זוהר ויקרא — דף כח ע”א

"This is the law of the burnt offering" — that "daughter" who was humbled and oppressed in exile rises above all the levels above, as it is said (Proverbs 31), "Many daughters have done virtuously, but you excel them all"; and her ascent is toward "Abba," the right side of loving-kindness, the source of wisdom.<br />
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One Tanna said: surely it is for this that it is said of you, "he led Moses by the right hand" — for the sake of your bride, since your completeness lies only with her; and when you are complete with her, it shall be said of you, "I speak with him mouth to mouth, in a clear vision, and not in riddles" — in a vision, like a bride who removes her garments and unites with her husband in the closeness of flesh, in her two hundred forty-eight limbs, concealing not a single one; and this is "in a vision" — two hundred forty-eight by numerical value.<br />
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The holy Menorah said: at first this vision appeared to you in the great burning bush (where the word "bush" is mentioned five times), and now this vision has been revealed to you in the two hundred forty-eight commandments found in the five books of the Torah; "and not in riddles" — for those garments all the prophets saw, but it is not the way for a bride to reveal herself in closeness of flesh except to her bridegroom.<br />
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At that time there shall be fulfilled in them, "and the two of them were naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed" — like a man and his wife from whom the evil admixture of the "mixed multitude" has already been removed, for these are the forbidden unions of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah, the forbidden unions of Israel, and all the more so your own, Faithful Shepherd; and from your halacha, for whose sake the secrets of the Torah must be veiled, as "the glory of God is to conceal a matter," until they pass away from the world, and "the glory of kings is to search out a matter" — for none are kings but Israel. The Faithful Shepherd said: blessed are you to the Ancient of Days, from whom you come, like a branch spreading from the tree — so too the souls are a branch from Him.<br />
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Tannaim and Amoraim: the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering are three commandments, three patriarchs; the peace offering is the "Mistress." There is a limb that is the completion of every limb, like the first day of the festival: one who did not celebrate on the first festival day has no completion for that first day, while the other days complete one another; and of him it is said, "what is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted" — this is the sin offering that delays the burnt offering. Sin is masculine, the sin offering is feminine; and at times the sin offering is sweetened and separated from the burnt offering through that goat, as in "one goat for a sin offering."<br />
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The suspended guilt offering is held by both, suspended in the middle, like those matters held in suspension until Elijah comes to separate them; so too the suspended guilt offering is held by both until it is given its sustenance, and it separates from there, and the limbs of the bride draw near to one another; and guilt offering and sin offering are like adhesions attached to the lung, which do not let it fly and rise to breathe the holy spirit.<br />
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The lamb is for the burnt offering (as in "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"), "an unblemished male lamb" — a man of integrity; and the goat is for the left side, one goat for a sin offering; and there is a goat for the Lord and a goat for Azazel ("Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats"). And concerning that goat it is said of Esau, "a hairy man" — and it is the liver that takes up all the dregs of the blood, from which come boils, blisters, and leprosy; and the goat bears upon it all their iniquities to a desolate land, the iniquities of the "tam" (that is, the heart), and it separates from mingling with the heart and is then sweetened, but it is heavy with these sins and not light enough to rise to Jacob, the man of integrity. The masters of the Mishnah of the academies rejoiced, and one of them rose and asked the Faithful Shepherd about the place of the suspended guilt offering. He answered him: blessed are you, my son, well have you asked. It is the middle pillar, in which right and left (loving-kindness and judgment) are held, like a body held between two arms, or like an eagle whose two wings sustain it, or like a dove whose wings are the positive commandments — through them she rises as a burnt offering and flies upward; and the negative commandments are her trap, like birds caught in a snare, and all that hinders her flight is called "adhesions," like those adhesions that hinder the lung's wings from breathing.