KI TEZE - KO IZHAJAŠ

21:10 - 25:19 כי־תצא

Dva načina redefiniranja samega sebe v procesu tešuva: vizualizacija in sprememba vedenjskih vzorcev.  

SCOPE AND UNDERSTANDING

Ki-tesa can be compared to Parashah Mishpatim in the book of Shemot, where we also encounter an extensive range of commandments.

It is interesting how the commandments, which also have legal force, invite focused consideration from us. The scope of the text is actually quite comparable to the other parashits. It seems that Ki-teza should be discussed for several weeks due to its intensive content, but it is not necessary or it would be "incorrect" to give this parasha more attention than the others. What I mean is that we should not neglect the other parashas at the expense of this one.

We are dealing with a very condensed parasha. The structure is similar to that of Bereishit, where the first verse represents the entire content. Therefore, this time I will also undertake a detailed analysis of the first verse. Both Bereishit and Ki-teza could be discussed for an entire year. However, there is a big difference between the topics of the parashas; Bereishit presents us with the structure of the sefirot and spiritual levels in general, giving us a systematic result, while Ki-teza does not reveal any specific structure. If we try to interpret the parasha as a composite, a sum of interpretations of individual commandments, then we will not get a reasonable, coherent explanation.

We cannot reach the Creator through logic, so the author presents us with a parashah that allows for complete material understanding of some commandments and at the same time spiritual understanding. Then we have commandments that we can fulfill, but do not have any concrete meaning. Another type of commandment is such that they are certainly not realistic and a spiritual explanation must be found, since they are practically impossible to realize in the material world.

It is important to read the parashah and, in accordance with our experience of the world this week, understand what it is trying to convey to us. It is not necessary to substantiate the idea that we have discovered in the entire parashah with every smallest detail, with every commandment. As has been said; with arguments we cannot reach the level that is above us, with logic we cannot reach the Creator. The fact is that we must complete a certain spiritual level with arguments, with understanding, and we advance to the next level without convincing arguments.

NEW SAMPLES

In the process of teshuvah, we must correct our 613 desires, which is why we have so many mitzvot - commandments in the Torah. This is a gradual process, which means that we encounter desires at the most appropriate time. It is completely natural and correct to leave alone those mitzvot that we do not understand or that are irrelevant to us at a certain moment. Instead, we choose those that we believe will bring us change. When we faithfully adhere to these newly accepted mitzvot, they become our habit and gradually our character.

When we commit to accepting the implementation of the new commandments, it gradually transforms our character.

VISUALIZATION

The Torah comes from above, from the creator, from the collective soul, where we are all one. Every commandment therefore concerns each of us; we find this out sooner or later. We should not simply skip incomprehensible and irrelevant commandments. If we visualize the situation while reading them, this connects us with the creator, with our primal soul. When we visualize, we open the way to the already existing soul and avoid the fantasies that our ego loves to paint on our soul.

If we visualize ourselves surrounded by the righteous, we will be able to optically connect with the image that belongs to our soul.

AMALEK

At the end of the parashah, we are given very clear instructions about the obstacle that Amalek represents in our process of spiritual transformation. He is a klip that we cannot possibly transform and enter the promised land with, and therefore must be completely removed.

Amalek is doubt, doubt about the Creator, a benevolent, omnipresent, and omnipotent force. This doubt is the seed of many of the negativities we face before completing teshuvah.

In teshuvah, negativities will appear on a conscious level: for example, envy, and behind it is doubt. It is good that we have found a way to doubt through envy. When we deal with doubt, envy falls away, as well as all other negativities that stem directly from doubt.

The appearance of Amalek - doubt - is an understandable part of the process, as we complete each level with arguments, with logic, so it seems that we have achieved success without the creator's help.

Amalek is, of course, also excessive self-confidence - with it we complete tasks at a certain level, but we cannot progress with it.

What is this doubt, what are we doubting?

