Pillars and Wheels

243. However, begin and gird your weapon and tie your tie [connection] since it is time to reveal, for across the width of the house there is the hall of the court inside. There are twelve doors in that court, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. On one door, it is written Reuben; on another door, it is written Shimon, and so are all the tribes of Israel written on those doors when they rise to be seen before the Master of the World.

One who enters the door where it is written Reuben, if he is from the tribe of Reuben, the doors accept him. If he is not, the doors repel him out. So it is with all of them; the doors accept only those who are from the tribe that is written on them, and by this, each and every one is engraved and known.

244a. Three-hundred and sixty-five pillars of blazing light are on each of those four sides in the court. All those pillars are called living pillars since their light does not stand still in one place. All the pillars, the ones that ascend and the ones that descend, give each other room. Those that ascend strike one another and play a tune, and those who descend play, as well.

244b. Those pillars that ascend play a tune, an orphan song, whose sayer’s name is not mentioned, as it is written, “A psalm, sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders.” Is there an old song? Rather, it is a song that until now, the angels have not praised because it is new.

New, since the one who renews his youth, Matat, praises it. Matat is called new because he always renews his youth since he is adhered to the sun, ZA, and does not part from it, unlike the Sitra Achra, in whom there is no renewal, as it is written about it, “And there is nothing new,” since he is old and withered and is not renewed.

245. Sarah was renewed with youth since her degree, female, caused it, as it is written, “After I am worn out shall I have youthfulness, and my lord is old?” Because it was drawn on her from the phase of female, it is written “youthfulness” with Hey [in Hebrew], and this is why it is written had [in female form] and not had [in male form].

246. “And my lord is old.” Is he unfit for bearing because he is old? After all, elderly deliver, too. However, she did not say a small thing about him, for she said, “since he is old,” that he is the Sitra Achra, that there is no renewal and offspring in him. Abraham is not renewed and does not make offspring for if the Sitra Achra were to place offspring, he would blur the world. the Creator replied about this, “Why did Sarah laugh saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old,’” meaning that the Sitra Achra controls Abraham.

But it is written, “And Abraham was old, of many days.” Thus, does the text call Abraham “old,” as well? However, the verse says “of many days,” meaning he comes in those upper days of ZA, who renew their days like an eagle. For this reason, after those upper days, that tune of “A psalm, sing to the Lor a new song,” is a tune of that new one, Matat, who is adhered to the upper days of ZA.

The continuation of the psalm is “His right hand and His holy arm shall save Him.” “Save Him,” that new one who includes the right of the upper king, ZA. “His holy arm’ is the left. This is why it is written, “His right hand and His holy arm.”

247. Thus far, it interpreted the singing of the ascending pillars. Now it will interpret those pillars that are descending from above downward. They, too, play, but they say a different song, an orphan one, who sayer’s name is not mentioned. What is it? It is a psalm of thanksgiving, which is an orphan, too.

248. The light of the pillars seems as one light. When they roll, five wheels of light are seen in each pillar. These pillars are all hollow inside. When they ascend and descend, flames of fire come out from them, like a button and a flower. Above each pillar, there are three apples where three colors make a coupling: red, green, and white. In each color, protruding letters blaze with green flames of fire. They never rest, and there is no one to understand them or attain them.

The wholeness comes with twelve phases HG TM, with three lines in each. The court, Malchut, receives those twelve phases from TNHY of ZA, and they are called in her “twelve tribes.” In the same way, all of Israel are divided into twelve tribes, where each tribe receives from its corresponding phase in the twelve phases in the court, in Malchut.

The doors are the screen that cuts between Keter-Hochma and TM. The screen that lowers Bina and TM to the bottom degree during the Katnut [smallness/infancy] and raises Bina and TM back along with the connected bottom degree during the Gadlut [greatness/adulthood], that screen is regarded as the door for the lower one, for were it not for that screen, it would be utterly impossible for the lower one to enter the upper one and receive its lights from it.

