Kabbalah Library

215. A person who makes a sound in the field or in another place, and another sound returns after him, and he does not know from where it came, several sounds awakened about that matter, and there were several precisions.

216. Three sounds are never lost, besides the sounds of Torah and prayer, which rise up and breach the firmaments. However, there are other sounds that do not rise up and are not lost.

217. They are three sounds, each walking and roaming the air from the end of the world to the end of the world: 1) the sound of an animal when it is on the stones, 2) the sound of a person when the soul leaves his body, 3) the sound of a snake peeling off its skin.

218. Where do these sounds enter and stay. Those that are of sorrow, walk and roam the air. They walk from the end of the world to the end of the world, and enter the crevices and dens in the dust, and hide there. When a person makes a sound, they awaken toward that sound. Only the sound of the snake does not awaken toward the voice of a person. How does it awaken? By beating.

When a person strikes something, the sound of the snake that hides there in an empty place or in the field awakens toward the sound of the beating, and not to another sound of a man.

A sound awakens after a sound. However, a kind follows its kind. The first two sounds, which are of a person, awaken after the sound of a person, and the third sound, which is of a snake, awakens after the sound of beating.

219. Hence, on the day of Rosh Hashanah [beginning of the year], the sound of the Shofar [festive horn] awakens the sound of another Shofar, the sound of Bina. A kind follows its king. They way of the serpent is to harm, kill, and strike. Hence, the actual voice of a person does not awaken the sound of the snake, but rather after its own kind. This is when a person strikes the ground with a stick, as that sound calls its own kind. Then, the sound of the snake awakens to answer its own kind. This secret is hidden.

220. Rabbi Shimon said, “Indeed, this is a hidden matter. I wonder how Solomon did not know this thing, for he said, ‘Three are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock.” However, King Solomon did know, and not so much. But what he did not know is that he did not know that voice, what good is there about it, and how it settles.

221. That precision, King Solomon did not know, that that sound consists of Ruach, Nefesh and the Hevel [breath fume] of the bones from the shaping of the flesh of the body. The sound roams the air, and each of those three parted from each other. When the sound reaches that place where it enters, it sits as though dead.

All those sorcerers and magicians know these places in their spells. They bend themselves to the ground and hear that sound in which Ruach, Nefesh, and the Hevel of the bones connect. It is a sorcery from the earth, which is why Solomon chased to know what was done with that sound, and he did not know.

222. When a person awakens a sound, the sound of the animal or the sound of the exit of the soul immediately awakens, and he has no permission to prolong any further, but only equal to the sound that the person stirred up, and not more.

If a person prolongs his sound, he does not prolong it so with him, but awakens to the end of the sound of the person, since he cannot prolong. When it came out at first, it grew in length from the end of the world to the end of the world. But now that it entered there, the sound cannot prolong, since it has no place to expand there as in the beginning.

223. There are three kinds of lights that shine and are then canceled. We should understand them: If their way is to be canceled, why did they shine at all? This whole article concerns them, to clarify that they do not become lost although they are canceled.

These three lights are three voices that go from the end of the world to the end of the world, and whose degree is utterly complete, as we learn, that he sees from the end of the world to its end. Here, it is not said, “sees,” since they are the lights of the left, without right, and they shine only in GAR of VAK, Nefesh-Ruach, and they are also called “sound.” However, because they are complete in GAR of Hochma of the left, it is said about them, “from the end of the world to the end of the world.”

They are three sounds that are never lost. They do not rise and are not lost, since being an illumination of the left without right, they cannot rise up due to the judgment in them. Although afterwards, they are diminished, they are nevertheless not lost.

The first sound is the sound of an animal that cries out seventy sounds while she is on the stones. It implies the upper animal, Malchut, during the birth of souls, at which time her womb is narrow and she cannot deliver, since then the illumination of Hochma on the left is revealed in her without right.

That sound goes and roams the air from the end of the world to the end of the world, as there is illumination of GAR of Hochma in that sound, which is “from the end of the world to its end.” The world is Malchut, and when Hochma is received from the middle line, when the left and the right are incorporated in each other, the Hochma does not fill all of her from end to end, but only her VAK. However, when the left shines without right, the Hochma fills all of her, even her GAR, and this is “from the end of the world to its end.”

The second sound is the sound of a person when the soul exits his body. At that time, the illumination of the left without right is revealed in him in the phase of GAR of Hochma. Hence, at that time, it is called the “great day of judgment.” “Great” indicates GAR, and this is as was said, “One does not pass away from the world before he sees the Shechina [Divinity].” That sound goes and roams the air from the end of the world to the end of the world, which is illumination of GAR.

