is the Image of Elohim (and not-adam is the Image of elohim acherim) The Zohar on Anger and the Image of God

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1 Zohar II Tetsaveh 182a א ד "ם is the Image of Elohim (and not-adam is the Image of elohim acherim) The Zohar on Anger and the Image of God We'll begin exploring the Zohar through learning some of the Rabbinic sources at work in the ma'amar (=piece of zohar) that we're learning. בבלי ברכות יז ע "א Source :1 Bavli Brachot 17a ורבי אלכסנדרי בתר דמצלי אמר הכי: רבון העולמים, גלוי וידוע לפניך שרצוננו לעשות רצונך, ומי מעכב? שאור שבעיסה ושעבוד מלכיות; יהי רצון מלפניך שתצילנו מידם, ונשוב לעשות חוקי רצונך בלבב שלם. רש"י: ומי מעכב - שאין אנו עושים רצונך. שאור שבעיסה - יצר הרע שבלבבנו, המחמיצנו. After davening, Rabbi Alexanderi would say this prayer: Master of the worlds, it is revealed and known to You that our will is to do Your Will, and who prevents it? It is the leaven (שאור) in the dough, and the oppression of the [foreign] kingdoms. May it be Your Will to save us from their hand! And we will return, to do the laws of Your Will with our full hearts! Rashi: Who prevents it? - So that we don't do Your Will. The leaven in the dough The evil inclination in our hearts, which makes us sour /chametz. What is the meaning of leaven (שאור) in this piece? How is leaven related to the foreign kingdoms? And what does it mean that leaven and foreign kingdoms prevent us from doing God's Will? How do they prevent us? What does it mean that we have "leaven" in us? Are we loaves of bread!? Clearly, this is some kind of symbol or metaphor. What is it a symbol or a metaphor of? Is leaven simply evil all year round? Can you explain what Rabbi Alexandri means without demonizing your favorite slice of pizza all year round? 1

2 בבלי שבת קה ע "ב Source :2 Bavli Shabbat 105b והתניא, רבי שמעון בן אלעזר אומר משום חילפא בר אגרא, שאמר משום רבי יוחנן בן נורי: המקרע בגדיו בחמתו, הרע. והמשבר כליו בחמתו, והמפזר מעותיו בחמתו - יהא בעיניך כעובד עבודה זרה; שכך אומנתו של יצר הרע, היום אומר לו עשה כך ולמחר אומר לו עשה כך. עד שאומר לו עבוד עבודה זרה והולך ועובד. אמר רבי אבין: מאי קראה - +תהילים פא+ לא יהיה בך אל זר ולא תשתחוה לאל נכר, איזהו אל זר שיש בגופו של אדם - הוי אומר זה יצר And it is taught [in a Tannaitic source): Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says in the name of Chilfa bar Agra, that spoke in the name of Rabbi Yochanon ben Nuri: One who tears his clothes in his anger; Or smashes his vessels in his anger; Or wastes his money in his anger; He should be in your eyes as one who serves a foreign god; For this is the craft of the evil inclination: Today it says to him "do that", And tomorrow it says to him "do that", Until one day it says to him: serve a foreign god!! And he goes, and he serves Said Rabbi Avin, What is the meaning of the verse "There shall be no foreign God in you, and you shall not worship a foreign God" (Psalms 81:10)? What "foreign God" is in a human body!? This is talking about the evil inclination! If we read these two pieces of Talmud together, what's in common between these things/symbols/metaphors/names: leaven, evil inclination, foreign kingdoms, foreign gods, anger? How can a foreign god enter a human body? In what sense could anger be a "foreign god"? Zohar The Zohar opens with a question about two verses in Exodus. What is the question? What is the answer? In the second paragraph תא חזי) in the Aramaic and "Come and See" in the English), the Zohar makes use of the symbols we saw above in the talmud. How are these symbols being understood? Did the idea that evil/anger spreads throughout the body like leaven in dough appear in the Talmud? In what sense is chametz an alien domain? Did any of the Talmudic sources mention alien domains? Why do you think that the Zohar regards Egypt as such an alien place? In the third paragraph את חג המצוות תשמור) in the original and "You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread" in the English) the Zohar interprets the following verse: ישעיהו ב (כב) ח ד לוּ ל כ ם מ ן ה אָד ם א שׁ ר נ שׁ מ ה בּ אַפּוֹ כּ י ב מּ ה נ ח שׁ ב הוּא Desist from a human being who has breath (Neshamah) in his nose (apo af which can also mean anger) for what are they worth! 2

3 The Zohar mentions that this verse was interpreted in Brachot to mean that a person shouldn't greet other people before praying. It suggests that this principle (that one should pray first and talk to other people later) can also be learned from another verse (Proverbs 27: "If a man blesses his friend "). The Zohar then goes on and offers another interpretation for the verse from Isaiah ("Desist from a human being "). In presenting its interpretation, the Zohar explains that there are different parts to human consciousness, and what happens to these parts when a person loses-himself-to-anger/serves-foreign-gods. Read this paragraph (the third one) once or twice (it ends on the bottom of page 1345). Can you paraphrase what happens inside a person when they loose themselves to anger? How is the Zohar reading the verse from Isaiah in light of this evil process? Try translating/re-writing the verse according to how the Zohar reads it. When you finish reading the whole ma'amar: Try to sum up in your own words what the zohar says about evil and idolatry and anger (If you're up to it, write it down in a single paragraph). Do you think that any of what the Zohar says in this ma'amar is true? If so, which parts? 3

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