נזקי ממון ד

It emerges that one must guard the memory each day specifically. And this is the aspect of: "On his day you shall give him his wages, and the sun shall not set upon him" (Devarim 24:15). For the wages of his labor are the aspect of the tikun of the memory that he sifted through his work, for the sake of which he endangered his soul in the aspect of servitude and forgetfulness, which is the aspect of death — in order to sift this reward of labor, which is the completeness of his soul, the aspect of tikun of the memory, in the aspect of: "and to it he lifts up his soul" (Devarim 24:15). And therefore one must give him this reward immediately, on his day specifically. For one must guard the memory each day specifically, and not postpone from one day to another, G-d forbid. For this is the essential completeness of the memory — to remind oneself each day specifically of the World to Come. For each day has in it special hints to draw close to His service, which are clothed in the change of thought, word, and deed of that day specifically, as above.

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And therefore one must remember the Exodus from Mitzrayim in K'rias Sh'ma each day specifically. For the Exodus from Mitzrayim, that Hashem, blessed be He, redeemed him from the hand of Pharaoh and his servants, who are the aspect of the koach ham'dameh [the power of imagination] — this is the aspect of sh'miras hazikaron, as above. And therefore one must remember this each day specifically, for sh'miras hazikaron must be each day specifically, as above. And this is the aspect of Parah Adumah [the Red Heifer]. For the Parah atones for the sin of the [Golden] Calf, which was idolatry — that they denied Hashem, blessed be He, and the Torah, and they made idolatry. And all of this is the aspect of the blemish of the memory, as it is written: "They made a calf at Choreiv," etc.; "and they exchanged their glory," etc.; "they forgot G-d their savior," etc. (Tehillim 106:19-21). For the Torah is the aspect of zikaron, and they denied the Torah and Hashem, blessed be He. And all of this was because of the desires of this world — that they did not want to cleave their thought to the World to Come, as our Sages of blessed memory said: "Yisra'ail did not worship idolatry except in order to permit for themselves immorality in public." It emerges that they blemished the zikaron. And therefore they drew upon themselves anew the sitra d'mosa [side of death], which is the aspect of forgetfulness, which is the death of the heart, as above. As it is written: "I said, you are gods," etc.; "but you shall die like a man," etc. (Tehillim 82:6-7). As our Sages of blessed memory said, that at the time of the giving of the Torah, their contamination ceased, and they merited freedom from the Angel of Death, as is brought (as they expounded in Eiruvin 54a on the verse "engraved [charus] upon the tablets" — do not read charus but rather chairus [freedom], etc.). And therefore the Torah commanded to bring the Parah Adumah, to sweeten the blemish of forgetfulness. For judgment is only sweetened at its root. And the Parah is the aspect of forgetfulness. For the essential forgetfulness is from the aspect of the koach ham'dameh, which is the animalistic power [koach hab'hamiyus], as is explained in the Torah teaching mentioned above. And the essential animality and forgetfulness is in the aspect of the cow [parah] more than anything. For she is the essential animality, for the king of the domestic animals is the ox [shor], and all the animals are included in him. And the essential hold of forgetfulness is in the aspect of animality, as above. And the forgetfulness is from the sitra d'nukva [the feminine side], as is known. For the male [d'chura] is called by this name zachur [remembered/male], because from there is the aspect of zikaron [memory]. And therefore also among animals, forgetfulness takes hold more in the aspect of the feminine of the ox, which is the head and king of the animals — which is the cow [parah]. And therefore the sar [minister/angel] of forgetfulness is called Purah, on account of parah [cow], as is brought. And this is [the meaning of] when he rebukes Yisra'ail for forgetting Hashem, blessed be He, and turning away from Him, it is written: "For like a stubborn cow, Yisra'ail has been stubborn" (Hoshaia 4:16). And therefore Pharaoh, who is the aspect of the koach ham'dameh, the idle power, as is explained in the Torah teaching mentioned above, and wanted to overpower Yisra'ail to draw them into exile and servitude under his hand, which is the aspect of forgetfulness — to cause them to forget, G-d forbid, the memory of the World to Come, to which they were accustomed to cleave their thought according to what they received from their