Kabbalah Library

57) “I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly.” It should have said, “I will not strike them, neither will I kill them, to destroy them utterly.” But no, “I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them,” meaning anyone who hates another is loathsome before him and he is abhorred in abhorrence before him. But here, “I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them” because My beloved one is among them, meaning Divinity, for whom they are all My beloved. It writes, “To destroy them utterly” without the Vav [in Hebrew], indicating Divinity, who is called “a bride.” “To destroy them utterly” [UleChalotam] is like “for the bride” [UleCalatam (the same letters in Hebrew)], meaning it is for the bride that I did not reject them and did not abhor them, since she is My soul’s beloved, and My beloved is with them.

58) Like a man who loves a woman who lives in a tanners’ market whose smell is foul, if she did not live there, he would never walk in there. Since she is there, the tanners’ market seems like a perfume market to him, where all the finest fragrances in the world are found.

59) And even when they are in the land of their enemies, which is the foul-smelling market, “I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them.” Why? “To destroy them utterly,” meaning for their bride, Divinity, which I love, who is My soul’s beloved and is there. Hence, to me, it seems like the finest scents in the world because that bride is among them.