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1) “Jacob lived in the land of Egypt.” Jacob’s heart saw in a prophecy in Egypt that his sons would be in all the exiles that have been thus far and through the end, and the time of the coming of the Messiah.
2) Jacob arrived at the prophecy of “Jacob lived,” only in Egypt. This is an important prophecy, which is like no other prophecy. It came to none of the sons of the prophets, but only to him and to Moses. With Moses, it is written, “For man shall not see Me and live,” and with Jacob, it is written, “Jacob lived.” “Lived” means a prophecy that comes down from the illuminating mirror, Tifferet.
This is so because illumination of Hochma is life, as it is written, “Wisdom preserves the life of him that has it,” and this is the prophecy of “Lived.” And there is a big difference between the prophecies of Jacob and Moses and those of the rest of the prophets. This is so because the rest of the prophets received their prophecies from NH de ZA, which is from the Tabur down, where it is the Nukva, which is regarded as not illuminating. For this reason, they prophesied with the word Koh [thus], which is the name of the Nukva.
But Jacob and Moses received from Tifferet, which is called “illuminating mirror,” from Tabur de ZA and above, although in the form of Achoraim [posterior] that is there. This is why it was said to Moses, “You shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” And also, you cannot see My face, “For man shall not see Me and live.” But when he received in the form of Achoraim, he lived. Also, it was said, “Lived,” in regards to Jacob only in Egypt, which is discerned as Achoraim.
When it is written that Jacob achieved the prophecy of “Lived,” only in Egypt, since he received the prophecy from Tabur de ZA and above, where it is written, “You shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” Hence, the prophecy came to him only in Egypt, which is Achoraim. And when it is written that no other prophecies were made except him and Moses, since all the prophets receive from Chazeh de ZA and below, from NH, as is written about Moses, “For man shall not see Me and live,” it means that he is alive because he did not receive from the Panim [anterior], but from the Achoraim, meaning by extension of Hochma.
Also, it is written about Jacob, “Jacob lived,” which is extension of Hochma in Egypt in the form of Achoraim, as it is written, “Lived.” It is a prophecy that comes down from the illuminating mirror from Tabur de ZA and above, from Tifferet, which is called “the illuminating mirror.” However, there is a difference between Jacob and Moses, too, since Jacob is from Tifferet and Moses is from the interior of Tifferet—the Daat.
3) Jacob wished to prophecy about the exiles that would happen to his sons in the land of Canaan and in any land that they lived in, which are from the land of Egypt, meaning that all the exiles are included in the land of Egypt. His heart was broken, as it is written, “That there was Shever [which means both ‘food for sale’ and ‘shattering’] in Egypt.”
4) This is why “Jacob lived in the land of Egypt,” and he was not happy because in that land was the connection of the peoples, meaning that all the filth of the nations was incorporated there, as well as the sapphires of the throne, which are sparks of Hochma that are captive among them, and they are called “sapphires.” It is written about it, “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne.” And no man came to sort them, neither from the upper ones nor from the lower ones. Rather, “alive” [Hey–Yod], as it is written, “For man shall not see Me and live.”
Due to the sin of Adam ha Rishon, the Kelim and Nitzotzin [vessels and sparks, respectively] of the degree of Hochma fell into the Klipa of Egypt. It was written that he was not happy because in that land was the connection of the nations, since the land of Egypt is a hard Klipa [shell], since the filth of all the nations is attached to her. For this reason, there was no joy in them. However, the sapphires of the throne, which are the Kelim and Nitzotzin of the degree of Hochma, feel there, too, and it is known that the degree of Hochma cannot shine unless by mingling with light of Hassadim. At that time, the light of Hochma is called light of Haya, as it is written, “Wisdom preserves the life of him that has it.”
It was written, “And no man came to sort them, neither from the upper ones nor from the lower ones. Rather, ‘alive.’” This means that no one can be rewarded with Hochma, except those who receive with integration of Hassadim, and then the receiver is called “alive,” the degree of Yesod de [of] Gadlut, which is called “Joseph.”
