Kabbalah Library

18. If he does not keep the oath? In a person, there is the name HaVaYaH: Yod-Hey is the next world, and Vav-Hey is this world. Yod-Hey clothe the upper form of the soul, from the Garden of Eden of above, and Vav-Hey clothe the form of the soul from the Garden of Eden of below. For example, Yod is Elimelech, Hey is Naomi, Vav is Machlon, and Hey is Ruth.

19. If a person walks in good ways and keeps the oath he took, he is given all the good he was shown, and all that he merited more in this world. If not, the holy soul says, “I came out from my mother’s abdomen naked, and naked I shall return there.” Naked means naked from the holy name HaVaYaH.

20. When a person comes to the world, the Creator places His name in the person, and another name is given to him from a Jewish demon who is called Hol [not holy/secular/regular], which is neither from holiness nor from impurity, but rather Hol, and he is called “darkness.”

21. It is written, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” “Life” is the name HaVaYaH of the Creator. “Good” is the Jewish demon, and that spirit gives him wealth in this world. “Death and evil” are two slanderers, impure wicked ones from the side of Sam and the serpent, from the minister of Ishmael and Esau.

22. If the person keeps the oath he took, good. If not, the Yod-Vav will depart from the name HaVaYaH, and the Hey-Hey will remain. At that time, the first Hey, Bina, says, “Return, return from your evil ways.”

23. If you repent, good. If not, the first Hey of HaVaYaH will depart, as well, and connect with the Vav-Hey that have already departed, and the combination Hoy [meaning woe] is created, and she says, “Woe, sinful nation.”

If they repent while the bottom Hey remains of the name, good. If not, the bottom Hey, too, connects with the Hey-Vav-Yod that have departed, and the combination HaVaYaH is created, as it is written, “Turned back His right from before the enemy,” since Yod, right, which should be at the beginning of the letters of the name, descended to the place of the third letter, and the wicked ones become ministers over them.

24. At that time, the wicked ones will become their masters, and the impure one from the side of Esau’s minister will rise above Elimelech and Noami, who are Yod-Hey of the person’s soul, and Ishmael’s minister over Machlon and Ruth, who are Vav-Hey of a person’s soul, and they say, “Lord, our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us.”

25. At that time, it is written, “And there was hunger in the land.” The land is the body. At that time, if one engages in Torah, it is good. If not, Sam will come to Elimelech riding a serpent, and it is written, “Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip.”

When he sees that he cannot grip and overcome Elimelech, who is the Yod of the soul, he goes for his hip, which is his wife, the letter Hey of the soul. He goes to the wife Naomi, overturns her from her holiness, and makes her sin and be evil.

26. If the person parts from her, it is good, as Job said, “You speak as one of the rascals. Shall we receive the good from God, and not receive the bad?” That is, he said to her, “We will not accept the advice that Impure Sam gave you.”

If the counsel of the sin comes true, as she said, and he steals or does all the transgressions in the world, he will later be hung on the tree and die, as it is written, “And they both died, too, Machlon and Kilayon,” and Hey-Hey, Naomi and Ruth, remained widows.

27. “And Naomi said,” meaning she was wailing, Oy, Oy, Vav-Hey. Nevertheless, Naomi says, “Return, my daughters,” repent, “Do I have more sons in my abdomen to be your husbands?” This implies Yod-Vav of HaVaYaH, Elimelech and Machlon who had departed.

Orpa, from the side of impurity, will return to her nation and to her gods, and Ruth clung to Naomi, as it is written, “Where you go, I will go.”

28. If they repent, Elimelech will come, Yod, and Machlon will come, Vav. If they all return, the upper, holy name will come. If not, they will die, as it is written, “And she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her,” meaning they went out from the body since the body died.

29. At that time, she goes to the guards of the Garden of Eden, to come into the Garden of Eden, and the guards repel her outside. She goes to the place of darkness, “and the whole city was excited because of them, and they [women] said, ‘Is this Naomi?’” At that time, she says, “I went full, and the Lord returned me empty” from the holy name that was in me. “The Lord has testified against me,” the holy name HaVaYaH, testified against me because of all the iniquities I did.

30. At that time, the serpent will come and take her as a maidservant. At that time, she says, “How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.”

31. Yod-Vav remained poor and destitute, a poor man riding the donkey. It is written about the poor man, “Happy is he who makes the poor man wise; in the day of adversity, the Lord will save him.” That is, if he leaves a son who walks in the ways of the Creator and engages in Torah, he will pull him out from evil, for Sam and the serpent depart in the four corners of the world.