Mercy and Judgment: Selections from the Kabbalistic Zohar, Part 2 of 2

From “The Kabbalah Unveiled,” let us continue exploring the aspects of Divine judgment, the calm strength and intense gentleness that shape our world, and the path of righteousness.

CHAPTER 42 CONCERNING THE SEPARATION OF THE MASCULINE AND THE FEMININE, AND CONCERNING THEIR CONJUNCTION.

“Also, we have learned in the ‘Book of Concealed Mystery’ that all the judgments which arise from the Masculine are vehement in the commencement, and relax in the termination; but that those which are found to arise from the Feminine are relaxed in commencement, and vehement in termination. And were it not that they could be conjoined, the world could not suffer them; whence the Ancient of the Ancient Ones, the Concealed by all things, separates the one from the other, and associates them together so that at once they may be mitigated. […]”

“And He takes away one of his sides. What is this one? This is the Woman. And She is taken away and conformed; and in Her place is inserted Mercy and Benignity. Like as it is said: ‘And He has shut up flesh before her.’ Ezekiel 36:26: ‘And I will take away from you the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.’ And when He wishes to introduce the Sabbath, then did He create the spirits, and the malignant demons, and the authors of disturbance; neither at first did He finish them, until the Mother could come into Her formation, and could sit before Him. […]”

CHAPTER 43 CONCERNING THE JUDGMENTS.

“[…] Blessed are the just, because all these are holy words which are sent forth through the Supernal Holy Spirit, the spirit wherein all the Holy Ones are comprehended; the spirit in whom the supernals and inferiors are collected together (otherwise, whom the supernals and inferiors hear). Blessed are ye, O Lords of Lords, Reapers of the Field, who know and contemplate those words, and know well your Lord, face to face, and eye to eye; and through those words worthy in the world to come.

This is that very thing which is written, Deuteronomy 4:38: ‘Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that Tetragrammaton, He is Elohim, in the Heavens above, and upon the Earth beneath: there is none other.’ Where Tetragrammaton is the Ancient of Days. Ha-Elohim, that is the One, blessed be His Name forever, and unto the Ages of the Ages.”