It is written, “And Joseph shall put his hand upon your eyes,” on the light of the eyes, the light of Haya. This is so because the light of Haya does not shine in a Partzuf before there is the discernment of Joseph there, Yesod de Kelim, due to the inverse relation. Hence, Yesod is called “The one who lives forever,”
And it was written, “For man shall not see Me and live,” since in the Panim [anterior], there is no degree of “alive.” This is why it is written, “For man shall not see Me,” since seeing is Hochma, which shines only at the degree of light of Haya, meaning in its incorporation with Hassadim, while the Panim extends from AA, which is Hochma without Hassadim.
5) There are several hidden meanings to this text. About “Lived,” in which Jacob is mentioned, it should have said, “Israel,” “Israel lived.” This is so because the name Jacob points to Katnut, and the name Israel indicates that he already has Mochin de Gadlut. The words, “Lived” imply to the light of Haya, Mochin de Gadlut, so it should have written, “Israel lived.”
How do we know that it is Israel that indicates to Mochin de Gadlut? Because it is written, “Israel was holy to the Lord,” and holy implies Gadlut. It is also written, “My son, My firstborn, Israel.” “Firstborn” implies Gadlut; thus, the name Israel is mentioned in Gadlut, and not Jacob, which is the name of Katnut, as it is written, “Who would raise Jacob, for he is small?” But it is written, “And he sold his birthright unto Jacob,” so birthright, which is Gadlut, is mentioned in regards to the name, Jacob, too.
6) While Israel were men of truth and righteous and performing good deeds, Israel were not afraid, only Jacob. It is written about him that he was afraid, as it is written, “For I fear him.” This is so because Israel is the name of Gadlut, and there is no fear in him, since due to the good deeds that Israel were doing—they did a lot of Hesed [mercy/grace] to each other—there was no fear in them.
7) When they sinned and were exiled for their iniquities and bad deeds, they could not tolerate, for fear that they would forever stay in exile for their iniquities. This is the reason why Midat ha Din [quality of judgment] and Midat ha Rachamim [quality of mercy] came together, for it is the indication of the name, “Israel,” and it placed them in the land of their exile.
This means that Divinity exiled with them, and it is to that that the name “Israel” points. This is why they were certain that they would be redeemed along with Divinity, and by that, they tolerated the exile and did not fear. This is the reason why the name Israel is in exile, as it is written, “And Israel was exiled from over its land.”
8) “And he sold his birthright unto Jacob.” It should have said, “To Israel,” since birthright is Mochin de Gadlut. But the man who was observing knew him—that Jacob who was connected to “Lived” was holiness, like the name Israel. In other words, the rule is that Jacob is the name of Katnut, but it is not necessarily in a place where the Gadlut that he obtained is explicit. This is why it is written here, “Jacob lived,” and it should not say, “Israel.”
And also, “And he sold his birthright unto Jacob” should not say “Israel,” since that Jacob, who is connected with the Gadlut, is necessarily holy, as is Israel. This is the reason why they said, “Jacob, the Creator chose him to be a sapphire in the throne,” and they did not say, “Israel,” since the Gadlut is explicit.
9) “And the depressed and him who is of low of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the depressed.” “The heart of the depressed” is Jacob, since below the degree, from the Achoraim [posterior] the prophecies and blessings came down upon him in Egypt, and Egypt is considered Achoraim. This is why his heart was depressed.
10) Jacob, who was in Egypt, his prophecy was not transcendent because the land was hated.
11) He was not rewarded with blessing any of his sons, and he could bless only in Egypt, when he blessed each of them according to a secret. And the secret is as it is written, “And Jacob saw that there was Shever [food for sale/shattering] in Egypt, and … said to his sons, ‘Why do you fear?’” Indeed, the prophecy was given only to the heartbroken, as it is written, “Go down there and break.”
