This weeks Parashah, there’s a lot of really amazing concepts.

But one. It says that Moshe Rabeinu, in this weeks Parashah there’s a discussion of the completion of the Tabernacle. When Moses completed the erection of the Mishkan.

Now it says that for the first seven days Moshe would take down the Mishkan and put it up. Take it down, put it up.

And, those of you who’ve been to the grave of the Bal Shem Tov know that there’s one of the people buried next to him is the Ze’ev Kitzes who was one of the great students of the Bal Shem Tov. And he explains, he asks a question.

It says vayehe. The word vayehe in the Torah, when it’s used usually denotes sadness. Usually, and this is something that’s spoken about in the Zohar and in the Midrash. Vayehe is a word that always denotes sadness. It says on the day that Moshe finished the process of putting together the Mishkan, isn’t that, isn’t that a day of joy, a day of happiness?

And he explains that what it’s talking about, it’s talking about the work, the spiritual work that each one of us does. And that the way we have to view our work, and this is not easy, is the work of the first seven days of Moshe. On the eighth day the Mishkan was put together. It was perfect. The job was over.

And what he explains, that there’s two consciousness, two types of consciousness that a person can have in their spiritual work.

One is of the seven days where you build and push down, you take down. You build, you take down. Meaning every day you realize you have to take down the entire edifice you put together the day before. And you have to start brand new.

Another way is . When you look at it all, oh it’s pretty good. Let me make this a little bit better, make this a little bit better.

The idea being that if a person hopes to be a person, we spoke about this on Rosh Chodesh, but this is something that’s spoken about in this week’s Parashah as well. If a person wants to be a person who’s constantly moving and growing then every day he has to be taking down all of his work and starting new. Every day. Or, vayehe. Which denotes sadness.

When is it sad? When a person says . I finished. Or at least I’m close to finishing putting together the framework of my spiritual work.

And that’s the choice that we make. Are we going to be like Moshe in the seven days? Meaning, every morning when we wake up are we realize “wow, I have to start all over”. I have to renew everything. I have to take everything down from the day before and start it new. Then we’re growing.

If we are already on the level of the eighth day, , the building is set, let me make it a little bit more perfect, but it’s pretty good. Vayehe. It’s a day of sadness.

And what he says, is that Moshe, in this week’s Parashah, gives us the ability to have this consciousness.

And to the degree, and this is what he says, the only way, and this is the way we know. The only way to know if we are the part of Moshe that is growing, or the part of Moshe that is diminishing, is how we view our spiritual work every day.

If every day we come to the prayers in the morning, if every day when we come to the Zohar we say wow. The way I did it yesterday was completely, it’s wasn’t completely wrong, but it was not the way it was supposed to be. I have to do it new. I have to do it different today.

If I am like Moshe, and that’s why for the seven days, putting it up, taking it down. Putting it up, taking it down. That’s the right consciousness. Every day I’m looking at the edifice and saying it’s not there. And you take it down. Then you start it up again.

If a person’s on the eighth day, he sees the edifice, it’s pretty good, vayehe. It’s a day of sadness.

Because when a person starts looking at his spiritual work, the framework of his spiritual life, and the framework of his spiritual work, and he says it’s pretty good, that is the complete indication that he is not, certainly not growing, but also not connected to the Light of the Creator.

Because if a person’s connected to the Light of the Creator he’s connected to the first seven days.

And the second thing I want to share, which is not from this week’s Parashah, but it’s a concept that we’ve been talking about. And during this Hallel on Rosh Chodesh I realized something from one of the verses that connected to this concept.

We spoke about, if you remember, I think it was last class or the class before, the idea that our spiritual work needs to be a little bit beyond our comprehension.

You know, most people, both, and this is true, you know, when a teacher is teaching a student, and when a person is doing his own spiritual work, when a person is studying. We like to keep things within our comfort zone; within the levels that we understand. But the reality is that we have to be pushing. Everything that we study has to be a little bit that we don’t understand.

If everything that we read we understand, then we’re not reading the right things. Everything that we study, there has to be something we don’t understand. Every time we teach, we have to try to make sure that there’s to be something that a person won’t, isn’t ready for it yet. That there’s something a little bit above them.

Every time we do spiritual work we have to make sure there’s a little bit that we’re doing of it that is not comfortable for us; that is beyond us. This idea that our entire work needs to be infused with a little bit of beyond. A little bit beyond our comprehension, our understanding.

And this came up a few weeks ago. I was talking to one of the teachers in the Centre how, you know, we always want to make sure the students to understand, that it’s on their level. No.

Yes, we have to make sure. Obviously you don’t want to give a class where nobody understands everything. But you do give something they can understand, but always make sure there’s, there’s something that isn’t left to understand.

And to understand this, at least in a , is that if a person’s comprehension of the wisdom is “oh yes, I can understand that,” then that’s how much Light he receives. Once you open up the gate for him to say well, yes, there’s something I understand, but there’s some that I don’t. Well, how big is that lack of knowledge? And to whatever degree that lack of knowledge is, that opens them up to Endless Light.

We say in Hallel, we say in Hallel, . Literally translated that means, this is from the Creator, it is beyond us. . It is something we can’t comprehend.

And what I think, there’s obviously all levels of understanding, of explanations to this verse. But I think one way to understand this verse is how do you know if the work you’re doing, if the study you’re studying, if what you’re teaching, is from the Creator? Is if (Hebrew), if it’s a little bit beyond your comprehension. It’s a little bit beyond what you can do. It’s a little beyond what the student can understand.

