Ezekiel’s Merkava

312. Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Elazar, and Rabbi Abba were sitting. Rabbi Elazar said, “If it pleases my father, may he say a word about the work of the Merkava [structure/chariot]?” He said to him, “But we learned, ‘And not in Merkava alone.’” He said to him, “Does my father mean that I should say a matter I had learned from him?” Rabbi Shimon said to Rabbi Abba, “You alone will fix the table,” meaning you will learn on your own, and Elazar will be with me. Rabbi Abba left.

313. Rabbi Elazar opened and said, “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Kvar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” This verse, it is not said who said it, whether Ezekiel, since it is written afterwards, “Now the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest.” That verse should have been written before it, since that text speaks of the permission that the Creator gave him to speak words of prophesy, and afterwards, it should have written, “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year.”

314. However, Ezekiel said the verse, and he said all that he said and revealed all that he revealed with the Creator’s permission. The friends elucidated this verse. However, this prophesy was when the Shechina [Divinity] went down to exile with Israel, and the upper glory, Bina, was sparkling to block the looking of that light called “the brightness of the Shechina,” the brightness from which she is nourished, and Bina blocked it so it would not shine.

The upper Shechina, Bina, departed from the children, ZA and Malchut, and does not shine for them, and permission was given to seventy other years, of the Kingdom of Babylon, to rule. These are seventy years in Malchut of the Sitra Achra, which correspond to the seventy years in Malchut of holiness, which are her seven Sefirot, where each of them comprised of ten.

315. In the meantime, a fire descended from above and encircled them. They heard the sounds of the camps of angels of above from within the fire.

316. “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month.” “On the fourth” is King David, Malchut, the fourth support of the upper throne, with those three upper supports HGT, which are thirty years, where each of the three consists of ten. The fourth support, Malchut, is with HGT, in one connection.

And because he is with them in one connection without separation, it is written, “on the fourth,” since there is a second phase in Malchut, who is connected to Yesod, and then she is seventh and not fourth.

On the fifth day of the month” are the degrees of below, the five Sefirot HGT NH of Malchut when she is below, seventh, connected to Yesod, which are the correction of the moon, Malchut, to bond with them, since she connects to Tifferet, to the fourth, as well as established under Yesod, in the seventh.

317. All those degrees have no contentment and light when the upper Shechina, Bina, departs from the children, ZA and Malchut, since during the exile, Bina departed from ZON, the heavens wore blackness, and their covering was a sackcloth, as it is written, “I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering.” And then it is written, “And I am in the exile,” since the Shechina descended to the exile and the upper glory has been revealed on her, namely Bina, to support her, and the sun was darkened.

318. As we study this verse with sorrow in this time, the time of exile, on another time, when that light will shine and the thrones, Bina and Malchut, will be completed with light from one another, since the upper, holy throne, Bina, will shine in the fathers first, in HGT, and when they shine from the upper light, everything shines, when they bestow upon Malchut, and Malchut upon all the worlds, it is written, “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth,” which are HGT, that each of them consists of ten. “Now it came to pass” means “before.”

319. “Let there be light.” It is not written “and there was light,” but “Let there be light,” meaning light that already was. Here, too, “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year.” It is not written “was” but “is” [in Hebrew] since it already was, as it is written, “on River Kvar,” about the light that already was.

“In the fourth month” is King David. He stands to shine on the fourteenth of the month, for the moon that shines on the fourteenth of the month is still not in its fullest. He is the fourth of the patriarchs, Malchut who is after HGT. “On the fifth day” is king Solomon, the moon on the fifteenth of the month, which shines in full, since he completes the throne, Malchut, as it is written, “And Solomon sat on the Lord’s throne as king.”

320. Thus far, the light shone in the full wholeness. Henceforth, after king Solomon, who is the fifteenth of the month, the light begins to become covered, as it is written, “And I am in the exile.” “I,” Malchut, am approaching being dark. “In the exile,” it is not written “in exile” indicating that she was approaching the exile, that she was growing darker until she was entirely darkened and the light was covered, like the moon, who, from the fifteenth of the month onward gradually becomes darker until she is completely darkened.

321. Why was the light covered? “On River Kvar,” on the light that already was, and has now departed and was separated from her. And because the light that already was, separated from her, which is the first light, Hesed, the heavens were opened. Indeed, because the light became separated, the heavens were opened.

322. In the beginning, there was one connection in one whole, when the right line was incorporated in the left line, and the left in the right, and the heavens—ZA, which includes both of them—were made of them. And since the right turned backwards, as it is written, “He has drawn back His right,” and the left line remained without right, the heavens were indeed opened, opened from that complete connection that was in them at first, where left remained without right, and that place was covered with darkness, as it is written, “I clothe the heavens with blackness.”

This is so because the illumination of the left without right is darkness, since the river Kvar is missing from them, the first light, Hesed, which already was, and now, it is as though there is separation between right and left.

323. It is written, “For Abraham,” who is Hesed, “did not know us.” And since Abraham did not know us and does not shine for us, “And Israel,” ZA and the middle line, “does not recognize us,” since the heavens were open, the connection of right and left that was in heaven, in the middle line, was opened, and the connection of right and left is not present. This is why the light is lost, since it became dark.