The Holy Idra Zuta

The Coupling of ZON that Are Called Justice and Sentence

98. It is written, “Justice and sentence are the foundation of Your throne; Hesed [mercy] and truth go before You.” Who is wise to look into it to see the ways of the Creator, which are true judgments, judgments crowned in the upper Sefirot? I see that all the lights shine from the upper illumination, the most concealed of all that is concealed, Atik. All the degrees are to shine for them, and each one has a unique illumination. In the light in each degree, a unique revelation is revealed, and all the lights are gripped, this light to that light, and that light to this light, and shine in one another and do not separate from one another.

99. The light that is in every light, called the “correction of the king,” the “Sefirot of the king,” each light shines and is gripped to that light that is the innermost, the light of Ein Sof, which is not separated outside and in which there is no perception whatsoever. For this reason, everything rises by one degree, and everything is crowned in one thing, and one does not separate from the other, “He is one and His name, One.” “He,” the light that is revealed, is called the “King’s garment.” The innermost light among all the lights is a hidden light, and the one that is not separated and not revealed is in it, Ein Sof.

100. All the illuminations and all the lights shine from holy Atik, the most concealed of all that are concealed, which is the upper light. When looking, it is not among all the lights that expand from Atik, but only the hidden, upper light, and it is not revealed.

101. The two lights that are the correction of the King’s throne, Bina, and which are called “justice” and “sentence,” are in garments of honor, garments of truth, true connections and true lights. ZA is sentence, and Malchut is justice. They are the beginning and the wholeness in all the faith. Justice is at first, and the revealing of the wholeness in justice is called “sentence.” All the judgments above and below are crowned by them, and everything is concealed in the sentence, in ZA. Justice, Malchut, is nourished from the sentence, from ZA. Also, sometimes, Malchut is called “And Melchizedek king of Shalem [whole].”

102. When judgments awaken from the sentence, they are all mercy; they are all in wholeness. This is so because the sentence perfumes the justice, which is judgments, the judgments are sweetened, and everyone descends to the world in wholeness in mercy. This is the time when the male and female connect, and all the worlds are in mercy and gladness.

103. When the iniquities of the world proliferate, and the Temple, Malchut, is defiled by their iniquities, and the male, ZA, moves away from the Nukva, Malchut, and the strong serpent begins to awaken, woe to the world that is nourished by justice, Malchut, at that time, separated from ZA, sentence. Several sabotaging angels awaken in the world, several righteous depart from the world since the male moves away from the Nukva and the sentence does not approach this justice.

It is written about that, “There is he who perishes without a sentence,” since the sentence, ZA, has moved away from justice, and Malchut was not perfumed, and justice suckles from a different place, from left without right, from harsh judgments.

104. King Solomon said about that, “I have seen everything in the days of my emptiness: There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.” This Hevel [emptiness/mouth breath] is one of seven Havalim [pl. of Hevel] of above, called the “face of the king,” from the seven Sefirot HGT NHYM. This is the holy Malchut, the last of the seven Havalim. When she awakens in her judgments, it is written, “There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness,” in his justice,” since the sentence has moved away from justice, and Malchut is left without right. This is why it is called “There is he who perishes without a sentence.”

105. When there is a high righteous in the world, the Creator’s loved one, even when only justice awakens, without sentence, the world can be saved by his merit, for the Creator wants his honor and he does not fear the judgment. When that righteous does not exist, they fear even the sentence and they cannot face it, much less justice.

106. In the beginning, King David said, “Test me, Lord, and try me,” for I am not afraid of all the judgments, even from this justice, and especially since I am gripped to it, since David was a Merkava [chariot/structure] for Malchut, as it is written, “In justice I will behold Your face.” I do not fear rising in his judgments. After he sinned, he feared even the sentence, as it is written, “Do not come to Your servant with sentence.”

When that justice is perfumed by the sentence, it is called “righteousness” [or charity], in female form [in Hebrew], since it becomes the female of ZA, who is called “sentence,” and receives Hassadim from him, and the world is perfumed with Hesed and filled with it, as it is written, “He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the Hesed of the Lord.”

107. I testify about myself that my whole life, I felt sorry for the world, that it will not encounter the judgments of justice and will not be burned by its flames, as it is written, “ate and wiped her mouth.” From here on, after my passing, the world will behave as everyone behaves. As the pit is, so is its depth, paying an eye for an eye according to the actions. Indeed, there are righteous in this generation, but they are [too] small to rise and protect the generation and the flock from the four winds of the world.