The souls of Israel are from the world of Beria, which are the bottom degree of Malchut. It turns out that during the Katnut, the screen below Keter-Hochma in the twelve phases in the court, which is Malchut, lowers the Bina and TM in the twelve phases in Malchut to the twelve tribes of Israel. During the Gadlut, that screen raises Bina and TM back to the degree of the court, Malchut, along with the twelve tribes of Israel.

It follows that the screen below HB in each phase in the court is the door to raise that tribe in Israel, which Bina and TM of that phase were clothed in during the Katnut.

There are twelve doors in that court, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. The twelve screens below Keter-Hochma in the twelve phases in Malchut, called “court,” and Bina and TM of each phase are clothed in their corresponding phases in the souls of the twelve tribes of Israel. On one door, it is written “Reuben,” and similarly, all the other tribes of Israel are written on those doors, since the corresponding phase in the tribes of Israel is discerned in the screen of each phase.

One who enters through the door on which it is written Reuben, if he is from the tribe of Reuben, meaning that Bina and TM of that phase are clothed in him in Katnut, the doors accept him. During the Gadlut, at the time of seeing, when the screen raises its Bina and TM, it also raises that tribe, which is connected to these Bina and TM from the time of Katnut. If he is not, the doors repel him outside, for if he is not connected to the Bina and TM of that phase, they will not be able to raise him since he has no contact with him. It is likewise with all of them, and by this they will be engraved and known, each and every one.

During the Katnut, each one is engraved with Bina and TM in its corresponding phase at the door of the court, in the screen, since at the time of Katnut, the screen lowers to it the Bina and TM of its phase in Malchut. In Gadlut, the screen elevates it because Bina and TM of its phase are in it.

The four Sefirot TNHY of ZA are clothed in Malchut in the court. They are incorporated in each other in a way that each of the TNHY is incorporated with the four Sefirot TNHY. Since there is the Mochin from Bina in them, each Sefira is regarded as a hundred Sefirot, like the Sefirot of Bina. Thus, there are three Sefirot NHY, which are three-hundred, and Tifferet, which is incomplete, but only from her Chazeh and below; at times, she is regarded as half a Sefira, fifty, and in that sense, there are four Sefirot TNHY, which are 350.

And sometimes we regard Tifferet as three thirds, where the upper third continues through the Chazeh, and from the Chazeh and below are the two thirds of Tifferet. When these one-hundred are divided in them, thirty-five of them are in the upper third of Tifferet through the Chazeh, and sixty-five are in the two thirds of Tifferet from the Chazeh and below. Thus, there are four Sefirot TNHY, which are 365, three-hundred from NHY and sixty-five from the two thirds of Tifferet.

The reason why the top third has one part and two thirds more than the bottom part in Tifferet is that the Keter of the bottom two thirds of Tifferet, which is the Chazeh, is regarded as the Raglayim [legs] of the upper third.

For this reason, there are 365 pillars of blazing light on each of those four sides in the court. Yesod of ZA is called a “pillar,” and when it is incorporated with TNHY, it has 365 pillars in it, which are the phases of Yesod of ZA, and Yesod of ZA is called “living.”

All those pillars are called “living,” 365 living pillars, since their light does not stand quietly in one place, as all the pillars are always in a coupling with Malchut, but once they ascend and once they descend, since there is a coupling only in Daat. Hence, before each coupling, Yesod ascends up to Daat.

All the Mochin of ZA come from his deciding between the two lines of Bina. Then, because HBD of Bina come out through ZA, which becomes the middle line, Daat, to unite the HB of Bina, ZA, too, is rewarded with these Mochin HBD that he caused in Bina. The main power of deciding in ZA to unite the two lines of Bina is from the force of his Yesod, the screen of Hirik in him.

There is bestowal and reception in the judgments in the left of Daat of ZA. The bestowal in them is called Yesod, and the reception in them is called Malchut. It follows that Yesod caused the Mochin of HBD of ZA, and the lower one, too, is rewarded with all the measure of light that it causes in the upper one. For this reason, after ZA received HBD from Bina, it is considered that since the power of decision in Daat of ZA is Yesod, it follows that Yesod is the cause that makes HBD emerge in ZA. Hence, Yesod is also rewarded with them, since the lower one, too, is rewarded with all the measure of light that it causes in the upper one.

