ספר בראשית

This point is made even more clearly in Genesis 13,14 where ‎we read: ‎וה' אמר אל אברם אחרי הפרד לוט מעמו שא נא עיניך וראה מן ‏המקום אשר אתה שם צפונה ונגבה וקדמה וימה‎, "and the Lord had said to ‎Avram after Lot had separated from him ‘raise your eyes and look ‎northward, southward, eastward and westward;’” this was a ‎promise first and foremost that he would see in his lifetime three ‎of the patriarchs of the Jewish people, i.e. himself, Yitzchok, and ‎Yaakov. The first three directions mentioned here symbolize the ‎attributes ‎חסד‎ ‎‏, גבורה, ‏and ‎תפארת‎, referring to Avraham, Yitzchok ‎and Yaakov in that order.When telling Avraham that he ‎would see ‎את כל הארץ‎, “the whole of the land” (future Eretz ‎Yisrael), this refers to David, whose attribute is ‎מלכות‎, Royalty, ‎David representing this symbol on earth, the Jewish people. David ‎is directly linked to the patriarch Avraham, was shown “the ‎whole land,” so that he would be aware that the glory of the ‎Kingdom of David would be directly traceable to him. This is the ‎reason why north and south, east and west are listed here in this ‎order. According to Ari za’l, ‎ימה‎, “west,” refers to the ‎emanation ‎יסוד‎, the emanation directly above the emanation ‎מלכות‎, the one symbolized by the kingdom of ‎David.[Malchut, as the “lowest” of the emanations, is ‎the one closest to the physical universe. Rabbi Elie Munk (Ascent ‎to Harmony) has described the emanation Malchut as ‎‎“History” (of man), thus seeing it as the bridge between the ‎actual physical universe and the celestial domains, since when ‎something becomes “history,” it has either receded or ascended ‎‎(depending on whether the persons making history made ‎constructive or destructive contributions) to a domain beyond ‎the physical but robbing it of the “substance” common to ‎phenomena in the earthly domain of the universe. ‎Ed.]According to the Zohar, tzaddik and tzedek, ‎the righteous person and the performance of righteous deeds, are ‎indivisible, i.e. the emanations ‎מלכות‎ and ‎יסוד‎ always go hand in ‎hand. We find this concept first alluded to in the Torah when ‎‎Malki Tzedek, King of Shalem, (Jerusalem) in Genesis 14,18 ‎congratulates Avram on his victory, blesses him in the name of ‎the Lord, and presents him with bread and wine. The word ‎לחם‎, ‎commonly understood as “bread,” is used to describe ‎חכמה‎, ‎‎“wisdom,” whereas the word ‎יין‎, commonly understood as “wine” ‎means ‎בינה‎, “insight,” in this context. Malki Tzedek presented ‎these items as symbols of the two highest emanations man can ‎usually attain, both of which Avraham employed in his service of ‎the Lord. [As on previous occasions, the author sees in such ‎apparently irrelevant details as a King bringing bread and wine ‎from hundreds of kilometers from Jerusalem. According to Genesis ‎‎14,15, Avraham had pursued the armies of Kedorleomer all the ‎way to Damascus) an allusion to something far more profound. ‎Ed.]The Zohar I,199 traces the fact that a tzaddik ‎serves the Lord with ‎חכמה‎ and ‎בינה‎ to Job 28,28 ‎יראת ה' היא חכמה ‏וסור מרע בינה‎, “Reverence for the Lord is wisdom, to shun evil is ‎understanding, insight.” The two blessings that Malki Tzedek, ‎who was viewed as G’d’s High Priest in those days, most likely ‎Shem, Noach’s oldest son, bestowed on Avram, represent the two ‎emanations that Avram had been able to use in his service of the ‎Lord, and are reflected in Targum Yonathan’s translation of the ‎Torah, in the first verses of the Torah in which they appear. [In ‎our verses, instead of commending Avraham to G’d, as we would ‎translate the words ‎ברוך אברם ל..‏‎, Yonathan ben Uzziel translates: ‎ברוך אברם מ...‏‎, “Avram has been blessed by the supreme G’d, etc.” ‎Ed.] Targum Yerushalmi translates already the first words of the ‎Torah, i.e. ‎בראשית ברא אלוקים את השמים ואת הארץ‎, as “in the ‎beginning G’d used the emanation of ‎חכמה‎ to create heaven and ‎earth.” ‎