Zohar

And after he was raised to the next world there issued from him a branch beauteous in appearance, from which radiate all illumination and all plenteousness. That branch is Joseph the Righteous, who gave the world abundance and by whom it was sustained. Thus whatever God does in the world has a deep symbolic significance and is all as it should be.

What is more, the created Torah is a vestment to the Shekinah, and if man had not been created, the Shekinah would have been without a vestment like a beggar. Hence when a man sins it is as though he strips the Shekinah of her vestments, and that is why he is punished;

Said R. Jose: ‘When Jacob went down to Egypt, sixty myriads of celestial angels accompanied him.’ R. Judah illustrated from the verse: “Behold, it is the couch of Solomon, threescore mighty men are about it, of the mighty men of Israel” (S.S. 3, 7), which he expounded thus: ‘Six luminosities form a circle surrounding a seventh luminosity in the centre. The six on the circumference sustain the sixty valiant angels surrounding the “couch of Solomon”.’

1. "And Hashem spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 'This is the ordinance of the Torah which Hashem has commanded'" (Bemidbar 19:1-2). Rabbi Yosi opened the discussion saying: "and this is the Torah which Moses set before the children of Yisrael" (Devarim 4:44). Come and behold: the words of the Torah are holy, lofty, and sweet, as it is written: "more to be desired are they than gold, and much fine gold: sweeter also than honey..." (Tehilim 19:11). It is as if whoever studies the Torah stands every day at Mount Sinai and receives the Torah. This is what it says: "this day you are become a people" (Devarim 27:9). And the friends have already set the explanation.

The Right entered into the complete Pillar of the centre united with the Left, and the primal point thereupon ascended on high and there seized the energy of three dots, the holem, the shureq, and the hireq, the seed of holiness (for no seed has been sown save from this source). The whole was then united in the Central Pillar, and it produced the foundation of the world, which therefore is called Kol (all), because it embraces the whole in the radiation of desire.

This, however, does not mean that the words, “Who would not fear thee, O King of the nations”, are to be interpreted in this sense, namely, that He is the King of the nations in His attribute of Elohim, representing severity and justice; for, as I have pointed out, this Name signifies even the objects of pagan worship.

Now a normal dream proceeds from that grade, and hence there is not a dream that has not intermingled with it some spurious matter, so that it is a mixture of truth and falsehood.

But that sin brought upon them death and subjection, and through it the tablets were broken and many thousands were slain. All this came from their association with the “mixed multitude”;

For we have learned that but for the love which God bore to our ancestors, Jacob would have been brought down into Egypt in iron chains; but out of His love for the patriarchs He caused his son Joseph to be made ruler of the world; and so all the tribes went down into Egypt like people of distinction, and Jacob entered it like a king.

And mark this. If that woman, having been divorced, did not marry again, even if she should have misconducted herself with many men, the husband, if he wishes, may take her back, but not when she has been legally married to another man. Once she has united herself with a lower grade, the first husband, who belongs to the grade of “good”, may not associate himself with her any longer nor spread on that side.

When the Levites rose up to slay the guilty, the evil serpent went in front of them, but he had no power over Israel, because they were girt with a certain armour which protected them against his attacks. When, however, God said to Moses, “Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee” (Ex. 33, 5), this was the signal that they were placed in the power of the serpent

Rabbi Yitzchak said, I was present before Rabbi Yehoshua and asked him about this. I said that this feast of the Righteous that will be held in the future (was supposed to be of the Leviathan and the bull). If this is so, there is a contradiction, because Rabbi Elazar said that the feast of the Righteous in the future will be as it is written in the verse: "and they beheld the Elohim, and did eat and drink." Rabbi Yehoshua said that Rabbi Elazar was correct. And so it was.

Up to this point the words “The Lord our God the Lord” (Tetragrammaton Elohenu Tetragrammaton) represent three grades corresponding to this deep mystery of Bereshith bara Elohim. Bereshith represents the primordial mystery. Bara represents the mysterious source from which the whole expanded. Elohim represents the force which sustains all below. The words eth hashammaim indicate that the two latter are on no account to be separated, and are male and female together.

So much for the mysteries revealed by the different kinds of hair, mysteries revealed and entrusted only to those well versed in holy lore, those who comprehend the ways and mysteries of the Torah, by which they may find out the hidden propensities of men.

The Lord said unto him: “Arise and behold what I am doing for thy children’s sake, how I am bringing them out of the clutches of a mighty people.”

Subsequently his priest also, namely Jethro, the priest of On, i.e. idolatry, was also humbled, so that he came and acknowledged the Holy One, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you…. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods…” (Ex. 18, 10, 11).