Likewise, the power of decision in the middle line in HGT of ZA is Yesod. Hence, Yesod is rewarded with them, too. It is especially so in his own place, TNHY of ZA. For this reason, Yesod of ZA is incorporated with the abundance of Mochin of HBD of ZA, and with the abundance of Mochin of HGT of ZA, and from Netzah and Hod of ZA. He draws them to his own place, to the phase of Yesod of ZA, and from there he bestows them upon Malchut.

Before any bestowal that Yesod bestows upon Malchut, he needs renewal. He must rise once more to Daat of ZA and decide between HB of ZA and receive from the abundance of GAR. Afterwards, he descends to HGT, and then to his place, NHY, and bestows upon Malchut.

This is why it was said that all the pillars, those that ascend and those that descend, ascend up to Daat to receive the abundance of GAR, and then descend and give the bestowal to Malchut. Although there is a difference between an ascent and a descent, since they rise by the power of the control of the right, since they want to diminish the left and incorporate it in the right, and those who descend to bestow upon Malchut, descend from the left, since Malchut needs the abundance of Hochma on the left, nevertheless, they do not detain one another, and each one does what it should.

The disclosure of the upper lights is extended in a tune. Those that ascend strike one another, as the ones that ascend unite the two lines HB. Striking means unification and coupling that come through a force from below, Yesod. They play a tune, meaning the abundance of the three lines HBD is revealed. Those that descend play, too.

Those that ascend play a tune, an orphan song, “A psalm, sing to the Lord a new song.” The disclosure of the lights that are drawn through the ascent of Yesod once more to Daat is a new disclosure, for the angels still did not know of it, to praise it. In each ascent, new bestowal is drawn, which has not yet been in the worlds. It is new because the one who renews his youth, the youth Matat, praises it.

Matat is a Merkava [chariot/structure] to the coupling of Yesod of ZA and Malchut. It is the first that receives this new illumination that Yesod drew from above, and from it, all the angels receive.

Matat is called “new” because it is adhered to ZA, the sun, and does not part from it. Hence, it is the first to receive the new abundance from Yesod of ZA, unlike the Sitra Achra, in which there is no renewal since the Sitra Achra does not have the Moach of Daat, where Yesod ascends and renews their coupling each time. Through this coupling, new lights and offspring always come, except they have only two Mochin, HB.

Since they are devoid of Daat, nothing new comes out from their HB, except for that measure of illumination that is absorbed in their HB at the beginning of their being. They are repeated and returned each time as they were at first, without addition, until they are regarded as having been frayed and worn out from use. This is why it is said that he is old and worn out and is not being renewed, that he is gradually being worn out like an old man whose strength gradually leaves him until he withers away.

This tune of “A psalm, sing to the Lord a new song,” which the pillars play when they ascend to HBD, is a tune of that new one, Matat. The pillars, too, play it, since they are renewed with new abundance when they ascend to HBD.

This is why the verse continues, “His right hand and His holy arm shall save Him.” “Shall save Him,” that new one, who contains the right of the upper king, ZA. His arm is the left, which is the second reason, that the pillars, Yesod of ZA, play that song during the ascent. The verse speaks of the decision of the middle line, where that new one, Yesod, unites the right of the upper king with his holy arm, the left, during his ascent.

Those pillars that descend from above downward also play and say a different singing, which is a psalm of thanksgiving, since it is written about it, “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all the earth,” Malchut. They say this since the pillars descend in order to bestow upon Malchut.

The light of all 365 pillars is one light, since they are all the phase of Yesod. When they roll, they shine in an illumination of the lines, called “rolling,” and then Yesod is incorporated with all the KHB TM, which, from the perspective of Hassadim, are called HGT NH.

Five wheels of light are seen in each pillar, since at that time, each of the 365 pillars contains HGT NH. However, Yesod itself is not a sixth phase, since there are no more than five phases, which, from the perspective of Hochma, are called KHB TM, and from the perspective of Hassadim, are called HGT NH. However, Yesod is not an additional phase to them, but only an inclusion, incorporating those five phases.

