BEHAALOTKHA - VZPENJANJE

8:1 – 12:19 בהעלתך

Opozorilo na nivojskost procesa spiritualne preobrazbe. Ker nivoji ne predstavljajo nadgradnje prejšnjih nivojev, se včasih zdi, da je bilo spiritualno delo na prejšnjem nivoju neučinkovito, to pa pomeni nezadovoljstvo in neučakanost, pritoževanje.

AARON AND THE MENORAH

This time's parashah is also distinctly 'post-Shavuot'. It begins with the instruction: when you lift (the lamp) בְּהַעֲלֹֽתְךָ֙. It is not the same verb to lift that gave the title to the previous parashah, but it is still a verb that describes lifting, ascending. Of course, it would be correct to write: when you light the lamp. What does it mean: to lift the lamp? Shavuot is the feast of the middle pillar of the tree of life, which means that we change our desire to receive into receiving with the intention of giving. This is also a metaphor for the olive lamp, where the burning filament represents resistance. Today's light bulbs also work on the principle of resistance between plus and minus, which is why we get light. If there were no tungsten filament in the light bulb, which represents resistance, a short circuit would occur and the light bulb would not give light. Raising the lamp means that through our actions, which are always motivated by the desire to receive, we can achieve spirituality when we transform ourselves into sharing - receiving with the intention of giving.

We are in Sivan, where new and new desires are developing in our malkut, this is of course right. The only right thing. A person who does not accept is dead. The first condition for acceptance is the desire to accept. Likewise, he who accepts egoistically is condemned to death.

When reading this parashah, we encounter levels of spiritual transformation. This encounter, of course, depends on the level we are at and the tasks we have to complete. We can feel the levelness internally or externally with the many people we meet and with whom we feel that they are also seeking answers to questions about spirituality. Since we are dealing with a level structure, we will meet people who use various pseudo-spiritualities or even pseudo-Kabbalah, but according to our criteria, they are not yet on the spiritual path, but are only on the path of personal development. If we put this in the context of Sivan, then we can understand why. Certain spiritual insights or alternative knowledge can be transferred to our material world, where we must first develop if we want this to be followed in due time by spiritual transformation.

Aaron is instructed to place the candles on the candlestick so that they shine toward the central part of the candlestick. The Menorah - the candlestick has seven branches. The three on the left represent receiving, the three on the right represent giving, and the middle one is the middle pillar, which is receiving with the intention of giving. When we are able to combine the left and right pillars with the middle one, we progress. This is the basic rule of approaching the Creator, which of course happens gradually.

Aaron is from the tribe of Levi. Let us recall the conclusion of the previous parashah, Naso, when each tribe brought exactly the same gifts for the dedication of the tabernacle. There is a need for uniqueness in each of us, which is also a natural fact, but at the same time, everyone wants to be the same as their collective at least at some point. It is, of course, a question of equivalence of form, which as we progress, we want to achieve with the creator. But we also know that unity with the creator is achieved when we are united with the collective. We can only imagine how Aaron felt when his tribe was not given the same task as all the other tribes.

Equivalence of form is, of course, a basic law, but it applies at a certain spiritual level. If we want to progress, we must acquire the properties (equivalence of form) of a level above our current level. That the idea of equivalence of form, as a basic law in spiritual progress, is evident from the name of the parasha, which indicates ascent, and also from the word pairs in the first four verses of the parasha. These pairs indicate kinship, origin, equivalence of form. In this piece of text, their concentration is very strong, which is why they attract attention:

The Lord

candles

The Lord

candlestick

מַעֲשֵׂ֤ה

task

עָשָׂ֖ה

he/she/it has completed

כַּמַּרְאֶ֗ה

as a display

The Lord

he showed

The gifts of the other tribes were powerful, so it is understandable that Aaron has a desire that he and all the Levites with him would also offer the same as the other tribes. However! To advance to the next level, another desire is needed. Let us remember that in spirituality, everything that is is the result of desires; the result of a vessel - the kli, which represents a certain spiritual level. If we think about it carefully, Aaron was in a way complaining because he was not given the same tasks as everyone else, although his complaint is not expressed, or is expressed only at the end of the parashah, when he and Miriam complain. It is about the conception of a new spiritual level that Aaron does not yet recognize, nor does he recognize the counterforce that develops with the new level, which is, of course, our ego. Aaron's task is in fact much more noble and effective than the one-time gift of the other tribes. Aaron is given a task that he must perform every day. This is the essence of spiritual transformation: daily lighting of candles - daily, gradual approaching of the Creator.

