And God spoke unto Moses , saying: “Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: sprinkle them with the water of purification, and let them cause a razor to pass all over their flesh and let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves. Then let them shall take a young bullock, and its meal- offering …  (Torah “Numbers”, “Beaalotha,” 8: 05-8: 08)

The foundation of man is his desires. In the spiritual process one needs to classify them by separating those that can belong to the level of Bina. To purify them means to direct the work of these desires only to bestowal.

The children of Israel are corrected or not fully corrected egoistical desires. The Levites are desires that are purified of the ego, and represent the first step of purification “bestowing in order to bestow.” That is why the Levites have no desires, neither egoistic or corrected.

Those desires, which are further refined and are the second stage of purification “receiving in order to bestow” are called Cohens (Priests)

Water is the property of Bina. “sprinkle them with the water of purification” means conducting their desires through the quality of bestowal.

“And let them cause a razor to pass all over their flesh and let them wash their clothes.” Hair growing on the body is a sign of how much the body needs correction. They symbolize the deficiencies that are revealed.

“Then let them shall take a young bullock, and its meal- offering… .” This speaks about sacrificing uncorrected desires that man cuts from himself because they cannot be corrected any other way. Therefore we must slaughter our beastly component or send it to the desert.

The description of the Temple in the Torah reminds us of a slaughterhouse. If a person is not in a spiritual ascent and does not understand the essence of the Torah, then he imagines terrible pictures: blood flowing all around, screams of animals being slaughtered, and then immediately cut up, roasted, and eaten.

But the inner meaning of the Torah is completely opposite because in the Torah it speaks only about man’s spiritual correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/15

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The Torah, “Numbers” 14:1 – 14:4: The entire community raised their voices and shouted, and the people wept on that night. All the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the entire congregation said, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this desert. Why does the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword; our wives and children will be as spoils. Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?” They said to each other, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt!”

The nation of Israel falls to the lowest point again and cannot begin to rise again. This is the best place to start and until a person falls to this point, there is no reascending. Until then the children of Israel resisted, spied, and clarified things, and suddenly they discovered the ego that tells them that they don’t need anyone but Pharaoh: “We cannot do anything against him.”

Just as they escaped from Egypt to Sinai, now having crossed the Sinai desert, they fall to the initial state once again and once again feel that they are in Egypt but of their own free will! With that will they will reach the land of Israel. The people begin to rebel: “We don’t want Moses! He leads us to the land of Israel, but we don’t want to go there. We want to be under the domination of Pharaoh until we reach the complete feeling and will not be able to ascend before that. But this has to be attained consciously, when we understand who we are. Then we will be able to advance.”

Question: How would you feel if your students came to you with complaints like the people came to Moses saying he brought them nowhere?

Answer: I would accept it with absolute tranquility and would leave everything the way it is. There is nothing one can do here. If there were a consensus, I would have no choice but to retire and leave everything to the Creator’s mercy.

We are actually far from this point and have to work hard in order to attain it, but if it were revealed, I would be delighted because it is the recognition of our evil nature, of our weakness, our powerlessness, and our lack of faith and total lack of connection with the person who has lead you forward, which is simply vital and has to be fulfilled. I felt a similar resistance towards my teacher Rabash. These states are essential and this is the reason I am not worried and actually rejoice inside because it is impossible to advance without such breaking points.

Then the people don’t disperse and say: “Let’s go back to Egypt and live there. We will reconnect to our Pharaoh.” In other words, all the work we did during the 40 years in the desert now becomes in Pharaoh’ s favor. It is bestowal with the intention to receive, good egoistic communism. They want Pharaoh, not the same Pharaoh they knew before, not the Pharaoh of Egypt, but the new one that is now revealed. This means that the ego is revealed in them on a totally new level. It is a very good state because when they cross this point, they enter the land of Israel.

Only after a person yearns to advance with all his might and is repeatedly set back, and returns time after time, until he is finally thrown out. But now against his will, he surrenders to the ego and says: “I cannot, I am helpless.” This point of helplessness is essential in order to understand that you have to be totally connected to the Creator to an even greater extent than before. Without it you don’t feel the need for the Creator.