These pillars are all hollow inside; they have no insides since besides the five phases, there is no other phase of light. It follows that they are spaces without content of a form of light. Rather, they have in them two phases of judgments: of the right and of the left, which Yesod carries. For this reason, it is regarded as the left of Daat, since the deciding one incorporates right and left. As the right of Daat contains the two lights of the right and of the left, the left of Daat contains the two judgments—of the right and of the left.

They are called “button and flower” because the judgments of the right, the Yod that entered the Avir [air], the Holam, are called “button,” with the letters Kafat Ohr [tied light, creating the letters of Kaftor (button)], since the light is tied to the right by the force of these judgments. The judgments of the left, from which the light of Hassadim flies out so they remain with Hochma without Hassadim and cannot shine, for this reason, it is called Perah [flower], from the word Priha [fleeing out], since the lights fly out from there, since even the Hochma does not shine. And there is another reason: All the power of the left comes through the exit of the Yod from the air, which returns to being light, the dot of Shuruk. Hence, the Yod flies in the air and exits there.

This is why it was said that when they ascend and descend, flames of fire come out from them, like a button and a flower, which are two kinds of judgments: of the right, which is the button, and of the left, which is the flower.

The pillars in the court are Yesod of ZA. Now The Zohar explains the form of the abundance that is fixed in the quality of Yesod: to bestow upon Malchut. Although one manner of bestowal is not like another, and any bestowal is a new form that Yesod bestows upon Malchut, nevertheless, there is one form that is fixed and contains all the bestowals in the world, and is mandatory in all of them: This is the complete form of twelve phases whose content is the four Sefirot HB TM, or HG TM, with three lines in each, and three times four is twelve.

Above each pillar, above Yesod, there are three apples, three lines, in which three colors make couplings: red, green, white. These are HGT, which clash and make couplings with those three apples. In each color, blazing letters are protruding from Tifferet, which is green, since Malchut is always adhered to Tifferet. They are never still, and there is no one who understands or attains them.

That Malchut is regarded as being from the phase of Yesod, and illumination of Hochma is not revealed there, but rather in the separated Malchut, the wheels. Hence, there is no one who can understand them, as it is impossible to attain them there.

It follows that there are three apples here, three lines. In each apple, each line, there are three colors—white, red, green—which are HGT, and green letters, which are Malchut. Three times four are twelve phases, and without them, the abundance is incomplete. The pillars are Yesod of ZA, and the general abundance on Yesod has the form of three apples, where in each apple there are HG TM.

Now The Zohar will explain to us the form of the separated Malchut, the wheels underneath the pillars, and the general form of the abundance in them for the lower ones, and the two couplings—the morning coupling and the midnight coupling.

249. Four wheels, a work of embroidery, expand and turn in each of the 365 pillars on each side of the court. There are great wonders in these wheels. When they turn, they bring out from themselves bells of gold and gemstones, which are promptly gathered within them and do not fall to the ground. When these bells of gold and these gemstones come out, a sound is heard from the turning of the wheels, which say, “‘This is the inheritance‎ of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,’ says the Lord.”

250. Two lions are in each wheel, one lion on one side, and one lion on the other side. They are all from green fire. When the wheels turn, these lions embrace with one another, and everyone walks in the rolling, adhering to each other. When the pillars rise, these lions growl toward each other, and apples fly in the air and rise up. The apples clash with one another in the air, and then return to their place, and from there they fall. The lions stretch out their hands to receive them, and the apples rise by themselves.

251. At midday, two eagles come out in each wheel. They are on the heads of those lions, and then the pillars and the wheels quiet down, and stand in their existence, and apples fall on the mouths of the eagles, who receive them. Then the apples promptly fly from mouth to mouth. After an hour and a half, the eagles raise their voice and play a nice tune, and hide.

After The Zohar has already explained all the phases in Yesod and the abundance over it, it continues to explain the Malchut that receives from it, whose Sefirot are called “wheels,” and the matter of the coupling of Yesod and Malchut. It says “four wheels, the work of embroidery, expand and turn in each pillar,” since the abundance that emerges from each pillar consists of HG TM, and there needs to be four Malchuts of HG TM that receive. Hence, for each pillar, there are four wheels.

