140. Rabbi Aba said to Rabbi Yosi: That holy pearl that was in your possession with the help of the holy pious one who visited us, NAMELY THE REPORT FROM RABBI PINCHAS BEN YAIR, WITH HIS HELP BY COMING TO US - it is so beautiful that I must go over it again. For it is certainly unnecessary to take out a wife to another place unless her husband so commands and gives her permission to go. ACCORDINGLY, one first of all informs her husband and placates him so that he should command her and give her permission to go to that place. So the Holy One, blessed be He, placated Moses until he gave his permission. Then He said to him: 'You say it - "Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace"' (Bemidbar 25:12), so She would abide in PINCHAS, and so long as he had not given Her permission to go, She did not go.

141. How do we know this? From the Righteous of the world, WHICH IS YESOD OF ZEIR ANPIN, who gave MALCHUT permission to abide among the righteous in this world, and she dwells among them as a bride in all her jewelry, and the Righteous of the world sees it, and is happy. But she lies in the arms of her husband, WHICH IS THE SECRET OF THE RIGHT COLUMN AND THE LEFT COLUMN, WHICH ARE CHESED AND GVURAH OF ZEIR ANPIN, and returns from there to be with the righteous, then returning to her husband, as it is written: "In the evening she would go, and on the morrow she would return" (Ester 2:14). "In the evening she would go" to her husband, NAMELY AT MIDNIGHT, FOR THEN IS THE UNION OF THE LEFT; "and on the morrow" WHEN SHE IS FULL OF CHASSADIM FROM THE UNION OF THE RIGHT, "she would return" to be among the righteous of the world, everything being done with the permission of her husband, ZEIR ANPIN.

142. What Moses said was: "Behold I give to him My Covenant," WHICH IS THE SECRET OF MALCHUT. Just as the Righteous on high gives, so also do I give a present, on condition that the present be returned, NAMELY JUST AS THE RIGHTEOUS ON HIGH GIVES ON CONDITION THAT IT BE RETURNED. AS "IN THE EVENING SHE WOULD GO AND ON THE MORROW SHE WOULD RETURN," AS EXPOUNDED ABOVE, SO ALSO WITH MOSES. And because of this covenant, he earned the high priesthood, WHICH IS THE SECRET OF CHESED, and if he had not had MALCHUT with him, Pinchas could not have risen to the level of the high priesthood, for the covenant IS AN ASPECT OF MALCHUT, when she is always cleaving to the upper right, WHICH IS CHESED of ZEIR ANPIN. And this upper right will, in the future, construct the Temple, which is the covenant, NAMELY MALCHUT.