Egypt is finished and dies.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/5/15

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Torah, “Numbers,” 22:18 – 22:19: Balaam answered and said to Balak’s servants, “… Now, you too, please remain here overnight, and I will know what the Lord will continue to speak with me.”

What this is talking about is that not only does the ego not refuse to participate in the process of correction and restrict itself, but it also includes itself in this process and begins to work with bestowal. It means that the desire to receive now works like the desire to bestow, receiving for the purpose of bestowal.

Question: But why did Balaam say, “Now, you too, please remain here overnight, and I will know what the Lord will continue to speak with me.”

Answer: It is because this is not a direct action by the ego. Rather, the ego is beginning to act against itself. There is a state of bestowal for the sake of bestowal, which is the characteristic of Bina that is built above egoism, and there is a state of reception for the sake of bestowal, which is the next level that is built in cooperation with the ego.

Question: It follows that the first reaction of the ego is a full Tzimtzum (restriction), when it says, “I won’t have anything.”

Answer: Everything begins with the Tzimtzum, and this state is called the state of Katnut (smallness). Then Baalam said, “Now, you too, please remain here overnight, and I will know what the Lord will continue to speak with me.” This means that the work with the ego has begun.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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Torah, “Numbers,” 22:22 – 22:27: God’s wrath flared because he was going, and an angel of the Lord stationed himself on the road to thwart him, and he was riding on his she-donkey, and his two servants were with him. The she-donkey saw the angel of the Lord stationed on the road with his sword drawn in his hand; so the she-donkey turned aside from the road and went into a field. Balaam beat the she-donkey to get it back onto the road. The angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, with a fence on this side and a fence on that side. The she-donkey saw the angel of the Lord, and she was pressed against the wall. She pressed Balaam’s leg against the wall, and he beat her again. The angel of the Lord continued going ahead, and he stood in a narrow place, where there was no room to turn right or left. The she-donkey saw the angel of the Lord, and it crouched down under Balaam. Balaam’s anger flared, and he beat the she-donkey with a stick.

We see that the space for a person to exist becomes narrower. First it is a field, then a road, and after that an even narrower place through which it is not possible to pass.

This is an indication of Dinim (judgments) and of the difficulty of maintaining the laws. First the person uses the ego without any limitation in all situations in life; then he gradually discovers how the ego brings him closer to a realization, moving him against his will towards realizing the goal of creation.

It is possible to say that in the beginning, the ego pulls a person forward and seduces him with egoistic benefit, assuring him that everything will be his and for his sake. This is what Balaam wanted, and so he continued walking with his donkey, and then begins the realization stage, the restriction of the ego.

The restriction of the ego happens gradually, by levels: Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, in which these levels become narrower. The more that the ego comes closer to realization, the more compressed the conditions become, and ultimately the ego surrenders under the desire of the person and becomes the basis on which the person must carry out all of his actions. That is, he begins to work with the ego in its opposite direction.

The ego is ready to be used with an intention for the sake of bestowal, and not in the form that it originally wanted to work, for its own good. So the action of restriction is to show a person the direction in which he must go.

Question: Must a person understand this temporally?

Answer: Even if he doesn’t hear and doesn’t understand, ultimately the continuous increase in suffering will cause him to hear and will give him a clear and precise direction. We see how humanity has developed and has become wiser as a result of everything that has happened throughout all of history, whether voluntarily or not, even though it happens very slowly and very unpleasantly.

Question: If Balaam had listened to the voice of the Creator, then it would not have been the way of suffering for him?

Answer: No, he would still have gone through all this suffering, otherwise it would have been impossible to advance! Baal HaSulam wrote that there is an ideal correct way and an ideal incorrect way, but the true way is between them, and it is called Derech Eretz (the way of the land).
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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Torah, “Numbers,” 22:20 – 22:22: God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If these men have come to call for you, arise and go with them, but the word I speak to you—that you shall do.” In the morning Balaam arose, saddled his she-donkey and went with the Moabite dignitaries. God’s wrath flared because he was going, and an angel of the Lord stationed himself on the road to thwart him, and he was riding on his she-donkey, and his two servants were with him.

