Gates of Righteousness

This too is the nature of the Attribute The author is referring to Malchut, the final Sephirah in the Kabbalistic tree, which represents the manifest Presence of God, for through neglect and the cancellation of the commandments, the channels are broken and the flows of influence are cut off. For transgressions break the channels; as it says, "Go down, for your people have corrupted themselves" Exodus 32:7, and "He is a companion to a man who destroys" Proverbs 18:9, and "the earth was corrupted" Genesis 6:11. By the cancellation of the commandments, the flows are cut off, as it says: "Why is the land perished and burnt up like a wilderness... because they have forsaken My law" Jeremiah 9:11-12. It also says: "My soul thirsts for the living God... my flesh longs for You" Psalm 42:3; 63:2. For this reason, it says in the Torah: "If you walk in My statutes... then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce" Leviticus 26:3-4. This means that by performing the commandments, you repair the channels, and the blessings are drawn down from the Infinite Ein Sof|The Infinite; the highest, unknowable aspect of God from which all creation emanates.. Thus, the upper and lower worlds are blessed, as it is said: "He who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself by the God of truth" Isaiah 65:16.

But if, Heaven forbid, they transgress the Torah, what is written? "If you shall despise My statutes..." and "I will also do this to you... I will make your heavens as iron and your earth as brass" Leviticus 26:15-19. For this reason, this Attribute is sometimes called Shaddai original: שדי - The Almighty; that is to say, when the tablets and the channels were broken, the blessings and flows were cut off. This matter is hinted at in the verse, "And God called the dry land Earth" Genesis 1:10, and it is written: "And God saw the children of Israel, and God knew" Exodus 2:25. Seeing is the secret of Providence original: פקידה - Pekidah, meaning divine visitation or remembrance. Sometimes this Attribute is called:

Sea

This is because all the channels and flows run toward it, rushing from the depth of the Infinite. This is the secret of the verse: "All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full" Ecclesiastes 1:7. This is because it is a speculum that does not shine Aspaklaria she-einah me'irah|A mystical term for the Sephirah of Malchut, which has no light of its own but reflects the light of the higher Sephirot., and it requires illumination from the side of Foundation Yesod|The ninth Sephirah, which acts as the funnel or connector between the higher realms and the physical world., as we hinted regarding the verse: "Blessed be the Lord... who builds up Jerusalem" Psalm 147:2. This is the secret of "And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas" Genesis 1:10. This is also the secret of the filling of the moon and the increase of its phases: it increases with the moon's wax and decreases with the moon's wane. For when the Assembly of Israel original: כנסת ישראל - Knesset Yisrael, a personification of the Shekhinah is influenced

and filled and saturated, then through its blessing all created beings, both upper and lower, are blessed. And this Attribute is called in the Torah:

New

The sign for this is: "This is the burnt offering of every month [Chodesh] in its month" Numbers 28:14; this is "this" burnt offering, certainly. The reason for the "he-goats of the New Moons" is that it says regarding them "a sin offering to the Lord" Numbers 28:15. This is the secret of the diminishing of the moon and its fullness, and the secret of the moon's grievance against the sun. The reason is that "two kings cannot use one crown" A famous Talmudic midrash (Chullin 60b) where the moon complains that it and the sun are the same size, leading God to tell the moon to diminish itself.. And I am hinting to you: if they both used one crown, there would be no offspring in this world. This is the reason for the command: "Go and diminish yourself."

One who knows this reason will understand why the luminaries were hung on the fourth day. At first, there were "two great luminaries," but in the end, there was "the great luminary to rule the day and the small luminary" and so on Genesis 1:14-16. Therefore, the activity of the sun and the moon among the lower beings is by the word of God. This is the meaning of: "And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night" Genesis 1:17-18. And the secret of: "for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon" Deuteronomy 33:14. For this reason, the Sabbath belongs to the sun and the Festivals to the moon.

The great secret is: "O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good... O give thanks to the God of gods... O give thanks to the Lord of lords" Psalm 136:1-3. This is the secret of "from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come" Isaiah 66:23. One who knows this reason knows the secret of sanctifying the New Moon by the authority of the High Court and the Lesser Court, and the sign of Perez and Zerah The twin sons of Judah; Perez is often associated with the moon's cycles.. The core principle is that "the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold" Isaiah 30:26. The secret of sevenfold refers to the forty-nine gates The Gates of Understanding, and the forty-nine days leading to the Giving of the Torah, and the forty-nine years of the Jubilee Yovel|The fiftieth year following seven cycles of Sabbatical years, representing total spiritual liberation.. Then "you shall grant a redemption for the land," "it shall have redemption," and "in the Jubilee it shall go out" Leviticus 25. He who understands the great reasons we have hinted at here will understand the secret between the upper whiteness and the lower whiteness—"fair as the moon, clear as the sun" Song of Songs 6:10. And the secret of "He appointed the moon for seasons" Psalm 104:19, and the secret of "the round goblet" Song of Songs 7:3 which is the Gates of Righteousness.