I will now explain a little of the souls from
this second level of Cain, for the entire shoulder and wing is the root of Cain.
...the entire shoulder and wing is the root of Cain.
The level of the tendons, which are in the left
shoulder limb of the four worlds of ABY"A, also have a root in the left
wing in malchut of Atzilut, which as said is also the level of
wing. It reaches to the feather that has the number AZR/277 from the one
thousand grand sparks.
There are 150 soul-sparks in this feather, and
each of these 150 sparks is a unique root on the level of the wing, aside from
its level in the tendons of the shoulder itself. The aperture of this feather is
Abaya, and the blood within it is Rami bar Chama.
A little of the tube that is implanted there
divides into two, for the drop of blood within this end divides into two, unlike
the part of the tube that leaves the aperture, which is all one level. The left
side at the end of the tube is Samuel the Prophet; my teacher did not tell me
who the right side is.
The rest of the protruding tube, where there is
a place lacking hair, is Hezekiah King of Judah. The rest of the tube that goes
out between the hairs divides into many sections; between every two hairs on the
right and the left there is a platform of tube to which they adhere. The level
of one such platform on this feather is Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef.
Yehudah and Chizkiah, the sons of Rabbi Chiya,
are from another of the thousand large feathers, which is larger than the
feather whose number is 277. Rebbi Yehudah bar Elai was from a small feather
from number 277, and so he is a student of Rabbi Akiva.
The nefesh-spark of the Rashba,
and that of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of the Beit Yosef and the
Shulchan Aruch of the previous generation, were from the feather of Rabbi
Yehudah bar Elai.
...Cain was completely evil while Abel was completely righteous.
We will now explain what Cain has more than
Abel, which is quite significant. Do not be surprised that the Zohar says that
Cain was completely evil while Abel was completely righteous. (Zohar,
Bereishit) For you should know that it is imperative that the firstborn be
more than a simple person, as it says in Tikunim, (Tikunei Zohar
69) on the verse, "If you do good..." (Gen. 4:7) Not only this, but we
find that he spoke to G-d alone and was a prophet, as it says, "G-d said to
Cain". (Gen. 4:9)
However, he was the son and firstborn of Adam,
the work of G‑d’s
hands. And if Adam the work of G‑d’s
hands could sin, as the Sages say in the Talmud, (Sanhedrin 38b) then we
should not be surprised that his son born of woman could sin.
The principle is: Both Cain and Abel contain
good and evil, good from the side of Adam and evil from the zuhama [dirt]
of the snake that went to Eve. However, since Cain is from the side of gevura,
evil adhered to him more than to Abel, who is from the side of chesed.
The nature of gevura is to constrict and
hide. In its root Above, it is a holy concealment that prevents too much light
from being revealed. As it travels down levels in the seder hahishtalshilut
(the 'chaining order') it hides more and more until eventually it leaves place
for the Sitra Achra to come into play. It so being, the Cain root from
the left side has to concentrate more on repelling negativity than Abel.
As is known, Imma Ila’a comes from the
gevurot of Atik Yomin, which are enclothed within Arich
Anpin. (Zohar III Naso Idra Raba) They were revealed a long time
prior to that of the chasadim. Furthermore, the gevurot are always
revealed. Thus, anyone who is from the second level of Cain can rise from level
to level - from gevura to gevura, until the gevurot of
Atik Yomin, and draw from there.
This is not the case with Abel, who is from the
chasadim that were revealed later, and which are usually closed off with
very little revelation. This is the reason for what is written in Bamidbar
Rabba: (19:6) "Rebbi Chonya said, ‘His eye saw every precious thing’
(Job 28:10) - This is Rabbi Akiva, and things that were not revealed to Moses
were revealed to Rabbi Akiva."
This is also what is written in Otiyot
d’Rebbi Akiva, "Moses said to G‑d
regarding Rabbi Akiva, ‘You have someone like this and You want to give the
Torah through me?’" Moses was very disturbed when he saw the mazel of
Rabbi Akiva, that he would learn something from every point (of the
letter-crowns). Something similar to this is mentioned in Mesechet Menachot .
(39a)
...when Moses went up, he found The Holy One blessed be He tying
crowns to the letters.
The reason is because Rabbi Akiva was able to
grasp more than Moses, since he was from Cain, whereas Moses was from Abel. This
is also the reason for what is mentioned in Mesechet Menachot,
where it says that when Moses went up, he found The Holy One blessed be He tying
crowns to the letters. "He said to Him, ‘Who is causing You to do this?’1 He
answered him, ‘In the future a righteous person will live, and Akiva ben Yosef
is his name. And he will learn mounds and mounds of paths from each crown’."
This is because someone who is from Abel can
only understand until the crowns of the letters, which are the tagin -
and no more.2 This is what it means that he found Him tying crowns to the
letters. (Tying and bringing in the levels that Moses was able to perceive.)
However, someone who comes from the root of the second level of Cain can grasp
even the ta’amim [Torah cantillations] or more. After that, Moses
was able to understand everything, as a result of his awesome deeds. (Even
the level of ta’amim.)
He acquired the levels of Rabbi Akiva through his
righteousness. This teaches that a person can through merits ascend to attain
things that are intrinsically above his soul root. Also, we learn out that G‑d
shows to a person things that He wants him to reach in order to spark the soul
to yearn and strive for them.
[Translation and commentary by Perets Auerbach.]
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