Bahir 137

We come back to the recurring theme of Kindness,Terror and Truth. First we'll make some definitions and bring it back to basics. Trying to figure out these long passages can be daunting but there continues to be the thread of consciousness that winds its way throughout. We'll determine that thread and then follow it to the next phase of enlightenment.

Bahir 137. Why wine and milk? What does one have to do with the other? But this teaches us that wine is Terror and milk is Kindness. Why is wine mentioned first? Because it is closer to us. Do you then think that this refers to actual wine and milk? We must say that it is the Form of wine and milk. Through the merit of Abraham, who was worthy of the attribute of Kindness, Isaac was worthy of the attribute of Terror. And because Isaac was worthy of the attribute of Terror, Jacob was worthy of the attribute of Truth, which is the attribute of Peace. God bestowed him according to his measure. It is thus written (Genesis 25:27) "Jacob was a complete man, dwelling in tents." The word "complete" means nothing other than peace. It is thus written (Deuteronomy 18:13), "You shall be complete with the Lord your God," and the Targum renders this, "You shall be at peace (sh'lim). " The word "complete" refers to nothing other than the Torah. It is thus written (Malachi 2:6), "A Torah of truth was in his mouth." What is written in the very next phrase? It states, "With peace and uprightness, he walked before Me." "Uprightness" is nothing other than peace, as it is written (Psalm 25:21) , "Complete and upright." It is therefore written (Exodus 17:11), "And it was when Moses would raise his hands, Israel would prevail. This teaches us that the Attribute that is called Israel has in it a "Torah of Truth."

Commentary: Here we need to make some definitions. Kindness refers to Chesed and Milk, Terror to Gevurah and Wine, and Truth to Tiphareth and Peace-Israel on the Tree of Life Diagram. These may not be the usual designations of these Sephiroth but we are going to use these definitions for the purpose of the discussion here. The final outcome is uprightness or peace. Complete and upright it is called. If we take the hands of Moses and hold them upright we have the paths going from Tiphereth to both Chesed and Gevurah. Raise your hands. The V formed here is the same V formed by this particular designation with Tipheret forming the lower point. What is happening here and why is this being pointed out to us? The flow of information is that peace extends itself through the attributes of Restriction-Gevurah and Letting Go-Chesed. What we see here is a reintegration of the Tree of Life. It then becomes a model for how to proceed in thinking about the process of creation and experience touched on in the last post as a prelude to this section here. We restrict doubts and encourage or are open to the free flowing energy of awareness seen to come into play as a result of inspiration. The truth or Tiphereth reminds us of the completion or synthesis of these energies of restriction and letting go when seen flowing down the Tree of Life. The reverse upward flow directly involves our Intention demonstrated by the figure of Moses now raising his hands to assure the survival of Israel in the Torah story. What we learn more about in this context is that this survival of Israel is none other than the survival of the Torah itself. Jacob as Israel through his twelve sons completes the purpose of Truth which is also the Torah, the living record of man who seeks G-d and G-d who is forever contacting man. There is an ongoing downward flow of
G-d reaching inside of man and the upward flow of man embodying the essence of Godliness. The next verse goes on to explain this further and it is here that we will go into more detail.