Kabbalah Library
Zohar for All, Volume 7
Whatever Your Hand Finds To Do with Your Strength, That Do
28) “Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of the life of your vanity.” Man should incorporate life from the tree of life, ZA, in this place, in Malchut, called “a woman.” One does not go without the other, meaning ZA without Malchut. Also, one should incorporate the quality of day in the night, the quality of ZA, which is called “day,” in Malchut, called “night.” And vice versa: the quality of night in the day. This is the meaning of “Enjoy life with the woman whom you love,” since this is your share in life, because there is life—illumination of Hochma—only on Malchut, since illumination of Hochma appears nowhere else. “And in your toil in which you have labored under the sun,” as it is written, “In all your ways know Him, and He will straighten your paths,” since “Know Him” comprise the letters of “Know” and Vav–Hey, which are ZA and Malchut.
29) All of King Solomon’s words are concealed within, in Hochma. But the writings seem as though the ban has been lifted, since afterwards it writes, “Whatever your hand finds to do with your strength, that do, for there is no deed or contemplation.” But did Solomon, who had more sublime wisdom than all the people in the world say this?
30) Indeed, all of Solomon’s words were said in wisdom. “Whatever your hand finds to do with your strength, that do” means that a person should contain the left in the right, and everything he does should be included only in the right. “Whatever your hand finds” is the left, which is called “hand.” “To do with your strength” is right, as it is written, “Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power.” And when a man is watchful to make all his actions toward the right side and to include the left in the right, the Creator is inside him in this world and will gather him to Him in the next, other world.
31) One should not say, “When I come into that world, I will beg for mercy of the King, and will repent before Him.” Rather, it is written about that, “There is no deed or contemplation or knowledge or wisdom” once a person departs this world. If one wishes for the Holy King to shine for him in that world and give him a share in the next world, he should engage in including his deeds in the right in this world, and that all his actions will be for the Creator. Afterwards, when he departs this world, to be sentenced by harsh judgment, the judgment of hell, there is no counsel, device, or tactic to be delivered from the judgment.
32) “For there is no deed or contemplation or knowledge or wisdom in the netherworld,” since hell consists of sections upon sections. The lower section is the netherworld [Sheol]. A lower section than that is doom [Avadon]. They are adjacent. One who descends into the netherworld is judged, and he floats up from there, as it is written, “He brings down to Sheol, and raises up.” But one who descends to doom never rises from there.
33) One who has a good deed in him, or who is among the contemplating ones, before he lays down at night, while he is not yet asleep, should contemplate his actions during the day, repent them and ask for mercy for them. At that time, one should contemplate because at that time the tree of death is in the world and all the people taste the taste of death. Hence, at that time one should contemplate his actions and confess to them, since this is the time of death, and they are the ones called “litigants.”
34) Also, when one who exerts in the knowledge and the wisdom to know his Maker passes away, he is taken to see and to observe those wicked ones that are sentenced in hell and in the degree of the netherworld. They all yell from those degrees, but he does not remain there and will not be among them. It is written, “For there is no deed or contemplation or knowledge or wisdom in the netherworld.” “There is no deed” refers to those who have good deeds in them. “Contemplation” refers to those who contemplate, and “Knowledge” refers to those who exert to know. All those are not in the netherworld. They will only be high above, in a place where several lights and candles, and several delights are found, where the Creator comes to play with the rest of the righteous in the Garden of Eden. Happy are the righteous in this world and in the next world. It is written about them, “Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto Thy name; the upright shall dwell in Thy presence.”
