230. We have learned that one day the friends were walking with Rabbi Shimon. Rabbi Shimon said, I see all nations are higher above and Yisrael are below all. Why? It is because the King has dismissed the Queen from Him, and invited a maid in her stead, as the verse says, "For three things the earth is disquieted...for a slave when he becomes king...and a handmaid that is heir to her mistress" (Mishlei 30:21-23). Who is this handmaid? She is the foreign kingdom OF THE OTHER SIDE, whose firstborn Hashem smote in Egypt, as it is written, "Even to the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill" (Shemot 11:5). At first, she used to sit behind the millstone, but now she is "a handmaid that is heir to her mistress." INSTEAD OF EXTENDING HER ABUNDANCE TO HOLY MALCHUT, THIS MAID OF THE OTHER SIDE TAKES ALL THE ABUNDANCE AND EXTENDS IT TO THE NATIONS THAT ARE FROM HER SIDE.

232. About this, it is written, "Humble, and riding upon an donkey" (Ibid.), as he was poor at first "and riding upon an donkey." As we have established, it refers to the lower crowns of the idolatrous nations, the firstborn of which Hashem killed in Egypt, AS THEY ARE CONSIDERED "AN DONKEY." This is the meaning of, "And all the firstborn of cattle" (Shemot 11:5). We have established this matter so to speak with "just and victorious" MEANING that he is more VICTORIOUS than anyone. Until now, the Righteous, NAMELY YESOD, resided without righteousness, DENOTING MALCHUT. Now that THE RIGHTEOUS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS are joined, he is "just and victorious," because he NO LONGER dwells in the Other Side. We have learned that "the righteous perishes (lit. 'is lost'), and no man lays it to heart" (Yeshayah 57:1). This verse is complicated. IT READS "lost" when it should be written 'is lost.' So what is the meaning of "lost?" HE ANSWERS: He really lost. What did he lose? The Queen - and he joined another place called maid.

249. We have learned that ten types of these Chochmot, OF KLIPOT, descended to the world and all WERE GIVEN TO and became unclean in Egypt, except for one that spread THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EXCEPT EGYPT. They consisted of all types of sorcery, and from them the Egyptians knew sorcery more than the rest of mankind. When the Egyptians wished to gather kinds of sorceries for their purposes, they used to go out into the field to the high mountains and offer sacrifices. They made diggings in the ground and surrounded the diggings with blood while the rest of the blood gathered within the diggings. They placed upon it flesh. They offered the sacrifice to evil beings. And these evil beings gathered and approached together, and were appeased by them on that mountain.

250. Yisrael, who were subjugated by the Egyptians, approached them, learned from them, followed their erroneous ways, as the verse says, "After the doings of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt, shall you not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan..." (Vayikra 18:3). It is also written, "And they shall no more offer their sacrifice to demons..." (Vayikra 17:7). We have learned that when they were offering before them upon the field and preparing the blood and offering their sacrifices, all these evil types assembled and they saw them as demons, as they were full of hair and they told them what they wanted.

277. "After the doings of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt, shall you not do" (Vayikra 18:3). Rabbi Yitzchak opened the discussion saying, "That men may declare the name of Hashem in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem" (Tehilim 102:22). From there, we learned that the Holy Name is both concealed and revealed. THE CONCEALED IS YUD HEI VAV HEI AND THE REVEALED IS ADONAI. The Torah, which is the Holy Name on high OF ZEIR ANPIN, is concealed and revealed. Every verse in the Torah, every portion of Torah is concealed and revealed, MEANING THERE IS A LITERAL EXPLANATION AND ITS MYSTERY.

289. Rabbi Yitzchak said: IT WAS the practices of Egypt THAT THEY USED to worship the maidservant, MEANING THE KLIPAH CALLED MAIDSERVANT, as we have explained. The practice of Canaan WAS TO worship THAT PLACE called "the captive that was in the dungeon" (Shemot 12:29). Therefore, it is written, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren" (Beresheet 9:25). For this reason, they all falsified in matters of holiness and everything practiced IDOLATRY. For this reason, IT IS WRITTEN, "After the doings of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt..." (Vayikra 18:3). Rabbi Yehuda said: They created evil Judgments that will rule over the land, NAMELY MALCHUT, as the verse says, "That your land be not defiled" (Devarim 21:23) and, "And the land is defiled" (Vayikra 18:27).

290. "After the doings of the land of Egypt:" Rabbi Chiya said, "That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it" (Iyov 38:13). We have learned that the Holy One, blessed be He, in the future will cleanse His land, MALCHUT, from all the defilement of the idolatrous nations that defiled it, just as one takes hold of a garment and shakes out from it all the filth, referring to all THE WICKED buried in the Holy Land. SO HE WILL SHAKE OUT THE LAND in order to cast them out and IN ORDER to purify the Holy Land, DENOTING MALCHUT, from the Other Side. It is as if it was sustaining the other ministers of the nations, from whom it received defilement in order to guide them. And He will cleanse it and remove THE MINISTERS OF THE NATIONS to the outside.