Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Academy

180) Woe unto one who hides himself from the Creator, of whom it is written, “Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.” Why did Jonah escape the Creator, as it is written, “But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord”?

181) It is written, “My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the pathway.” “My dove” is the assembly of Israel, the Shechina. “In the clefts of the rock” is Jerusalem, the highest in the whole world. As a rock is higher and stronger than all, Jerusalem is higher and stronger than anything. “In the secret place of the pathway” is the place called “the house of the Holy of Holies,” the heart of the entire world.

182) It is written about the Holy of Holies that it is in the “Secret place of the pathway” since the Shechina hid herself there, like a woman who is chaste for her husband and does not walk outside her house, as it is written, “Your wife shall be as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of your house.” Similarly, the assembly of Israel does not stay outside her place, in the secret place of the pathway, except during the exile, when she is within the exile. This is why the rest of the nations have it better and more peaceful than Israel.

The Temple is the Nukva, as it is written, “And the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.” The veil is the Parsa at the place of Chazeh, which separates between the Chazeh and below, where the Hassadim are revealed in illumination of Hochma, which is the holy, and the Chazeh and above, where the Hassadim are covered and are hidden from illumination of Hochma, which is the Holy of Holies. This is why the Holy of Holies is called, “The secret place of the pathway,” since the Hochma hides there and does not become revealed. The place of the coupling is from the Chazeh and above in the place of the Holy of Holies, where the Shechina would hide herself like a woman who is chaste for her husband and does not go outside her house, for there is the face of a man.

183) When Israel are in the holy land, everything is properly corrected and the throne, the Nukva, is whole over them. When the throne was whole for the upper Israel, they did the work of the Creator, raising MAN and fissuring the airs of the world, and the work rose to her place, to ZON, causing them to make a coupling. This is so because the land is established to work only for Israel.

For this reason, the rest of the nations were moving away from the land, meaning they did not rule it as now, for they were nourished only by the extract of the abundance that Israel drew through their work, and which satiated the nations of the world, as well. However, the majority of the abundance went to Israel, and the nations received only an extract from the abundance. For this reason, the governance was for Israel.

184) But did not several kings from among the nations rule even while the Temple stood in the world? In the First Temple, before Israel defiled the land, the rest of the nations did not rule so. Rather, they were feeding on the extract, and at that time, their governance was from this extract. Hence, their governance was not so strong.

When Israel sinned and defiled the land, they seemingly rejected the Shechina from her place and she drew nearer to another place. And then the rest of the nations ruled because they were given permission to rule.

185) Only the Creator governs over the land of Israel. When Israel sinned and were offering incense to other gods inside the land, the Shechina was seemingly rejected from her place because they were anointing and burning incense for other gods to connect with the Shechina, and then they were given governance. The incense makes a tie so as to connect. Hence, they were sucking from the Shechina and received the governance from her, and then the rest of the nations ruled, the prophets were cancelled, and all those high degrees did not rule over the land.

186) The domination was not removed from the rest of the nations because they pulled the abundance of the Shechina to them. This is why the governance was not removed from the rest of the nations in the Second Temple.

It is even more so during the exile, when the abundance of the Shechina is among the rest of the nations, the place where the rest of the appointees govern. For this reason, everyone sucks from the Shechina, who grew closer to them.

187) Thus, when Israel were in the land and worshipped the Creator, the Shechina was chaste among them and did not come out of the house openly. This is why while the Temple existed, all the prophets of the time did not receive prophecy outside the land of Israel. And this is why Jonah fled outside the holy land, so that prophecy would not be revealed upon him and he would not be obliged to go in the Creator’s mission.

188) But did the Shechina not appear to Ezekiel in Babylon, which is outside the land of Israel? However, what happened at that time did not happen before since the day the Temple was built, and that prophecy was only for a time, to comfort Israel.

189) It is written, “The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel ... by the river Kevar” [Hebrew: “already”], a river that has existed since the day the world was created, and the Shechina [Divinity] was always disclosed on it, before the Temple was built, as it is written, “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four heads.” That river, “Kevar,” is one of those four rivers. The garden is the Shechina, from which the river that went out of Eden, Hochma, was extended and became four rivers. This is why she was revealed on those four rivers before the Temple was built.

