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Eating from the Tree of Life: A Course on the Zohar

Translated Texts

DOING AND MAKING

INTRODUCTION

How does language shape our reality? Is there any reality beyond our language? These questions, favourite topics of philosophy in our own time, are worth reflecting on as background to this selection, though they are not its main topic. As my teacher Elliot Wolfson emphasizes, it seems that in the Zohar all of reality is language. After all, the Torah says that God created the world by speaking. Midrashic texts say that creation happened through combinations of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. We saw in our first text, "The Rose", that the Hebrew letters of the creation story are the seed or semen of creation -- the creation of the world and God's self-creation. Everything is made with language, everything is language. In this selection, therefore, "God's name" means the same as "God". (Similarly, in Jewish parlance God is often called HaShem, which means "the Name".)

Philosophers of language have much to say about the relationship between written and oral language. Jewish tradition distinguishes between Written Torah and Oral Torah. The Written Torah (torah shebikhtav) is the Bible, and more specifically the five books written in a Torah scroll. The Oral Torah (torah she-b'al peh) is the Mishnah and Talmud, and more generally all Jewish teachings outside the Bible, which are considered to go back to teachings which God gave to Moses by word of mouth. In the Zohar, both are names of Sefirot, and the relationship between them is fundamentally important.

The same Sefirot are also called by the related names tsedakah and tsedek. In the Bible these words are more or less synonyms meaning "justice" or "righteousness" but in later Hebrew tsedakah means "charity", giving to the poor. A variety of other names of Sefirot are involved in this passage. They can be "decoded" by clicking on them the first time they appear, or by reading the commentary afterwards. As usual, it may be worth reading the text first, and reflecting on it, before looking at any comments.

If language is reality, it is not surprising that puns are so important in the Zohar; they are keys to reality. This whole selection plays with the double meaning of the Hebrew verb asah, which means both "to do" and "to make" (like "faire" in French or "makhn" in Yiddish). The Zohar opens new meanings by understanding the verb as "to make" in contexts where it is conventionally translated "to do". These meanings have to do with the ways in which our actions shape and create reality.

This passage begins by quoting the beginning of the weekly Torah portion "B'chukotai" ("In My Rules"):

Im b'chukotai teileichu v'et mitsvotai tishmoru va'asitem otam
If in My rules you walk, and you keep My commandments, and you do/make them... {Leviticus 26:3}

In its interpretation, the Zohar moves back and forth between this verse and a similar one which comes a little earlier in the Torah:

Va'asitem et chukotai v'et mishpatai tishmoru va'asitem otam...
And you shall do/make My rules, and keep My judgments, and you (shall) do/make them... {Leviticus 25:18}

The word for "rules", chukot (singular: chukah or chok -- the Zohar uses both forms interchangeably) is traditionally understood to mean "laws that have no rational explanation". "Judgments", "mishpatim" could also be translated "laws" or "sentences" or "deeds of justice". It is connected with the verb shafat, "to judge". In the Zohar, it has the positive connotations of "judgment" in the sense of "well-considered decision", with a sense of balance and correctness.

The double meaning "do" or "make" implies to the Zohar that everything we do is also making something. What are we making? According to the Zohar's answer, our actions are shaping reality in the deepest way.

DOING AND MAKING
Zohar III (B'chukotai) 113a f.

"If in My rules you walk..." {Leviticus 26:3}
"If in My rules..." -- This refers to a place, the place on which the decrees of the Torah depend, as when you say, "you shall keep My rules". It is "Rule" that is referred to like this. And the decrees of the Torah are included in her.

"And keep My judgments..."
"My judgments" -- that is another place on high, to which this Rule clings, and they are joined, one with the other. Et chukotai tishmoru: b'hemt'kha lo tarbiya kil-ayim, sad'kha lo tizra kil-ayim, uveged kil-ayim sha-atnez lo ya-aleh alekha.
"You shall keep My rules: do not mix species in breeding your cattle, do not sow your field with mixed kinds of seeds, and do not wear clothing of mixed kinds, wool and linen."
{Leviticus 19:19}

For those on high and those below, and all the instructions of the Torah and all the decrees of the Torah and all the sanctities of the Torah, cling to these two. Because one is the Written Torah and one is the Oral Torah.
Therefore, "If in My rules..." refers to all those decrees and laws and punishments and instructions that are in that place, which is called Oral Torah, or Rule.

