119. “Rabbi Shimon wept, etc.” Rabbi Shimon wept and said: “I, too, was afraid of the Holy One, blessed be He, from what I heard.” He placed his hands upon his head and declared: “Now, Rav Hamnuna Saba is the light of the Torah; you merited to see him face-to-face, and I did not merit [to see] him.” He fell upon his face and saw him uprooting mountains and lighting candles in the chamber of the King Messiah. [Rav Hamnuna Saba] said to him, “My rabbi, in that world you will be alongside the heads of the academies, before the Holy One, blessed be He.” From that day onwards he would call his son Rabbi Elazar, and Rabbi Abba, Peniel [“face of God”], as it is stated: “[And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel], for I have seen God face-to-face” (Genesis 32:31).

Explanation: He praised himself that he too had made use of that same fear of the prophet Habakkuk, that is, from what he heard, from the time of the past, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “I have heard the report of You and am afraid” (Habakkuk 3:2, as stated just above, in the beginning of section #118#).

Now, in the chamber of the King Messiah, all the rectifications that must be revealed at the completion of the rectification, upon the arrival of King Messiah, are already prepared and ready. Not a single tiny detail is missing. Those souls that are in the chamber of the King Messiah are all those who have already merited the completion of the rectification, from the root of their own souls.

[The Zohar] continues: “And saw him uprooting mountains and lighting candles in the chamber of the King Messiah.” Rav Hamnuna Saba is the master of these rectifications in the chamber of the Messiah. He uproots the mountains of the Sitra Aḥara, in the mystical meaning of the appearance [of the Sitra Aḥara] to the righteous as a tall mountain (Sukka 52a), and he lights candles, that is, he establishes the new partition with respect to the Sag to allow the raising of feminine waters at the completion of the rectification. The mystical meaning of the feminine waters is called “lights of fire,” and that is the mystical meaning of: “The soul of man is the candle of the Lord” (Proverbs 20:27). This is because the light of the sun is indicative of the downward flow of the masculine waters, like the light of the sun descending to us from above to below. The light of fire is the mystical meaning of the returning light, which ascends from below to above, like a flame rising from a candle. ¹ to us (the masculine waters), while flames represent our returning light and our feminine waters, our yearning from below to receive that which flows from above.

footnotes: ¹ Sunlight travels "downward, " toward us from above, while the flames of fire flicker upward. Sunlight represents the downward flow of light from the Ein Sof

[The Zohar] thus states that these two rectifications, to remove the Sitra Aḥara, and to raise and light the candles in the chamber of the King Messiah, are in the hands of Rav Hamnuna Saba. Those completely righteous ones who require these two rectifications merit them only through the revelation of the soul of Rav Hamnuna Saba. [Rav Hamnuna Saba] informed [Rabbi Shimon] that he and his disciples, Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Abba, would also merit to serve in the chamber of the King Messiah after their deaths, and that they would be alongside him there, and be heads of academies there before the Holy One, blessed be He.