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Rashbi / The Ninth Commandment

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.‎