Kabbalah Library

138. It is written, “Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled.” When the Creator wanted to give the Torah to Israel, He went and invited the children of Esau, but they would not accept it, as it is written, “The Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from Seir,” as they did not want to accept it. He went to the children of Ishmael, but they would not accept it, as it is written, “appeared from Mount Paran.” Since they did not want, He returned to Israel.

139. There is no sin if a person makes precisions in the Torah and asks his questions to elucidate matters. This verse is not reconciled, and we should ask, when the Creator went to Seir, to which of their prophets was He revealed? When He went to Paran, to which of their prophets was He revealed? And if He was revealed to the entire nation, then we have never found this, except with Israel and through Moses. Thus, it should have been written, “The Lord came to Sinai and dawned on them from Seir, appeared to Mount Paran.” What is “on them from Seir,” and what is “from Mount Paran”? Everything should be known and examined.

140. The Lord came from Sinai.” It is as it is written, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud.” But He came from Sinai and was revealed to them. “And dawned on them from Seir,” from what the children of Seir said, that they do not want to accept, from this He shone to Israel and added to them much light and love. He also appeared and shone to Israel from Mount Paran in this way, from what the children of Paran said, that they do not want to accept, from this, Israel added more love and illumination, as it should be.

141. By whom was it revealed to them? This is a sublime secret, and the matter will be revealed through this question. The Torah emerged from a high matter, from the Rosh [head] of the hidden king, Bina. When He reached the left arm, Isaac, Gevura, the Creator saw bad blood in that arm, which was proliferating from there, which is Esau, Sam, and the Sitra Achra. He said, “I should sort and whiten this arm, for if I do not remove that bad blood, it will blemish everything.” Indeed, it is necessary to sort every blemish from here.

142. He called Sam, Esau’s minister, and said to him, “Do you want my law [Torah]?” He said, “What is written in it?” He told him, “You shall not murder,” since the Creator jumped to show him the place that was needed; He jumped to the place that He knew he would not be able to tolerate.

Sam said, “This is Your law, and it will be Your law; I do not want this law.” He returned and entreated with Him and said, “Lord of the world, if you give me the law [Torah], my whole governance will pass away, since all my governance is in killing. If I accept the law, there will be no wars, and my governance is on planet Mars, which indicates bloodshed. Thus, everything would be canceled from the world.

143. “Lord of the world, take Your law to Yourself, and I will have no part or inheritance in it. However, if it pleases You, then the nation that is the children of Jacob, for them the law is suitable.” He thought he was slandering them, which is why it is written, “and dawned on them from Seir.” The light actually came to Israel from Seir, from Sam, the minister of Seir. Sam said to himself, “If Jacob’s children accept the law, they are bound to perish from the world and will never be able to rule.”

The Creator replied to him, “You are the elder, and the law is suitable for you.” He said to him, “Here, my birthright is his, for it was sold to him and I was grateful.” The Creator told him, “Since you do not want to have a part in the law, move away from it altogether.” He said, “Very well.”

144. The Creator told him, “Since this is so, advise Me what should I do to make the children of Jacob accept it.” Sam told him, “Lord of the world, they need to be bribed. Take the light of the hosts of heaven and place it on them, and by this they will accept it. Here, I will give of my light first.” He stripped the light off from himself, which covered him, and gave it to the Creator to give it to Israel. This is the meaning of what is written, “And dawned on them from Seir,” truly from Seir, which is Sam, of whom it is written, “And the goat carried on itself.” “On them,” to Israel.

145. Since he rooted out Sam and removed the bad blood from the left arm, from Isaac, Gevura, He returned to the right arm, to Abraham, Hesed. He saw bad blood there, too, Ishmael. He said, “This arm, too, must be cleansed of bad blood.” The Creator called on Rahav, the minister of Ishmael. He said to him, “Do you want My law?” Rahav replied, “What is written in it?” He jumped over everything and told him, “You shall not commit adultery.”

He said, “Woe to me, if the Creator bequeaths me with this inheritance, it is a bad inheritance that will remove all my governance from me, which is based on adultery, since I have taken the blessings of the water, the blessing of the fish of the sea, as it is written, ‘Be fruitful and multiply,’ and it is written, ‘[I] will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly,’ and it is written, ‘He shall be a wild man.’”

146. He began to plead before his Lord and said to him, “Lord of the world, two sons emerged from Abraham. The children of Isaac, give it to them; it is suitable for them.” The Creator told him, “I cannot, since you are the elder, and you deserve the law.”

He began pleading before Him and said, “Lord of the world, let my birthright be his, and that light that I have inherited for the birthright, take it and give it to them.” And so the Creator did, as it is written, “appeared from Mount Paran.”

147. What is the difference, that concerning Sam, it is written “dawned,” and concerning Rahav, it is written “appeared”? With that same light by which He stripped off the sword and the killing from Sam, to kill with judgment, kill properly, as it is written, “and the sword of your pride,” although it is not yours. He took only a little of the blessing that Rahav stripped from him, as someone to whom a little bit of their blessing appeared, only in order to make multiplication. This is why it is written, “appeared from Mount Paran,” and it is not written “And dawned,” which means multiplication, as with Sam.

148. Since the Creator took those gifts to Israel from those ministers who rule over Esau and Ishmael, He came and called upon all the myriads of holiness appointed over the rest of the nations, and they, too, replied to him as did Sam and Rahav, and He took from everyone and received gifts to give to Israel.

It is like a physician who had one vessel filled with a potion of life, and he kept it for his son. He wanted to give to his son that vessel with the potion of life. The physician was wise; he said, “There are bad servants in my house; if they know that I am giving this gift to my son, it will be bad in their eyes and they will want to kill him.”

149. What did he do? He took some of the potion of death and placed it on the rim of the vessel. He called his servants and said to them, “You who are loyal to me, would you like that potion?” They said, “Let us see what it is.” They took it to taste it, and even before they smelled it, they were about to die. They said to themselves, “If he gives that potion to his son, he will certainly die, and we will inherit our master.” They said to him, “Our lord, that potion is suitable only for your son, and here, we leave with you the reward for our work, take it and give it as bribe to your son, so he will take this potion.”

‎150. So is the Creator, a wise physician who knows that if He gives the Torah to Israel before He notifies the ministers of the nations, they will chase Israel each day for ‎it and kill them. But He made it so that He invited them and they did not want, and gave ‎Him gifts and presents so that Israel would accept it, and Moses received all of them to give ‎to Israel, as it is written, “You have ascended on high; you have taken captive; ‎you have taken gifts in man.” This is why Israel inherited the Torah without ‎objections and without any complaints at all.‎

151. The ornaments of the children of Israel are the gifts and presents they had received from the ‎ministers of the nations. For this reason, death did not govern, nor did the Sitra Achra ‎‎[other side]. And not only did they receive the Torah without any objections, they also ‎received gifts and presents from everyone. Once they sinned, it is written, “So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments,” which are the gifts in man that they received, and what was left of them is only captivity, as it is written, “You have ascended on high; you have taken captive; you have taken gifts in man.”

152. They sinned more. It is written, “And the Canaanite, king of Arad, heard,” and it is written, “And he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive,” meaning he took from them even the captivity that they had. As long as Israel return to their Father in Heaven, these gifts will be returned to them and they will be a canopy over them. In the future [end of correction], everything will be returned, as it is written, “And the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity.”