Kabbalah Library

45. It is written about Joseph, “They tortured his feet with shackles, placed his soul in iron until the time when his word came true, the word of the Lord purified him.” Until when were his feet tortured? Until his word came true, Joseph’s words of prayer, and that word was tested whether it was honest, as it is written, “The word of the Lord purified him,” when the words were tested and purified. Then, as it is written, “The king sent and released him, the ruler of the people let him go free.”

46. It is written, “And the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living.” Simply “the soul of my lord” is as it is written, “who does not lift up my soul in vain,” meaning Malchut, who is called “a soul” [Nefesh], for the morning is the time when the assembly of Israel connects with her husband ZA. Happy are the righteous who engage in Torah at night and come in the morning to connect to the Creator and to the assembly of Israel. It is written about them, “May your father and your mother be glad, and may she who bore you rejoice.”

47. It is written, “Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their impurity, lest they die in their impurity when they defile My tabernacle that is in the midst of them.” “You shall separate,” like that stranger, who is a stranger to everyone and does not connect with what is not his.

48. When people are defiled below, they are defiled in everything. However, when the spirit of impurity awakens below through the extension of the illumination of the left from above downward, an alien spirit awakens, since the spirit of impurity below awakens the other spirit of impurity, the judgments of the screen of Katnut [smallness/infancy], called “ailment” and called “alien.”

49. When the spirit of impurity is present in the house and the Creator wishes to purify the house, He sends the ailment of leprosy to the house, so they will complain about each other, so the spirit of the ailment will complain and fight against the spirit of impurity. That ailment is not removed from the house after it has overcome the spirit of impurity, although the spirit of impurity has departed from the house, until the house is shattered—the wood, the bricks, the lot—and then the place is purified.

50. Similarly, one who has been defiled and has awakened the spirit of impurity, and it is on him, when the Creator wishes to purify the world, He awakens a strong spirit of judgment against him, which is present in the world and is on that spirit of impurity. They fight one another until it removes the spirit of impurity from the world.

That strong spirit of judgment of the ailment that removed him from the world does not depart from its place until it shatters the place, meaning the body—the organs, the bones, the lot. Then the world is purified, the spirits of impurity pass away, and the world is in purity. Those two spirits that are present in the world because people below are defiled are those two spirits mentioned in the ailments of the houses, and all that was said there applies here.

51. For this reason, he who comes to defile is defiled, since that other spirit of impurity removes the first spirit of impurity. Woe to a person on whom there is the spirit of impurity and it is with him in the world, as it is indeed known that the Creator wishes to obliterate him from the world. For this reason, He will add impurity to him. Happy are the righteous who are all holy and are in holiness before the holy king, and the holy spirit is on them in this world and in the next world.