VaYikra [The Lord Called]
10) The Zohar explains the matter of, “He called unto Moses.” Certainly, this calling has no resemblance to a corporeal call, but as it is written, “The Torah speaks as the language of people.” Hence, we should understand the inner meaning of this calling.
18) Since man’s merit is not told in his presence. This means that the Creator does not reveal the merit of a degree to the one who attains it until that degree has gone and he has been rewarded with a new degree. Then He reveals before him the praise and wholeness of the first. Thus, the Creator does not reveal the praise of the degree to its face, while it still exists.
70) The thought of the Creator, which is the Sefira Hochma, is superior and the Rosh [head] of everything. This is so because Partzuf ZA begins from Hochma and its Keter is from Ima. From that thought, ways and paths extend to devise the Holy Name and to correct in its proper corrections. The potion of the Garden of Eden extends from that thought to water everything, and the upper and lower exist from that thought. Also, the written Torah, ZA, and the oral Torah, Malchut, were emanated from that thought.
88) There is nothing in the Torah that is weak or broken. When you observe and know it, you will find it as strong as a hammer that breaks the rock. And if it is weak, it is from you, as it is written, “For it is no vain thing for you,” and if it is empty, it is from you.
99) “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together, as well.” Happy are Israel, for the Creator did not hand them over to a minister or to a messenger. Rather, Israel grip to Him and He to them. For their love, the Creator calls them, “servants,” as it is written, “For unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My servants.” Afterwards He calls them “sons,” as it is written, “Youare the children of the Lord your God.” After that He calls them “brothers,” as it is written, “My brothers and my friends.” And because He called them “brothers,” He wished to place His Divinity in them and He will not stray from them. Then it is written, “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together, as well.”
109) “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Any work that a person wishes to do for the Creator should be done with gladness, willingly, so that his work will be whole.
200-201) “Bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.” This is a praise for all those with faith. Who are those with faith? They are the ones who engage in Torah and know how to unite the Holy Name properly. And the praise of those with faith is that they stand at midnight to engage in Torah and adhere to the assembly of Israel, Malchut, to praise the Creator with words of Torah.
When one rises at midnight to engage in Torah, a Northern wind—meaning illumination of the left—awakens at midnight, which is the deer and Malchut, and stands and praises the Creator, ZA. And when she stands, several thousands and several tens of thousands stand with her in their existence, and they all begin to praise the holy King.
246) When the Creator watches over the world and sees that the acts of people below are upright, Atik, which is Keter, appears in ZA, Tifferet, and all those Panim of ZA look at the hidden Panim of Atik. Then, all are blessed because they look at each other in an upright way, in the middle line, which leans neither to the right nor to the left. It is written about that, “The upright shall behold His face,” meaning that the faces of Atik and ZA look at each other in an upright way, in the middle line. And then they are all blessed and water each other until all the worlds are blessed and all the worlds are as one. At that time, it is considered that “The Lord is one and His name One.”
249-250) And when the people of the world improve their actions below, the Dinim are perfumed and impregnated, and the Rachamim awaken and rule over that evil that has awakened from the harsh Din. And when the Rachamim awaken, there are joy and comfort because they rule over that evil, as it is written, “And the Lord repented of the evil.” He repented because the harsh Din has surrendered and the Rachamim ruled.
When the Dinim are perfumed and Rachamim rule, each Sefira returns to existence and all are blessed together. When each returns to its place, all are blessed together, and Ima is perfumed with bonding the engravings that returned to her, then repentance is considered whole and the world is atoned for, since Ima sits in complete joy, as it is written, “As a joyful mother of children.”
288) As long as the assembly of Israel is with the Creator, the Creator is in wholeness and willingly pastures Himself and to others. To Himself means that He nurtures Himself by sucking the milk of upper Ima. He receives the abundance of Bina and from that nursing that He sucks, He waters all the others and nurtures them.
When the assembly of Israel is with the Creator, the Creator is in wholeness and joy, and there are blessings in Him, which come out from Him to all the others, to all the worlds. And any time when the assembly of Israel is not with the Creator, the blessings are devoid of Him and of all the others.
311-312) The prayer and the voice of the Shofar that the righteous produces in the Shofar comes out of his spirit and soul [Nefesh and Ruach respectively] and rise upwards. On that day, there are slanderers above, and when that voice of the Shofar rises, they are repelled by it and cannot exist. Happy are the righteous, for they know how to aim their will before their Master and know how to correct the world on that day with the voice of the Shofar. This is why it is written, “Happy is the people that knows the joyful shout,” “Knows,” and not “Blows.”
On that day, the people should see that a man is complete in everything—knowing the ways of the holy King and knowing the King’s honor, to pray the prayer for them on that day and summon the voice of the Shofar in all the worlds through the intention in the heart, with wisdom, will, and wholeness. Thus, through him, the Din would depart from the world. Woe unto those whose emissary is unworthy, since they will come to remind the iniquities of the world because of him. This is the meaning of, “If the anointed priest should sin” who is the emissary of the whole of Israel, hence the fault of the people, since the Din is over the people.
315) How much should one regard the glory of one’s Master to be a whole creation before the Creator? When the Creator created man, He created him whole, as it is written, “That God made the man upright.”
324) Happy are the righteous, for the Creator teaches them profound secrets of above and below, and it is all for the Torah, since anyone who engages in the Torah is crowned in the crowns of His Holy Name. This is so because the Torah is the Holy Name and one who engages in it is registered and crowned in the Holy Name, and then he knows the hidden ways and the deep secrets above and below, and he never fears.