And it was written, “Jacob arrived at the prophecy of ‘Lived,’ only in Egypt,” it is because “But My face shall not be seen.” This is why he did not have the Ruach to bless his son but only in Egypt, which is considered Achoraim. For this reason, Jacob had the heart of the depressed. This is why he brings evidence from the writing, “And Jacob saw that there was Shever in Egypt, which implies to the breaking of the heart that he had in Egypt. And he immediately awakened to send his sons there, since he knew that this prophecy was given only to the brokenhearted. And so he says, “Go down there and break,” which implies to the breaking of the heart.
12) Under the holy throne there is the sapphire Jacob, and sapphire is Jacob’s Midat ha Din [quality of judgment]. The writing comes and says, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Jacob saw Midat ha Din for his discernment, as it is written, “And the sun rose upon him.” And the meaning of it is, “Woe unto us for the day has set.”
The holy throne, Bina, stands on four legs—three lines and the Nukva, which receives the three lines. The Masach of Behina Aleph on which the middle line comes out, which is called Jacob, is called “sapphire.” This is why it is written that Jacob is sapphire, and he is under the throne, and this is his Midat ha Din. It is so because this Masach diminishes him into VAK, and he brings evidence to that from the words, “And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped on his thigh,” which is a light that brings healing, to heal him from the twilight on the left. And since this light comes out only on Masach de Behina Aleph, Masach of the point of Hirik, he was limping on his thigh.
The text seems to mean that Jacob saw Midat ha Din for his discernment, which is the Masach de Behina Aleph, to heal him from the twilight on the left. And the meaning of it is, “Woe unto us for the day has set.” This is so because through the integration of the left in Jacob, the day has set, meaning that the lights departed. This is why he needed Midat ha Din, which is the Masach de Behina Aleph, to re-extend the light of the sun, even though by that he became limping on his thigh. This is why the text says, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob,” where there is Midat ha Din, “But Israel,” where there is Midat ha Rachamim [quality of mercy], too, meaning GAR from upper AVI, pure air.
13) When they were exiled from Jerusalem and the continual was removed, and the enemy defiled the palace, at that time, Malchut—Nukva de ZA—could not tolerate the children of Israel for their iniquities. But the degree of the name “Israel” did tolerate them because it is on two sides, Rachamim and Din. And the Din is the reason for the disclosure of the Rachamim; hence, the Din, too, is regarded as Rachamim.
14) The meaning of the words, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel” is that when it becomes clearer in the understanding, Israel Jacob are atop one another, where Israel is more important than Jacob; this is why the angel blessed him with the name, “Israel.” Because of them, Moses’ scepter was engraved with His holy name on both its sides—one is Rachamim in Din, the degree of Israel, and one is Din in Din, the degree of Jacob.
15) It is as was written, “None has seen iniquity in Jacob, nor seen toil in Israel.” This means that he did not see iniquity in Jacob, but did see toil. But in Israel, he did not even see toil because the Din is regarded as Rachamim in him, as well. And since in exile we are pressed amongst the enemies, and Divinity has departed from the King, ZA, and moved far from him, this became the reason that in the end, Divinity will be among us and will redeem us.
This is so because the pressure brings us to repentance, and repentance—to redemption. Thus, the Din at the degree of Israel becomes Rachamim, as well. This is why it is written that he did not see toil in Israel, but it is all Rachamim. However, at the degree of Jacob, it is not so, hence there is toil in him. This is the reason why the angel blessed him, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel,” who has Din, as well as Rachamim, exile, as well as redemption, and it is all Rachamim.
This is why it was written, “Thus says the Lord, King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.” It is written, “And Jacob lived,” alive. “King” means the Din in the name “Israel.” “His Redeemer” is the Rachamim in the name “Israel,” and both are included in the name “Hosts,” which is NH—Netzah is the Rachamim in it and Hod is the Din in it. And they are called, “Lived,” alive.
