(înapoi la pagina ZOHAR CUPRINS / ACHAREI MOT – click)
268) Rabbi Hizkiya and Rabbi Yisa sat near the graveyard, and Rabbi Yisa had a torn piece of a book of Torah in his hand. A grave moved before them and shouted, “Woe, the world is in pain because the Torah has been exiled to here, or is it that the living have come to mock us and degrade us in shame with their Torah?”
269) Rabbi Hizkiya said to the grave, “Who are you?” It replied to him, “I am dead, but I awoke because of the book of Torah, for once the world was in pain and the living came here to awaken us with a book of Torah. I and my friends rushed to the sleepers of Hebron, and when they connected with the spirits of the righteous in the Garden of Eden, they found that the book of Torah that the living had brought to us was flawed. They said, ‘Because they lied in the name of the king, since the Torah is the name of the king, they will not return to them to inform them if their prayer has been accepted.’ They repelled me and my friends at that time from the seminary.
270) “Finally, an old man who was among them went and brought the book of Rabbi Hamnuna Saba, and then Rabbi Elazar, who was buried with us, awoke and went to pray for them in the Garden of Eden, and the world was healed. Then they let us return to the seminary. And since that day when they raised Rabbi Elazar from the grave in Gush Halav and he was placed with his father in Miron, there is no one to awaken, to rise before the sleepers of Hebron, for we are afraid of that day when I and my friends were repelled from the seminary.
“And now you have come to us with a book of Torah. I said that the world is in pain, and this is why I was startled, for I said, ‘Who will rush to inform those true righteous, sleepers of Hebron?’” Rabbi Yisa departed and left with that piece of the book of Torah. Rabbi Hizkiya said, “The world is not in pain, and we have not come for that.”
We could ask, “But Rabbi Hizkiya and Rabbi Yisa died in the Idra Rabah, while Rabbi Elazar was still alive, as was said at the end of the Idra Rabah in the portion, Nasso.” But these Rabbi Hizkiya and Rabbi Yisa here are not the same as the ones in the Idra Rabah.
271) Rabbi Hizkiya and Rabbi Yisa rose and left. They said, “Indeed, when there are no righteous in the world, the world exists only thanks to the dead.” Rabbi Yisa said, “When the world needs rain, why do we go to the dead to pray? But it is forbidden, as it is written, ‘One who calls up the dead, for whoever does these things is abomination to the Lord.’” He said to him: “Thus far you have not yet seen the wing of the bird in Eden,” meaning that he has not attained Bina.
It is written, “One who calls up the dead,” the dead who are the wicked of the world, from the idol worshipping nations, who are always dead, for the wicked during their lives are called “dead.” But Israel, who are true righteous, Solomon calls on them, “I praise the dead who have already died,” meaning who have died before, who put themselves to death over the Torah, and are now living.
272) Also, when the rest of the nations come to their dead, they come with charms, to evoke upon them the evil kinds. But when Israel come to the dead, they come with much repentance before the Creator, with shattering of the heart, and with torment they are before Him. And it is all so that the holy souls will seek mercy on them before the Creator, and the Creator has mercy on the world because of them.
273) A righteous, even when he passes away from this world, does not depart and he is not lost from all the worlds. Rather, he is present in all the worlds even more than during his life. During his life he was only in this world, and afterward he is in three worlds, BYA, and he is there, as it is written, “Therefore maidens love you,” do not read it as Alamot [maidens], but as Olamot [worlds].
274) It is written, “And the soul [Nefesh] of my lord shall be bundled in the bundle of life.” It should have written, “the Neshama [also translated as soul] of my lord,” since the Nefesh remains in this world, and only the Neshama rises to the bundle of life. However, happy are the righteous, whose Nefesh has been connected to the Ruach, and the Ruach to the Neshama, and the Neshama to the Creator. It follows that the Nefesh is bundled in the bundle of life because it is connected to the Neshama, who is in the bundle of life.
275) Exiling a book of Torah is forbidden even from one synagogue to another, much less to the street. So why is it taken out to the street? So as to be awoken over it and to ask for mercy for the world. When the Shechina was exiled, she was also exiled from place to place until she said, “Who will give me in the desert a lodging place for travelers, that I might leave my people and go from them?” Here, too, she was first exiled from synagogue to synagogue, then to the street, and then to a lodging place in the desert.
The dwellers of Babylon are fearful and do not pass with the book of Torah even from synagogue to synagogue, much less to the street.
276) Rabbi Shimon said, “In my days, the people of the world will not have to bring the book of Torah to the street. The righteous protect the world in their life, and in their death more than in their life, as it is written, ‘And I will protect this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.’” This is not written in David’s life. What is different here, that it is written, “For My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David”? David was rewarded with connecting to the holy Merkava of the patriarchs, to whom he is a fourth, Malchut, and this is why everything is one.
(înapoi la pagina ZOHAR CUPRINS / ACHAREI MOT – click)