342) One who makes a request of the King must unite the holy Name in his will from below upwards, from Malchut to Keter, and from above downwards, from Keter to Malchut—uniting everything in one unification in Ein Sof [infinity], and in this unification he will include his plea. Who is so wise as to make his pleas like King David’s, who was keeping the King’s door? He was a Merkava [chariot/assembly] to Malchut, which is called “the King’s door.” So it is, and this is why the Torah teaches us the ways of the holy King, so we will know how to follow Him, as it is written, “After the Lord your God shall you walk.”
373-374) The assembly of Israel does not stand before the King, ZA, unless in the Torah. As long as Israel that are in the land engage in Torah, the assembly of Israel is with them. When they are idle from words of Torah, the assembly of Israel cannot be with them for even an hour. For this reason, when the assembly of Israel awakens to the King in the Torah of the lower ones, her strength grows and the holy King is delighted to greet her.
And as long as the assembly of Israel comes before the King and the Torah is not with her, her strength withers. Woe unto those who weaken the force of above. And for this reason, happy are those who engage in Torah.
379-380) “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” When the Creator comes to entertain with the righteous in the Garden of Eden, all things, meaning degrees in the lower world, Malchut, and all the upper ones and lower ones awaken toward Him. And all the trees, meaning degrees, in the Garden of Eden begin to praise before Him, as it is written, “Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for He has come.” And even the birds in the land all utter praise before Him.
At that time, a flame comes out and strikes the wings of the rooster, who calls and praises the holy King. He calls upon people to exert in Torah, in praising their Master, and in His work. Happy are those who rise from their bed to engage in Torah.
When the morning comes, the doors on the south, meaning Hesed, open and the gates of healing come out to the world. And Eastern wind, ZA, awakens and Rachamim are present. And all those stars and signs, meaning degrees, which are appointed under the governance of that morning, which is Yesod that shines Hassadim, they all begin to praise and to sing for the High King.
387) After Moses died, it is written, “And this people will rise up, and go astray.” Woe unto the world when Rabbi Shimon departs it, when the fountains of wisdom are blocked in the world and a man seeks a word of wisdom, but none shall be found to speak. And the whole world will be erring in the Torah and there will be no one to evoke in the wisdom.
It is written about that time, “And if the whole congregation of Israel shall err,” meaning if they err in the Torah and do not know her ways and what they are because “and the matter is hidden from the eyes of the assembly,” meaning that there is none who knows how to reveal the depth of the Torah and her ways, woe unto those generations that will be in the world at that time.
388) At the time of the Messiah, the Creator will reveal profound secrets in the Torah, “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” It is written, “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.”
397-399) When the rooster calls and people sleep in their beds and do not awaken, the rooster calls, strikes his wings and says, “Woe unto so and so; he is cursed by his Master, he is abandoned by his Master,” since his spirit has not awakened and he did not observe the King’s honor.
At the rise of day, a herald declares about him and says, “But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,’” to help him with those praises so that all will be in one assistance. The Malchut sings to ZA at night, to help man so he, too, will awaken with these praises. And when one praises and engages in Torah, she raises MAN, he helps the Malchut, and they are both in one assistance.
What is “My Maker”? When a person rises at midnight, he engages in the song of the Torah, since the song of the Torah is read only at night, when he engages in the Torah. When the day rises, the Creator and the assembly of Israel correct him with a single thread of grace that was saved from all, to illuminate him among the upper ones and lower ones.
“Where is God my Maker.” It should have said, “Makes for me”; why “My Maker”? When he rises at midnight to engage in Torah, when the day rises, Abraham awakens with his thread of grace and the Creator and the assembly of Israel correct him. They make him a new creation every day, as it is written, “God, my Maker.”
433-436) When he has acquired Ruach, that Ruach comes out and breaks mountains and rocks, which are the external forces, and rises and spreads, and enters among the high and holy angels. This is because the Ruach extends from the world of Yetzira, where the angels are. There, he knows what he knows and learns things from them and returns to his place. At that time, this is man’s connection to holiness until he is rewarded with Neshama and acquires it.
When he acquires a Neshama, she rises to the world of Beria, from which the Neshama extends, and the guards at the gates do not detain her. She spreads and rises further up among those righteous who are bundled in the bundle of life, Malchut, where she sees the pleasure of the King and enjoys the upper brightness.
When the holy doe [deer] awakens, meaning Malchut, in the Northern wind at midnight, she comes down and that righteous who has acquired a Neshama rises and gains strength in the Torah like a mighty lion, until the morning rises. Then he walks with that holy doe to be seen before the King and to receive from him a single thread of grace, the thread of Abraham, the light of Hesed.
And when that righteous comes with the doe, Malchut, he is crowned with her before the king.
448-449) “My heart is for the governors of Israel that offered themselves willingly among the people, bless the Lord.” All the willingness and all the heart that a man needs to extend blessings from above downwards to unite the Holy Name, he needs to extend in a prayer to the Creator, willingly and with the intention of the heart, from a deep stream, Bina. It is written about it, “Out of the depths have I called You, O Lord,” where it is the depth of all in the high valleys, which are the high beginning, where AVI, Hochma and Bina, mate. Here, too, “My heart is for the governors of Israel” refers to AVI, who are the governors that give Mochin to the holy Israel, ZA, who extends from between them.
“That offered themselves willingly among the people” are the patriarchs, HGT de ZA, who are called “princes,” as it is written, “The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham,” meaning the patriarchs that extend from Abraham, Hesed de ZA. Then, “Bless the Lord,” extend blessings from Him downwards and there will be blessings in the whole world.
This is so because when there are blessings from above in this world below, everything is in gladness, all is in perfection, since no light is complete unless when it is extended down to this world. Happy are Israel for the Creator imparts upon them blessings and listens to their prayer. It is written about them, “When He has regarded the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.”