"And keep My judgments..." -- in that place which is called Written Torah, as when you say, "Judgment of the God of Jacob". Ki chok l'Yisrael hu, mishpat lelohei Yaakov.
"For it is a rule for Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob."
{Psalm 81:5}

This one clings to that one, and that one to this one, and all is One, and that is the completeness of the holy Name. So someone who transgresses the ordinances of the Torah is, as it were, marring the holy Name. For Rule and Judgment are indeed the Name of the Blessed Holiness.
Therefore, "If in My rules you walk..." refers to the Oral Torah. "And you keep My judgments" refers to the Written Torah. And this is the completeness of the holy Name.

"And you do/make them" -- What is "and you make them?" Since it says "walk" and "keep", why "and you make them"?

The resolution is that someone who does the instructions of the Torah and walks in its ways, so to speak, as it were, makes that on high. The Blessed Holiness says: "As it were, he has made Me (k'ilu asa'ani)". This has already been established. Therefore it says, "and you make them".
"Va'asitem atem -- and you make them" is written, truly, since when they are aroused by you to join with each other, so that the holy Name exists as is fitting, "you make them", truly.
The Zohar is playing with the words otam, "them", and atem, "you" (in the plural). Usually the letters of these two words are the same (Aleph, Tav, Mem) except for a Vav after the Aleph in otam, indicating the O sound. In Leviticus 26:3 and 25:13, the verses which our passage is expounding, the Torah has left out the Vav, and so (as long as we ignore the vowel points -- which is often done in Torah interpretation) otam can be read as atem. Read this way, the verses strongly emphasize "you".

Explanatory material

The following section of our Zohar text quotes the following Biblical verses:
Vaya-as David shem b'shuvo meihakoto et Aram b'Gei Melakh, sh'mona asar alef.
"David made a name [for himself] when he returned from striking down Aram in the Valley of Salt, eighteen thousand men." {II Samuel 8:13}

Vayikov ben ha-isha haYisr'eilit et hashem vay'kaleil, vayavi-u oto el Moshe, v'shem imo Sh'lomit bat Divri l'matei Dan.
"The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses; his mother's name was Shelomit daughter of Divri, of the tribe of Dan." {Leviticus 24:11}.
"Vayikov", "blasphemed", can be literally translated "pierced".

Im b'chukotai teileichu v'et mitsvotai tishmoru va'asitem otam, v'natati gishmeikhem b'itam, v'natna ha-arets y'vula, v'eits hasadeh yitein piryo.
"If in My rules you walk, and you keep My commandments, and you do/make them, I will give your rains in their time, and the land will give her produce, and the tree of the field will give his fruit" {Leviticus 26:3-4, the verse we began with and its continuation}.

Correspondingly, Rabbi Shim'on said: "David made a name". Did David make it?! The resolution is that because he walked in the ways of the Torah and did the instructions of the Torah, and conducted the kingdom (Malkhut) as is fitting, so to speak he made a Name on high.
And there was no king in the world who merited this as David did, since he would get up in the middle of the night, and he would be praising the Blessed Holiness, until the holy Name rose to its throne at the time when the light of day rises. So to speak, he actually made a Name. As when you say, "the son of the Israelite woman pierced the Name and cursed." Therefore it says, "David made a Name".

And so "you make them" is written: If you occupy yourselves with making them, to arrange the holy Name as is fitting, all the blessings of on high will be with you in their arrangement, as is fitting. "Arrangement": tikkun. This is a key word in Kabbalah and other Jewish teachings. Its meanings include "arrangement", "adornment", "fixing", "correcting", "perfecting".

"I will give your rains in their time [and the land will give her produce, and the tree of the field will give his fruit]" -- every single one will give its power to you. What are they? The arrangement that you made, which is the holy Name.

