141. “There is no speech, there are no words, etc.” “There is no speech, there are no words” [Psalms 19:4]. This means that there is no speech concerning other worldly matters, which are not heard before the holy King and that He does not want to hear. But those matters, “their line has gone out through all the earth” [Psalms 19:5], that is, those matters form a line from those who reside above and those who reside below. From these things the firmaments are fashioned, and from these things, from that praise, the earth is fashioned. And if you say that those things roam in the world in a single place, the verse states: “And their words to the end of the world” [Psalms 19:5].

Explanation: Thus far, we have spoken about the worst punishments and sufferings, namely the separation from one’s faith in God. Here it states that punishments and sufferings due to other worldly matters, that is, personal transgressions, the torments of Gehennom and physical suffering and the like, which fill this whole world, also gather and are incorporated in this great fusion, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “And it shall come to pass, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do good to you and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you etc.” [Deuteronomy 28:63]. [All these punishments] will gather and become a great light and be transformed into great joy and gladness.

This is the meaning of the statement: “There is no speech, there are no words concerning other worldly matters” – that is, all the suffering of this world – “which are not heard before the holy King,” at their transformation into joy and gladness, “and [about which it could be said that] He does not want to hear.” Due to their conversion into joy and gladness, the holy King will seek them and long to hear them. In other words, the memory of any sorrow and pain from past times will now, at the completion of the rectification, be a cause of great gladness and delight, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “In those days, and in that time, [says the Lord, ] the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none” [Jeremiah 50:20]. When these [transgressions] turn into merits, they will cause such satisfaction that the iniquities from past times will be sought as a source of amusement, but they will not be found. That is, it will seem to us that they no longer exist in their true form, as they were in days past. This is the meaning of: “And which He does not want to hear,” that there is no speech and there are no words to which He will not return with a great will and desire to hear, because now they have all become holy and faithful lights.

Now, this great height, which is generated at the completion of the rectification through the great [fusion through collision] from all the souls and all the good and bad deeds, is considered like a line and a pillar of light that shines from one end of the world to the other. This is the mystical meaning of the great unification, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “The Lord shall be one and His name one” (Zechariah 14:9). [The Zohar] thus states regarding “those matters,” that is, the aforementioned other worldly matters, [that] “their line has gone out through all the earth,” since the height that emerges from upon those matters, which are all types of suffering and punishment, illuminates from one end of the world to the other, that is, “through all the earth.”

[The Zohar] continues: “From those who reside above and those who reside below.” This is a very lofty concept, which I will try to clarify as much as possible. One should know that there is no order of time in eternity, unlike in this world. Accordingly, when God contemplated creating the world, all the souls, together with all their ways of behavior, in their complete wholeness that is required of them, were already created with respect to Him, in order to receive all the delight and goodness that He had in mind for them for their benefit. For Him, the future is like the present, and future and past do not apply to Him.

You can thereby understand the statement of the Sages (Sanhedrin 38b): The Holy One, Blessed be He, showed Adam the first [man], every generation and its interpreters,... and likewise to Moses (as stated in the Zohar, Parashat Lekh, 331; Vayḥi, 369). At first glance, this is puzzling: Since they had not yet been created, how could He show them? Rather, this is as we stated, that all the souls and all their ways of behavior, [from the beginning of Creation] through the completion of the rectification, have already emerged before Him in reality. They are all present in the mystical meaning of the supernal Garden of Eden. From there, they descend, becoming enclothed in bodies in this world, each of them at its proper time. From [the supernal Garden of Eden], the Creator showed them to Adam the first [man] and to Moses, and to all who were worthy of it. This is a lengthy [and complex] idea, which not everyone is capable of grasping (and which I have explained at length in my book, Panim Masbirot, section 1).

This is the mystical meaning of what is stated in the Zohar (Teruma, 163) that “as they unite above, in the secret of one, she too unites below, in the secret of one.” The height of the great fusion at the completion of the rectification – in the mystical meaning of the verse: “The Lord shall be one and His name one” – has already emerged above, from all the souls and all the deeds in the world which will be created until the completion of the rectification, that is, from the perspective of God’s eternity, since the future is like the present to Him. Thus, this pillar of light that shines from one end of the world to the other, which will shine at the completion of the rectification, is already standing in this manner in the supernal Garden of Eden and illuminating before Him, just as it will be revealed to us at the completion of the rectification.

This is the meaning of the statement there: “One opposite the other; the Holy One, Blessed be He, is one.” At the time of the completion of the rectification, the two heights will illuminate one opposite the other, and then “the Lord shall be one and His name one.” This is the meaning of the statement: “Those matters form a line from those who reside above and those who reside below,” that is, one opposite the other. That height shines from those who reside above, which are all the souls that are in the supernal Garden of Eden, and it also shines from those who reside below, which are all the souls once they have undergone the actualization of enclothing in a body in this world and reached the completion of the rectification. In other words, those two heights shine at the completion of the rectification together, at which stage God’s oneness is revealed, in the mystical meaning: “The Lord is one and His name one.”

Now, one might mistakenly think that this pillar of light which illuminates in the supernal Garden of Eden is drawn forth and shines in this world at the completion of the rectification. In response to such a claim, we are informed that this is not the case. Rather, “from these things the firmaments are fashioned,” since this height emerges upon the Yesod of Ze'er Anpin, which is called “a firmament” (as stated in section #138#, above). Consequently, this distinction [of above and below] is still maintained in all the fusions, that the height [of light] first emerges from the firmament and above, before subsequently illuminating to the recipients from the firmament and below. The height [of light] that emerges from the firmament and above is called “heaven,” while the height which is received from the firmament and below, is called “earth.”

This is the meaning of the statement that when the line of light unites those who reside above and those who reside below, there still remains the distinction between the supernal Garden of Eden and those who reside in this world. [This distinction is that] the height of the fusion that emerges from the firmament and above is received by those who reside in the supernal Garden of Eden, because “from these things the firmaments are fashioned,” that is, a new heaven for those who reside above. It is only the brightness that is drawn from the firmament and below which is received by those who reside below, and which is called “a new land” (as stated in section #64# above, third paragraph; see there). This is why [the Zohar] adds “from that praise,” meaning that those who reside below attain only the praise and the brightness that extend from heaven to earth.

[The Zohar] continues: “And if you say that those things roam in the world in a single place [etc. ].” Since it was explained that the [future] fusion is performed in the manner of all the fusions, in that it is drawn from the firmament and above to from the firmament and below, one might mistakenly claim that it is only a thin line, which rises in the mystical meaning of one place, as mentioned in the act of creation: “Let the waters be gathered together to one place” [Genesis 1:9], that is, only to the internal aspect of the levels [of reality], which reaches Israel alone, but not the external aspects of the levels (see Zohar, Parashat Bereshit, 218). [The Zohar] therefore states that it is not so, but rather they “roam in the world,” for the light wanders and fills the world from the end to the other, that is, “their words to the end of the world.” This means even to the external aspects of the levels, for it reaches the nations of the world as well, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “And the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord” [Isaiah 11:9].