Kabbalah Library

58. When a person is born, a force is not appointed over him until he is circumcised. Once he is circumcised, the awakening of the spirit awakens upon him, the light of Nefesh above. If he is rewarded with engaging in the Torah, an added awakening awakens upon him, the light of Ruach. If he is rewarded and observes the commandments of the Torah, an added awakening awakens upon him, the light of Neshama. If he is rewarded with marrying a woman, and he is rewarded with bearing children and teaching them the ways of the holy king, then he is a complete person, complete in everything, since he was rewarded with the light of Haya. These four degrees are from the four worlds ABYA, and they also apply in each and every world from them.

59. However, when a beast is born, at the time it is born, the same force that it has in the end, it has at the time of its birth, and it is appointed over it. This is why it is written, “If an ox or a sheep or a goat is born.” It is not written, “a calf or a lamb or a kid [young goat],” but an ox or a sheep or a goat, since what it has in the end, it has when it is born.

60. “If an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother,” so that the force that has been appointed over it will be settled in it. It will be settled in it when it has been through one Shabbat. If not, it does not exist, since there is no existence to creations unless by the light of Shabbat, as it is written, “And on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done.” After that force existed in it, it is written, “It shall be accepted as an offering made by fire to the Lord,” by the observing of one Shabbat it had experienced.

61. And man, by observing one Shabbat, an awakening of this world and its force exists, meaning the beastly soul. After he is circumcised, an awakening of the upper spirit awakens upon him, Nefesh. The assembly of Israel, Malchut, passes over him and sees him in a holy impression. She awakens upon him and the spirit of the holy world is on him, as it is written, “And I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your own bloods.” “In your own bloods,” in two bloods.

62. When Israel came out of Egypt, when there were among them the Passover blood and the blood of the circumcision, it is written, “In your own bloods, live!” two bloods. But here, there is only the blood of the circumcision. They are two, one of the circumcision, and one of the removal. The one of the circumcision is the assembly of Israel, Malchut, and the one of the removal is the righteous, foundation of the world, Yesod of ZA. Through these two bloods, a person is rewarded with the life of the next world, as it is written, “In your own bloods, live!”