The following section of our Zohar text quotes the following Biblical verses:

Ki y'dativ, l'ma-an asher y'tsaveh et banav v'et beito acharav, v'shamru derekh Adonai, la-asot ts'daka umishpat, l'ma-an havi Adonai al Avraham eit asher diber alav.
"For I have befriended him, so that he will instruct his children and his descendants after him, and they will keep the way of YHVH, doing/making tsedakah [righteousness or charity] and judgment, so that YHVH may bring about for Abraham what He spoke concerning him." {Genesis 18:19}

T'fila l'ani ki ya-atof, v'lifnei Adonai yishpokh sicho.
"Prayer, of the poor person who is faint and pours out his meditation before God." {Psalm 102:1}

Ashrei shomrei mishpat, osei ts'daka v'khol eit.
"Happy are those who keep judgment, doing/making tsedakah at all times." {Psalm 106:3}

Lo yo-ilu otsrot resha, uts'daka tatsil mimavet.
"There is no benefit from treasures of wickedness, but tsedakah saves from death" {Proverbs 10:2}.

Bitsdaka tikonani, rachaki mei-oshek, ki lo tira-i, umim'chita, ki lo tikrav eilayikh.
"You shall be built with tsedakah; you shall be far from oppression, and have no fear, and from ruin, which shall not come near you." {Isaiah 54:14}

Correspondingly, it is written, "They will keep the way of YHVH, making tsedakah and judgment." When it is written, "they will keep the way of YHVH", why "making tsedakah and judgment"? The resolution is that someone who keeps the ways of the Torah, so to speak makes Tsedakah and Judgment . And what is Tsedakah and Judgment? The Blessed Holiness.

Rabbi Shim'on wept and said: Woe to those people who do not know, and do not watch over the glory of their Master. Who makes the holy Name every day? You must say: One who gives tsedakah [charity] to the poor.

Come and see: this is well founded, thus it is. The poor person clings to justice (Din) and all his nourishment is through Justice which is the place called Tsedek (righteousness). As when you say, "Prayer, of the poor person who is faint.." This prayer (tefillah) is the tefillah (singular of tefillin) of the arm; this has been established.

As noted earlier, the Zohar follows post-Biblical Hebrew usage in understanding tsedakah as "giving to the poor". It has often been pointed out that while the English word "charity" has a root meaning of "love", the equivalent Jewish term tsedakah has a root meaning of "justice". The Zohar builds on this association in the next paragraph.

Tefillin are leather boxes containing verses from the Torah which are worn during weekday morning prayers; one is bound by a strap to the left arm, near the heart, and the other to the head. The singular of tefillin is tefillah which also means "prayer".

And someone who gives tsedakah to the poor person makes the holy Name on high, complete, as is fitting. Because tsedakah is the Tree of Life. By giving Tsedakah to Tsedek, when he gives it to Tsedek, this joins with that and the holy Name is complete. People who make this arousal below truly, as it were, make the holy Name in completeness. Corresponding to what they make below, so is there arousal on high.
About this it is written, "Happy are those who keep judgment, making tsedakah at all times". "Making Tsedakah" -- that is the Blessed Holiness; so to speak, one makes Him.

Come and see! It has been said what the place of the poor person is. What is the reason? Because the poor person has nothing at all of his own, only what people give to him. And the moon has no light of her own, only what the sun gives to her.

Come and see! Why is "a pauper considered as dead"? For what reason? It is because of that place, because he is found in the place of death, and so he is called dead. But when someone takes care of him, and gives him tsedakah, the Tree of Life dwells over him, as when you say, "Tsedakah saves from death". "A pauper is considered as dead" -- based on Talmud, Nedarim 64b.

Corresponding to what a person makes below, so too he actually makes on high. Privileged is the portion of one who merits to make the holy Name on high. That is why tsedakah goes beyond everything.
And the rabbinic expression "Tsedakah lishmah" ("tsedakah for its own sake") is because one arouses Tsedakah toward Tsedek, to join them as one, for all to be the holy Name, as is fitting. For Tsedek is not perfected, is not completed, except with Tsedakah. As it is written, "You shall be built with tsedakah", and this is said to the Community of Israel.