fathers Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov, who began to draw this zikaron into the world, for they made known and revealed His Elokus in the world (as is explained elsewhere). Therefore Pharaoh saw in his dream cows specifically — seven good cows and seven bad cows, and the bad cows consumed the good ones, "and it was not known that they had come into their midst" (Beraishis 41:21). All of this indicates that the evil overpowered the good, G-d forbid, until the good was forgotten, G-d forbid, in the aspect of: "And all the plenty shall be forgotten," etc. (Beraishis 41:30). And therefore his dream was of cows specifically, for there is the essential hold of Pharaoh, who is the aspect of koach ham'dameh, the aspect of forgetfulness, which is the aspect of parah [cow], as above. But the tikun was through Yosef. For through Yosef interpreting the dream for Pharaoh and becoming king and gathering all the food of the seven good years, through this he broke and nullified the famine and caused the good to overpower the evil. And through his holiness he subdued the contamination of Mitzrayim. And through this, Yisra'ail merited to go out from there. For the essential Exodus from Mitzrayim was through the power of Yosef HaTzaddik, as it is written: "And Moshe took the bones of Yosef with him" (Shemos 13:19) — as it is brought in the holy Zohar. For Yosef, who is the aspect of sh'miras hazikaron, subdues the aspect of Pharaoh, who is the aspect of forgetfulness, and sifts the memory from the forgetfulness. And therefore he knows how to interpret the dream of the cows and to subdue and nullify the forgetfulness that takes hold in them, which are the seven years of famine. For he causes the plenty to overpower the famine and draws all the abundances and blessings through sh'miras hazikaron, from where all the blessings come, as above. And this is the aspect of Parah Adumah. For through burning the Parah Adumah, which is the strength of harsh judgment [tokef hadin] where the essential hold of forgetfulness is, as above — through this one subdues and sweetens the aspect of forgetfulness, which is the sitra d'mosa, at its root. And therefore the ashes of the Parah specifically purify from the impurity of the dead, which is the aspect of forgetfulness that was drawn from the sin of Adam HaRishon and from the sin of the [Golden] Calf. And the Parah purifies from this, for the judgment is sweetened at its root, as above. And then the seven bad cows are nullified, which are the aspect of evil, the aspect of forgetfulness. And therefore the Parah — all her procedures are in sevens, as our Sages of blessed memory said — in order to subdue and nullify the seven bad cows and to cause the seven good cows to prevail. These are the aspect of Yosef HaTzaddik, the aspect of zikaron, the aspect of "ben poras Yosef" (Beraishis 49:22), the aspect of: "I am Keil Shakai; be fruitful and multiply" (Beraishis 35:11). For this is the aspect of zikaron, through which the Tzaddik and K'neses Yisra'ail are unified, in the aspect of "He stretches out the heavens like a curtain," as above. And therefore Yosef, when he parted from his father, was engaged in the section of eglah arufah [the decapitated calf], as it is written: "And he saw the wagons [agalos]" (Beraishis 45:27). For the murderer drew sitra d'mosa [the side of death] to the world, the aspect of forgetfulness. Therefore one must bring an eglah arufah and sever it from the back of the neck [oref], which has the same letters as Pharaoh [Par'oh] — to subdue the oref [back of the neck], which is the opposite of da'as, which is the aspect of forgetfulness, which is the blemish and opposite of da'as. And therefore one decapitates a calf [eglah] specifically. That is, according to what was explained above: for the essential forgetfulness takes hold in the aspect of animality, and in the aspect of the ox [shor] most of all, since he is the head of the domestic animals. And the calf [eglah], which has not yet been trained at all in any labor — there the animalistic power is still in greater and greater force. For it is known that through all the labors that people work with animals for their needs, through this they subdue the animalistic power. And therefore the animals become accustomed to people and can be taught the service of man — all of which is the aspect of subduing the animality somewhat. But the calf that has not yet been trained at all — there the animality is even more intense. And this is what rebuked Yisra'ail, with a calf not yet trained. And therefore the Eirev Rav [Mixed Multitude] made a calf specifically, in order to increase the animality and the forgetfulness even more. And therefore one must decapitate a calf specifically, in order to subdue and break the force of forgetfulness, which