Pekudei [Accounts]
1) It is written, “All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full.” All the rivers are rivers and holy springs, the Sefirot de ZA, which have been filled and came out to illuminate upon the great sea, which is Malchut. And when the great sea is filled by those rivers, it emits water and waters all the animals of the field, as it is written, “They water every beast of the field,” which are the degrees of BYA.
17) “Which is being shown to you.” “You” is the mirror that does not shine, Malchut, which showed him within her all those forms. And Moses saw each of them in its corrected form, as one who sees within a crystal lamp, within a mirror that shows all the forms. And when Moses looked into them, he found them perplexing, since there, in Malchut, everything stood in its spiritual form, but each form equalized its form to the imaginary form in this world, in the Tabernacle.
50) It is written, “ And He will be the faith of Your times, the strength of salvation of wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is His treasure.” Any person who engages in Torah in this world—and is rewarded with setting up times for it—should be with faith that his desire will be aimed at the Creator, ZA, that he will intend for the Creator. Malchut is called “a name,” to mate with the heaven, ZA, since the faith, Malchut, intended to connect with ZA, as it is written, “The faith of Your times,” where “Your times” are the times for Torah, ZA, and faith— Malchut—to bond together. “The strength of salvation,” including Hesed in Din, since strength is Din and salvation is Hesed. “Of wisdom and knowledge.” These are one atop the other because the Hochma is hidden and concealed, and they should be placed one atop the other, as Hochma appears only through the Daat.
80-81) The right side is always posed to keep the whole world, illuminate, and bless it. Therefore, the priest, the right side, Hesed, is always ready to bless the people, since all the blessings of the world come from the right side, and the priest takes first. For this reason, the priest was appointed on blessings above and below—the Hesed above, and the priest below.
When the priest stretches his hands to bless the people, Divinity comes over him and fills his hands. He raises the right hand over the left hand, to elevate the right and make it stronger than the left. Then, all the degrees in which the priest stretches his hands are blessed from the source of everything. The source of the well is a righteous, Yesod. The source of everything is the next world, Bina, from which all the faces, all the Mochin illuminate, for it is the spring and the source of everything, and all the candles and lights are lit from there.
93-94) When the sea raises its waves in anger and the waves come up to wash the world over, when they come and see the sand of the sea, they promptly break and turn back quiet, and cannot rule and wash the world over.
Similarly, Israel are like the sand of the sea. When the rest of the nations, the waves of the sea—angry, with harsh Dinim—see that Israel are connected to the Creator, they turn back and break before them, and cannot rule over the world.
109) It is written, “While the king sat at his table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance.” “While the king sat at his table” is the Creator, Bina, when He gave the Torah to Israel and came to Sinai. That is, when Bina disclosed the Mochin de Yechida de ZA that illuminated at the time of the giving of the Torah to Israel. There were several Merkavot with Him, all of which are holy Merkavot, left line, as well as all the upper sanctities from the upper Kedusha of the Torah, the right line. They were all there, and the Torah, the middle line, was given in flames of fire. Everything was of fire, written in white fire, from the side of Hesed, over black fire, from the side of Gevura. It is so because the middle line consists of HG, right and left, and the letters were flying and ascending through the air. In the air, the lower degrees would fly and rise up to the upper ones.
170-171) The good deeds that one does in this world draw light of the upper splendor to set up for him a garment for that world, to be seen before the Creator. In that garment that he wears, he enjoys and sees the illuminating mirror, as it is written, “To behold the pleasantness of the Lord and to visit in His palace.”
Therefore, the soul dresses in special garments in two worlds, so she will have wholeness in all—in this world, below, and in the world above. This is why it is written, “Only the righteous will give thanks to Your name, the upright will dwell in Your presence.” “Only the righteous will give thanks to Your name” is in this world; “The upright will dwell in Your presence” is in that world.
211-212) It is written, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” the heaven being ZA and the earth being Malchut, since the tabernacle was made according to everything, making the similitude of the lower world, Malchut, and the similitude of the upper world, ZA. All of the works that the Creator worked in this world are as above. So is the tabernacle: all of His works are as the work and as the similitude of the upper world.
