Kabbalah Library

540. That lad said, “I am young and you are old. Hence, I crawled and feared expressing my opinion with you, until he opened and said matters concerning the blessing over the food.

541. Now that you said that I do not even know the blessing over the food, there are known things in the blessing over the food, and they are ten. One is to set one’s table according to the food he has. One who does not have much food and will set his table, it is good since by setting the table, he sits down to eat before the king, as it is written, “and you shall eat before the Lord your God.”

542. The second one is the Netillah [washing] of the hands before the eating, since one who eats without washing his hands, it is as though he eats impure bread. The third, washing the hands, is to wash the right hand with the left, and use the left for the right, and wash up to the joint that the sages have decreed.

543. The fourth is that one should raise one’s hands after the washing when he blesses, and connect his two arms as one during the raising of his hands. The fifth is that he has to attach a blessing to this washing.

544. The sixth is to give of his bread to the poor. The seventh is to bless Hamotzi [blessing for bringing bread out of the ground], and be meticulous with the letter Hey, and that it is forbidden to eat without a blessing. The eighth is that one who eats at one’s table must not gorge, but be as though he is eating before the king.

545. The nineth is to say words of Torah at the table. A single person, who has no one with whom to engage in Torah, can settle for the blessings. The tenth one is the mandatory final water, which does not require a blessing. Although his hands are filthy from eating, he does not bless for washing the hands.

546. All those ten things are needed before the blessing over the food, and each has a reason from the seminary of above, and I will repeat them.

547. The first is to set the table for one’s food. Because of the glory of the king, who has given him food for his body, since man’s nourishments are as hard before the Creator as the tearing of the Red Sea.

548. Why are man’s nourishments difficult? It is because the nourishment of the world comes only through judgment, and the Creator passes over the judgment and feeds the wicked, the kosher, and the non-kosher. The Creator nourishes everyone, from the horns of a ram to the eggs of lice.

The Shechina comes out and sees each one from Israel, as it is written, “This is the table that is before the Lord,” and it is written, “And you shall eat before the Lord your God.” Hence, on a weekday, his table must be set, but not completely set, and on Shabbat, he needs an addition of a change for merit.

550. The second is the washing of the hands before the eating, since eating requires cleanness, like the ministering angels above, as it is written, “the man ate the bread of knights,” the bread that the ministering angels eat.

551. In which regard does he tell us this? Like the ministering angels eat in sanctity and purity and cleanness, Israel, too, are like that, having to eat in sanctity and purity, as it is written, “And you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I the Lord am holy.” “And you shall sanctify yourselves” is the first water. “And be holy” is last water. “Holy” is a good oil, which one draws upon one’s hands. “I am the Lord” is the blessing over the food.

552. “And you shall sanctify yourselves,” meaning that anyone who eats and drinks in holiness and purity and cleanness is akin to the ministering angels, who are holy. “For I the Lord am holy,” teaching that there is a need for an intention during the blessing over the food.

553. Anyone who eats without washing his hands, his eating is impure. The Shechina said, “Do not eat the bread of an evil-eyed man, or crave his delicacies.” There is the quality of punishments in the world, whose name is “evil eye.” Anyone who eats without washing his hands, that quality of punishments is on him. And all her food is called the “bread of an evil eyed man.”

554. There are two qualities at a man’s table: the quality of good, and the quality of bad. When a person blesses his hands and asks, the quality of hot says “This is the table of the Creator,” and places her hands over his head and tells him, “You are my servant,” the servant of the place you are, as it is written, “And he said unto me, ‘You are My servant,” you are the servant of the Creator, as it is written, “and he said to me You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

555. When a person does not sanctify his hands and eats, the quality of evil says, “He is mine.” Promptly, It is on him and defiles him, and his food is called “the bread of an evil-eyed man.”

556. There was a story in Babylon about a person who invited a poor man to eat at his place. The poor man saw that he did not wash his hands [Netillah] and ate; the poor man rose from the table and left. The landlord called him and said, “Sit in your place and eat.”

557. The poor man said to him, “I will not eat with you, for it is written about you, ‘Do not eat the bread of an evil-eyed man,’ and it is written, ‘nor shall you make yourselves impure with them, lest you are defiled by them,’ for anyone on whom there is the spirit of an evil-eyed man receives hidden impurity, for which there is no solution whatsoever.” The deed came before the sages, who gave that poor man one hundred Zuzim [coins].

558. Happy are you, Israel, happy are you who engage in Torah and commandments, and like the poor man, who was hungry and his intestines blocked, but guarded himself and was concerned only with the glory of his Master. What great reward awaits those who engage in Torah.

559. The third one, to wash the right hand with the left, since the right has advantage over the left in everything. For this reason, the right must be washed with the left, for the left to serve it, since the right of the person is like the upper one.