Therefore, when you think that you can only manage with Pharaoh, it is a sign of your lack of connection with the Creator. You would like to be connected, but you cannot, and so you prefer Pharaoh. This means that although the spies brought fruits from the land of Israel with them, they remain outside the land of Israel.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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Midrash Raba, “BeShalach“: Do you know which giants we met there? They are the descendants of the generation of Enosh, and they are so tall that their heads seem to reach the sun. Anyone who sees them is terrified of the thought that one may fall to the ground! Listen to what happened once, when we looked for a shady place to rest.

The spies look for shadows because they don’t want the direct bright Light, and they cannot bear it. They can exist when everything closes outside their ego and the oppositeness between the ego and the Light cannot be seen anymore. The giants whose heads reach the sun, which means the level of Zeir Anpin and above up to the level of Arich Anpin of the world of Atzilut, are souls that have corrected themselves.

We entered what we thought to be a cave, but in fact it was the peel of a giant pomegranate. We rested there a bit and then a daughter of a giant went by us and picked up this peel with all of us in it, twelve men sitting in it.

The word “pomegranate” (Rimon) stems from the word “Romemut” (exaltedness), which refers to how high the upper force can raise them. And the female part Malchut raises them above, to the Creator.

She didn’t even realize that we were there! She simply threw the peel away in her garden. We are like miserable ants compared to these giants. In fact, we once heard how one giant spoke about us: “There are these creatures in the vine who are as small as grasshoppers and who resemble human beings.”

This means that for Malchut their ascent is not a burden. They cannot give her any desire, any MAN, in order to oblige her to raise them. This ascent happens passively.

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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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Midrash Raba, “BeShalach“: Not wanting to let the people hear what Caleb had to say to the end, the spies began to speak against the land: it is a land that destroys its inhabitants, they claimed, and is filthy and disease ridden and we have seen people dying everywhere we went. But because its inhabitants are especially strong they do not die of being physically weak, no! It is the harmful climate of the land that kills whoever lives there.

Question: What does it mean that the people in this land are dying?

Answer: The word “death” refers to a person who cannot overcome the spiritual growth offered to him according to the plan of creation. The spies see how the ego dies and they are terribly afraid of it. They say that it is the harmful climate of the land that kills whoever lives there. The word “land” (Eretz) stems from the Hebrew word “desire” (Ratzon), referring to the egoistic desire. If you agree with this egoistic desire, you immediately find yourself under its influence and it kills you. That means that the Light leaves you and this is death.

Question: So how did the spies reach this land?

Answer: The spies are very special people who belong to the generation of the desert and represent the best and greatest attributes in a person that begins to feel what there is on the next level. But at the same time they keep contradicting themselves: First they lead the people, but then they say, “Quick, Let’s go back!”

This dual experience a person undergoes, this double burden, indicates to what extent he has to establish a connection with the Creator in order to advance. It is because the greatest and best attributes pull him backwards: You shouldn’t go there; this land is cursed by the Creator; there are desires and moods there that you cannot bear and must escape from! Therefore it is impossible to predict anything in advance; the strongest person can be transformed and can turn into the weakest person.

Question: Does this mean that you cannot be sure about anything?

Answer: And we shouldn’t be sure about anything. God forbid that we should be sure about anything, because then we wouldn’t need the help of upper force so that He should lead us forward.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 13:30 – 13:31: Caleb silenced the people to [hear about] Moses, and he said, “We can surely go up and take possession of it, for we can indeed overcome it.” But the men who went up with him said, “We are unable to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”

Caleb is among the spies like Moses. It is the same point in the heart that receives a different name in every state in which it exists. It remains in every state and this is how a person advances, since without it he could not advance. Imagine if all the spies had declared that the spiritual work wasn’t for them and left. The Creator would have had a terrible account with the people.

The Torah, “Numbers,” 13:32 – 13:33: They spread an [evil] report about the land which they had scouted, telling the children of Israel, “The land we passed through to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of stature. There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, descended from the giants. In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.

It is the ego into which the spies sink, not having the powers to ascend above it. The giants (Nephilim) are those who have already overcome the ego and so they can exist above it. “In our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers,” means that the spies have attained the slight spiritual attainment of GE when they ascend above the ego and see that they are nothing when considering their spiritual forces, their abilities, and their options compared to the giants. They seem to be looking at their future states.

