Glossary of Terms Used in the Shlach Lecha Weekly Torah Portion

The Land of Canaan

We are immersed in desire. All we have is a desire that must be corrected from harming others into doing good to them. The “land of Canaan” is that desire when it is still uncorrected, but is about to be corrected.

Forty Days

“Forty” is the degree of Bina. The gap between Malchut and Bina is called “forty.” It is the gap between the will to receive, the ego, and the degree of faith, Bina, the level of bestowal.

Flowing with Milk and Honey

“Milk and honey” represent the abundance we receive in the corrected desire.

Amalek

“Amalek” is the foundation of all evil. It is the intention to receive in order to receive, which exists within our nature.

Joshua Ben Nun

Nun is fifty, the fiftieth degree, fifty gates of Bina. Joshua, like Moses, pulls. Joshua saves the children of Israel by bringing them to the fiftieth degree, the gates of Bina. Moses completed the degree of forty because he passed away at the entrance to the land of Israel, and Joshua succeeded him.

Spies, the Quality of Spying

The “quality of spying” is our egoistic desires to receive that constantly seek to steal for ourselves instead of to give, bestow, and rise above reception.

The Generation of the Desert

The “generation of the desert” is our own desires, which must all die with their intentions to receive. The intention to receive must die, and only the desires with intentions to bestow enter the land of Israel. This is why the whole generation of the desert had to die in the desert.

Plague

“Plagues” are the biggest and best corrections we can experience. All of a sudden, we can correct many desires and qualities at once, which are inverted into having the aim to bestow. By that, we feel closer to the Creator. This is how we gradually approach Israel.

Conquering the Land

“Conquering the land” follows this portion, when the spies went to spy. The word, Eretz (land), comes from the word, Ratzon (desire). We take the egoistic will to receive that we corrected in the desert into having the intention to bestow, and now that desire has become bestowal. In other words, now we receive from others only because we want to bestow, to give. In this way, others enjoy, and we enjoy, too; we all enjoy giving to one another. Having this sort of relationship with the Creator means being in Dvekut (adhesion) with Him, in the world of Ein Sof (infinity). But even if it is the world of Ein Sof, we must all attain Him here in this world while we are still alive.

Grapes, Vine

“Wine” and “vine” are the degree of Hochma. It is the same light, attainment, and sensation of the Creator that dresses in the light of bestowal, the light of Hassadim.