Chapter Four

This is the gist of the Zohar quoted above:

Three are interlocked together, Israel, the Torah and the Holy One blessed be He, and all are on different planes, one higher than the other, partly hidden and partly revealed.

Israel, Torah and G-d are joined together into complete union, as it is said: The Holy One blessed be He, the Torah and Israel are all one, and their union comes about through the revealed and hidden qualities of each of them, mentioned above.

However, the way that they unite is two-fold:

a) The revealed qualities of Israel unite with the revealed attributes of G-d, by means of the revealed part of the Torah; and the latent qualities of Israel unite with the latent attributes of G-d, by means of the latent part of the Torah.

b) The revealed qualities of Israel are connected with the hidden qualities of Israel, and the hidden qualities of Israel in turn unite with the revealed part of the Torah; the revealed part of the Torah is connected with its hidden part, and this in turn unites with the revealed attributes of G-d; finally, the revealed attributes of G-d are connected with His hidden attributes and thus the union is completed.

These two manners of uniting share a common feature: both tend to reveal the concealed, but create nothing new. For the three rings mentioned above are essentially interlocked even when not revealed.