This is the meaning of all the work of the tabernacle. All of them are deeds and corrections of above and of below, to instill Divinity in the world, in the upper dwellers, the angels, and in the lower dwellers, people. The lower Garden of Eden, Malchut, is as the upper one, Bina. All the images and all the forms of the world are there, hence the work of the tabernacle and the work of heaven and earth, ZA and Malchut, are all one.
233-235) King David always lowered himself before the Creator, for anyone who lowers himself before the Creator, the Creator raises him above all. This is why the Creator desired David in this world and in the next world.
Similarly, one should be despised in one’s own eyes and lower himself in everything, to be a Kli that the Creator wants.
262) It is written, “The secret of the Lord is to them that fear Him; and His covenant is to make them know it.” The upper secret, which is concealed, stands only for those who fear Him, who always fear the Creator, who are worthy of these sublime secrets, and to have these secrets in them in hiding and concealment as it should be, as they are sublime secrets. However, “And His covenant, to make them know it,” the secret that stands in the holy covenant. “To make them know it,” since it is a place that is poised for revealing and for knowing, since the Yesod discloses the illumination of Hochma in Malchut. “To make them know it,” through Malchut.
291) One who has eyes in Tevuna [gumption] will know and regard the wisdom of his Master, and will know these sublime matters where the keys of his Master are found, which are hidden within the holy tabernacle.
337) For this reason, the holy Israel, which is a single nation in holy unification, the Creator gives them a counsel by which to be saved from everything.
343) All the righteous that tie the knots of unifications and daily unify the unification of the faith, Malchut, who is called “tabernacle,” raise the chair, Malchut, until they bring her to Moses, ZA. It is written about them, “And they brought the tabernacle to Moses.” And since the righteous connect her with Moses, they gain blessings from the source of life by merit of the ties of unifications that they tie, tying the unification properly. It is written, “And Moses saw all the work,” meaning the unification of everything, and then, “And Moses blessed them,” meaning they gained the blessings from the place where the degree of Moses stands— ZA. These are the sages that do all the holy work because they know how to arrange the holy work through the unifications that they do.
344) Anyone who prays a prayer and ties the unification is looked upon. If the prayer and the knot are proper, he is blessed first, from the place from which all the blessings come.
349-350) It is written, “This is the law of the burnt offering. It is that which goes up on its firewood upon the altar all night.” In the next world, Bina, all will be one. The burnt offering is called “the holy of holies,” after the Dvekut [adhesion] with Bina. This is why Malchut is called “burnt offering,” for it rises and crowns in ZA and in Bina, for everything to be one, in one connection in joy.
Because she rises up to ZA and to Bina, it is written, “This is the law of the burnt offering” [Ola means both “burnt offering” and “rising” in Hebrew], which is a male and female together. “This” is the Nukva, “The law” is ZA, who is called Torah [law]. The written Torah is ZA; the oral Torah is Malchut. “Rising” [also “burnt offering”] means rising to the next world, Bina, to connect within her, since Bina is called “the holy of holies.” Also, a burnt offering is the holy of holies, as well.
359-360) The tie of the burnt offering ties to the holy of holies, Bina, to illuminate. To where does the Dvekut of the will of the priests, the Levites, and the Israelis above, in the offering of the sacrifice, rise?
Their Dvekut rises up to Ein Sof, since every connection and unity and perfection is to hide and conceal that which is unattainable and unknown, that the desire of all desires is in him, in Ein Sof. Ein Sof is neither about to be known nor to become a Sof [end], nor become a Rosh [head/beginning]. It is also not like the first absence, Keter, which elicited Rosh and Sof. Rosh, the uppermost point, the concealed beginning of everything, stands within the thought, Hochma, since Hochma emerged from Keter, as it is written, “But wisdom, from where shall it be?” He made an end, called “the end of the matter,” Malchut, the end of all the lights. But there, in Ein Sof, there is no end.
