The Lots on Yom Kippurim and with Haman
It is written (Leviticus 16;8), “And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel.” With Haman it is written (Esther 3;7), “they cast Pur, that is, the lot” etc.
A lot is where there cannot be a scrutiny in the mind because the mind does not reach there, to be able to sort which is good and which is bad. In that state a Pur is cast, when they rely not on their mind, but on what the lot tells them. Accordingly, you find that when using the word “lot”, it comes to tell us that now we are going above reason.
On the matter of the seventh of Adar, on which Moses was born and on which Moses died, we must understand what Adar means. It comes from the word Aderet (lit. mantle), as it is written about Elijah (Kings 1 19;19) “and cast his mantle upon him.” Aderet comes from the word Aderet Se’ar (lit. hair), which are discerned as Se’arot and Dinim, which are alien thoughts and ideas in the work, distancing one from the Creator.
Here there is a matter of overcoming them. Although one sees many contradictions found in His providence, one should still overcome them through faith above reason, and say that they are benevolent providence. This is the meaning of what is written about Moses, “And Moses hid his face.” It means that he saw all the contradictions and held them through exertion by the power of faith above reason.
It is as our sages said, “In return for ‘And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look’ he was awarded, ‘and the similitude of the Lord doth he behold.’” This is the meaning of, “Who is blind, but My servant? Or deaf, as My messenger?”
It is known that Eynaim (lit. Eyes) are called “reason”, “mind”, meaning the mind’s eyes. This is because with something that we perceive in the mind, we say, “but we see that the mind and the reason compel us to say so.”
Hence, one who goes above reason is as one who has no eyes, and he is called blind, meaning pretends to be blind. Also, one who does not want to hear what the spies tell him and pretends to be deaf, is called deaf. This is the meaning of, “Who is blind, but My servant? Or deaf, as My messenger?”
However, when one says, “that have eyes, and see not, that have ears, and hear not,” referring to one who does not want to obey what the reason necessitates, and what the ears hear. It is written about Joshua, the son of Nun, that never a bad thing entered his ears. This is the meaning of the Aderet Se’ar, that he had many contradictions and judgments. Each contradiction is called Se’ar (lit. Hair), and under each Se’ar there is a dent.
It means that one makes a dent in the head, meaning the alien thought fissures and punctures one’s head. When one has many alien thoughts it is considered having many Se’arot, and this is called Aderet Se’ar.
This is the meaning of what is written about Elisha: “So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth; and Elijah passed over unto him, and cast his mantle upon him.” (Yoke means a pair of Bakar (lit. Oxen), since they were plowing with pairs of oxen together that were tightened. This is called a yoke). Baker means Bikoret (lit. Criticism), and twelve refers to the completeness of the degree (like twelve months, and twelve hours).
It means that one already has all the discernments of the Se’arot that can be in the world, and then form the Se’arot, the Aderet Se’ar is made. However, with Elisha, it was in the form of the morning of Josef, as it is written, “As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.”
It means that one has already attained the Light that rests over these contradictions since through the contradictions, called criticism, when wanting to overpower them, it is by drawing Light on them. (It is as it is written, “He that comes to purify is aided”).
Because one has already drawn the Light on every criticism and has nothing more to add, the criticism and the contradictions end by themselves in him, because all the criticism has completed in him. This follows the rule that there is no purposeless operation, since there is no purposeless operator.
We must know that what appears to one as things that contradict the guidance of “Good that Doeth Good”, is only to compel one to extend the Upper Light on the contradictions when wanting to surmount the contradictions, otherwise one cannot prevail. This is called “the greatness of the Creator” that one extends when having the contradictions, called Dinim.
It means that the contradictions can be annulled if one wants to overcome them, only if one extends the greatness of the Creator. You find that these Dinim cause the drawing of the greatness of the Creator, and this is the meaning of what is written, “and cast his mantle upon him.”
It means that afterwards he attributed the whole mantle of hair to Him, meaning to the Creator. It means that now one sees that the Creator gave him this mantle deliberately in order to extend the Upper Light on them.
However, one can only see that later, meaning after one has already been granted the Light that rests on these concealments and Dinim that he had had in the beginning. This is so because he sees that without the hair, meaning the descents, there would not be a place for the Upper Light to be there, as there is no Light without a Kli (lit. Vessel).
Hence, one sees that the whole greatness of the Creator that he had obtained was because of the Se’arot and the contradictions that he had had. This is the meaning of, “the Lord on high is mighty.” It means that the greatness of the Creator is awarded through the Aderet, and this is the meaning of, “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth.”
This means that through the faults in the work of God, it causes one to elevate oneself upward, as without a push one is idle to make a movement. One consents to remain in the state one is in, whereas if one descends to a lower degree than one understands, that gives one the power to surmount. One cannot stay in such a bad situation since one cannot consent to remain like that, in the state one has descended to.
For this reason one must always prevail and exit the state of the descent. In that state one must draw upon himself the greatness of the Creator. That, in turn, causes one to extend higher forces from above, or he will remain in utter lowness. It follows that through the Se’arot one gradually discovers the greatness of the Creator, until one finds the Names of the Creator, called “the thirteen attributes of Mercy.” This is the meaning of, “and the elder shall serve the younger,” and, “the wicked shall prepare it, but the just shall wear it,” and also, “and thou shalt serve thy brother.”