“Hamor” (donkey) is from the word “Homer” (substance), this is the substance of all of nature and the donkey particularly symbolizes the female part called Nukva; these are all the deficiencies, all the desires, and all that is included in our egoistic nature.

Balaam uses his entire ego here and therefore the most strict conditions, the Dinim (judgments), worked against him, for when a person begins to use the ego, he apparently “walks on the razor’s edge.”

“God came to Balaam at night, and said to him: “If these men have come to call for you, arise and go with them, but the word I speak to you—that you shall do.’” (“Numbers,” 22:20), which is to say, the Creator apparently said to Baalam: You will use your donkey, your ego, but you will bless the work of the ego through My blessings. And everything that I say to you, meaning all the altruistic intentions, will be involved in this.

We see it in all cases. How, for example, and Haman: first, he is given the opportunity to participate in the selfish actions to build a gallows, prepare yourself a horse and robes, and then suddenly everything changes!

But Balaam always wanted to receive for himself.  We see it in the case of Haman: first he is given the opportunity to participate with egoistic characteristics, building a noose, preparing a horse and the clothes of a king for himself, and after that everything suddenly changes.

That is, when using the ego it seems to a person that he is now going to get something for himself and begin to receive benefit. That is how all of humanity thinks, but actually nobody benefits from this, because according to the program of creation, it is only possible to use egoism to advance towards altruism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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Torah, “Numbers,” 22:16 – 22:18: They came to Balaam and said to him, “So said Balak the son of Zippor, ‘Please do not hesitate to come to me.

For I will honor you greatly and do whatever you tell me to do. So please come and curse this people for me.'” Balaam answered and said to Balak’s servants, “Even if Balak gives me a house full of silver and gold, I cannot do anything small or great that would transgress the word of the Lord, my God.

The ego was born in order to correct it and not in order to use it. Therefore the single state that will bless it is when submits itself in the intention for the Creator, for bestowal and love. It is impossible to use the ego by itself. In Kabbalah “forbidden” means impossible.

It is clear to see that Balaam understands that he cannot use the ego, because the ego that is his nature and controls him was given to him only in order to serve Israel, meaning his intention in order to bestow and love, for the Creator.

Therefore there is useless to try to do something else in the ego, because by that it might cause enormous pain to humanity as it already experienced in the past: war games, destructions, and sufferings, which were clarified in the historical perspective as useless processes.

Therefore Balak cannot curse Israel because the ego was born especially for this need in order to build above it the next degree.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/15

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Question: Why aren’t you content with attaining the revealed meaning of the Torah? Why should we penetrate its inner concealed layers?

Answer: According to Baal HaSulam in the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot and the Vilna Gaon in the Sidur of the HAGRA, it is impossible to attain the Torah without understanding its four layers.

The sages who wrote the Torah and all the holy books wrote them from the level on which they attained every part of reality and the corporeal reality, which is revealed to us. This is the reason that I want to learn from what they revealed in the Torah and not to settle for mechanical actions.

I cannot understand what the Torah says and what the sages wanted to convey if I don’t understand the internal meaning of the Torah. I am like a kid who doesn’t know how to read but only leafs through a book looking at the pictures.
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“Midrash Rabba,” Parshat Balak: In the answer that Balak received from the sages of Midian they said, “This snake, Moses, suckled from our breast. A Midianite invited him into his home, gave his daughter to him for a wife and provided him with money. And after leaving the house of his father-in-law, Moses destroyed the Egyptian people. Do you want to know where the power of Moses and his disciples is? It is in their mouths. When they cry out to God, He fulfills all of their requests. Therefore defeat the Jews with their weapon, we advise you to call to Balaam, whose power of speech is not less than that of Moses.”

In the Torah it is said that there was no prophet among the Jews who attained a level higher than Moses, and among the nations of the world, more than Balaam.

Between them, meaning between the positive and negative forces, there must be a balance. Otherwise, if you don’t begin to balance between one and the other, you cannot develop.

When you ascend the ladder of spiritual worlds, you constantly move from level to level, and in each of them the powers of right and left must be equal.

Question: Are you saying that the management of Israel must necessarily be compatible with the management of the nations of the world?

