Kabbalah Library

302) All those texts come to teach wisdom. There are sublime things, some of which depend on deeds, such as Tefillin and Tzitzit, and some on words, such as reading the Shema and prayer, and some—on the intention in the heart, such as love and fear. One who wishes to draw blessings, it is by prayer in speech and in intention, and some that are not extended by prayer but depend on actions.

303) The complete Jacob did all that he did with wisdom. It is written, “And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters.” He did everything with wisdom, to draw blessings from the source of everything to all the upper degrees that are his lot and share.

304) Rods are degrees of the judgment that are incorporated with the coarseness of Malchut. “Which he had peeled” means that he lifted the judgment from them by drawing the level of Hassadim over them. “Against the flocks in the gutters” is as it is written, “The king is held captive in the tresses.” This is so because the blessings come to all the worlds from the upper king, Bina. The tresses are the vessels of the left line in Bina, which shine only from below upwards due to the unification of the middle line. This is the meaning of “The king is held captive in the tresses,” since Bina, which is called “the high King” is captive in those tresses so he will not spread from there down. This was done because Jacob presented the rods, on which the middle line came out in the midst of the tresses and they can no longer shine from above downwards.

305) “The king is held captive in the tresses” is ZA, who is held captive and tied to the upper tresses, which are the vessels of the left line in Bina, from which everyone is watered from the high King. The King, ZA, is captive, meaning He does not shine from above downwards due to the tresses, which are the vessels of Bina in Him.

“In the gutters, in the watering-troughs” are the streams that are drawn and gather in the Nukva of ZA, to which the tresses of Bina are extended and where they become watering-troughs. “Where the flocks came to drink,” means that there the waters gather, in the Nukva, all of them, all the dwellers of BYA come to drink from it.

306) “And they were rutting.” When the north wind, the illumination of the left, Hochma without Hassadim, blows on the Nukva, water, the abundance freezes and does not leak outside to the three worlds BYA. When the south wind awakens, meaning the illumination of the right, Hassadim, the water heats up and their freezing is lifted, and they are extended to the worlds. At that time everyone drinks because the warmth of the south opens the freezing of the water and they all warm up and are happy to drink, since that chill of the north that they had before has been lifted from them. This is why it is written, “And they were rutting.” It writes, “And they were rutting” and not “And he was rutting,” since although flock is in male form [in Hebrew], because they come to drink from the degrees of the Nukva, they are all regarded as females, like her.