Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 3
Four Hundred Shekels
94) The authors of the Mishnah said this portion, which they interpreted concerning the soul. Abraham is the soul, and Sarah is the body. Happy are the righteous in the next world, for the Torah in their hearts is as a great fountain—even when it is blocked, the abundance of water breaks through and opens springs to all directions.
95) Man’s body never joins the count of righteous by Dumah after his demise, until his soul shows a letter for a sign, which the cherubim give her in the Garden of Eden.
This is so because once the soul has entered the Garden of Eden there, she goes to rise to her place above, to Bina, and not to descend into Malchut. But before she rises and enters her place, she becomes the guardian of the body through Dumah and shows Dumah that the body is fit to receive the reward of four hundred worlds.
96) Dumah knows that the body is worthy of the reward of four hundred worlds before the body shows him, since it is declared in the Garden of Eden. But when the soul is given the letter for a sign, she searches for the body to admit it into the calculation of the righteous through Dumah. It is written, “But if you only hear me, I will give the money for the field; take it from me.” “The price of the field” is the yearning and the coveting for four hundred worlds that the body is given to inherit.
The righteous that have been rewarded with receiving the Mochin in their lives, which are imparted on the screen in the middle line, Dumah receives that screen, called “calculation,” and purifies the body of the righteous with it after his demise, and qualifies him for revival. And there are two ways in that: 1) The level of the light is primarily what purifies the body, and the body has been rewarded in its life with receiving these Mochin that are extended from the middle line, called “four hundred worlds of cravings.” And then Dumah receives the body and qualifies it for revival. 2) The screen, called “calculation,” is also called “book,” and it is primarily what purifies the body. Hence, since the soul has been rewarded with it, she already begins to negotiate with Dumah for the body.
When the soul is given the letter for a sign, she searches for the body to admit it into the calculation of the righteous through Dumah. It is written about it, “But if you only hear me, I will give the money for the field; take it from me.” “I will give” means that the money is already prepared, implying the screen. When he has a screen, the level is already set to emerge on him by itself, and the level that emerges on the screen is four hundred worlds of cravings. But there is no need to speak to Ephron about the level itself, since because he has obtained the screen, he is already declared as righteous in the Garden of Eden, and he is worthy of receiving the level, which is four hundred worlds of cravings.
97) Can one who is dust be rewarded with all that, the four hundred worlds of yearnings? Who will be rewarded and who will rise? It is written, “Who may ascend into the mountain of the Lord, and who will rise in His holy place?”
98) It is written, “Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out the money for Ephron four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.” The silver is the great yearning after these coveted worlds.
“Four hundred shekels of silver” are four hundred worlds of pleasures and passions.
“According to the standard of the merchants” means passing through all the gates of heaven and Jerusalem above, and there is none who protest. This means that one who is rewarded with these Mochin of the four hundred worlds of yearnings is complete in all the degrees of the gates of heaven and Jerusalem above, and there is no one to complain about him there.
And the reason he did not say, “Jerusalem below,” as well, is that these four hundred are HB TM of lights that are clothed in KHB and Tifferet of vessels, without the Keter of lights because he lacks Malchut from the vessels, as it is known from the inverse relation between lights and vessels. Malchut of vessels is the Jerusalem below because Jerusalem above is Bina, and Jerusalem below is Malchut, which will only be corrected at the end of correction.
Hence, prior to that, there are no more than four hundred shekels of silver to indicate that the Keter is missing from the lights, and Malchut from the vessels. This is why he says, “Jerusalem above,” and does not say, “Jerusalem below.” And yet, the illumination of those four hundred passes and shines in part to Malchut, too. This is why it is written, “Passing to the merchant,” since Malchut is called “merchant,” as it is written, “She is like the merchant-ships.” And through this illumination, which is passed onto her, she gradually becomes qualified to receive her perfection at the end of correction.
99) Subsequently, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, meaning the body, and it was counted by the appointee along with the rest of the righteous in their company by Dumah, who is the calculation. All those bodies that are written by the hands of Dumah and are counted by him will be revived when the Creator revives the dwellers of the dust. Woe unto the wicked, who are not written by him in writing, for they will forever be lost in hell.
