Kabbalah Library

185. It is written, “Therefore, glorify the Lord with fires.” “With fires,” two fires, Zion and Jerusalem, as it is written, “Says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.”

186. Can it be that he has fire only in Zion and Jerusalem, and not elsewhere? However, as Zion and Jerusalem are one atop the other, so are these fires with each other; they are like a male and a female. He, the male fire, is weak, and that of the female, strong, He, with Zion, and she, with Jerusalem.

187. There is not a person in the world who does not have these two fires, and they are called the “good inclination” and the “evil inclination.” The Creator gave them to people in order to guide them on the way, and it is written, “Therefore, glorify the Lord with fires,” by which a person glorifies his maker.

188. There is a gate under Zion, under the earth, two thousand cubits over two thousand cubits. The beginning of the fire is there, slender and weak. That gate is called “northern,” and from there, the fire spreads up to Jerusalem, the place of Temple Mount, the place where every male stands in order to show the face of the master, the Lord of Hosts.

189. This is so because there, under the Temple Mount, which stands before the court, the measure of the fire is 365 double cubits, but above, the fire does not burn like a strong furnace, and below, the fire is like the foreskin that covers the circumcision, and it is below.

190. For this reason, every male who has a circumcision [also “covenant”], stands on it before the master, the Lord. The fire sinks by the force of the holiness of the covenant, and because of it, “glorify the Lord with fires,” with the light of Zion and with the light of Jerusalem.

191. The gate of the strong furnace below, under the Temple Mount, is called Arel [uncircumcised]. When the males stand on it, that fire sinks down to the great deep, and it is the fire of Hell.