If you belong to the generation of the desert, you see yourself as big before entering the land of Israel. What do I have to do in order to attain that?! But, if you ask a child these questions, for example:

– Do you want to be the best?

– Yes.

– Then you have to graduate from a university, get several degrees, and work 18-20 hours a day.

– What about my life?! I cannot do that! It is too difficult! I work all the time and try to make efforts to succeed!

– But this is your future. So will you go for it or not?

– I would rather go back to the desert.

This means that there is a comparison here between the present me and me in the land of Israel. They enter their future and realize how difficult and complex the anti-egoistic actions are.

The point is that when you look at it from a distance, you see that it is impossible because you look at everything through the eyes of the desert! You don’t see the component that the Creator has given you, so you don’t take it into account. The Creator has given you the power to become great, yet you don’t feel it. So you think, “If I need to do it by myself, I cannot.” The feeling that the Creator is by your side is taken away from you so that you will understand that you have to do it, but that you can’t do it without Him. Then a potential is built up in you. You escape, and don’t want anything, then you come back and escape again. Then there is a blow from above and you advance towards conquering the land of Israel. How? It doesn’t matter; your eyes are closed and you don’t care about the how, you simply need to sacrifice your life for it.

This is a turning point, the crossing of the Jordan River, which is similar to the crossing of the Red Sea. But there the sea split and that’s it, while here it is a more conscious process, which means that it is more complex. Before the escape from Egypt, fear of Pharaoh, who was chasing you, pushed you. Here it is the opposite, since you now have to awaken the need to move in this direction. There you escaped out of fear, but here you enter it. That’s the way it should be since this is the spiritual growth.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 13:25 – 13:29: They returned from scouting the land at the end of forty days. They went, and they came to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the desert of Paran, to Kadesh. They brought them back a report, as well as to the entire congregation, and they showed them the fruit of the land. They told him and said, “We came to the land to which you sent us, and it is flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who inhabit the land are mighty, and the cities are extremely huge and fortified, and there we saw even the offspring of the giant. The Amalekites dwell in the south land, while the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountainous region. The Canaanites dwell on the coast and alongside the Jordan.”

Comment: When the spies spoke about the land of Israel they were very excited, but suddenly there is a turning point…

Answer: The upper world is very attractive. It isn’t the egoistic communism we have been fed by the European utopians during the Middle Ages, but rather the state of a person who has fully attained and knows all of creation and his role within it. This person has attained the upper force and feels that he is in the attribute of bestowal, beyond the limitations of existing for his own sake. He totally attains all the states of the worlds throughout time and on all the levels inside himself, including all of nature, meaning both our world and the upper world.

Of course we don’t attain the upper world because it is above our universe and is a billion times larger. But we have to discover it eventually, and therefore we have the potential that draws us to the attainment of this state. But when you clarify what you have to do in order to reach this, you realize that it is totally beyond your powers because you are like a tiny mouse in a great world. What can you do?

So the spies were right. They came with two accurate conclusions regarding the land of Israel. On the one hand, there are all sorts of fruits, i.e., all sorts of comprehension—everything you can imagine and even billions of times greater than what we have today, just as the generation of the Middle Ages could not imagine life in our generation. On the other hand, they had no powers, no preconditions, nor understanding, neither moral nor intellectual. They couldn’t reach the states of attainment since they were not prepared for them.

This is actually what happened, because the spies belonged to the generation of the desert who lived where there was nothing and where they had to try to be in a strong, mutual connection to advance. But, when they entered the land of Israel, they confronted their internal egoism, which treated them with disrespect, like Pharaoh. He reappears among them and once again, forces them to conquer him because the land of Israel is based on the conquering of Pharaoh.

The exodus from Egypt is just the escape from Pharaoh, and during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, we neutralize him. Now, however, we need to take this animal out of its den and begin to restrain it so that by taming it, it will carry out all our orders. This seems to be absolutely impossible!

