Kabbalah Library

* Removal of a shoe under levirate law

28. “And his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name.” This matter seems like audacity, but it is not insolence. Rather it is to show the good that should be done with the dead. And the dead man’s brother does not want, and therefore degrades him in front of everyone.

29. What degradation does he do to him? It is written, “And she spat in his face,” to shame him in front of everyone that he will not build a home for his brother. It is written, “And she spat in his face, and answered and said, ‘Such will be done to the man,’” and it is written, “And her father surely spat in her face; should she not be ashamed?”

30. She was angry and spat, meaning she spat out of anger, spit that is evident to all that it is spit and not water, and not that it will be covered by dust.

31. A woman who came before Rabbi Shimon and threw spit, he saw in her that she ate at that time, and the spit was not visible, and the removal of the shoe was not done. Afterwards, they reconciled and copulated with each other.

32. How did Rabbi Shimon do this? After all, we learned that if they reconcile before the matter comes before the judge, very well. But once she has taken off her shoe before the judge, they cannot reconcile.

33. The woman who came before Rabbi Shimon is different, for they have not yet done anything with each other. Rather, she cast her spit in order to check it, and it was not kosher [suitable/meeting the requirements]. Afterwards, they copulated with each other.

34. It is written, “and she took off his shoe,” which is as it is written, “He has withdrawn Himself from them.” It is also written, “Do not come near here; take your shoes off your feet.” Does a shoe purify the place or defile the place? Rather, this teaches that the Creator commanded him to part from his wife in an honorable manner. With Moses, it is written, “your shoes,” and with Joshua, it is written, “your shoe,” only one shoe, so he would not part from his wife completely, but often.

35. “Take your shoes off your feet, since the place on which you stand is holy ground.” This means that you have a place that is of higher merit than the rest of the people, a degree of holiness. This is why he was commanded to part from his wife by way of the tongue of a shoe. Here, too, in the removal of the shoe, that shoe, too, when it is written, “And she took off his shoe,” is the parting from a woman, meaning the parting of the dead man’s brother from the dead man’s wife is done by taking off the shoe, which implies the parting from the woman.

36. One must trust one’s maker, take a wife and bear children, so he will not go into the next world alone, as it is written, “the celibate will die,” for anyone who does not have sons in this world, it is as though he was never created and never existed, and he is called celibate from this world and from the next world.

37. Since the person marries a wife and bears sons, he is called a “servant of the Creator,” and inherits this world and the next world, as it is written, “to place a blessing to your household.”

38. This matter is like a king who gave a deposit to three people. One guarded the deposit, another lost the deposit, and the third soiled the deposit and gave of it to another to guard it.

In time, the king went to receive his deposit. The king praised the one who guarded the deposit and made him his house trustee. The other one, who lost the deposit, he removed him from the world and commanded that he will have no name or remainder. The third one, who soiled the deposit and gave of it to another, the king said, “Let this one be until we see what the other one does with what he placed in his hand.” In the meantime, he will not leave the king’s house.

39. “If the other merits, this one will go free. If he does not merit,” said the king, “punish him for soiling the deposit, and the deposit will remain his.” Thus, they are waiting above to see what the other one will do, and in the meantime, he does not exit the king’s house. Hence, even if the other one does not merit, he will not be taken out from there.

40. If he soils the deposit and does not leave it in the hands of another to guard it, he is taken out from the king’s house until another one comes and corrects what this one soiled, and the deposit is taken from that one and given to the one who corrected it.

The deposit is the soul. The king is the Creator. The king gave a deposit to three people. The first, who guarded the deposit, the soul, is a complete righteous. The second, who lost the deposit altogether, is a complete wicked. The third one soiled the deposit through his sins and gave of it to another to guard it, meaning left a son to correct it.

The complete righteous, the king made him his house trustee. The second one, the complete wicked, the king removed him from the world. The third one, who soiled the deposit through his sins and left of it to another, leaving a son to correct it, the king said, “Let this one be until we see the other, how he does,” meaning we will see what will be the deeds of the son. “In the meantime, he will not leave the king’s house,” meaning he was not banished to Hell.

If the son does not merit, the king says, “Punish him, and the deposit will remain his,” meaning the soul. Even if the son does not merit, he is not deported to Hell.

If he soils the deposit and does not leave it in the hands of another to guard it, meaning he did not leave a son, he is taken out from the king’s house until another comes, until he incarnates in another body and corrects what this one soiled, while the deposit is taken away and given to the one who corrected it, meaning that the soul belongs to the other body, which corrected it.

41. It is written, “And breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and the man became a living soul.” Since it is written, “the soul of life,” what is the need to write “and the man became a living soul”? It is that the Creator gave man the soul on condition that it is to become a living soul, that he would bear children.

42. God elicited kinds according to its kind, which is the soul, which comes from Malchut, who is called by the name Elokim [God]. The soul is divided into male and female, and proliferates in the body while she is in the body. Once she exits the body, she proliferates extensively and obtains what she cannot obtain while in the body.

43. As soon as she is separated from the body, she wants to adhere to God. And because she did not elicit a body, did not bear a son, who is His kind, as God elicited the soul, who is His kind, she is not accepted by God. She returns and aspires until she enters so as to incarnate in another body in order to leave progeny, and adhere once more to that pure, refined, and clean body that bore sons. One who did not leave sons, she is not connected to him, as it is written, “inhales wind in her desire,” for the spirit of the dead is without sons, aspires for a son who is born from the dead man’s wife.

44. One who does not leave behind him stems for a root, meaning he does not leave sons, his soul passes from that imagination that incorporates all the imaginations until she reincarnates. She is poured from vessel to vessel, as it is written, “and was not emptied from vessel to vessel.” Its correction is as it is written, “his nearest of kin,” meaning the dead man’s brother, “may come and redeem what his brother had sold.”

45. The soul reincarnates until she finds a vessel that is suitable to be corrected in through levirate marriage. If that redeemer is gone, the honorable vessel is broken. It is written about that, “and repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them,” and it is written, “showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

46. It is written, “He made the man in the image of God.” As that name, God, elicited kinds according to its kind, which is Malchut, who elicits offspring, souls, man should elicit kinds according to his kind, to bear sons.