Kabbalah Library

369. “The Lord puts to death and brings life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.” We should examine this verse. Does the Creator [HaVaYaH] put to death? After all, this name, HaVaYaH, is the potion of life for all, and this matter, death, does not exist in Him. This name gives life to the whole world everywhere, so what is “The Lord puts to death,” that people think that He kills people? Indeed, HaVaYaH puts to death. How does He put to death? No, because when He departs from a person, he dies. As long as He is on the person, all the slanderers in the world cannot harm him, but when He departs from him, all the slanderers of the world can promptly prevail over him and the person dies. This is not so.

370. Rather, “The Lord puts to death.” Whom does He put to death? That extension of the evil Sitra Achra, the body. Since the extension of the Sitra Achra sees the glory of the Creator, the person promptly dies and has no existence, not even for a minute. When that extension of the Sitra Achra dies and passes from the world, He promptly brings to life. Whom does He bring to life? That extension of the holy spirit that comes from the side of holiness, the soul. He revives her and establishes her in complete existence.

The Creator does everything at one time: putting the body to death and reviving the soul. This is why it is written, “The Lord puts to death and brings to life.’” When it is written, “He brings down to Sheol and raises up,” He brings down that holy spirit, the soul, to Sheol, and dips her there in the fire of Sheol to purify her, and promptly raises her up, and she enters the place where she should in the Garden of Eden.

371. And I, friends, at the time when I departed from the world, my spirit departed and passed away immediately, until the time when the Creator revived me and the body was dead. When my son opened with these words, his soul went out and met my soul, which was rising from the purification, from the dip, and entered where it entered. It was judged there and I was given twenty-two years of life thanks to the tears and the words of my son.

Henceforth, I must labor in what I saw, for I must no longer labor in matters of this world, since I saw what I saw, and the Creator wants nothing to be lost or forgotten from me.