BeShalach [When Pharaoh Sent]
11) “And she said, ‘I dwell among my own people.’” What is she saying? When the Din hangs in the world, one should not part from the collective by himself. He will not be mentioned above and he will not be known alone. This is so because when the Din hangs in the world, those who are known and are inscribed alone, though they are righteous, they are caught first. Hence, one must never retire from the people because the Creator’s mercies are always on the whole people together. This is why she said, “I dwell among my own people,” and I do not wish to part from them, as I have been doing thus far.
43) How beloved is the Torah before the Creator. Anyone who engages in the Torah is loved above, loved below, and the Creator listens to his words, does not leave him in this world, and does not leave him to the next world.
44) One should engage in Torah day and night, as it is written, “You shall meditate upon it day and night,” and as it is written, “If My covenant is not with you day and night.” During the day, it is the time of work for all. But at night, the time of rest, why is it necessary to engage in Torah? It is so that there will be a complete name in him. As there is no day without a night, and one is incomplete without the other, the Torah must be with the person day and night, and wholeness will be with man day and night.
Day is ZA and night is the Nukva. When one engages in the Torah day and night, he unites ZA and Nukva, and this is the entire wholeness, as it is written, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”
45-47) At midnight, the Creator comes to the Garden of Eden to play with the righteous who are there, and then one must rise and engage in Torah.
The Creator and all the righteous in the Garden of Eden, all listen to His voice. It is written, “You who sit in the gardens, friends listen to your voice; let me hear it.” “You who sit in the gardens” is the assembly of Israel, Malchut. At night, she praises the Creator with the praise of the Torah. Happy is he who partakes with her in praising the Creator in the praise of the Torah.
When the morning comes, the assembly of Israel, Malchut, comes and plays with the Creator, and He gives her the scepter of Hesed [grace/mercy]. But not only to her, but to her and to all those who partake with her. One who engages in Torah at night, the Creator draws to him a thread of Hesed during the day. This is why Malchut is called “The morning star,” for she praises the Creator at night with the praise of the Torah.
49-50) When half the night is through, the King begins to rise and the queen, Malchut, begins to sing. The King, ZA, comes and knocks on the palace’s gate and says, “Open for me, my sister, my wife.” And then He plays with the souls of the righteous.
Happy is he who has awakened at that time with words of Torah. For this reason, all the children of the queen’s palace must rise at that time and praise the King. All praise before Him and the praise rises from this world, which is far from Him, and this is more favorable to the Creator than anything.
65-67) “And Pharaoh drew near”…We also learn that Pharaoh brought Israel closer to repentance. This is why it is written, “And Pharaoh drew near” and not “And Pharaoh brought closer.”
It is written, “O Lord, they sought You in distress; they could only whisper a prayer, Your chastening was upon them.” “They sought You in distress” means that Israel do not visit the Creator in times of contentment, but when they are in distress, and then they all visit Him. “They could only whisper a prayer” means that they are all praying with prayers and litanies, and pour out prayers before Him. When? “Your chastening before them,” when the Creator visits them with His strap. Then the Creator stands over them in Rachamim [mercies] and welcomes their voice, to avenge their enemies, and He fills with mercy over them.
Israel were nearing the sea and saw the sea before them becoming stormier, its waves straightening upward. They were afraid. They raised their eyes and saw Pharaoh and his army, and slings and arrows, and they were terrified. “And the children of Israel cried out.” Who caused Israel to draw near to their father in heaven? It was Pharaoh, as it is written, “And Pharaoh drew near.”
125) Happy is the man who has found wisdom. It is a man for whom the Creator has provided a treasure on the way: the face of Divinity. It is written about it, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn.”
138) Through Malchut’s ascent to Bina, all the degrees split in two. Keter and Hochma remain in the degree, and Bina and TM fall off it, descend, and clothe the degree below it. At the time of Gadlut, the Malchut descends from Bina to her place, and Bina and TM in each degree rise from the lower one and return each to its own degree.
Along with their ascent from the lower one, they take the lower one with them and raise it to the place of the upper one. And because there is no absence in the spiritual they are always in the place of the lower one, even after they have risen to their degree. Thus, each lower one rises to its own superior, and this is why these Bina and TM are considered a pillar that exists in each degree, by which it rises to the degree above it.
“A pillar is stuck inside the sea.” The sea is the Nukva from Chazeh de ZA downwards. And those Bina and TM of the degree of Chazeh de ZA upwards, which descend there, are considered the pillar through which all the discernments from Chazeh de ZA downwards rise to the degree of Chazeh de ZA upwards.
