Zohar

When the moon was in connection with the sun, she was luminous, but as soon as she separated from the sun and was assigned the charge of her own hosts, she reduced her status and her light, and shells upon shells were created for covering the brain, and all for the benefit of the brain. Hence meoroth is written defectively. All this was for the benefit of the world, and hence it is written, “to give light upon the earth”.

When he has thus attained to the indwelling of nefesh and ruah, and qualified himself for the worship of his Master in the requisite manner, the neshamah, the holy superior grade that dominates all the others, takes up its abode with him and crowns him, so that he becomes complete and perfected on all sides; he becomes worthy of the world to come and is beloved of the Holy One, blessed be He; of him Scripture says: “To cause my beloved ones to inherit substance” (Prov. 8, 21), the “beloved ones” being those who have attained to the holy neshamah.’

By the fifth ordering, there was produced a certain movement in the waters, which laboured to bring forth the light of the ordering of the fourth day, and it performed its function in the apiryon and brought forth various species; and all remained in suspense until the sixth day, when the apiryon brought forth all that was stored in it, as it is written, “Let the earth bring forth living creature after its kind, etc.” (Gen. 1, 24). This was the fifth day of the “trees of Lebanon”.

It was counted to the Israelites for righteousness that, although in exile in Egypt,they kept themselves free from these sins, and, moreover, fearlessly fulfilled the command to increase and multiply. This made them worthy to be liberated.

It is to be noticed that this Holy Land (the Shekinah) is called “the land of Israel”. Why, then, did Jacob, who is Israel, not rule over it like Moses? The reason is-as already pointed out-that Jacob became the owner of the “house which is below” and left the “house which is above”,

For as long as there is a righteous man in the world chastisement cannot befall it, as we learn from Moses, of whom it is written: “Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in tbe breach, etc.” (Ps. 106, 23). God thus first removes the righteous from the world, and only then collects His account, as it were. We thus translate the conclusion of the verse: “the righteous is taken away before (mitne’) the evil to come”, that is, before the evil is due to befall. (According to another interpretation, “from the evil to come” is an allusion to the evil prompter.)

Those lights are formative agents in the lower world to perfect the shape of all those who are included in the term “man”. This is the name given to every interior shape; and thus every shape which is comprised in this extension is called “man”,

The verse continues: AND YE SHALL KEEP MY SABBATHS, to show that one precept is of equal weight with the other.1The first 3 lines of the Hebrew text do not appear in our translation.

The letter Yod then presented herself and said: May it please Thee, O Lord, to vouchsafe me first place in the creation of the world, since I stand first in the Sacred Name. The Lord said to her: It is sufficient for thee that thou art engraven and marked in Myself and that thou art the channel of My will; thou must not be removed from My Name.

“The watchman” here is Metatron, who said: “The morning cometh”-the morning prayer which rules the night. One must not suppose that it comes by itself, the male being so separated from the female, for it says, “And also the night”: not so, for they are perpetually together and are never separated. And the voice proclaimed this: “The morning cometh and also the night.”

As soon as Lot saw them he ran after them. Why so? Did Lot, then, take into his house all wayfarers and offer them food and drink? Would not the townspeople have killed him, and meted out to him the same treatment as they did to his daughter?

the point and the temple were firmly established together, then Bereshith combined the supernal Beginning with Wisdom. Afterwards the character of that temple was changed, and it was called “house” (bayith). The combination of this with the supernal point which is called rosh gives Bereshith, which is the name used so long as the house was uninhabited. When, however, it was sown with seed to make it habitable, it was called Elohim, hidden and mysterious. The Zohar was hidden and withdrawn so long as the building was within and yet to bring forth, and the house was extended only so far as to find room for the holy seed. Before it had conceived and had extended sufficiently to be habitable, it was not called Elohim, but all was still included in the term Bereshith. After it had acquired the name of Elohim, it brought forth offspring from the seed that had been implanted in it. What is this seed? It consists of the graven letters, the secret source of the Torah, which issued from the first point.

Since this daughter [ i.e. Malchut] was given to Israel, it is your Halachah from the left side, Halachah attributed to Moses from Sinai. For on the right side, your Halachah is the letter ה Hei, from the side of the name Abraham, Yud י from {the side of} Isaac. And everything is Hei Yud הֵ''י of {the name of} Elohim. And you are Vav וָא''ו, [ Moshe corresponds to Zeir Anpin, which corresponds to Vav] which is the full spelling of {Malchut} and her perfection. {She is called} "a full cup". For at first she was the throne of Yud Hei, כֵּ''ס יָ''הּ. At the end it is a cup (Heb. כּוֹס) full of the blessing of Yud Hei Vav Hei.

