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THEMES of Featured Ari Articles

The Song of Torah
The Arizal illustrates the Written Torah in the light of the Kabbalah.
"And now, write for yourselves this song…"

The "song" apparently is the poem that follows. However, the Sages also understand it as referring to the Torah as a whole, thus deriving the commandment that each individual write a Torah scroll which include all five Books of Moses.
Mystical Mitzvahs, Active and Passive
In this Torah portion, the Ari discusses the spiritual origins of the positive and negative commandments in relation to the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton. The passive commandments are dependent upon the first two letters, yud-hei, and the active commandments are dependent upon the last two letters, vav-hei.
The Blessing of a Name
These three yud's form one of the 72 Names of G‑d.
The Divine attribute of forgiveness and mercy is indicated in Kabbala by the beard, which bypasses the usual channel of the throat. This signifies G-d's great mercy in bypassing the usual "rules" He has set up for creation, instead granting us mercy and forgiving us.
Exile of Supernal Knowledge
The Exodus was only the beginning of the redemption of knowledge.
Parashat VaYelech describes G‑d's final admonitions to Moses before his death, including reproaching Moses for having allowed a "mixed multitude" of gentiles to leave Egypt together with the Jews, on his own authority. This multitude was in fact not ready for this spiritual leap and caused much trouble during the forty-year trek in the desert.
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