The third sound is the sound of a snake when it peels off its skin. When it peels off its skin, which is from Malchut, it first rises and clings to the left of Bina, without right. Then Malchut is raised to Bina and it becomes diminished once again, as with a mine that is placed for a snake.

It follows that when it clings to the left without the right of Bina, that sound goes and roams the air from the end of the world to the end of the world, as it is GAR of Hochma that fills the whole world.

However, all those three illuminations of the left are only for the time being, since afterwards, they are diminished once again. The animal on the stones cannot come down because of the illumination of the left; hence, the snake comes and bites its pudendum, and the illumination of the left goes away.

It is likewise with the sound of a person. During the exit of the soul, when the angel of death comes, the illumination of the left departs from him and he dies. So is also the sound of the snake. Malchut is promptly raised to Bina, and the illumination of he left goes away. Thus, all those three sounds that were initially from the end of the world to the end of the world depart once more.

Since they promptly vanish, why did they come out in the first place? It is necessary that something was made from them. What was made from them? After the illumination of the left departed from them, they come into the crevices of the rocks and the dens of dust, which is like the place of their burials, when they are diminished into zero, where they are in concealment, in diminution. When a person makes a sound, they awaken toward that sound.

The person making a sound implies the upper man, ZA, who unites the right and the left with his voice. At that time, there is correction to the three sounds, as well, with the control of the middle line. But not entirely, as they were initially. When a person makes a sound, they awaken toward that sound, awaken to adhere to the voice of a person by receiving a correction from him.

There are two phases in this: 1) The sound of a person, implying ZA, although it unites the two of them, nevertheless, only the right controls it, and not the left. 2) The sound of a beating of a stick on the ground, for the ground, Malchut, makes a sound. Through her sound, the right and the left are united in her. Since it implies Malchut, it follows that there is disclosure to the left in her, since Malchut is built from the left.

For this reason, the sound of a person is enough to correct the first two sounds, the sound of an animal and the sound of a man before his soul exits, but not for the correction of the snake, since all of it is only left. The correction of the sound of the snake, which is left, requires a sound that is heard from the earth, Malchut, whose construction is from the left.

The sound of the snake does not awaken toward the sound of a person since it is not its kind, since man implies ZA, which is all right and Hesed, and the snake is all left. When a person strikes the ground with a stick, the sound of the snake awakens to answer its kind. Since the sound that is heard from the earth is the kind of the snake, it receives correction from that sound.

How did King Solomon not know this? Since he said, “Three are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock,” which is the sound of a snake hiding in the crevices of the rock. But what he did not know was that he did not know that sound, what is the benefit in it and how it settles. He did not know what correction it receives and how it is there in the crevices of the rock, for if it receives correction, why does it not come out from there? And if it cannot come out from there, then does it not receive correction?

That sound consists of Ruach, Nefesh, and Hevel [breath fume] of the bones. Before it was diminished, it had three degrees in it, tied to one another, since its level was up to GAR of Ruach, and each of these three were separated from each other. After it was diminished, the lights of Nefesh-Ruach departed from it and it remained with the Hevel of the bones. These were separated from each other and it sits as though dead, for the Hevel of the bones that remains is as though dead, since in the dead, too, the Hevel of the bones remains and does not depart from his grave.

For this reason, when one awakens and receives a correction from the sound of the beating, these three degrees return and connect, but not in GAR of Ruach, as before, but only in VAK of Ruach.

All those sorcerers hear that sound in which Ruach-Nefesh and the Hevel of the bones connect, since they received a correction from the sound of the beating on the ground. At that time, the snake informs them of the needs of their spells. This is why Solomon sought to know what was done from that sound, and did not know. He did not know what was that correction that was done from the beating on the earth.

Since the three sounds receive their correction from the sound of a person and the sound of a person beating on the ground, there is no length in them beyond the sound of a person. The illumination of Hochma is called “long.” That is, since the sound of a person is not corrected with the unification of right and left, but rather VAK of Hochma of the left, the three sounds also do not receive their full correction, as they were initially, from the end of the world to the end of the world, but only VAK, like the sound of a person.

If the person prolongs his sound while drawing from the right, and draws it from above downward, he does not prolong it so much with him, but awakens to the end of the sound of a person, since being only from the left, and having no part in the right, they cannot prolong, meaning draw Hochma from above downward, since this is also not present in the sound of a person.

When it first comes out, it is extended from the end of the world to the end of the world, as the GAR of the left that fill the whole world was extended. Now that it has entered there, when they were diminished and came into dens of dust, it has no place to expand there, since the diminution of dens of dust lies upon them, as the sound of a person does not correct this diminution. Hence, they do not return to the phase of from the end of the world to its end; they remain in dens of dust and cannot expand.