Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 8
A Handmaid Who Inherits Her Mistress
118. The Shechina is called “Moon,” the whitening of the law, Rachamim, from the side of Hesed. She is also called “Sun,” as it is written, “as clear as the sun,” from the side of Gevura. The face of Moses is as the face of the sun, and the diminution of the moon, the dark moon, is the maidservant of Malchut, Hell, and an evil sun.
Also, her maidservant, Saturn, is an eclipse, a desecration of the Sabbath. She is a maidservant who turns her back to the mistress, Malchut, each and every day, and overcomes her because of the iniquities of Israel her children, as it is written, “and a maidservant who inherits her mistress.” The governance of the maidservant is mainly only on the second day, in which Hell was created, and on the fourth day, in which the lights were eclipsed. From them, she returns to govern each and every day.
119. The king’s daughter, Malchut, is shackled in pleurae [membranes]. Like the pleurae of the lungs that stop the wind from the lung, so the iniquities of Israel stop the light from Malchut, and she is imprisoned in the prison in her exile. She is the nest of Sam among the stars, for Sam grips her. The Creator swore, “‘Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,’ declares the Lord.” The Shechina is called Noga [brightness], as it is written, “and brightness to the fire.” This is why the house of assembly is called “blazing fire” in foreign languages [languages that are not Hebrew].
120. The fire of Mars is red, since Maadim [Mars] comes from the word Odem [redness], as it is written, “In the first row there shall be a ruby, a topaz.” Noga is white fire, and the two of them are the face of the sun and the face of the moon. NH take white from Hesed and red from Gevura.
Aaron and David were from there; one took mercy, and one took judgment. David was from the left side, as it is written, “And he was ruddy.” Aaron is the man of Hesed, and both were prophets of the truth, meaning NH, they are from there. The face of Moses was shining in prophesy from Bina, the upper Sun; his prophesy was from there.
121. In them, wicked Esau, the slave, is called Edom, and his Nukva is called Maadim [Mars], which is bloodshed in Israel. She caused the verse, “The Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand,” and “He made me desolate, faint all the day long,” to come true in her king. Hod [glory] has been inverted into Davah [faint], which correspond to NH. “I cannot withstand” corresponds to Netzah, and “faint all day long” corresponds to Hod.
NH are Yachin and Boaz, on whom the house, Malchut, leans. The house of assembly, which corresponds to Malchut, is named “blazing fire” after them.
122. The evil maidservant is burial, and her mistress in imprisoned in her. The evil maidservant is Saturn, who is cold and dry in burial in the dust, and she is the death of poverty in the Torah, of which we learn, “the poor is as important as the dead.” She is the burial of the poor, who is covered in her in seven kinds of sections, since she incorporates seven stars like her mistress, queen Sabbath, who is incorporated with seven Sefirot.
These seven stars from the side of the mistress are the seven years of satiation, and from the side of the maidservant, they are the seven years of famine. The prophet said about them, “not hungry for bread and not thirsty for water, but rather to hear the words of the Creator.”
123. Her mistress is a garden. The maidservant is filthy trash from the side of the mixed-multitude. The trash is mixed into the garden in order to grow seeds from the side of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From the side of idol-worship, the maidservant is called Saturn, Lilit, filthy trash, since she is feces mixed with all kinds of filth and vermin in which dead dogs and dead donkeys are thrown. The children of Esau and Ishmael are buried in it, idol-worshipers, who are dead dogs, are buried in it.
It is a grave of idol-worship where uncircumcised are buried, which are dead dogs, reptiles. The bad, filthy smell that is extended from the evil handmaid is the pleura that grips the mixed-multitude that are mixed in Israel. She grips the bone and the flesh, which are the children of Esau and Ishmael, who are a dead bone and impure meat, meat in a unkosher field, of which it is written, “you shall throw it to the dog.”
124. As there are twelve signs from the good side, there are twelve signs from the bad side, as it is written, “twelve presidents to their nations,” and as it is written, “For the God has made one opposite the other.” The wicked are the forefathers of impurity, which are “impure,” “dead,” and a vermin which defiles a person from his air, from his midst, from his back, and even from his very insides, by which the priest becomes defiled. This is why “nor shall he go near any dead body,” since the wicked is called “dead,” and Rabbi Shimon will not be defiled even for his father and his mother.