190) And there, the Shechina was revealed for the time when Israel needed her, to comfort them for the ruin of the Temple. But the Shechina did not appear abroad at other times. This is the reason why Jonah fled, so the Shechina would not be revealed over him. Hence, he went from the holy land and fled. And it is written, “For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord.”

191) As the Shechina appears only in the place where she should, she appears and is revealed only to one who is worthy of her. Thus, since the day when Lot wished to turn around in his sin, the spirit of holiness departed from Abraham, and when Lot parted from him, the spirit of holiness was promptly over Abraham, as it is written, “And the Lord said unto Abram, after Lot was separated from him.”

Each degree divides into internality and externality. At the root of that division was the ascent of the bottom Hey to the Einayim, and a new Sium was made at the Sium of GE, a Parsa, and the AHP went outside the degree. Thus, the vessels above the Parsa, which remained in the degree, are called “internality,” and the vessels that went outside, below the Parsa, are called “externality” or posterior.

The external vessels below the Parsa are brought back to the degree during Gadlut because ZAT of Atzilut, which are ZON, are completed only by ascending to the place above the Chazeh, which is the completion of the lower one in the upper one, and they are not complemented in their own place, below the Chazeh. For this reason, the vessels Bina and TM from the Chazeh and below are always regarded as externality because they cannot be sorted and complemented prior to the end of correction, when the ZON will receive the second kind of completion.

This is the difference between the souls of Israel and the nations of the world. Israel are extended from anterior vessels, which are fit for reception of complete lights even prior to the end of correction. But the nations of the world are extended from the external vessels, which cannot receive completion prior to the end of correction.

Similarly, the worlds divide into internality and externality. The land of Israel are anterior vessels with respect to the world, and abroad are the vessels of externality.

Thus, there is no wholeness abroad before the end of correction, for then it is written, “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth,” and “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” However, before the end of correction, there is no wholeness except in the anterior vessels of the world, which are the land of Israel.

Also, the Creator alone governs over the land of Israel. Since the land of Israel is made of anterior vessels, it received a correction at that time, too, as it is written, “A land which the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it,” and in which the Shechina appears. However, abroad, dominion is given to the seventy ministers, which are also the externality of Kedusha [holiness], extended from the external vessels, and which have no wholeness prior to the end of correction. Hence, the verse “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth” did not come true except in the land of Israel.

This is why as the Shechina appears only in its proper place, in the land of Israel, she appears and is revealed only to a man who is worthy of her, who will keep from evoking the coupling in the externality of the Nukva, in the place below the Chazeh. This is so because then he separates the Nukva from ZA and the abundance goes abroad to the seventy ministers of the nations of the world, which are the owners of the external vessels that yearn for that abundance.

When Israel sinned, and were burning incense to other gods inside the land, they evoked a coupling in the external vessels of the Nukva, drawing the abundance from above downward, and then the abundance goes to other gods. At that time, the rest of the nations reigned because the abundance reached their seventy ministers. Hence, they all suckle from the Shechina, which drew near them because the external vessels of the Shechina were close to the nations of the world, for only they receive from them.

192) When Abraham saw that Lot had gone back to his bad ways, he was afraid. He said, “Because of my bonding with this one, I lost the holy part that the Creator crowned me with.” “The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward.’”

193) What is, “From the place where you are”? It is the place to which you first adhered and were crowned with whole faith, which is “Northward and southward and eastward and westward.” These are the journeys that he traveled in the beginning, as it is written, “And he went on his journeys,” which are Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, and Haya. Northward is Bina and Neshama; southward is Hochma and Haya; eastward is Tifferet and Ruach; and westward is Malchut and Nefesh. It is written, “Going on still toward the Negev.” These are the upper degrees, with which he was crowned in complete faith in the beginning.

194) And then he was told that they would not be lifted from him and from his sons forever, as it is written, “For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your seed forever.” “Which you see” is the first degree that was revealed to him, the degree of Nefesh, as it is written, “To the Lord, who appeared to him.” This is why it was written, “Which you see,” since this first degree, which is the Nukva, consists of all the degrees and all the degrees are seen in it. This is why it was written, “For all the land which you see.”