As Light Excels Over Darkness
Ki Tazria [When a Woman Inseminates]
105) “As light excels over darkness.” The benefit of the light comes only out of the darkness. The correction of the white is black, for without the black, the white would be pointless. And because there is black, the white is elevated and respected. It is like sweet and bitter. A person cannot know the taste of sweetness before he has tasted bitterness. Thus, what makes it sweet is the bitter.
In things where there are opposites, the one reveals the other, such as in white and black, light and darkness, sick and healthy. If there were no sickness in the world, the term healthy would be unattainable, as it is written, “God has made the one opposite the other.” And it is also written, “It is good that you grasp the one, and also not let go of the other.”
Shimon from the Market
Beresheet [Genesis]
159) “And God said, ‘Let us make man,’” “The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him.” In the verse, “And God said,” there is a secret that is revealed only to those who fear Him. The oldest among the elder started and said, “Shimon, Shimon, who is it who said, ‘Let us make man,’ of whom it is written, ‘And God said’? Who is this name Elokim [God]?”
In the meantime, that oldest among the elder fled and no one saw him. And as Rabbi Shimon heard, he called him Shimon, and not Rabbi Shimon. He said to his friends, “This must be the Creator, of whom it was said, ‘And Atik Yomin [Ancient of Days] sits.’ Thus, now is the time to disclose that secret, for there is a secret here that was not permitted to disclose, and now it means that permission to disclose has been given.”
It is known that the secrets that were revealed to the authors of The Zohar was by attainments of the lights of the high degrees, by inspiration. Also, there are Panim [anterior] and Achoraim [posterior] in them, which means concealment and disclosure. And by the measure of the Panim in the degree, so is the measure of its Achoraim. The instilling of the Achoraim is a call and invitation to instill the Panim. For this reason, they knew the measure of their destined disclosure according to the measure of the concealment of the Achoraim that they had attained.
This is the meaning of what is written, that Rabbi Shimon heard that he called him Shimon and not Rabbi Shimon, which means that the instilling of the Achoraim, the call, was so strong that all of his degrees were lost and he became an ordinary person, Shimon from the market. By that, he recognized it as a call and invitation to obtain a very high attainment of Panim. For this reason, he promptly said to his friends, “This must be the Creator, of whom it was said, ‘And Atik Yomin [Ancient of Days] sits,’” since there is no higher degree than Him.
Day to Day Pours Forth Speech, and Night to Night Reveals Knowledge
Introduction of the Book of the Zohar
140) “Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” This means a holy day, from among those upper days of the King, from the Sefirot de ZA, which are called “days,” praising the friends who engaged in Torah on the night of Shavuot… And “Night to night” means that each degree that governs in the night, the Sefirot of Malchut praises the other, and that knowledge is that each receives from his friend. And for all the wholeness, they have become friends and lovers…
This is so because prior to the end of correction, before we qualified our vessels of reception to receive only in order to give contentment to our Maker and not to our own benefit, Malchut is called “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” This is so because Malchut is the guidance of the world by people’s actions. And since we are unfit to receive all the delight and pleasure that the Creator had contemplated in our favor in the thought of creation, we must receive the guidance of good and evil from the Malchut. This guidance qualifies us to ultimately correct our vessels of reception in order to bestow and to be rewarded with the delight and pleasure He had contemplated in our favor…
Often, the guidance of good and evil causes us ascents and descents, each according to what he is. You should know that for this reason, each ascent is regarded as a separate day because due to the great descent that he had, doubting the beginning, during the ascent he is as a newly born child. Thus, in each ascent, it is as though he begins to serve the Creator anew. This is why each ascent is considered a specific day, and similarly, each descent is considered a specific night.
It is written, “Day to day pours forth speech”… This is so because through the great Zivug at the end of correction they will be rewarded with repentance from love, for they will complete the correction of all the vessels of reception, so they will be only in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator. In that Zivug, all of the great delight and pleasure of the thought of creation will appear to us.
At that time, we will evidently see that all those punishments from the time of descents, which brought us into doubting the beginning, were the things that purified us and were the direct causes of all the happiness and goodness that have come to us at the time of the end of correction. This is so because were it not for those terrible punishments, we would never have come to this delight and pleasure. Then these sins will be inverted into actual merits…
This is so because all those nights are the descents, the suffering, and the punishments that arrested the Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator until they became many days one after the other. Now, once the night and darkness have become merits and good deeds, as well, the night shines like the day and darkness like light, there are no more arrests, and all 6,000 years unite into a single great day.
Thus, all the Zivugim that came out one at a time and disclosed ascents and descents that were separate from one another have now assembled into a level of one, sublime, and transcendent level of Zivug, which shines from the end of the world through its end…. Thus, they all became one day for the Lord.
When it is said, “And night to night”… This is because all those words and sufferings that are called “nights,” for which the degrees became discrete, one at a time, now they, too, shine like the day, since they have all gathered and become a single receptacle for the great knowledge that fills the whole earth with knowledge of the Lord.
It follows that each night for itself would remain in the dark, had it not come into a gathering with all the nights. This is so because each night receives its share in the knowledge only out of the bonding with the rest of the nights… since only all of them together, assembled, became worthy of receiving that great knowledge. This is why it was said, “And for all the wholeness, they have become friends and lovers,” for in the great wholeness that they received together, all the nights become loving friends to one another.
And there Was Evening, and there Was Morning, One Day
Toldot [Generations]
119) “And God called the light Day” is Abraham, who is the light of day, the right line. His light grows stronger by the correction of the day, which is the light of Hassadim. This is why it is written, “Now Abraham was old, advanced in age” [the Hebrew text uses the word “days”], meaning with the shining lights of Hassadim. And he is old, as it is written, “That shines more and more unto the perfect day.” This is why it is written about it, “And God called the light Day.”
120) “And the darkness He called Night.” This is Isaac, who is dark, darkening so as to receive the night within him. Hence, when he grew old, it is written, “And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see,” since he was completely darkened. Certainly, he should be completely darkened and properly cling unto his degree.
The day is ZA and the night is the Nukva. At their root, ZA is regarded as being entirely from the right line and the Nukva is regarded as being entirely from the left line. It is known that the left line is Hochma without Hassadim, which cannot shine without mingling with Hassadim. Hence, at that time, it is regarded as darkness.
Also, the left line is in dispute with the right line and does not wish to be mingled with Hassadim whatsoever until the arrival of the middle line, which is the level of Hassadim that emerges on the Masach de Hirik that diminishes the left line. And then it decides between them and the Hochma dresses in Hassadim. At that time, she shines in full and ZA is regarded as including the right line that is mingled with the left, and the Nukva as being the left line that is mingled with the right, and they unite in one another, as it is written, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”