The concept of Gevurah involves ‘restriction’ in terms of focus. It was applied to Isaac who re-dug his father’s wells, which is seen as a kabbalistic metaphor for digging deeper into the mysteries of Torah – of which there are many involving the subject of the messiah, including aspect of mashiach as they are associated with the ‘other side,’ an aspect of Gevurah:
“Citing a passage in Tikunei hazohar (Zohar hadash, tikunim, 112d-113a), the Ramchal wrote that what was meant by Pharaoh’s decree that all newborn males were to be cast into the river, and by the concealment of Moshe in ‘the ark of bulrushes’ (Exo.1:22; 2:3), was the retention of ‘the light of the Torah’ and ‘the spirit of the Mashiach’ in Gan Eden (Adir bamarom, 27-9). This surprising exposition (‘into the river’ = to Gan Eden, ‘cast him’ = conceal the secrets of the Torah and the Mashiach in Gan Eden) has no support in the passage in the Zohar on which it is alleged to be based or in Luzzatto’s lame explanation of the subject matter of the exposition. (Zohar hadash, tikunim, 98b; Tikunei Zohar, tikun 21, 53b – the casting into the river is made to apply to the degradation of esoteric secrets; that is to say, Pharaoh’s order ‘Cast him into the river’ is understood as alluding to the decree that the decree that the secrets of the Torah should be cast out and besmirched in exile. None of the three passages contains any reference to ‘Gan Eden’). But it contains the key to the understanding of his TRUE INTENTION, which he declared he had purposely obscured. What he really meant by ‘the river’ was the abyss of the kelipot – the evil spirits known as the husks – and since the secrets of the Torah and the soul of the Mashiach were being held captive in the prison of the Sitra Achra for so long as the Temple lay in ruins and Israel was in exile, it was said of them that they were cast ‘into the river.’
“As for the kabbalistic scholars who sought to attain a knowledge of the mysteries hidden in the river of the husks, they, too, must cast themselves into it in order to extract those mysteries. ‘The son that is born’ is the Moshe-Mashiach, by which designation is meant that ‘when the Temple was destroyed, truly the Mashiach was born, as is well known.’ Contained within the spirit of the Mashiach were secrets of the Torah and holy powers which had to be known and understood in order to bring about the Redemption, but the Holy One, blessed be He, decreed that during the Exile ‘the transmission of the divine spirit to the Mashiach will be blocked, and he will be unable to draw the emanation down into Israel as he should, but will be cast into the river.’ Thus, so long as the Mashiach and the secrets of the Torah he carried within him remained plunged in the river of the husks of evil, the Exile would continue, and therefore ‘the reapers of the field’ [kabbalists] were given the ability to attach themselves to them and all to be contained within the spirit of Mashiach… and to hold strongly to him, so that they should all be cast into the river; and that is the tikun which I am expounding to you… and so they will receive there what is proper for them to receive and afterwards bring it down, and will be called maskilim [‘enlightened’ or ‘enlighteners’] … and the reason that the Scriptural expression tashikhuhu [‘cast him’] has become taskiluhu [‘enlighten him’] is that they are perfected through the mystical action of [the sefirah] Yesod, so as subsequently to bestow this bounty on others. In freeing the captive secrets from dominion of the husks they would also liberate the soul of the Mashiach and help him to complete the Redemption, ‘for the Mashiach is called tzadik [‘righteous’], as in the allusion in Scripture: “he is righteous and saved” (Zech.9:9), and those who hold fast to his strength are called tzadikim.'”
Messianic Mysticism, Isaiah Tishby, pg.70,71
<< RETURN | NEXT >>