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Building The World
Through Kindness Parshat Matot, Zohar Chadash p. 69b The translation below takes up from where we concluded
last year's translation (available here). Come and see. Why were the women [of Midian] who had been intimate with [Jewish] men forbidden [to the Israelites after the military action against Midian]? The reason is as we have learned. There is the right side and there is the left. The holy people of Israel are from the right side, representing kindness or chesed. The nations of the world are from the left side of strict judgment or gevura, and all matters connected with the 'other side' to holiness are said to be from the left side. Note how this concept appeared in Latin – sinister means from the left – and later came into use in English, with words such as sin and sinister being related to evil. It also appears in the very name Midian which can be read as Midin or "from din." So [correspondingly] there are Israel and the other nations. Israel from the right side of chesed and opposed to them the other nations of the world from the side of gevura. There are the Garden of Eden and Hell; this world, and the World to Come. This physical world being the farthest removed from spirituality, has a greater mixture bad which comes from the other side of holiness, as opposed to the spiritual world, which is directly connected to holiness. Note that in Hebrew the word for "world" is Olam, which comes from the root Elem, meaning hidden. The kindness of the spiritual world is concealed by the gevura in this physical world. Israel receives from the side of mercy and the other nations receive from the side of harsh judgment or Din. We have learnt that a woman who has tasted mercy is conquered by mercy. Her tendency to din is sweetened by her being married to a mercifully inclined Jewish husband. A woman who has tasted the taste of din [who has relations with a non-Jew who is from the side of harshness], has that harshness attached to her. Concerning them the verse states in Isaiah (56:11), "Yes, the dogs are greedy [literally: intensely physical], their physical desires are insatiable." This is as we have learned (Sota 3b) that one who has intercourse with a non-Jew becomes bound to their mate like a dog. Just as a dog is strong spirited and brazen, so a woman who has had intercourse with a non-Jew is infected with his strong din and becomes insolent in her sexuality and general physicality]. One who is married to an Israelite [is considered as though she is attached to HaShem] as we have learnt from the verse in Deuteronomy (4:4), which refers to those who did not sin with the Midianite women, saying 'And you who cleave to HaShem are [called] alive every one of you this day.' What is the reason [that Israel is referred to as cleaving to HaShem]? It is because the soul of Israel is from the side of the spirit of the living G-d. That is the souls of Israel are sourced in the sefira of bina that is called Elokim Chaim. This is as written in Isaiah (57:16), 'for the spirit/ruach will wrap itself [in a body] before Me and the souls whom I have made.' That is as written – before Me. The words 'before Me' hint at the sefira of bina which is 'before' the partzuf of Zeir Anpin. Therefore a woman who is a virgin and has not become attached to the harsh din of other peoples and cleaves [through marriage] to Israel who are merciful, will succeed [in freeing herself from wantonness] and will be able to become included in mercy. Her ability to understand and cleave to the merciful nature of Israel is able to function properly – unadulterated by the wanton physicality that would otherwise render it impossible. And come and see. It is written in Psalms (89:3), 'For I have said that the world will be built on chesed'. What is chesed? It is one of the higher crowns of the King [the sefira of chesed in Atzilut] and the souls of Israel are called chesed by the Holy One, blessed be He. This means that the world was created on condition that [the people of Israel] will build the sefira of chesed [by doing acts of kindness and charity], and that acts of kindness will never cease from the world [since they are what ensure its continuity]. Those who cause kindness to be uprooted from the world [by spurning involvement in acts of kindness] will be uprooted from the spiritual world. This is what is meant by the verse in Deut. (25:5), 'If brothers live together, and one of them dies, and has no child, the wife of the deceased shall not marry outside to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go into her, and take her to him for a wife.' This is in order to do kindness to the deceased and make a new building [by ensuring he has children in this world which rectifies his soul.] Thus the world [including the small world of the individual] will be built by kindness. Simcha Treister is a lawyer from New Zealand who made aliya to Safed with his family in 1993 to study Zohar, and continues doing so to this day. |
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