But the truth is that, as soon as the Destroying Angel comes down into this world, whoever does not shut himself in, but exposes himself to his view, forfeits his life, and thus destroys himself. We learn this from Lot, in connection with whom it is written: “Escape for thy life, look not behind thee” (Gen. 19, 17). Why the warning “look not behind thee”? Because the Destroying Angel was stalking behind him, and had he turned his head and looked straight in the face of the angel, the latter would have been able to injure him.

Similarly, David said to the Holy One, blessed be He, “make me to know my end”, that is, he wished to know to which end he was allotted, and his mind was not at rest till the good tidings reached him, “Sit at my right hand” (Ps. 110, 1). So to Noah also the Holy One, blessed be He, said, “The end of all flesh is come before me.” The term “end”, as we have seen, alludes to the angel of death, who reduces men to despair, and who is indeed the end of all flesh.

When he has finished his prayer with devotion before his Master, as already said, he should deliver his soul with complete renunciation to the rightful place. Thus there is good counsel for men for all occasions. When prayer is being offered, all the words that a man has emitted from his mouth during his prayer mount aloft and cleave their way through ethers and firmaments until they reach their destination, where they are formed into a crown on the head of the King. The Companions have agreed that the prayer directed by man to the Almighty should be of the nature of supplication.1Ibid, 2 Ib, Aboth II. We know this from Moses, of whom it is said, “And I besought the Lord” (Deut. 3, 23); this is the best kind of prayer.

To understand this mystery, close thine eye and press thine eyeball, and thou wilt discern radiating and luminous colours which can only be seen with closed eyes.1The colours thus seen are called luminous, because they are not attached to any material background. The idea seems to be that just as these can only be seen when the eye is closed, so the higher emanations can only be grasped when the mind completely abstracts itself from the perceptions of sense.

According to another explanation, the words “and his hand had hold” imply that he could not escape him entirely, but his hand was still clinging to his brother’s heel. Esoterically speaking, the moon was obscured through the heel of Esau; hence it was necessary to deal with him cunningly, so as to thrust him downwards and make him adhere to the region assigned to him.

R. Judah asked R. Eleazar, the son of R. Simeon: ‘As thou hast heard from thy father the mystical interpretation of this section of the Book of Exodus, tell me the significance of the words “a man and his household came with Jacob”.’ He replied: ‘My father said that it refers to the various grades of angels, all of them celestial, but of whom the higher are called “men”, and the lower “household” or “female”, in the sense that the former are active while the latter are passive and receptive.’

Those who undergo transmigration and are driven out from the other world (because they refused to propagate themselves) without feminine partners, how do they manage to find wives in this world, seeing that no female partner is preordained for them, as for other men?

According to another interpretation, the words, “so marred was his visage unlike that of a man” are illustrated by the verse: “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering” (Ibid. 50, 3). For after the Temple was destroyed the heavens did not retain their former illumination.

R. Isaac said: ‘When the lights were lit the Sea began to exercise supreme judgements, and the upper and lower beings and powers were delivered unto its hands: hence the expression, “as difficult as the dividing of the Red Sea”, because this depended on the Holy Ancient One.’

But the fathers are only three, and the chariot has four wheels. Who is the fourth? It says: “And he chose their seed after them”; this includes David, who is the fourth to complete the holy chariot, as we have learnt: The patriarchs are the consummation of the whole, and the Body was completed through them and made one. Then King David came and perfected the whole and made firm the body and perfected it. R. Isaac said: ‘As the patriarchs merited to be crowned with the holy chariot, so did David merit to be adorned with the fourth support of the chariot.’

R. Judah said: ‘Far be it from us to imagine that Balaam knew aught of the supernal sanctity, seeing that God did not choose any people or tongue to make use of His glory save His holy children, to whom he said: “sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy” (Lev. 11, 44). Only those who are themselves holy are permitted to make use of holy things; and it is only Israel who are holy, as it is written: “For thou art a holy people” (Deut. 14, 2), that is, thou alone art holy, but no other people.

In that place there are numerous hosts who proclaim “holy” with a loud voice, and on another side they say “holy” with a soft and wondrous voice, and on another side there are yet other hosts which say “holy”. There ar e six hundred thousand myriads in each corner, all under one commander, and all clad in an ephod, who are there to carry out the service of the altar in correspondence with those on earth.