It says: “On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying (amor) unto them”. It is not written “ye shall say unto them”, parallel to “ye shall bless”.’ R. Judah taught that we have therefore to construe it thus: If they will be worthy, then [the blessing is] to them, but if not, then there is merely saying.

and the word begapo (by himself) contains an allusion to the phrase.:”upon the back of the highest (gape merome) places of the city” (Prov. 9, 3); that is to say: as Wisdom dwells in high and lofty places, so does the man who has repented of his sin attain an eminent position;.therefore sinners who repent can enter where even the perfectly righteous are not admitted. Most assuredly the Holy One accepts every sinner who turns to Him.

Hence R. Simeon and all the companions were chanting the Scripture with exultation, each one of them making new discoveries in the Torah. Said R. Simeon to them, ‘O my sons, happy is your portion, for on the morrow the bride will not enter the bridal canopy except in your company; for all those who help to prepare her adornments to-night will be recorded in the book of remembrance, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will bless them with seventy blessings and crown them with crowns of the celestial world.’

When water is united with earth, the cold with the moist brings forth silver, and so the earth is united with two sides, gold and silver, and situated between them. Air joins to water and also to fire and produces an amalgam which is “the colour of polished copper” (Ezek. 1, 7). As to the earth mentioned above, when it is by itself in its coldness and dryness it brings forth iron; therefore it says: “If the iron be blunt” (Eccl. 10, 10).

God will be “glorious in his apparel”, His robes of vengeance, and “marching in the greatness of his strength”. Said the Israelites to Isaiah: “Who is he that shall do all this?” He replied: “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save”.

If thou couldst prevail against those giants, surely thou canst now conquer these thirteen, which are mere weaklings, being but words! On, then, and be bold. The expression “amoryomar” (if the servant saying shall say) has been interpreted by certain of the scholars according to its literal sense, i.e. that it indicates two sayings, one at the beginning and one at the end of the six years, before the seventh year has entered; for if he said it even a day after the commencement of the seventh year his words have no validity, as it says “the servant”, that is, as long as he is still a servant, namely in the sixth year. And if he spake his words at the beginning of the six years but not at the end, then also his words have no validity. Our interpretation is that, if while he is still with this wife he prays daily to the Holy King, then he both begins and ends with supplication; and if he commences with prayer he shall be received with mercy. What does he say? “I love my Master, etc.” Then the Holy One, blessed be He, receives him because of his repentance and his prayers. What, then, does He do for such a one? Instead of sending him back to this world to undergo punishment for the sins of his former life, the Holy One gives him instead into the hands of the celestial Tribunal, who judge him and deliver him unto the house of punishment. And the Holy One records how he was delivered to the Tribunal, and places on him a stigma by putting him under the domination of the Orlah (unclean spirits)1Al. “and puts him under the domination of the Jubilee year”. for a certain period of time, after which his Master redeems him. But if the Jubilee should appear during the period of his stigmatization, then he is instantly set free- and this even though he should have been in captivity only one day when the Jubilee appeared-and is permitted to enter within the curtain.’ Then the old man closed his eyes for a moment1The last 26 lines of the Hebrew text do not appear in the translation.2The first 17 lines of the Hebrew text are omitted in the translation.

For just as other men have a spirit which is seized by the over-soul and another higher spirit, and the holy over-soul is clothed with both, so here there are two spirits the superior soul to wrap herself therewith, and for them another body (the child which is to be borne by the widow who married the near of kin), which is now built anew.

R. Jose once told the following story: ‘It chanced one day when I was out walking, accompanied by my son, R. Hiya, that we came upon a man collecting medicinal herbs. As we drew near to him I asked: “Tell us what these bundles of herbs are for?” He gave no reply, and did not even raise his head. Said I to R. Hiya, my son: “Certainly this man is either deaf or mad, or very wise.” So we sat down near to him. When he had collected all the herbs and made them into bundles and covered each bundle with vine leaves, even to the last bundle of all,

Now, since Joseph knew the Torah, having learnt it from his father, why when his brethren fell into his hands did he put them through all those ordeals? Far be it from us to think that it was out of a spirit of revenge that he heaped on them accusations: his only purpose was to make them bring with them his brother Benjamin, for whom his heart was longing; and, moreover, he did not let them come to grief, as we read later: “Then Joseph commanded them to fill their vessels with corn, etc.”

At that moment they heard a loud and mighty sound issuing from between the branches of the trees, and they uttered the verse: ‘The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars’ (Ps. 29, 5). R. Eleazar and R. Abba fell upon their faces and a great fear came over them. They then arose in haste and went on their way, and heard nothing more. They left the hill,

R. Isaac also said: ‘The priest who stands here below is emblematic of the Priest above, and therefore he must be in a superior grade of holiness.’ AND FOR HIS SISTER A VIRGIN THAT IS NEAR UNTO HIM.

