זוהר ויקרא — דף טז ע”א

Rabbi Yitzchak expounds 'for Your kindness is great above the heavens' - 'above the heavens' means the Mother (the Shechinah), who rises above the place called 'heavens,' and is therefore called repentance; Rabbi Yehuda notes that the word 'above' indicates an even higher level. When deeds below are rectified and the Mother rejoices, the Holy Ancient One is revealed and the light returns to the Small Face, everything is in fullness and blessing - this is 'He will return, He will show us mercy' (Micah 7), the return of the Holy Ancient One to be revealed. This leads to a discussion of the thief who restores what was stolen (restoring the lower 'awe' he stole, not the higher), and of the verse 'a soul that sins' (specifically 'nefesh,' not 'ruach' or 'neshamah'). Finally, a story of Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Elazar before Rabbi Shimon on the verse 'the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree' - the palm, which takes seventy years to bear fruit, alluding to the Babylonian exile and the Shechinah's return after seventy years; 'the righteous one' is the Holy One, blessed be He; 'he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon' - the cedar is the Holy One, Lebanon is the supernal Eden, which grows only by the river's waters; alluding to the final exile, until the redemption and resurrection of the dead, 'new heavens and a new earth.'