תורה 67

7. Thus when new honor comes to a person, in which a holy soul is cloaked, he must see to birth the soul easily and without the hardships associated with giving birth. For glory is “the mother of all living things,” and the soul is cloaked within it like a fetus within the mother’s womb. Occasionally, when there are hardships in birth, God forbid, it can happen that both mother and child—i.e., glory and soul—pass away. Alternatively, one of them might pass away, God forbid, depending on the nature of the hardships.

One must therefore ensure that the birth is easy, without hardships. Then afterwards, once the soul is born, one has to raise it. These two aspects, giving birth and raising [the soul], are enacted through fear and love. They are the two hands, the “great hand” and the “mighty hand.”

Childbirth is executed by means of fear, as in “Trembling seized them there; convulsions, like a woman in travail” (Psalms 48:7). And after [the soul] is born, we raise it with love, as in “These are the offspring of heaven and earth when they were created” (Genesis 2:4). That is, b’hebaram (“when they were created”): after the creation and birth, we raise it to maturity through the aspect of Avraham, who is the attribute of love, corresponding to the right hand. This is what is brought [in the Midrash] (Bereishit Rabbah 12:9): b’HeBaRAM— b’ABRaHaM, as explained. {“Wealth and glory come from You, and You rule over everything—in yadkha (Your hand) is power and might; it is in yadkha (Your hand) to make great, and to give strength to all” (1 Chronicles 29:12).}

This is the meaning of “and You rule over everything”—i.e., the aspect of rulership and Malkhut, the abovementioned “King of glory,” in which the soul is cloaked. “In Your hand is power and might; it is in Your hand to make great, and to give strength to all”—these are the two hands. “In Your hand is power and might” is the aspect of the “mighty hand”; “it is in Your hand to make great, and to give strength” is the aspect of the “great hand.” Through these two hands we give birth to and raise the soul that is cloaked in glory, as explained. This is the concept of the charity we give when reaching [the words] “and You rule over everything,” since by giving tzedakah we release and elevate the glory and rule, as explained above.

This is also the meaning of “with my honor constantly renewed, and my strength replaced in my hand” (Job 29:20). That is, when new honor comes to a person, he must replace and remove the hardships by means of the abovementioned aspect of the hands. This is “and KaShtiY (my strength) is replaced in my hand”: through the hands the KiShuY (hardships) of giving birth are replaced and removed. This is the concept of the Name BUKhU being the substitute of the Name EHYeH. Its numerical value is the same as YaDKha (“your hand”), through which the birth transpires, as is known. See the Kabbalistic meditations for “and You rule over everything.”