ב"ה
THEMES of Featured Ari Articles
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Part 1
The ashes of the red heifer are used to purify a person from the impurity of close contact with a dead person. "Death" is spiritually a falling from one state of divine consciousness to a lower one (or lack of one). Thus, the commandment of the red heifer contains within it the mystical explanation of evil and the purification from defilement of evil/death, i.e. loss of divine consciousness.
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Part 2
The Ari teaches that, just as the heifer embodies the
retrogression of normal divine consciousness that results from contact with
death, so do its ashes purify via the five states of gevura, which relate
to the five sefirot associated with the left column of the Tree of Life
model.
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Intermediate
Kabbalah expounds the mystical background of the Golden Calf.
The Sages note that it was the "Mixed Multitude" of non-Jews that accompanied the Jews in their exodus from Egypt who instigated the idolatry of the Golden Calf. The Arizal explains that they were indeed meant to be elevated eventually, since they contained sparks of holiness, but Moses tried to do this prematurely.
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