זוהר ויקרא — דף כ ע”א

[Raya Mehemna] This commandment to bring an offering for the Great Sanhedrin that erred: there were seventy of the Great Sanhedrin, with Moshe over them, and seventy of the Small Sanhedrin, with Aharon over them. Moshe was "the King's attendant," corresponding to Tiferet — hence the Great Sanhedrin; Aharon was "the Queen's attendant," corresponding to Malchut, called "the small heh," as in "for Rachel your younger daughter" — hence it is called the Small Sanhedrin.<br />
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From there the Sanhedrin knew seventy languages — seventy faces of the Torah — corresponding to the seventy languages from the side of the wicked kingdom, separated one from another ("from these the coastlands of the nations were divided in their lands, each with its own language"). But in the Torah, all seventy faces are in a single language, the secret of Yesod which unifies everything — the holy tongue, the secret of the Chariot, in seventy "cathedras" [academy seats], concerning which it is said that whoever answers "Amen, may His great Name be blessed" with all his strength has his decree of seventy years torn up [end of Raya Mehemna].<br />
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Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Yosei were walking on the road, and Rabbi Yosei suggested they occupy themselves with words of Torah. Rabbi Chiya opened with "I will make known my sin to You" (Psalm 32), and from this he taught: whoever conceals his sins and does not lay them bare before the Holy One, blessed be He, seeking mercy for them, is not granted an opening to repentance, because of his shame; but if he lays them bare before Him, the Holy One, blessed be He, has mercy on him, and mercy prevails over judgment.<br />
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All the more so if he weeps — then all the sealed gates open and his prayer is accepted; laying bare one's sins is an honor to the King, who thereby strengthens mercy over judgment — "he who sacrifices a thanksgiving offering honors Me": two honors, one above and one below, one in this world and one in the world to come.<br />
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This verse is difficult in several respects: if "I will confess my transgressions" would have sufficed, why first say "I will make known my sin to You, and I have not hidden my iniquity"? And further, why "I will confess... to the Lord" rather than "to You"?<br />
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Rather, David spoke all his words through the holy spirit, addressing the heavenly Kingdom (Malchut), which serves as emissary between the lower and upper worlds and between the upper and lower worlds — and whoever wishes to approach the King informs Her first. "I will make known my sin to You" is said to the heavenly Kingdom; "I have not hidden my iniquity" from the Righteous One of the world (Yesod); "I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord" — this is the Holy King, to whom all peace belongs, the peace that must be brought before Him through acknowledgment, in the manner of a peace-offering brought with thanksgiving; "and You bore the iniquity of my sin, selah" refers, higher still, to the place where the holy Ancient One dwells — hence this verse encompasses everything.<br />
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Likewise, one who presents his request to the King must unify the holy Name in his will, from below upward and from above downward, binding everything into a single bond, and it is in that bond that his request is found. Rabbi Yosei asked who was wiser in presenting his request than King David, who guarded the gate of the King; Rabbi Chiya answered: certainly so, and therefore the Torah taught us the ways of the Holy King so that we would know to follow after Him, as it is written, "After the Lord your God you shall walk."