Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 7
When You Besiege a City for Many Days
313. “When you besiege a city for many days, to fight against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against it, for you will eat from it.” How good are the paths and trails of the Torah, since in every thing, there are several counsels and several benefits to people, several gems that shine to every side. There is nothing in the Torah without several candles in it that shine to every side. Happy is he who always exerts in the Torah.
314. It is written about one who exerts in the Torah, “But his delight is in the law [Torah] of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night, and he shall be like a tree.” Why is the text “he shall be like a tree” attached to it? Indeed, one who exerts in the Torah day and night will not be as a dry tree, but as it is written, “as a tree planted by streams of water.”
Like a tree that has roots in it, and has peels in it, and has marrow in it, and has branches in it, and has leaves in it, and has flowers in it, and has fruits in it. These seven species sometimes amount to seven times ten, which are seventy, since they are seven Sefirot HGT NHYM, each of which consists of ten. Likewise, words of Torah have the literal meaning of the text, the interpretation, the intimation, which implies wisdom, Gematrias, hidden secrets, concealed secrets one atop the other—improper and proper, impure and pure, prohibition and permission. From here onward, branches spreads to every side. Indeed, he shall be as a tree, and if not, if he does not have all those branches, he is not wise in wisdom.
315. How beloved are those who engage in Torah before the Creator, that even when judgment hangs in the world, and permission is given to the destroyer to destroy, the Creator commands him about those who engage in Torah. This is what the Creator said to the destroyer: “When you besiege a city because of the many sins that they have sinned against Me, and they were found guilty in the judgment.” “Many days” are three days one after the other, when a plague is known in the city.
How do we know that many days are three days? It is written, “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days.” Are they many days? Rather, if he sees blood three consecutive days, it is called “many days.” Here, too, “When you besiege a city for many days,” they are three consecutive days when a plague is known in the city.
The Creator says to the destroyer, “Come and I will command you about My household: Do not destroy its trees.” This is a wise disciple in the city, who is the tree of life, a fruit-bearing tree.
316. “Its trees,” the one who gives advice to the people of the city to be saved from the judgment and teaches them the way to walk in. Hence, “You shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against it,” by wielding judgment against it, and not by wielding against it a blazing sword, a toothed sword, that sword which kills the rest of the people in the world, “for you will eat from it.” Was that saboteur eating from a wise disciple? No. Rather, “for you will eat from it” means that that hard rock, the one from which all the strong and holy spirits emerge, the Malchut, she will eat from it, since there is no delight and passion to the holy spirit, Malchut, in this world, except for the Torah of that righteous one, who furnishes her and gives her nourishments in this world more than all the offerings in the world.
317. It is written of the offering, “I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; eat, friends.” Since the day when the Temple was ruined and the offering had been stopped, the Creator has only words of Torah, and the Torah is renewed from the mouth of a wise disciple. This is why it is written, “for you will eat from it,” since she has no nourishments in this world but from him, and from those like him. Since she eats from him and he feeds her, hence, you will not cut it down, be careful not to approach it.
318. “For is man the tree of the field, that it should come before you in a siege?” A wise disciple, called “man,” who is known above and below. The tree of the field, a big and strong one of that field that the Lord has blessed, Malchut, who is called a “field,” and she is adjacent to it, since the wise disciple, who is a tree, which is always known to that field, nourishes it.
“…that it should come before you in a siege” is as it is written in the beginning, “You shall not destroy its trees.” “It,” the one who gives you advice and corrects the people of the city. He gives them advice to come before you in a siege, to be corrected and repent, and he fixes for them weapons, trumpets, and horns.
“…to come before you,” to come before me and enter. “Before you,” due to your fear. “In a siege,” in a place where upper and lower cannot come. It is the degree where those who have repented enter. Repentance, Bina, is a siege, a strong place and a strong rock.
319. Since they take this advice from the sage, I atone their iniquities and they are welcome before Me. The Creator commands all this for those who exert in the Torah. For this reason, happy are those who engage in Torah. Those who engage in Torah are big trees in this world.
320. See what the Creator has done, planting these trees. Happy is this road, and one tree was not enough. Rather, the Creator has made for us three big trees that spread their branches to each side. May it please the heaven that these trees and this fountain will never be absent from this place, and until today, the trees and that fountain stand there.
