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Masaei (Journeys) Weekly Torah Portion
Posted: 28 May 2014 07:12 PM PDT

Numbers, 33:1-36:13
This Weeks Torah Portion | July 20 July 26, 2014 Tammuz 22 Tammuz 28,
5774
In A Nutshell
The portion, Masaei (Journeys) describes the journeys of the children of Israel, the stops where
they parked in the desert, and their final preparations to enter the land of Israel. The portion
details several commandments, such as the obliteration of idol worship, cities of refuge, the
rules regarding involuntary manslaughter, appointing presidents to the tribes under the
leadership of Joshua, son of Nun, and Elazar the Priest, dedicating cities for the people of the
tribe of Levi, and a description of the boundaries of the land.
The portion ends with the continuation of the story of the daughters of Zelophehad, the fear of
the tribe of Menashe that they would marry men from other tribes, thus causing the tribe of
Menashe to lose its lots. In consequence, Moses issues a warrant prohibiting the daughters of
Zelophehad from marrying men of other tribes, as well as other prohibitions that concern
marriages of people from different tribes.

Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman
Kabbalah
Franklin.dveras@outlook.com

The portion is a preparation to enter the land of Israel. At this stage we begin the inner work,
rising to a degree where our will to receive connects with the upper force. Here we discover the
upper force because we are living inside that desire.
It is written that the land of Israel is the land where the Creator is present from the beginning of
the year to its end. That is, He is always in the land of Israelin a desire that is aiming entirely
to bestow, Yashar El (straight to God). A person discovers the upper force within that desire and
is in Dvekut (adhesion) with it. This is the intention of the land of Israel.
From this we can learn to what extent we are not in the spiritual land of Israel, but in the
corporeal one. Kabbalists tell us that we have been given the opportunity to return to the
corporeal (physical) land of Israel so as to rise to the spiritual one. For this purpose, we must all
be together, united as a family, as one man with one heart, as in All of Israel are friends and
as in love your neighbor as yourself. We have connected on the stipulation of mutual
guarantee, and only if we meet this criterion will we enter the land of Israel.
All the conditions and laws we have adopted thus farand have attempted to keep when coping
with the problems that arose within us as unfavorable desires that should be correctedhave
been corrected in the previous state in the portion, Matot (Tribes). In Matot, we arranged
the Kelim (vessels) as a summary of what we went through in the period of the desert, when we
rose to the state of wanting to bestow in order to bestow. Now we are facing the entrance to the
land of Israel, the will to receive in order to bestow.
For this reason, before us are a summary of the previous matters and a last examination of the
conditions. We are coordinated in our corrected state, a state called the land of Israel. On the
one hand, a person must be connected with all the tribes, with all the others, with his brothers.
One must be in a state of all of Israel are friends, as one man with one heart, seeking
everybodys favor, and we must be in equivalence between us.
On the one hand, we need to see the other parts of the peopleto detect the twelve tribes and to
adhere to the prohibition on intermarriage. That prohibition means that one must match the
right desire to the right act. It is called matching a woman to a man so they are in congruence
and can bear the proper, good results, and are not confused by one another. To obtain
something, one must work with the desires with which one was born, and not confuse a person
toward achievements on the earthly level.
The same is true for the cities of refuge, the division of the land, and the boundaries of the land.
The word Eretz (land) comes from the word Ratzon (desire). By knowing ones own desire and
the peoples general desire, we must all, like cells in an organism, work as cogwheels in a
uniform manner to achieve the state of the people of Israel in the land of Israel. Then,
according to the level of congruence between us, the favorable integration and the right
connection we will have, we will feel that the upper force is present among us. That state will
protect us against every trouble and plight, from the smallest to the biggest.
Kabbalah
Franklin.dveras@outlook.com

