Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 3
You Shall Not Plow With an Ox and a Donkey
144) “And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land.” Many degrees and discernments separate above, some for Kedusha and some for the Sitra Achra, as it is written, “one opposite the other has God made them.” And they are all different from each other: some are for Hesed and some are for judgments. Animals are different from one another: some want to govern others and take prey; each is its own kind.
145) Many degrees are separated from the side of the spirit of impurity, and all lurk to attack the Kedusha, one opposite the other, as it is written, “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together,” since when they join, they ruin the world.
146) The only desire of the degrees of impurity is to attack the holy degrees. They all lurked and attacked Jacob, who was holy, as it is written, “And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem,” they all laid in wait and attacked him. First, the serpent bit him, as it is written, “he touched the hollow of his thigh.” It is said about Esau’s minister that he was riding a serpent. Now the Hamor [donkey] bit him, as it is written, “Shechem, the son of Hamor, saw her,” who is the shell of the right.
147) When the serpent bit him, he himself stood up to the serpent. Now that the donkey bit him, Shimon and Levi, who came from the side of the harsh judgment, stood up to the donkey and governed him from all sides, and it surrendered before them, as it is written, “they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword.” Shimon, whose sign was the ox, Gevura, and the left of Kedusha, came up on Hamor, who is the shell of the right, and attacked him, so the shells of ox and donkey will not conjoin. It turns out that Shimon is his opposite, not Jacob.
148) And they all came to attack Jacob, and he was saved from them. Afterwards, he controlled them. Subsequently, the ox, which is Joseph, came and was completed with donkeys, which are the Egyptians he ruled over, who were all from the side of the shell of Hamor. Joseph is ox and Egyptians are donkeys, as it is written, “whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys.”
149) This is why afterwards, the children of Jacob fell among those donkeys, the Egyptians, since an ox—Joseph—had conjoined with them and they had an ox and a donkey conjoined within them. And they bit the bone and the flesh of Israel, like the nature of donkeys, which bite and break bones, until Levi awakened, as before, and scattered these donkeys, separating the ox from the donkey, to surrender them. And he broke their force from the world and ejected the ox from there, as it is written, “And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him.” Moses is Levi, and Joseph is the ox that conjoined with them.
150) Previously, when Shimon came up on the donkey to fight it, he cast blood on them, when they were circumcised, and subsequently, it is written, “and slew all the males.” The Creator acted similarly through a Levi—Moses—with those donkeys—the Egyptians. First, He brought upon them the stroke of blood, and then it is written, “the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of man to the firstborn of beast.”
With this donkey, the father of Shechem, it is written, “And all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives … they captured and plundered,” and it is written, “They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field.”
And in those donkeys, which are the Egyptians, it is written, “jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment,” which correspond to the “all their wealth.” It is written, “And a mixed multitude went up with them, as well,” which correspond to, “and all their little ones,” from here, and “flocks, and herds” correspond to, “their flocks and their herds.”
151) Shimon arose against that donkey, Shechem’s father, who was not connected with an ox. And Levi arose against all the donkeys, even against the donkeys that were connected to an ox, like the Egyptians.
This is so because Shimon is Gevura and ox, and was therefore opposite the donkey of the shell of the right, and could surrender it. But he could not subdue the shell of the donkey in Egypt, since they were connected to an ox and received strength from Joseph, who was king over them. For this reason, only Levi, Moses who came from the tribe of levy, which is considered Tifferet—made of right and left together—had the strength to subdue those donkeys in Egypt, and not Shimon, who had only left in him.
They all wanted to need Jacob and corrected themselves to bite him, and he rose against them with his sons and surrendered him.
152) Now, in the last exile, when Esau bites him and his sons, who will rise against him? Jacob and Joseph will stand against him—Jacob from the right side and Joseph from the left side, as it is written, “And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble.”
153) “And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.” They all gathered to fight, and when they girded their arms, they shivered and left them. And this is why it is written that they did not chase the sons of Jacob.
