Yitro [Jethro]
23) Rabbi Aba raised his hands on his head, wept, and said, “Now the light of Torah rises to the height of the firmament of the uppermost throne. When my lord departs from the world, who will illuminate the light of Torah? Woe to a world that will be orphaned from you. But the words of my lord will illuminate in the world until the Messiah King arrives, and then it is written, ‘And the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.’”
28) “And Jethro ... heard.” Can it be that Jethro heard and the rest of the people in the world did not hear? Indeed, the whole world heard, but they did not break, hence their hearing is not hearing. He heard and was broken, surrendered before the Creator, and drew nearer to fearing Him, hence his hearing is hearing.
29-31) Everything that the Creator does above and below is true, and His work is true. There is nothing in the world that one should reject or despise, since they are all true works, and everything is needed in the world.
It is written, “If the serpent bites before being charmed.” The serpent does not bite people until it is whispered to from above. It is told, “Go and kill this or that person.”
Sometimes—as it does that—so it saves people from other things. Through it, the Creator works miracles to people; it all depends on the Creator; it is all the work of His hands. But the world needs them. If it did not need them, the Creator would not make them. Hence one need not be contemptuous toward things in the world, and certainly not toward the words and deeds of the Creator.
32) “And God saw all that He had done, and behold, it was very good.” “And God saw” is the living God, Bina. “Saw” means that He looked, to illuminate for them and to watch over them. “All that He had done” means it is all included as one, above and below. “And behold, it was very good” is the right side. “Very” is the left side, “Good” is the angel of life. “Very” is the angel of death, and it is all one matter for those who observe the wisdom.
44) Job was fearful with fear, and in that fear was the core of his power. This is so because through a circumcision above—whether of Kedusha [holiness] or of the Sitra Achra—one cannot draw the spirit above to below and bring it near him unless with fear, by aiming one’s heart and will with fear and with breaking of the heart. Then he will extend downward the spirit that is above, as well as the required desire.
86) This is a person who is always laughing, always joyful, and thinks positive thoughts. And the thoughts are not completed because he always elevates them from his will. He engages in mundane matters, and when he engages in heavenly matters he succeeds.
98) When a man walks on the path of truth, those who know their master look at him, since that spirit within is corrected in it, and the form that includes everything bulges out. And that form is the face of a man. It is a more complete form than all the forms, and one who passes temporarily before the eyes of the wise-at-heart, when looking at his face outside, those faces that stand before him, the eyes of the heart love them.
123) When the Creator created man, He set up all the forms of the high secrets of the upper world— Bina—within him, as well as all the forms of the lower secrets of the bottom world, Malchut. They are all engraved in man, who is in the shade of God, since he is called “a creation of the hand,” a creation of the hand of the Creator.
126) When the man was created, it is written about him, “Clothe me with skin and flesh.” And what is the man himself? Is man not merely skin, flesh, bones, and tendons? He is not, since indeed, man is only the soul [Neshama], while skin, flesh, bones, and tendons are only clothes. They are the man’s Kelim, not the man himself. When the man passes away, he takes off those Kelim that he wore.
170) Happy are those who sit before Rabbi Shimon and are rewarded with hearing the secrets of the Torah from his mouth. Happy are they in this world and happy are they in the next world. Rabbi Shimon said, “Happy are you, friends, for no secret is hidden from you, and several high places await you in the next world.”
223-224) Intelligent people of the world, whose eyes are open, who are wise, who are with faith—which is Divinity—which was concealed in you. Those of you who rose and came down, who received the lights that shine from below upward, which are called “ascent,” and the lights that shine from above to below, which are called “descent,” those in whom there is the spirit of the holy God should rise and know that when the white head— Keter—wished to create man, he imparted within one light, which is Bina, and the light imparted in the expansion of the light, ZA, which sentences and illuminates the two lines—right and left of Bina. And the expansion of the light brought forth the souls of human beings.
