Kabbalah Library

594) “And they shall make an ark of acacia-wood.” The book of Torah is the middle pillar, ZA. Its ark is the Shechina. “Within and without shall you overlay it” is the Creator in His Shechina, covering it from within and from without. The Creator and His Shechina are one. But in the ark in this world, the Torah within is one kind, and the ark is another kind. This is in writing of ink, and this is wood coated with gold. Of course the Torah is more favorable than all, as it is written, “Gold or glass cannot equal it.”

595) In another respect, even the Torah and the ark in this world shows that all is one ink and wood, as are the Creator and His Shechina, since ink is made of apples, which are wood, from galls. It follows that a book of Torah that is written with ink is the same kind as the ark, which is wood, which is the Creator and His Shechina. Moreover, the ink, the letters, is black from without and white from within. So are the authors of the Torah and sages, who are black in this world, from the outside, and beautiful in the next world, from within. This is why ink [Dyo] means “It is enough [Dayo] for a servant to be like his Master.” Dyo [ink] has the letters of Yod [Yod-Vav-Dalet] and the letters of Yado [his hand], which implies HBD, which are Yod, which a person writes with his hand.