VaEra [And I Appeared]
1-2) “Trust in the Lord forever and ever, for the Lord is God, an everlasting rock.” “Trust in the Lord” means that all the people in the world should strengthen themselves in the Creator and have confidence in Him.
Thus, what is “Forever and ever”? One’s strength should be in a place of persistence and connection of everything, and this is called Ad [and ever], which is ZA. This “And ever” is a place that unites to this side and to that side, which is the middle line, which unites the right and the left in each other, to persist and to connect, so the two lines will persist and their illuminations would be permanently connected.
7) “Trust in the Lord forever and ever.” In all of man’s days, he needs to strengthen himself in the Creator. One who puts his trust and strength appropriately cannot be harmed by any person in the world, for anyone who places his strength in the Holy Name persists in the world.
15) “A Psalm of David. The land is the Lord's, and all it contains; the world and those who dwell in it.” “The land” is the holy land of Israel, which is destined to be watered by the Creator and to be blessed with Him first. And from it, the whole world will be watered. “The world and those who dwell in it” is the rest of the lands, which drink from it.
24) “And the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.” The wise are those sages that have observed sublime things of their own, of whom people cannot speak aloud for their great height. They are the ones called “wise.”
31) This is why the way of the righteous is that it seems as though they speak to a person, but they raise their words to the Creator, to keep, “I have set the Lord always before me.”
32) How dense are people for not knowing and not observing why they are in the world. After all, when the Creator created the world, He made man in His image and established him with His corrections, to engage in Torah and to walk in His ways.
61-63) How do all the days of the year render healing to all the organs? After all, Malchut, the year, has nothing of herself? On the contrary, the organs, which are the general, are the 248 pipes of abundance of ZA, and they impart everything to Malchut. This is certainly so above, in ZA, and below, in man. The year and its days, which are its Sefirot, give healing to all the organs above, in ZA, and below, in man, since the organs impart abundance of blessings for the days of the year, which are the Sefirot of Malchut, the individual.
In each positive Mitzva that a person keeps, he extends abundance of blessings from an organ, a pipe of ZA, unto one of the days of the year, which is the individual. And then healing and life hang upon us from above until the organs are filled with all the perfection, imparting them upon the individual, which is the year. At that time, the Mochin of the individual appear.
Who caused the organs to be filled with all the perfection? The days of the year, since the organs came to complement it. If the year did not need correction, the organs—which are ZA’s pipes of bounty—would not be filled with abundance. This is why it is regarded as though the days of the year gave healing and life to the organs.
And so it is below. When a person complements himself in these 248 positive Mitzvot in the Torah, there is not a day that does not come to be blessed by man. And when they are blessed by him, then life and healing hang over him from above, meaning they do not extend to Malchut before a person completes all 248 positive Mitzvot to the fullest. And until then, they hang over him from above.
Who caused the pipes above to be filled with healing and life? It is the days of the year. This is why it is regarded as though the days of the year gave them healing and life. As the days of the year are blessed from above, from man, which is ZA, they are blessed below, from the lower man, through the Mitzvot that he observes.
Happy are Israel in this world, in those Mitzvot that they keep, for this is why they are called “man,” as it is written, “And you ... are men.” This means that you are called “men,” and the idol worshippers are not called “men.” And because Israel are called “men,” they should exert in the Mitzvot of the Torah, which are 613, corresponding to the 248 organs and 365 tendons in a man’s body, which are all one body, man.
81) In an awakening from below, when Israel awakened to the Creator and cried before Him, it is written, “And I have remembered My covenant.” Then the desire awakened to tie everything into one connection. Since the covenant, Yesod de ZA, awakened, the connection of all the Sefirot to ZA awakened. “And I have remembered My covenant” means connecting him to Malchut. This is why it is written, “Therefore say unto the children of Israel, ‘I am the Lord,’” that all the Sefirot connected in a single connection to redeem Israel from Egypt.
89-90) “Know this day and take it to your heart that the Lord, He is God.” It should have said, “Know this day that the Lord, He is God,” and in the end, “And take it to your heart,” since knowing that the Lord is God qualifies him to respond so to the heart. And if he has already responded to his heart, it is especially so if he already has knowledge. Also, it should have said, “take it to your heart” [with one Bet] instead of “heart” [with a double Bet].
Heart with a double Bet means that the good inclination and the evil inclination, which reside in the heart, have mingled in one another and they are one. “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” means with both your inclinations—the good inclination and the evil inclination, so the bad qualities of the evil inclination will become good, meaning he will serve the Lord with them and not sin through them. Then there will certainly be no difference between the good inclination and the evil inclination and they will be one.
Then you will find that the Lord [HaVaYaH] is God, that the quality of Din, called “God,” is included in HaVaYaH, which is the quality of Rachamim [mercy], since they have been included in one another, as the evil inclination and the good inclination were included in the heart, and it is one. Thus, we can know that the Lord is God only by taking it to the heart. This is why the text places “Take it to your heart” first, to thus know the matter of the Lord being God.
176) When the friends are on the way, they should go with one heart. If there are wicked ones walking among them or people who are not from the King’s palace, they should part them.
183) “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” “Her ways are ways of pleasantness” are the ways of the Torah. Anyone who walks in the ways of Torah, the Creator brings upon him the pleasantness of Divinity, so it would never leave him. “And all her paths are peace” are the paths of the Torah, since all the paths of the Torah are peace—peace for him above, peace for him below, peace for him in this world, and peace for him in the next world.