45. "At his day you shall give him his hire..." (Devarim 24:15). The Faithful Shepherd opened and said, the following precept is to give a hired servant his hire in time. This is the meaning of, "At his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it." Listen, heads of Yeshivot high and low. Metatron is the hire of the hired servant, a messenger from the eighteen worlds, BEING YESOD OF ATZILUT CALLED EIGHTEEN, to receive the eighteen blessings of the Amidah prayer FOR MALCHUT every day, three times a day. For that reason, "At his day you shall give him his hire" refers to the Shacharit service; "neither shall the sun go down upon it" refers to the Minchah service, for if the day is past, the offering is no longer valid. "for he is poor" (Ibid.). Surely he is poor in exile and has nothing but what he is given in prayer. For that reason his prayer is, "A prayer (Heb. tfilah) of the poor, when he faints (or: 'wraps')" (Tehilim 102:1), namely the wrap of the Tzitzit and the hand Tefilin. THAT IS, THE PRAYER OF THE POOR IS THE HAND TEFILIN (OR TFILAH), WHICH IS MALCHUT.
46. "And sets his heart upon it" (Devarim 24:15) refers to the Arvit service, which CORRESPONDS TO the parts of the sacrifice and the fatty parts that are left from the offerings of the day. They are like single grapes of the vineyard and "the corners of your field" (Vayikra 19:9) of which we learned that leaving things over in the form of charity hinders divine punishment. "You shall leave them for the poor and stranger" (Ibid. 10), THAT IS, TO THE CENTRAL PILLAR THAT IS ZEIR ANPIN. For the Central Pillar, when it is outside its place, NAMELY IN EXILE, is called a stranger. For that reason, THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERD SAID, I, my grade being of the Central Pillar, termed myself a stranger in the first exile. This is the meaning of, "I have been a stranger in a strange land" (Shemot 2:22), for he, ZEIR ANPIN, lies in exile for the sake OF YISRAEL.
47. The sages of the Mishnah asked him, Faithful Shepherd, yet Yisrael performed this precept REGARDING THE CORNERS OF THE FIELD AND THE GLEANING OF THE HARVEST in the land of Yisrael, WHEN THE HOLY ONE, BLESSED BE HE, WAS IN HIS PLACE AND NOT A STRANGER. WHY IS IT WRITTEN, "FOR THE POOR AND STRANGER"? He said to them, this is in order to invoke mercy on those SOULS driven away from their place. For a man outside his own place is called a stranger, and all the more so the souls that walk naked from that world and come into this world. Of them the verse says, "As a bird that wanders from her nest," which is the soul from which the Shechinah does not move, "so is a man" (Mishlei 27:8), THE HOLY ONE, BLESSED BE HE, of whom it says, "Hashem is a man of war" (Shemot 15:3), "wanders from His place" (Mishlei 27:8), roaming and roving from His place, which is the World to Come, namely Binah, and wanders after her, AFTER THE SHECHINAH THAT IS THE SOUL in this world, until the days that the soul needs to go outside its place are completed. He guards it until He returns it to its place and swears He shall not return to His place before He returns it to its own. THEREFORE, whoever repents AND RETURNS HIS SOUL TO ITS PLACE is as if he returned the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah to His place. This is the secret of redemption as it said, "today even, if you will only hearken to His voice" (Tehilim 95:7).
48. The Mishnah sages of the lofty Yeshivah OF THE HOLY ONE, BLESSED BE HE, and of the lower Yeshivah OF METATRON said, Faithful Shepherd, we are messengers of the Master of the Universe to you. Blessed is your portion that you are penitent and equal to the 600,000 of Yisrael and that you returned the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah to their place above and below. Due to you, Yisrael will be redeemed and return to their place. The TWO Messiahs, MESSIAH, THE SON OF JOSEPH, AND MESSIAH, THE SON OF DAVID, have no power to redeem Yisrael except with you. It is because of you that they are held back FROM REDEEMING YISRAEL. Finish saying these precious things of which it says, "More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb" (Tehilim 19:11).
49. He said to them, Yeshivah heads, for that hired servant, who is the servant METATRON, who comes to receive three prayers, your masters of the Mishnah decreed that man should be when reciting the first three benedictions OF THE AMIDAH PRAYER as a servant arranging praises before his master, and during the middle benedictions as a servant receiving wages from his master, and during the last benedictions as a servant who received his wages from his master and walked his way.
50. For that reason the servant of Abraham and Rebecca was likened to this that when the Holy One, blessed be He, will send Metatron His servant to receive the prayer, THE SECRET OF MALCHUT, he shall say to Him, "Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me" (Beresheet 24:5), that is, perhaps the prayer will not want to follow me. The Holy One, blessed be He, answered him, "then you shall be clear from this my oath" (Ibid. 8). AND HE EXPLAINS that Chochmah is Aba, THAT IS, ABRAHAM WHO IS CALLED A FATHER, WHO IS CHESED, RISES AND BECOMES CHOCHMAH IN THE STATE OF GREATNESS, and he descends to the Righteous, YESOD, to keep the Shechinah in exile. And from there, FROM YESOD, the servant, WHO IS METATRON OF THE NUMERICAL VALUE OF SHADAI, SINCE IT CORRESPONDS TO YESOD, sent after her, AFTER THE PRAYER, WHERE THE SHECHINAH LIES.
51. The messenger, METATRON, said to Him, Give me a token with which to recognize the prayer where the daughter is, NAMELY THE SHECHINAH. The Holy One, blessed be He said, "and let it come to pass, that the girl to whom I shall say, Let down your pitcher, I pray you, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink" (Ibid. 14). THAT IS, IF THE PURPOSE OF THE PRAYER WILL BE TO GIVE ME DRINK, TO PLEASE ME, THEN YOU SHALL KNOW THE SHECHINAH IS THERE. If it does not, but he finds all the body parts full of iniquities, AND ALL ITS INTENTIONS DURING PRAYER ARE ONLY FOR ITSELF ALONE, AND NOT TO GIVE ME PLEASURE, and there is no WHOLE body part where Torah dwells, WHICH IS THE LIGHT OF RUACH, which has the form of the Central Pillar, and no precept, WHICH IS THE LIGHT OF NEFESH of the form of Rivkah, NAMELY THE SHECHINAH, who was a lily among the thorns, who are completely evil people, He ordered His servant Metatron, "Beware lest you bring my son back there" (Ibid. 6), who is the spirit of holiness, since a precept is Nefesh and the Ruach is Torah, MEANING THAT RUACH IS DRAWN FROM ZEIR ANPIN CALLED TORAH. AND HE DOES NOT MERIT THE RUACH AND NEFESH OF HOLINESS.