The Ninth Commandment
233) The ninth commandment is to pardon the poor and give them prey. It is written, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” “Let us make man” in collaboration, for he consists of male and female. “In our image” means rich; “After our likeness” refers to the poor.
234) On the part of the male, they are the rich, and on the part of the female, they are the poor. And as they are united and have mercy on each other, giving to each other and doing good to one another, so should man be below: the rich and the poor united, giving to each other, and doing good to one another.
235) Anyone who is willingly merciful toward the poor, his form never changes from the form of Adam HaRishon. And since the form of Adam is inscribed in him, he governs all the people in the world through that form, as it is written, “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be over all the animals of the earth.” They all tremble and fear that form that was inscribed in him, since this commandment to pardon the poor is better than all other commandments for elevating man in the form of Adam HaRishon.
236) How do we know this? from Nebuchadnezzar. Even though he dreamed that dream, as long as he was pardoning the poor, the dream did not come true for him. When he cast an evil eye, not pardoning the poor, it is written, “While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you.’” His form promptly changed and he drew far from people.
This is why it is written, “Let us make man.” Here it writes “making,” and in Ruth it writes “The name of the man with whom I made today is Boaz.” As making means Tzedakah [righteousness/alms giving], here it means Tzedakah, as well.
It explains the creation of male and female, rich and poor, but there is no hint that the rich should have mercy on the poor and sustain them. He says that this verse commands to pardon the poor. Indeed, there is great depth here, for this verse is different from all the previous verses, as in all of them you find the verse separately from the act. Thus, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” “And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament’ ... and God made the firmament,” “And God said, ‘Let the water be gathered,’” and it was so.
Also, you do not find in any of them that the doing is mixed with the saying. The reason is that creation came out in AVI, where Aba says and Ima does. Aba gave to Ima, and after the abundance was inscribed in the boundaries in Ima the abundance was activated. This is similar to potential and actual, since with Ima alone, no creation can be carried out because there is no boundary in her that depicts the actions in some form.
Hence, there is a verse from Aba, which is the bestowal upon Ima. And since it is still in potential, there cannot be a phrasing of action in it, but a phrasing of “Let there be.” However, in the verse about Adam’s creation, it uses “making” in the verse itself, for it is written, “And God said, ‘Let us make man.’” And there is another significant change here because it is written, “Let us make,” in plural form, and not “I will make man.”
The thing is that prior to the creation of the world of correction, there was the breaking of the vessels in ZAT of the world of Nekudim, as we learn, “He created worlds and destroyed them.” Finally, He created this world and said, “This one gives Me pleasure.” Yet, through the breaking of the vessels in the seven Sefirot HGT NHYM of Nekudim, the Kedusha mixed with the shells. Afterwards, the name MA appeared and brought out the four worlds ABYA in the way of correction. This is the meaning of “This one gives Me joy,” since it sorted the holy sparks from the shells, and to the extent of the Kedusha, the worlds and everything in them were created.
This is what you find in every act of creation: separation and sorting, such as “And God divided the light from the darkness,” and “Let it divide the waters from the waters,” and between water and land, the “After its kind” in the verse “Let the land put forth grass,” and between the governance of the day and the governance of the night,” as well as the matter of the emergence of a living soul from the water and from the earth.
All that points to sorting the Kedusha from the shells, and the good from the bad. Anything that is sorted becomes an existing reality, according to what befits it in Kedusha. This is why it was said that the whole act of creation is included in the first day in the verse “Let there be light,” since there was complete separation there between the light and the darkness. Usually Kedusha is called “light” and shells are called “darkness,” as all the other titles of Kedusha and shells are but elements and branches of light and darkness.
With respect to the distinction between light and darkness, by which all the creations in Genesis are sorted, the correction is still incomplete. This is because in that respect, all the evil and the darkness would remain as something needless. This is completely unlike the wholeness of the Creator, since the correction is not finalized. Rather, as it is written, “Even the darkness will not be dark to You, and night is as bright as the day; darkness is as light.”
To correct that, man was created consisting of everything—from absolute evil to absolute good—and through him, the end of correction will occur in the desirable perfection, turning evil into good, bitter into sweet, darkness will be as light, death will be swallowed up forever, and the Lord shall be King over all the earth.
Hence, the verse about the creation of man came out significantly different from the rest of the verses that relate to the rest of the creations in Genesis, since here the making mixed with the verse itself. This is so because this verse is from Ima, not from Aba. She said, “Let us make man,” implying collaboration, since she took part with Malchut of Atzilut to create man.