That is why it is said, "... and you make them."

Tsedakah lishmah -- "Tsedakah (charity) for its own sake" -- can be translated literally as "Tsedakah to her name [* link to Malkhut]", or "Tsedakah to the name of [the letter] Hei [* link to Malkhut]".

COMMENTARY: DOING AND MAKING

Yes, this text really does say that we make God! The fact that this is a daring thing to say, even for the Zohar, is shown by the number of times the Zohar says "so to speak" or "as it were" about this.
The statement sounds atheistic, and there may be some common ground with an atheistic statement that we make God, but there is also a marked difference. In the Zohar, God is absolutely real. A teaching that we make God is not accusing us of deluding ourselves, but reminding us of our awe-inspiring importance.
The way we make God is by bringing the Sefirot together, in particular Tif'eret and Malkhut. Here, the Sefirot in general are called "places", as well as "the blessings of on high", and the "rains", in one of the verses quoted. There is a rich array of symbols for both Malkhut and Tif'eret. If you can, take some time to consider all these associations and let them sink in:
Malkhut is

"Rule" or "rules" (or "law[s] without rational explanation");
the Oral Torah;
the land;
Tsedek (righteousness, justice);
the throne;
the place of the poor person;
Din (Justice) -- also the name of the Sefirah Gevurah, with which She is closely connected;
prayer;
the tefillah worn on the arm;
the moon;
the place of death;
"her name" (or "the name of the letter Hei");
and the Community of Israel.
Elsewhere in the Zohar, She is identified with the final letter Hei in the Name of God, Yud Hei Vav Hei (YHVH).

Tif'eret is identified elsewhere with the letter Vav of the Name.

Here He is called: Judgment (mishpat) or judgments;
the Written Torah;
Jacob;
the tree of the field;
the Tree of Life;
Tsedakah (a fuller form of the word tsedek);
the sun;
the Blessed Holiness;
and the holy Name.

Both "the Blessed Holiness" and "the holy Name" can also mean the totality of God, with Tif'eret as the unifying centre. Both senses occur in this passage; "the Blessed Holiness" at least the first couple of times it occurs, and "the holy Name" most of the time, simply mean God.
Together, Malkhut and Tif'eret complete the holy Name. I think that this text does not assert that we make Malkhut and Tif'eret themselves; what we do is to bring them together, thereby "making" each of them as they should be, and making, i.e. completing, the holy Name, God. This is the Kabbalistic meaning of tikkun or tikkun olam. Today this expression is often used referring to political activism; in the Zohar's Kabbalah it mean "arranging the divine world".
If this reading is correct, the Zohar is not going so far as to say that we make God from scratch, so to speak. It is still going much further than most religious thinkers would dare.

In its imagery of male and female, this selection and the previous one, taken together, offer resources for a view of male-female equality in which both need each other. In the previous selection, "Hear O Israel", we read, "Male without female is called half a body, and half is not one." The emphasis is on the male subject which needs the female for completion. Here, we have the complementary idea: "Tsedek [Malkhut, the feminine] is not perfected, is not completed, except with Tsedakah [Tif'eret, the masculine]." The female is the subject and needs the male for completion.
Incidentally, the word tsedek is grammatically masculine, but it is associated here with the feminine Malkhut; tsedakah is grammatically feminine, but it is associated with the masculine Tif'eret. (The word tif'eret itself is feminine, for that matter.) Perhaps these apparent contradictions point to the complexity of the Zohar's view of gender, in the divine and in us.

Rather than commenting at more length, I want to ask more questions than usual, asking for your insights into the meanings and implications of this radical text.

DOING AND MAKING: QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION:

I have asserted that "making God" refers to bringing Malkhut and Tif'eret together. There are sentences in this text that could imply a more radical understanding, that we make the individual Sefirot themselves. What are those sentences? How do you understand them in context?

Reviewing the details of this passage, what are we told about how we make God?

What are the ethical/political implications of the section about "the poor person"?

