letters, and they are Netzaḥ and Hod [righteous-ones], – the mighty-ones¹ of the world. And behold, EiYTaN¹ in a switch of letters, is TaNYA¹, which assists Him in exile, and upon which it is stated: (Num. 24:21) ... mighty is your dwelling place, and your nestingwhich you haveplaced in the rock.

footnotes: ¹ eiytanim ¹ mighty ¹ ‘we-have-learnt’

And of this rock¹, [It is stated of it, that nothing emerges except a few droplets, of the water of Torah, in these ‘decisions’, and because of: (Num. 20:11) And Moses struck the rock with his staff, twice – this caused that ] only a few droplets emerge from it: (Is. 28:10) ... a little there and a little there.

footnotes: ¹ sel’a

And there are many controversies over these drops. And who causes this? The teachers of halakhah, of whom it is stated:¹ ‘Anyone who teaches halakhah before his teacher is guilty of a capital offence’. And because of this: (Num. 20:10) *Hear now, you ‘morim’*²² ! And because of them: And Moses struck the rock with his staff twice (see Num. 20:11) .

footnotes: ¹ BT Berakhot 31b ² rebels ² teachers

For if not that he struck it, then they would not have toiled – Israel and the Tannaim and the Amoraim – in the Oral Torah, which is ‘rock’, but it is stated of it: (Num. 20:8) ... and you shall speak to the rock, and it shall give its waters...–**without effort, and it would be fulfilled of them: (Jer. 31:33) And they shall no longer teach... etc. and water would emerge, without ‘difficulty’, ‘debate’, and ‘decision’.

Because the Shekhinah, – of whom it is stated: (Jer. 23:29) ‘Is thus not My word like fire?’ says Y”Y – was dwelling in the mouths of Israel, for it is the Oral Torah, which is sel’a¹, composed of ’AL¹ and the letter Samekh²³ which are the sixty tractates, for thus SeL’A is ‘upon¹ 60’¹.

footnotes: ¹ rock ¹ upon ² ס ³ 60 ¹ ’AL ¹ Samekh

For the Shekhinah would rest upon the rock, for wherever the blessed Holy One wishes to perform a miracle, the Shekhinah precedes to that place, and since the Shekhinah was there, he Moses should not have struck the rock, because that was disrespectful to the Shekhinah, who was there, as though it did not have the power to give water, and this is: (Deut. 32:51) *... because you did not sanctify Me...

• (Num. 20:12) ... because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me...

And because of this, the Shekhinah departed from the rock, which is the Yod¹ of Meytatron, and Metatron without Yod was left dry.

footnotes: ¹ י

And the mystery of the matter: (Gen. 1:9) Let the waters be gathered, from under the heavens to one place... etc. ‘One’¹ is Malkhut, ...and let the dry land be seen– this is sel’a¹ – Metatron, for whose sake it is stated: (Gen. 2:21) ... and He took one of his ribs¹,* and He enclosed flesh beneath it...*

footnotes: ¹ eḥad ¹ rock ¹ tzel’a

What is flesh¹ ? It is that of which it is stated: (Gen. 6:3) ... in that also he is¹ flesh... * *And until he Moses caused Her to descend, the ‘rock’ did not ascend and did not give its waters.

footnotes: ¹ basar ¹ beshagam

And after this well-spring was removed from there, ‘bitterness’¹ governed in Her place. It is this that is written: (Ex. 15:23) And they came to Marah...

footnotes: ¹ marah

And the mystery of the matter: (Ex. 1:14) And they embittered their lives, with hard¹ work... etc. – this is ‘questioning’¹, with mortar¹ – this is ‘a fortiori argument’¹, and they have already established this.

footnotes: ¹ qashah ¹ qushya ¹ ḥomer ¹ qal va-ḥomer

And thus were Israel, until he showed them the tree¹. It is this that is written: (Ex. 15:25) *And Y”Y showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the waters were sweetened... *And this is: (Gen. 2:9) ... *the tree of life... *– which grows upon that well-spring which is the Shekhinah. Yod² is the well-spring, which irrigates the ‘tree’¹ that is Vav².

footnotes: ¹ ’eitz ² י ¹ ilana ² ו

And this Tree is as large as a distance of five-hundred years,¹ which are Hei²³, (Ex. 15:25) *... and the waters were sweetened *– this is the latter Hei, of which it is stated: (Ruth 1:20) ... call me bitter⁴ ...

footnotes: ¹ Bereishyt Rabbah 15:6 ² ה ³ 5 ⁴ marah

For the Lower Shekhinah, She is a garden spring that never ceases, a drop that is drawn from the brain, and many drops are drawn from it, which are: (Ps. 45:15) ... virgins following her, her companions...

The skull is a ‘rock’¹, and the well-spring inside it is the brain. About these drops it is stated: (Ps. 127:5) Happy is the man, who has filled his quiver from them... etc. ...the enemies at the gate – which is ‘the gate of the righteous’, the holy sign of the covenant, about which it is stated: (Ps. 118:20) This is the gate of Y”Y, the righteous shall enter through it.

footnotes: ¹ sel’a

And furthermore: (Mic. 6:2) *Hear, O mountains, the argument of Y”Y... *–**these are three Yods, ...*and the mighty-ones, the foundations of the earth *– these are three Vavs. all of which are alluded to, in: (Ex. 14:19–21) Va-yis’a¹ * Va-yavo*¹ *... Va-yeit*¹ ....

footnotes: ¹ And-it-travelled ¹ And-it-came ¹ And-he-stretched

Arise El’azar! And take the sling, which is the Shekhinah, [and surround it with a crownlet], and shoot from it that stone – the holy drop, about which it is stated: (Gen. 2:6) And a mist¹ *would ascend from the earth... *[and because of this:]

footnotes: ¹ eid