Similarly, he mated and imparted the expansion of the light, ZA, into one strong rock, the Malchut, and that rock elicited one flaming blaze, comprising several colors, which is the Ibur of the moon, which is full of Dinim. And that flame rises, receiving Yenika, meaning that the lights illuminate in it from below upwards. And descends, meaning that he receives GAR of Ruach, meaning that the lights illuminate from above to below but in Dinim, due to the deficiency in Hassadim. Finally, the expansion of the light, ZA, bestowed in him, imparted in him a middle line and Hassadim, and then he returns and sits in his place and becomes the spirit of life to Adam HaRishon.
257-258) “And Moses went up to God.” Happy is Moses, who was awarded this honor, that the Torah testifies about him so. Come and see what is between Moses and the rest of the people in the world. When the rest of the people in the world rise, they rise to wealth, they rise to greatness, they rise to kingship. But when Moses rose, it is written, “Moses went up to God.” Happy is he.
We learn from it that he who comes to be purified is aided, for it is written, “Moses went up to God,” and after that, it is written, “And the Lord called to him,” since he who wishes to draw close is brought closer.
259) Happy is the man whom the Creator favors and whom He has brought to dwell inside the holy palace. Anyone that He wishes to accept into His work, it is inscribed that he is inscribed above, to know that he was chosen before the high and holy King, to dwell in His abode. And anyone in whom there is that inscription passes through all the gates of above and no one stops him.
331-332) There are several ways by which the Torah testifies that a person will not sin before his Master. There are several ways by which it advises him so he will not stray to the right or to the left. There are several ways by which it advises him on how to repent before his Master and He will forgive him.
The Torah gives 613 counsels to a person on how to be whole with his Master, because his Master wishes to do good to him in this world and in the next world, especially in the next world.
333) This world, compared to the next world, is only like an entry room before the hall. When that righteous one is rewarded with his, it is written, “He shall have no inheritance among his brothers,” since “The Lord is his inheritance.” Happy is he who is rewarded with this superior inheritance. He is rewarded with it in this world, in the house of this world, and thus he is rewarded in the next world, in the upper, holy house, as it is written, “To them I will give in My house and within My walls a hand.” Happy is that righteous, whose dwelling place is with the King, in His house.
405-406) Happy are Israel, whom the Creator names “man,” as it is written, “And you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are men.” It is also written, “When any man of you brings an offering.” What is the reason that He calls them “men”? It is because it is written, “And you that cleave unto the Lord your God,” meaning you, and not the rest of the idol-worshipping nations. This is the reason why you are men. You are called “man,” and the idol-worshipping nations are not called “man.”
When a person from Israel is circumcised, he enters the covenant that the Creator made with Abraham, as it is written, “And the Lord blessed Abraham in all.” It is also written, “Mercy [Hesed] for Abraham.” And he begins to enter in that place. When he has been rewarded with keeping the Mitzvot of the Torah, he comes into that man of the upper Merkava [chariot/assembly] and clings to the King’s body, and then he is called “man.”
421-422) “It is all one thing, and counts as a single degree. There are several faces within faces to the Creator. There are illuminating faces, faces that do not illuminate, lower faces, remote faces, near faces, faces within faces, faces without, faces of the right, and faces of the left.”
Happy are Israel before the Creator, for they cling to the King’s upper face, that face to which He and His name cling, and He and His name are one. The rest of the nations grip the remote faces, the lower faces. This is why they are remote from the King’s body.
411) It is written, “For it is your life and the length of your days.” One who has been rewarded with the Torah and did not part from it is rewarded with two lives: one in this world and one in the next world. It is written, “Your life” in plural tense [in Hebrew it can be perceived as plural], which are two. And anyone who parts from it, it is as though he parted from life. And one who parts from Rabbi Shimon, it is as though he parted from everything.
412) Woe unto a generation from whom Rabbi Shimon departs, since when we stand before Rabbi Shimon, the fountains of the heart are open to all directions and everything is revealed. And when we part from him, we know nothing and all the fountains are hidden.
