Glossary of Terms Used in the Yitro Weekly Torah Portion

Jethro

“Jethro” is the will to receive that can be sanctified and join Moses, and with him make the connection between the upper system—Keter, Hochma, and Bina—GAR of the soul, and the will to receive, the people below, ZAT of the soul. Jethro was included in Moses when Moses lived with him; he is like the force of Malchut that is included in Bina. This is why Bina can connect to Malchut and bring to it the new system.

Mount Sinai

It is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice”¹ because “the light in it reforms them.”² The evil inclination is Mount Sinai; it is all the hatred that appears between the nations of the world and Israel. The nations of the world are our desires to receive, and Israel is our desire to bestow. Therefore, if a gap between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow appears in us, we feel hatred, and can be said to be at the foot of Mount Sinai.

This hatred appears when we want to connect, when we are standing around the mountain and must establish mutual guarantee. This is why it is written, “He said to them, ‘If you receive the Torah, good. And if you do not, there will it be your grave.’”³ That is, if you do not connect as one man with one heart, here you will be buried.

The hatred is toward unity. If we do not want to connect, we will not discover our hatred of others, we will not arrive at Mount Sinai, and we will certainly not achieve corrections. This can tell us how far we all are from Mount Sinai.

Being at the foot of Mount Sinai is a great degree that comes after we have worked our whole lives in Egypt, working on the connection between people. And although we have wanted to have a connection of love of others, we could not do so until we realized that it was impossible. This is when the point that draws us out of ourselves appears, and we understand that it is possible to escape, and therefore we escape and rise above our egos.

Once we emerge from the ego, our relation toward it becomes increasingly apparent to us. What appears is the gap between the ego and the pull to be outside the ego. That gap is called “Mount Sinai.” This is the state that the Moses in us is above, trying to cling to the Creator at the top of the mountain, while the entire as-yet-uncorrected ego is below, just as the people could not connect to the Creator. However, this is already the beginning of the march toward correction.

A People of Segula (chosen/virtuous/remedy)

Segula refers to the punctuation mark Segol. Segol is three dots, representing the three lines by which we advance toward the goal, meaning right—the force of giving, and left—the force of receiving. Through them we build ourselves by joining the right to the left. It is customary to sing on the Sabbath, “Come in peace, angels of peace, angels of the upper one.” Just as we walk on two legs and advance, we build the middle line by which we advance out of the two lines, two angels.

“Go out in peace” comes after we have built the middle line in four states—Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey—and have reached the end of correction. This is when we say, “Go out in peace.”

This is how we use everything we have within to make corrections. We were given from above the right and the left—the force of bestowal, Kedusha (sanctity), and the force of reception, Klipa (shell/peel)—and it is for us to combine them. We do that in order to advance by constantly enhancing the combination between them, making it more beneficial. This is why the third line is called the “middle line.” The upper force is the two lines, two forces that help us connect properly. They are called Segula (virtue/remedy). We live only by them; if that force does not come, we cannot do anything below.