361-362) There are no desires in Ein Sof, nor are there lights or candles, which are lights of Gevura. All the candles and lights in Atzilut depend on Ein Sof, to exist in them. However, it is unattainable. One who is known and unknown, in whom there is knowing but is unknown, is the highest and most concealed desire, called Ein [absence/null] the Sefira Keter. But in Ein Sof, not a word can be said, for there is zero attainment in it.
When the uppermost point, Hochma, and the next world, Bina, ascend in their illumination, they know only scent, VAK of illumination of Hochma, and not GAR, as one who smells a fragrance and is perfumed. It is not considered contentment, called “a fragrance,” for it is written, “And I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.” Thus, “smell” and “fragrance” are two separate things, since a fragrance means the scent of the desire, all those desires of prayer, the desire of singing, and the desire of the priest, which are Adam. Then they all become one will, called “a fragrance,” which means a desire. Then everything becomes connected and illuminates together as it should.
385-387) When the Creator establishes His house, Malchut, it is written about that time, “He will swallow up death forever.” As the angel of death swallowed up the people of the world, so will the angel of death be swallowed.
And he will not be swallowed for a set time, as Israel were in exile for a set time. Rather, it is written, “Forever,” for all generations.
At that time the Creator will raise the Assembly of Israel, Malchut, and will establish the bases and the sills, and all the ceilings of the house in their correction forever because the Sitra Achra will be swallowed up, and will never rise again. Then it is written, “And He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.”
393) The Creator chose Israel for His lot and portion, and brought them near Him. He made of them certain degrees in this world, the patriarchs, such as above, to perfect all the worlds as one, above and below, as it is written, “The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool,” to perfect above and below into being one.
474-477) Happy are you, Adam HaRishon, the chosen one among all creations present in the world, for the Creator has made you greater than all and had let you into the Garden of Eden, and established for you seven canopies in which to play in the pleasure of the sublime delight, as it is written, “To behold the pleasantness of the Lord, and to visit in His palace.” “To behold the pleasantness of the Lord” above in ZA, “And to visit in His palace” below, in Malchut. “To behold the pleasantness of the Lord” in those seven firmaments above, of ZA, “And to visit in His palace,” in those seven firmaments below, of Malchut. These stand opposite those.
In all of them, the seven firmaments of ZA and the seven firmaments of Malchut, You stood in the Garden of Eden. The seven upper holy canopies, firmaments of ZA, stood over you, above, to be crowned in them. These are Hassadim. And those seven lower firmaments, of Malchut, you stood in them to play in them, and they are illumination, called “entertainments.” In all of them, your Master complemented you, to be whole in everything, whether in Hassadim or in Hochma.
Until you were deflected by the counsel of the wicked serpent and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, causing death to you and to the entire world, for you had left those enjoyments above and below, following those impure cravings, called “vipers’ head,” after which the body follows, and not the spirit, as it is written, “And a cruel vipers’ head,” who is cruel to the spirit. Finally, Abraham the pious came and began to mend the world, and entered the holy faith, establishing above and below—in those upper firmaments, and in those lower firmaments.
The lower firmaments of Malchut are palaces for the upper firmaments of ZA, to unite and to connect with one another.
485-490) The holy appointee stands over the door to all the prayers that breach airs and firmaments to come before the King. If it is a prayer of many, he opens the gate and lets her in, where she is detained until all the prayers of the world become a crown on the head of the righteous one who lives forever, Yesod.
If it is a prayer of one, it rises until it reaches the palace door, where that appointee stands. If the prayer is good for entering the holy King, he immediately opens a door and lets it in. If it is not good, he pushes it out and it descends and roams the world, standing at the bottom firmament from among those firmaments below, which lead the world. In that firmament is the appointee Sahadiel, who takes those rejected prayers, called “disqualified prayers,” and conceals them until a person repents.
If he repents before his Master properly, and prays another prayer, a good one, when the prayer rises, the appointee, Sahadiel, takes that prayer, the disqualified one, and raises it until it meets the good prayer. Then they rise and mingle together, and come in before the holy King.
