As we already know, a ruach cannot
reincarnate until the nefesh has [first] done so and been rectified.
(Chapter One, Section 2) When the ruach itself has been repaired, the
neshama will then undergo rectification. In Abel’s case, though the
nefesh and ruach were damaged and mixed together with evil, his
neshama remained completely good.
Thus, when his nefesh reincarnated, it
first went to Seth the son of Adam. This caused the evil to be separated out,
which was later given to Balaam the wicked. In both of these levels, the good
and the evil of the nefesh was previously included in Abel. As alluded to
in his name - the hei of Abel hinting to the good which was given to
Seth. This is the secret of the verse, "Everything You shattah/ShT [placed]
under his feet," (Psalms 8:7) which has the letters ShT/Seth, plus the
hei.
We already explained that this psalm is about
Moses, about whom it says, "You made him only slightly less than the angels"
(Psalms 8:6) - he is Seth himself, as we will soon explain. The evil of
Abel’s nefesh is represented by the letters beit-lamed, which is
the secret of the verse, "They know bal [not] such
judgments." (Psalms 147:20) For these two letters refer to the kelipot
and the beit-lamed of Balaam.
"Elokim made this (the sitra achra)
opposite that (the side of holiness)." (Eccl. 7:14) Balaam stands opposite Moses, on
the wrong side of the fence. Therefore does the Ari. put them together in this
paragraph. This is seen in Balaam's name: BL
(beit-lamed) are the beginning and end letters of
the Torah, A (ayin)= 70, faces of the Torah. M (mem)= 40 - days on
Mt. Sinai. (Likutei Moharan)
LB is also laiv, meaning "heart";. "the
Merciful One wants the heart. (Sanhedrin 106) The Torah was
given for the heart and it associates with bina. "Bina, dinim
awaken from it (Zohar) Therefore, these same letters are explained here to refer
to the hold of the sitra achra. Balaam was a very great soul. Soon we
will we see that Providence brought him back many times and was busy in his
tikun. His problem was an impure heart (Avot
5:19) as seen from his reincarnation in Nabal, whose heart
died in him. Therefore, these heart letters are the ones through which the
negative energies nurtured from Balaam.
We mentioned previously that even the level of
evil that was separated from the good must of necessity contain an element of
holy sparks. This is the secret of Balaam the prophet and what the Sages mean
when they say that "he was equal to Moses" (Bamidbar Raba 20)
who was from the good of Seth, as we shall explain.
The little amount of good that was in Balaam
reincarnated into Nabal the Carmelite, which was the beginning of the tikun.
Balaam’s only power was in his mouth, by speaking loshon hara [slander]
and cursing. Therefore, after Pinchas killed him he reincarnated into a rock
that could not speak, to rectify the loshon hara that came from his
mouth; as we stated, a person can reincarnate into domaim [inanimate],
tsomai’och [vegetation], chaya [living], or medabeir
[speaking].
However, when Nabal followed in his ways and
spoke loshon hara about King David saying, "Who is David and who
is Ben Yishai?" (Samuel I 25:10), he reversed the tikun. Not only did
he not rectify the previous sin but he added to the damage. Therefore it says, "and
he was a rock," (Samuel I 25:37) since his mazel saw how previously
he had reincarnated into a silent stone, and then "His heart died within him."
King David was the expression of Moses in his
generation. Therefore was Nabal/Balaam against him.
[Translation and commentary by Perets Auerbach.]
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