Man does not doubt whether the creator exists, he does not doubt his power. He doubts; whether the creator is with us. Man feels abandoned, unworthy of the creator's love, etc., and therefore he distances himself from the basic spiritual rules.

What are these ground rules?

According to the law of equivalence of form, the creature must reach the creator.

Creator features:

1) Unlimited love, giving (chesed), which must be properly distributed on the path to creation, therefore discipline (gevurah) is necessary. All other qualities (sefirot) stem from these two qualities.

2) Man must change the consciousness of the victim, of the consequences, into the consciousness of the cause. The danger lurking here is that we continue the drama; instead of the victim, we become the executioner or the savior.

3) We must be creative all the time; recreating our better self. We must know that we are partners with the creator; and he creates the world anew at every moment.

BATTLE ABOVE ENEMIES

כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֥א לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל־אֹיְבֶ֑יךָ וּנְתָנֹ֞ו יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּיָדֶ֖ךָ וְשָׁבִ֥תָ

שִׁבְיֹֽו׃

De 21:10 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand, and you take their captives.

Let's see what the non-kabbalistic translation is:

"When you go out to war against your enemy and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive."

I don't mean to say that the translation is bad. A non-Kabbalist, when reading it in Hebrew, will understand it as it is translated. He will ignore the linguistic peculiarities and grammatical "errors" and translate it in a way that makes sense or is understandable. And here is precisely the main problem, the "original sin", if you will. Giving priority to knowledge over trust, which happened with the serpent in the Garden of Eden from which man was expelled. We are now in the process of teshuvah, returning to paradise, which is why there is so much incomprehensibility in this parasha.

WHO כִּֽי

When you go out, it adds a very important element of free will, without which there is no return to the light. It is not commanded that one must go into battle, but it tells what will happen when one decides to go out with the intention of fighting. On the other hand, we can also understand it in the reverse order: when everything that follows the words ki-tesi has happened, we will know that we have come out, that we have gone out.

YOU WILL COME OUT תֵצֵ֥א

In Croatian they have the verb izati, which is exactly what it is in Ki-teze: when you come out. In beautiful Slovenian it is: when you come out, but the meaning of exit is lost. We can also see this in the non-kabbalistic translation, where the verb is reduced to greš, without greš ven.

Ki-tez is the central parasha of Devarim, the book that deals with the entrance into the promised land, or the process of teshuvah. Return - teshuvah is based on the exit from one situation and the entrance into another situation. The next parasha, Ki-tavo, means: when you enter. Therefore, it is very important to understand the verb to leave, which determines the present parasha and in fact determines teshuvah and in a way explains Kabbalah.

FOR THE BATTLE לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה

It is not written that he will go out to battle, but for battle. The difference is very important. The battle will not happen immediately. And also; the battle does not lie in wait for him. He does not go out because the enemy is waiting for him, but he goes out so that the opportunity for battle will be offered to him. Here we have an element of pro-activity. This part could be understood as a person "looking for problems" for himself. Yes, this is absolutely true. Except that the Kabbalist is aware that negativities are the link between him and the Creator. The Kabbalist is looking for battle, and Elul is the time when the "king is in the field", so now we will want success in our battles.

A person will come out of a certain situation in order to experience a battle. This is essentially related to the parashah Leh-leh (Go for Yourself), which happens to Abraham when he leaves his comfort zone. Only now the situation is intensified, because we are about to enter the promised land. Of course, it is right that we recognize the beginning of teshuvah in the story of Abraham. Abraham went into the world in order to gain knowledge - this knowledge has now been passed on to the following generations who enter the promised land.

ABOVE YOUR ENEMIES עַל־אֹיְבֶ֑יךָ

Grammatically it would be correct: with enemies or against enemies באיביך. In translation this "mistake" is lost, because in Slovenian we can say that you fight against or over enemies. In Hebrew, however, over enemies is "mistake", so I translated it iznad so that the "mistake" is also felt in the translation.