Sometimes, a prayer is rejected because that man went after the Sitra Achra and was defiled. The appointee in the Sitra Achra takes that prayer, and then the Sitra Achra stands and mentions the man’s iniquities before the Creator, slandering him above. For this reason, when the prayers and souls rise, they all rise and stand before that first palace, and that appointee stands by the door of the palace, letting the souls and prayers inside, or rejecting them.
Above the door of the palace is another door, which the Creator dug out of Dinim de Miftacha, as it is written, “The well that the ministers dug.” It opens three times a day, meaning that three lines illuminate in it, and it does not close. It stands open for those who repent, who have shed tears in their prayer before their Master. And all the gates and doors are closed until they come in by permission, except for these gates, which are called “the gates of tears.” Those are open and require no permission.
This is so because the first door is as it is written, “Sin crouches at the door,” where the Malchut de Man’ula is found, ten thousand. In that respect, repentance does not help because it is the quality of harsh Din. But the Creator dug another door above it, the Miftacha, Malchut that is mitigated in Bina, and from there the repentance helps.
When this prayer in tears rises through these gates, that Ophan—who is an angel from Malchut, called Ophan—comes. He stands over 600 big animals, and his name is Yerachmiel. He takes the prayer in tears, the prayer enters and is connected above, and the tears remain here. They are written in a door that the Creator dug.
The prayer in tears raises MAN for correction of the Miftacha, to raise Malchut to Bina; hence, the prayer is accepted and the tears remain carved on the door, where they cause the mitigation of Malchut in Bina. Dema [tearing] comes from the word mixing, for it mixes and mingles Malchut in Bina.
576-577) Happy are the righteous who know how to set up their prayer properly because when that prayer begins to rise, those angels rise along with that prayer and enter the firmaments and palaces up to the gate to the upper door, and a prayer enters to be crowned before the King.
All those who pray prayers and sanctify their Master wholeheartedly, that prayer should elicit from the thought and by the will of speech and spirit. Then the name of the Creator is sanctified, and when the prayer reaches the angels, who are friends, they all take the prayer and go with it up to the seventh palace, to the door that is there. Those angels praise the Creator when Israel pray prayers and sanctify to the Creator. At daytime, they are the appointees during the day, who were appointed to praise along with the people of Israel, to be friends with them. At night, they are friends to those other ones, who say poems at night.
647-652) The sixth palace is called “the palace of desire,” a desire called “[that which] proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” This is a joy of Dvekut of everything, and here is the desire of all the desires, as it is written,“Your lips are like a thread of scarlet.” It is a desire of all the souls that come out from what proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
In the palace of desire, all the wishes and all the requests in the world are granted because it is the wish of all the wishes, when there are kisses, as it is written, “And Jacob kissed Rachel.” Then, when they kiss one another, it is called “a time of good will,” since then there is the wholeness and all the faces illuminate. When the prayers rise, it is a time of good will to be present. It is written about it, “And I, my prayer is to You, O Lord, a time of good will,” which is bonding in kisses.
There are six doors in that palace, four doors to the four directions, HGTM, one above, and one below, NH. In those doors, Raziel—a great spirit—was appointed over all the appointees in all the doors. He was appointed and deposited with all the upper secrets that are spoken mouth to mouth, which kiss one another in the love of love.
These secrets are not about to reveal, but when the gates open, all the palaces, all the spirits, and all the camps know that the gates of good will have been opened. But only desires of the prayers enter those gates, desires of praises, desires of the high, holy souls.
It is a palace of Moses. In this palace, Moses was gathered in love and kissed kisses in a death of kiss. In this palace, “Moses spoke and God answered him with a voice.”
When those who kiss kisses cling to one another in a kiss, it is written about it, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” There are kisses of joy and love only when clinging to one another mouth-to-mouth, spirit-to-spirit, satiating each other with every indulgence and with joy from the upper illumination.
705-706) From this palace, all the secrets and all the upper and lower degrees begin to unite, so that all will be in wholeness, above and below, so that all will be one, one bonding, to properly unify the holy name, and to be completed so the upper abundance illuminates in the lower one, and the illuminations of the candles illuminate as one, not parting from one another. At that time, those who are drawn and affected are drawn—who was unknown and unrevealed, so he would draw near and unite with one another, so that all will be in the complete unification as it should be.
