26. HE INQUIRES ABOUT WHAT IT SAYS: "And the adversary (Heb. Satan) STANDING AT HIS RIGHT HAND TO THWART HIM" (ZECHARYAH 3:1). What is "the adversary?" HE REPLIES: That one who is appointed over the souls in Gehenom, whose desire is to take him TO GEHENOM, who is always present and says, Give, give the wicked to Gehenom. "To thwart him" means to mention his iniquities. Then, "Hashem said to the adversary, 'Hashem rebuke you, O adversary; even Hashem...rebuke you'" (Ibid.). HE ASKS: Why two rebukes? HE REPLIES: One FOR THE ANGEL Dumah, THAT IS THE CHIEF APPOINTEE OF GEHENOM, and one for that one that leaves Gehenom, who is constantly ready to thwart, MEANING THE ADVERSARY.

27. Come and see, the celestial adversary descends, as we have already explained, being transformed into the image of an ox. All these evil spirits that were sentenced to be entered into Gehenom, he licks them up in an instant and grabs them, and descends and gives them over to Dumah, after he swallows them up. This is what is said: "And Moab said to the elders of Midian, 'Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licks up...'" (Bemidbar 22:4). That is that known ox, WHICH IS THE ADVERSARY, that stands constantly ready to cause evil for all the world's inhabitants. "The grass of the field" (Ibid.), are the spirits of people, who are the grass of the field. "The field" is that certain field, MEANING MALCHUT.

28. Rabbi Yosi says, If so, Balak was a wise man, SINCE HE WAS AWARE THAT THE SATAN TRANSFORMS INTO THE FORM OF AN OX. He said to him most certainly HE WAS WISE. Similarly, he needed to know all the habits of that ox and if he had not been familiar with them, he would not have been able to perform his witchcraft and magic. Rabbi Yosi said, That is certainly so, and you spoke well. The might of that ox is, when they proclaim about the grain crops... (SOMETHING MISSING) ...all these days that are being proclaimed, and all the days that they proclaim about spirits of people. They are the days of Nissan and the days of Tishrei, as we have already learned.