📕 TUESDAY PRAYER: HOD-MAIN READING OF THE WEEK – THE ZOHAR BOOK
READING: SUNSET MONDAY
Main Reading for PRAYER OF MANY, today with ENGLISH ZOHAR READING, page 239
ARVUT OF : Robin Anderson
This occurs because the great Zivug absorbs all the other particular Zivugim
(“swallows all the other fish in the Great Sea”) and all the souls in all the worlds,
for they are all much weaker than it. Hence, it is as though they do not exist in
its greatness and might. And since it includes absolutely everything, they are all
called by the name Nunin, from the letter Nun (50).
This indicates that after all the major corrections that follow this great Zivug,
all those Lights and souls, absorbed during its Zivug, return and are born anew
for eternal life, for they are completely filled with Light as a result of the great
Zivug, when the Light absorbed them completely.
All the Zivugim below Partzuf Atik stem from unifications of the Sefirot with
one another. These unifications are defined as interruptions in a Zivug, whereas
the Zivug in Atik is direct and without unification. Thus, it is defined as “instant,”
for it goes on uninterrupted. It is therefore written that “he crosses the entire
sea in an instant,” without any garments-unifications. And it mounts an attack,
for there is great power of reception of Ohr Hochma in this Zivug; hence, he said:
“Begets, like an arrow in the hands of a warrior.”
It is written of this Zivug in Partzuf Atik: “No one else but you saw the
Creator.” However, no birth is possible without the forces of resistance, since,
as is written: “The seed that is not shot like an arrow does not beget.” (Talmud,
Hagigah, 16). Hence, after he had begotten me and hid me in the Great Tower,
he returned to his concealed Zivug.
- Rabbi Elazar contemplated his words and replied: “You are the son of the
Holy Source, you are the son of Rabbi Hamnuna-Saba, you are the son of the
Source of the Torah, and you drive donkeys behind us!” They wept and kissed
him, and continued their journey. Then he said: “If it pleases our master, let
him reveal his name to us.”
It is written “looked,” because sight signifies Hochma, and no other words,
such as “said,” “heard” (Bina) or “thought” could be used in its stead. Since they
have not yet attained to the full extent of perfection what the donkey driver
had told them, and their attainment reached only as high as Ohr Haya, they
were delighted with what was begotten by Rabbi Hamnuna-Saba, for Rabbi
Hamnuna-Saba is Ohr Yechida.
He asked him to reveal his name, that is, to receive his degree, for the
attainment of a name denotes the attainment of the spiritual degree. Therefore,
the saying, “the entire Torah consists only of the Creator’s names,” means that the
240 THE ZOHAR
entire Torah constitutes the degrees that one must attain, up to the very highest,
called “Love” (“Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” items 70-71).