Safra de Tzniuta [The Hidden Book]
1-2) What is the concealment of the book?
Rabbi Shimon says, “Five chapters are included in the great palace and fill the whole earth. Rabbi Yehuda said, “If these include all the wisdom, then they are better than all and do not need to learn anymore.” Rabbi Shimon said, “So it is for one who enters the wisdom and comes out of it in peace, he sees here the inclusion of all the wisdom. But one who did not enter in wisdom and came out in peace is not so, since one who enters the palace of wisdom and comes out of there because of a flaw is not regarded as having entered and came out, for he did not come out of his own will. Rather, he was expelled from there due to a flaw. But one who has no flaw, and comes out of the palace of his own mind and will, is as one who enters and leaves his own house, he is as one of the family there, and Divinity shows him all her treasures and secrets, and hides nothing from him. He is considered coming and going.”
It is like a person whose house was in the mountains, and who did not know city dwellers. He sowed wheat and ate the wheat as it was. One day he arrived at the city and was given good bread. That man said, “What is this for?” He was told, “It is bread to eat.” He ate and found it very tasty. He said, “Of what was this made?” They told him, “Of wheat.” Then he was given cakes made in oil. He tasted them and said, “Of what were these made?” They told him, “Of wheat.” Then he was given a dish fit for kings, which is kneaded in oil and honey. He said, “Of what are these made?” He was told, “Of wheat.” He said, “Indeed, I am the owner of all that because I eat the essence of all those,” which is wheat. Because of that view he did not learn how to make all those delights and did not know the delicacies of the world, and they were lost from him. So is one who has the whole of the wisdom and does not know all the delightful refinements that come out of that whole.
39) When a person wishes to establish a prayer to his Master, his lips murmur in that manner from below upward, to raise the glory of his Master to the place of the potion of the deep well, Bina. Then he goes to draw from that potion of the stream, Bina, from above downward to each degree through the last degree, Malchut, to extend donations to all from above downward. Then he must tie a knot through all, to unify all the degrees in Ein Sof, the knot of the aim of the faith, and all his wishes will be made, whether the wishes of the public or the wishes of an individual.
40-43) The prayer that one should ask of his Master is set up in nine ways:
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In the order of the alphabet;
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In mentioning the qualities of the Creator: Merciful, Gracious, and so forth;
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In the honored names of the Creator: EKYEH, Yod-Hey, Yod-Hey-Vav, El, Elokim, HaVaYaH, Hosts, Shadai, ADNI;
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In ten Sefirot: Malchut, Yesod, Hod, Netzah, Tifferet, Gevura, Hesed, Bina, Hochma, Keter;
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In mentioning the righteous: the patriarchs, the prophets, the kings;
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In song and praise, in which there is true reception;
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Above them, one who knows how to properly correct corrections for his Master;
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In knowing how to raise from below upward;
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And there is one who knows how to extend abundance from above downward.
In all those manners of prayer, great intention is required.
And if he aims properly in all of these nine manners of prayer, it is a person who honors the name of his holy Master. It is written about it, “For I will honor those who honor Me, and those who despise Me will be despised.” I will honor him in this world to keep and to do all his needs, and all the nations of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is called on him and will fear him. In the next world, he will be rewarded with being with pious, in the realm of the pious, even though he did not read in the Torah sufficiently, but because he was rewarded with looking at knowing his Master and aimed in it properly.
One who does not know how to unify the holy Name and tie the knot of faith, to extend to the place that is needed, and to honor the name of his Master, it is better for him not to be born, especially if he does not intend in the Amen. For this reason, anyone who whispers with his lips with his heart clean, with cleansing waters, it is written about him, “And God said, ‘Let us make man,’” for a man who knows how to unite the similitude and image properly, where ZA is Tzelem [similitude] and Nukva is the image