Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

“ Rabbi Yesa asks, How could they have shown the evil Pharaoh all these grades? Rabbi Yehuda answers, He only saw their likeness. For there are grades upon grades, all stand on top of each other, of which Pharaoh saw only their images.
We have already learned that a man is shown things in his dreams according to his character. As his soul ascends, he will perceive that which he deserves according to his grade. Pharaoh, therefore, saw what he was worthy of seeing and no more. ”

“ Why do you wish to create man when You know that he shall definitely sin before you, with his wife, who represents darkness, because the light is the male and darkness is the Female principle, the Left, darkness of Creation. ”

“ From here lies the secret of Gehenom, which has seven names, and the Evil Inclination, which also has seven names. From here, impurity expands and spreads out in many grades into the world. And everything comes from the principle of the left, which contains good and evil and thereby, makes the world habitable. From here is the secret of the Holy Name that is engraved by eighteen letters and is responsible for the bountiful rains that feed the earth, for human charity, for all our blessings, and for the general inhabitation of this world. ”

“ Rabbi Eliezer said, A good heart is the foundation of the body and soul. For that reason, it is written, "And you shall love Hashem your Elohim with all your heart" (Devarim 6:5) , for the heart is the essence of all!
When Rav Kahana arrived, he said that this was said in the name of those versed in the Mishnah. The body is built upon the liver and the heart. As Rabbi Yehuda said, the heart and the liver are the leaders of the various organs of the body. The leader of the head is the brain, but there are two leaders in the body. ”

“ At times, they are suspended in the air because they rise up and out of there, from within the engraving of formlessness. At other times, such as cloudy days, they hide and raise water from the abyss to replenish formlessness. This is when there is joy and folly, because formlessness has expanded all over the world.
Darkness is a black fire that is strong in color, because no other color can change black. It is also a red fire that is strong in its appearance, as red is the most noticeable color. It is a green fire, which is solid in form, as all forms reach perfection by the green color. ”

“ They will endure and rise from beneath the ground to receive their souls in the land of Yisrael. At that time, the Holy One, blessed be He, will pour upon them all the kinds of fragrances that are in the Garden of Eden, as it is written, "The mandrakes give a fragrance."
Rabbi Yitzchak said, Do not pronounce it dudaim ('mandrakes') , but rather dodim ('lovers') . They are the body and the soul, who are lovers and friends to each other. Rav Nachman said, They are real mandrakes. As the mandrakes bring love into the world, so they create love in the world. ”

“ Come and behold, When a man is strengthened in the Tree of Life in this world, he is strengthened in it for the World to Come. And when the souls leave this world, grades are prepared for them in the World to Come.
Come and behold, The Tree of Life is divided into several grades, but they are all unified into one. For in the Tree of Life there are grades upon grades - branches, leaves, husks, the trunk, and the roots. All of them are the tree. In the same manner, whoever strives to study the Torah is strengthened and improved by the Tree of Life. ”

“ The King is the supernal King (Zeir Anpin) who is joined to the field when it is tilled. What is the field? This is a field which Hashem has blessed (Nukvah) , "Like the smell of a field which Hashem has blessed" (Gen. 27:27) . For when it is tilled and cultivated properly, the supernal King unites with it.
Rabbi Elazar asks, How many mysteries are alluded to in the verse, "He who tills a field is a king"! A king is the Shechinah, which only dwells in a man's house when he is married and mates with his wife to beget children and bear fruit. ”

“ So it is mankind that sins. But if you ask what is the sin of the earth, you should know that mankind constitutes the essence of the earth. If mankind corrupts it, it becomes corrupted. This is proven by the verse: "And Elohim looked on the earth, and, beheld it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth."
Come and behold: all of man's sins and corruption can be atoned for by repentance. But by the sin of spilling his seed on the earth, man corrupts himself and the earth as well. ”

“ Rabbi Yitzchak, the son of Rabbi Yosi, traveled from Cappadocia to Lod, where he met Rabbi Yehuda. Rabbi Yitzchak asks him, Why are the companions, the sages of the Mishnah, not aroused in this matter of removing the Evil Inclination from the world, except at the time of mating? He replied, Upon your life! The world needs the Evil Inclination as much as it needs rain, because without the Evil Inclination there would not be the joy of study in the world. ”

“ The Evil Inclination causes man to become haughty and proud, encouraging man to curl his hair until the Evil Inclination towers over him and drags him to Gehenom.
"Better is one lightly esteemed" means one who does not follow the Evil Inclination, and does not act haughtily but humbles his spirit, heart, and will before the Holy One, blessed be He. Then the Evil Inclination becomes his servant, as it cannot control him. ”

