Бамидбар 4:21 Каббала: Zohar, Idra Zuta & Chesed LeAvraham

AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING: TAKE THE SUM OF THE SONS OF GERSHON, ETC. R. Abba began a discourse on the verse: “Happy is the man unto whom the Lord counteth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Ps. 32, 2). ‘The two halves of this verse’, he said, ‘do not seem to hang together,¹The first half implies that there is iniquity in him, the second that there is not.

Rabbi Shimon said, how different is this time from the Greater Gathering in Portion Naso. During that gathering, the Holy One, blessed be He, appeared along with his chariots. Now the Holy One, blessed be He, appears with the righteous that are in the Garden of Eden. This did not occur at the gathering. And the Holy One, blessed be He, delights in the honor of the righteous more than in his own, as written about Jeroboam who offered incense and worshipped idols but the Holy One, blessed be He, was longsuffering with him and did not punish him. But once he put out his hand against Ido the prophet, his hand dried up, as written, “And his hand, which he put out against him, dried up” (I Melachim 13:4). It does say that for his idol worship, but for putting out his hand against Ido the prophet. And now the Holy One, blessed be He, delights in our honor, seeing that all the righteous in the Garden of Eden accompanied him.

It should be asked, after Israel, who are holy and God's portion, received the impurity of foreskin, which is the "Sitra d'Shmaya" (the Other Side of Holiness, associated with impurity) and is the highest level of impurity. The proof is that the sages compared it to the impurity of a dead body, the father of impurities, as is mentioned in Midrash Yalkut (Yalkut Reuveni) on Parashat Vayera and Parashat Naso, and they said, "And Moses said, 'This is the thing which the Lord has commanded, you shall do, etc.'" - what is this thing? Concerning circumcision, he said to them, etc. A parable to a certain hunchback who had a lover, and he was a priest, and he had impurity in his house, etc. Similarly, it says in Pirkei Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 29: "One who separates from the foreskin is like one who separates from the grave. Anyone who touches the foreskin is like one who touches the dead, etc." If so, where does this impurity come from for Israel? It can be said that the initial arousal of sexual activity is only from the side of the evil inclination for the pleasure of the world. Even the pious, who cannot avoid having some aspect of worldly pleasure, as stated in Vayikra Rabbah, Parashat Tazria, Section 3: "In the sin of 'I created' - Rabbi Acha said, 'Even if one is a Hasid among the pious, it is impossible that he will not have some aspect of desire for worldly pleasures.'" David said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Did I intend anything, O Father in Heaven, but for my own pleasure, etc." until "For my father and my mother have forsaken me, etc." And Yishai, who is from the tribe of Judah, died because of the bite of the snake, as mentioned in Berachot 17a and Shabbat 146a. It was said about him by the Holy Spirit, "In the sin of 'I created,' etc." It is derived from this that there is no sexual activity that does not have some aspect of desire, and from that aspect, the foreskin is formed.