--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Zohar Class, the portion of Ki Tisa. Given By Eitan Yardeni at the Los Angeles Kabbalah Center.

This class covers verses in the Zohar for the portion of the week. This week, we are on English Volume #12, Ki Tisa. In class, we read a selection of verses from the Zohar, and after spending a minute discussing them, Eitan offers a full explanation. The verse numbers are referenced below, and you can read the verse corresponding to the discussion of each verse to get more insight. There may be some terms or concepts that will be unfamiliar to newer students. Please ask someone for an explanation you'll pick up some great stuff. -----------------------------------------------This portion is about the sin of the Golden Calf. Forty-nine days after leaving Egypt, the Children of Israel went to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, which would bring the energy of immortality, and a complete removal of chaos. It would take Moses forty days to bring down the totality of the revelation of the light from Mount Sinai, and Israel spent forty days in total unity without any Erev Rav. (Erev Rav are a people with no desire for the light at all, who only spread negativity. It refers to people, as well as an energy inside of us, as will be explained.) Six hours before Moses was to return at the end of the forty days, the Gold Calf was built, which removed immortality and brought back chaos to the world. We are still working off the tikkun of the Golden Calf. The energy of the Golden Calf is to run after a temporary source of energy (no restriction, instant gratification) instead of tapping into the light. Verse 49. The Zohar explains that Israel was given everything in the desert, and was completely taken care of through the channels of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, who were right, left and central column energy. For example, Miriam, who brought Israel water, is from the right column, Chesed - represented by the water. Aaron brought them protection from all chaos such that the clothing and shoes they wore did not decay at all in the 40 years they were in the desert. And yet, the Golden Calf still occurred. This is because Israel connected to the energy of the Erev Rav (to be explained fully later), which is a connection to complaining. Complaining is the seed of the problem of the Golden Calf, a desire to receive without giving anything of our own. The essence of complaining is generating an excuse to justify not giving something. As long as we are ruled by Satan, we'll always find things to complain about. Satan doesn't want us to give away trust, energy, effort, or anything to make us stretch ourselves and invest energy. When we won't do so, the number one justification is to complain, which gives us a reason why we shouldn't share. It takes no effort to complain, which is why it is so easy. This should not be confused with offering constructive suggestions. Complaining is turning it into a "youand-me" issue, where you are looking to see where you are right and someone else is wrong. A constructive suggestion is about "us" - here's something we can do to make things better, where you are including yourself in the process to fix something. We have to go outside the playing field of Satan. Giving of our own makes the world better. Complaining gives nothing, and we do it when things don't go our way. We should restrict our complaining and give constructive criticism from a calm, caring place. Also, it's more important to give criticism when we are afraid to say something, but it always has to come from love. When we complain, we're taking on a victim mentality. This gives us energy, just as anger can, but this is not lasting energy, it's a momentary illusion of power and control. Israel was constantly complaining in the desert, even with everything that they had, and one result was the Golden Calf sin. We must remember that in our lives we are looking to grow. We must remember not to get involved in judging all the time who around us is "right" and "wrong". Even if there are the wrong people around us, the light will always show us the right path as long as we are going outside ourselves and pushing ourselves. The Rav and Karen shared that when they first started spreading Kabbalah and growing the Center, they made several mistakes, but the light always curved the path for them so that things worked out despite all of their mistakes. All of the time, we should go outside ourselves and let the light handle things. Always checking who is "right" and "wrong" disconnects us from the light. We are always secure when we run after the light, because the light will show us the right people, and take us to the right places. We should think every day, "what can I do to run out of the playing field of Satan?"

Verse 24. The Zohar explains that a woman who has just entered the ninth month of her pregnancy is considered to have endured the entire month of discomfort associated with labor and birth pangs, even if she only feels them for a day. Likewise, the Torah and Prophets describe much pain and suffering that the world will undergo - death, suffering, famine, etc. Many horrible things that we don't want to experience are described, and even though it says they will happen, they don't HAVE to happen. This is because if Israel, (which refers to 3 column people, as will be explained shortly), will do repentance, then the suffering they have had is as if they have experienced ALL the suffering described in the Torah, so that now the suffering doesn't have to happen. This portion about the Golden Calf is also about repentance, represented by the second set of tablets brought by Moses. The second tablets were lesser in energy, but gave Israel a chance to do repentance (Teshuvah, in Hebrew). When we take responsibility for our negative actions, and make a commitment for change, we can wash out all the pain and negative energy we may have been due. Aaron participated in the Golden Calf, because he was tricked by the Erev Rav. He had a momentary lapse of consciousness, and as a result, he lost two of his sons, Nadav and Avihu, who were high souls, equivalent to all the souls of Israel. Nadav and Avihu were consumed by a fire when they bought a sacrifice that only Aaron was capable of doing. Aaron's response was silence. He restricted his reaction, and any complaints (no "where is G-d after all I've done?), and accepted the fact that what happened is for the good, and is from the light. He took responsibility and connected the cause and effect - his lapse at the Golden Calf, and the death of his sons. It's very painful to really connect the two, and we don't like to do so. We must accept pain as being from the light and think "what did I do to cause this?" and take responsibility for what we've done. We must see the cause and effect, and if we do so, the pain will go away. Aaron saw that his sons didn't die, their souls were still there, and they re-incarnated as Pinchas, Aaron's grandson. If we take responsibility for cause and effect, we'll see the big picture and remove the whole process of pain through our repentance. If we're going through chaos, we must face it, and think "what did I do wrong, what will I change?" We must go outside of ourselves to do this, not inside. As a reward, we'll eliminate the process of pain. Also, we must take responsibility without feeling guilty, and beating ourselves up, which is a form of avoiding responsibility. We must look straight at the light and be responsible. Verse 76. How could Aaron have participated in the Golden Calf incident? He tried to delay the process, but he fell into a trap and participated. At the head of the Erev Rav, who demanded the Golden Calf, were sons of Bilaam, who was a high priest of the dark side. They knew that to manifest something negative, they needed the power of Chassadim, which is right-column energy of giving. It's a force of energy and giving that activates everything, like when we add a drop of water (energy of Chassadim) to wine. So the sorcerers knew that to manifest the Golden Calf, they needed the energy of Chassadim. The impure system is a two-column system - negativity is manifested by connecting the right column directly to the left column without restriction. Aaron, as high priest was the head of this energy of Chassadim, and they knew they needed his energy, so they tricked him (as explained later). A slightly esoteric detour: A question arose in class asking how Aaron is an embodiment of right-column energy of Chassadim, when he is associated with the level of "Hod", which is in the left column of Zeir Anpin. The answer is that in Aaron's life he acted from Chassadim as a giver, and as a priest, but his function was to be 'Hod' which is actually Malchut of Zeir Anpin. There are five spiritual universes, and Hod is the fifth level of Zeir Anpin, corresponding to Malchut of Zeir Anpin. The level of Yesod is sort of "extra". (This is not a meant to be a comprehensive explanation, just a VERY rough idea.) Another question arose: "Why a Golden Calf"? The calf represents the desire to receive, and the calf was the god of the Egyptians. Verse 77.

