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The Arizal on the Torah
The large-size colored text is the direct translation of the Ari teachings.
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Parashat Yitro The portion of the Torah read this week begins with the story of how Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, went to meet the Jewish people on their way out of Egypt as they reached Mt. Sinai. When Moses originally returned to Egypt after marrying Jethro’s daughter Zipporah, he had planned on taking her and their two sons with him. Aaron met them on the way, however, and convinced Moses to leave his wife and sons with Jethro. “Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back [to him], as well as her two sons—the first one’s name being Gershom…and the other one’s name being Eliezer. Now, Jethro and [Moses’] sons and wife…came to Moses, to the desert wherein he was encamped, at the mountain of G-d.”[1] It is necessary to know that Cain and Abel personified aspects of the two yesods of Abba and Ima as they are manifest within Z’eir Anpin. Cain derived from the yesod of Ima concealed [within Z’eir Anpin], while Abel derived from the yesod of Abba concealed [within Z’eir Anpin], before it becomes revealed further down. As we have explained previously, yesod is the drive for self-actualization that the preceding sefirot assume as they are about to be transmitted to the next partzuf and thus fulfilled. Specifically, both sefirot of the intellect, Abba (chochmah, insight) and Ima (binah, understanding) possess their individual yesods, which enter and nuture the development of the partzuf of the emotions, Z’eir Anpin. Thus, the numerical value of Cain [Kayin, kuf-yud-nun, plus the kolel] is 161, which is also the numerical value of the Name Ekyeh when spelled-out with the letter yud. Ekyeh (“I will be”) reflects G-d’s will to be manifest in creation. This Name is spelled alef-hei-yud-hei. When it is spelled out, and the hei’s are spelled out with the letter yud, we have:
The letter yud is associated with chochmah, so this spelling out of this Name represents the will within chochmah to be manifest in creation. Now, Moses is [the reincarnation of] Abel, and Jethro is [the reincarnation of] Cain. [Jethro] came [to Moses] in order to rectify his having killed Abel. Our sages teach us that Cain killed Abel in order to take the extra twin-sister that was born with him. This extra twin is alluded to by the fact that in the verse describing the birth of Abel, “And she gave birth as well to his brother [et achiv], Abel [et Havel],”[2] the direct object [et] appears twice, while in the verse describing the birth of Cain, “And she gave birth to Cain [et Kayin]”[3] it appears only once, implying that he was born with only one twin-sister. Although Hebrew grammar technically requires that a direct object be preceded by the word et (which has no equivalent in English), this rule is often disregarded. Furthermore, the word et also occasionally means “with.” Therefore, when it is used to identify the direct object, it is often taken to allude to some additional entity implied together with the direct object. In this case, it implies that a twin sister was born with each of the two brothers, and since it appears twice in the verse describing the birth of Abel, we infer that two twin sisters were born together with him. (The fact that these twins were sisters may be indicated by the fact that the word et can also be read at, the feminine form of the pronoun “you.”) These girls became the wives of Cain and Abel. The mystical meaning of these twins is as follows: The yesod of Ima within Z’eir Anpin shines into malchut of Ima. [Malchut of Ima] emerges behind yesod of Ima, and is called Leah. This is the twin-sister of Cain, who, as we said, also issues from the yesod of Ima. A twin of yesod of Abba similarly issues from the light of malchut of Abba [and is situated] behind the yesod of Abba. A second twin is formed when the light of malchut of Abba strikes the yesod of Ima [but it is situated] behind the yesod of Ima. These are the two twin-sisters of Abel, who is derived from the yesod of Abba. Thus, whereas Ima’s malchut produces one twin of its yesod, Abba’s malchut produces two twins of its yesod. But since the second twin produced by malchut of Abba is produced when its light hits that of yesod of Ima, this second twin takes its place not behind yesod of Abba where it “belongs,” but behind yesod of Ima, where was created. Psychologically, this (presumably) means that chochmah realizes that it must actualize itself as itself and also as the presence-of-chochmah within binah. As we have explained previously, binah must always carry something of the presence of chochmah within it, or else the intellectual development it carries out on the initial insight of chochmah is apt to go too far afield from the meaning of the initial insight. In contrast to this, binah needs only one self-actualization. Now Cain felt that the second twin, who was produced when the light of Abba struck the light of Ima, should be his, for the yesod of Abba produced her by means of the yesod of Ima, even if she was in essence derived from the light of Abba. Cain therefore rose up against Abel and killed him. Jethro, the reincarnation of Cain, came to rectify this [error]. Binah, whose task it is to develop the flash of insight that is chochmah into a full-fledged intellectual development, must evince a measure of self-orientation, or what becomes—in later contexts—ego, in order to do its job. In contrast, the experience of chochmah is that of total self-abnegation in the face of the higher realization and insight being opened up. The danger of binah is that it take its selfhood too far, and appropriate not only its own intellectual development but the presence-of-chochmah within it as well. The consequences of this, as we have noted, can be dire: the whole initial insight of the message of chochmah can be lost in the overblown, out-of-control development of