Netzah, the right leg, shines only from below upwards. This is why it is called “Lived,” in past tense. The Hod is the left leg, and shines from above downwards, too, which is why it is called “alive,” in present tense. All of that is in the upper degree, Israel. But below the degree of Israel it is written, “Thus says the Lord, ‘The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.’” This is so because above, at the degree of Israel, both My legs are alive—the right leg is Netzah, “Lived,” and the left leg is Hod, “alive.” But here they are called “Hadom Raglai [My footstool],” from the word Demama [stillness], the opposite of life.
16) At the higher degree, Israel, both legs, NH, are alive—the Netzah is “Lived,” and Hod is “alive,” and both are included in the words “Lived.”
There are two discernments in the letters: simple and filled. For example, when pronouncing Aleph, the letters Lamed–Peh are heard with it, meaning Eleph. And when pronouncing Bet, the letters Yod–Tav are heard with it, meaning Bet. The letters, Aleph and Bet, are called “simple,” and the letters Lamed–Peh, Yod–Tav, which are sounded with them, are the filings of the simples. Accordingly, when the four letters VaYeChI [Vav–Yod–Het–Yod, “and lived”] are filled, they are Vav–Yod–Vav, Yod–Vav–Dalet, Het–Tav, and Yod–Vav–Dalet.
Also, two divisions are discerned in them: 1) The four simple letters, VaYeChI; 2) The seven letters of the fillings, Yod–Vav, Vav–Dalet, Tav, Vav–Dalet, which are Galut [exile] with three letters in Gematria (436).
Also, they are two legs, NH, where the first division, VaYeChI, is Netzah, and the second division, which is exile in Gematria, is Hod. And both are “alive,” meaning included in the word, VaYeChI, since because the exile is the reason for the redemption and revival, the exile is regarded as revival, too.
It was written that in the higher degree, Israel, both legs, Netzah and Hod, are “alive,” meaning they are both included in the word VaYeChI. The big Yod, the simple one, has a small Yod in its filling, and Vav–Dalet, which are ten in Gematria. The Het has Tav in its fullness, there are Vav–Yod in the filling of the Vav, and there are Vav–Dalet in the filling of the Yod.
17) Those two divisions are included in the gem, sapphire, which is under the throne in the land of Egypt. It is written, “And the Lord will smite Egypt.” This is the second division, the letters of the filling, which imply to the exile. And the words, “Your dew is as the dew of light,” it means dew of revival, the first division, the letters of the simple, which imply revival.
18) For this reason, the second division—which implies to the exile—conjoins with the first division—which implies to revival and redemption. It is written, “House of Jacob, go and let us walk by the light of the Lord.” This means that the letters that imply to the exile to which they were sentenced for their iniquities, in a true judgment, have correction in the Torah, and by keeping it you will come out of the sludge that is the exile, and you will walk by the light of the Creator. And the meaning of the words, “House of Jacob, go” refers to the exile. Hence, by strengthening there in the Torah, you will be rewarded, as it is written, “And let us walk by the light of the Lord,” which is the revival and the redemption. It follows that the exile is the reason for the redemption. Thus, the two divisions come as one.
19) The letters Aleph, Reish–Tzadi are in a saddened land that comes into exile in the division in the book of Torah, meaning in the 400 years in the sentencing between the pieces. And in the Aretz [land], they are divided into A’ [Aleph]-Retz. In the division of the book of Torah, the Reish and Tzadi unite in the exile, meaning that they were in exile in Egypt for Reish–Tzadi (290) [in Gematria] years. And the filling Lamed–Peh of the Aleph in Aretz is 110 in Gematria, and 110 plus 290 are 400 years.
What is the exile in Egypt? After all, Abraham was told that his children would be in exile for 400 years, but if you count them, they were only 290 years.
The Zohar calculates the beginning of the days of exile in actual fact as the time of the selling of Joseph to the Egyptians, when he was seventeen. It took thirteen years until he became a king because when he stood before Pharaoh he was thirty years old. By the time Jacob and his sons came to Egypt, Joseph was already thirty-nine years old, since when Jacob came to Egypt, the seven plentiful years had passed, plus two years of famine. And Joseph lived seventy-one more years after Jacob had arrived in Egypt, since Joseph lived 110 years and the enslavement did not begin as long as Joseph was alive.
