388) “Your head upon you is like the Carmel, and your flowing locks are as purple; a king captive in the tresses.” When the Creator gives merit to the ministers above, they take the merit of the kings below. He gave above to the minister of Babylon, He took up wicked Nebuchadnezzar, as it is written in Daniel, “you are the head of gold,” and the whole world will be enslaved under him, and his son, and his son’s son.
“Your head upon you is like the Carmel” is Nebuchadnezzar, as it is written in Daniel, under him you will find all the animals of the field. “And your flowing locks are as purple” is Belshazzar, as it is written in Daniel, he wears purple. “A king captive in the tresses” is Evil-Merodach, who was imprisoned until his father Nebuchadnezzar died, and he ruled after him.
389) Seven things were created before the world was created. The first is the throne, as it is written, “Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.” It is also written, “a throne high from the beginning,” which was the first, preceding everything.
The Creator took the pure soul from the throne to shine for the body, as it is written, “Your head on you is like the Carmel.” This is the throne, the head of everything. “And your flowing locks are as purple” is the soul, which is taken from him. “A king captive in the tresses” is the body that is captive and withering in the dust, not even a spoonful of decay remains of it, and from it, the whole body will be built. When the Creator visits the body, He tells the earth to spit it up, as it is written, “And the earth will give birth to the dead.”
390) The dead in the earth live first, as it is written, “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise,” those outside the land. “You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy” are the dead in the desert.
Why did Moses die outside the land? It was to show everyone in the world that as the Creator is destined to revive Moses, so He is destined to revive his generation, who received the Torah. He said about them, “I remember the kindness [Hesed] of your youth, your bridal love, how you followed me in the desert, in a land not sown.”
391) “You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy” are the patriarchs. The dead outside the land, their body will be built, and they roll under the earth up to the land of Israel, where they receive their soul, and not outside the land, as it is written, “Therefore prophesy, and say to them, ‘…Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I will bring you to the land of Israel … And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.’”
392) The soul was taken from the throne, which is the head, as it is written, “Your head upon you is like the Carmel, and your flowing locks are as purple.” This is the soul, which is the lock [curl] of the head. “A king captive in the tresses” is the body, which is imprisoned in graves. It is the body, and it is Sarah, and it is the King. The Creator visits here at the time which He said to him, as it is written, “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said.” Visiting the body at the known time when He visits the righteous.
393) In the future [end of correction], the Creator is destined to beautify the body of the righteous as the beauty of Adam HaRishon when he entered the Garden of Eden, as it is written, “And the Lord will always guide you … and you shall be like a watered garden.”
While the soul is in its merit, it is nourished by the light of above and dresses in it. In the future, when it enters a body, it enters in that very light. At that time, the body will shine like the brightness of the firmament, as it is written, “And the enlightened ones will shine as the brightness of the firmament,” and people will obtain complete knowledge, as it is written, “For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.”
“And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places.” This is the light of above. “[He will] make your bones strong” is the visiting of the body, “and you shall be like a watered garden,” as one who finds water whose water will not cease. This is the view of the Creator.
At that time, all the people will know that the soul that enters them, which is the soul of life, the soul of pleasure, received pleasures from above and delights for the body. Everyone will wonder about it and say, “How beautiful and pleasant you are, love in delights.”
394) This is as it is written, “A king captive in the tresses,” for it is written afterwards, “How beautiful and pleasant you are.” At that time, the Creator is destined to delight His world and rejoice in His creations, as it is written, “The Lord will rejoice in His works.”
At that time, there will be laughter in the world, which is not so now, as it is written, “Then our mouths will fill with laughter.” It is written, “And Sarah said, ‘God has made laughter for me,’” for then people are destined to sing, which is a time of laughter.
The day when the Creator rejoices with His creations, there has been no joy like it since the day the world was created. The righteous who stay in Jerusalem will no longer return to their dust, as it is written, “And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem, shall be called ‘holy,’” specifically those who remain in Zion and in Jerusalem.
395) Thus, they are few. However, all those who remained in the holy land of Israel, their sentence is the same as that of Jerusalem and of Zion, and as Zion in everything. This means that all of the land of Israel included in Jerusalem is implied from the verse “And should you come to the land,” all is included.
396) The dead that the Creator is destined to revive, why did He not place their souls in the place where they were buried, and they will come to be revived in the land of Israel? The Creator swore to build Jerusalem and that it will never be ruined. For this reason, the Creator is destined to renew His world, build Jerusalem, and bring it down built from above, so it will not be ruined.
He has sworn that it will not be exiled anymore, and He has sworn that the building of Jerusalem will not be ruined, as it is written, “You shall no more be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate.” Wherever it is written, “No, no,” it is an oath, as it is written, “No more shall all flesh be killed by the waters of the flood, and no more shall there be a flood.” It is also written, “I swore that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth.”
The Creator is destined to sustain His world, an existence that will not reveal the assembly of Israel, and the building of the Temple will not be destroyed. Hence, their souls are accepted only in a place that exists forever, so the soul will exist in a body forever. This is why it is written, “He that is left in Zion, and he that remains in Jerusalem, shall be called ‘holy.’”
