**Another Introduction to Tiqqunei ha-Zohar For Rosh Ḥodesh Elul, Day 1

(Gen. 1:1) In the beginning, ELQYM created... etc.

It is written: (Dan. 12:3) The wise shall radiate¹, like the radiance¹ of the firmament... etc.

footnotes: ¹ yazhiru ¹ zohar

These are Rabbi Shim’on ben Yoḥai and his companions: Rabbi El’azar his son, and Rabbi Abba, and Rabbi Yosse, and Rabbi Ḥiya, and Rabbi Yitzḥaq, and the rest of the companions, who radiate radiance [Var. who are radiating] above, ... like the radiance of the firmament.

What is meant by ‘like the radiance’? But when they made this composition, it was agreed to on high, and they called it The Book of Radiance¹.

footnotes: ¹ Sepher ha-Zohar

(ibid.) ... and those who bring the many to righteousness – through it, may they be many!

(ibid.) ... like the stars forever – that their light never be darkened, for ever and ever and ever.

At that time, when this composition was composed, permission was granted to Elijah to acquiesce with them in it, and to all the Masters of the Academy above and below, and all the forces of the higher angels, and higher souls, to be with them in agreement and friendship as one.

Elijah opened began, and he said: Master of the Worlds! For You are He that is One – but not in number.

You are high above all the high-ones, hidden, beyond all that is hidden, no thought apprehends You at all.

You are He that has produced ten ‘constructs’¹ – and we call them ‘the ten sephirot’² – with which to direct hidden worlds that are not revealed, and worlds that are revealed. And in them You are concealed [Var. it is concealed], from humans.

footnotes: ¹ tiqqunin ² See Bemidbar Rabbah 14:11 and Sepher Yetzirah 1:2

And You are He that binds them, and unites them, and, because You are within them, anyone who separates one from its companion, of these ten, is considered as though he had caused separation in You.

And these ten sephirot, they are going according to their order: one long, and one short, and one intermediate.

And You are He that directs them, and there is none who direct You, – not above, and not below, and not from any side.

Garments have You fixed for them, from which fly-forth souls for [Var. of] human beings. And many bodies You have fixed for them, – which are called ‘body’, relative to the ‘garments’ which cover them.

And they are called in this arrangement: Ḥesed – right arm, Gevurah – left arm, Tipheret – body, Netzaḥ and Hod – two thighs, and Yesod – end of the body, – sign of the holy covenant. Malkhut – ‘mouth’ – we call it ‘Oral Torah’.

The brain is Ḥokhmah, it is inner thought. Binah is the heart, and with it the heart understands. And upon these two it is written: (Deut. 29:28) The hidden things are for Y”Y our God....

Higher Keter, it is the ‘crown of sovereignty’, and upon it is stated: (Is. 46:10) He tells the end from the beginning... And it is ‘the skull of phylacteries’ [Var. ‘the skull that does not lay phylacteries’¹ ]. Inside it is YOD QE VAV QE², which is ‘the way of emanation’.

footnotes: ¹ BT Rosh HaShanah 17a ² 45

It is the watering of the tree, with its arms and its branches, [Var. and its faces] like water, which irrigates a tree, and it grows through that watering.

Master of the worlds! You are ‘the Cause of causes’, the Reason of reasons, Who waters the tree – with that fountain!

And that fountain is like a soul to the body, which is the body’s life-force. And yet of You, there is no imagining, and there is no likeness, of anything that is inside or out.

And You created heaven and earth, and You produced from them the sun and the moon, and stars and constellations. And on the earth: trees, and grasses, and the Garden of Eden, [and herbs] and beasts, and birds, and fish, and people, so that higher-ones would be recognised through them, and how high-ones and low-ones are directed through them, and how they are recognised from higher and lower – and there is none that knows of You at all.