📕 TUESDAY PRAYER: YESOD-MAIN READING OF THE WEEK – THE ZOHAR BOOK
READING: SUNSET MONDAY
Main Reading for PRAYER OF MANY, today with ENGLISH ZOHAR READING, page 223
ARVUT OF : Robin Anderson
THE DONKEY DRIVER
- Rabbi Elazar, the son of Rabbi Shimon, was on his way to visit his fatherin-
law, Rabbi Yosi, the son of Lakunya, and Rabbi Aba accompanied him. A
man followed behind them, driving their donkeys. Rabbi Aba said, “Let us
open the gates of the Torah, as it is time to correct our path.”
In Aramaic, the language in which The Zohar was written, “driver” means
“one who pricks.” This is because the donkey driver’s function amounts to
forcing the donkeys to move by pricking them with the edge of his stick. - Rabbi Elazar opened and said, “It is written: My Sabbaths you are to
observe.” Let us see: the Creator created the world in six days. And each day
would reveal His deeds, and gave strength to that day. When did He reveal
His deeds and give them strength? On the fourth day of creation, for the first
three days were concealed completely, and would not be revealed. The fourth
day arrived, and He revealed the deeds and forces of all the days.
The phrase “He gave that day strength” means that He gave everything to
the day of Shabbat. For the six days are Sefirot HGT NHY that reveal on Shabbat
(Malchut) the work and the forces that were carried out during these days.
Yet, if the deeds of all the days are concealed, and only reveal at their end,
on Shabbat, then why is it written that they are revealed on the fourth day of
creation? The thing is that Malchut is called both the fourth and the seventh days:
she is fourth with regard to the first three Sefirot HGT, called the “Patriarchs”
(Hesed is Avraham, Gevura is Yitzchak, and Tifferet is Yaakov), and seventh with
regard to the six Sefirot, after three additional Sefirot, called the “Sons”: Netzah is
Moshe, Hod is Aaron, and Yesod is Yosef.
Malchut herself is King David—the day of Shabbat. Malchut grows and gradually
accumulates her corrections in two principal stages, called Ibur (conception).
The first three days correspond to Ibur Aleph (the first conception), and the
second three days correspond to Ibur Bet (the second conception, Gadlut, the
reception of Ohr Hochma).