Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 7
Our Father Died in the Desert
374. The boy opened and said, “Our father died in the desert, and He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord.” The word “Our father,” its intonation mark is on top, Zarka, whose singing prolongs the word and extends it. Ahh, holy Hassidim [pious followers], what is the length of the sorrow in our father’s calling? There is no sorrow and no pain of spirit or soul unless when reading like that, “our father,” with pain from the heart. “Died in the desert.” Did others not die in the desert?
375. However, several people are naked from this. Some of them say that Zelophehad was gathering wood, since it is written, “for he died for his sin.” Some of them say this, and some of them say that, and I learned, on the day when my father fell ill, I was taught this, and I saw what I saw, which my father commanded me not to disclose.
I learned, but there were quite a few who died in the desert and not for the sin of Korah and not for the sin of the spies when the decree was made that they would all die in the desert. Rather, they died prior to the giving of the Torah, and after they had made the calf, those who misled the world, the mixed multitude, and those who were taken after them. Zelophehad could have been among them, and there is no evidence from what is written that he died for his sin, that he was gathering the wood.
376. But the argument that the daughters of Zelophehad made, that he died in the desert, is that Zelophehad was a rav [teacher/great one] from the house of Joseph, and since he did not know the ways of Torah properly, he was not a president, and he was the one who did not keep his mouth and words, against Moses, as it is written, “And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt,’” and Zelophehad was the speaker. It is written about him, “and many of the people of Israel died,” that he was a man who did not know Torah. He is a rav of a family, a rav from the descendants of Joseph, from the sons of Menashe.
And because he sinned in the desert by speaking against Moses, his daughters thought that Moses held a grudge against him. For this reason, they brought their sentence before Moses and Elazar and all the presidents, and all the heads of the fathers, and did not speak to Moses except in front of them, since they envied envy from him.
377. From this it follows that one who fears a judge will bring other judges closer and add other people with that judge, so they will hear the judgment and he will fear them and judge only properly, and if not, they will expel him from judging. They did not know that Moses was very humble, more than any man on earth, and did not know that Moses was not so.
378. When Moses saw this, he said, “I see that the whole congregation of great people from Israel, and all the heads of the fathers and all the presidents of the congregation were nearing me, he immediately withdrew from the judgment, as it is written, “And Moses brought their case before the Lord.” Moses’ humbleness brought their case before the Creator.
Other judges do not do so, even when there is a large assembly over them. Those judges are called brazen; they have nothing of Moses’ humbleness. Happy is Moses. Rabbi Elazar and the friends rejoiced.
379. That child said, “To return to the first words, ‘Our father died in the desert,’ this intonation, Zarka, which is on top of the word “our father,” its depiction resembles a snake that is hanging by its neck and draws its tail to its mouth. That depiction is in the intonation Zarka, which is drawn on top of the word ‘our father.’ ‘Died in the desert,’ through the words of his mouth.”
That child hurried in a haste and held his father’s nape [back of the neck]. He wept and said “That Zelophehad died by speaking, and you my father, returned to this world by speaking, through the words and tears of the child.” His father returned and kissed him and hugged him. Rabbi Elazar and all the friends wept, and his father wept with them. They all took him and kissed him on his mouth, on his head, and on his eyes, and his father was crying with him.
380. Rabbi Elazar said, “My son, since you said this thing, tell me, why is it written, ‘for he died for his sin’” That child said, “They could have settled for one word, ‘died’; why was there a need to write ‘died in the desert,’ as well as ‘for he died for his sin’”? Since that serpent that is tied by its tail above, in the depiction of the Zarka on the word “our father,” prolongs the intonation, it is therefore written, “for his sin,” for the sin of that serpent. And what is it? The words of his mouth, which he spoke about Moses.
“For he died for his sin” is the reason for that extension from that serpent that is tied by its tail, since when he spoke about Moses, he drew the force of impurity from the primordial serpent, and this is certainly a sin.
381. Rabbi Elazar took him into his bosom, between his arms, and all the friends wept. The child said to them, “Wise ones, leave me with my father, for until now, I have not calmed down.” Rabbi Elazar asked, “How many days and years is that child?” Rabbi Yosi told them, “Friends, please, do not ask to know this, for he is still not five years old.”
382. Rabbi Elazar said, “I look at him favorably. And what you said, five years, these are five years during which there is no plowing or harvesting, and you, too, will never harvest it.” He said to Rabbi Aba, “Let us sit here for seven days so the soul will settle in the house, since all seven days after the soul exits the body, it walks naked, and now that Rabbi Yosi’s soul went and returned, until now, it has not settled in its place, until the seventh day.
