הקדמה

58. “At that time, all the colleagues arose etc.”At that time, all the colleagues arose, and Rabbi Shimon arose, and his light was ascending to the height of the firmament. The Messiah said to him: Rabbi, happy are you, as your Torah ascends in 370 lights, and each and every light spreads into 613 flavors, rising and immersing in the rivers of the pure persimmon. And the Holy One, blessed be He, is sealing the Torah from your academy and from the academy of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and out of the academy of Ahijah the Shilonite.

Explanation: When the Messiah was revealed to them and came to the academy of Rabbi Shimon, all the colleagues arose, and Rabbi Shimon arose to that same level until “his light was ascending to the height of the firmament.” This indicates that Rabbi Shimon attained that light of the ten firmaments which are lacking due to the sealed gate of Malkhut of Malkhut. This is the meaning of the statement: “And his light was ascending to the height of the firmament,” which is the mystical meaning of the light of yeḥida.

[The Zohar] continues: “Your Torah ascends in 370 lights, and each and every light spreads into 613 flavors etc. of the pure persimmon.” In other words, his Torah ascends to the Atik Yomin, in which each sefira reaches [a value] of one hundred thousand, and the four sefirot: Ḥokhma, Bina, Tiferet, and Malkhut are four hundred thousand within [Atik Yomin]. The [values of] units are in Nukba, the [values of] tens are in Ze’er Anpin, the [values of] hundreds are in Imma, 1This refers to a partzuf that corresponds to the level of Bina. the [values of] thousands are in Abba, 2This refers to a partzuf that corresponds to the level of Ḥokhma. the [values of] tens of thousands are in Arikh Anpin, and the hundreds of thousands in Atik.

However, according to this he should have said: Your Torah ascends in four hundred lights, and each light rises to one thousand flavors, which makes four hundred thousand. Instead, he only alluded to [the fact] that with respect to the lights that are from the Imma, the full four hundred is not used, but only 370, which is the mystical meaning of the verse: “He was the most honorable of the thirty, but did not attain to the first three” (see II Samuel 2:23). Even though “his light was ascending to the height of the firmament,” as stated above, [Rabbi Shimon] still did not attain the first three [sefirot] of the upper one hundred of the yod. Thus, he had only 370 lights, without the thirty upper ones. The same applies to the thousands, which are the lights of Abba: [Rabbi Shimon] does not use the actual first three of each thousand, but only the six extremities of them each, which are six hundred. 3Meaning, six hundred of each thousand. Instead of the full first three sefirot of these levels, only the aspect of "thirteen" is attained, which is a level of Ḥokhma described previously as the thirty-two paths of Ḥokhma. And instead of first three of each one thousand he uses thirteen, which are the aspect of Ḥokhma of the thirty-two paths (as stated above in Marot HaSulam, section 2, s. v. Ve’im zeh; see there), as the mystical meaning of thirteen is Ḥokhma of the thirty-two paths, which is called “the pure persimmon.”

This is why he told him: “Your Torah ascends in 370 lights, and each and every light spreads into 613 flavors, rising and immersing in the rivers of the pure persimmon.” For the four hundred of Imma lack the thirty of the upper Ḥokhma, and [Imma] contains only 370. [Similarly], the upper four hundred are missing from each one thousand, those which are from the primordial Ḥokhma, and the thirteen rivers of the pure persimmon operate in their stead. [Thus, ] in each one thousand there are only 613, because this is how they ascend, all the sealed, supernal secrets from the academy of Rabbi Shimon.

“And the Holy One, blessed be He, is sealing the Torah from your academy etc.” [The Zohar] says above that the Messiah “seals Torah from the mouths of the sages” (section 57), as he is magnified and crowned by the Torah innovations of all the righteous. There is a well-known statement of the Sages (Sanhedrin 99a) that “all the prophets prophesied only about the Messianic era, but with regard to the World-to-Come: ‘No eye has seen it, God, aside from You, (Who will do for those who await Him, ’ Isaiah 64:3).” Then all the levels that belong to the days of Messiah will be rectified, and all the secrets of Torah will be in the form of “no eye has seen it etc.” It will then be considered that the Holy One, blessed be He, seals the Torah. Since the Torah of those three heads of souls is from after the days of the Messiah, that is, an expression of “no eye has seen it...” the Messiah therefore said to him that “the Holy One, blessed be He, is sealing the Torah from your academy and from the academy of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and out of the academy of Ahijah the Shilonite.” These three were rewarded with the Torah secrets of “no eye has seen it, God, aside from You,” and the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself is sealing the Torah from their mouths.