That this is a new spiritual level is also clear in the text below, when we read about the consecration of the Levites. When they are cleansed of sin, they must shave their entire bodies, just as we read in the previous parashah about the Nazirite vow, which ends with shaving. This is symbolic of the "new." In a way, shaved bodies symbolize a newborn.

The way Aaron offers the Levites into the tabernacle is by approaching. This type of offering means a gradual approach, by approaching. Once again, the parasha emphasizes to us how important gradualness is!

PASSOVER SHENI

We have already discussed the Passover seine separately. This time, however, it makes sense to understand it in the context of the story, which we recognize when analyzing the individual parts of the parashah.

What is essential about Pesach is that people who, for various reasons, could not or were not allowed to observe Pesach, now express their desire to draw closer to the Creator. This is, of course, a further development of the desire for closeness with the Creator that we already recognized in Aaron.

Moses does not know how the people should perform the substitute Pesach, so he asks the creator about it. This is knowledge that we do not have at the current level, because it concerns the next level. Only Moses has direct contact with the creator (the next level).

It makes sense to understand Passover as an activation of the negativities that we put aside in the previous level because we were not yet able to deal with them. This time, however, these negativities, which are otherwise ego, represent material that we can transform and thus get closer to the creator.

If I refer to what I said in the previous chapter, it is now obvious that with the increased desire for the creator, the ego also increases.

FOLLOW THE CLOUD

On the one hand, we have dates and calendar structures that we rely on for our spiritual transformation, and on the other hand, the creator leads us through the desert, through the process of spiritual transformation without our full understanding. Therefore, it is necessary to follow the cloud, which does not have a fixed rhythm, how many days it will be over the dwelling; that is, how many days the Israelites will not travel.

In a way, it is the annihilation of the temporal structure to which we have been accustomed from Pesach, through the Omer to Shavuot. In reality, it is the merging of two time concepts; linear and cyclical time, which then gives us spiral time, which our mind cannot recognize at first, so it seems to us that things are following us without any rhythm or meaning. That it is a synthesis of linear time with cyclical time into spiral time can also be understood in the case of Aaron. The repetition of the same gifts that the tribes bring to Parashah Nasa represents a circle, and they themselves represent a line, as they come one after the other. Aaron, however, rises above this circle, and therefore does not offer as the other tribes do.

Because we are now left without an understandable structure, we are in a desert, and this means that we can put trust before knowledge, which is inevitable in spiritual progress. It is important to emphasize: there is a structure, we just do not recognize it at first.

The cloud represents concealment. Our entire journey through the desert is based on concealment. We remain without knowledge, in a way we blindly follow the creator. This seems almost impossible; in our ordinary material life there is nothing comparable to this kind of motivation, which is the result of an activated and developing desire for the creator at a certain spiritual level. Now this desire is so strong that it overcomes any rationality with which we are otherwise motivated. In fact, it is a concealment if we want to get to a new level. This is always different from the previous level. In essence, we have to conceal the knowledge that we have at the current level, as well as the idea-knowledge of the future level.

COMPLAINT

The more we pursue concealment, the greater our desire for the creator. At the same time, the ego also increases, which is now expressed in the text through the complaint about the familiar pleasures of Egypt.

Cloud in Hebrew is anan עָנָן, and to complain is also anan, except it is written with an aleph instead of an ayn: אָנַן.

