Glossary of Terms Used in the Ki Tetze Weekly Torah Portion

Son

A “son” is the next degree, or Ben (son), from the word Mevin (understanding). We can never understand what we are doing—both in corporeality and in spirituality—until after we act. It is written about it, “By Your actions we know You” (Prayer Book, The Song of Unification on Sabbath). Through actions, we begin to understand. It is like children playing without understanding anything, but all of a sudden they grow smarter.

The same is true for us. This is why Ben, Mevin, is a degree that comes to us as a result of actions. It is also why it is written, “By Your actions we know You” (Megillah, 6b). Make an effort, act, and you will understand and see.

Beloved Woman and Hated Woman

A “beloved woman” is the will to receive with which a person can work in order to bestow. A “hated woman” is the will to receive with which one cannot work with the aim to bestow, which does not support us because we are weak. This is why there are prohibitions against separating them and treating each of them differently.

It is the same with the sons—the firstborn sons from the loved woman and from the hated woman. This has to do with our desires, and depends on how we relate to them, how we can or cannot lift the will to receive toward correction.

Loss

In spirituality, a “loss” means that we lose the ability to remain at a degree that we had already acquired. In other words, if we lose something, it deliberately comes from above as a kind of help to us, and we need to search for it. This is the root of the commandment to return a loss that has been found to its owner.

Just Sentence

“Justice” means that we properly connect judgment and mercy, the right line and the left line, so that we correct our will to receive to have the aim to bestow upon others in the optimal measure. In other words, under any circumstances, we do the utmost act of bestowal.