313. Rabbi Dustai said, As soon as the children of the Holy One, blessed be He, are given over to the rulers of the nations, twelve courts will convene, MEANING MALCHUT HAS TWELVE PERMUTATIONS OF ADONAI, WHICH CONTAINS THE LETTERS OF DINA ('JUDGMENT'). SINCE THE UNION OF YUD HEI VAV HEI ADONAI WAS ABOLISHED, IN WHICH THE TWELVE PERMUTATIONS OF ADONAI RECEIVED FROM THE TWELVE PERMUTATIONS OF YUD HEI VAV HEI, THE TWELVE PERMUTATIONS OF ADONAI GATHERED and sank in the great Abyss, WHICH IS BINAH. The Master, WHICH IS BINAH, weeps by raising the voice CALLED 'WAILINGS.' Two teardrops fell FROM THE EYE SOCKETS, WHICH IS BINAH, to the depths of the Great Sea, WHICH IS MALCHUT. This is the meaning of, "Your Judgments are a great deep" (Tehilim 36:7). Those above rolled downward, and the lower beings broke asunder and descended 240 levels. This is what is written, "The lion has roared, who will not fear" (Amos 3:8).

314. We learned that at the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Yisrael to the Minister of Egypt, He made seven decrees that Egypt should subjugate them. This is what is written, "And they made their lives bitter, with hard bondage in the mortar and in brick, and all manner of bondage in the field, all their bondage, wherein they made them serve was with rigor" (Shemot 1:14). He correspondingly made seven to the good, "And the children of Yisrael were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them" (Ibid. 7).