binah. This, evidently, is what happened with Cain. His distorted logic convinced him that the proper thing to do was to eliminate Abel, for the good of humanity. The G-dly message the world’s second generation was entrusted with—and to which Cain thought he was being loyal—got lost in his unchecked reasoning. Now [Moses’ wife] Zipporah personified this [second] twin, who was positioned behind the yesod of Ima. She was therefore born to Jethro, for she issued from the light of Abba that struck the yesod of Ima, and Jethro—who was [the reincarnation of] Cain—issued from the yesod of Ima. He therefore brought her to Moses, who was [the reincarnation of] Abel, in order to demonstrate that she was rightfully Moses’, and thereby rectify that which he ruined the first time. This is the mystical meaning of the verse, “And Jethro…took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back [to him]”: After Moses, who is Abel, i.e., the yesod of Abba, sent this light to the yesod of Ima, it was therefore properly Cain’s and not Abel’s (since it had been sent to yesod of Ima). But [Jethro] nonetheless brought her back to Moses. When [Jethro mentioned their two sons], he called them “her sons,” and not Moses’ sons, because both of them were derived from the yesod of Ima and not from the yesod of Abba. The first one was named Gershom [gimel-reish-shin-mem], the numerical value of which [with the kolel] is 544, the value of the posterior of the Name Ekyeh when spelled-out with the letter yud. As we have seen previously, when one partzuf descends and is enclothed in a lower one, it is only the external, or lower aspect of the first partzuf that enters the second. This is simply because the second partzuf, being a lower level of consciousness, cannot sustain the higher level of consciousness operative at the higher, intrinsic level of the first partzuf. All it can accept and assimilate is the part of the higher partzuf that is already oriented and aimed at being manifest on the lower level. This lower, external aspect of the higher partzuf is
called its “back” or “posterior.” The way a Divine Name associated with a partzuf
is manipulated in order to produce this “posterior” manifestation is
considering first its first letter, then its first two letters, then its first
three, and so on, until all the letters of the Name have been iterated. The
value of all these iterations are then summed. In this way, the number produced
represents the gradual issuance of that Name on its way “down” into the lower partzuf. In our case, the “posterior” of Ekyeh, the Name associated with Ima, is as follows: Alef, alef-hei, alef-hei-yud, alef-hei-yud-hei. When these letters are spelled-out (with the letter yud used to spell-out the hei’s, as above), we have:
This numerical equivalence thus demonstrates that Gershom is solidly related to Ima, and not Abba. Similarly, the numerical value of Eliezer [alef-lamed-yud-ayin-zayin-reish] is 318, for Ima is associated with the first hei of the Name Havayah, which is in turn associated with the Name Havayah as it is spelled-out such that its numerical value is 63, as is known. 5 x 63 = 315, and the numerical value of the hei itself is 5, giving a total of 320. These are the 320 states of judgment in binah. [In our case,] these were lacking their two upper roots, which sweeten all 320 states of judgment, so all that were manifest were 318, the numerical value of Eliezer. As we have explained previously, the Name Havayah can be spelled-out in various ways, depending on whether we use a yud, a hei, or an alef to spell-out the hei’s and vav’s. Of all these possibilities, there are four that are actually used: those whose sums are 72, 63, 45, and 52. These four spellings-out of the Name Havayah are then themselves associated with the four letters of the Name; in this scheme, the spelling-out whose numerical value is 63 is associated with the first hei of the Name Havayah. We have also noted previously that the four letters of the Name Havayah are associated with the four prinicple partzufim: Abba, Ima, Z’eir Anpin, and Nukva. Thus, the first hei and the spelling-out whose numerical value is 63 are both expressions of binah. Since the numerical value of hei is 5, the full manifestation of binah is 5 x 63, or 315. The value of the hei itself is added to this number, akin to a kolel, i.e., to include the general, overall consciousness of the letter together with its iteration via the Name associated with it. This gives us 320. This number is significant as the number of states of judgment within binah. As we know, binah must evince the property of judgment as it methodically constructs a complete world-view out of the seminal insight of chochmah as it impinges on the intellects previous world-view. Every detail of the previous world-view is evaluated in light of the new insight, and modified, accepted, or rejected, depending on how it measures up to the new truth that has been attained. This is the process of judgment. (Presumably, the two upper roots that were lacking in Eliezer were yesod and malchut of Abba, which were “disconnected” from the second twin of Abel when Cain appropriated her. By sending Eliezer together with Zipporah and Gershom back to Moses, Jethro was “filling in” these elements missing from the proper manifestation of Ima).
—translated from Likutei Torah by Rabbi Moshe Wisnefsky Disclaimer: the above translation, as
the previous installments in this series, has not yet been checked over for
accuracy by any authority on the teachings of Kabbalah. Therefore, although I
have rendered and explained the Arizal’s teachings as best I can based on my
knowledge and research, there may be passages that I misunderstood and rendered
incorrectly. Before publishing these translations in book form they will,
please G-d, be examined for accuracy by a competent authority, and any
necessary changes will be made then. |
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Ascent of Safed
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