On the previous passage, I asked, "what would it mean for a religious outlook to internalize the idea that God is not, at present, one?" How does this passage (Doing and Making) provide an answer to this question?

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	INTRODUCTION How does language shape our reality? Is there any reality beyond our language? These questions, favourite topics of philosophy in our own time, are worth reflecting on as background to this selection, though they are not its main topic. As my teacher Elliot Wolfson emphasizes, it seems that in the Zohar all of reality is language. After all, the Torah says that God created the world by speaking. Midrashic texts say that creation happened through combinations of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. We saw in our first text, "The Rose", that the Hebrew letters of the creation story are the seed or semen of creation -- the creation of the world and God's self-creation. Everything is made with language, everything is language. In this selection, therefore, "God's name" means the same as "God". (Similarly, in Jewish parlance God is often called HaShem, which means "the Name".) Philosophers of language have much to say about the relationship between written and oral language. Jewish tradition distinguishes between Written Torah and Oral Torah. The Written Torah (torah shebikhtav) is the Bible, and more specifically the five books written in a Torah scroll. The Oral Torah (torah she-b'al peh) is the Mishnah and Talmud, and more generally all Jewish teachings outside the Bible, which are considered to go back to teachings which God gave to Moses by word of mouth. In the Zohar, both are names of Sefirot, and the relationship between them is fundamentally important. The same Sefirot are also called by the related names tsedakah and tsedek. In the Bible these words are more or less synonyms meaning "justice" or "righteousness" but in later Hebrew tsedakah means "charity", giving to the poor. A variety of other names of Sefirot are involved in this passage. They can be "decoded" by clicking on them the first time they appear, or by reading the commentary afterwards. As usual, it may be worth reading the text first, and reflecting on it, before looking at any comments. If language is reality, it is not surprising that puns are so important in the Zohar; they are keys to reality. This whole selection plays with the double meaning of the Hebrew verb asah, which means both "to do" and "to make" (like "faire" in French or "makhn" in Yiddish). The Zohar opens new meanings by understanding the verb as "to make" in contexts where it is conventionally translated "to do". These meanings have to do with the ways in which our actions shape and create reality. This passage begins by quoting the beginning of the weekly Torah portion "B'chukotai" ("In My Rules"): Im b'chukotai teileichu v'et mitsvotai tishmoru va'asitem otam If in My rules you walk, and you keep My commandments, and you do/make them... {Leviticus 26:3} In its interpretation, the Zohar moves back and forth between this verse and a similar one which comes a little earlier in the Torah: Va'asitem et chukotai v'et mishpatai tishmoru va'asitem otam... And you shall do/make My rules, and keep My judgments, and you (shall) do/make them... {Leviticus 25:18} The word for "rules", chukot (singular: chukah or chok -- the Zohar uses both forms interchangeably) is traditionally understood to mean "laws that have no rational explanation". "Judgments", "mishpatim" could also be translated "laws" or "sentences" or "deeds of justice". It is connected with the verb shafat, "to judge". In the Zohar, it has the positive connotations of "judgment" in the sense of "well-considered decision", with a sense of balance and correctness. The double meaning "do" or "make" implies to the Zohar that everything we do is also making something. What are we making? According to the Zohar's answer, our actions are shaping reality in the deepest way.
	DOING AND MAKING Zohar III (B'chukotai) 113a f. "If in My rules you walk..." {Leviticus 26:3} "If in My rules..." -- This refers to a place, the place on which the decrees of the Torah depend, as when you say, "you shall keep My rules". It is "Rule" that is referred to like this. And the decrees of the Torah are included in her. "And keep My judgments..." "My judgments" -- that is another place on high, to which this Rule clings, and they are joined, one with the other.		Et chukotai tishmoru: b'hemt'kha lo tarbiya kil-ayim, sad'kha lo tizra kil-ayim, uveged kil-ayim sha-atnez lo ya-aleh alekha. "You shall keep My rules: do not mix species in breeding your cattle, do not sow your field with mixed kinds of seeds, and do not wear clothing of mixed kinds, wool and linen." {Leviticus 19:19}