560. The Torah was given in the right, as it is written, “On his right was a fiery law [Torah],” and it is written, “The right of the Lord exalts; the right of the Lord does valiantly!” For this reason, “When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed.”

561. When a priest sanctifies his hands, the left must sanctify the right. When a priest steps up to the podium, from whom does he wash his hands? From a Levite on the left, who serves the priest who steps up to the podium, which is right, so that the right will be as it should be, sanctified by the left.

It is likewise here; the right hand should be sanctified only from the left, for although the right is the main thing, illumination of Hassadim, it should still be incorporated with the illumination of Hochma on the left. Hence, the Levite, left, must serve the priest, right, and the left hand must wash the right hand, so the right is incorporated with the left.

562. All the joints of the hand must be washed. Fourteen joints are called “hand,” for there are three joints in each finger, besides the thumb, in which there are two joints. Four times three is twelve, and with the two joints in the thumb, they are fourteen, as it is written, “for a hand on the throne of the Lord [Koh].”

Old Rav Hamnuna explained about the letters of the alphabet with an addition of beginning and end, called Aleph-Tav Bet-Shin, that the beginning of the alphabet, Aleph, connects with the end of the alphabet, Tav, and Bet, the second from the beginning of the alphabet, with Shin, the second from the end of the alphabet. Similarly, Gimel-Reish Dalet-Kof Hey-Tzadi Vav-Peh Zayin-Ayin Het-Samech Tet-Nun Yod-Mem Kaf-Lamed. All those four joints in the alphabet are from the letter Hey and above.

They are called fourteen joints, which are Hey-Tzadi Vav-Peh Zayin-Ayin Het-Samech Tet-Nun Yod-Mem Kaf-Lamed, which are fourteen letters corresponding to fourteen joints. And fourteen serve fourteen, so that the right will be incorporated in the left, and the left in the right. Hence, the washing of the hands [Netillah] is in order to incorporate in one another.

The hands are three lines HGT, which become HBD in Gadlut [greatness/adulthood]. Of the fourteen joints in them, twelve are incorporation of three lines and Malchut in one another, where there are three lines in each, which are twelve joints, and two joints corresponding to their root Yod-Hey, as it is written, “for a hand on the throne of the Lord [Koh],” since the fourteen joints in the three lines HGT become Yod-Hey, HBD.

Fourteen joints are called a “hand,” twelve of the incorporation of three lines and Malchut in each other, and with the two letters Yod-Hey, they are fourteen, as it is written, “for a hand on the throne of the Lord [Koh],” since these fourteen ascend and become GAR, Yod-Hey. The combination of Aleph-Tav Bet-Shin has GAR and VAK in it. The first four combinations Aleph-Tav Bet-Shin Gimel-Reish Dalet-Kof are GAR, and from the combination Hey-Tzadi and above, they are VAK.

The fourteen joints that are HGT, VAK, are from the combination Hey-Tzadi and above, which are fourteen letters and VAK of the alphabet Aleph-Tav Bet-Shin. However, the first four combinations are GAR, and there are no fourteen joints of HGT there.

563. The fourth is to raise his hands while blessing after the Netillah, and to sanctify his hands, as it is written, “Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!”

564. Because the fingers are a high form, the fingers are five: four fingers joined together, with three joints in each, the form of the upper Merkava [chariot/structure]. This is so because the upper Merkava is four, HGTM, three lines and Malchut who receives them, and each of them consists of three lines, and they are twelve joints.

Hence, the explicit name of the four letters HaVaYaH is twelve letters, since each letter in it is divided into three lines, three letters, and four times three is twelve letters. This is the explicit name in its letters, and these twelve joints in the four fingers, each joint is called a “letter.”

565. The additional finger is called “thumb,” which is outside the four fingers and has two joints. These two joints are two letters hidden in two upper, hidden degrees, Yod-Hey, meaning they are roots corresponding to the two letters Yod-Hey HB.

566. And the key to all of them, the one from whom everyone receives, is above in Yod-Hey, in the one that is covered and not revealed, the Daat that unites HB, Yod-Hey. It is called a “key” because the middle line opens the illumination of the right and left, HB. The fourteen joints in the fingers are all upright, to receive from that hidden one, Daat, after they have been sanctified, since they are all blessed from him.

567. After the Netillah, once they have been sanctified, when the hands, HGT, rose to Yod-Hey and became HBD, the fingers must be raised up with the intention of awakening the upper, holy joints, Yod-Hey, the roots of the fourteen joints.

Hence, the five fingers with the fourteen joints in them are nineteen, and the two upper joints, Yod-Hey, are twenty-one in the right arm, corresponding to EKYEH, whose number is twenty-one. Also, there are twenty-one in the left hand, corresponding to EKYEH, whose number is twenty-one. For this reason, they are EKYEH-Asher-EKYEH [I will be that which I will be].

