Zacarías 14:4 Cábala: Sha'ar HaGilgulim, Petichah LeChokhmat HaKabbalah & Heikhalot Rabbati

And behold, when the temple was destroyed, the divine presence was exiled among the husks, because the souls that were exiled among them did not have the power to extract themselves from them, since they were blemished by their sins. That is why His divine presence, may He be blessed, about which it is stated, For the Lord your God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24), enters among them — in order to gather those sparks of souls among them, separate and elevate them to the place of holiness, renew them, and bring them down to this world into the bodies of people. And with this, you can understand the secret of the exile of the divine presence. And this is His work, may He be blessed, from the time that the temple was destroyed until the end of the work of collecting all of the souls that fell among the husks of the Scoundrel Man and got mixed into him, from his head to his feet. And until He finishes collecting even the ones that fell to the feet, the Messiah will not be revealed and the Jewish people will not be redeemed, as it is explained for us in the Zohar, Parshat Pekudei (51:737). And these are its [words]: When the feet reach the feet, like that which is written, On that day, He will set His feet on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4)." However the divine presence only collects them by way of the actions of the earthly ones and their prayers via the secret of, give might to God [alluding to Psalms 68:35]. And according to the level of the actions of the earthly ones, so too is the level of the extraction of those souls and sparks. And if all of the Jewish people was to completely repent, His divine presence would have the power to instantly extract all of the souls from there. But our sins weaken its power, which is as it is written, You neglected the Rock that begot you (Deuteronomy 32:18). And when the souls are finished exiting from there, His divine presence, may He be blessed, will then exit from them and withdraw their life-force. Then the husks will die, and evil will end like smoke [alluding to the amidah prayer of the high holidays]. And this is the secret of the verse, He will swallow up death forever, etc. (Isaiah 25:8). It means to say that the husks, which are called death, will end and be swallowed up instantly, as a result of the removal of His divine presence, may He be blessed, from within them. And all of the sparks of the souls that are among them [will be redeemed], as mentioned.

The surrounding light of the first partzuf of Adam Kadmon is the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, that fills all of reality. After the first constriction (tzimtzum) and the placement of the partition on the vessel of Malkhut, the fusion through collision of the supernal light of Ein Sof on this partition occurred. By means of the returning light that the partition raised, the supernal light was drawn into the constricted world in the context of the ten sefirot of the head and the ten sefirot of the body, as stated in section #25# above. However, this drawing forth of the supernal light that occurred in the partzuf of Adam Kadmon>> from Ein Sof, blessed be He, does not fill all of reality with the light as the light filled all of reality before the constriction. Instead, a beginning and an end can now be discerned regarding the light, which contain two different aspects. The first aspect is the quality of above and below, in that this light is arrested at the entry point of this world,⁴³In this context, “below” refers to this world, where the light is not allowed entry. This stopping point reflects the “end” of the light, illustrating the idea that the supernal light now possesses an endpoint. The endpoint of the supernal light above our world at the point of the terminating Malkhut, the point where the light is arrested, represents the end of the process through which the supernal light of the Creator is hidden from the inhabitants of this world. This is in contrast to the supernal light prior to the first constriction, which had no beginning or end. which is the mystical concept of the terminating Malkhut, as implied by the mystical meaning of the verse “He will set His feet…on the Mount of Olives.”⁴⁴Zechariah 14:4. The Mount of Olives symbolizes Malkhut, the fourth level. After the second constriction, the “feet” of Adam Kadmon are restricted from reaching this level and do not illuminate at this lower point. In the future, after the process of rectifications, the feet of Adam Kadmon will return to their original place of the fourth level, the “Mount of Olives.” The author of the Sulam quotes this verse here to illustrate that Adam Kadmon has a beginning and end – head and feet.

Lo, a day of the Lord is coming (Zechariah 14:1): On that day that Gog and Magog come against the land of Israel, they will shake the earth and the heavens, and there will be a great earthquake in Israel, and they will come to capture Jerusalem, as it is stated, For I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2). At that time, He will make war against Gog and Magog, and seven shepherds, and eight princes among men [alluding to Micah 5:4] will go out with him. David is in the middle [with] Adam, Seth, Enosh, and Methuselah; to his right are Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Moses, and Aharon; and to his left are the eight princes among men, Saul, Samuel, Amos, Zephaniah, Elijah, Malkitsedek, Jesse and Hezekiah. At that time, the minds of the ministering angels cooled off before the Holy One, blessed be He. For at the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, trod upon Rome, He trod upon it only by Himself, as it is stated, I trod out a vintage alone (Isaiah 63:3). The ministering angels say before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Master of the world, from which side are You coming?" He said to them, "From above." They say to him, "Why is your clothing so red?" (Isaiah 63:2). He would say before Him, "Master of the world, is there a king that goes to war but his riders are not with him? Why did you not request us to go with You?" He said to them, "I had a small vat, so you were not needed by Me." Nevertheless, their minds were not cooled off. He said to them, "Wait for Me a little, I have another large vat, so I will need you, as it is stated, And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach, etc. (Zechariah 14:4).