is the sitra d'mosa, that was drawn through this murderer who killed this corpse that was found. And therefore Yosef, when he parted from his father, left him with the section of eglah arufah. And afterward he merited greatness through the dream of the seven cows, which is the secret of Parah Adumah, as above. This is the aspect of: "Let the mother come and clean up after her son" — for the Parah atones for the sin of the [Golden] Calf. For through all the mitzvos of the Parah Adumah, the forgetfulness is subdued and nullified, as above. And the death is nullified — which is the aspect of the decapitation of the calf. For all of this is the aspect of: The subduing and nullification of Pharaoh, who wanted to increase forgetfulness upon Yisra'ail, G-d forbid, as above — which is the entirety of the exile of Mitzrayim and the generality of all the exiles. For the essential exile is the exile of the soul. That is, what they seek to overpower through the exile to distance Yisra'ail, G-d forbid, from the World to Come — this is the essential exile and the great suffering that is greater than all sufferings, as is explained in the words of Rabbainu of blessed memory in another place — that this is the essential suffering of Yisra'ail. And the tikun is through Yosef, through whom the zikaron is drawn, as above. And therefore we read Parashas Parah after Purim before Pesach. For the entire matter of Purim and Pesach is to subdue Amalek and Pharaoh, who are the aspect of the blemish of the memory. For Pharaoh is the aspect of the koach ham'dameh, which blemishes the memory. And Amalek is worse, for he is the aspect of the evil eye itself [ra ayin b'atzmo], which is the essential blemish of the memory, as is explained elsewhere (in Hilchos Talmud Torah — see there). And therefore "Hashem wages war against Amalek from generation to generation" (Shemos 17:16). For he is not completely subdued except in the generation of Mashi'ach, who will come speedily in our days, for the evil eye cannot be subdued and nullified except through the kingdom of Mashi'ach, as is explained in the Torah teaching mentioned above. And therefore one must remember the deed of Amalek and not forget, for the essential subduing of Haman-Amalek is through the zikaron, as above. And this is the aspect of: "And these days are remembered and done," etc. (Esther 9:28) — as above. And therefore Haman cast a pur [lot], which is the aspect of forgetfulness, as is brought. And he sought to destroy, etc. — to increase the sitra d'mosa, G-d forbid. For he is the essential contamination of the Serpent [zuhamas hanachash], in the aspect of "Is [Haman] from the tree?" — as our Sages of blessed memory said (Chulin 139b). And Hashem, blessed be He, annulled his scheme and returned his recompense upon his head. And it was overturned from one extreme to the other. For not only did his scheme not succeed to cause the forgetting of the Torah and the World to Come, G-d forbid, but on the contrary — Yisra'ail merited then to increase the zikaron of holiness more and more, in the aspect of: "They upheld and they accepted" (Esther 9:27) — that they accepted then the Torah anew, which is the aspect of zikaron of holiness. "And these days are remembered" forever, as it is written: "And their memory shall not cease" (Esther 9:28). And our Sages of blessed memory expounded that the days of Purim will never be nullified, for the zikaron of holiness was increased then more and more, as above. And therefore after Purim we read Parashas Parah, which purifies from the impurity of the dead, which is the aspect of forgetfulness. For through this one can make the Korban Pesach and be redeemed from Pharaoh and Mitzrayim, who are also the aspect of the blemish of the memory, as above. For the wicked Haman wanted to overpower at the time of sleep, at the end of the exile, which is the aspect of sleep. And he thought that at the time of sleep, the withdrawal of da'as, then he would have the power to increase the forgetfulness, G-d forbid. And because sleep is one-sixtieth of death, as above. But he did not know that Yisra'ail are holy — on the contrary, at the time of sleep they are cleaving to the World to Come. For they sanctify themselves at the time of sleep as well, for they recite K'rias Sh'ma beforehand and deposit their spirit in His hand, blessed be He. And therefore specifically then, at the time of sleep, at the end of the exile, there was the illumination of Mordechai, which is a very, very great illumination that shines at the time of sleep specifically. And through this great illumination specifically they subdued him. For Yisra'ail cleave at the time of sleep specifically to the World to Come, as is explained in the Torah teaching mentioned above.

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