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79) If the souls are materialized and they are as clay pots, breaking them is their purification, as you say, “Broken and purified.” It is written, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.” But those who engage in the written Torah and the oral Torah, which are fire and water, and those who delve in the secrets of Torah, which is light—of which it is written, “And the teaching is light,”—those are purified by the Torah and do not need hell.
80) One who sees dates in a dream, his iniquities are over, as it is written, “The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion.” This is so because in the word Temarim [dates], there are the letters TAM [whole], which is Jacob’s degree, as it is written, “And Jacob was a TAM [‘whole’ or ‘concluded’] man.” The iniquities are Marim [bitter], hence the word Temarim [Tam Marim] implying that his iniquities are over.
81) “And the Lord showed him a tree… and the waters were made sweet.” One who exerts in Torah, the tree of life, the Creator forgives his iniquities, of which it was said, “And they made their lives bitter with hard labor,” and they return to being sweet, meaning his iniquities become as merits.
82) The days will come when he will live in them as in the days of the exodus from Egypt. “And Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.” But in the last exile, there is no death, only poverty, for the poor are as good as dead, to keep in them, “And I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall take refuge in the name of the Lord,” and to keep in them, “And the afflicted people You will save.” And in the wealthy ones that will remain among them, the words, “Idle, you are idle” will come true, for they will be idle in the Torah, idle in being gracious to the attainers of the Torah, and strong men who wander from town to town will not redeem them.
83) They are idle with the weight of the tax, for if you say that they are not gracious because of the weight of the tax, then this is why it is written, “Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it,” so the weight of the tax will really be upon them. “So they will pay no heed to false words,” meaning they were lying and saying that the tax is heavy on them and this is why they are not gracious. They also lie with their words when they say that they respect the tax that is burdening them, as it is written, “There is no straw given,” which is the fortune of falsehood with which they misstated to the Creator. And because they did not heed Him and did not pity in the name of the Lord, “Straw,” which is fortune, “No straw given unto thy servants,” and not because of the burden of the tax.
84) And those who have money and keep it hidden inside, which is the interior, like the interior of the treasure and the interior of the ark, the words, “yet you must deliver the quota of bricks,” come true in them. This is money, which is bricks that will be in that generation.
85) At that time there, “He made for them a statute and an ordinance,” who are the authors of the Mishnah. They, too, are like that, “And when they came to Marah,” meaning that the oral Torah will once more be Marah [bitter] for them, in great stress and in poverty, so the verse, “And they made their lives bitter with hard labor” will come true in them. This is a question. “In mortar,” meaning by logical deduction; “And bricks,” meaning by scrutinizing laws; “And at all kinds of labor in the field,” in the Braita [laws that are not part of the Mishnah]. “All their labors which they rigorously imposed on them” means Tishbi will answer questions and problems.
86) And there the loyal shepherd will come true in you, “There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them.” In the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is prohibition and permission, and in those secrets that will be revealed through you, “The waters were made sweet.” Like the salt that makes the meat sweet, they will be sweetened by the secrets that will be revealed through you. All those questions and the dispute of the bitter water in the oral Torah will return to being the sweet waters of the Torah. And your agonies will be sweet to you through these secrets that will be revealed by you. And all your troubles will come back to you like fleeting dreams. A dream [in Hebrew] has the letters of the word “salt,” reversed. As salt sweetens the meat, so agony sweetens.
87) And to the wicked, agony shall return, like the salt of Sodom, which blinds the eye, to keep in them, “But the eyes of the wicked shall fail.” And in the wicked mixed multitude, the words, “Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly” will come true. “Make themselves white” are the authors of the Mishnah. “And be refined” are the holy seed, the rest of the people, as it is written, “And will refine them as silver is refined.” “But the wicked shall do wickedly” are the mixed multitude.
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