When do we complain? One answer is when we do not have the knowledge with which to fulfill our desires. The other answer is also related to knowledge, to belief, to the idea of our level, of our desires. This idea is now contaminated with the knowledge contributed by the ego. And because it seems to us that we are not getting what we should or what is supposed to belong to us, we complain. Complaining essentially occurs because we are unable to resist knowledge, knowledge - the material idea that is painted for us by the five senses.

This parashah is about the transition from one spiritual level to the next. We don't have new knowledge yet, and the old one is nagging us in the way that we complain. In this case, complaining is a manifestation of the ego, but it is also an indicator that we are in a transitional period, which is the meaning of the desert.

PROPHECY

Gossip or speaking badly about others, which refers to Mirama's gossiping of Moses, also means that we give priority to what we see and do not allow that there is also an invisible part of reality, where as a whole everything is good. Sivan is the twin that is material and spiritual. Gossip is directly related to the levels that we and those around us go through. When we are not on the same level, we respond with gossip, which is always a consequence of comparisons, and the latter are possible if we are on different levels or if we have different levels within ourselves, which are manifested in different people and situations that we experience at that time.

Gossip is, of course, the level of ego that follows complaining. It is no coincidence that the parashah ends with Aaron and Miriam. We met Aaron at the beginning of the parashah, when we realized that it is about the development of a new spiritual level, which is of course based on the desire to approach the Creator. Throughout the story, we observed how the ego also grows with the new level. At the end of the developmental path, it grows to an unacceptable limit. Miriam in this case is Aaron's malkut, which accepts the egoistic, so it needs to be removed for a while to transform, and then we can progress again.

The entire content of the parasha speaks of structure, levels; all persons and groups indicate the intertwining of levels and interdependence. The Creator speaks to Moses "peh le peh" - mouth to mouth, which we can understand only when we engage in the level-based nature and find Moses within ourselves, receiving understandable instructions from the Creator.

Prophecy is the opposite of the covering represented by the cloud. In a way, prophecy is the first "reward" given to us by the Creator. We also read that there are different levels of prophecy - which of course indicates different stages in spiritual transformation.

Parasha Behaalotkha has within it a corrective light that helps us connect our complaints and the complaints of those around us to the level of spiritual transformation.

OBRNJENI NUN

Črka nun נ se v tem delu besedila pojavi v obrnjeni obliki, tako kot vidimo zgoraj. In sicer imamo dva obrnjena nuna. Prvega pred verzom: 10:35, drugega pa pred 10:36. Na sliki vidimo, kako taka nuna nastopata v originalnem besedilu, zapisanemu na ročno pisanih zvitkih Tore: 

35 Kadar se je skrinja odpravljala na pot, je Mojzes govoril:

»Vzdigni se, GOSPOD, in razkrope naj se tvoji sovražniki; tisti, ki te sovražijo, naj zbeže izpred tvojega obličja!« 36 In kadar se je ustavila, je govoril: »Vrni se, GOSPOD, k množici Izraelovih tisočnij!«

Ni povsem jasno, kaj predstavljata obrnjena nuna. To je edini primer, ko imamo tovrstno pravopisno znamenje v besedilo. Verjetno gre za besedilni vložek, ki je vzet od drugod. Ker ima nun numerično vrednost 50, nekateri mislijo, da bi morala biti ta verza 50 verzov prej. Seveda je to, kakor tudi vse ostalo v Tori, stvar interpretacije, ki se spreminja glede na naše spiritualno napredovanje.

Nekateri komentatorji dajo zelo velik pomen tema verzoma, obravnavajo ju celo kot samostojno Mojzesovo knjigo. Tako naj bi bilo Mojzesovih knjig sedem, ne pet. Saj knjigo Bamidbar razdelijo v tri knjige: Bamidbar do teh verzov, ta verza, od teh verzov pa do konca Bamidbar. 

Kakorkoli že, gotovo gre za neznanko, s čimer je še dodatno poudarjen pomen zakritosti, kateri moramo slediti na poti skozi puščavo do obljubljene dežele. Tudi učenec kabale mora slediti zakritostim, če želi, da se mu ob pravem času Tora razodene.