If each of usand all of us togetherarrive, even if just a little, at a state that resembles that
desire, a state of mutual bestowal, mutual love, mutual connection, a bit like the true definition
of the land of Israel, we are guaranteed to be rewarded with the upper force. We will be
rewarded with the strongest spiritual roof over us, with which we will thrive and chase our
enemies away.
The people of Israel has returned to the land of Israel sixty-four years ago, but still seeks the real
meaning of being in the land of Israel. What does it really mean to be in Israel?
Man comprises the whole of the will to receive (which is the heart), and the thought (which is
the mind). These are the two primary elements that exist in man, and which distinguish humans
from animals, from the beast. Our body is an organism that is part of the animal kingdom.
However, we are distinguished from that kingdom by our desires and thoughts. For this reason,
it is only our thoughts and desires that we must correct.
Our desires divide into bodily desires for food, reproduction, and family, and to social
desires for money, respect, power, and knowledge. We may want many things, but basically, all
our wishes fit into those seven primary wants. We want to fulfill all our wishes, both on the
physical-corporeal levelfood, reproduction (sex), and familyand on the social levelmoney,
respect, power, and knowledge. All of them exist in everyone, but in different combinations in
each of us.
There are other desires from our day-to-day life, which we are unaware of, such as desires
between people. These desires turn outward, such as a person who gives of oneself to others, not
seeking to obtain from them for oneself. These desires are the 613 desires between man and
man.
When we connect to others without the aim to exploit and to gain, but truly come out of
ourselves for the sake of others, we discover those 613 desires. We discover them in their
egotistical form, and if we shift them into working for the sake of others, it is a correction, the
performance of a Mitzva (good deed/commandment).
We perform the Mitzvot (plural of Mitzva) through the light that comes to us when we study the
wisdom of Kabbalah correctly. It is called the light in it reforms. The wisdom of Kabbalah is
called Torah, The Torah of light, the internality of the Torah, or the true law (Torah),
since by studying it we draw to ourselves the light that corrects these desires between us.
Correcting the 613 desires in the relations between man and man leads one into the corrected
desire. The corrected desire includes within it the 613 desires of love, bestowal, friendship,
unity, connection, and mutual guarantee. This desire is called the land of Israel, where all the
desires are Yashar El (straight to God, the Creator). They are Yashar El not only due to our
approach to others, toward the friends, toward the people of Israel, but because it is a desire to
bestow, the same desire as the Creatorsa desire to do good to all.
Kabbalah
Franklin.dveras@outlook.com

Hence, when we reach the land of Israel, the desire straight to others, we can also live in the
physical land of Israel. That, however, must be on the condition that we are connected among us
in a reciprocal connection, called the spiritual land of Israel, a state of all of Israel are
friends.
This is why Kabbalists such as Baal HaSulam (Rav Yehuda Ashlag) and the Rav Kook write that
today we have been given an opportunity to return to the corporeal land of Israel, but we have
yet to merit it, so we may achieve correctionconnectionin the short time we have been given.
Kabbalists explain that if we do not contemplate it and move in that direction, we will not merit
staying here and will be exiled.
Why is there such a strict division into twelve tribes with a prohibition to intermarry?
Connecting means to marry. The different organs in our bodies work very differently from one
another. You cannot connect the kidneys to the lungs or the liver to the heart because each
organ works in its own system. It is like an engine in which one piston is working in one
direction and the other is working in another. You cannot connect these opposites without the
proper adjustment. It has to follow an overall plan.
Is the end result a single system?
The result is one: the people of Israel in the land of Israel.
What are the parts?
The parts are as pistons, as parts of an engine, moving in opposite directions but toward the
same vector.
So is an individual person like a piston?
The individual is part of the whole. One must only actualize ones desire in the right manner,
and others, too, must actualize their desires in the right manner. If we all realize ourselves with
the qualities we were born with, we will reach the end of our correction on the personal level,
our personal fulfillment. In this way, we will not confuse one another.
Is this equality vs. difference?
Precisely.
How does one make that equalizing?
Initially, we are not equal; we are different. There is no reason to deny it. Imagine a person
having a unique gift for something, such as music, and we tell him, No, you have to be a
mechanic. Can you force a mechanic to be a physician?
Kabbalah
Franklin.dveras@outlook.com

How does one know ones role?
These days we get scattered in every direction. This is why we are told, Dont marry, dont
look at others, find out for yourself where you belong. If a person is born to a certain tribe and
possesses certain qualities in the common soul called the people of Israel, that person must
find ones destiny and actualize it. This is when he or she will be happy.
With children, it is easy to see how each is special. Yet, this leads to competition.
There cannot be competition if one is a mechanic, another is a musician, a third is a physician, a
fourth is an author, and a fifth is an engineer. The only competition that is possible is in how
much each of us contributes to society.
Assume that two mechanics are born in a tribe of mechanics. One of them is smarter than the
other, and can invent special machines. The smarter one should be a team leader in a big factory
that develops engines, while the less astute should be working at a small garage or for a garage
owner.
Why does todays society appreciates the smarter mechanic far more than the simple one?
The problem is that our society is not uniform. We cannot appreciate people according to their
relative efforts. In a family, we admire a little baby who does the silliest thing as though it were
the greatest achievement. But to an uninvolved observer it would seem as nothing to cheer for.
The point is that if we treat each other with love, we feel that when one contributes to society
from the bottom of the heart, that person should be appreciated far more than someone who is
simply talented and to whom the contribution is effortless.
Today we have no regard for those who contribute to society, but to the rich and famous.
This is the problem. We are not actualizing the goal for which we received the land of Israel.
This is why our situation is so bleak.
Is this the idol worship that the portion mentions?
Yes, it is idol worship when we admire famous people and social icons and so forth.
How can we change that? Is it not part of the human mechanism?
The only way is education that explains to people on a daily basis over a period of time, until
people see the situation as it truly is and change. Today the world is pressing on us. We will not
be able to keep doing as we please; we cannot isolate ourselves from the declining world.
To enter the land of Israel, idol worship must be abolished. Is this a feasible task?
Kabbalah
Franklin.dveras@outlook.com