If your work is always a little bit more than you can understand, a little bit more than you can do, a little bit more than the student can understand, . It’s coming from the Creator. If it’s not, (Hebrew). If there’s nothing that you are teaching, if there’s nothing that you’re learning, if there’s nothing that you’re doing that is beyond you, that you can’t understand, that you can’t do, then it’s not from the Creator.

How do you know that your study, that your work, that your teaching, is from the Creator? . If it’s a little bit beyond your comprehension.

And Rav Ashlag would always say, people think that the work that we, that the spiritual work needs to be up until, all the way to the limit of our ability. And he says that’s not true. A person’s spiritual work needs to be beyond their abilities. And that’s when it’s true spiritual work.

And this is the idea. And this is true both in the physical, spiritual work that we do, in the study that we do. If the work that we do, if the study that we study, if the teachings that we teach, are within the realm, even all the way to the edges of what people can understand and what people can do. It’s not from the Creator.

How do you know that our work, that our study, that our teaching is connected to the Light of the Creator? . Is there a part of it that’s too much? Is there a part of it that’s too difficult? Is there a part of it that you can’t understand? Is there a part of it that the student can’t understand? If yes, (Hebrew), it’s coming from the Creator.

This is a link to a preview of my new moon of Gemini video for 2008

Enjoy!

For the full length video go to:
http://tv.kabbalah.com/categories.php?cPath=506

So in this week’s Parashah is the whole idea of counting. And the Ramban explains. He asks the question. Why did, and if you read the Torah it’s amazing. Moshe, Moses, and Aaron they go and they count every single one of the B’nai Israel. Each one of them has to come in front of Moshe and he counts them.

And they ask why did Moshe have to count each one of the B’nai Israel? Why can’t he go, let’s say to the head of the household, let’s say to the head of the tribe, and say how many people in your family? Twenty people. Write it down. Or go to the head of the tribe. How many people in your tribe? Fifty thousand people. Write it down. Why did Moshe go to each one of the B’nai Israel and count them?

And the Ramban, Nachmanides, and again, the words are beautiful in Hebrew. But what he says is that what was happening here is that Moshe was blessing each one of the B’nai Israel.

And what he explains further is that, is that the whole purpose of a Prophet, of a Navi. And this is something that is explained by many of the commentators. The Gaon m’Vilna, in his commentary on the Prophets explains this.

Why would a person go to a Prophet? And think about it, many of us, or even let’s say not us, but certainly other people we know, or students of ours. If you have a chance to go to Moshe Rabeinu, to Moses; if you have a chance to go to Yeshayah Levit, Isaiah the Prophet, or one of the Prophets, you want to hear what’s going to be in the future. Or you want to maybe get a blessing.

The single purpose, the single purpose for Moshe counting, the single purpose for people going to see the Prophets, when there were Prophets, was to attach them to their Supernal Source. On a deeper level to attach them to the reshimu (impression).

What Moshe Rabeinu is doing this week’s Parashah, and this is what he says, the Ramban says. The Ramban, those of you who know, he’s one of the earliest kabbalists in Spain. Because during the time, there’s a discussion about this, but he was probably one of the first kabbalists to get the Zohar. There were many people before, before the Zohar was revealed again in Spain who achieved high levels. But the Ramban is unique in the fact that he was towards the beginning of that revelation.

And throughout his commentary on the Torah there’s, like last week’s Parashat there’s a really interesting section, if you get a chance to read it, where the Ramban says there’s a secret here from the secrets of the Torah. And a lot of the secrets that the Ramban writes about, and he writes about them very cryptically, he gets them from, he got them probably from the study of the Zohar.

But in this week’s Parashat is just one or two lines where he talks about the importance, why Moshe himself did it. And he says because this is the way they got their blessing; by Moshe attaching them to their Supernal Source. Counting them. Counting them means attaching them to their Source. More deep than that, attaching them to their Supernal Desire.

What is the problem that each one of us has? What is the problem that every student that we have has? Is that they are not attached to the true Desire. Most people’s desire, physical, even in a sort of, on a higher level, you know, even physical for the sake of sharing.

But what we’re supposed to get to, and this is, you know, that verse, (Hebrew)days are coming and there will be a hunger in the world. (Hebrew) The people, even people who are coming to spirituality, hopefully will come the time where they’re not coming for bread and water. They’re not coming for anything physical. (Hebrew) Only to connect. To hear and to connect to the Light of the Creator.

What happens in this week’s Parashat, that’s why it’s not, you know, it’s not, again, we don’t read this Parashat. But we connect it. What happens on this Shabbat is that every single person, and the world as a whole, becomes elevated again to that connection.

What Moshe did thousands of years ago in the desert, he comes back to us. Moshe comes back to us on this Shabbat. And he elevates us again to that connecting to our reshimu (impression), to our true Desire.

And what we have to ask for on this Shabbat, and not only ask for ourselves, but also ask for our students, and ask for the world, that Moshe, Moshe’s influence, through this reading, through this Shabbat, should be strong enough to connect enough people to their reshimu (impression), enough people to their true Desire, so that, as Rav Ashlag says, we’ll quickly come to the, to the re-revelation of that Light.

But it’s really, if you understand the gift of this Shabbat, it’s a tremendously exciting Shabbat. A tremendously exciting Shabbat for ourselves, but it’s important that we awaken within as many people as possible this consciousness. That on this Shabbat Moshe Rabeinu, Moses, and Aaron are coming to us and raising (Hebrew).

What is the idea of raising the head? It is reconnecting us back to our Source, to our Rosh. What is our Source? Again, without going into details, but the Olam Adam Kadmon, the kelim d’igulim, the vessels that, which now we know are the only ones that are called Keter, Chochmah, Binah, Zeir Anpin and Malchut. The ones that have that lack, that have the true Desire, that awaken the true Desire.

Shabbat shalom.