Glossary of Terms Used in the Mishpatim Weekly Torah Portion

Law, or Rule

We are living under laws. The whole of Nature is a law. The Creator is a law; the creature is a law; everything is one law—the law of equivalence of form with the upper force. The upper force is the primer, the foundation, and we constantly measure ourselves and all other laws in relation to it.

The laws are particular instances of a single law—the law of equivalence of form. The whole of Creation must achieve balance, equivalence, and similarity to the force of the Creator. Each of us, at our own degree, must achieve bestowal and love.

What is the difference between law and judgment?

We must accept the law of bestowal and love as superior to the ego. Hence, what controls the ego and sustains it, what gives it the form of bestowal instead of the form of reception, is the force of Din (judgment). Man must restrain the ego, keep it at bay, and build above it a new Kli (vessel).

Is this natural, coming from Nature?

No, what Nature has given us is the ego, the will to receive. In order to turn it into a desire to bestow we must have the impact of the upper light. We need an outside force to come and help us, the light that reforms, which reforms that negative force and turns it into a good one. It was a good force once; this is why it is called “reforming,” turning it back to good. Now it is our task to turn the negative force into a positive one. This is our work.

Idolatry

“Idolatry” is serving the force that constantly wants only for itself. This work is alien to those of us who truly desire to keep Nature’s commands, the commands of the Creator.

A Hebrew Slave and a Hebrew Maidservant

These are parts of our egoistic will to receive—which contains everything from king to slave, including women, children, men, young and old. The whole world is in it, including the animals, the sky, the earth, and the stars. All these are parts of our desires, which we see in this way—as if they were outside of us.

Murder, Theft

“Murder” refers to the egoistic desire. This is why there is a commandment that if someone comes to kill you, you must kill him first. “Theft” refers to stealing from the gentile. That is, if the will to receive is considered “a gentile,” it is a commandment to steal from it, or there will not be justification. When we read the literal words, it is impossible to understand the Torah because it speaks entirely of the spiritual world, the correction of the soul, and the revelation of the Creator in it.