King Solomon, when he “penetrated into the depths of the nut garden” (as it is written, “I descended into the nut garden”, S. S. 6, 11), took a nut-shell (klifah) and drew an analogy from its layers to these spirits which inspire sensual desires in human beings, as it is written, “and the delights of the sons of men (are from) male and female demons” (Eccl. 2, 8).

Korah denied this power wholly, both in the higher and the lower sphere, as implied in the phrase: “when they strove against the Lord” (Num. 26, 9). Hence Korah clave to that which was meet for him.

There are others who have knowledge of the mysteries of the Torah, men of qualities, who receive souls from the aspect of the holy Malchut which includes the ten Sefirot. Whoever receives her and attains her, merits ten indivisible Sefirot, ten, not nine, since had they inherited Malchut alone the nine Sefirot would have been separated from her. But since there is no division there, {in the world of Atzilut}, the author of the Book of Formation, the סֵפֶר יְצִירָה, said 'ten, not nine', {the nine upper Sefirot are never seperated from her}

For this is the way of the Almighty, to provide the cure before inflicting the wound. Thus here He first prepared great substance and then brought Israel into exile. Observe that it was in virtue of being a righteous man that Joseph became the cause of Israel acquiring riches of silver and gold (Ps. 105, 37).

TURN YE NOT UNTO IDOLS NOR MAKE TO YOURSELVES MOLTEN GODS. R. Hiya adduced in this connection the verse: “Turn not unto the stubbornness of this people” (Deut. 9, 27). ‘How’, he said, ‘could Moses address such a request to the Almighty who observes all things and passes all deeds in judgement?

The following recondite passage is found in the Book of Adam the First Man, in describing the generations of mankind: “A certain spirit will one day come down to earth and will clothe itself in an earthly body and will bear the name of Elijah. Whilst in that body he will soar aloft and, divesting himself of that body, enter within a whirlwind, where another and luminous body will have been prepared for him, so that he will be as an angel among angels’ But whenever he will come down to earth he will invest himself again in the material body, which will remain in the lower world; and it is in this body that he will make himself visible on earth, whilst it is in the other body that he will appear on high.” This is thus the recondite meaning of the words, “Who hath ascended up into heaven, and descended”. There was no other man whose spirit ascended to heaven and then descended to earth except Elijah.

Observe that all spirits are compounded of male and female, and when they go forth into the world they go forth as both male and female, and afterwards the two elements are separated. If a man is worthy they are afterwards united, and it is then that he truly meets his mate and there is a perfect union both in spirit and flesh.

See, now. The insulting behaviour of Shimei, the son of Gera.(2 Sam. 16, 5), towards David was worse than anything he had hitherto experienced, and yet David did not answer him a word, accepting the humiliation as deserved, and therefore his sins were forgiven him..

The Amalekites are those who are left from the time of the Flood, from those of whom it is written, “and he blotted out all living substance”; those who have been left from this class in this fourth captivity make themselves leaders by main force, and are scourges to Israel; of them it is written, “for the earth was full of violence because of them”. These are the Amalekites.

These are the spirits who roam about by night. When the souls of the righteous emerge from the earth into the upper spaces in order to ascend heavenward, these same spirits also appear and contend with them, in order to prevent them from reaching and entering their heavenly habitation and rest. And, indeed, they bar the way to all save only the souls of the most supreme saints, which break through all firmaments and aethers until they reach the highest sphere. The demoniac hosts speak Iying words to the children of men, disguising themselves in other forms, and seducing them till they defile themselves.

Should the man be found guilty, as in the case of Jonah, then “the men rowed hard to bring it to the land, but they could not”; so those who plead on his behalf find points in his favour and strive to restore him to this world, but they cannot; “for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them”, the prosecution storms and rages against him, and, convicting him of his sins, prevails against his defenders.

As for those who have not defiled themselves during the day, when they fall asleep at night their souls begin to ascend, and first enter those grades which we have mentioned, but they do not cleave to them and continue to mount further.

Similarly here Jacob meant to say: “Do not pay any regard to the blessing which my father gave, nor imagine that it has been fulfilled in me. For he blessed me saying, ‘be lord over thy brethren’, whereas of a truth ‘I am thy servant Jacob, to my lord Esau’. Again, he blessed me with ‘plenty of corn and wine’, but I have no stock of these, but ‘oxen, and asses and flocks’, and am only a shepherd in the field. Of the blessing ‘of the dew of heaven, and of the fat places of the earth’, nothing has been fulfilled in me, seeing that ‘I have sojourned with Laban’, being merely a sojourner, without so much as a house that I can call my own, let alone the fatness of the earth.” The whole of Jacob’s message was thus calculated to divert Esau’s regard from those blessings, so that he should not quarrel with him over them.’

