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THE ZOHAR |
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KORAH Numbers XVI, 1-XVIII, 32 Now KORAH THE SON OF IZHAR THE SON OF KEHATH THE SON OF LEVI, ETC. He who makes the right left and the left right, as it were, lays waste the world. Now Aaron represented the right and the Levites the left, and Korah sought to make the right and the left change places, and therefore he was punished. Further, the evil tongue was also found in him, and for that also he was punished. R. Judah said: 'The left should always be embraced in the right. Korah sought to change the order fixed both above and below, and therefore he perished both above and below. 'TOOK. What did he take? He took an evil counsel for himself. If one runs after that which is not his, it flies from him, and what is more, he loses his own as well. So Korah pursued that which was not his, and he lost his own without obtaining the other. Korah quarrelled with peace, and he who quarrels with peace quarrels with the Holy Name, [176b] because the Holy Name is called peace.' R. Jose said: 'The Torah is also peace, as it is written: "And all her paths are peace" (Prov. III, 17). Korah tried to upset peace on high and below, and therefore he was punished both on high and below.' AND THEY ROSE UP BEFORE MOSES, ETC. R. Simeon said: 'The earthly kingdom is on the pattern of the heavenly kingdom. All those supernal Crowns to which the Holy Name is attached are summoned from a place called Holiness, and just as the higher Holiness summons them, so the lower Holiness summons its hosts to be crowned and exalted therewith. And just as its hosts are above, so are the rulers of the people below. Hence they are described here as "called to the assembly". They are also called here "men of name", but not "men of the Lord", because they came from the side of Geburah, but they arrogated more to themselves and banded together in contention. 'IN THE MORNING THE LORD WILL SHOW WHO ARE HIS AND WHO ARE HOLY. Why "morning", and why "holy", rather than "pure"? Moses meant this: In the morning the Crown of Priest is active, and if you are priests, then in the morning perform the service of the morning and the Lord will make known who is His -- that is to say, the Levite -- and who is the holy one-that is to say, the priest -- and he shall bring near to Himself. The test will only be made by "Morning". If it is meet for you to remain on the side of Judgement, then Morning will not endure you, for it is not the time of Judgement. But if it is meet for you to remain on the side of Grace, then as it is the time thereof, you shall remain with it and it will accept you. In virtue of what? Of the incense, since the incense requires the "best man" to form the link and union; and the "best man" is the priest. Therefore the man whom the Lord shall choose, he shall be "holy", and not only "pure". 'AND THEY FELL ON THEIR FACES AND SAID, O GOD, THE GOD OF THE SPIRITS OF ALL FLESH. Moses and Aaron at this point risked their lives, since "falling on one's face" always means a supplication to the place of the Tree of Death, [1] the place where is the bundle of all souls, to which they ascend and from which they issue.' [177a] AND MOSES SAID UNTO AARON, TAKE THY CENSER, ETC. R. Hiya adduced here the verse: "The wrath of the king is as messengers of death, but a wise man will pacify it" (Prov. XVI, 14). 'How careful men should be', he said, 'to abstain from sin and to watch their actions, for at many periods the world is judged and every day deeds are placed in the balance and examined on high and recorded before the Almighty; and when the deeds of men are not approved before the King, wrath arises and judgement is awakened. But if when the executioners of judgement are ready to strike and wrath impends, there is found in the generation a righteous man who is inscribed above, then God looks upon him and His wrath is mollified. He is like a king who is angry with his servants and sends for the executioner to punish them, but meanwhile the king's friend enters and stands before him, and when the king sees him his face lights up, and when he begins to speak he is glad. So when the executioner comes and sees the king all smiling, he goes away and does not execute judgement, and then the king's friend intercedes for his servants and procures forgiveness for them. So here, when Moses saw wrath [177b] impending he at once told Aaron, who was the "friend" of the Matrona, to take the incense, which increases peace in the world and binds the knot of faith, which is the joy of higher and lower and effects the removal of wrath.' R. Eleazar said: 'It is written "Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites" (Num. IV, 18), because they are the main stock of the Levites, and further, "This do unto them that they may live". This means that the priest had to regulate them, since although they were near to the holiness they were not to enter save with the regulation of the priest, who knew exactly how far they could go in, and when the holy vessels began to be covered another covering also began, and it was forbidden them to see. For things done quietly are the province of the priests and not of the Levites, whose function it was to raise the voice in song. Hence, when judgements begin to assail the world from the side of the Left, the Right Hand must bring appeasement with the incense, which makes no sound. Observe that when that other altar commences to grow restive because there are no righteous, the inner altar intervenes with it and judgements are allayed. Hence AARON TOOK AS MOSES SPAKE, AND RAN INTO THE MIDST OF THE ASSEMBLY, AND HE PUT ON THE INCENSE, which belongs to the inner precinct symbolizing the Priest, and so HE MADE ATONEMENT FOR THE PEOPLE AND HE STOOD BETWEEN THE DEAD AND THE LIVING, between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death. Then the Right Hand drew them near one to another and the plague was stayed. Happy the lot of the priest who has power above and below and brings peace above and below!' As R. Eleazar was once standing before his father, R. Simeon, he quoted to him the verse: "See life with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity" (Eccl. IX, 9). 'This', he said, 'is a hint to a man that he should unite Life with this place, [2] the measure of day with the measure of night. All Solomon's words', he went on, 'are written in wisdom, yet it would seem that here he is giving the rein to worldliness, and equally in the words that follow: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do with thy might, for there is no work nor device", etc. How could the wise Solomon [178a] speak thus? But, indeed, all the words of Solomon have a deep inner significance. What is indicated here is that a man should always merge the left in the right, and all his actions should be controlled by the right. Thus we interpret, "all that thy hand findeth to do" of the left, and "that do with thy might" of the right. When a man is careful that all his acts should be towards the right side, and that he should include the left in the right, then God dwells within him in this world and brings him into the next world. A man should not say, When I reach that world I will seek mercy of the King and repent before him, for "there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom" after a man departs from this world, but if a man desires that the Holy King should illumine him for that world and give him a share in the world to come, he should strive in this world to place his actions in the sphere of the right. Or we may also explain that there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in SheoI. There are storeys in Gehinnom, one above another; there is Sheol and below it Abadon. From Sheol it is possible to come up again, but not from Abadon. Now those who have good works in this world, or reckoning or knowledge or wisdom, when they pass by to observe the sinners in Gehinnom and hear them crying out from the grade of Sheol, are not left there, but ascend aloft to the place of illumination and delight where God comes to have converse with the righteous in the Garden of Eden. 'BUT THE LEVITES SHALL DO THE SERVICE OF THE TENT OF MEETING. At the time of the Creation the world was not completed and established until man emerged in his complete form as the consummation of all and the (seventh) day was sanctified and the holy throne was set for the King. At the moment when the day was about to be sanctified the spirits of the demons issued forth, but the day was sanctified before their bodies were created, and so the world was left deficient. [178b] When Israel were sanctified and all their grades completed with the Levites on the left side, then this deficiency of the world on the left side was made good, and all was then subordinated to the right and the world was freed from defect. Hence it says "the Levite shall do", i.e. "make" or "complete". We may also translate, "And the Levite shall serve hu (him)", the reference being to the Ancient One, and the Levite typifying Judgement, but for which men would not rise to the higher faith, nor study the Torah, nor carry out the precepts of the Torah for the service of the Holy King.' _______________ Notes: 1. The Shekinah. 2. i.e. Tifereth with Malkuth.
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