Kabbalah Library

260. “A small city with few people in it.” A small city is man’s body. The few people in it are the organs. “And a great king came to it.” This is the evil inclination, an old and foolish king, and people are enslaved to him, and he is king over them. “He found in it a poor man who was wise.” This is the good inclination, who is poor, and no one listens to him. “Wise,” because he makes those who listen to him wise, to be saved from the punishment of Hell.

261. “And he saved the city with his wisdom.” This is man’s soul, that will not sin before her Creator. “Yet no one remembered that poor man,” no one remembers him, and the person returns to sin in that evil inclination.

262. The small city is the assembly of Israel, the Shechina, who is called the Holy City, a city that is dedicated to the Creator. Small, as in, “We have a little sister,” and as it is written, “and the name of the little one, Rachel,” Malchut, who is called Rachel. The few people in it are the patriarchs.

263. When Adam HaRishon came, the Shechina went down with him and dwelled in him. When Adam HaRishon sinned, she departed from him. When Noah came, he brought her down to earth. When the generation of the flood sinned, she departed from the world. When Abraham came, he brought her down. When the people of Sodom came, she departed. Therefore, “with few people in it,” to exist with her in the world. They were for a short while, and not many lived in it.

264. “And a great king came to it and besieged it” is the evil inclination. “And found in it an old man who was wise” is Jacob, who was in poverty at the time when his sons sinned with Joseph, and the abundance was denied of him, and the queen, the Shechina, departed from him. “And saved the city with his wisdom” is Moses. “Besieged it,” when so and so works so that Israel will sin in exile, in order to detain the queen in the exile.

265. A small city is Zion, Malchut. The few people in it are the six days of creation, HGT NHY. The great king who came to it and besieged it is Sam, and the poor man he found in it is the Messiah son of David, of whom it is written, “A poor man riding a donkey,” and as it is written, “The righteous perishes,” as long as the abundance does not come upon him. It is written about it “And the river will be parched and dry.” This is why he is called “poor.”

266. “Riding a donkey” is Sam. “Wise” is Messiah son of David, and it is written about him, “And he saved the city with his wisdom,” to redeem the Messiah son of Ephraim, and this is redemption from above.

267. A small city is Noah’s Ark. The few people in it are Noah, his wife, and his sons. The great king who came to it is the evil inclination, who besieged it. “And found in it a wise man who was poor” is Noah. “And he saved the city with his wisdom” is Abraham, since for Abraham, who was to come in the future, He delivered the ark with His wisdom, and Noah and his sons escaped.

268. A small city is Jerusalem, which in this time, is small and ruined. “With few people in it,” the few Jews in it. “And a great king came to it and besieged it” is a king from the descendants of Esau. While he besieged Jerusalem, he had found in it a wise man who was poor. This is the first Messiah, Messiah son of Joseph. “And he saved the city with his wisdom” is the last Messiah, Messiah son of David.

269. A small city is the Torah. “With few people in it”: It is small because there are few people in it.

270. “And a great king came to it and besieged it” is the potion of death, the evil inclination, which surrounds the Torah. “And found in it a poor man” is David. “Wise” means king Solomon, who set up a candle for it and shone for it with light, with his proverbs and books. “He saved the city with his wisdom” from the hands of the heretics and the disbelievers, who established ears for the Torah.

271. Before Solomon came the Torah was like a pot that had no ears [handles], and anyone who approached it was burned. When Solomon came, he made ears for it, and the people of the world were saved through his counsel. It follows that it is as though he gave deliverance in that city, which is the Torah, through his wisdom.

272. All this is because of the correction he had established, and because of the labor that that poor one, David, labored after it, for no man labored after it like David.

273. It would be good if King David had existed in the world a hundred years. Had he lived a hundred years, he would have corrected the candle, Malchut, a strong correction that would never be removed, and the Temple would not have been ruined. Indeed, how much have those years in which he did not live caused.

274. Adam did not remember that poor man. It is he to which Adam HaRishon gave of his years only seventy years and not a hundred. Adam did not remember for him that when Sam came riding a camel and caused him to sin, he did not remember David, that he would be in poverty because of that iniquity that the serpent caused Eve, and Sam to Adam HaRishon.

275. Sam did not have the power to turn a man’s sin to sin, until the serpent came and turned Eve’s heart, and Eve became Adam’s heart, and they both sinned. This is why he said, “the woman which You gave with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.” Sam did not have permission to turn a person’s heart until Eve came and caused him to eat from it, and this is why the woman was the one who was punished.

276. When Adam HaRishon gave David those seventy years from his own years, at first, he did not remember him properly. Had he remembered him properly, he would have left for him a hundred years from his own years, as it should have been, in order to grow stronger in the world and correct the correction of the candle, Malchut. However, he did not remember him and gave him only seventy years, and not more.

277. They were thirty years, and during some of them, David was walking in the desert, and some of them with flocks. It is written about that time, “And the wisdom of the poor is contemptible and his words are not heard,” because of King Saul. Thus, all he had left of the seventy years were forty minus one, since one year he was running from his son Avshalom. Because of it, the correction of the candle, Malchut, declined to the point where he was on the cusp of death.

278. And all this was because Adam did not remember him at first, to add to him those thirty years below to complete them to one hundred, and thirty of those seventy years below were blemished, when his wisdom was contemptible and his words were not heard.

279. How come King Solomon praises himself so much, calling himself wise, saying “a poor man who was wise,” who is Solomon? However, this is why he said first, “She is great to me,” meaning this great thing, that I come to praise myself, because there is no one else to say it, I say it.