It is like the Revi'i, with which one prolongs the word. It is a vowel like the Cholam. There is no vowel that does not have a corresponding cantillation mark. For example, the vowel Segol corresponds to the Segolta intonation, the vowel Shva corresponds to the intonation Zakef Gadol. There is always a vowel corresponding to a cantillation mark for all those who know the hidden secrets.

Concerning this mystery it says: “And hath written to her a bill of divorcement, and gave it in her hand, and sent her out of his house, and she departed from his house, and went and became another man’s wife (Deut. XXIV, I). What is the significance of “another”? It points to the words, “and they shall shoot forth from another place” (Job 8, 16), i.e. from the region of impurity..Thus the divorcements unite as one, the divorcement of this world and the divorcement of the other world..For this woman who stood formerly in the likeness of the supernal form has now became attached to the low form. He is called “another” (aher),

When all are thus completed and vivified by the Sun, then the Moon is crowned in the likeness of the supernal perfect Mother in fifty gates. This is expressed in the following verse: “The Torah of the Lord is perfect, quickening the soul”; as she is perfect from all sides in the mystery of five grades, in the likeness of the supernal Mother, to whom belongs the mystery of the fifty.

As soon as it swallowed Jonah it died, but after three days was restored to life and vomited him forth. In a similar way the Land of Israel will in the future first be stirred to new life, and afterwards “the earth will cast forth the dead”.

There is a graduated series of the intimations by which deeper knowledge is conveyed to men, dreams forming one grade, vision another grade, and prophecy a third grade, in a rising series.

Another explanation of this verse is as follows: Man must always trust the Holy One, blessed be He. He who trusts Him will never be confounded by the world (Ps. 25, 2). He who depends entirely on the Holy Name is firmly established in the world, as the world itself is sustained by this Name:

Rabbi Yitzchak, the son of Rabbi Yosi, traveled from Cappadocia to Lod, where he met Rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Yitzchak asks him, Why are the companions, the sages of the Mishnah, not aroused in this matter of removing the Evil Inclination from the world, except at the time of mating? He replied, Upon your life! The world needs the Evil Inclination as much as it needs rain, because without the Evil Inclination there would not be the joy of study in the world. But it also would not be as corrupted as it was before, which caused sinning. This is the meaning of the verse, "They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain" (Isaih 11:9). Rabbi Shimon said, "My holy mountain" is the heart," the dwelling place of the Evil Inclination. Rabbi Eliezer said, A good heart is the foundation of the body and soul. For that reason, it is written, "And you shall love Hashem your Elohim with all your heart" (Devarim 6:5), for the heart is the essence of all!

1The first 12 lines of the Hebrew text do not appear in our translation. The first portion of our translation (up to “Seeing that Abraham” is apparently based on a variant reading.

R. Isaac said: ‘The priest [in pronouncing the benediction] has to raise his right hand higher than his left hand, for the reason that the right is higher in estimation than the left.

There are three types of men who drive away the Shekinah from the world, making it impossible for the Holy One, blessed be He, to fix His abode in the universe, and causing prayer to be unanswered.

As the higher sea has length and width and head and arms and hair and a body, so also the lower sea.

Observe that when that other altar commences to grow restive because there are no righteous, the inner altar intervenes with it and judgements are allayed.

To look at Jacob was like looking at the “clear mirror”. According to tradition, the beauty of Jacob was equal to that of Adam, the first man.’ R. Jose said: ‘I have heard it said that he who sees in his dream Jacob robed in his mantle enjoys length of life.’

And when the worshippers arrive at the prayer “Grant abundant peace” (at the end of the “Eighteen Benedictions”), the “River that goes out of Eden” does his service in this Assembly and all must take leave from the King, and no human being nor any other created thing may thereafter be found in that Presence, nor may any petitionary prayers be prayed then, but one must “fall upon the countenance” (say propitiatory prayers). Why? Because that time is the time of service, and every being that dwells upon the earth must stand abashed before his Lord, covering his face in great awe, and let his soul join the service of the souls which are contained in that Chamber. Then the colour which descends hovers over the lower part of the and another herald appears, like unto the first,

All is closed up in that which is called the Supernal Mother, whence power is derived to the Lower Mother. This one comes forth from the Supernal Mother, who is the second compartment, which is called the He of the Holy Name which opens out through fifty gates, and from this issues a spirit to one of the Nostrils.