	For those on high and those below, and all the instructions of the Torah and all the decrees of the Torah and all the sanctities of the Torah, cling to these two. Because one is the Written Torah and one is the Oral Torah. Therefore, "If in My rules..." refers to all those decrees and laws and punishments and instructions that are in that place, which is called Oral Torah, or Rule.
	"And keep My judgments..." -- in that place which is called Written Torah, as when you say, "Judgment of the God of Jacob".		Ki chok l'Yisrael hu, mishpat lelohei Yaakov. "For it is a rule for Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob." {Psalm 81:5}
	This one clings to that one, and that one to this one, and all is One, and that is the completeness of the holy Name. So someone who transgresses the ordinances of the Torah is, as it were, marring the holy Name. For Rule and Judgment are indeed the Name of the Blessed Holiness. Therefore, "If in My rules you walk..." refers to the Oral Torah. "And you keep My judgments" refers to the Written Torah. And this is the completeness of the holy Name.
	"And you do/make them" -- What is "and you make them?" Since it says "walk" and "keep", why "and you make them"? The resolution is that someone who does the instructions of the Torah and walks in its ways, so to speak, as it were, makes that on high. The Blessed Holiness says: "As it were, he has made Me (k'ilu asa'ani)". This has already been established. Therefore it says, "and you make them". "Va'asitem atem -- and you make them" is written, truly, since when they are aroused by you to join with each other, so that the holy Name exists as is fitting, "you make them", truly.		The Zohar is playing with the words otam, "them", and atem, "you" (in the plural). Usually the letters of these two words are the same (Aleph, Tav, Mem) except for a Vav after the Aleph in otam, indicating the O sound. In Leviticus 26:3 and 25:13, the verses which our passage is expounding, the Torah has left out the Vav, and so (as long as we ignore the vowel points -- which is often done in Torah interpretation) otam can be read as atem. Read this way, the verses strongly emphasize "you".
	Explanatory material The following section of our Zohar text quotes the following Biblical verses: Vaya-as David shem b'shuvo meihakoto et Aram b'Gei Melakh, sh'mona asar alef. "David made a name [for himself] when he returned from striking down Aram in the Valley of Salt, eighteen thousand men." {II Samuel 8:13} Vayikov ben ha-isha haYisr'eilit et hashem vay'kaleil, vayavi-u oto el Moshe, v'shem imo Sh'lomit bat Divri l'matei Dan. "The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses; his mother's name was Shelomit daughter of Divri, of the tribe of Dan." {Leviticus 24:11}. "Vayikov", "blasphemed", can be literally translated "pierced". Im b'chukotai teileichu v'et mitsvotai tishmoru va'asitem otam, v'natati gishmeikhem b'itam, v'natna ha-arets y'vula, v'eits hasadeh yitein piryo. "If in My rules you walk, and you keep My commandments, and you do/make them, I will give your rains in their time, and the land will give her produce, and the tree of the field will give his fruit" {Leviticus 26:3-4, the verse we began with and its continuation}.
	Correspondingly, Rabbi Shim'on said: "David made a name". Did David make it?! The resolution is that because he walked in the ways of the Torah and did the instructions of the Torah, and conducted the kingdom (Malkhut) as is fitting, so to speak he made a Name on high. And there was no king in the world who merited this as David did, since he would get up in the middle of the night, and he would be praising the Blessed Holiness, until the holy Name rose to its throne at the time when the light of day rises. So to speak, he actually made a Name. As when you say, "the son of the Israelite woman pierced the Name and cursed." Therefore it says, "David made a Name".
	And so "you make them" is written: If you occupy yourselves with making them, to arrange the holy Name as is fitting, all the blessings of on high will be with you in their arrangement, as is fitting.		"Arrangement": tikkun. This is a key word in Kabbalah and other Jewish teachings. Its meanings include "arrangement", "adornment", "fixing", "correcting", "perfecting".
	"I will give your rains in their time [and the land will give her produce, and the tree of the field will give his fruit]" -- every single one will give its power to you. What are they? The arrangement that you made, which is the holy Name.