Kehat was among those who descended to Egypt, and he lived for 133 years. Amram, his son, lived 137 years. And Moses’ age when they were redeemed was eighty. If we say that Amram was born at the end of Kehat’s days, and that Moses was born at the end of Amram’s days, then together, they are 350 years. Thirteen years had passed from the selling of Joseph until he became king, and this falls into the calculation of the exile, thus they are 363 years. Subtract seventy-one years that he ruled after Jacob’s arrival in Egypt, for during his reign they were not enslaved, and it is 292 years. But The Zohar calculates only 290 years because it considers two years as overlapping, since Amram was not born precisely at the end of the days of Kehat or Moses was not born precisely at the end of the days of Amram.
20) It is written, “And Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old. And it is written, “The young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanu El.” In this text, conception and delivery have been filled into exiles and much troubles and bad times, as it is written, “For before the boy will know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land… will be forsaken. … The Lord shall bring upon you … days that have not come.” And although the Creator will be with us during those years—as indicated by the name of the boy, Immanu El [Hebrew: God is with us], the name of Divinity—Divinity will have been shaken and become removed from her husband, ZA, and she is with us in exile. And although Divinity is with us, she is afflicted in exile and without a Zivug.
We learn from the text that there is conception that precedes the birth of the exile. And the 110 years of age are the additional carving, considered the conception of the existence of the exile. And the writing will wish to say that 110 years of the exile in Egypt had already passed in the form of conception, which, together with the 290 of being in actual exile, they are 400 years that the Creator told Abraham in the covenant between the pieces.
Also, Jacob’s exile was counted only since the death of Joseph, and these 110 years of conception of exile are implied by the filling of Lamed–Peh of the Eleph in Aretz, which is 110 in Gematria. And the 290 of being in actual exile are implied by the Reish-Tzadik in Aretz. And all that is as it is written, “From the time that the continual is removed and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.” The text says 1,000 [in Hebrew, Eleph] over 290, as it is explained that the exile divides into conception and actual exile. Eleph is the conception, and in Gematria, its filling of Lamed–Peh is 110, and the 290 are the actual exile. And they are the letters of Aretz, meaning Aleph–Retz.
21) “So the length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years.” Here—in the 147 years of Jacob’s life—lies the number of corrections in the exile that the exiled children will have in Midat ha Din [quality of judgment] in three exiles. The first correction is with Egypt, which corresponds to seven years. It is written about it, “I adjure you… that you do not arouse or awaken my love until it pleases.” Here, too, the number seven in Jacob’s years is an oath, indicating not to wake the love—redemption—until it pleases.
22) From this we understand the meaning of the number seven, as it is written, “From afar the Lord appeared unto me; ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.’” “From afar” means in exile. This was because of the great love that appears only through exile. Exile is the correction; when the children of Israel are liberated from the exile, the Creator’s love for us will be revealed.
In the number seven in Jacob’s life, the text wishes to say that the holy sons who were exiled for their transgressions will be in Din for many years, until they are “Seven times according to your sins.” It also says, “If Cain is avenged sevenfold,” for with this number, it corrects the corruptions that they had done and reveals the light of redemption. This is in the first exile, in Egypt, the smallest of the three exiles.
23) The second exile is the exile in Babel, which corresponds to forty years in Jacob’s life. In relation to Egypt’s seven, they are bigger, since they came to the exile in Egypt as lay people and their sorrow was not great. But to the exile in Babylon, they came like captive royalty, for they had already had the Torah, the land, and the Temple. Hence, their affliction was great, and it is considered forty years compared to Egypt’s seven.
24) The third exile is the long exile that we are in, which corresponds to 100 years in Jacob’s life compared to the forty in the exile in Babylon.
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