The Holy Epistle: Epistle 30 – Part 2 – video

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The Holy Epistle: Epistle 29 – Part 4 – audio
The Holy Epistle: Epistle 31 – Part 2 – audio

המחיה כל הברואים שבכל ההיכלות עליונים ותחתונים, שהן בבחינת מספר וחשבון

 

This [Sefirah of Malchut] animates all the created beings that are in all the upper and lower Heichalot, which are all subject to counting and reckoning (cheshbon),

 

כמו שכתוב: אלף אלפים ישמשוניה

 

as it is written,22 “A thousand thousands (i.e., a finite number of angels) minister unto Him.”

 

To revert now to our above key phrase, cheshbon gadol (“a great reckoning”): Giving tzedakah with goodwill and a friendly countenance marries the infinite power of gadol Havayah (“G‑d is great”) with the finite framework of cheshbon (“reckoning”) — the Sefirah of Malchut, which is the source of all finite created beings.

 

וזהו חשבון גדול, שעל ידי רוב מעשה הצדקה, שלום

 

This, then, is the meaning of the “great amount,” for numerous acts of charity bring about peace, as it is written,23 “And [the reward for] the act of tzedakah will be peace,” as explained above in Epistle 12.

 

כי פירוש שלום, הוא דבר המחבר ומתווך ב׳ קצוות הפכיים

 

For “peace” implies the joining and conciliation of two opposite extremes.

 

שהן קצה השמים לעילא, בחינת ולגדולתו אין חקר

 

[In our context] these are the extremity of the superior heaven, alluded to in the phrase, “And His greatness is unfathomable,” referring to G‑d’s incomprehensible infinitude,

 

וקצה השמים לתתא

 

and the extremity of the inferior heaven, referring to Malchut, the lowest of the Ten Sefirot,

 

המתלבש בבריאה יצירה עשיה, בחינת גבול ומספר

 

which becomes vested in [the Worlds of] Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, [i.e.,] in a category of finitude and number.

 

ודי למבין

 

This will suffice for the discerning.

 

Footnotes

 

1.

Cf. Berachot 6b.
2.

Yeshayahu 50:10.
3.

Bava Batra 9b; Yerushalmi, Peah 1:5.
4.

Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah, sec. 203.
5.

Cf. I Samuel 10:26.
6.

Berachot 9:5.
7.

Siddur Tehillat HaShem, p. 93.
8.

Cf. Epistles IV and XXI, above.
9.

From the passage beginning Kegavna, in Zohar II, 135a; cf. Siddur Tehillat HaShem, p. 133.
10.

Avot 3:15.
11.

In his commentary ad loc.
12.

Bava Batra 9b.
13.

Zohar II, 225a, commenting on Tehillim 48:2.
14.

Loc. cit., verse 13.
15.

4:12.
16.

Cf. Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah (in Vol. III of the present series), chs. 1 and 2.
17.

Cf. Zohar III, 220b.
18.

Shir HaShirim 7:5.
19.

Bamidbar 6:25.
20.

Tehillim 145:3.
21.

Loc. cit., verse 13.
22.

Daniel 7:10.
23.

Yeshayahu 10:17.

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