Chasidut zu Jeschijahu 3:30

"To the One who makes great lights, God's love endures forever" (Ps. 136:4) [We can understand] the verse according to what is written in the Zohar (Zohar 2:136b) "R. Hamnuna the Elder, when the morning star would come out throughout Shabbat, he would sit for a moment and raise his eyes, and was happy, and would say that he was sitting under the sight of the joy of the superior angels. They go out and they rest, and throughout Shabbat a person sits in the world of souls." according to what is known, in every Erev Shabbat Kodesh the souls have an ascent, and through this the extra souls come down, on Shabbat, to this world. And through this we explained what is written in the Gemarah in the name of Rabbi Zeira, that Rabbi Matana said, that Rav said: the fats and the wicks that our sages talked about, which we to not light the candles of Shabbat, we do light with them the candles of Chanukah, whether on Shabbat [of Chanukah] whether the rest of the week. And this is a hint regarding the souls that are distant, as it is explained in other places the fats are symbolic of the soul, the wicks are symbolic of the body. The fats and wicks which are not kindled for Shabbat are due to the fact that there are some defects on humans, God forbid, defects that make them distant, every so often, from ascending the place of their soul-root. And this is the strength of the Shabbat and Chanukah that are an ascent even for souls that are distant, and [feel] outside. And this is the explanation of "Maker of great lights" - those are the lights of Shabbat and Chanukah. Shabbat is called light as we say "a rest and a gladness, light for the Jews" (zemirah of Shabbat). And on Chanukah the hidden light of the seven days of Creation is aroused and this is why, together, they are called "great lights." "Because God's love endures forever" (Ps. 136:1) - this is the Higher Love to all the world, without any dismissal of any sort, and to rise them to the source of their quarrying [creation]. Despite all this, they hinted so we could understand the greatness of the Tzaddik of the generation, that he is a conduit to pull down the Flows and all the above mentioned Fixings are done through his hand, as it was when we heard the deed that occurred in the times of the Besht z"l. A reincarnation of a certain great man, from the times of the Ari z"l, came to him and from that time [of the Ariz"l] onward he was waiting for hundreds of years until the Besht came and fixed his soul. And he was not able to merit to go to the righteous of his generation because he was not set in front of them, until the time of the Besht z"l. And to understand - why is this thing dependent upon the will of the tzadik? Isn't God, in God's compassion, able to free the bound? Why did he need to wait until the compassion of the tzadik was aroused (?) towards him? Indeed, from the beginning of creation it arose in the Will of the Blessed Name that a tzadik would govern etc as it is written "gracious compassionate and righteous" (Psalms 112:4) (Shemot Rabbah 15:20). And the Tzadik that is the basis of the world, he is the middleman through whose hands the salvation that fixes [the other person's] soul root above. And this is the verse "say of the tzadik, he is good" (Isaiah 3:10) - the righteous is called good. And this is "a good name is better than fragrant oil [shemen]" (Eccl. 7:1) - because the tzadik unifies the Name and therefore it is in his hand to fix a soul [neshamah], a good oil [shemen] - that comes [shemin] from God. [שמ"ן ה' and נשמה share the same letters]

Fortunate is the person who listens to these words, to fulfill all that is written herein. He will never slip (based on Psalms 112:6) and his righteousness will answer for him in the time to come (based on Beraishis 30:33), when he comes to receive his reward. In the measure that a person meets out -- so (In that same measure) is he met with. Fortunate is one who chooses life -- Hashem will repay his endeavors, if it is to scoffers He will scoff (Proverbs 3:34), he will not gain wealth and his wealth will not endure (Job 15:29), woe to his soul -- for the retribution of his handiwork will be done to him (Isaiah 3:11), it will not be cast to the ground (but on their heads -Job 15:29), one who is good before G-d will escape from it (Ecclesiastes 7:26). How great is the goodness hidden away for him (based on Psalms 31:20), in his joy no stranger will take part (Proverbs 14:10), a laboring soul benefits from its labor (Proverbs 16:26, see also Tractate Sanhedrin 99b -- he works here and his Torah works for him elsewhere). Let us pour out our souls to Hashem to put our portion with Him, to stand at the threshold of His shade, they will have no regrets -- those who put their trust in Him (Psalms end of Chapter 34), no eye has seen (their reward) except for You G-d, what He will do for those who put their hope in Him (Isaiah 64:3).

