The Book of Splendor

Main Text (Zohar)

The world • and he shall raise many towers and many branches, and many towers and such and such • and many orchards and such and such on that day • and they shall all gather around him The Messiah to his house • and all the people of the world will not be able another version: will not know how to gaze upon him • and on that day, for twelve months, all the kings and rulers shall be aroused with many decrees and many uprisings against them • and they shall be darkened therein as it was said, and they shall all be like a sickness to him that meets him there, and they shall all be like a sickness and he shall not meet them there • and the whole world shall be in great confusion • at the end of twelve months, a scepter shall rise from Israel A reference to Numbers 24:17, "A star shall stride out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel." which is the King Messiah who shall be awakened from the Garden of Eden • and all those righteous ones shall crown him there and gird him with weapons of war bearing the engraved seals of the Holy Pious Kings • and a voice shall burst forth through the branches of the trees of the Garden • calling out with strength and saying: "Awaken, high holy ones! Rise up before the Messiah! For the time has come for the Doe A mystical name for the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence to be reunited with her Husband, and her Husband seeks to take vengeance for her upon the world and to raise her up from the dust" • Then they shall all rise and gird him as before with weapons of war • Abraham at his right • Isaac at his left • and Jacob before him • Moses, the Faithful Shepherd, shall go and dance above all those righteous ones within the Garden of Eden • Once the Messiah has been established by the hands of the righteous in the Garden of Eden, he shall enter that place called the Bird's Nest Ken Tzippor: A hidden celestial chamber where the soul of the Messiah dwells until the redemption as before, and he sees there the image of the destruction of the Holy Temple and all the righteous who were killed within it • Then he takes from there another version: ten garments and they are called the Garments of Vengeance • and he shall be hidden there for forty days and not be revealed at all • At the end of forty days, a single voice shall be aroused and called out from the High Throne to that Bird's Nest where the King Messiah is hidden • and then they raise him up on high, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, sees the King Messiah clothed in the Garments of Vengeance and girded with weapons of war, and He takes him and kisses him upon his head • Then three hundred and ninety firmaments tremble, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, looks to a certain firmament called Tachinon The "Grinding" firmament where manna is prepared for the righteous which has been hidden since the six days of Creation, and He brings out from a certain palace in that firmament a single crown, engraved and carved with Holy Names • With that crown, the Holy One, Blessed be He, was crowned when Israel crossed the sea to take vengeance from all the chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen, and He crowns the King Messiah with it • Once he is crowned and established with all these preparations, the Holy One, Blessed be He, takes him and kisses him as before. Behold, the holy chariots and the angels who guard him see him, and they give him gifts and many precious things, and he is crowned by all of them. He enters there into a certain palace and sees all those angels who are called the "Mourners of Zion" who wept over the destruction of the Holy Temple, and they constantly give him a single purple garment to perform vengeance. Then the Holy One, Blessed be He, hides him in that Bird's Nest and he shall be covered there for thirty days • Afterward, he shall descend in that Bird's Nest and be crowned with all those preparations from above and below, with many holy angels surrounding him, and the whole world shall see a single light hanging from the heaven to the earth. It shall stand for seven days, and all the people of the world will wonder and be terrified and will not know at all, except for those wise ones who know these secrets—blessed is their portion. And all those seven days he shall be prepared another version: awakened on the earth in that Bird's Nest, at a place on the road by the Tomb of Rachel, for she stands at the crossroads, and he shall bring her news and comfort her, and then she shall receive comforts and rise and kiss him. Afterward, that light shall rise from that place and rest in the city of Jericho... The text describes the Messiah's movement through significant biblical locations ...and he shall be hidden in that light of the Bird's Nest for twelve months • After twelve months, that light shall stand upright between heaven and earth and shall rest in the land of the Galilee, for there was the beginning of the exile of Israel • and there he shall be revealed from that light of the Bird's Nest and return for twelve months, and on that day the whole earth shall tremble as before, from the ends of the heavens to the ends of...