זוהר ויקרא — דף כה ע”א

Woe to the wicked whose souls do not merit in this world, and all the more so in the World to Come; of them it is said, "the soul of your enemies He shall sling out from the hollow of a sling" (1 Samuel 25). They wander and roam the world finding no place to rest, and become defiled amid impurity; the herald proclaims, "a soul that commits a trespass against the Lord... has defiled the Lord's sanctuary" — for it never entered holiness nor was included in it, and these become the world's harmful spirits. Rabbi Yitzchak explains: "soul" — when the Community of Israel is crowned by the holy King, she is called "the bundle of life," since everything is bound through her. Rabbi Elazar: when the Shechinah travels, it travels with the Patriarchs ("the angel of God who went...").<br />
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Rabbi Abba: everything becomes a single crown, and the holy Name appears among them; at that time it is called "like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons." Israel saw the supernal glory traveling before them — these are the Patriarchs. Therefore this Name breaks mountains and rocks, and holds both good and evil within it.<br />
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Why a goat for the offering? Rabbi Shimon explains it is not because its name hints at evil, but because the goat is brought when an impure spirit has passed over a person, and its offering corresponds to the nature of his sin. Some merit the neshama, some merit the awakening of the ru'ach (spirit), and some merit only the nefesh (soul); one who merits only the nefesh remains attached to the side of impurity, and while he sleeps, evil forces attach to him and inform him in dreams of things, some false and some true; sometimes they mock him, show him falsehoods, and distress him. Therefore idol-worshipping nations sometimes see true things in their dreams, because of that side they cling to — but all these things concern only the near future.<br />
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Among these evil kinds there are three levels: the highest, those suspended in the air; the lowest, those who mock people and distress them in their dreams, insolent as dogs; and a level above them, partly from above and partly from below, which informs of things, some false and some true, the true ones concerning only the near future. One who merits only the nefesh: that soul wishes to be rectified to receive ru'ach; before it earns this, something emerges from it and spreads in the world, wishing to rise but unable, until it meets those suspended in the air, who inform it of things near and distant; at that level it proceeds and binds itself in his dream until it acquires ru'ach. Once ru'ach is acquired, it emerges, breaks mountains and rocks, rises, spreads, and enters among the holy supernal angels, learns things there, and returns to its place — this is the bond of a person with holiness, until he merits the neshama and acquires it.<br />
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Once he acquires the neshama, it rises ever higher, and the gatekeepers do not hold it back; it enters among the righteous bound in the bundle of life, and there beholds the King's delight, enjoying the supernal radiance. And when the holy doe (the Community of Israel) awakens with the north wind and descends, the righteous one who acquired this soul rises and strengthens himself like a mighty lion in Torah until morning, then goes with the holy doe to appear before the King and receive a thread of kindness — the thread of Avraham, who would take nothing from anyone else ("were it a thread or a shoe-strap"); therefore he merited this thread, called the thread of Avraham.