“Anan orcha d’oraita naktinan - We are following the way of the Torah.” This is exactly how Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said it. Rabbi Shimon revealed how all mysteries are within the Torah. God enlightened him to the knowledge that the Torah contains all Divine names and chambers. The Torah contains the order of the concatenation of the spiritual worlds. All Sefirot, holy names, and names of angels are derived from its verses. It is clearly stated in the Tikunei Zohar (Tikkun 57, page 91b), “every angel has a verse in the Torah.” The mysteries of the pre-Sianitic teachings are not based on the verses of the Torah, for the Torah had not yet been given.⁸⁰However, all pre-Sinaitic teachings are hinted at in the Torah, as the Torah includes everything, as will soon be explained. From the days of Rabbi Shimon, the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed the knowledge that it is all in the Torah. Therefore it is said in the Zohar (Aharai, 61a), “All who aspire to ascend levels into the realm of mysteries, do so only in order to complete themselves in the knowledge of Rabbi Shimon.” Even that which was taught in the book of Adam HaRishon was again reviewed and taught to Moshe in the Torah. Concerning this, it is written in the Zohar (Yitro, 70a), “Rabbi Shimon said, I raise my hand in prayer⁸¹Referring to what Avraham said to the king of Sodom in Bereshit 14:22. to the One who created the world. Even though our forbears revealed great mysteries in this verse, it is well for us to delve deeply into the secrets of the book of Adam HaRishon, for this knowledge found itself in the hidden book of Shlomo HaMelech. This book reveals the secrets of man’s generations. It is a tree which reveals the generations of man and bears the fruits which bring them into the world. This is the book of the knowledge of hidden and profound wisdom, which was delivered to the physical Adam HaRishon. This same wisdom was given to Shlomo HaMelech, who recorded it in a book. We have learned that Moshe has great difficulty learning these matters, until the Shekhina came and taught it to him … Then Moshe learned this wisdom, and internalized it.” From here we see that Adam HaRishon had the book of the knowledge of mysteries, and God later imparted this knowledge to Moshe. This is hinted at in Parshat Tetsave (Shemot, 27:20). It is also hinted at in the realms of Ma’aseh Bereshit (The mystery of Creation) and Ma’aseh Merkava (The mystery of the Chariot). “And God created man in His image, in the image of Elo-him,” These are two good points – which are male and female. (Zohar, Nasso, 122b) Just as there is a good spiritual form on the Tsaddik, which leads him in the proper behavior whereby he merits the world-to-come, so too is there an evil form on the head of the wicked, which leads him in his evil behavior, whereby he inherits hell.⁸²This “form” (heb. tselem) is the medium through which the good or wicked individual receives his power to act. Come and see! The actions of man are a testament to that individual’s spiritual form, and is revealed on his face, as it is written (Yeshayahu, 3:9), ‘the form of their faces witnesses against them.’ The form of a man’s face reveals the nature of the angel which accompanies him; whether it is the lion, or the ox, or the eagle, or the man of the chariot of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shekhina. … Or perhaps it is from the chariot of the four elements of the earth … This is the secret of (Bereshit, 1), ‘Let the earth bring forth particular species of living creatures.⁸³The word for living creature, חיה, is the same as the word for angel. ‘ … Come and see! Each of the six days of creation had a specific spiritual countenance⁸⁴Or “Face” – Partsuf, in Aramaic. which would lead it. (Zohar, Nasso, 123a)⁸⁵Evidently, Rav Gershon Henokh is quoting this passage in the Zohar as an example of the Rabbi Shimon’s reception and revelation of the wisdom of the Book of Adam. The Zohar refined the knowledge of the book of Adam in a way that could be accessed by later generations.

