Kabbalah Library

45. The commandment after that is to give the hired worker his wages in its time, as it is written, “You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is poor and counts on it.”

Matat is the wages of the hired worker, a messenger from eighteen worlds, Yesod of Atzilut, to receive the eighteen blesses of the prayer for the Malchut three times each day. For this reason, “You shall give him his wages on the same day” is the morning prayer, “before the sun sets” is the afternoon prayer, for if the day has passed, his offering is revoked. “For he is poor” in exile, and he has nothing of his own except what is given to him in the prayer.

For this reason, the prayer is his, as it is written, “A prayer for the poor when he envelops,” which is in the cloaking of the Tzitzit [four fringed garment]. The prayer of the poor is the hand Tefillin, Malchut.

46. “And counts on it” is the evening prayer, corresponding to the organs and fats that are left from the offerings of the day. They are like the fallen grapes and the edges of your field, that we learn about them: “Mandatory leavings detain calamity,” as it is written, “You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger,” for the middle pillar, ZA.

When the middle pillar is outside its place, in exile, it is called “stranger.” This is why Moses said “I,” for my degree is the middle pillar, “called myself a stranger in the first exile,” as it is written, “I was a stranger in a foreign land,” when ZA lies in exile because of Israel.

47. Israel observed the commandments of fallen [grapes] and edges [of the field] in the Land of Israel, when the Creator was in His place and not a stranger, so why it is written, “You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger”? In order to awaken mercy on those souls that have been banished from their place, since one who is outside his place is called a “stranger,” much more so the souls, which walk bare from that world and come to this world. It is written about them, “Like a bird that strays from its nest”; this is the soul from which the Shechina does not move.

Likewise, a man who strays from his place is the Creator, who wandered from His place, from the next world, Bina. He wanders after the Shechina, who is with the soul in this world, until the days during which the soul has been compelled to go outside her place have been completed.

He guards her until He brings her back to her place, and swears that He will not return to His place until He brings her back to her place. Hence, one who repents and returns his soul to her place is as one who returns the Creator and His Shechina to their place.

This is the meaning of the redemption, as it is written, “Today, if you hear His voice.” Therefore, even when Israel are in the Land of Israel, the Creator is called “stranger” because of those bare souls for whom a clothing from Torah and commandments was not made, so they can come to their place in that world. The evening prayer awakens mercy on them that they will return to their place, and then the Creator, too, returns to His place, to Bina.

48. The authors of the Mishna of the upper seminary of the Creator and of the lower seminary of Matat, Moses, said, “We are messengers of the Master of the world to you; happy are you that you have repented. You are tantamount to sixty myriads [10,000] from Israel, and you have brought the Creator and His Shechina back to their place above and below. By your merit, Israel will be redeemed and will return to their place.”

Two Messiahs, the Messiah son of Joseph and the Messiah son of David, do not have the power to redeem Israel, except for you. Because of you they are detained in redeeming Israel. Complete these honorable words, of which it is written, “more to be coveted than gold and from much fine gold, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.”

49. He said to them, “For this hired worker,” the slave Matat, who comes to receive three prayers, “your authors of the Mishna have established that the man will be in the first three blessings of the Amida Prayer [aka Eighteen Prayer] like a servant who praises his lord, in the middle blessings, like a servant receiving wages from his lord, and in the final blessings, like a servant taking his wages from his lord and walking away.”

50. For this reason, the servant of Abraham and Rebecca were likened to it, when the Creator sends Matat, His servant, to receive the prayer, Malchut, he will tell him, “Perhaps the woman will not want to follow me?” Perhaps the prayer will not want to follow me? The Creator said to him, “Then you will be free from this oath of mine.”

Hochma is Abba, meaning Abraham, who is called “father,” which is Hesed. He ascends and becomes Hochma in Gadlut [greatness/adulthood], and descends in the righteous, Yesod, to watch over the Shechina in the exile. From there, from Yesod, he sends the slave, Matat, who is Shaddai in Gematria, since he corresponds to Yesod, after the prayer, in which there is the Shechina.

51. The messenger Matat said to him, “Give me signs to recognize in the prayer, that the daughter is there, the Shechina.” The Creator said, “Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink,’ If the prayer is to water Me, to bring Me contentment, then you will know that the Shechina is there.”

And if not, but he rather finds that all the organs of the body are full of iniquities, that all his intentions in the prayer are only for himself, and not in order to please Me, and there is not a complete organ in him where the Torah is present, the light of Ruach in the form of the middle pillar, and the commandment, the light of Nefesh in the form of Rebecca, the Shechina, who was a rose among the thorns, who are complete wicked, He commanded Matat, “Beware that you do not take my son back there,” namely the spirit of holiness. This is so because commandment is Nefesh, Ruach is Torah, since Ruach is extended from ZA, who is called “Torah,” and is not rewarded with Ruach and Nefesh of holiness.