155. "And Judah said to Onan, 'Go in to your brother's wife' ..." (Beresheet 38:21). Rabbi Shimon then quoted, "'I have raised up one from the north, and he is come from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treads clay" (Yeshayah 41:25). Come and behold, how foolish are men who neither know nor care for the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He. They are all asleep, and sleep never leaves their eye sockets.
156. Come and behold, the Holy One, blessed be He, wisely created man in the image of above. There is neither a member nor an organ within man that was not created by Divine Wisdom, AS EACH ORGAN ALLUDES TO A SPECIFIC GRADE. After the body is complete with all its members, the Holy One, blessed be He, joins them and inserts a sacred soul to teach the man to tread the paths of the Torah and keep its commandments, so that the man will be properly perfected IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE APHORISM: 'A MAN'S SOUL SHALL TEACH HIM.'
157. Now that the sacred soul is within him, HE IS WORTHY OF BEGETTING CHILDREN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF THE BLESSED ONE. Therefore, a man should multiply to perpetuate the image of the highest King in the universe. The secret of this is the river which issues forth, SUPERNAL YESOD, whose water never stops. Similarly, a man should never stop the flowing of his river and the source in this world, BUT SHOULD BEGET CHILDREN. When a man is unsuccessful IN BEGETTING CHILDREN in this world, the Holy One, blessed be He, uproots him FROM THIS WORLD and replants him again and again. THAT IS, HE DIES AND IS BORN AGAIN INTO THE WORLD UNTIL HE SUCCEEDS IN BEGETTING CHILDREN.
158. Come and behold, it is written, "I have raised up one from the North, and he is come" (Yeshayah 41:25). "I have raised up," refers to a man's desire to mate in this world, which is raised by the north side FROM THE LEFT, FOR THE DESIRE TO MATE COMES FROM THE LEFT. "And he is come," refers to the sacred soul, which comes from above, sent by the Holy One, blessed be He, into this world, where it enters people.
159. " ...From the rising of the sun ..." (Ibid.) The place from which the river issues forth is TIFERET, THE ABODE OF YESOD, from which the soul comes and is born then and shines, AS ALL SOULS COME FROM THE UNION OF TIFERET AND MALCHUT. "And he shall come upon princes" (Ibid.), means that the armies of the world - THE NUKVA CALLED 'WORLD,' WHOSE ARMIES ARE ANGELS - come with the stirring of the souls, NAMELY, ARE BORN WITH THEM. AND, "as upon mortar" (Ibid.), means as a man awakening into his body, WHICH IS CALLED 'MORTAR.'
160. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, couples souls and sends them into this world, causing union between above and below, and thus the source of all is blessed. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, created man so that he will strive to walk in His ways and never stop his river, RATHER HE WILL BEGET CHILDREN.
161. He whose source is dried up AND DOES NOT BEGET CHILDREN cannot enter the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, when he passes from the world, and he does not participate in that world. Come and behold, it is written, "He did not create it a waste land; He formed it to be inhabited" (Yeshayah 45:18). Therefore, He created man IN THE LIKENESS OF ABOVE, for the Holy One, blessed be He, is kind to the world. Come and behold, it is written, "Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Kturah" (Beresheet 25:1). This is the secret of the soul returning INTO A BODY to be perfected.
162. Come and behold, it is written of the body, "But it pleased Hashem to crush man by disease, if his soul shall consider it a recompense for guilt, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the purpose of Hashem shall prosper in his hand" (Yeshayah 53:10). We have to study this verse further. Why does it so please HIM? HE ANSWERS, Because it purifies him! HE ASKS, Why the feminine gender INSTEAD OF THE MASCULINE in the verse, "If his soul shall consider (feminine) it a recompense for guilt?" HE ANSWERS, Because the phrase, "shall consider," alludes to the soul. THUS, if the soul wishes to perfect herself properly, then "he shall see his seed," because the soul roams around without rest and is destined to enter the seed of a man who observed THE COMMANDMENT OF being fruitful and multiplying. He shall then "prolong his days ...and the purpose of Hashem," referring to the study of the Torah, "shall prosper in his hand." BUT IF HE DID NOT HAVE CHILDREN, THE TORAH DOES NOT HELP HIM.
163. Come and behold, if a man studies the Torah day and night, but does not use his source and fountain TO BEGET CHILDREN, he is not permitted in the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He. We have learned that a well of water is no well unless the source feeds it, for the well and the source are of one secret. And we have explained THAT WHOEVER HAS NO CHILDREN IS JUDGED AS IF THE SOURCE DID NOT FLOW INTO HIM, NAMELY DID NO WORK WITHIN HIM.
164. It is written, "It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sadness; for truly to His beloved He gives tranquility" (Tehilim 127:2). Come and behold, how precious are the words of the Torah, for each contains high and holy mysteries. We have learned that when the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Yisrael the Torah, He included within it all the holy and supernal mysteries that were given to Yisrael when they received the Torah on Mount Sinai.