The Zohar says that when the Erev Rav brought Aaron the gold to be used in making the golden calf he took it directly from their hand. Had he made them put it on the ground, and then taken it from the ground, the golden calf would not have been accomplished. What is the lesson here? In a bigger picture, it's not because of Aaron that the golden calf was made, it was because of the Erev Rav. Aaron was a peacemaker. He would run after two people in a fight and tell each one separately how much he was beloved by the other person in the fight in order to bring peace, reconciliation, and harmony among them. Aaron also allowed himself to be nice to the Erev Rav, to connect to them and try to bring peace to them, but they were negative and only sucked energy without boundaries. Aaron didn't practice tough love - the power of disconnecting from the wrong people. We have to judge our actions based on the final destination of what we're doing, not just on how it feels now. We must be tough on negative people so they don't suck all our energy. We cannot be righteous with everyone. We have to disconnect from them in order to connect to the light. (Again, this is referring to truly negative people like we learned bout the other week, people who have no spark of a desire for change, or spirituality or sharing, or the light. People who are absolutely 100% full of desire to receive for the self and negativity.) The significance of putting the gold on the ground versus receiving it directly is a connection to direct light versus returning light. Direct light is light that comes straight to us, and returning light is light we receive only after restriction - saying "no" first. Touching the ground represents first connecting to central-column energy, the returning light, which would neutralize all the negativity. This idea explains the meaning of the term "Chosen People" in describing Israel. The term used in the Torah for "Chosen People" is "Am Segulah", in Hebrew. "Segulah", or "chosen" is derived from the word "Segol", which is one of the vowels use with the Hebrew letters. The vowel "segol" is made up of three dots positioned on the corners of a triangle pointing down, just like the positions of Chesed, Gevurah, and Tiferet, the three-column system. Thus the term "chosen people" is more properly understood as "threecolumn-system people" - those people who are capable of restriction and spiritual growth. The word for Egypt in Hebrew is "Mitzrayim", which is derived from the word "Tzereh", which is the name of another Hebrew vowel. The "Tzereh" is made up of just two dots, one to the right and one to the left, connecting to impure two-column system. Adding the central column destroys the golden calf connection of the two dots, the "Tzereh". Verse 70. Ultimately, it was not Aaron who caused the golden calf, but the Children of Israel. Aaron had good intentions, but Israel joined with the Erev Rav in their hearts (the energy of complaining, destroying, not taking responsibility, being a victim, etc.), and the power of this union brought the golden calf. They had a spark of Erev Rav in their hearts that allowed the Erev Rav in. The Erev Rav are like "robots" of negativity with no free choice. The blame lay with Israel who with free will allowed in the negativity, and as a result, Aaron was forced to join in. Later, everyone had to be cleansed from the Erev Rav energy. Verse 54. The true cornerstone of all of Kabbalah is discussed here, and that is that real energy must be directed towards creating true love and harmony. It's a big test for us to love each other. Love combines Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the three columns). The Zohar itself was revealed only because of the great love with no limits from the "friends" (a group of Rabbis who studied with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai). We may have disagreements or conflicts with those we know who truly are on a spiritual path but we still need to overcome all the walls and barriers and have real love. Any decree in the world can be canceleldbetween two people who truly love each other. With ten people who truly love each other, we can bring Mashiach. Fellow friends who are all working for the same spiritual goal must love and respect each other. A lack of love caused the death of 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva, all of whom were great scholars and Kabbalist. We always have a reason not to love. We may think "So-and-so doesn't love me, so why should I love him?" - we must forget this. We should take responsibility, and know that love is not about waiting for the other person to come around first.