	The following section of our Zohar text quotes the following Biblical verses: Ki y'dativ, l'ma-an asher y'tsaveh et banav v'et beito acharav, v'shamru derekh Adonai, la-asot ts'daka umishpat, l'ma-an havi Adonai al Avraham eit asher diber alav. "For I have befriended him, so that he will instruct his children and his descendants after him, and they will keep the way of YHVH, doing/making tsedakah [righteousness or charity] and judgment, so that YHVH may bring about for Abraham what He spoke concerning him." {Genesis 18:19} T'fila l'ani ki ya-atof, v'lifnei Adonai yishpokh sicho. "Prayer, of the poor person who is faint and pours out his meditation before God." {Psalm 102:1} Ashrei shomrei mishpat, osei ts'daka v'khol eit. "Happy are those who keep judgment, doing/making tsedakah at all times." {Psalm 106:3} Lo yo-ilu otsrot resha, uts'daka tatsil mimavet. "There is no benefit from treasures of wickedness, but tsedakah saves from death" {Proverbs 10:2}. Bitsdaka tikonani, rachaki mei-oshek, ki lo tira-i, umim'chita, ki lo tikrav eilayikh. "You shall be built with tsedakah; you shall be far from oppression, and have no fear, and from ruin, which shall not come near you." {Isaiah 54:14}
	Correspondingly, it is written, "They will keep the way of YHVH, making tsedakah and judgment." When it is written, "they will keep the way of YHVH", why "making tsedakah and judgment"? The resolution is that someone who keeps the ways of the Torah, so to speak makes Tsedakah and Judgment . And what is Tsedakah and Judgment? The Blessed Holiness.
	Rabbi Shim'on wept and said: Woe to those people who do not know, and do not watch over the glory of their Master. Who makes the holy Name every day? You must say: One who gives tsedakah [charity] to the poor. Come and see: this is well founded, thus it is. The poor person clings to justice (Din) and all his nourishment is through Justice which is the place called Tsedek (righteousness). As when you say, "Prayer, of the poor person who is faint.." This prayer (tefillah) is the tefillah (singular of tefillin) of the arm; this has been established.		As noted earlier, the Zohar follows post-Biblical Hebrew usage in understanding tsedakah as "giving to the poor". It has often been pointed out that while the English word "charity" has a root meaning of "love", the equivalent Jewish term tsedakah has a root meaning of "justice". The Zohar builds on this association in the next paragraph. Tefillin are leather boxes containing verses from the Torah which are worn during weekday morning prayers; one is bound by a strap to the left arm, near the heart, and the other to the head. The singular of tefillin is tefillah which also means "prayer".
	And someone who gives tsedakah to the poor person makes the holy Name on high, complete, as is fitting. Because tsedakah is the Tree of Life. By giving Tsedakah to Tsedek, when he gives it to Tsedek, this joins with that and the holy Name is complete. People who make this arousal below truly, as it were, make the holy Name in completeness. Corresponding to what they make below, so is there arousal on high. About this it is written, "Happy are those who keep judgment, making tsedakah at all times". "Making Tsedakah" -- that is the Blessed Holiness; so to speak, one makes Him. Come and see! It has been said what the place of the poor person is. What is the reason? Because the poor person has nothing at all of his own, only what people give to him. And the moon has no light of her own, only what the sun gives to her.
	Come and see! Why is "a pauper considered as dead"? For what reason? It is because of that place, because he is found in the place of death, and so he is called dead. But when someone takes care of him, and gives him tsedakah, the Tree of Life dwells over him, as when you say, "Tsedakah saves from death".		"A pauper is considered as dead" -- based on Talmud, Nedarim 64b.
	Corresponding to what a person makes below, so too he actually makes on high. Privileged is the portion of one who merits to make the holy Name on high. That is why tsedakah goes beyond everything. And the rabbinic expression "Tsedakah lishmah" ("tsedakah for its own sake") is because one arouses Tsedakah toward Tsedek, to join them as one, for all to be the holy Name, as is fitting. For Tsedek is not perfected, is not completed, except with Tsedakah. As it is written, "You shall be built with tsedakah", and this is said to the Community of Israel. That is why it is said, "... and you make them."		Tsedakah lishmah -- "Tsedakah (charity) for its own sake" -- can be translated literally as "Tsedakah to her name [* link to Malkhut]", or "Tsedakah to the name of [the letter] Hei [* link to Malkhut]".
