Glossary of Terms Used in the Teruma Weekly Torah Portion

Donation

A “donation” is what a person can set aside, the part of the ego that one can sacrifice and correct into working in order to bestow. Each time, we must set aside more and more of our hearts for correction until they are entirely “hearts of flesh” instead of the current “stony hearts.”

Atonement

The collective soul was shattered; we are all broken. “Atonement” means we must correct the intention of those broken vessels, broken desires—the 613 broken desires that are our soul.

We must bond with others and thus discover the Creator, who appears in neither of us, but rather in the unity between us. Gradually, we must all build the tabernacle, and in it attain the revelation of the Creator. It is written that the Creator tells us each time, “Do this or that work, and I will come and appear before you there, and tell you what needs to be done.” The common work of people is what yields the revelation of the Creator between them, and what clarifies the next step.

The Ark of the Covenant

This is where the upper force comes from—the place from which the Creator appears.

Menorah (the sacred lamp)

This is the disclosure of the upper force within one’s Kelim (vessels). The Menorah is the revelation of the Creator, who appears as the seven Sefirot of Zeir Anpin, in seven qualities—each representing the Menorah.

Sockets, Veil

A “socket” or a “veil” either concerns the will to receive or the Masach (screen) over it, which turns it from working in order to receive to working in order to bestow. There are only three elements in the whole of reality: the substance, namely the will to receive; the quality of bestowal that may be on it, meaning the Masach; and the upper light, the Creator. The upper light appears as the force operating in the operated, which is us to the extent that we are open to accept that outside force.

His Heart Moves Him

The “heart” is all of man’s 613 desires, which are all that we have. We want to gradually bring our hearts closer, from desires that are easier to correct to harder ones, through all 613 desires and 125 degrees, in three lines, in Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey. This is how we become corrected.

The correction is not done by us. We must take into account all the others who are with us in the network, and this is what we must correct. We do not correct ourselves, but our connections with others. The decisive element is how we correct ourselves, how we can connect to others. Our correction unfolds only according to others. That is, the correction is of our connections, not of ourselves.