Numbers 23,18. “arise Balak and listen!” This ‎rather curious line may best be explained through a reference to ‎‎B’reshit Rabbah 82,8 where the Midrash comments as ‎follows on Isaiah 3,13: ‎נצב לריב אלוקים ועומד לדין עמים‎, “the Lord ‎stands up to plead a cause, He rises to judge peoples.” According ‎to the Midrash there, the verse needs explaining, as we ‎appear to have another verse (Joel 4,12) describing G’d as sitting. ‎The solution offered is that when G’d “sits” in judgment of the ‎Israelites He does so standing up, whereas when He judges the ‎nations of the world He does so while remaining seated. The ‎difference is in the amount of time devoted by G’d to that ‎judgment. When forced to do things while standing up, one tends ‎to try and finish one’s business so that one can sit down again. ‎When doing one’s work while remaining comfortably seated, one ‎is more likely to do things more slowly.‎
When our sages offered this solution to the apparent ‎contradiction, they may have had in mind the verse according to ‎which the tzaddik is able to reverse G’d’s evil decrees. The ‎Talmud Ketuvot 111 views the word ‎ישיבה‎, as a more ‎comfortable position only if the seat has arm rests; otherwise ‎standing upright while able to rest one’s arms is a preferable ‎posture, (in the sense of “more comfortable.”) When G’d is ‎portrayed as judging the nations of the world while seated, the ‎meaning is that the throne He sits on has arm rests. When G’d ‎judges the Israelites, although doing so while standing, He has no ‎supports for His arms. This “shakiness” is what enables thetzaddikim to reverse evil decrees, as these decrees had never ‎been firmly rooted. In other words, we learn that curses never ‎have the kind of strength that blessings have. Bileam’s calling on ‎Balak to arise, was meant to undermine any curse which would ‎subsequently be issued against Israel. Israel’s righteous would be ‎able to reverse such curses.
‎[I find all this somewhat irrelevant as the Jewish ‎people never knew of what Bileam and Balak had planned until ‎told about it by Moses. There were no Jewish witnesses to ‎anything which transpired in this portion until where the Torah ‎reports on what occurred subsequently in chapter 25. ‎Ed.]‎ ‎

Exodus 15,3.“The Lord is a man of war, ‎nonetheless His name is Hashem, i.e. the ‎Merciful One.” The author refers to a ‎commentary of his on psalms 90,1 ‎תפלה למשה איש האלוקים‎, ‎‎“a prayer by Moses, the man of G’d.” He repeats a ‎theme he has dwelled on repeatedly, that it is the ‎primary effort of the righteous during all of their lives ‎to make their contribution to G’d dispensing the ‎maximum amount of His largesse for His creature. The ‎prayers of the righteous are not concerned with asking ‎for their personal well being, but with asking for the ‎well being of the community within which they live. We ‎perceive of G’d as “garbing” Himself in the mantle ‎woven by the prayers of the righteous. This explains ‎why Moses referred to G’d as ‎איש‎, “man.” A righteous ‎person in our time is comparable to Moses in his time. ‎The Talmud in Shabbat 101 confirms this by ‎saying that every righteous person in our time may be ‎called “Moses,” hence the commencement of psalm 90 ‎with the words ‎תפלה למשה‎, do not refer only to the ‎original Moses. The message of the psalm is that the ‎prayers of the righteous in our generation are as ‎effective in their effect on G’d as the prayers of Moses ‎in his time. G’d garbing Himself with the prayers of the ‎righteous is something that is the case only when the ‎result (G’d’s largesse) is to become manifest ‎immediately as beneficial. When G’d responds ‎negatively to our prayers He is never referred to as ‎איש‎. ‎Hence the meaning of Bileam’s blessing in Numbers ‎‎23,19 ‎לא איש א-ל ויכזב‎, “G’s is not like man who deceives,” ‎teaches that the negative virtue of deceiving is called ‎כזב‎. We never find the term ‎איש‎ applied to G’d when He ‎is active in His attribute of Justice, decreeing ‎punishment on His people. This remains true even if in ‎answer to the prayers of the righteous He decrees ‎judgment on our adversaries. In such instances He may ‎be referred to as ‎גבור‎, Warrior, or some other name ‎depicting His attribute of Justice. [This is the ‎difference between G’d as ‎איש מלחמה‎ and elsewhere as ‎גבור מלחמה‎, (Isaiah 3,2; psalms 24,8) To make the ‎distinction clear, Moses, repeats ‎ה' שמו‎, His name, ‎predominantly is Hashem, the Merciful ‎One].‎