Kabbalah Library

156. Rabbi Elazar opened and said, “Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done a wonder; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.” This verse is the meaning of faith. HaVaYaH is a sublime secret, and it is the beginning of the upper, hidden point that is unknown, upper AVI, Hochma, in which the Yod does not come out from the Avir [air], and they are concealed from Hochma, unknown.

“My God” is a faint whisper, YESHSUT, Bina, a beginning poised for a question, since the Yod comes out in it from the Avir at the time of Gadlut [greatness/adulthood], but it is concealed and not known, and there is no one to reply to her. Although she is poised for a question, for revelation, since the Yod came out in her from the Avir and returned to light of Hochma, there is no one to reply to the question because the Hochma is not revealed in her place, but in the place of ZA and Malchut, since she is hidden and concealed.

157. HaVaYaH, AVI, are not poised for a question whatsoever. “My God,” YESHSUT, are poised for a question and there is no one to answer it. “You,” right, Hesed of ZA, is a beginning that is poised for a question and to reply to it. However, it is only the beginning of this disclosure, and it is still not revealed in it, but only in Malchut. It is called “the upper priest,” as it is written, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

The upper priest is Hesed of ZA, standing on a thing, Malchut, since that thing stands only on the right, Hesed. The “thing” is Melchizedek, as is the name of Malchut.

David said, “I spoke” and not “a thing,” since she connected with him, since David was a Merkava [chariot/structure] for Malchut, and all the words of praise for David came in that thing. This is why he said, “I spoke,” my Malchut. For this reason, “You” is a priest, Hesed. Three places are called “You”: Hochma, Hesed, and Malchut.

158. “I will exalt You” means in all three names. “Lord, You are my God,” together. “And praise Your name” properly. It is known that that name is Malchut, who is called “name.” “For You have done a wonder.” “Wonder” means concealment, that You made a covering and a clothing over the hidden light of Atik, who is Bina, the head of the upper degree, the Hochma in her, called the “hidden Adam HaRishon,” to clothe in a covering of light of Hassadim.

159. “For You have done a wonder” means You have done Aleph, for Peleh [wonder] has the letter Aleph [in Hebrew]. Aleph-Bet means Aleph Bina. But her form is three sides, right, left, and middle, which is the beginning of the upper secret of Adam HaRishon, the three lines in Bina, which are the root of the form of Adam, the Mochin of ZA. This is so because there are two arms in the shape of the Aleph, from here and from here. These are two lines, Hesed and Gevura, which are the upper Yod and her bottom Yod, and the Guf [body] in the middle, the Vav between the two letters Yod.

It is all one. That interpretation is one with the interpretation that “wonder” is a clothing of Hochma in Hassadim, since this clothing comes only through three lines, and it is the unification of the Aleph. For this reason, Aleph is number one, as it is written, “For you have done Peleh [a wonder],” which is Aleph.

“For You have done a wonder.” This wonder is one degree of those wonders of Hochma, as it is written, “a path no eagle knows,” the fiftieth gate, and it is a wonder.

160. First he calls it “wonder,” as it is written, “Wonderful Counselor,” and there he did not say counsels from afar. And here he said “wonders,” counsels from afar. However, there, he had to appoint VAK to the upper degrees, which is why he says “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Minister of Peace.” God means mercy [Hesed]; Mighty means Gevura; Father is Tifferet; Everlasting is Netzah; Minister is Hod; and Peace is Yesod. But here he does not come to count the number of degrees.

Counsels from afar are two branches of willow, Netzah and Hod. Because all the counsels of the prophets come from there, they are called “counsels from afar,” since the prophets receive from Netzah and Hod.

“Faith, faithful” are two that are one, for they are a river and a garden, Yesod and Malchut. The river, Yesod, comes out of Eden, and the garden, Malchut, is watered from it. But in the verse, “Lord, You are my God” is all of the hidden meaning of faith, since “Lord” is Hochma, “my God” is Bina, “You” is Hesed, “Wonders” is three lines HGT, “counsels from afar” is Netzah and Hod, “faith” is Malchut, and “faithful” is Yesod.