Happy is he who knows the secrets of his Master, to know him properly. They eat their part in this world and in the next world. It is written about it, “Behold, My servants shall eat.” Happy are the righteous who engage in Torah day and night because they know the ways of the Creator, and know how to properly unite the sacred unification, for anyone who knows how to unify the holy name in wholeness, as it should be, happy is he in this world and in the next world.
706) Happy are the righteous who engage in Torah day and night because they know the ways of the Creator, and know how to properly unite the sacred unification, for anyone who knows how to unify the holy name in wholeness, as it should be, happy is he in this world and in the next world.
742) When the righteous Joseph, Yesod, is about to correct everything, he takes everything. And when he connects in his palace, everyone awakens to take craving and desire, the upper ones and lower ones, and it is all in one will and one wholeness, to delight the upper ones and lower ones in one desire, as it should be, and all the lower ones persist through him. This is why it is written, “And the righteous is the Yesod [foundation] of the world,” since the world stands on this foundation.
747) There are things that the body enjoys, that enter the body, but not the soul, and there are things that the soul enjoys and not the body. This is why the degrees differ from one another. Happy are the righteous who take the straight path and avoid that side, clinging to the side of Kedusha.
752-760) The seventh palace is the innermost palace. It is hidden, there is no real form in it, and there is no Guf at all here, only a Rosh. Here is the concealed of the secret of secrets, the place to enter the channels of above, of Atzilut. Here is a spirit who includes all the spirits in all the palaces. Here is a desire that includes all the desire, to unite all the palaces as one. In this palace is the spirit of life, from Bina, so that all will be one correction.
That palace is called “the house of the holy of holies,” the place to receive the upper soul, Bina, who is called so to evoke in him the next world, Bina.
This world, Malchut, is called “world.” “World” means ascent, where the lower world, Malchut, rises to the upper world, Bina, hides in it, disappears in it, and appears in hiding. Malchut ascends with all the palaces that have approached her and hides within the upper concealment, Bina. The upper world, Bina, means that Bina rises and hides within the upper desire, within the most covered of all that are covered, who is completely unknown, unrevealed, and there is none who knows him, who is AA.
The curtain, the Parsa—between the sixth palace, holiness, and the seventh palace, the holy of holies—was spread and covers to conceal the hidden one, the seventh palace. The ark-cover was spread in high concealments over the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies, Yesod of Malchut de Atzilut, clothed in the seventh palace, to conceal the concealed inside the ark of the covenant, for they are hidden and concealed.
Inside the ark-cover, which is the ark, there is a hidden place, concealed and covert, in which to gather the upper anointing oil, the spirit of life, through a river that stretches out of Eden, Yesod de ZA de Atzilut. The river is called “the fountain of the well,” Malchut, whose waters never stop. When Yesod lets in and extends every holy ointment from above, from the place of the holy of holies, Bina de Atzilut, the illumination and extension come down into those hoses of Yesod of Malchut de Atzilut, and Malchut de Atzilut is filled from there, like a female is impregnated and filled by the male.
The seventh palace, too, is established to receive the lights of Yesod de ZA de Atzilut through Malchut de Atzilut, which is clothed in it, like a female who receives from the male. The reception that she receives are all those spirits and holy souls who come down to the world to clothe in people. They are detained there as long as it is necessary, until they come down and clothe in people. After their demise from this world, they return to the seventh palace.
They are detained in the seventh palace until the arrival of the Messiah king, when all those souls are satisfied and come to Atzilut to their places, and the world will rejoice as before, prior to the diminution of the moon and the sin of the tree of knowledge, as it is written, “The Lord will rejoice in His works.”
It is so because after their demise from this world, the souls cannot rise above the seventh palace, for that is where the Parsa separates between Atzilut and BYA. Hence, they are detained in the seventh palace until the end of correction, when the boundary of the Parsa is cancelled and they can climb up to Atzilut, to their root, to Bina de Atzilut, since the light of Bina is called Neshama [soul]. This is why at that time it is written, “The Lord will rejoice in His works.”
