The Book of Splendor

Main Text (Zohar)

To separate this from that below, they are required to do so through will and not through speech, so as not to show a separation. And that exile is found within the distress of every single time; therefore, they make a separation to join that Name apart from it, in order to raise the Shekhinah The Divine Presence, often depicted as the feminine aspect of God from the dust. And this is the meaning of: "Only through You do we mention Your Name" Isaiah 26:13. When you are required to remember this Name in separation, it is because love has distanced itself from you and other powers rule over us. And Your Name is in separation from the Name called Thus original: "Koh" (כֹּה), a name associated with the Shekhinah. And the life of the days of exile is because the first exile was from the First Temple. And the First Temple is this first Spirit Ruach, and corresponding to its seventy years, the exile of the First Temple was seventy years. And in those seventy years, life and will were not found upon them, and there was a separation from the Supernal Name, this Supernal Spirit. And then the Supernal Spirit ascended higher and higher to the Infinite Life Ein Sof. And the holy Supernal First Temple was not, as it were, like the living waters, for its source had ascended. And those seventy years of exile were because life is seven years, which they call the Bride, and the dry land is seven elders. And you might say that the kingdom of Babylon ruled above in the spirit of seventy years; rather, these were like a dimness and a heaviness. For the Supernal Light was the light and radiance below, but since they sinned and were banished, and the kingdom of Babylon ruled, that light was covered and darkened. And the holy ones appeared not as shining ones; since they appeared, they were not shining because of the dominion of the kingdom of Babylon. That radiance departed, and that Supernal Spring, which was the source of the Spirit, ascended higher and higher to the Infinite. Then those seventy years were not shining like that radiance that was heard, and the exile of seventy years was pushed away. Once the dominion of Babylon was removed and all were banished, they did not return to find or see the treasure of the bundle as before, but only little by little in confusion. And then, when they finished, it was not found, and the woman, the Assembly Knesset Israel/Shekhinah, labored below. Then the Supernal Subjugation descended, not with all the strength to break through as it was before, but little by little in confusion. And they were not shining as is fitting. And because of this, the Supernal Subjugation was not, as it were, a radiance, but rather to return and join little by little from the staff of the Name. And this "He ascended" was illuminated in them, for Israel draws near to the thorns until it strengthens and covers the heat. And all that is below was strengthened and fell to the gate, and the Supernal Subjugation ascended as before because the kingdom of Edom Rome/The current exile grew strong and waited to return to its will. And because of this, the Second Temple was separated, and all those twelve tribes were crushed and burdened, and they are invited into the exile of the kingdom of Edom. And the Supernal Subjugation ascended, that subjugation that stood over it. Then the Kindness Chesed was blocked, that Kindness of the Supernal Source that was flowing and drawing down from above. And then there was a separation in the letter He The final letter of the Tetragrammaton, representing the Second Temple/Shekhinah of the Second Temple. And they were seen in exile in all those twelve tribes, and they burdened them. The twelve tribes ascend to dwell in abundance, and because this Spirit is in them, all that length of exile is found to be a saturated spirit to establish it, to be given the crown of the tribes. Instead of years, two tribes... years... the surrounding of the count to double. He opened and was embittered: "She weeps sorely in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks" Lamentations 1:2. At the end of the twelve tribes of the exile of the night, the measure will be strengthened until it awakens. And it has a time of sixty-six years. After the twelve tribes of your life, also one hundred years of exile, and after until sixty-six years that are proven to the night. Then, "And I will remember My covenant with Jacob"—this is the awakening from below. And for him is the palm of the House of Jacob, and this Spirit is every wing for the House of Jacob, spread out and stretched. The six wings of the Second Temple, this Spirit is below, and this is the letter Vav, the Spirit that is spread out, spreading and extending for the awakening of Jacob, and returning for the awakening of Joseph. And because of this, they lived, and the fifty of your life are two like the first light and the first spirit. From there onwards, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will awaken for your life like the hundreds and thousands that we have said.