Kabbalah Library

202. If you were not Rabbi Shimon, he would not have been given into exile. The coupling in that world bears fruit more than the coupling that is done in this world. Through their coupling in that world, with their passion as one, when the souls adhere to one another, they bear fruit. Lights come out of them and become candles, and they are the souls of the proselytes who convert. All those souls that are born from those couplings enter one hall.

203. When a proselyte converts, a soul flies from that hall and enters under the wings of the Shechina [Divinity]. The Shechina kisses her, since she is an offspring of the souls of the righteous, and sends her into that proselyte, and she dwells in him. From that time, he is called a “righteous proselyte,” as it is written, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” Like the tree of life, which elicits souls, so is the righteous, so is his fruit, that he makes souls.

204. “And Sarai was barren; she had no child.” By what is written, “And Sarai was barren,” we know that she had no child. Why is it written that she had no child? Indeed, she did not bear children, but she did bear souls. Through the adhesion of the passion of those two righteous, Abraham and Sarah, they engendered souls to proselytes throughout that time when they were in Haran, as the righteous do in the Garden of Eden. It is written about it, “And the souls that they made in Haran.” Indeed, they made souls.

205. Rabbi Shimon was glad. The man told him, “On all the beginnings of the months, on Sabbaths and on special days and times, the males ascend to be seen before the holy king. Males, not females, as it is written, “all your males shall be seen.” When they return, they return with several new things.

206. On that day, new things returned before the head of the seminary about ancient secrets, a righteous who is happy, a righteous who is suffering. All the souls rise inside the scales of the tree, Malchut, before they come to the world. According to the weight on the scales, so they have in this world.

The head of the seminary descended and revealed from what he heard above. He reveled one thing and not more. The tree that does not raise its light is beaten and shines. The body, in which the light of the soul does not ascend is beaten and raises the light of the soul, and they unite with one another, the body with the soul, to shine.

207. There is a body in which the light of the soul does not shine until it is beaten. Then, the light of the soul shines and she unites with the body, and the body unites with her. At that time, the body, when its light rises from the soul, adorns, extols, and praises, and prays its prayer and litany, and blesses its master. Then, everything shines, and therefore, there is a righteous who is suffering.

208. The Sitra Achra wants to do so and beats the wicked ones. Everything she beats is as it is written, “The candle of the wicked will die out,” since he curses and swears to every direction and cannot shine at all. At that time, it is written, “For what is the man who comes after the king, who wants to be like him but cannot?” This is why it is written, “The Lord tests the righteous” and beats him, and then he shines and grows stronger in the light. “Tests” is as it is written, “A testing stone.”

Rabbi Shimon bent down and kissed the dust. He said, “Matter, matter, I have been chasing you since the day I had become a man, and now the matter has become known to me from the root and core of everything.”

209. When all those male and female spirits rise up, at night, during sleep, they hear new and old things. They descend and enter the seminary, and return the matters to the head of the seminary, and he teaches them a valid matter. When they ascend, they strip from their clothes in this world and rise. When they descend, they wear their clothes of that body once again.