תורה 36

“Bikrov Alaiy Mrei’im (When Evildoers Come Close) to devour my flesh—it is they, my foes and my enemies, who stumble and fall.” (Psalms 27:2)

Now, the principle is that every Jewish soul is rooted in the seventy souls of the House of Yaakov. And the seventy souls of the House of Yaakov are rooted in the seventy faces of the Torah.

But “God made one to contrast the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14), so that in contrast to the seventy souls of the House of Yaakov there are seventy languages. Each and every language has its own evil trait, which another does not have. And because of these traits, they are distant from the seventy faces of the Torah.

Thus when the soul from the House of Yaakov goes into exile under the control of the seventy nations—i.e., into their evil traits—she then cries seventy calls. This is like the pregnant woman who before the birth screams seventy screams parallel to the seventy words in the psalm “Yaankha.” For without this it would be impossible for her to give birth.

The principle is that before any Jewish soul has a revelation in Torah and Divine service, the soul is tested and refined in the exile of the seventy languages—i.e., in their desires. And so when she comes in contact with their traits in exile, she screams seventy screams. This is because revelation is an aspect of birth.

For prior to a revelation of Torah, she is in the aspect of pregnancy, in that the Torah is hidden from him “like the bones within the womb of the pregnant woman” (Ecclesiastes 11:5) —corresponding to “As for Me, I will utterly hide” (Deuteronomy 31:18). In other words, [the soul is] in exile, in the evil traits of the seventy languages. For the shell preceded the fruit, and so anyone who would eat the fruit must first break the shell. Therefore, before the revelation, the soul is obliged to go into exile—i.e., into their traits—in order to break them and so afterwards come to a revelation.