Shemot [Exodus]
1) “And the wise will glow as the brightness of the firmament.” The wise are those who gaze at the wisdom, who have attained wisdom, since wisdom is called “the light of the eyes” and attaining it is called “looking.”
60) Woe unto people who do not know and are not careful with the work of their Creator. This is so because each day, a voice comes out of Mount Horev and says, “Woe unto people, for they slight the works of their Creator. Woe unto people from desecrating the glory of the Torah.”
Anyone who engages in Torah in this world and acquires good deeds inherits a whole world. And anyone who does not engage in Torah in this world and does not do good deeds, inherits neither this world nor the next world.
61) If people knew the love that the Creator loves Israel, they would roar as lions and chase Him in order to adhere to Him.
67-68) “Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who send out freely the ox and the donkey.” Happy are Israel, whom the Creator desires more than all the nations and brought them close to Him, as it is written, “The Lord your God has chosen you.” It is also written, “For the portion of the Lord is His people, Jacob the lot of His inheritance.” And Israel adhere to the Creator, as it is written, “But you who cling unto the Lord your God.”
They are righteous before Him because they sow beside all waters, they sow for righteousness, meaning they raise MAN to extend Mochin to Malchut so she will be called Tzedakah [righteousness], since without the Mochin she is called Tzedek [justice], without the Hey [in Hebrew]. And it is written of one who sows for righteousness, “For Your mercy is great above the heavens.” “Above the heavens” is also called “Beside all waters.” “Above the heavens” is the next world, Bina, which is above ZA, called “heavens.” And Israel sow a seed and raise MAN beside all waters, Bina, to extend Mochin unto Malchut so she will be called Tzedakah [righteousness/almsgiving].
84) Sages are more important than prophets at any time, since prophets are sometimes imbued with the spirit of holiness and sometimes not. But the spirit of holiness is not removed from sages for even a moment; they know what is above and below, and do not need to reveal…Were it not for sages, people would not know what is Torah and what are the Mitzvot [commandments] of the Creator, and there would be no difference between man’s spirit and the spirit of a beast.
176) “My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices.” “His garden” is the assembly of Israel, Nukva, because she is the bed of spices, for she consists of various spices and scents of the next world, Bina. When the Creator descends to that garden, the Nukva, meaning all the souls of the righteous are crowned there and receive Mochin and illuminations. They all emit scent, as it is written, “[How fair is] the smell of your ointments than all manner of spices,” which are the souls of the righteous, called “spices.” It is after them that the Nukva is called “the bed of spices.” All those souls of the righteous who were in this world, and all those souls that are destined to come down to this world are standing here in this garden, in the Nukva.
185) Happy are the righteous whose will is to always adhere to the Creator. As they always adhere to Him, He is always adhered to them and never leaves them.
203-204) All things in the world depend on repentance and on the prayer that a man prays to the Creator. It is all the more so with one who sheds tears during his prayer, for there is no gate through which these tears do not come. It is written, “She opened it and saw the child.” “Opened” is Divinity, who stands over Israel like a mother over her children, opening, always in favor of Israel.
When she opened and saw the child, a delightful child, Israel, who always sin before their King and promptly plea before the Creator, repent, and cry before Him as a son who cries before his father. It is written, “And behold a boy that wept.” Since he wept, all the harsh decrees in the world were removed from him.
235-236) “Hurry, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young hart.” Every yearning that Israel yearned for the Creator is the yearning of Israel that the Creator will not go and will not walk away, but run like a gazelle or a young hart.
No other animal in the world does what the gazelle or the hart does. When it runs, it turns its head slightly to the place from which it came. It always turns its head back. This is what Israel said, “God Almighty, if we cause You to depart from among us, may it be that You will run like the gazelle or the young hart.” This is because it runs and turns its head to the place it had left, the place where it was before, which it left and fled from there.
This is the meaning of the words, “Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them.” Another thing: The gazelle sleeps with one eye and is awake with the other eye. This is what Israel said to the Creator, “Do as the gazelle does, for “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
241-242) This is Rabbi Shimon. When he opens his mouth to begin to engage in Torah, all the thrones, all the firmaments, all the Merkavot, and all those who praise their Master listen to his voice.
