This is the last chapter of the Book of Vayikra (Leviticus), the third book of the Five Books of Moses. In the entire book, we read about the sacrifices, which we have come to understand are not “sacrifices” in the conventional sense but refer instead to where we sacrifice ourselves. But for whom do we sacrifice ourselves? Our parents? Our children? The Zohar says very clearly that this is a misrepresentation of what this book actually provides us with. Rather, says the Zohar, the Book of Vayikra contains the rules of war. Yet we read the entire book and find no mention of a single war the Israelites had. How can this be?
The Zohar tells us that wars happen because of people – it’s always the people. As long as people cannot find internal peace within, there will be the inevitable conflicts with others, whether with a neighbor or within a family, and then these personal conflicts become perpetuated throughout the world.
Here, at the Kabbalah Centre, you may have noticed that we refer to this not as a synagogue, but a war room. By “war,” I’m referring to our personal lives. Once we achieve the end of the wars that exist in our personal lives, there will be no war out there.
*From Rav Berg’s commentary on the portion of Bechukotai in The Kabbalistic Bible: Leviticus.
