Chapter Ten, Section Three: Traits of Israel's Waters

Translation and commentary by Rabbi David Slavin

At the time of the construction of the First Temple, which represented the realm of the supernal  bina, the average vine required an entire city to harvest its fruits. Even later on, in the times after the destruction of the Second Temple, we see Rabbi  Yehoshua Ben  Levi using a wild depiction of the bounty of the Land: "We saw the cuttings of the vine to be the size of calves" (Ketubot 112a), as well as other outrageous statements as to the greatness of the produce of the Land.

" When the Jews living in Eretz Yisrael were good, the rains were blessed..."

When the Jews living in Eretz Yisrael were good, the rains were blessed, for they came as a result of the combination of  chochma and bina. At one time the divine influence came solely from chochma, and at other times it came solely from bina, and yet at other times it came from the combination of the two. Everything was dependent upon the actions of the Jews. This is what is meant by the verse "And to the rains of the Heavens you shall drink water" (Deut. 11:11). If you merit it, you shall receive "male" waters alone; not the lower male, i.e.  Zeir Anpin, rather from the "supernal chochma" [in Hebrew, "chochma elyona", i.e.  Abba], which has the same numerical value as "mataar" [Hebrew for "rain"]. He is referred to as the "Upper Heavens", for the miluim of the three Eh-yehs mentioned above, together with the three kolels equal "Hashamayim" [Hebrew for "the heavens"]. This is because they come from the masculine alone, and the rains come from the "shvil" [Hebrew for "channel" or "pathway"], whose numerical value equals that of "geshem" [another Hebrew word for rain] (which is from the  yesod of chochma alone). The water that "you shall drink" (from the above verse in Deuteronomy) comes from the nine  yuds of the divine names  Ab  Sag Mah and  Ban, of chochma.

If the Jews didn't have much merit, then the verse "to the rains of the heavens you shall drink water" (ibid.) should be applied in the following manner. This "mataar" (numeric value = 249) remains from the value of the word "bashamayim" [meaning "in the heavens" - 392], when you remove the milui of 143. "Bashamayim" together with the three kolels equals "hashamayim" ["the heavens"]. That is what is meant by the words "To the mataar ['rains'] bashamayim ['in the Heavens']": the rains that comes out of the heavens.

"Geshem" (=343) is from the  Reish  Lamed  Beit and the Pei Lamed  Alef (232 + 111) that join as a result of the union of chochma and bina. The "waters" ["mayim" = 90] that you shall drink is from the name Ab and the spelling-out of the name Eh-yeh with yuds [known by its numerical value "161" or "Kasa"] that together have nine yuds (9 X 10 = 90). [Note: the above two names have a total of only 7 yuds; perhaps the author included the simple spelling of each name,  Havayah and Eh-yeh, each having one yud.] All of this is from the "male" [in Hebrew, "zachar", which equals 227] and the "female" ["nekeiva", which equals 163], whom, together with the kolel of the two words [2], have the same numerical value as "bashamayim" [227 + 163 + 2 = 392].

" Eretz Yisrael drinks first, then the rest of the world..."

If the Jews don't even have that much merit, then the way to understand the verse "To the rains of the heaven you shall drink water" shall be as follows: The root of the word "mataar" ["rain"] is from the realm of Sag, for the word "mataar" in the  Atbash system is "gani" [meaning "my garden"], whose numerical value is 63 (Sag). The "geshamim" ["rains"] will be from the three miluim of Eh-yeh in bina alone. And the "waters" will be those that remain from "geshamim" when you remove the 161 and the 143. Effectively, all the waters will be "feminine".

Those three levels were from the Zeir Anpin and  Nukva in the times of the Second Temple. If the Jews were meritorious in their majority, then the influence would descend from the "masculine" aspect alone. If the Jews were half-and-half, then the influence would be mixed. And if the majority if the Jews were culpable, then the influence would descend in the "feminine" form alone.

Yet if the Jews were culpable of heinous transgressions such as idolatry, or abandoning the ways of the  Torah and not studying its precepts, then even the "feminine" waters didn't fall for them. This is hinted to in the verse "And they encamped in Refidim, and there was no water for the nation to drink" (Ex. 17:1). The intention of the verse is that there was "No water" [in Hebrew, "Ayn mayim"] whose numerical value is 151 [or "Kana", the name and numerical value of the name Eh-yeh spelled out with the letter  hei], which is also representative of the feminine waters that they were missing. That was caused by either the idol of Micah that they had with them, or from the fact that they had stopped learning Torah. All of the above is still applicable nowadays.

Behold, from all of the types of influences mentioned above that would fall for the Jews, only a "watered-down" version would be given to the seventy ministers of the [archetypal] Seventy Nations. This is just like the teaching of the Sages: "Our Rabbis have taught that Eretz Yisrael drinks first, then the rest of the world. Eretz Yisrael gets pure rain and the rest of the world gets theirs watered down. Eretz Yisrael is watered by The Holy One Blessed Be He himself, whereas the rest of the world is watered by a messenger, as the verse says, 'He gives water on the face of the Land and sends the water to the face of the outlying boundaries.' (Job 5:10)" (Taanit 10a)

" Bina contains within herself fifty gates through which she gives over the rains..."

The understanding of this is as follows: Bina contains within herself fifty gates through which she gives over the rains. This is what is meant by the word in the above verse, "HaNotayn" [meaning "He gives"] - which can be understood to spell " Nun tenna" [meaning "the number 50 shall give"]. Of course, the word "tenna", as mentioned earlier represents [i.e. equals] the three miluim of Eh-yeh, which are rooted in bina. So from the three miluim, the rain descends to the Eretz Yisrael. All of this is dependent upon the good deeds of the Jews.

Yet the rest of the verse, "...And sends water to the face of the outlying boundaries", refers to outside of Eretz Yisrael, where the waters are first given to Samael and Rahav, only subsequently to be distributed to the Seventy Nations. This is why the word for "sends" in the above verse ["shalayach"] is spelled missing the letter  vav: its numerical value (338) is equal to the words Samael (=131) and Rahav (=207). They are the messengers of G-d for this task.

To return to the previous article in this series on the Land of Israel, The Rains of Israel, click here

To continue on to the next article in this series on the Land of Israel, Post-Temple Waters, click here

Rabbi Nathan Schapira , an honored member of an emin

Rabbi David Slavin is an American long-time stude

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