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81) Here we only have reliance because a text does not exceed the literal in regard to people’s actions in this world. Jonah, who went down to the ship, is the soul of the man. It comes down to this world to be in a man’s body. It is called Jonah [in Hebrew: Yonah—dove, but also deception] because once it partakes in a body, it is a dove in this world, which is deceived by the body that refuses it, as it is written, “You shall not wrong one another.” At that time a person walks in this world as a ship in the great sea that is about to break, as it is written, “The ship was about to break up.”
82) When a person in this world sins and thinks that he has fled from his Master because his Master is not watching in this world, the Creator casts a strong storm wind, which is the sentence of the judgment, which always stands before the Creator and seeks judgment over a person before Him. And a stormy wind reaches the ship and mentions the man’s iniquities to capture him.
83) When the man is caught by a storm in the house where he is sick, it is written, “And Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen asleep.” Even though a man is in the house where he is sick, the soul does not awaken to return to her Master to redeem his iniquities. It is written, “And the captain approached him.” The captain is the good inclination, which leads everything. And it is written, “And said to him, ‘How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your God.’” “It is no time to sleep because you are being sentenced for everything you did in this world, repent from your iniquities.
84) “Look in these words and repent before your Lord,” as it is written, “What is your occupation and where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” “What is your occupation,” in which you engaged in this world. Confess to it before your Master. Look where you came from, a foul drop, and do not be proud before Him. “What is your country?” See how you were born from the earth and shall return to the earth. “From what people are you?” See if you have ancestral merit to protect you.
85) When he is sentenced in the courthouse of above, a storm, which is the sentence of the stormy judgment over a person, asks the King to sentence these prisoners of the King, and all come before Him one at a time. At that time the courthouse approaches. Some of them begin with merit, and some of them begin with sins, and the sentence of the judgment seeks judgment.
86) If a person is not acquitted in the judgment, it is written, “And the men rowed to return to land but they could not.” Those who advocated him try to bring him back into this world but cannot because the sea is increasingly storming over them, the sentence gradually storms through a person’s iniquities and intensifies because of them.
87) At that time three appointed emissaries come down over him: 1) He who writes all the merits and all the sins he had committed in this world, corresponding to the two lines where the merits are on the right line and the sins are on the left line. 2) He calculates the days opposite the line that decides and weighs them. 3) He who walked with him when he arrived in his mother’s entrails during the months of conception, which is the Malchut.
But the sentence of the judgment does not ease until that time when it is written, “So they carried Jonah.” “They carried,” when he is carried from his home to the cemetery.
88) Then he is announced. If he is righteous, it is announced about him, “Give glory to the form of the King,” as it is written, “He enters into peace; they rest in their beds, each one who walked in his upright way.” It is also written, “And your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your reward.” If he is wicked, it is announced and said about him, “Woe unto so and so, it would be better for him if he were not born.” Then it is written, “They threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.” When he is placed in the grave, the place of judgment, the sentence of the judgment, which was storming and sought judgment over him, has now ceased its anger because what it wished for came true. The fish that swallowed him is the grave.
89) “And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.” The entrails of the fish are the abdomen of the netherworld. Three days and three nights are those three days when a person is in the grave and his intestines break.
90) After three days, that filth in his intestines turns around and says to him, “Take what you have placed in me, what you have eaten and drank all day long and did not give to the poor, and all your days were as festivals and special occasions and the poor were hungry, not having eaten with you. Take what you have placed in me.”
91) Subsequently, from three days on, the man is sentenced for having looked at what was forbidden, for having done forbidden deeds, and for having went to a sin. This continues for 30 days, and for all those 30 days, the soul and the body are sentenced together. For this reason, the soul is below in the earth, not rising to her place, like a woman who sits outside all the days of her impurity. Afterwards the soul rises and the body rots in the dust until the Creator awakens to revive the dead.
92) A voice is destined to awaken in the cemetery and say, “Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.” This will be when the angel of death departs from the world, as it is written, “Death shall be swallowed up forever.” When death is swallowed up forever, then it is written, “And the Lord shall wipe the tear from every face, and shall remove the disgrace of His people from the land.” Then it is written, “Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.”
93) When a voice awakens among the graves, all the graves shall vomit up the dead in them, as it is written, “And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits,” meaning vomit it up. Spirits are those who received healing, were healed and became as before, and bones were healed into bones. These are called “spirits.”
94) But it is written, “The departed spirits will not rise.” However, all the people of the world were healed by themselves in the cemetery, but those who did not believe in the revival of the dead will not be revived. It is written about that, “The departed spirits will not rise.” Happy are Israel, of whom it is written, “Their corpses will rise.”
95) Since that fish swallowed Jonah, it died and Jonah was in it for three days. Afterwards he was revived as before and vomited Jonah up, as it is written, “And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish.” Similarly, the land of Israel is destined to awaken first, being purified from all the wicked, like Jonah’s fish, who was revived, and then it is written, “And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits,” it will vomit up the dead into life.
96) When a person passes away from this world, he experiences seven Dinim:
The upper Din, when the spirit comes out of the body;
When his actions and words walk before him and declare him;
When he enters the grave;
The Din of the grave;
The Din of the worms;
The Din of Hell;
The Din of the spirit that walks and roams the world, finding no place of rest until his works are completed and purified.
For this reason, one should always regard one’s actions and repent before his Master.
97) When King David looked at these Dinim of the man he rushed and said, “Bless the Lord, my soul,” before it leaves the world, while you are still with the body. He said, “And all that is within me, [bless] His holy name.” These are the organs of the body that partake with the spirit. Now that you are with the soul, hurry and bless the holy name before it is time, for you will not be able to bless and repent. This is why he said, “Bless the Lord, my soul, Halleluiah.”
98) “Take from among you a donation to the Lord.” When the Creator created the world, He did not create it so that Israel would come and receive the Torah. The world was created with the Torah and stands on it, as it is written, “If My covenant be not day and night, I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth.” The Torah is the long life in this world, and it is the length of life in the next world.
99) Anyone who exerts in the Torah is seemingly exerting in the palace of the Creator, for the upper palace of the Creator, Malchut, is Torah, that is, the oral Torah, Malchut. When a person engages in Torah, the Creator stands there and listens to his voice, and the man is saved from three Dinim: the Din of this world, the Din of the angel of death, who cannot govern him, and the Din of Hell.
(înapoi la pagina ZOHAR CUPRINS / VAYAKHEL – click)