Kabbalah Library

71. “An ox or a sheep, him and his son you shall not slay on the same day.” “Him and his son” means her and her son, and not him and his son, since the way of the mother is to know her son, and her son follows her and does not follow his father, and we do not know who his father is.

72. “Him and his father you shall not slay on the same day,” not because of the sorrow of the beast, for if this were so, we would slaughter this in one house, and that in another house, or this now and that later. Rather, the text explicitly prohibits “on the same day.”

73. Fasting is good for a bad dream as fire is for the threads of linen [very flammable], meaning it gets rid of it. The fasting is mainly on the same day and not on another day, since there is not a day below that is not governed by another, upper day. When one is in a dream fasting, the day does not pass until that decree is canceled. If he postpones the fasting to another day, it is already the governance of another, and one day does not enter another day. Also, there is not a day without another day appointed over it above, and one should be careful not to make a blemish in some day, so it will not remain flawed in regard to the rest of the other days.

74. In the act below, the act above awakens. If a person did a worthy act below, it thereby awakens the force above. If a person makes an act of kindness, it awakens kindness above and stays in that day and decorates itself with it thanks to him. If a person is merciful below, he awakens mercy on that day, which is decorated with mercy thanks to him. At that time, that day is established as a shield for him when he needs it.

75. Contrary to that, if a person performs an act of cruelty, this is what he awakens in that day, and he blemishes the day. Afterwards, that day stands up over him to act with cruelty and obliterate him from the world. To the extent that a person allots, so he is allotted.

76. Israel has been spared cruelty more than all the other nations, and no act of cruelty will be seen from them in the world, since there are several with eyes who are standing over a person to complain about him in that act. Happy is he who shows a worthy deed below, for the matter depends entirely on the deed, to awaken another thing corresponding to it above.