175. Let us come back and contemplate a certain great and lofty place that was in the world, a true stock and root. It is Oved, the father of Jesse, father of David. We learned that THE INCARNATED is the latter, AND OVED WAS AN INCARNATION OF MACHLON, WHO DIED CHILDLESS. How could a true root come from such a place?

176. HE ANSWERS, But Oved was improved by lofty correction, and the root of the inverted tree, WHERE THE WIFE BECOMES THE MOTHER, was set aright again. And he rose in it and was duly perfected. Hence he is called Oved, DERIVED FROM WORK, something that none of the people in the world merited.

177. OVED came, cultivated (Heb. avad) and hoed the trunk and root of the tree, came out of the bitter face and again improved the branches of the tree, MALCHUT. Jesse his son came, strengthened and fixed it, and held to the boughs of another, higher tree, ZEIR ANPIN. He joined one tree to another and they intertwined. When David came, he found the trees, ZEIR ANPIN AND MALCHUT, intertwined and bound to each other. He then inherited dominion in the land. All this Oved brought about.

179. Oved was corrected and came out of the evil field of evil cisterns. His son Yishai came and fixed and hoed the tree. Nevertheless, this is the most secret of mysteries, and I do not know whether I should tell it or not. Speak up, old man, assuredly I say that in this way are recognized all the incarnated. Though Oved fixed the tree, when King David came, he remained in the lower tree of the female, WHICH IS MALCHUT, and had to receive life from another, for of himself he had no life. And if this is so for he, who was perfected and perfected everything, this is much more so for other people, who cannot be thus perfected.

180. In every respect this turns to incarnation. Peretz was so, AN INCARNATION OF ER; Boaz was so, AN INCARNATION OF JUDAH; Oved was so, AN INCARNATION OF MACHLON. In them all, the tree came out of the evil side and then cleaved to the good. At first, "And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Hashem" (Beresheet 38:7). Machlon was also evil, though not as much. But in these, evil was consumed, and good then emerged, THAT IS, him of whom it is written, "good looking" (I Shmuel 16:12), AND "Hashem was with him" (Ibid. 18). Here the lower tree, MALCHUT, reached completion, and "Elohim reigns over the nations" (Tehilim 47:9).

193. Boaz seems to have changed when he begot Oved, since Oved is changed, FOR HE IS HIS SECOND FATHER. HE SAYS, It is not so, Ivtzan is Boaz. WHY IS HE CALLED BOAZ? BECAUSE he is the first father to bring no change, NAMELY, JUDAH, WHO IS THE FIRST FATHER, INCARNATED IN HIM. You may argue that it was he himself, AND NO INCARNATION OF JUDAH, YET surely when he was roused to perform the act OF LEVIRATE MARRIAGE, he who was fierce as a lion and a lion's whelp, THAT IS, JUDAH was present in him. HENCE HE WAS CALLED BOAZ, DERIVED FROM BO AZ (ENG. 'FIERCENESS IS IN HIM'), WHO REFERS TO JUDAH. THIS WAS so that there will be no change in David. AND SINCE JUDAH INCARNATED IN HIM, the matter reverted to the former root, so that all will originate in one father and lineage. It is all the same, and there was no change in the incarnation of David's seed. Thus you, from beginning to end, are entirely without change.