תורה 47

2. The Land of Israel also receives essentially through the aspect of Yaakov, as is written (Genesis 37:1), “Yaakov lived in the Land.” This is why it is called “land of the living,” for tefilin are called life, as is written (Isaiah 38:16), “O God, [with these things] on them, they live.”

And this is its praise: “[It is a land] where you will not eat your bread in deprivation” (Deuteronomy 8:9). For, sometimes, a person eats bread due to poverty and not because of a lack of desire for other delectables. On the contrary, if he had other foods, he would not eat only bread. Thus this is the Land of Israel’s praise: You will not eat bread due to poverty, but because the desire for eating has been broken and eliminated. For [the Land of Israel] receives an illumination and an influx of bounty from the aspect of tefilin /Yaakov/truth, from which wealth stems. Thus it is that his eating only bread has nothing to do with poverty but with the breaking of the desire for eating.

This is the explanation of “a land that eats its inhabitants” (Numbers 13:32). The explanation is: It receives its influx of bounty from the aspect of Yaakov, as in, “Yaakov lived in the Land.” {“For this alone is his covering, it is the garment for his skin” (Exodus 22:26) . }

This is also the explanation of “For… it is the garment for his skin”—this is the leather of the tefilin (Tikkuney Zohar #69). The aspect of tefilin enters into it.

{On the face of it, this is incomprehensible. What does this have to do with what was said previously? However, his holy intention seems to have been that, as explained above, through tefilin —an aspect of truth/Yaakov—which we merit by breaking the desire for eating, we are spared indigence and poverty. This is the reason he connected this verse, “For… it is the garment…,” with this matter.

The explanation is: This verse was said concerning the poor and the indigent: “For this alone is his covering, it is the garment for his skin.” This alludes to the poverty of the Divine Presence in exile, which is from where the poverty of the exiled Jewish people mainly stems, as explained in the Tikkuney Zohar.

This is the meaning of “For this… is his covering, it is the garment for his skin”—this is tefilin. In other words, the tefilin are the essential garment that protects the Divine Presence and the Congregation of Israel against poverty. For tefilin eliminates privation. This is because, in the main, the bounty and wealth are drawn through the aspect of Yaakov, who corresponds to truth/ tefilin .

This is how I see to explain it.}

{“And I will provide aisev (forage) in your sadeh (field) for your animals, and you will eat and be satiated” (Deuteronomy 11:15).} And this is the explanation of “And I will provide AiSeV”—this is AB Shin (Tikkuney Zohar #51), an encompassing of the colors. “In your SaDeh for your animals”—when you SaDed (break apart) your animalistic quality. Then, the encompassing of the colors will be revealed, as in, “May God bestow His countenance upon you.”