Answer: I am not talking about history and I don’t want to stand one physical or spiritual war against another or the management of one or the other because in the physical world, everyone is an egoist.

A person who ascends the spiritual levels walks on “two legs,” the right and left lines; his heart and mind rise higher and higher in the correct integration between them. This is because the system of higher management, the revelation and creation system of the Creator, consists of two opposing forces.

You will not discover, recognize, see, understand, or describe the Creator in any other way! You need to portray Him in front of you on your screen.

On our internal screen, we now apparently see the world that surrounds us. Actually we are looking inside of ourselves and the illusion appears to us as if we are seeing something in front of us. But in fact, the two opposing forces must draw the same image, the same system of management on our screen, the same thought of creation that is called the Creator.

All this is found in each one of us. And what is outside of us? We don’t know and don’t understand this.

That is, in normal spiritual advancement my left leg is Balaam, Balak, and the rest of the negative forces, and my right leg is the people of Israel, Moses, etc. And they are all opposed to each other and equal on every level. Precisely between them, when you completely lose the difference between the two systems, you can ascend.

The ascent is only made upward, according to whatever criterion is called “upward.” When there is no preference for one force or another, right and left must be equal! So what is the force? It is an invisible component called the middle third of Tifferet. That is where everything is concealed. It is above you!

When you reach the right opposition between the two systems, the two opposing forces, darkness and Light, then you begin to understand the thought of creation of the Creator, that which existed before the creation of the world is found above this. In other words, you need to rise to that point from which these two systems of forces were created, the thought of creation.

There are also two parts in the thought of creation even though the system is much greater. One part is the program that descends downward, creating the two systems of forces and the spiritual worlds. First there is the system of management, after that our world, and then on the level of our world, nature: the still, vegetative, animate, and human.

The second part is the higher thought of creation that is found above the program and system of management, through which everything is realized in our world.

And beyond this, everything is concealed. In the meantime we have no possibility of discovering what is found above the thought of creation. We feel something, but cannot perceive it. We have not yet developed the appropriate Kelim for this.

So the Kabbalists say that everything is hidden, absolutely obscure there. These states are called GAR de Atzilut. GAR is the upper three Sefirot of the world of Atzilut, where the entire connection with our world is concealed.

There are completely different characteristics there that we cannot attain until after the complete end of correction, in the unification of all the systems, where there is no difference between the right and left lines, between good and evil.

When we rise above this, the foundation for understanding this secret level begins to be created within us. It is a secret to us because we are not able to ascertain it today; we lack the resolution for perceiving it. But in any case, everything that exists beyond time and space, beyond our world, is found within the person.

So these two opposing forces are not revealed in our world in any form. That is, true egoism and altruism are not at all what we see on the physical level.

They are discovered only in the internal resistance of people who ascend above them. For example, when a group of friends who want to rise spiritually gathers among the people of Israel, precisely then these characteristics appear in them.

The Torah, meaning the Light that works on those people who want to ascend, was written precisely for them. And therefore the only condition for ascent is to be “as one person with one heart,” meaning using egoism correctly.

And then we discover within us all the characters that are described in the Torah and everything that is written in it as forces on the path toward the best development.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/8/15

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Question: According to statistics, more than one-half of materialistic scientists believe in God. They comprise 54 to 85% in their various countries. In spite of this, you mentioned that it is not so simple for scientists to believe in God.

Answer: It is possible to divide the scientists’ opinions into several categories. In the meantime, there are people who automatically believe in God. Some do “just in case.” There are those who are in doubt and say, “We don’t know everything. It could be that there is some force,” and there are scientists who have Galileo’s or Spinoza’s views or others, meaning that God is nature, the supreme, upper intellect.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about God as the collective intellect above our beastly nature.

When we connect among ourselves—and that is possible through annulling the ego and rising above it in connection with each other, according to the principle of “Love your neighbor as yourself”—then one, common intellect is formed between us, which is called Creator, God. That’s all, and there is nothing supernatural about it.

If scientists would think this way, it would be good since then they would do it themselves and advise everyone to connect in order to attain the supreme intellect. Then science would become the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/10/15

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