	COMMENTARY: DOING AND MAKING Yes, this text really does say that we make God! The fact that this is a daring thing to say, even for the Zohar, is shown by the number of times the Zohar says "so to speak" or "as it were" about this. The statement sounds atheistic, and there may be some common ground with an atheistic statement that we make God, but there is also a marked difference. In the Zohar, God is absolutely real. A teaching that we make God is not accusing us of deluding ourselves, but reminding us of our awe-inspiring importance. The way we make God is by bringing the Sefirot together, in particular Tif'eret and Malkhut. Here, the Sefirot in general are called "places", as well as "the blessings of on high", and the "rains", in one of the verses quoted. There is a rich array of symbols for both Malkhut and Tif'eret. If you can, take some time to consider all these associations and let them sink in: Malkhut is "Rule" or "rules" (or "law[s] without rational explanation"); the Oral Torah; the land; Tsedek (righteousness, justice); the throne; the place of the poor person; Din (Justice) -- also the name of the Sefirah Gevurah, with which She is closely connected; prayer; the tefillah worn on the arm; the moon; the place of death; "her name" (or "the name of the letter Hei"); and the Community of Israel. Elsewhere in the Zohar, She is identified with the final letter Hei in the Name of God, Yud Hei Vav Hei (YHVH). Tif'eret is identified elsewhere with the letter Vav of the Name. Here He is called: Judgment (mishpat) or judgments; the Written Torah; Jacob; the tree of the field; the Tree of Life; Tsedakah (a fuller form of the word tsedek); the sun; the Blessed Holiness; and the holy Name. Both "the Blessed Holiness" and "the holy Name" can also mean the totality of God, with Tif'eret as the unifying centre. Both senses occur in this passage; "the Blessed Holiness" at least the first couple of times it occurs, and "the holy Name" most of the time, simply mean God. Together, Malkhut and Tif'eret complete the holy Name. I think that this text does not assert that we make Malkhut and Tif'eret themselves; what we do is to bring them together, thereby "making" each of them as they should be, and making, i.e. completing, the holy Name, God. This is the Kabbalistic meaning of tikkun or tikkun olam. Today this expression is often used referring to political activism; in the Zohar's Kabbalah it mean "arranging the divine world". If this reading is correct, the Zohar is not going so far as to say that we make God from scratch, so to speak. It is still going much further than most religious thinkers would dare. In its imagery of male and female, this selection and the previous one, taken together, offer resources for a view of male-female equality in which both need each other. In the previous selection, "Hear O Israel", we read, "Male without female is called half a body, and half is not one." The emphasis is on the male subject which needs the female for completion. Here, we have the complementary idea: "Tsedek [Malkhut, the feminine] is not perfected, is not completed, except with Tsedakah [Tif'eret, the masculine]." The female is the subject and needs the male for completion. Incidentally, the word tsedek is grammatically masculine, but it is associated here with the feminine Malkhut; tsedakah is grammatically feminine, but it is associated with the masculine Tif'eret. (The word tif'eret itself is feminine, for that matter.) Perhaps these apparent contradictions point to the complexity of the Zohar's view of gender, in the divine and in us. Rather than commenting at more length, I want to ask more questions than usual, asking for your insights into the meanings and implications of this radical text.
	DOING AND MAKING: QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION: I have asserted that "making God" refers to bringing Malkhut and Tif'eret together. There are sentences in this text that could imply a more radical understanding, that we make the individual Sefirot themselves. What are those sentences? How do you understand them in context? Reviewing the details of this passage, what are we told about how we make God? What are the ethical/political implications of the section about "the poor person"? On the previous passage, I asked, "what would it mean for a religious outlook to internalize the idea that God is not, at present, one?" How does this passage (Doing and Making) provide an answer to this question? go to Forum