31. An announcement is called out about them daily and their soul testifies within them day and night. The Torah raises its voice in all directions and says, "How long, fools, will you love foolishness" (Mishlei 1:22.). "Whoever is a fool, let him turn in here: as for him that lacks understanding, she says to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mixed" (Mishlei 9:4-5). No one lends his ear or wakens his heart.

75. We have learned that it is written, "She considers a field, and buys it" (Mishlei 31:16). This is like what is written, "Where all the wild beasts (lit. 'beasts of the field') play" (Iyov 40:20), WHICH REFERS TO THE ASPECT OF JUDGMENT OF MALCHUT, WHOSE SECRET IS NIGHT AS MENTIONED EARLIER, AND IS ALSO REFERRED TO AS FIELD. "THE WILD BEASTS" REFLECTS THE SECRET OF YESOD, AND "PLAY" REFERS TO MATING, and about this is written, "So is this great and wide sea...There go the ships; there are the Leviathan, whom You have made to play therein" (Tehilim 104:25-26). LEVIATHAN IS THE SECRET OF YESOD, "TO PLAY" ALLUDES TO UNION, AS IT IS WRITTEN, "AND, BEHOLD, ISAAC WAS SPORTING WITH HIS WIFE" (BERESHEET 26:8). This is as the verse, "She is like the merchant ships: she brings her bread from afar" (Mishlei 31:14); "from afar" surely. FOR "HER BREAD," WHICH IS THE SECRET ILLUMINATION OF CHOCHMAH, DOES NOT SHED LIGHT SAVE FROM "AFAR," MEANING IT DOES SO WITH JUDGMENTS THAT REMOVE THE EXTERNAL FORCES FAR AWAY SO THEY WOULD NOT NURTURE FROM THIS GREAT LIGHT. THIS IS THE SECRET OF, "HASHEM APPEARED TO ME FROM AFAR" (YIRMEYAH 31:2). AND THE SECRET OF THE UNION PERTAINS TO NIGHT AND TO THE FIELD, AS MENTIONED EARLIER, AS IT BRINGS HER LIGHT from the brain inside the head, NAMELY CHOCHMAH, and from that which is above the head, NAMELY THE BLESSED ENDLESS LIGHT. THEREFORE, SHE NEEDS PROTECTION FROM EXTERNAL FORCES. "She brings her bread," NAMELY through the means of the righteous man, DENOTING YESOD. When they join together, there is universal joy. This is the meaning of the verse, "There are the dolphins (Heb. Leviathan) who you have made to play therein," THE LEVIATHAN BEING YESOD, WHILE "TO PLAY" REFERS TO MATING, AS EARLIER MENTIONED.

353. THIS MAN ELAZAR prostrated himself before him. He brought him home, prepared three measures of bread and a three year old calf. After eating, the man said to him: Rabbi, tell me one thing. I had a red cow, the mother of this calf whose flesh we are eating. One day, before she became pregnant and gave birth, I followed her to her pasture in the desert. As I led her, a man came by and asked me for the name of the cow. I replied that from the day she was born, I never called her by name. He said to me: Batsheba, mother of Solomon, is she called if you merit forgiveness FOR YOUR SINS. When I turned around, I saw him no more. I laughed at this thing.