When the spies look at all this horror, they forget that there is an upper force that plans everything and that they have to advance in accordance with this force and be a like a small child holding the hand of a grownup, not fearing anything. The spies couldn’t take that into account because they were terrified of the greatness they had to attain, of the infinity and uncertainty revealed to them by infinite space. When a person feels that there are no limits, he feels lost.

When a person is in a certain framework in certain limits, he feels that everything is simple, easy, and free. But if he transcends these limits, he loses the ability to weigh things and find his way around. This is very scary for those who reach a more sublime state. Therefore, every person who is about to enter the land of Israel—the correction of egoism to love and bestowal and the inclination of the ego towards the Creator—experiences such feelings.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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Midrash Raba,”BeShalach“: The spies reached the region of Hebron where the cave of Machpelah is found, but they were afraid to go there and pray, since it was common knowledge that giants lived there. Only Caleb ignored the danger and decided to visit the holy place where our forefathers are buried because he thought to himself: How can I not be involved in conspiring with the spies? Moses’ prayers protect Joshua, while I need to ask the Creator for help. This is the reason that he went into the cave to pray. The Shechina also entered the cave with him in order to let the forefathers know that the time has come for their descendants to conquer the land. Caleb fell on the ground next to the graves of the forefathers and prayed for their mercy and for being saved from conspiring with the spies.

A person is always overcome by weakness and fear of the growing ego inside him, and so he asks for powers in order to resist it. Then the Pharaoh in him begins to awaken more strongly and therefore the spies are right when they are afraid and say that they don’t have to power to stand against it. Their only sin is that they don’t understand, don’t feel, don’t perceive, and don’t believe that they can gain power to overcome their internal interruptions from above.

Question: What kind of power does the “cave of Machpelah” give Caleb who enters it?

Answer: The word “Machpelah” stems from the Hebrew word “Kaful” (double). There is a connection between Malchut and Bina in this cave. This is the reason that all our forefathers are buried there, since they have fully corrected their souls. They buried themselves egoistically by ascending to the altruistic level. A cave is a very special, closed place in the earth. The word “earth” in Hebrew (eretz) stems from the word “Ratzon” (desire), which means all of person’s desires are in a state where the attributes to receive and to bestow totally complement one another. Such souls reach the end of correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/8/15

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When the Jewish people entered the land of Israel, they had to continuously fight their egoistic desires. The first thing we should expect is a very long period of conquering the land, which means fighting an internal war among us and within each one of us.

Great hostility and hatred appear between us that is in opposition to our wish to unite in order to receive the Light of Hochma that shines in the land of Israel.

If we cannot receive this light, it will operate and affect us negatively by invoking different problems and hared towards everyone, including our friends and brothers with whom who we had good relations just the other day.

In the desert, on the level of Bina, we were one whole. Suddenly we began to fall into a dark and infinite abyss called the land of Israel. To where have we been brought? Yesterday we hugged each other, sat around the bonfire, sang songs together, and everything was fine, nice, and calm. What now?! Women cursed and enticed the men, turning them against one another, and children have become so stubborn! Suddenly one nation starts a war against us and then another! Different internal problems suddenly come up!

How can we make the switch from a peaceful normal state, while being only in slight adhesion with the Creator, and without knowing why, to suddenly want to overcome all these oppositions because it is the Creator’s command? We see how the transition to the future state is made difficult for us to begin with. We are told to get ready, for now you will begin to discover differences between you and life will seem terrible! You will not be able to unite! And by losing the unity between you, you will lose the connection with the Creator! In fact you are advancing towards the snake’s mouth, the one you escaped from when you escaped from Egypt.

Therefore, when we enter the land of Israel, we have to be prepared so that no interruption will stop us. We have to fight systematically, knowing that there is no way back and that we have to keep on advancing. We have to clearly understand this so that we will be able to succeed.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/2/15

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Midrash Raba, “BeShalach”: The spies went in the direction of Eshkol Stream, because the juice flowed like streams from the vine downwards in those areas. When they arrived there Caleb reminded them the instructions Moses gave them: to bring the juicy sweet fruits of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). The spies disregarded his words, because they didn’t wish to show how fruitful the land was. Then Caleb threatened them: if you don’t take the fruits I will pull out my sword and we will see who will remain alive! Knowing what a hero Caleb was and his great power, the spies obeyed him, but they chose fruits that were monstrous in size, in order to tell the people later that a land that bears such unusual fruits is suspicious and strange and ordinary people cannot survive in it.