It interprets the matter of the abundance that is received in Malchut for the lower ones, and says that when they turn, because the abundance is revealed only by turning, they bring out from themselves bells of gold and gemstones. Bells of gold are illuminations of Hochma from the left line, and gemstones are illuminations of Hassadim. When these come out, a sound is heard because of the turning of the wheels, which say, “This is the inheritance‎ of the servants of the Lord,” declaring that that abundance is ready to be received by the servants of the Creator, and it is their inheritance.

Hesed rules the morning coupling. In each wheel, Malchut, there are two lions that receive the abundance, one from to Malchut’s right, and one to Malchut’s left. Even the one on the left is also called a “lion,” the name of Hesed, indicating that in the morning, there is the governance of the right, and the left, too, is in the form of right, lion. However, they are all of green fire, the green color, called Tifferet, since Malchut in general is in the middle between right and left, which is regarded as Tifferet and as the color green.

In the rolling, when the wheels turn during the disclosure of the abundance, which comes only by rolling, the lions embrace with one another—the right and the left embrace to be one, and they all walk in a rolling, adhering to each other and incorporating with one another.

When the pillars rise, when Yesod ascends to HBD to receive abundance and be renewed, those lions growl toward each other, those on the right and those on the left, since prior to the rolling, they are still not one phase. Apples, the abundance on Yesod, rise together with the pillars, which are the Yesod, in order to fly in the air, to receive abundance from GAR, which concern the entry and the exit from the air.

The apples clash with one another in the air, incorporating with each other, then descend together with the pillars to their place, to Malchut, and from there they fall. Through their connection with Malchut, the apples fall from Yesod to Malchut.

The lions, the receivers of the abundance in Malchut, stretch out their hands to receive the apples, and the apples ascend by themselves, as their illumination rises from below upward by itself. The lions receive them and are not drawn and fall down, below Malchut, due to the abundance of Hochma that is incorporated there, which shines only from below upward. This explains the morning coupling, which is under the control of the right, Hesed.

Now it explains the midday coupling. It says that at midday, two eagles come out in each wheel, since the first half of the day is Hesed, right, and the second half of the day is judgment, left. The middle, midday, comprises both, Hesed and judgment, the shape of the face of an eagle, which incorporates a lion and an ox, which are right and left. Hence, at that time, the receivers in Malchut come out, on her right and on her left, in the form of two eagles in each wheel, one to the right and one to the left, as with the two lions. They are on the heads of those lions, meaning that at that time, they control the lions.

Then is the time of the coupling of the pillars and the wheels, Yesod and Malchut. At that time, the pillars and the wheels quiet down from their rolling and stand in their existence, making couplings with each other. Then the apples fall, the abundance falls from the pillars, which are Yesod, on the mouths of the eagles, who are the receivers of the abundance in Malchut, and they receive the apples from the pillars.

The abundance flies from the mouths of the eagles on the right to the mouths of the eagles on the left, and vice versa, in order to be incorporated from the right and from the left. And yet, that coupling at midnight also leans to the right, which is why it lasts only an hour and a half, which is a line and half a line of the right at that time, since three lines are called three hours.

When this is over and a line and half a line from the left begins to shine, that coupling stops. After an hour and a half, after the line and half a line of the right side, Hochma, the right half of Daat, has stopped shining and the line and half a line of the left line, Bina, the left half of Daat, begins to shine, the eagles raise their voice and play a nice tune, beginning to receive from the left, whose abundance comes by raising the voice and a nice tune.

However, they promptly hide and the illumination stops. Because they have the face of an eagle, incorporating the right and the left, they can receive the beginning of the illumination of the left. But because the right begins to diminish at the time of the governance of the line and a half of the left, they hide and are concealed.

252. Around those pillars there are embroidered nets that are the illumination of Bina, which is clothed there, mixed and entangled and woven together with Malchut. For this reason, it is called an embroidered net and it is woven from red fire, illumination of the left, and from white fire, illumination of the right. The gold threads are illumination of the left in Bina, called gold, encircled all around from every side. There is also a spring of water there, as it is written, “And on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the Eastern Sea and the other half toward the Western Sea.”