זוהר ויקרא — דף כד ע”א

Rabbi Yehuda asks why the Holy One, blessed be He, punished David through his own son. Rabbi Yossei answers that had a stranger risen against him, he would have shown no mercy, whereas Avshalom, his own son, sought to kill him with counsel worse than any stranger's. Rabbi Yossei adds: David sinned with Bat-Sheva plainly, and the Holy One said a son born of "a daughter of a foreign god" would come to take revenge — this is Avshalom, son of the "beautiful captive" taken in war. From this it is learned: whoever takes such a woman in battle and desires her eventually produces from her a wayward and rebellious son, because the impurity never fully left her.<br />
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Rabbi Yossei opens with "The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm" (Isaiah 62) and explains the process of judgment: when a person sins, a level above takes note of that sin against him. If he repents fully, his sin is removed and judgment does not rule over him. If he does not repent, the sin is recorded against that level; if he continues sinning, another level joins and agrees with the first, requiring greater repentance — until it reaches five levels. Once the right hand (chesed) has agreed to judge, the left (gevurah) joins and is included in it, and then repentance no longer avails — all agree together in judgment. When judgment is complete, the fingers arrange themselves five against five, right against left, to show that all agreed on that judgment, and the hands straighten without the person's own intent — "Your right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power." Therefore, when the Holy One wishes to fulfill everything, it says "The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm."<br />
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Rabbi Yehuda opens with "the fruit of a beautiful tree, branches of palm trees" (Leviticus 23): "the fruit of a beautiful tree" is the etrog, and although it is surrounded by thorns, the secret of the matter lies in the creation of woman from man's rib — "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" — for man is called a tree (Deuteronomy 20, "for man is the tree of the field"). "Branches of palm trees" (kapot temarim) rise to the number seventy and bind above and below, as in the term "kefitu" (binding). Rabbi Yossei explains that "the fruit of a beautiful tree" is the altar, which produces fruits and raises blossoms on every side, since each group of seventy years gives it a portion and it is blessed from all of them. Whoever sins against the altar sins in everything, since it is bound to what is bound above. "This is the anointing of Aharon and his sons" (Leviticus 7) — "this" is the altar anointed by Aharon's hand, and "the anointing of his sons" teaches that it is anointed, raised, blessed and purified by all of them.<br />
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The passage closes with a parable: during Sukkot they circle the altar once each day and seven times on the last day — like a king who invited guests and attended to them, and his only daughter complained that he paid no attention to her; he answered that each day he would grant her a special portion equal to all the others combined.