זוהר ויקרא — דף מג ע”א
Summary
Rabbi Abba opens with "how great are Your works, O Lord": all the works of the Holy King are sealed within wisdom, "You have made them all with wisdom," and they do not emerge outward except by known paths toward Binah, from where everything is made and established.<br />
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On "the earth is full of Your possessions," it is explained that the earth refers to the Community of Israel, from whom everything fills, like the rivers that flow to the sea, and she then brings them forth.<br />
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The Zohar describes the secret of conception: when a man sanctifies himself to unite with holy intent, a holy spirit, comprising male and female, is stirred over him, and the Holy One, blessed be He, signals to the angel appointed over the conceptions of mankind and entrusts that spirit into his hand, as it is said, "and the night said, a male has been conceived." Then the spirit descends together with an image that stands in its likeness above, as it is said, "surely man walks about in a mere image."<br />
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It is brought from the book of Ashmedai's sorceries: one who seeks to cling to the left side will summon his images with impure words, and by this he leaves his Master's domain and gives his deposit to the other side; and in those images two spirits appear which reveal things to him.<br />
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Man is warned not to cast the vessels of his house needlessly to the other side, for the guardians of the shells stand ready to receive them, and from then on no blessing rests upon them.<br />
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When a man's days draw near to leave this world, that evil spirit which had clung to him comes and takes the image; he is then counted as rejected from everything.<br />
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Finally, the soul's journey is described: as it descends to enter the world, it first beholds the glory of the spirits of the righteous in the earthly Garden of Eden, then it sees the wicked in Gehinnom crying "woe, woe," and the holy image stands over it until it emerges into the world.<br />
<br />
On "the earth is full of Your possessions," it is explained that the earth refers to the Community of Israel, from whom everything fills, like the rivers that flow to the sea, and she then brings them forth.<br />
<br />
The Zohar describes the secret of conception: when a man sanctifies himself to unite with holy intent, a holy spirit, comprising male and female, is stirred over him, and the Holy One, blessed be He, signals to the angel appointed over the conceptions of mankind and entrusts that spirit into his hand, as it is said, "and the night said, a male has been conceived." Then the spirit descends together with an image that stands in its likeness above, as it is said, "surely man walks about in a mere image."<br />
<br />
It is brought from the book of Ashmedai's sorceries: one who seeks to cling to the left side will summon his images with impure words, and by this he leaves his Master's domain and gives his deposit to the other side; and in those images two spirits appear which reveal things to him.<br />
<br />
Man is warned not to cast the vessels of his house needlessly to the other side, for the guardians of the shells stand ready to receive them, and from then on no blessing rests upon them.<br />
<br />
When a man's days draw near to leave this world, that evil spirit which had clung to him comes and takes the image; he is then counted as rejected from everything.<br />
<br />
Finally, the soul's journey is described: as it descends to enter the world, it first beholds the glory of the spirits of the righteous in the earthly Garden of Eden, then it sees the wicked in Gehinnom crying "woe, woe," and the holy image stands over it until it emerges into the world.<br />
Torat Emet / Rav Pinhas Reuven — CC BY-NC-SA 2.5
in Hebrew