146. “While they were sitting, etc.” While they were sitting, his son Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Abba entered. [Rabbi Shimon] said to them, certainly, the face of the Divine Presence has come, and this is why I called you Peniel (as stated in section #119# above), which has the letters of penei El [“face of God”], for you saw the face of the Divine Presence face-to-face [see Genesis 32:31]. And now that you know, and he has revealed to you the verse involving Benayahu Ben Yehoyada, it must certainly be a word of the holy Atik, which is the mystical meaning of the Keter. And likewise the subsequent verse: “And he slew an Egyptian” [II Samuel 23:21]. [Regarding] that which is the most sealed away of all, they said that is the holy Atik.

Explanation: This is referring back to the episode of the donkey driver, who revealed the soul of Benayahu Ben Yehoyada to Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Abba, on account of which Rabbi Shimon called them Peniel (section #119# above). The soul of Benayahu Ben Yehoyada is this very height that will be revealed in the future, at the completion of the rectification, as stated there. For this reason, [Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Abba] too experienced the covering and concealment of all the supernal lights (as stated in section #113# above), as stated here [in the preceding sections] with regard to the fusion of the circuit of the sun at the time of the year, until they reached Rabbi Shimon, son of Lakunya and saw Rabbi Shimon there, at which point they merited all the lights once again, as stated there.

This is the meaning of Rabbi Shimon’s statement to them here: “And now that you know, and he has revealed to you the verse involving Benayahu Ben Yehoyada.” He hinted to them that they have already merited the six verses of “the heavens declare,” and they are already at the six names in the other verses, since the soul of Benayahu Ben Yehoyada has already been openly revealed to them. When they attained the soul of Benayahu Ben Yehoyada by means of “that donkey driver,” their apprehension [of that soul] was still unrevealed, since at that time they were in the mystical meaning of six verses, and this is why they underwent that path of miracles and signs. Now, however, the soul of Benayahu was openly revealed to them, and [Rabbi Shimon] thus states: “And now that you know, and he has revealed to you the verse involving Benayahu Ben Yehoyada.”

Thus [Rabbi Shimon] says: “It must certainly be a word of the holy Atik, and likewise the subsequent verse.” The soul of Benayahu Ben Yehoyada is the mystical meaning of the “word of the Atik,” that is, the great fusion of Atik Yomin, which they knew then as well. Now, however, [they] also know the subsequent verse, that “he smote the two altar-hearths of Moab etc.” [II Samuel 23:20], “and he slew an Egyptian etc.” All those verses are also the word of the Atik. “And they said that that one, which is the most obscure of all” meaning Atik Yomin, which is the most obscure of all.