132. “When that episode etc.” When that incident happened to him, King David was afraid. At that time, Duma arose before the Holy One, blessed be He, and said to Him: “Master of the universe, it is written in the Torah: “And the man who commits adultery with another man’s wife” [Leviticus 20:10], and it is stated: “And with your neighbor’s wife etc.” [Leviticus 18:20]. David, who desecrated his covenant with a forbidden relation, what is he?” The Holy One, blessed be He, replied: “David is righteous, and the holy covenant stands in its proper state, for it is revealed before Me that Bathsheba was prepared for him since the day that the world was created.”

Explanation: Even though he did not sin, as the Sages said: “Anyone who says that David sinned is nothing other than mistaken” (Shabbat 56a), he was nevertheless as afraid as though he had actually sinned. The Zohar explains that this was due to the slander of Duma, as stated here. “It is written in the Torah: ‘And the man who commits adultery’... and it is written etc.” Two verses are cited, one of which details the punishment, while the other is the warning.

[The Zohar] continues: “And the holy covenant etc.” [God] replied to [Duma] that David had no thought of sin, because Bathsheba was his [designated] partner since the time of the creation of the world (Sanhedrin 107a). Accordingly, he never corrupted his covenant, Heaven forbid, “and the holy covenant stands in its proper state.” When he lusted, he lusted after his own. Uriah took her before David because, as explained in the Zohar (Aḥarei, 395), Uriah took her with mercy even though she was not his; see there.

Now, this requires explanation, for the male and female are two halves of a single body. Consequently, if she is half of King David’s body, how could Uriah take her, when he had nothing to do with her? The explanation is that Bathsheba was truly the female side of David from the day the world was created, for David is the male in Malkhut and Bathsheba is the female in Malkhut. However, just as at the time of the rectification of the Malkhut for [the process of] the emanation of the worlds [from Atzilut and downward], there was an ascent of the Malkhut to Bina [in the second constriction], in order to temper [Malkhut] with the attribute of mercy [which is Bina]. So too Bathsheba required this tempering in the first three [sefirot], for without this tempering, she would be completely unfit to beget the soul of King Solomon.

Now, Uriah the Hittite was a very lofty soul, as he was entirely from the [level of] the first three [sefirot], as his name attests: Or-yah [“light of yod-heh,” referring to the light of the first three sefirot alluded to in the first two letters of yod-heh of the name Havaya], and there was nothing at all in him of the six extremities, which is vav-heh. ¹, made up of the letters of yod-heh and vav-heh, corresponds to the levels of the first three sefirot, Keter-Ḥokhma-Bina and the six extremities-Malkhut, respectively. Therefore, in order to temper Bathsheba with the attribute of mercy, Uriah, who is the aspect of the first three [sefirot], took her, and she was tempered by him, after which she was fit for the kingship of Israel. This is the meaning of the statement that “Uriah took her with mercy,” that is, in order to temper her with mercy, which is with the name yah in Uriah. He thus took her despite the fact that she was not his. This will be further clarified below.

footnotes: ¹ The Tetragrammaton, Havaya