GEVURAH: MAIN READING OF THE WEEK – THE ZOHAR BOOK

Main Reading for PRAYER OF MANY, today with ENGLISH ZOHAR READING, page 136.

ARVUT OF : Robin Anderson

The Zohar continues: And the Creator answered further (the letter Tav):
“The word MaveT (death) ends with you. And since these are your properties,
you are not suitable for Me to create the world with you.” Immediately following,
the letter Tav departed from Him.
The moment the Creator set about creating the world-ZON by selecting
their properties, all twenty-two letters of ZON appeared before Him, starting
from the last—Tav, and ending with the first, Aleph—the head of all letters. The
reason for the letters coming in reverse order is that they constitute the MAN
of ZON, the Kelim of ZON, which emerge from below upwards. The usual
alphabetical order corresponds to the Light (MAD), which descends from
Above downwards. But the order of MAN is opposite to that of MAD, for it
ascends from below upwards.
Letters are none other than desires, properties, and thoughts that, in man’s
opinion, are suitable for the attainment of the spiritual, the Creator, of His
Providence. Man skips from one thought to another: one moment he thinks that
it is possible to attain the Upper Worlds with one property, next he believes he
can enter the spiritual realms by mastering another property, then he begins to
stubbornly observe all the commandments and pray zealously, or disregards all
the actions and plunges into contemplation and reading. Sometimes he craves
only knowledge, and sometimes only faith, right down to fanaticism.
Just as there are two extremes in our world—knowledge and faith, in the
spiritual world, as man now consciously ascends the spiritual ladder to the
Creator, there is spiritual work in the attainment of knowledge and faith.
Hence, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s commentary on The Zohar is entitled The
Sulam (The Ladder).
Each of the twenty-two Hebrew letters represents a certain property. At times
it seems that the property of the letter Tav is suitable for the attainment of the
spiritual; at times he believes that some other letter is more appropriate. This
occurs because in the process of his spiritual ascent, man begins to increasingly
understand the true Goal of creation and the Creator, which is exactly what is
demanded of him.
Thus, he continues to sort through it all, until his search yields the truth:
only with the help of the letter Bet, which stands at the beginning of the word
Berachah (blessing)—contact with the Creator,—only with the help of this force
can one achieve the goal.