397) It follows that He is holy, Jerusalem is holy, he who remains in it is holy. He is holy, as it is written, “The Lord of Hosts is holy,” and as it is written, “In your midst is holy.” Jerusalem is holy, as it is written, “They will walk from a holy place.” “He who remains in it is holy,” as it is written, “He that remains in Jerusalem shall be called ‘holy.’” As the first holy exists, so do the other holy, holy exist.
398) Why is it written, “Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age”? What is good about walking at that time, as it is written, “each with his staff in hand”? However, in the future, the righteous are destined to revive the dead like Elisha the prophet, as it is written, “Take my staff in your hand and go.”
It is also written, “And put my staff on the face of the child.” The Creator told him, “Something that the righteous are destined to do in the future, you want to do now?” It is written, “He placed the staff on the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor response or listening.” But the righteous in the future succeed with this promise, as it is written, “each with his staff in hand,” to revive the dead with it, migrants who converted from the nations of the world, and of whom it is written, “For the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.” The end of the verse proves, as it is written, “because of age.”
399) “And Sarah said, ‘God has made laughter for me.’” It is written, “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her.” There was no joy before the Creator since the day the world was created as that joy that He is destined to rejoice with the future in the future. Each one will point with his finger and say, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him and He will save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” It is also written, “He has done gloriously. Let this be known in all the earth.”
400) King David interpreted this matter, as it is written, “When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die.” Thus, the Creator does not do harm to any person. However, when one does not notice Him, he perishes by himself, as it is written, “When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die.” Afterwards, “When You send Your Spirit, they are created … May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works.” At that time, there is laughter in the world, as it is written, “Then our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with song.” It is also written, “God has made laughter for me,” to be glad in His salvation.
401) As long as the body stands in this world, it is incomplete. Once he is righteous and walks in straight paths and dies in his straightness, he is called “Sarah” upon his completion. When he arrives at the revival of the dead, he is Sarah, so it will not be said that the Creator has revived someone else. Once he is alive and rejoices with the Shechina, and the Creator removes sorrow from the world, as it is written, “death will be swallowed up forever,” and “God will wipe the tears from every face,” then he is called Yitzhak [Isaac], because of the Tzhok [laughter] and joy that the righteous will have in the future.
403) “The Lord visited Sarah, as He had said.” It should have said, “The Lord remembered Sarah,” as it is written, “And God remembered Rachel.” There is no visiting unless for what happened in the beginning. However, in the beginning, it was as it is written, “I will surely return to you this time next year.” Now, about the same matter, He visited. This implies that when it is written, “as He had said,” were it not written, “as He had said,” saying a remembering, but he visited that same thing that He said, “I will return to you this time next year.”
404) A righteous who has been rewarded with rising to that high honor, his form is carved in the throne. Also, the form of each righteous is present above, in the Garden of Eden as it was below in this world, to guarantee the holy soul in the revival of the body in this world.
405) It is written, “The sun and moon stand still in their habitation,” to teach us that the body and the soul stand in the upper, holy room above, and shine in the same form that they would on earth, in this world, and the nourishment of this world is the pleasure of the soul. And she is destined to clothe in the Luz bone, which remains and exists in the land until the revival of the dead, when the land is impregnated by it and ejects its waste. And this is the form that is called “holy.”
406) And when that form of this world is above, it comes at the beginning of each month to pray before the Holy King, as it is written, “And it shall be from new moon to new moon.” And the Holy King tells her and says, “At the set time I will return unto you,” the time when He will revive the dead, until she is accounted for at that time, as she was promised. And it is written, “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said.” And this is the day when the Creator rejoices in His deeds, as it is written, “The Lord will rejoice in His works.”
407) “And it came to pass after these things, that the God tested Abraham, and He said, ‘Take now your son.’” This is similar to a craftsman who takes silver from the origins of the earth. First, he places the substance in blazing fire until all the filth of the earth exits it and the silver remains. But this is not perfect silver yet—he puts it in the fire as before and takes out all the dross from it, and then it is perfect silver, without a hint of anything else.
408) Such is the Creator, He puts this body under the ground until it rots entirely and all its bad filth comes out of it, and a handful of decay remains. Then the body is rebuilt from it, but it is still not a perfect body.
409) After that great day, it is written, “And there shall be one day which shall be known as the Lord's, not day, and not night,” when all hide in the dust as before, meaning as though in the grave prior to the revival, for fear of the might of the Creator. It is written, “And they shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of His majesty.” And their souls depart and that handful of decay is consumed there. What remains is the body that is built there as the light of the sun and the effulgence of the firmament, as it is written, “And the bright ones will shine as the effulgence of the firmament.” Then the silver is perfect—a perfect body without a mixture of anything else.
410) The Creator will cast a luminescent body from above, as it is written, “For Your dew is as the dew of light,” and as it is written, “Behold, the Lord will hurl you” [“dew” and “hurling” share the same root in Hebrew]. And then they shall be called “Holy upper ones,” as it is written, “He shall be called ‘holy.’” And this is called “the last revival of the dead,” and they will no longer taste the taste of death, as it is written, “By Myself have I sworn, says the Lord, that I will surely bless.” At that time, the righteous pray that they will not be tested with it any longer.
