Fair as the moon/yafa calevonah and bright as the sun/barah cachamah, from the holiest of songs, Shir HaShirim, chapter VI verse 10. The zohar in volume one-170a tells us that this verse defines the four stages of the global redemptive process as we move into a world fully experiencing the deepest peace of life. The moon going towards the sun gives us the very middle stage which is where we are at this very moment. Yafa calevonah is usually translated fair as the moon but it can also imply the peh, the mouth of the levonah/moon, levonah can also mean the "white" as well as the moon. The moon also implies the character in Torah of Joshua who the Zohar tells us is as the moon compared to Moses who is as the sun. So we have a hand off so to speak again as the people of the mother Earth enter the true holy land. From the moon, like Joshua, to the sun, like Moses. In the Torah the hand off was in the other direction from the sun to the moon. What people are individually feeling now depends on their own personal stage of initiation into the wisdom temple of the Earth. The general global clamour is towards the great peace. By far the majority of the folks in the world want to live and love and enjoy the bounty of the physical creation. So people might ask now, when do we enter the stage three, "bright as the sun" when the whole world "sees" the light of the geulah? When enough people can "feel" the light is when we move into the brightness. This might be right now in the "three weeks".The answer is the movement stage we are in is a test for initiation and is an initiation. As stated in previous posts the 5767th Torah verse is twelve words that ends with ztur yeshouatoh/rock of "salvation". Here we have a word that refers by it's root to the man Joshua and therefore to the "moon" stage of the geulah. The elder mekubel Rav Kaduri may have been refering to this with the cryptic "message" ascribed to him. But who or what is the tzur, the rock? Moses sings about this "rock" in the book of Torah that we are about to read over the Sabbaths in the following weeks of the shanah. In fact we chant the 5767th verse of Torah on the first sabbath of the "new" year of shanah/turning transformation. But remember last weeks parsha of Pinchas ended with the mitztvot of keeping Rosha HaShanah. What does it all mean?- we are right now in the days of awe of a new big Shanah; a grand turn of the wheel of life. Very blessed are those who can feel the radiant sun while the world is in the swirling grip of the moon as she pulls the ocean with storm and tide(Malachi's final prophecy).

This weeks parsha tells us about the cities of refuge given to us for those who seek balance and rest in the stormy world. The sages tell us these six cities are the six words of the Shema and the forty-two, are the words of the Ahavta. We must express our ahavah/love with all of our heart, soul and power. We are all at different stages of transition from the "wilderness"(sepher bamidbar) of an Earth in a global shanah/change, to the Peace of a holy land. May we all walk carefully in balance.