BeHaalotcha [When You Mount the Candles]
1) Happy are Israel for the Creator desired them and gave them the true law, the tree of life, by which man inherits life in this world and life in the next world. Anyone who delves in the Torah and clings to it has life, and anyone who leaves the words of Torah and becomes separated from the Torah, it is as though he has parted with life because she is life and all her words are life.
5) Happy are Israel, for the Creator gave them the holy Torah and taught them His ways so as to adhere to Him, to keep the commandments of the Torah and to be rewarded with the next world. He brought them near when they came out of Egypt, for then he brought them out of the other authority and raised them to unite in His Name. Then, the children of Israel were called “Free from everything,” for they did not sit under another authority, and He raised them to unite in His Name, which is above everything, and which governs upper and lower.
13) How pleasant are the words of Torah, for in each and every word are sublime secrets, and the whole Torah is called “superior.”
14) Happy are Israel, for they were given the superior law, the law of truth. And one who says that that story in the Torah [in Hebrew, Torah means law, too] points only to that story, damned be he, for if this is so, then the Torah is not the superior Torah, the law of truth. Certainly, the holy, superior Torah is a true law.
24) When the deepest of all—upper Aba—shines, He shines in the river, in upper Ima, and the river stretches directly through the middle line, ZA, to water everything, all the degrees in Malchut. It is written about that time, “When you mount,” since everything stems from the deepest of all. “When you mount” means that it comes from the Upper One, the deepest of all, called “thought,” which is Aba, and all is one thing. At that time, the assembly of Israel is blessed, and the blessings are in all the worlds.
58) Woe unto one who says that the Torah comes to tell literal tales and the uneducated words of such as Esau and Laban. If this is so, even today we can turn the words of an uneducated person into a law, and even nicer than theirs. And if the Torah indicates to mundane matters, even the rulers of the world have among them better things, so let us follow them and turn them into a law in the same way. However, all the words of the Torah have the uppermost meaning.
59-60) The Torah created the angels and all the worlds, and they exist for it. Moreover, when it came down to this world, the world could not tolerate it if it had not clothed in these mundane clothes, which are the tales and words of the uneducated.
Hence, this story in the Torah is a clothing of the Torah. And one who considers this clothing as the actual Torah and nothing else, damned will be his spirit, and he will have no share in the next world. This is the reason why David said, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law,” that is, gaze upon what lies beneath the clothing of the Torah.
61-62) There is an openly visible clothing, and when fools see a person dressed handsomely, whose dress seems elegant, they look no further and judge him by his elegant clothes. They regard the clothes as the man’s body and regard the man’s body as his soul.
Such is the Torah. It has a body, which is the Mitzvot of the Torah, which are called “the bodies of the Torah.” This body clothes in dresses, which are mundane stories, and the fools in the world consider only that clothing, which is the story of the Torah. They do not know more and do not consider what exists underneath that clothing.
Those who know more do not consider the clothing, but the body under that clothing.
64) Woe unto the wicked ones who say that the Torah is nothing more than fables and consider only the clothing. Happy are the righteous who consider the Torah as they should. As wine sits only in a jar, the Torah dwells only in that clothing. Hence, one needs to regard what is found under the clothing, which is why all these tales are dresses.
88) “And the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament” are the authors of the Kabbalah. They are the ones who exert in this brightness, called The Book of Zohar.
88) “Every son that is born you shall cast into the river.” The Torah is called “a son.” The newborn is the attained. “Into the river” means the light of Torah. “Cast” is like “You will study it” [it’s an anagram in Hebrew], where you study each insight that is born in you by the light of Torah and by its soul. This is the light of this Book of Zohar, and it is all because of you.