The fruits that you receive when you begin to work with the ego with the intention of in order to bestow are the Light of Hochma. While the Light of Hassadim is Nefesh and Ruach, here Neshama and Chaya and Yechida are also added. This means that these are great Lights in attaining all the elements of the creation, of the whole world, from the beginning to its end, attaining the Creator, and all His attributes as the upper force, adhesion with Him above the level of life and death, ascending to the level of the “head of the world of Atzilut.”

Not only is it impossible to resist the temptation of such pleasures, the generation of the desert, who lived on manna cannot understand what they need this for. If the Creator hadn’t instructed them to fulfill these actions, they would have remained in the desert because the attribute of Bina is so calming and feels like water because you don’t want anything else. You are happy with what you have. You only need manna in order to hold on and you don’t even need to take any special attributes or flavors from it. You are simply happy with little, not delving into anything, because you have a slight connection with the Creator, His slight illumination.

This state takes over and dominates you and doesn’t let go. It is very hard to overcome it and to begin to work with the ego again, with Pharaoh, with the problems, in order to transform them and thus attain the level of the land of Israel. It is terribly difficult!

This is the reason that the weekly section of the Torah about the spies is very dramatic. Imagine a man in his prime, who has a family, kids, and a normal life, when everything is fine and he is well off and happy with life and has no other needs and everything is simply wonderful. The need to leave the desert and go to the land of Israel is faith above reason that is in contrast to his state. The Light of Bina fills him to such an extent that it totally satisfies him and he doesn’t want anything else.

He must make extraordinary efforts and raise the importance of the Creator in his eyes as He instructs him to reawaken the ego inside him in order to rise above this level. What is more, He instructs him to do so despite his desire and his understanding, because it seems like a contradiction to the Creator.

A person finds himself in this unclear oppositeness, which he cannot stand. The only thing he can do is to advance with his eyes closed and this is what happened to the spies. They are in a state of Hafetz Hesed. They don’t want anything for themselves. Only Caleb constantly awakens them because he is more closely connected to the Creator and understands that this is the Creator’s mission, while their whole essence rebels against it.

You have to crush yourself internally in order to fulfill the Creator’s instructions.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/2/15

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Question: The idea that negative desires arose in the spies who were sent to spy in the land of Israel is often mentioned in Midrash Raba.

Answer: The point is that there is an initial weakness in a person opposing the efforts that allow him to enter the land of Israel. After all, what is the difference between the desert and the land of Israel? In the desert, you can be only on the level of Bina, but, when you enter the land of Israel, you must ascend to the level of Hochma because you begin to work with the egoistic desires there. They appear before you, and you realize that it is a totally different paradigm now, a totally different attitude toward the ego. Now, you can begin to bring it out again.

You have acquired the ego in Egypt, and absorbed it. You were under its domination and eventually have made it even more egoistic than the Egyptians themselves. Besides that, you have taken out of Egypt what is called their vessels. You have denied your egoistic desires during the 40 years of wandering in the desert and have learned to rise above them until you actually succeeded in doing so. Then, there was a break, and you didn’t use them at all. Now, when you enter the land of Israel, you raise Egypt inside you again and gradually revive the ego and begin to use it again.

However, now you turn it into the land of Israel as the Egyptian desire is transformed totally and aimed at the Creator, at the attribute of love and bestowal. Thus, all the giants (which means all the obstacles) seem incredibly big to us because, after being in the desert where we have become used to eating MAN only in relation to the Creator and always have aspired to reach the level of bestowal, we need to reawaken Pharaoh inside us, to free this evil dog and begin working with him.

These are the most terrible egoistic desires that we need to learn to overcome.Therefore, it says that seven warrior nations are waiting for us in the land of Israel that we must fight and conquer.

This is how Egypt operates in us, and therefore, every day, a person must imagine that he has just come out of Egypt and thus build the land of Israel by making the interior ego external. Then, Mt. Sinai becomes a holy mountain on which the temple is built.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/2/15

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