237) Adam knew the high wisdom more than the upper angels. He observed everything, and knew and recognized his Master more than all the people in the world.
245) Man should love the Creator because there is no other work before the Creator but love. Anyone who loves Him and works with love, the Creator calls him, “Lover.”
251) We should regard the words of the Torah. We should regard everything because there is nothing in the Torah that is not implied in the high, holy Name, and there is nothing in the Torah that does not contain several secrets, reasons, roots, and branches.
252) Anyone who wages a war in the Torah is rewarded with much peace at the end of his words. All the wars in the world are strife and destruction, and all the wars of the Torah are peace and love… that there is no love and peace but that.
278-279) Any person who seeks to unite the holy Name and did not intend for it in heart, in desire, and in fear, so that upper and lower will be blessed in him, his prayer is thrown outside, everyone declares him bad, and the Creator calls upon him, “If you come to see My face.”
“To see My face” means all those faces of the King, illumination of Hochma, as it is written, “A man’s wisdom illuminates his face,” hidden in the depth behind the dark, which are the Dinim in the left line. And all those who know how to properly unite the holy Name break all those walls of darkness and the King’s face is seen and shines for all. And when it is seen and shines, all are blessed, upper and lower. Then there are blessings in all the worlds, and then it is written, “To see My face.”
296-297) When the Creator gave the Torah to Israel, light came forth from that pleasantness, from Bina, and the Creator, ZA, was crowned in it, meaning received GAR from her, which are called “crown.” From that pleasantness glowed the effulgence of all the worlds, firmaments, and crowns. It is written about that time, “Go forth, O daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon with the crown with which his mother has crowned him.” King Solomon is ZA, his mother is Bina, and the crown is GAR.
When the Temple was built, the Creator was crowned in that crown and sat in His throne, Malchut, and was crowned in His crowns.
305-307) There is nothing in the world that breaks the force of idol worshipping nations as when Israel engage in Torah. As long as Israel engage in Torah, the right strengthens and the power and courage of the idol worshipping nations breaks. This is why the Torah is called “strength,” as it is written, “The Lord will give strength to His people.”
When Israel do not engage in Torah, the left intensifies and the power of the idol worshipping nations grows. They suckle from the left, rule over Israel, and inflict upon them laws that they cannot endure. Because of that, Israel were exiled and scattered among the nations.
Why was the land lost? The Creator said, “For abandoning My law.” As long as Israel engaged in Torah, the power and courage of all the idolaters was broken, as it is written, “Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.” As long as the voice of Israel was heard in synagogues and seminaries, as it is written, “The voice is the voice of Jacob.” And if not, “The hands are the hands of Esau.”
367) It is written, “For the Lord hears the poor.” Why does He hear the poor and not others? It is because they are closer to the King, as it is written, “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise,” and no heart in the world is broken as that of the poor. All the people in the world are seen before the Creator in body and in soul. But the poor appears before the Creator only in a soul, for his body is broken, and the Creator is nearer to the soul than to the body.
409-410) Anyone who prays his prayer before the holy King must ask his pleas and pray from the bottom of the heart so that his heart will be wholly with the Creator, and he will aim his heart and will, as it is written, “Out of the depths I have called You.” But it is written, “With all my heart I have sought You.” This verse is sufficient, to pray with all of one’s heart, so why the need for “From the bottom”?
Every person who asks his request of the King must aim his mind and will to the Root of Roots, to extend blessings from the depth of the pit, so that blessings will pour from the fountain of all. The place from which that river comes out is the concealed Hochma.
New Zohar, BeShalach
[When Pharaoh Sent]
8-10) Israel were engaged in studying Torah that they learned from a bitter one, and that holy covenant, Yesod, bonded with them. The slant-serpent, the Sitra Achra, parted from that well of water, Malchut, for the serpent was making that water bitter—what their iniquities have caused thus far.
But once they returned to their Master in repentance and the Creator taught them the ways of the tree of life, ZA, as it is written, “And the Lord showed him a tree,” which is the written Torah, ZA, “And he cast it into the water,” which are the oral Torah, Malchut—“Cast” has the letters of “You have” [in Hebrew], “Have” is the next world, the Hochma in the next world, Hochma de Bina, as it is written, “To inherit substance upon those who love Me,” “You is upper Ima, Bina in the next world, since “You” is 50 in Gematria, the 50 gates of Bina that cling to ZA—then the waters were sweetened and the upper dew came down from holy Atik, Keter, and the field of apples, Malchut, was filled.
Who caused all that? Elima, Israel’s reply to their Master.