Levítico 9:22 Cabalá: Zohar & Pardes Rimmonim

NOW JETHRO,THE PRIEST OF MIDIAN, MOSES’ FATHER-IN-LAW, HEARD OF ALL THAT GOD HAD DONE FOR MOSES AND FOR ISRAEL. R. Hezekiah opened here with a discourse on the verse: And Aaron lifted up his hand¹So the k’tib. toward the people and blessed them (Lev. 9, 22). ‘The use of the word “hand” here’, he said, ‘in the singular indicates that he meant to lift up his right hand above his left; and this for a certain esoteric reason.

[...] And in the Raya Mehemna (Zohar, Pinchas 247b) the Rashbi gave a third explanation differing from the two of them [given above], and this is what it says: “And on the heads of your New Moons” [Numbers 28:11]. Now how many heads does the moon have? But these two dots just as this: [image], the lower dot [is] the moon. Her two heads are two dots which are upon her: Segol [image of a Segol, the vocalization mark that can occur below a letter], [but] in the beginning it was a crown/Keter upon two kings just as this: [image of a Segolta] and it was a Segolta [the cantillation mark that can occur above a letter]. But after she [= the moon] said: ‘It is not possible for two kings to make use of one crown/Keter’, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to her: ‘Go and diminish yourself’, and she descended to the feet of the two kings just as this: [image of a Segol], and this corresponds to a Segol; what had been a Segolta was turned into a Segol.
And the mystery of the matter [is]: in view of the two dots of these two kings, it alludes in: “Bulls, sons of the herd, two” [Numbers 28:11], and in view of the dot [that is] the crown on their heads, it says: “and one ram” [Numbers 28:11], just as one crown/Keter.
After she said: ‘it is not possible for two kings to make use of one crown/Keter’ she diminished herself, also thus: “and one buck of goats for a sin-offering” [Numbers 28:15]. The ram of Isaac [referring to the Akedah in Genesis 22] turned into a buck, it was transformed from Compassion to Judgement, and it was diminished. And therefore “one buck of goats for a sin-offering”, and it did not say “for a burnt offering” [so that it would] be a crown/Keter.
And from where [is it known] to us that there is a descent with the sin-offering? This is what is written: “And he descended from performing a sin-offering” [Leviticus 9:22]. And why did it combine a burnt offering with the sin-offering in the descent? But [only] to teach [us] that in the beginning a burnt offering was the attribute of Compassion, but afterwards it was transformed to Judgement with the descent, and it was called sin-offering, yet everything is one [and the same]. And therefore ‘Let them bring upon Me an atonement’, upon Me was the moon [as a] crown/Keter for sure [previously] like this: וֹ, but afterwards she was diminished and descended to His feet, like this: וּ (in our formulations there is ‘just like this [image of a Segolta] ‘just like this’ [image of a Segolta]), and at that time: ‘Let them bring upon Me an atonement’, it was said about her: “She is the burnt offering…” [Leviticus 6:2], she rose up from His feet as it is said about her: “And the earth is a stool of My feet” [Isaiah 66:1] to say about her: “the heavens [are] My throne” [Isaiah 66:1]. And this is the mystery: “the Righteous One controls the awe of God” [II Samuel 23:3], who reverses Judgement into Compassion. And the mystery of the matter is “the stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner” [Psalms 118:22], just as HWHY YHWH. End of citation.