Then an angel appears who is the storekeeper of the celestial figures of the righteous, and this angel’s name is Jehudiam because of his office (“over the people of the Jews”) and he is crowned with a crown on which is engraven the Holy Name. The Holy One makes him a sign and he comes forward, bearing the image of the man who has reclaimed souls of sinners, and places it before the King and the Matrona.

She replied: “Since his guilt is referred to the mother and not the father, I desire to create him in my likeness.” Hence it is written, “And Elohim created man in his image”, the Father not being willing to share in his creation.

R. Simeon said: ‘Ye are worthy in this world and ye are worthy in the world to come. Blessed are my eyes that will be worthy to see it all when I enter the world to come. For my soul calls to the Ancient of Days: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over” (Ps. 23, 5). And the Holy One, blessed be He, calls concerning us: “Open ye the gates, that the righteous people which keepeth truth may enter in” (Isa. 26, 2).’ Then they began to discourse on the verse: “And they (the Hayoth) had the hands of a man, under their wings, on their four sides” (Ezek. 1, 8). ‘This’, said they, ‘has been explained by the Fellowship as referring to the hands stretched out to receive penitents who return to God. But the expression “the hands of a man” also signifies all those forms and supernal mysteries which the Holy One has stamped upon man and ordered in his fingers outwardly and inwardly and in the “palm” (Kaph). When the Holy One created man He set in him all the images of the supernal mysteries of the world above, and all the images of the lower mysteries of the world below, and all are designed in man, who stands in the image of God, because he is called “the creation of the palm”, and this is the mystery of the letter Kaph. Supernal mysteries and symbols are contained in this; the Ten Words, five belonging to the right side and five to the left, are all united in it as one mystery. Therefore it says: “I will also smite my one palm (kaph) upon the other” (Ezek. 21, 17), meaning that the Lord will cause the two hands to be divided, so that blessing will depart from the world and the glory of Israel shall be given over to the nations. But when they are united as one, it is as it says: “One vessel (kaph, lit. palm) of ten shekels of gold” (Num. 7, 14). When they were united “God created Man in His own image.” Man was in the Divine mind, in the inner mystery. God created him, male and female in one, “in the image of God”, symbolized by the palm. For when man was created, what is it that is written concerning him? “Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews” (Job 10, 11).1The first 17 lines of the Hebrew text do not appear in the translation since they continue the discourse begun on page 76b.

We have been taught that wherever Israel went into captivity the Shekinah went with her. We learn this in the present instance from the expression “children of [the supernal] Israel”, which we take here to refer to the heavenly hosts and chariots, which, we are told, “came with Jacob to Egypt”.’

Hence a judgement pronounced against the idolaters removes, as it were, from Him the burden. Contrariwise, wherever the term “burden” introduces a decree of judgement against Israel, it has an unfavourable import, as it implies a burden put on the Holy One, blessed be He.

When the worlds were all completed. they were joined into a single organism, and are symbolized by the letter Vau (=six) when it is united with the veiled world.1Yod, He. And this is the esoteric meaning of the words, “For Jacob has chosen Kah unto himself.” But when the Vau emerges self-contained from the Yod He, then “Israel attains to his costly possession”:

The truth, however, is that through man’s penitence the Almighty Himself, as it were, rectifies on high the wrong committed, and thus the world is put right again.’

AND GOD CALLED. The word called here means called to” or “invited”. God summoned to issue forth from this complete Light which was in the centre a certain radiance which is the foundation of the world, and on which worlds are established. From that complete Light, the Central Pillar, extended the foundation, the Life of worlds, which is day from the side of the Right. AND THE DARKNESS HE CALLED NIGHT. He summoned to issue from the side of Darkness a kind of female moon which rules over the night and is called night, and is associated with Adonai, the Lord of all the earth.

The verse states: "And he called his name (Heb. אֶת) Noah," and it is also written: "And he called his name Jacob" (Gen. 25:26). Why does it not say אֶת (regarding Jacob)? Because each one refers to a different level. As it is written in the verse: "I saw (אֶת) Hashem" (Yeshayah 6:1). It does not say 'I saw Hashem,' but "אֶת Hashem." (This indicates that the particle אֶת (the) has a specific meaning). Here too, it is written of Noah: "And he called his אֶת name Noah." As for, "And he called his name Jacob," in reality his level is that of the Holy One, blessed be He, and this is why the particle אֶת is not mentioned there. But with Noah, the particle אֶת is mentioned so as to connect him with the Shechinah.

These gifts and presents which they received are their ornament, and therefore death and the other side had no dominion over them till they sinned, when, as it says, “they took off their ornaments from Mount Sinai” (Ex. 33, 6).