Malchut of Atzilut includes everything, as it is written, “And His kingship rules over all.” She provides for and gives sustenance to the evil forces, too. Otherwise, the evil would have no power to exist, as it is written, “And her legs go down to death.” The shells receive a tiny candle from her, enough to sustain them.
Also, Malchut is called Assiya [action/making] because she expands and governs the whole of Assiya. She is also called darkness because she illuminates a tiny candle to sustain the darkness and the evil.
When Ima herself is included in Malchut in a single bond, action and darkness mix in her, herself. This is the meaning of “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The light is called “image,” and the darkness is called “likeness.” Once Ima took part in Malchut, the two forces, image and likeness, were made in her, and by them she created man consisting of the two forces—image and likeness—too. This is why she said, “In our image, after our likeness.”
“Let us make man” in bonding. The words “Let us” indicate collaboration, inclusion of male and female. It indicates that Ima herself consists of male and female, since although Ima is the male world and there is no Nukva in her at all, she took part with the Malchut, Nukva. “In our image” means rich, and “After our likeness” means poor. This is so because on the part of the male, they are the rich, and on the part of the female, they are the poor, as male is light and wealth, and Nukva [female] is darkness and poverty.
And since she said, “In our image, after our likeness,” darkness and poverty are in her, in herself, due to her participation with Malchut for the creation of man. Thus, man came out comprising rich and poor, light and darkness. By that, the entire correction will be completed by him, and Malchut will expand in her Kedusha over all the earth, “And the Lord will be one, and His name, One,” since then the darkness in Malchut will turn into complete light, like the male, HaVaYaH, and it will be “He is one and His name, One.” Then the words “There will be no poor among you” will come true.
And as they are bonded, compassionate toward each other, giving to each other, and doing good to one another, so should man be below—the rich and the poor in a single bond, giving to each other and doing good to one another, as the image and the likeness included in Ima are in a single bond because Ima is compassionate toward the likeness, Malchut, to correct all the darkness in her. Upper Ima diminished herself and gave of her share to the Malchut, the poor, doing good to her.
Similarly, man, who was created by her in image and likeness, should have mercy on the poor, who are the likeness in him, bond with them, provide for them all that they need, and do good to them. By keeping this commandment, he will draw upon himself the image and likeness of Ima, which are all the upper Mochin that Adam HaRishon was awarded when he was created with these image and likeness.
Then it is written, “And let them rule over the fish of the sea.” Anyone who is willingly merciful toward the poor, his form never changes from the form of Adam HaRishon. And when the form of Adam is inscribed in him, he governs all the creations in the world through that form, as it is written, “And let them rule over the fish of the sea.”
This is so because through this commandment he was rewarded with those image and likeness of Adam, all those Mochin and upper brightness of Atzilut with which Adam HaRishon was rewarded, and by which he governed all the creations in the world. That is, there was no power of the evil powers that did not surrender to him. They all trembled and feared that form which was inscribed in him. They were all fearful and dreaded that image that was inscribed in him because he canceled all the forces of evil and darkness, and they had no resurrection before him, since the name of the Lord was called upon him, and this is the image of God.
He brings evidence from Nebuchadnezzar, who did not have any commandments, yet after he was sentenced in the dream and Daniel solved it, Daniel told him, “Atone for your iniquity with righteousness,” and so he did. As long as he was merciful toward the poor, the sentence of the dream did not affect him. When he cast the evil eye of not pitying the poor, it is written, “While the word was in the king's mouth.” His form promptly changed and drew far from the people. Thus, this commandment is greater than all the commandments in the Torah, for by itself it can revoke from a person all sorts of bad sentences to which he has been sentenced.
This is why it is written, “Let us make man.” It writes “making” here. And it is written in Ruth, “The name of the man with whom I made today, Boaz.” And as I made, that with Boaz it was Tzedakah [righteousness/alms giving], here it is Tzedakah, as well. That is, the word “make” that was said regarding man’s creation indicates the commandment of Tzedakah, since Ima did Tzedakah with Malchut and was included in her.
He brings evidence from Ruth, who said, “The name of the man with whom I made.” This seems unexplained, for all she did with him was to receive from him. But with the explanation that making means bonding of rich and poor, the word “making” with Boaz is justified, for they both took part in a single bonding through the Tzedakah.