Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 8
The Head and Hand Tefillin
136. Rosh Hashanah is the left arm, Isaac, where life and death are sentenced, who will live and who will die. The tying of Isaac was there, when Abraham tied him. The knot of the hand Tefillin is similar to the tying of Isaac, tying the Gevurot with Hassadim. Happy is the son who is bound by his father and tied to him, to do his deed in Torah and commandments, and happy is the servant who is tied instead of his master, to do his will instead of the king’s son.
137. Matat, happy are you, and happy are your children, those who are extended from Matat, who have not yet merited being the children of ZON of Atzilut, who are tied and bound in the Tefillin under the authority of your master. For this reason, although you are a servant to your master, you are a king over all the appointees of the rest of the nations, a king over all the angels, a king that all the demons and all their camps fear, since you are the footstool of your master, you serve your master, Shaddai of the Mezuza from the outside, guardian of the door. HaVaYaH, who is your master, is inside, and Shaddai, from the phase of Matat, is on the outside.
138. Matat is Shaddai. When the Creator descended to Beria to rule over the tree of knowledge of good and evil, where good is Matat and bad is Sam, who is a demon, the king of demons.
Matat is an angel, the king of the angels. However, from the side of the tree of life, the name Shaddai is Yesod of Atzilut. For this reason, below in Beria, they are two: a servant and his master. The servant is Shaddai from without, and his master is HaVaYaH from within, as they are not one unification. Above, in Atzilut, Tifferet and Yesod are one, since we regard the body and the covenant as one, that they are the middle pillar and the righteous, Tifferet and Yesod.
139. As the head Tefillin are Mochin of Bina over Tifferet, the tree of life in Atzilut, and Malchut is the hand Tefillin so it is below, in the tree of life of Beria, from the side of the upper throne, who is Bina of Beria: He is the head Tefillin of Matat, and his hand Tefillin are the bottom throne, Malchut of Beria, as it is written, “a glorious high throne from the beginning.”
140. However, from the side of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in the knot of the Tefillin, the evil inclination is tied under the good inclination like a slave under his master, with the voice of Torah, with the voice of a prayer, and with the voice of the Shofar [festive ram’s horn]. The voice of a commandment is a lance for it, stabbing and putting the evil inclination to death. This is the voice of the Shofar, the voice of the middle pillar, ZA, which consists of fire, water, and wind, the three patriarchs, HGT, Hey-Yod-Vav.
The letter Hey is in Abraham, Yod is in Isaac. Hey in the name Abraham implies judgment; Yod in the name Isaac implies Hesed in judgment. Wherever the Hey governs the Yod, when it is written before the Yod, it is judgment. This is the Hey-Yod from Elokim [God], the Mochin in the name Elokim. These Hey-Yod are fire and water in the Shofar. This is why it is written, “God has gone up with a blast” [Hebrew: Trua’a, one of the sounds when blowing the Shofar].
Vav is from the words, “And the God of Jacob.” This is the wind of the Shofar, Tifferet. The Shechina, the Hey of the Shofar, is the vessel that receives the fire, water, and wind of the Shofar.