It means that the whole enslavement, meaning the concealments that were, appeared to be obstructing the Holy Work, but were working against Kedusha (lit. Sanctity). Now when granted the Light of God over these concealments, one sees the opposite, that they were serving Kedusha. This means that through them, there was a place for Kedusha to clothe in their dresses, and this is called, “the wicked shall prepare it, but the just shall wear it,” meaning that they gave the Kelim and the place for the Kedusha (lit. Sanctity).
Now we can interpret what our sages wrote (Hagiga 15), “Awarded, a righteous. He takes his share and his friend’s share in heaven. Convicted, a wicked. He takes his share and his friend’s share in hell.” It means that one takes the Dinim and the alien thoughts of one’s friend, which we should interpret over the whole world, meaning that this is why the world was created so full of people, each with his own thoughts and opinions, and all are present in one world.
It is so deliberately, so that each and every one will be incorporated in all of one’s friend’s thoughts. Thus, when one repents, the profit from it is the Hitkalelut (lit. Mingling/Incorporation).
It is so because when one wants to repent, one must sentence oneself and the entire world to a scale of merit, because he himself is incorporated in all the alien notions and thoughts of the entire world. This is the meaning of, “Convicted, a wicked. He takes his share and his friend’s share in hell.”
It follows, that when one was still wicked, called “Convicted”, one’s own share was of Se’arot, and contradictions, and alien thoughts. One was also mingled with one’s friend’s share in hell, meaning he was incorporated in all the notions of all the people in the world.
Therefore, when one later becomes “Awarded, a righteous”, meaning after one repents, he sentences himself and the entire world “to a scale of merit, he takes his share and his friend’s share in heaven.” This is because one must draw Upper Light for the alien thoughts of all the people in the world, since he is incorporated in them, and he must sentence them to a scale of merit.
This is precisely through extending Upper Light over these Dinim of the public. Although they themselves cannot receive this Light that he had drawn on their behalf because they do not have the Kelim prepared for that, but he drew it for them as well.
Yet, we must understand according to the famous rule that one who causes extension of Lights in Upper Degrees, they say that to the extent that one induces Light in the Upper One, one receives from these Lights too, since he was the cause. Hence, the wicked too should have received a part of the Lights that they induced in the righteous.
In order to understand that we must precede the matter of the lots. There were two lots, as it is written, “one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel.” It is known that lot is a matter of above reason. Hence, when the lot is above the reason it causes the other to be for Azazel.
This is the meaning of “it shall whirl upon the head of the wicked.” It is so because he extended the Upper Light through these contradictions. You find that in this manner the greatness of the Creator increases, and for the righteous it is a drawback, since they want only within reason. When the Light that comes based on above reason increases they wither and become annulled.
Hence, all the wicked have is their help to the righteous to extend the greatness of the Creator. Afterwards, when they are annulled, it is considered, “Awarded, he takes his share and his friend’s share in heaven.” (This implies that only one who helped make the correction to create the reality of appearance of the Light through good deeds, hence this act remains in Kedusha. One receives what one induces above, to make a place for the expansion of the Light. In that state the lower one receives what it causes to the Upper One. However, the contradictions and the Dinim are cancelled because of the greatness of the Creator that appears over the above reason, while they want it to appear on Kelim of within reason, and this is why they are annulled. It can be interpreted in this manner).
However, the alien thoughts as well, which the public caused to draw greatness over, that Light remains for them. When they are worthy of receiving, they will receive what each causes to extend the Upper Light on them as well.
This is the meaning of, “A path that runs through the split of the hair,” brought in the Holy Zohar (Part 15 and in the Sulam Commentary item 33 p. 56), which divides between right and left, and the two lots that were on Yom Kippurim, meaning repentance out of fear. Also, there was a lot on Purim, which is repentance out of love.
This is so because it was then prior to the building of the Temple, and at that time they needed repentance out of love, but there had to be a need for them to repent first. This need causes Dinim and Se’arot (lit. pl. for hair), and this is the meaning that Haman was given authority from above, by way of, I place government over you, that he will rule over you.
It is written, “had cast pur, that is, the lot,” on the month of Adar, which is the twelfth, as it is written “twelve oxen,” written with regard to Elisha. It is written, “two rows, six in a row,” which is the month of Adar, meaning Aderet Se’ar, which are the greatest Dinim.
By that Haman knew that he would defeat Israel, since Moses had died on the month of Adar. However, he did not know that Moses was born on it, in the form of, and they saw that it was good. It is so because when one strengthens in the toughest situation, one is granted the greatest Lights, called the greatness of the Creator.
This is the meaning of “fine twined linen”. In other words, because they have been granted “the path that runs in the split of the hair,” “two rows, six in a row,” then twined, from the words a stranger removed. It means that the Sitra Achra, meaning the stranger, is annulled and gone because he has already finished his task.
You find that all the Dinim and the contradictions came only to show the greatness of the Creator. Hence, with Jacob, who was a smooth man, without Se’arot, it was impossible to disclose the greatness of the Creator, since he had no cause and need to extend them. For this reason Jacob was unable to receive the blessings from Issac, as he had no Kelim (lit. Vessels), and there is no Light without a Kli (lit. Vessel).
Hence, Rebecca advised him to take Esau’s clothes, and this is the meaning of, “and his hand had hold on Esau's heel.” It means that although he did not have any hair, he took it from Esau. This is what Isaac saw and said, “the hands are the hands of Esau,” but the voice was the voice of Jacob. In other words, Isaac like the correction that Jacob did and from that his Kelim for the blessings were made.