There is none to begin and say songs, and there is none to complete his singing. In other words, those who stand in the middle of the singing do not complete their song because they all become attentive to the voice of Rabbi Shimon, until an utterance of a mouth is heard through all the firmaments above and below.
When Rabbi Shimon concludes engaging in the Torah, who saw songs? Who saw joy of those who praise their Master? Who saw the voices that walk in all the firmaments? It is for Rabbi Shimon that all the souls and angels come and kneel and bow before their Master, and raise the fragrances of the perfumes in Eden—illumination of Hochma—all the way to Atik Yomin. All this is for Rabbi Shimon.
251-252) Rabbi Shimon sat, and Rabbi Elazar, his son, stood and interpreted the words of the secrets of the wisdom. His face was shining like the sun and the words were spreading and flying in the firmament. They sat for two days; they neither ate nor drank, and they did not know if it was day or night. When they came out, they knew that two days had passed without them eating a thing. Rabbi Shimon called out about it, “And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread.” And what if we, who were rewarded with adhesion with the Creator, were so for one hour, having been in the light of the Creator for two days, not knowing where we are? Moses, the text testifies that he was there with the Creator forty days.
When Rabbi Hiya told the story to his father, Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel, he was bewildered and said, “Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai is a lion, and Rabbi Elazar, his son, is a lion. And Rabbi Shimon is not like all other lions. It is written about him, ‘When a lion roars, who will not fear?’ And if the worlds above shiver from him, we do even more. He is a man who never declared a fast for what he asked and prayed. Rather, he decides and the Creator keeps. The Creator decides and he revokes, as it is written, ‘Ruler over men shall be the righteous, even he that rules in the fear of God,’ meaning the Creator rules over man, and the righteous rules over the Creator; He sentences a decree, and the righteous revokes it.”
288) Israel were enslaved by all the nations so that the world would rise through them, since they are opposite the whole world. It is written, “In that day shall the Lord be One, and His name one.” And as the Creator is one, Israel are one, as it is written, “One nation in the land.” As the name of the Creator is “One,” and spreads in seventy names, Israel are one and spread into seventy.
354) The cry is greater than all of them, for the cry is in the heart. It is closer to the Creator than a prayer or a sigh, as it is written, “For if they cry unto Me, I will surely hear their cry.”
356-357) One who prays and cries and cries out until he can no longer move his lips, this is a complete prayer that is in the heart. It is never returned empty, but is accepted. Great is the cry for it tears a man’s sentence from all his days.
Great is the cry that governs the quality of Din above. Great is the cry that governs this world and the next world. For a cry, man inherits this world and the next world, as it is written, “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.”
358-359) When a thought came before the Creator to create His world, all the worlds rose in one thought, and in that thought they were all created, as it is written, “In wisdom have You made them all.” And in that thought, which is wisdom [Hochma], this world and the world above were created.
His right [side] leaned and He created the world above, ZA. His left [side] leaned and He created this world, Malchut, as it is written, “My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,” Malchut, “And My right hand has spread out the heavens,” ZA. “When I call unto them, they stand up together.”
All were created in a single moment, and He made this world corresponding the world above, and all that there is above, its likeness appeared below. Thus, there is nothing below without a root in the upper worlds.
360) It is written of man that He made man in the image of God. It is also written, “You have made him a little lower than God.” If people so cherish their deeds and they are lower than the dust of the well, for they are lowered by the Klipot that cling to the dust of Malchut, called “well,” how will they come to pump out abundance from the well? He chose the upper ones, the angels, and He chose Israel. He did not call the upper ones, “sons,” but called the lower ones, “sons,” as it is written, “You are the children of the Lord your God.” He called them “children,” and they called Him “Father,” as it is written, “For you are our father,” and it is written, “My Beloved is mine and I am His,” meaning He chose me and I chose Him.
371) “A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” “The Lord is my shepherd,” my shepherd. As the shepherd leads the flock to a good grazing site, a lush grazing site, in a place of springs, and straightens their walk with righteousness and justice, so does the Creator, as it is written, “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul.”