莱赫·莱查·佐哈尔 25

1AFTER THESE THINGS. R. Judah discoursed on the text: I am my beloved’s and his desire is towards me (S. S. 7, 11). He said: ‘The inner meaning of this verse is that the stirring below is accompanied by a stirring above, for there is no stirring above till there is a stirring below. Further, blessings from above descend only where there is some substance and not mere emptiness.

2We learn this from the wife of Obadiah, to whom Elisha said, “Tell me, what hast thou in the house” (II Kings, IV, 2), meaning that blessings from above would not descend on an empty table or an empty place. When she said: “Thy handmaid hath nothing in the house save a cruse of oil”-only enough to smear her little finger-

3he said to her: “You have relieved me, for I did not see how blessings were to descend from above on to an empty place, but since you have some oil, this will provide a place sufficient for the purpose.” (The connection of “oil” with “blessing” is found in Psalm CXXXIII, where it says “like the good oil,’, etc., and then “for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life for evermore”.

4It is true, the immediate comparison in the passage is with dew, not oil, but the two mean the same thing, as this dew was distilled by God from the supernal oil.

5Wine and oil belong respectively to the Left and the Right sides, and from the Right side blessings descend on the world, and from there the holy kingdom is anointed. Thus because it was fixed upon below, oil was first prepared above as the source of blessings.

6From the stirring of this supernal oil the lower oil was poured on David and Solomon to bring blessings on their descendants. This is derived from a collation of the text “and the oil stood״, in II Kings 4, 6, with the text “the root of Jesse which standeth for an ensign of the nations”, (Is. 11, 10.)

7We derive the same lesson from the fact that the table of shew-bread, from which issued blessings, was not to be left empty a single moment; and on that account we do not say grace over an empty table, since blessings from above do not rest on an empty table.

8To resume, then, the verse “I am my beloved’s and towards me is his desire” indicates that “first of all I am my beloved’s, and then, in consequence, his desire is towards me; first I prepare for him a place, and then his desire is towards me”.

9The verse may also be explained by reference to the dictum that the Shekinah is not found in the company of sinners, but when a man exerts himself to purify himself and to draw near to God, then the Shekinah rests on him. So “I am my beloved’s” to begin with, and then “his desire is towards me”.’

10AFTER THESE THINGS, i.e. after Abram pursued the kings and God slew them, Abram felt some qualms lest he had perchance forfeited some of his reward for converting men to the service of God, seeing that now some of his fellow creatures had been killed through him. Therefore God said to him: FEAR NOT, ABRAM, I AM THY SHIELD, THY REWARD IS EXCEEDING GREAT: you have received a reward for them, for none of them shall ever be accounted innocent.