Any act that does not unite the nation in equality and love, or places the concept of unity above
all other values, leads to idolatry.
How can we know the borders of the desire called the land of Israel before we enter it?
Our desire contains within it the whole of reality. From that, we can single out all the desire that
is on earth. Out of the desire that is on earth, we can single out the additional desire called the
land of Israel, which is a very small country, if we look in the map.
It can hardly be seen.
This gives us an idea of what we correct. First, we must correct this desire. Once we correct it, we
can move on to correct the general desire, the rest of the continents, and the entire world. This is
the meaning of being a light for the nations. Here the text does not mention it, but only the
entrance to the land of Israel, which must be by ones transcending ones egotistical desire and
being ready to begin to correct ones desires into love of others.
How does one find out the boundaries of this land?
When we work on our connections with others, we begin to see with which out of our 613 desires
we can relate to others. These are the boundaries. Within us are many more desires, called
desires of the nations of the world. These are very powerful desires, like the size of the world
compared to the size of the land of Israel, but we correct them later.
These are the stages. Anyone who engages in the wisdom of Kabbalah reaches both types of
desires.
In the Torah, we read about far wider borders than the dot we see on the map today. Is this
something we will ever reach?
Without a doubt.
Physically?
We will reach it physically, but they will not be borders anymore because we are already in the
state of complete redemption. That is, borders will disappear; there will be no borders
whatsoever.
Are there borders in spirituality, as well?
No, which is why all of us, the entire world, will be as one man with one heart. The children of
Israel will be the ones to begin the correction, but later, being a light for the nations, they will
join the entire world into the correction, as it is written, For My house shall be called a house of
prayer for all the nations (Isaiah 56:7). What was previously limited will become boundless.
Kabbalah
Franklin.dveras@outlook.com

Another issue is the cities of refuge. If a person kills someone, he can escape to a city of
refuge and be protected there.
It is so when one is still not working with all of ones desires. If a person makes a mistake or fails
in something, it is not because that person is no longer worthy of being in the land of Israel, but
because there are various scrutinies and problems in it, too. Clearly, a person enters the desire
so it would be directly toward brotherly love, love for all. This was impossible in the desert,
except through the law, That which you hate, do not do to your friend. When entering the land
of Israel, then the law, Love your neighbor as yourself applies, the law of love.
Is it possible to make mistakes here?
Of course. There are new desires, new corrections, and there is the conquering of the land. In all
these desires, a person needs to face up to ones egotistical desires and truly exploit them,
defeat, break, and expel them. A person needs to do the entire work that the people of Israel
does in the land of Israel in the story, except here, it pertains to an internal story, concerning the
desires within us, and here we could err. This is why we were given the Torah. Just as Israel
repeatedly made mistakes in the desert and then corrected themselves, the same applies to the
conquering of the landwe make mistakes and then correct them.
What does it mean to make mistakes if we say that there is none else besides Him?
It means we must discover these desires.
Where do I truly begin to correct?
Each time we succeed, we immediately fall into a mistake, a transgression.
Is it because we attribute the success to ourselves?
No. The mistake, the transgression, is not even ours. We are being introduced to a new,
corrupted desire, where we see ourselves as sinful, like the sin of the spies, the sin of the water,
the sin of the serpents, and many other sins. The people of Israel seems to never listen to what it
is being told.
However, it happens only because they do succeed. They are introduced to more and more of
their corrupted desires in order to correct them. We all come from the breaking, from Pharaoh.
This is why Pharaoh gradually appears as cruel, broken, egotistical, and we need to correct him.
Therefore, we need not attribute our egotism to ourselves because he who is greater than his
friend, his desire is greater than him. On the contrary, all that is revealed to us in the Torah is
our own broken soul, which we correct. And it is not even we who do it; it has been done before
us. The Creator is telling us, I have created the evil inclination, and I have hardened
Pharaohs heart (Exodus 10:1).
Kabbalah
Franklin.dveras@outlook.com

Does obliteration relate to idol worship?
Our work is to correct. This is why we constantly reveal the evil and correct it.
But it seems endless.
It is not endless. At the end of the day, we are living in the land of Israel, and we are building in
it a house of sanctity. There is already light of Hochma being filled with light of Hassadim, and
it is filling our souls, so we are already beginning to discover the eternal and perfect world.
Is the land of Israel a state of no errors, a perfect state?
It is the perfect state. Today we need to come to a state where the land of Israel spreads
throughout all the countries and all the continents. It is called the land of the gazelle because
that desire with the aim to bestow, to love others, must eventually encompass the whole of
reality.
We have the method that explains how to do it, and we must explain it to the whole of humanity.
The work of disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the Messiahs Shofar. It is our
duty to carry it out because otherwise humanity will still achieve the complete correction, but
after great torments, while in our way, humanity can achieve correction quickly, using the light
that reforms.
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