“ All people do not observe and are not aware of what keeps the world in existence. Nor are they aware of what keeps them in existence! When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, He made the heaven from fire and water. At first, these elements mingled together without freezing. Only later, by means of the Supernal Spirit, did they freeze and solidify. ”

“ And there is no difference between this world and the days of Messiah's coming, save the delivery from servitude to the empires alone, and there is no difference between this world and the resurrection of the dead, save cleanliness and the attainment of knowledge. ”

“ Rabbi Shimon replied: If the Holy One, blessed be He, had not created the Evil and Good Inclinations, which are light and darkness, there would not have been any precepts or transgressions for the man of Briyah. So man was created with both, as it is written: "See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil" (Devarim 30:15) . They asked him: why all this? Better He had not created darkness. Then man would have no reward or punishment as opposed to being created and having to sin, thereby causing much (damage and destruction) . ”

“ Every spirit is called man, which means that only the aspect of the light of the spirit that is enclothed within the body is called man. So the body of the spirit of the holy side is only a garment; in other words, the spirit is the actual essence of man and the body is only its covering. ”

“ There is no part within man that does not have a counterpart creature in the world. Just as the body of man is composed of levels of parts that act together to form a unified body, so is the world. All the creatures in the world are hierarchical parts that act on and react with each other, so they will actually be as one body. Everything resembles the Torah, because the Torah is made of different parts and sections that support each other. When they are all correct, they will become as one body. When David looked at this work, he said, "Hashem, how manifold are your works! ”

“ Rabbi Yitzchak said, I wonder about the evil man Bilaam. All he did was from the side of defilement. Here we learn a secret, which is that all kinds of sorcery and witchcraft of the world are connected and derive from the primordial serpent, which is the impure spirit of defilement. Therefore all enchantment (Heb. נְחָשִׁים) is named after the primordial serpent (Heb. nachash) . They all derive from that side, and anyone who is drawn to that is defiled.
Moreover, one should be impure to cast a spell. One has to draw upon oneself that side of the unholy spirit. ”

“ Our sages have taught that when the soul of a human being rises from earth to heaven, it stands in the Divine Illumination. The Holy One, blessed be He, visits it. Come and listen, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said, When the soul of a righteous person stands in the place where the Shechinah of His blessed Glory rests and is worthy of sitting by Her, the Holy One, blessed be He, calls upon the patriarchs. ”

“ The sun is one and the moon is the other. Because of this, the lights that ascend are called the luminaries of the light whereas those that descend are called luminaries of the fire. These luminaries of the fire are the lower grades and rule over all the weekdays. Because of this, a blessing is recited over the candle when Shabbat ends because, at that point, the luminaries of the fire are given permission to rule again. The fingers of man represent the most hidden of all grades and secrets of the supernal world, and are divided into front and back. ”

“ How obtuse, he said, are the people who do not know or pay heed to the words of the Torah, but look only upon worldly matters. The spirit of wisdom is forgotten from them.
When a person departs this world, that person gives an account to his Master of all his worldy actions. He does this while his body and spirit are still joined together and he can see all that he sees until he reaches the World of Truth, where he meets Adam, the first man, sitting at the gate of the Garden of Eden, waiting to see and rejoice with all who have observed the commandments of their Master. ”

“ There are times when the moon is defective and under Judgment, and the sun is hidden from her. She releases souls to give to men, which she first gathered, she releases, when she is under Judgment. Whoever receives such a soul will always be in want and poverty, ever broken under Judgment and throughout all his life be he just or wicked. Only prayer annuls all judgmental sentences. One can avert them through prayer.
When that grade is complete, out (from Eden) , unites with her, the soul that she releases cleaves to man. He is complete in all in riches, children and a healthy body. ”

“ Noah asked, "which end"? (Hashem answers:) It is the end that brought darkness upon the faces of the creatures, being the End of all Flesh. From the words "is come before Me" we learn that wicked people hasten to attract the Angel of Death upon themselves in order to bring darkness upon themselves. Therefore, because they give him permission, he grabs the soul. But he never takes the soul without permission. ”

“ We are the high ties of the greatest of fortresses. (Ties corresponds to Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah) . Therefore, the eyes and the ears are open (Chochmah and Binah) . A voice from the voices descends from above and smashes mountains and rocks. Those who see, yet do not see, and who have become hard of hearing and have difficulty seeing; who do not see, do not hear, and do not know how to understand the one located and included between the two, they are pushed out. ”

“ Nevertheless, to support the world and prevent its destruction, the Holy One, blessed be He, spreads Mercy over it. This Mercy tempers Judgment, so that it does not put an end to the world. Thus, the world acts according to Mercy, and endures due to it. ”