121. “And at the end of all the gates, etc.” And at the end of all the gates, He made one gate with several locks, with several openings, with several chambers, one above the other. He declared: “Anyone who wishes to enter My [Presence], this gate will be the first to Me. One who enters, will enter through this gate.” Here too, the first gate to the supernal Ḥokhma is the fear of the Lord, which is Malkhut, and this is the one called “first.”

Explanation: It is necessary to understand thoroughly the meaning of “locks,” “openings,” and “chambers.” Know that these are three forms that come one after the other, with respect to a single substance. This is a very profound matter and I will make the effort to explain as best as I can, so that these words of the Zohar will be somewhat comprehensible. One should know that although it is clear that no thought can grasp Him in any manner at all, the truth is that [God’s] intent in [creating] Creation was to provide pleasure to His creatures. Now, no pleasure can be grasped by a created being if [that being] is necessarily separate from the Creator, Heaven forbid. Furthermore, the Sages have stated that the Holy One, blessed be He, yearned to dwell in the lower realms. ¹ is identifying a contradiction here. It is clear that God cannot be grasped in any manner whatsoever. Yet, God's intent in Creation was to provide pleasure to the created beings, a pleasure which cannot be experienced by beings that are isolated from their Creator. Additionally, the Sages of the Talmud stressed that God desires to dwell among the created beings, a further impossibility given God's opposite nature compared to the created beings. How can God's "desire" to connect with and dwell among His creatures be resolved?

footnotes: ¹ TThe author of the Sulam

The common denominator for understanding those two contradicting concepts is that the world was created as the exact opposite of God, [opposite as] the two extremes [on a spectrum], with regard to every single point. This world was created out of the aspect of the will to receive, which is the form that is opposite to God, since He does not have even a shred of this will. ² This is the mystical meaning of: “A man is born a man as a wild donkey’s colt” (Job 11:12). From this perspective, all matters of the guidance of His Providence in this world are in absolute contradiction to [His] intent for the Creation, which is only to provide pleasure to His creatures, [pleasure] that is correlated with the will to receive within us, which is our taste and our standard of measurement. ³

footnotes: ² The beings of Creation, and all of Creation itself, are formed of a "will to receive, " meaning, a capacity to take and receive from something beyond themselves. This is the fundamental opposite of God who has no such dependence of receiving from anything or anyone outside of Himself. ³ The underlying concept here is that pleasure is experienced when there is relief from a lack. This pleasurable sensation manifests when a person receives something he lacks, something he wants. Accordingly, pleasure is correlated by the will to receive within us, because according to that fundamental element's variance, our pleasure varies as well (a person does not enjoy things he doesn't lack or want). This fundamental underlying wanting, the will to receive, is what gives our lives "taste and a standard of measurement, " meaning it is what allows us to appraise and evaluate different things and experiences in life.

This is the mystical meaning of the locks on the gates. For in truth, all the many contradictions to His unity, which we experience in this world, although they initially separate us from God, when we make the effort to fulfill the Torah and mitzvot with love, with our souls and our might, as we are commanded (that is, in order to provide satisfaction to our Maker), then all those forces of separation do not affect us into diminishing any of the love of God with all our souls and might. [Then] each and every contradiction that we have overcome subsequently becomes a gate for the attainment of His wisdom. Every contradiction contains a special quality, which reveals a unique level in the attainment of Him. Those worthy individuals who have merited this, will transform darkness into light and bitter into sweet. All the powers of separation, including both the darkness of the intellect and the bitterness of the body, have for [such people] become gates for the attainment of lofty levels. The darkness thus turns into a great light, and the bitter becomes sweet.

[This conversion of darkness to light takes place such that] to the degree that all the workings of His Providence had previously been [experienced as] forces of separation for [such people], [these workings] have now all transformed for [such people] into forces of unification. They have thus tilted the entire world to the scale of merit, for each and every force now serves for them as gates of righteousness, through which they will enter to receive from God everything that He has thought with regard to them, to provide them with pleasure, in [His initial] intent for the Creation, and [hence the verse]: “This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it” (Psalms 118:20).

However, before meriting to transform the will to receive that is within us, through the Torah and commandments, into “receiving in order to give,”⁴ there are powerful locks on those gates to the Lord, since at that stage they have the opposite task, which is to drive us away from God. This is why these forces of separation are called “locks,” because they block the gates of approach and distance us from God. However, if we overcome them, such that they do not affect us by cooling His love from our hearts, the locks then become openings, the darkness becomes light, and the bitter becomes sweet, as stated. The reason is that for each and every lock we receive a special level of His Providence, and they become openings, levels of attainment of Him. These levels we receive from these openings subsequently become chambers of the Ḥokhma.

footnotes: ⁴ The process of growth and development for the created beings is to transition from beings who receive for our own interests to beings who receive in order to bestow. By achieving this transformation, in which our receiving of God's gifts is in order to give back to God, we become like the Creator, givers instead of receivers.

This is how the locks, openings, and chambers are three forms that affect our single substance, that is, the will to receive that is within us. Before we transform it into “receiving in order to give” satisfaction to our Maker, this substance transforms, in accordance with our taste, the light into darkness and the sweet into bitter, since all the workings of His Providence drive us from Him. At that time, locks are fashioned from the will to receive in us, but after our repentance, when we merit [the level of] “receiving in order to give,” all the locks become openings, and then the openings become chambers, as explained. This must be kept in mind for all that follows, for I will not restate these ideas.

[The Zohar] continues: “Anyone who wishes to enter My [Presence], this gate will be the first to Me.” The meaning of the gates has already been thoroughly explained; see above. “The end of all the gates” refers to the last aspect within them, the lowliest of all, which can be called Malkhut of Malkhut. [The Zohar] is saying that in order to merit the supernal Ḥokhma, this gate, the last of all of them, becomes the first gate to the chamber of the supernal Ḥokhma. For in truth, all the gates serve as openings and chambers to the Ḥokhma of the Lord, but it is impossible to attain the supernal Ḥokhma without attaining the last gate specifically, since it is the first [gate] for the supernal Ḥokhma.

This is the meaning of the statement: “And this is [the one called] “first [reishit],” which is referring to [the word] Bereshit, with which the Torah begins. Bereshit represents the fear of God from the aspect of the last gate, which is the first [gate] for attaining the supernal Ḥokhma.