In this palace are pleasures, delights and entertainment of the spirits with which the Creator is entertained in the Garden of Eden. Here are all the lusts and all the pleasures, for all the palaces to unite in Him as one, and they will all become one. Here it is the connection of everything in one unification.
When all the organs, all the Behinot in the palaces, unite in the upper organs of the seventh palace, each according to what he deserves, they have neither passion nor delight other than the unification in that palace. It all hangs here. When the bonding here unites in a single unification, then all the illuminations in the organs, all the illumination of the Panim, and all the joys illuminate and rejoice.
Happy is he who knows how to set up orders and to properly correct the corrections of the wholeness. He is the Creator’s loved one in this world and in the next world, and then all the Dinim and all the bad decrees are revoked from the world.
764) The fountain of the well, Yesod, never ceases from the well, which is Malchut de Atzilut clothed in the seventh palace. Hence, that place is the perfection of everything, the persistence of the whole body to be complete in everything, as it should be. Here, in the seventh palace, is the unification and the connection as one, to be one above and below, in one connection, so the organs, Behinot, and the degrees in the palaces do not depart from each other, and so all will be in a Zivug PBP [Panim be Panim (face-to-face)].
771) When they are all completed together, when all the palaces are included in the seventh palace, and the upper organs, ZON de Atzilut, illuminate to the lower ones, the palaces, a high soul awakens— Bina de Atzilut—enters everyone and illuminates to all. Then everyone is blessed: the upper ones, ZON de Atzilut; the lower ones, all the palaces, and what is within them. The one who is not known and which did not enter the calculation of the desire, who is never perceived, Atik, dresses inside of them, and then everything rises through Ein Sof and all connects in one connection.
786-787) It is written, “And they had the hands of a man under their wings.” Spirits, animals, and Ophanim are all winged. The hands under their wings are to receive prayers and receive those who repent. “The hands of a man” means places and receptacles to accept people in their prayers and litanies, and to open doors to receive them, to unite and to tie ties, and to do as they wish.
These places and receptacles are called “The hands of a man” because they are for man. These are holy names that rule over each degree, in which people come in with their prayers and litanies through all the high gates. By that, the lower ones rule above.
788) Happy are those who know how to set up the unification of their Master properly and to go by the path of truth, so they will not err in faith.
812-813) This is why he must connect to the Kedusha of his Master and not part from Him. And when he asks, the beginning of the pleading should be to know his Master, to show his passion for Him, which is the first request, “Grant us from You wisdom, understanding, and intelligence.” Henceforth, he will part a little and ask the pleas that he needs to ask.
All his questions will be after he arranges the order. Likewise, all his questions will be in litanies and requests before his Master, and He will not remove Himself from him, meaning be angered. Happy is he who knows how to arrange that order, to go by the straight path as he should.
832) Anyone who does not know how to establish the praise of his Master, it is better for him not to be born because the prayer must be complete above, out of thought, the will of the heart, the voice, and the word of the mouth, to make wholeness, connection, and unification above. As it is above, and as the wholeness comes out from above downward, so it should be from below upward, properly tying the connection.
833-835) The secret is for the friends to walk on the straight path. Thought, will, voice, and speech are four that tie the ties, opposite HGTM. Thought and will are HB, voice and speech are TM. Once they all tie ties together, they all become one Merkava, to instill Divinity upon them—the speech—and then all become four pillars to crown in them, and Divinity relies on them in all those high connections.
The thought, which is Hochma, elicits and begets the will, Bina. The will that comes out of the thought begets and elicits the audible voice, ZA, and the audible voice ascends to tie ties from below upward, the lower palaces in the upper ones. The voice—which ties connections between the two lines in Bina, and extends blessings from above downward, from Bina, in secret—relies on those four pillars—thought, will, voice, and speech, HBTM. The reliance is at the Sium [end] of the tie, in the speech, Malchut, the place where everything is tied together and they all become one, since Malchut receives everyone into her.
Happy is he who ties the ties of his Master, authorizes supports properly, and intends in all those matters. He is happy in this world and in the next world. Thus far the palaces on the side of Kedusha have been perfected.