Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 8
Forty Minus One
96. It is a commandment to strike a wicked one, Sam, whom the Creator is destined to strike fifty blows because he made of himself a god. The unification of the Shema reading and of the “Blessed be the name of His kingship forever and ever” will come, which Israel unify each day in twenty-five letters in each of them, and will strike with them whoever makes of himself a god. He is nothing but a filthy slave, and those who sinned in the bottom Hey, Malchut, the Creator corrected for them to strike them with Yod-Vav-Dalet Hey-Aleph Vav-Aleph-Vav, which his forty minus one in Gematria.
With this name, the Creator struck ten blows to Adam, ten to Eve, ten to the serpent, and nine to the earth, which together are thirty-nine blows, since they all sinned in the letter Hey, Malchut. This is why it is written, “For you have done this,” where “this” is Malchut.
