פרשת כי תשא או פרשת ויקרא: מי השילוח: בלי גאווה ובלי יאוש. עבדו את ה' ביראה. תודעת חצי חצי

“Each of your Mincha [meal] offerings you shall season with salt, you shall not cease the salt of the covenant with your God from your Mincha offerings, you shall salt all your sacrifices.” (Vayikra, 2:13)This is the opposite of good, for it will not foster expansion and growth of good, as a salted land does not produce. Yet it is something that can be combined with good, and that can add meaning to good (as salt adds flavor to food). In this way, the Hebrew word for a ship’s pilot, malach (sailor), is the same word for mixed, memulach, as he “mixes” the water in the act of steering the ship. (See the verses of the incense, Shemot 30:35, where Rashi explains, memulach, salted, as meaning mixed.) Concerning this it says, “each of your Mincha [meal] offerings you shall season with salt,” meaning that a man must deeply connect himself to God and not separate himself through anything of this world, but rather refine his connection as much as possible with good understanding and consciousness.This concerns the actions of Amatsiya king of Yehuda, who, after slaying 10,000 Edomites in battle, and then driving 10,000 Edomite captives over a cliff, went and served the idols of Edom. Afterwards he sent a message to Yoash, king of Israel, saying, “let us see each other face to face” (Divrei haYamim 2, 25:17). Edom is the foremost of the klipot (forces of evil), greater in stature than that of all the other nations. This is mentioned in the Gemara of Avoda Zara (2b), where it describes how when God calls all the nations before Him, raising a Torah scroll and proclaiming, “let all the nations that occupied themselves in this come forward,” then Edom will come directly after Israel because of its importance. Right after this klipa, Israel begins. At present, Israel is not permitted to rule over them, but only in the future, as will be explained in its place. Amatsiya’s killing 20,000 Edomites signifies the ten levels in this klipah, one above the other. Twenty thousand hints at this, meaning ten levels from below to above, and above to below. Amatsiya thought that since he had vanquished them so strongly that surely with every subsequent action he would not remove his heart from God, and no evil force would have the strength to overpower him, as it will be in the future.Therefore he experimented with serving Gods of Edom and sent to Yoash, king of Israel, “let us see each other face to face.” In this he was saying, “even though I have done something that seems evil, nonetheless I am still more deeply connected to God than you are.” Since this was not God’s will, he was punished and Yoash king of Israel captured him. And yet, it says there (verse 25), that Amatsiya lived fifteen years after the death of Yoash, which hints that in the fifteen levels existing within Israel Amatsiya was greater than Yoash, and his sin was only according to the border of man’s understanding. For those who understand the matters of the Kingdom of the House of David, know that all the kings of Yehuda are greatly beloved by God, and all their actions cannot be understood according to their surface meaning. One who understands Yeshayahu (7:3), “And God said to Yeshayahu, please go out towards Ahaz,” sees that “please” is a polite form of request, as with a father who had done evil to his son and estranged him, the father will try to appease him.This is as Achaz said (Yeshayahu, 7:12), “and Achaz said, I will not ask nor will I tempt God,” like a son trying to free himself from sin before his father. Also with Menashe, who was born with a sense of the fear of God so overwhelming that the mortal mind cannot stand it, and so all the kings had great fear, though it was not in a state where it could be controlled. His entire sin was because he wanted to remove from himself this state of the fear of God, and in every instance the fear of God only became more clear to him. The exception is David haMelech, who was born with the attribute of love, and this was the primary attribute for which he was recognized, as is known.