Musar su Esodo 21:7

On Exodus 21,7, כי ימכור איש את בתו לאמה, the Zohar, Sullam edition page 17, explains the entire paragraph as referring to the soul. The איש in the paragraph represents G–d, since G–d is also known as איש מלחמה, as we know from Exodus 15,3. The words "his daughter," refer to the soul. The exhortation תצא כצאת העבדים, means that she must not leave the body sullied, i.e. full of debts (sins) like the male slaves, but as a free (sinless) being. ואם לא יעדה, if the body (her master) that she inhabited did not "wed” her, i.e. has not matched her in sanctity and holiness, that body will be lost, i.e. והפדה, has to release her. Only when the body does penitence, תשובה, can the soul act as a release for it from purgatory. The body is not at liberty to consign the soul to purgatory, since אם אחרת יקח לו, the sinner may have to undergo transmigration, have to live another life on earth in order to rehabilitate itself. This process may repeat itself up to three times, i.e. שלוש אלה. The basis for the approach that we are talking about גלגול נשמות, may be the use of the word אחרת in our paragraph which is similar to Leviticus 14,42, ועפר אחר יקח.

To come back to the similarity between Jacob and Joseph. We mentioned the כתנות אור, the garments woven of light, worn by Adam and Eve prior to their sin. When Jacob made a כתונת פסים, "a striped coat" for Joseph (37, 3), this was the kind of luxurious garment worn by princesses, i.e. the souls in the Celestial Regions who are compared to "daughters of the King of Kings." The נשמה is frequently referred to as בת, daughter, as we know from the Zohar (Sullam edition page 17) on Exodus 21,7: "When a man sells his daughter, etc." Once the serpent had caused the letter א, the luminary quality of אדם, to be removed from אדם, rebellious man, all he was left with were the letters דם.