Through washing the hands with intention, the hands, HGT, rise to Tifferet and become HBD. This is the meaning of what is written, “Lift up your hands to the holy place.” HBD are called by three names, EKYEH Asher EKYEH. The first EKYEH is Hochma, the second EKYEH is Bina, and Asher is Daat that unites the two lines HB.

Hence, because the hands have been sanctified and become HBD, where the right arm, Hesed, has risen and become Hochma, called the first EKYEH, the count of EKYEH is implied in it, which is twenty-one. In the left hand, too, there are twenty-one, since the left hand, Gevura, rose and became Bina, the second EKYEH. For this reason, the number twenty-one is implied in it, as well. For this reason, the hands become three names, EKYEH Asher EKYEH.

568. EKYEH Rosh EKYEH, for the inversion [of letters] of Asher is Rosh. This is the meaning of the words, “Your heads, your tribes.” “Your heads” is the right arm, “your tribes” is the left arm.

EKYEH Asher EKYEH is HBD, three lines. Daat, Asher, unites the two EKYEH, HB, where Hochma incorporates HB, and Bina, too, incorporates HB. Nevertheless, Daat decides and give the control to the right line, Hochma. EKYEH Rosh EKYEH, since the opposite of Asher is Rosh, for if we invert the middle line, called Asher, it is Rosh, indicating that it decides and gives the control to the first EKYEH, who is the Rosh of the second EKYEH.

569. The fifth is to bless with intention in order to awaken blessings from above in the shapes of the fingers. The sixth is to give of his food to a poor one. And it is especially commended to give of the dish that he himself eats, and from the best foods that he craves. This is so because the Creator enjoys the food that he gives to the poor, since that dish that he gives brings contentment to the soul of the poor one and delights him.

570. The seventh is to bless Hamotzi [who brings forth bread from the earth] over the bread. There are seven lands; all of them are sections below. From all of them, the Creator wants only Tevel, the top one among the seven lands. And in all of them, there are none of the seven species except in that Tevel.

571. In all of them, the Creator placed all the herbs and all the crops of the earth in the hands of appointees, except for these seven species with which the Land of Israel was rewarded, and the bread that people eat. This is why one should be meticulous with the letter Hey of the blessing Hamotzi, which implies Malchut, since the bread is given to her and not to appointees, and she is the one who brings them out, and not another. This is why we should say Hamotzi and not Motzi [without a Hey].

572. The eighth is not to gorge and drink excessively, but rather as one who is before the king. This is so because there is no blessing in the abdomen of one who gorges. Rather, it is present in one who does not gorge. The one who gorges is like Esau, as it is written, “Let me devour, please, of that red, red thing,” by way of gobbling, since the evil serpent is in his abdomen, and he will not be satisfied. Moreover, he is called “wicked,” as it is written, “And the belly of the wicked shall be wanting.” For this reason, one must eat calmly at one’s table, as though sitting before the king.

573. The nineth is to have words of Torah at his table, for a table that has no words of Torah in it is as one who eats from sacrifices made to the dead, which are idol-worship, as it is written, “For all tables are full of vomit and feces without room.” Idol worship is called vomit and feces.

574. The Creator dispenses pieces each day and each night, food to the world, to the upper one and lower one. At night, to those angels appointed over their place, who rule at night and eat at night, as it is written, “She rises while it is still night and gives prey to her household and law to her maidens.”

575. In the day, to those angels appointed over the place and rule during the day, the Creator gives them food during the day. Once He has dispensed to them, He subsequently dispenses to all the people of this world.

576. While all those angels of above eat their food, they all praise and thank and extol their Master, as well as after their eating. Similarly, Israel below must be friends with them in the very same manner.

577. The tenth, final water, is mandatory because the bad filth must be removed from him, and to give a portion to the other side from the filth on his hands, so that the slanderer will be with him. However, if he does not give him his share, he might slander him.

578. The good quality, Malchut, receives from the man the desire and intention of the blessing of the washing of the hands, and the blessing for enjoyment [over five species of grain], and the blessing over the food. The bad quality, the other side, receives from the man that filth of the hands that is in the final water, and thereby parts from him because by this he receives his share.

579. It is written about this, “And after Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was cheerful,” he blessed over his food and delighted that place called “heart,” Malchut. That heart needs man’s heart and desire.

580. Last water is mandatory. The one that is called “fault,” the other side, receives them. With these waters, it is appeased, since they are two degrees, one called “merit,” and one called “fault.” All the things of the degree of merit are opened to the side of merit, and all the matters of fault are opened to the side of fault, and are sentenced to fault. Hence, the final water is the portion of the fault, who enjoys it.