Kabbalah Library

1. It is written, “The flower buds have appeared in the land, the time of pruning has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.” One should make one’s actions kosher [pure/of merit] before his Creator and engage in His law [Torah] day and night, for the merit of the Torah is above all merits.

2. There are two great things in the Torah: life and wealth, as it is written, “longevity on her right, wealth and honor on her left.” These are three, since there is also honor. However, honor is included in wealth, since one who has wealth has honor. And by what will one be rewarded with all this? By the merit of the Torah.

3. Each night, Matat, Minister of the faces, grips all the souls of those who engage in Torah Lishma [for Her sake] and shows them to the Creator, and the ministering angels wait, and become silent from saying psalms until the souls of the righteous are winged with them, and they will sing together to the Almighty God.

4. “The flower buds have appeared in the land” are those who engage in Torah Lishma. “The time of pruning has come,” the time to sing to their maker together. “And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land” is Matat, who comes to collect the souls of the righteous to sing to their maker each night, as it is written, “Let the Hassidim [who have the quality of Hesed] rejoice in honor; let them sing on their beds.” “In honor” is Matat.

5. All the souls of the righteous were decreed under the throne to lead the body like a father leading the son, since without the soul, the body cannot behave or know how to do its creator’s will. The soul instructs and teaches a person, and educates him in every upright way.

6. When the Creator sends her from the place of holiness, He blesses her with seven blessings, as it is written, “And the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Abram is the soul, which is called Av Ram [High Father], since she is a father to teach the body and is superior to it, since she comes from a high and sublime place.

And what does He tell her? Go forth from your land, and from your kindred,” meaning go from your abode, from your place, and from your pleasure. “And from your father’s house,” the shining mirror, ZA, who is the father of the soul, “to the land that I will show you”—an unknown body, a holy body, an upright body.

7. For this reason, “And I will bless those who bless you,” who deal with you with good qualities, upright qualities. Those who bless Me thanks to you and say, “As long as the soul is within me, I give thanks to You, Lord, My God.” “And I will curse those who curse you,” who curse you and curse their own actions and ways.

8. “And Abram went as the Lord had said to him.” Since she was blessed with these seven blessings, it is written, “And Abram went.” This is the soul, who is the father of the body. And high from the place of the high. When the Creator spoke to him to enter that body, when he was commanded to lead it and teach it.

9. Once she comes to enter the body, it is written, “And Lot went with him,” who is the evil inclination, which is ready to enter together with the soul when a person is born. How do we know that the evil inclination is called this? Because it is written, “For the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth,” and this is Lot, who was cursed in the world.

10. The serpent who seduced Eve is the evil inclination, and we saw that it was cursed, as it is written, “You are more cursed than all the beast.” For this reason, it is called Lot. When the soul comes to enter a body, promptly, “And Lot went with him,” for he is ready to enter with him and complain against the person and slander the soul.

11. How do we know that it is an allegory about the soul? Because it is written afterwards, “And Abram took Sarai his wife,” which is the body, “And Lot, his nephew,” which is the evil inclination, who is his brother’s son, shared and adhered to the body. “And all their possessions that they have acquired” are their deeds, “And set out to go to the land of Canaan,” meaning they are all adhered to walk in the vanities of the world, following their own greed and thoughts.

12. “Abram passed through the land up to the place of Shechem, up to Oak of Moreh.” Wherever it is desired, the soul is with it. “And the Canaanite was then in the land” is the passion, which is adhered to the body.

13. When the Creator visits their actions and takes the soul out of the body, the soul wants to rise up, as it is written, “And he journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel.” She wishes to return to the place of which it is written, “where his tent was at the beginning.” “His tent” is written with Hey-Aleph, and then she stands, as it is written, ‘between Bethel and Ai,’ between going up and coming down.”

14. If she is rewarded, she rises, as it is written, “to the place of the altar that he had made there in the beginning,” the place where Michael, the great minister, sacrifices the souls of the righteous. “And Abram called there the name of the Lord.” The soul praises and gives thanks in Jerusalem of above, for having been rewarded with that merit. If she is not rewarded, it is written, “And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev.” That is, she is repelled until she surrounds the whole world until she receives her punishment.

15. What do the righteous do? If he comes to be purified, even if the evil inclination that comes to complain about him, his soul assists him, as it is written, “And Abram said to Lot,” which is the soul saying to the evil inclination, “Let there not be a quarrel between me and you.”

16. What does the righteous do? He goes to the seminary, reads and learns, and slanders against the evil inclination, telling it, “But the whole earth is before you; please part ways from me.” There are many in the world that you can overcome because they weaken their actions. “If you go left, I will go right.” That is, if you want to turn me to the left, I will turn to the right, go to the right side so I do not turn my beech [tree] to the right and to the left. “And if to the right, I will turn left.” That is, although I may see that your advice is good, I will do the opposite of your will and passion.

17. What does the evil inclination do when it sees that its counsel was not heeded? It is written, “So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley,” for those wicked ones who do not slander with him. And for this way, “And they parted from each other.” At that time, it is written about the soul, “And Abram was very heavy” with every good and upright deed, with Torah and commandments.

18. The Creator protects the righteous so that people will not control them. The Creator also protected Abraham so that he and his wife would not be controlled.

19. The Shechina [Divinity] did not move from Sarah. At the night Pharaoh came to approach her, the angel came and struck him. Each time Sarah said “Strike!” It struck.

20. And Abraham was growing stronger with his master, and Sarah could not be controlled, as it is written, “The righteous are as bold as a lion.” Here there was a test to Abraham, that Abraham did not doubt the Creator.

21. This is why the Creator did not command him to go down to Egypt, as He had commanded Jacob. Rather, he went down on his own, so the people of the world would not be able to say that he told him this, and afterwards was sorry about his wife.