Rabbi Abba said that in Gehenom, there are compartments upon compartments, seconds, thirds, and so on until seven; the friends have already explained this issue. Blessed are the righteous who guard themselves from the sins of the wicked and do not follow in their paths nor defile themselves. For when a person who has become impure dies and passes onto the World of Truth, he goes down into Gehenom. There he descends, until he reaches the lowest compartment.

R. Simeon continued: ‘We have a tradition that when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, He engraved in the midst of the mysterious, ineffable and most glorious lights, the letters Yod, He, Van, He, which are in themselves the synthesis of all worlds both above and below.

The letter Aleph remained in her place without presenting herself. Said the Holy One, blessed be His name: Aleph, Aleph, wherefore comest thou not before Me like the rest of the letters? She answered: Because I saw all the other letters leaving Thy presence without any success. What, then, could I achieve there? And further, since Thou hast already bestowed on the letter Beth this great gift, it is not meet for the Supreme King to take away the gift which He has made to His servant and give it to another. The Lord said to her: Aleph, Aleph, although I will begin the creation of the world with the beth, thou wilt remain the first of the letters. My unity shall not be expressed except through thee, on thee shall be based all calculations and operations of the world, and unity shall not be expressed save by the letter Aleph.

by the two letters JH (KAH) “the Lord designed the worlds”, this world and the world to come. This world was created by the attribute of Justice, and is sustained by the same attribute, in order that humanity should base its life on justice and not depart from the way of righteousness.

Therefore the “Men of the Great Synagogue” have ordered that this Psalm of David should be the first one to be sung on the Sabbath day, since it refers to those particular “Heavens” which lighten all the others. Then follows (in the liturgy) that “river which goes out of Eden”, alluded to in the Psalm which follows this one in the Sabbath service: “Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous” (Ps. 33); for this “River” gathers into itself the whole mystery of the “heavens” and the source of life on this day, and the sun is perfected for its appointed task of the distribution of light.

Then she speaks to him from behind a thin veil of a finger mesh, discoursing riddles and parables-which go by the name of Haggadah. When at last he is familiar with her she shows herself to him face to face and converses with him concerning all her hidden mysteries and all the mysterious ways which have been secreted in her heart from time immemorial. Then such a man is. a true adept in the Torah, a “master of the house”, since she has revealed to him all her mysteries, withholding and hiding nothing.

Then three appointed messengers descend upon the man; one of them makes a record of all the good deeds and the misdeeds that he has performed in this world; one casts up the reckoning of his days; and the third is the one who has accompanied the man from the time when he was in his mother’s womb. As already said, the doom summons is not appeased until “they took up Jonah”, until they take him from the house to the place of burial.

It is here fitting to consider why Shimei, who was a scholar and a wise man, behaved to David as he did..The truth is that the words of insult and cursing which he uttered were not his own, but entered into his heart from another region (from heaven), for David’s benefit, that he might repent with a perfect repentance, with a broken heart and with many tears before the Holy One. Therefore David said: “The Lord hath said unto him, Curse David” (Ibid. 5, 10). He knew that the cursing and words of insult were inspired from above.

Observe that the severity of judgement in which the Holy One, blessed be He, delights, is of the judgement fully clarified, the judgement that evokes clemency and gladness. But the sinners in this world are the embodiment of a judgement steeped in defilement, a judgement altogether displeasing to the Holy One, blessed be He. Hence He desires not to mingle holy judgement with defiled judgement until such time as the latter will be exterminated of itself and the sinner thus will be destroyed from the future world; by that very defiled judgement will he be destroyed from the world.’

“All of them”, whether the six hundred -thousand or the rest of the hosts, “He calls by name”. This cannot mean by their names, for if it were so, it should have been written “by names”. What it means is that as long as this grade did not assume a name, and was still called Mi, it was unproductive, and did not bring into actuality the latent forces within it, each according to its kind. But as soon as it created ELeH (these), and assumed its rightful name and was called ELoHIM (God), then, by force of that name, it produced them in their complete form. This is the meaning of “calls by name”, to wit, He proclaimed His own name so as to bring about the emergence of each sort of being in its full form. (Analogous to this we read, “See, I have called by name” (Exod. 31, 2), to wit, I have bestowed my name on Bezalel (in the shadow of God) so that his work should emerge in perfection.