Kabbalah Library

309. How happy are Israel that the Creator wants their honor more than all the people in the world and has given them the holy Torah, and has given them faithful prophets who lead them in the Torah on the path of truth.

310. All the prophets that the Creator has established for Israel, the Creator was revealed to all of them in high and holy degrees, and they saw the brilliance of the holy honor of the king from a high place. But not as close as Moses, for he was closer to the king than all of them because his portion was happier than all the people in the world. It is written about him, “With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles,” while the rest of the prophets saw from a faraway place, as it is written, “From afar the Lord appeared to me.”

311. It is written, “And a man from the house of Levi went and took the daughter of Levi.” “And a man went” is the Creator, ZA. “From the house of Levi” is the Creator, who went from the place where upper Hochma and radiance, upper Bina, join together and are never separated. Levi comes from the word adhesion, from the word Levaiot [accompanying].

And took the daughter of Levi, the Creator, who is the place where the light of the moon, Malchut, shines. The meaning of the words is that “and a man went” is ZA, from the house of Levi is upper AVI, and took the daughter of Levi is Malchut, where ZA bestowed the lights of upper AVI to Malchut.

312. “And the woman conceived and bore a son.” The woman is Malchut. In the beginning, he called her “the daughter of Levi,” and now a “woman.” Before a woman is married, she is called the daughter of so and so. After she is married, she is called a woman. Here, too, daughter and woman are one degree, Malchut, but before he took her for a coupling, she is called the daughter of Levi, and afterwards a woman.

313. “And she hid him for three months.” These are three months when harsh judgment is in the world: Tammuz, Av, Tevet [months in the Hebrew calendar]. Hence, the Shechina concealed him. Before Moses came down to the world, he was above. Hence, the Shechina connected with him and kept him since the day he was born. The spirits of the righteous are above before they come down to the world.

314. “When she could not hide him anymore, she took an ark of papyrus for him, daubed it with clay and pitch.” She coated him with signs so he would be kept from those fish of the sea, the upper angels that sail in the great sea, as it is written, “teeming with creatures beyond number,” and covered him so as to keep him from them through the coating from the side of the honorable Yovel, Bina, in two colors—white and black—clay and tar, corresponding to the two lines right and left.

Tar is left, but mixed with Malchut of the quality of judgment. Hence, the red in the left becomes black. That black is red, but it is blemished. She placed Moses so he would sail among them, among the angels, and be known among them, since he was destined to ascend among them at another time to receive the Torah.

315. “And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, and her maidens walked along by the Nile.” The daughter of Pharaoh, who comes from the left side, the harsh judgment. It is written, “bathe in the Nile,” and not in the sea, since the sea implies Malchut, but the Nile is the harsh judgment from the left side which the Egyptians had made into their god. It is written, “the staff with which you struck the Nile.” But Moses struck the sea! Did the verse call it “the Nile” and it is not quite the Nile? It is the Nile that Aaron struck through Moses, and the text places it as though Moses struck it.

316. It is written, “Seven full days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile,” although Aaron struck it, but because it came from the Creator, who commanded him, read to him the words “the Lord had struck,” and then He named it after Moses, for the same reason. “And her maidens walked” are the rest of the camps that come from that left side.

317. “And she opened it and saw him, the child.” Should it not have said, “and saw”? There is not a word or a letter in the Torah that does not have high and honorable secrets in it, an impression of the king and the queen, ZA and Malchut, Vav-Hey of HaVaYaH is in it, and they are the impression of the added Vav-Hey of “and saw.” This is why it is written, “and she saw him.” Promptly, “she had compassion for him.”

Thus far above, in the upper worlds. Henceforth, The Zohar speaks below, in this world, except in this verse, where it is written, “and his sister stood at a distance,” the sister of ZA. He called the assembly of Israel “my sister,” as it is written, “Open for me, my sister.” “At a distance,” as it is written, “From a distance, the Lord appeared to me.” The meaning of the words “And his sister” of ZA, Malchut, over Moses, “at a distance,” that at that time, she was seen by Moses as distant.

318. What is implied from this whole article is that before these righteous come down to the world, they are known to everyone above. This is so for all the righteous, and much more so for Moses. It means that the souls of the righteous are extended from a high place, since “from the house of Levi” implies the upper HB. It means that the soul has a father and a mother, as there is a father and a mother to a body in the earth, since a man is ZA, and the daughter of Levi is Malchut, and from their coupling, the soul of Moses was born.

319. It means that on all the sides, both above, which are ZON, and below, which are the father and mother of this world, everything comes and exists from a male and a female. This is as the verse explains, “Let the earth bring forth a living soul.” The earth is the assembly of Israel, Malchut. The living soul is the soul of Adam HaRishon, the upper one, since Malchut is the mother of the soul of Adam HaRishon.

320. Happy is Moses, the faithful prophet more than all the prophets in the world. Because of it, when he passed away from the world, no one dealt with him but the Creator, who elevated him to His presence. This is why Moses went up with a high prophecy and honorable degrees, more than all the prophets in the world, while the rest of the prophets saw behind many walls.