The materials in this series of articles generally come from Mikra'ot Gedolot HaBahir, which has a voweled Hebrew translation of the pertinent Zohar on many verses, called Zohar HaNigleh - The Revealed Zohar - "revealed" because it is written in simpler Hebrew than the traditional Aramaic. What we intend to do is to provide a PaRDeS explanation of one verse from each weekly Torah portion by translating (and supplementing) the commentaries in Bahir Chumash.

PaRDeS, an acronym formed from the first letters of the four levels of Torah interpretation, means 'orchard' in Hebrew. (The English word Paradise (PaRaDiSe) is derived from the same Persian root).

Peshat: often inaccurately translated as literal, it comes from the root which means simple, although peshat is sometimes anything but simple! Peshat correctly means the intended, explicit meaning.

Remez: alluded meaning (reading between the lines). Remez in modern Hebrew means hint. Traditionally, remez referred to methods such as gezera shava (equivalent language implying equivalent meaning) and gematria (word-number values)

Derash: Homiletical or interpretative meaning. The word 'midrash' is from the same root. The drash is an interpretation that is not explicit in the text.

Sod: (lit. secret). The mystical or esoteric meaning.

To pick our daily verse, we find a verse that has the Zohar HaNigleh provided by the Bahir Chumash, and then work our way "down" from Sod. If there is Ramban explicitly according to sod ("the Way of Truth" as he calls it), we will try to provide it. Otherwise, it is our hope to give over a summary Ohr HaChayim as the metaphoric level, plus the corresponding Targum Yonatan. Also, the excellent translation of R. Yosef Karo's Maggid Mesharim by R. Yechiel Bar Lev and K Skaist will be offered as a special addition. The Ba'al HaTurim's allusions based on numerology will be offered, as well as Rashi, the universally acknowledged master of Peshat, for a basic, straight-forward explanation. Finally, we hope to give over personal reflections on points raised in the Zohar in our section called BeRahamim LeHayyim , a phrase that appears in the Sefardi Nusach addition to the Gevurot prayer during the 10 Days of Teshuvah, Zochreynu LeHayyim. We call our interpretation as such based on this author's name, Rahmiel Hayyim.

It is our hope that the mitzvah of Talmud Torah/learning Torah is fulfilled by speaking at least the verse out loud at least in English.

[Look in the "Mystic Classics" category in Weekly Torah for this week's selection.]