411) It is written, “And Abraham raised his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him a ram.” The wicked in the world are called “rams.” It is also written, “And Abraham went and took the ram,” for the wicked are still summoned to be tested by every bad experience, and the righteous will remain for the future as the high, holy angels to unify his name. This is why it is written, “On that day, the Lord will be one and His name One.”
412) The Creator has three keys, which He did not place in the hand of an angel or the hand of a seraph [another type of angel]: the key of an animal, or rains, and of the revival of the dead.
414) Anything that the Creator does, He needs to do only in speech. Once He said from the place of His holiness, “So it should be,” it was immediately done. The power of the might of the Creator is as it is written, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,” and as it is written, “And I will go through the Land of Egypt, I and not an angel.”
415) Thus, it is a great honor for Egypt, for one who is caught by a king is not as one who is caught by a regular person. Also, there is no nation filthier with every impurity like the Egyptians, as it is written, “whose flesh is the flesh of donkeys.” They are suspicious of homosexual intercourse, and they come from Ham, who did what he did to his father, and he cursed him and Canaan his son.
Did the Creator not have an angel or a messenger to send out to take revenge against the Egyptians as He did with Ashur [Assyria], who was Shem’s son, as it is written, “The sons of Shem: Elam and Ashur”? There, it was the high priest, and he was blessed, as it is written, “Bless the Lord, God of Shem,” and Shem had greatness and blessing over his brothers. It is also written, “And the angel of the Lord went out and struck … in the camp of the Assyrians,” meaning it was done by a messenger. It is even more so with the Egyptians, who are filthier than any nation; why did He say, “I and not a messenger”?
416) From this we learn the power of the might of the Creator and His merit, that He is higher than all. The Creator said, “This nation of Egypt is dirty and filthy, and it is unfitting to send an angel or a seraph, a holy thing, among filthy, cursed wicked ones. Instead, I will do what no angel or seraph or messenger can do, for I say from the place of My holiness, ‘Let this be so,’ and it is immediately done, which an angel cannot do.”
The Creator, from His place of holiness, says, “Let this be so,” and what He wants to do is immediately done. This is why this revenge was not done by an angel or a messenger, due to the infamy of the Egyptians, and to show the greatness of the Creator, who did not want a holy thing entering among them. Accordingly, He said, “I and not an angel,” I can do this and not an angel.
418) Rabbi Shimon said, “The key of an animal is in the hand of the Creator. While she sits on the labor-stool, the Creator examines that newborn. If it is worthy of coming out to the world, He opens her womb-doors and it comes out. If not, He closes her doors and they both die. Hence, will a wicked one not come out to the world? Indeed, for three transgressions women die.”
Why does a woman miscarry her child? The Creator sees that fetus, that it is unworthy of coming out to the world, and kills it first, in its mother’s womb, as it is written, “the Nephilim [fallen ones] were on the earth in those days.” The fallen ones is written without the first Yod [in Hebrew]. Why? Because as it is written, “Afterward, the sons of God came to the daughters of man, and they bore children to them,” in prostitution, and multiplied bastards in the world.
419) It is written, “These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” The mighty one, the villain, and the tyrant are not as the bastard. The men of renown, for everyone to recognize and call him by that infamous name “bastard.” Since they see his actions, that he is a villain and a tyrant, and a mighty one, they all call him by that name.
What Rabbi Shimon said, that the Creator examines that newborn, there is not a wicked one in the world, from among the wicked who come out to the world, whom the Creator does not examine and sees if that body will leave a righteous and upright son, or save a person from Israel from an awkward death, or do some other good, and for this reason, the Creator brings him out to the world.
420) In the days of Rabbi Yossi, there were outlaws who were robbing in the mountains along with the outlaws from the nations of the world. And when they would find a person and capture him so as to kill him, they would ask, “What is your name?” If he were a Jew, they would walk him out of the mountains. And if he were not a Jew, but another person, they would kill him. Rabbi Yosi would say that they are nonetheless worthy of coming to the life of the next world.
421) These three things come to the world with voices: 1. The sound of an animal, as it is written, “In sadness you will bear children,” and as it is written, “And God heard her.” 2. The sound of rain, as it is written, “the voice of the Lord on the water,” and as it is written, “the sound of a heavy rain.” 3. The voice of the revival of the dead, as it is written, “a voice calls out in the desert.” These are voices to awaken the dead of the desert, which means that this is the rule for the whole world.
When a person enters a grave, he enters with voices. When they rise at the revival of the dead, is it not their sentence to rise with loud voices?
422) A sound is destined to explode in graveyards saying, “Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust.” They are destined to live in the dew of the great light of above, as it is written, “For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.”
423) “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said.” Visiting applies to the Nukva, and remembering to the male. HaVaYaH is the Nukva, meaning He and His courthouse. When it says “He,” as it is written, “And He said, ‘I will surely return to you this time next year.’” It is written “said,” simply, since He was the Nukva and not another messenger.