413) Like that candle from which several candles shine, yet it is complete, with none of it missing because the candles were lit from it. So is Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, owner of the candles. He shines for all and the light does not depart from him, and he remains whole.
414-416) All of Israel’s prayers are prayer, and the prayer of the poor is the highest because it rises up to the throne of the King and crowns itself in His head and the Creator is praised in this prayer. This is why the prayer of the poor is called “a prayer.”
As for the rest of the people in the world, at times He listens and at times He does not listen, since the tabernacle of the Creator is in those broken Kelim, as it is written, “The Lord is near to those with a broken heart.”
428) One should be so careful with words of Torah, and one should be so careful not to err in them and utter a word of Torah that he does not know, and which he did not receive from his teacher. Anyone who says words of Torah that he does not know or did not receive from his teacher, it is written about him, “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness.”
430) The whole Torah is a holy name, for there is nothing in the Torah that is not included in the holy name. Hence, we must be careful not to err in His holy name and not lie with it. One who lies with the upper King is not admitted into the King’s palace and will be abolished from the next world.
478-479) Woe to the people of the world whose ways are as beasts, who do not know and do not look. It is better for them if they were not born. Woe to the world when Rabbi Shimon departs it: who will be able to reveal secrets, who will know them, and who will look in the ways of Torah?
Rabbi Shimon said to them, “The world is only for friends who engage in Torah and know the secrets of the Torah.
New Zohar, Yitro [Jethro]
13) There is not a creature in the upper ones or in the lower ones that is not inscribed in His name. Everyone is also inscribed in Divinity. The finest of all the creations that He has created is the man, who is a form comprised of the entire world, and of all the creations in the world. This is why He favors him more than all creations.
171-175) A thought was given to man, that man will contemplate the Creator of the worlds, to unify his name through Ein Sof and through eternity. He created everything in Bina, as it is written, “See who has created these.” “Who” [MI] is Bina.
Speech was given to man to engage in the Torah with it, and to know from it the Maker of everything. It is said about Him, “Who makes light.” It is so because the speech is Yetzira, Tifferet, and there is no light but the Torah, as it is written, “For a candle is a Mitzva and the Torah is light.” It is He who is the Maker, who made in man a face, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, to engage in the Torah in them and to know Him through her.
Likewise, He fashioned a mouth to speak of the Torah; He fashioned eyes to look in the light of Torah; He fashioned ears in him to hear with them the words of Torah. These are the six edges that Tifferet includes: two eyes, two ears, a mouth, and a tongue.
He fashioned the nose, and in it, “He breathed into his nostrils the breath [soul] of life,” which man would contemplate in the unification of the Name, as it is written, “I am the Lord, maker of everything.” This is the lower Divinity, Malchut, from whom the noetic soul was given to man, for the Nefesh [both Nefesh and Neshama are translated as “soul”] is from Malchut, to know with it all the works of Torah, the Mitzvot of the Torah, He who is called “Maker of all,” which is Malchut, in whom there is making.
They are three ties that were placed in a person: the noetic soul, by which to know the Maker of all the worlds, who says and does, speaks and keeps, who creates, makes, and does, and all are one. He is Ein Sof. He brings everything from potential to actual, He changes His deeds, and there is no change in Him.
73-74) On the part of the animate soul, man’s days are short, few, and bad. All of man’s days, which are in poverty, sorrow, and pressure, are not life, especially if the days are without Torah and Mitzvot, it is not a life.
If he repents—even if he is in a tail of a lamb or an ox, for in every sign on the part of the animate soul the Creator adds more spirit than the angels—and rises from the tail of the signs to be intermediate, in the middle of each star and sign, like the wind, if he is more rewarded with repenting in his thought, the Creator gives him a soul from the throne and he rises to be a head at the beginning of each star and sign like the soul [Neshama].