The essence of the message is to rise above the enemy. To rise above the situation or to enter the battle as the cause of it instead of the victim. This is the recipe for victory. No battle can be won as a victim, so it is wise not to enter it with the consciousness of a victim from the beginning. To fight above the enemy means to fight with oneself, to know that the many enemies we see outside ourselves are only a mirror of our own qualities, which we must transform if we want to return to the light.

Fighting over enemies also means understanding that they are a link to the creator.

TRANSITION FROM PLURAL TO SINGULAR וּנְתָנֹ֞ו

In keeping with the previous idea that we are the cause of our enemies and we are the cause of our battles, the text shifts from the plural to the singular. We are the sole cause of the multitude of our enemies. The Creator will place our sole enemy, which is our false self, into our hands.

CAPTURE OF A PRISONER שִׁבְיֹֽו

Our false self has captured our soul. Now, in this battle, we will reverse the situation and capture the prisoner, who is essentially our soul. One would expect that we would simply free our captured soul. This happened in a way at the Exodus from Egypt, when the Creator's intervention was from the top down. Now, in Elul, at the entry into the Promised Land, we have a bottom-up process, which is much more realistic, without any great miracles.

That you must capture your own soul has a much deeper meaning. The soul always remains virgin, untouched, perfect - no matter what we do in the lower spiritual and material worlds. In reality, the soul is never captured, only we are captured in our false idea of ourselves. When we capture our soul, it is still wrapped in the images of the false self.

We can see that the capture of a prisoner is a "return to the light" if we rearrange the letters: שביו, thus we get:

שוב י , which is the return of the yod, the return of the light. Let us remember that the yod is associated with the virgin, and she with Elul, which is the month of teshuvah.

RETURN TO THE SOUL

When we capture a beauty in war, we capture our soul, but the process of our return to the light is not yet complete. Much active work is still needed. The prisoner must cut her hair, trim her nails, and take off her prisoner's clothing. Changes to the body and changes to the clothing are necessary - and both changes have in common the fact that they are painless. It does not hurt to cut your hair or trim your nails, but it must be done. This is, of course, a metaphor for visualization, with which we change our self-image. When we visualize new situations, images that are incompatible with our goal and that are hindering us from getting there, without us realizing it, leave our subconscious completely painlessly.

There is also the possibility that we will no longer like this kidnapped beauty. We must let her go where she wants. Returning to the creator goes through levels, so after successfully completing a certain level, our soul can leave us again and we must kidnap her again in the battle of the next level, so we must not sell her for money at the previous level, so she can return to us when the time is right again.

DISOBEDIENT SON

This commandment, which requires parents to take their disobedient son before the elders to be stoned, is certainly unrealistic. Who would do that?

A son always represents a new level of development, a new level of understanding. The words son בן and understanding בינה have the same root, as does the word stone אבן.

When the elders stone a disobedient son at the gates of his city, it is essentially a barrage of arguments that ends the current spiritual level, he dies, so the son, who initially disobeyedly resisted the new level, has no choice but to advance to the next level.

INTEREST ON LOANS

At first glance, it seems discriminatory to lend to your neighbor without interest and to a stranger with interest - although this seems logical because this is how life actually goes. The problem is also because it determines who is your neighbor and who is not. On a practical level, this creates a hierarchy or network, which is somehow natural.

But if we map this to the spiritual world within a single person, then we have a higher level that lends knowledge to the lower level. This knowledge, the loan, must in any case be returned, because everything must be earned. The lower level that wants to rise can have two purposes: altruistic or egoistic. When the purpose is egoistic, we charge interest, otherwise only the principal.

Even though this is happening within ourselves, we will project this process onto the outside world in a variety of ways, so that we will treat people according to different standards.

This is a great example of when we find discrimination in relationships. We need to identify the causes, eliminate them with new patterns of behavior and by visualizing the new state.