KabbalaOnline.org Mishpatim 5783 The Holy Zohar Insights on the Torah Reading
KabbalaOnline.org Mishpatim 5783 The Holy Zohar Insights on the Torah Reading
Please Note: The bold text is the
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The regular text is the explanation of the editor/translator
Six-Sided Celestial Servant
The Zohar
RebbeShimon opened
his discourse with the verse: "And these are the laws which you shall
set before them. If you buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in
the seventh he shall go out free, for no payment." (Ex.
21:1-2) The Aramaic translation of the phrase "And
these are the laws" is "these are the judgements that
you shall set in order before them"; this implies the explanation of the
reincarnation of souls and the judgements and punishments relating to them.
Each and every one is given his punishment through reincarnation.
This
is in order to become refined and purified of sins or omissions that require
rectification in a physical body.
Friends, this is the time to reveal some of the secrets
associated with reincarnation as hinted at by these verses. "If you buy a
Hebrew slave, six years he shall serve" refers to the soul which is
required to come down to the physical world to work, or rectify its blemishes.
Now
if the soul is from the side of spiritual force known as "the Hebrew
Slave" - the angel Metatron - [as it serves the sefira of malchut of Atzilut]
which includes six sides, then "...six years he shall serve" -
it is given six lifetimes to rectify itself.
These
are the maximum allowed for it to complete all six levels from the place from
which it was hewn. This soul has its source in one of the six sefirot in
the world of Beriya
- chesed,
gevura,
tiferet,
netzach,
hod and
yesod.
All the mitzvot
have their source in these sefirot. The positive commandments are
sourced in chesed. The
negative commandments (such as not to steal) are sourced in gevura. Tiferet is the
learning of all the Torah,
while netzach, hod and yesod relate to
learning Torah, Prophets and Writings. The verse is relating
from the level of the body: "If you" - the body - "acquire
a Hebrew servant" - a Jewish soul - "it shall serve you six
years" - up to six reincarnations to rectify its blemishes, and needs
to work and suffer problems and sickness, poverty and confusion until
rectified.
However,
this is not so if the soul is from the side of the Shechinah, which is the seventh level [ malchut].
This
soul is drawn down through the holy union of its parent's on the seventh day -
Shabbat - which is the day associated with the sefira of malchut of Atzilut.
Certainly
this soul will "go out free" of servitude because it is a righteous
soul, free of any servitude [to the kelipot].
The
Torah it learns, and the mitzvot it performs, rectifies such a soul. The Zohar here repeats a
theme as yet untested by modern science, namely that the intentions and
meditative state of the parents and the time of their union has a lifetime
effect on their progeny. A soul conceived during the weekdays has its source in
a lower level than that conceived on Shabbat.
Zohar, Mishpatim, page 94a; translation and
commentary by Simcha-Shmuel Treister
Copyright
2003 by KabbalaOnline.org. All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this work or portions thereof, in any form, unless with permission,
in writing, from Kabbala
Online.
Rabbi Shimon bar
Yochai, also know by the acronym "Rashbi," lived in the Holy Land in
the 2nd century C.E. A disciple of Rabbi Akiva, Rashbi played a key role in the
transmission of Torah, both as an important Talmudic sage and as author of the
Zohar, the most fundamental work of Kabbalah. He was buried in Meron, Israel,
west of Safed.
Shmuel-Simcha Treister
is a lawyer from New Zealand who made aliya to Safed with his family in 1993 to
study Zohar. He continues doing so to this day. He also works in the Ascent
multi-media center.
The Zohar is a basic work of
Kabbalah authored by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his students (2nd century CE).
English translation of annotated selections by Rabbi Moshe Miller (Morristown,
N.J.: Fiftieth Gate Publications, 2000) includes a detailed introduction
covering the history and basic concepts of Kabbalah. Volume 1 (36 pp.) covers
the first half of the first of the original’s three volumes.
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