ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים ופרעה חולם וגו׳

1“And it came to pass at the end of two full years, and Pharaoh was dreaming,” etc. Now, this portion is joined to the portion before it: “Yet the chief butler did not remember Yosef,” etc.

For because he did not remember, “And it came to pass at the end” came about. The explanation of the matter: just as there is a Pharaoh and a chief butler in kelipah, so, “G‑d made the one opposite the other,” so that likewise on the side of holiness there are also these levels.

2Now, there are four elements in the human soul: fire, air, water and earth. The element of fire dwells in the heart. The source of the moisture is from the brain, for that is where the element of water dwells. And the lungs draw every kind of drink and moisture from the brain by way of the windpipe, to cool the heat of the heart.

3So too in the G‑dly soul: the element of water in the brain is the level of Chochmah and Daas in the service of G‑d, in one’s mind and thought.

And even though “no thought can grasp Him at all,” is it not written, “Her husband is known in the gates”: each one according to his own measure?

4That is, contemplation of the level of the spreading forth of His greatness, blessed be He, above without end and below without limit: “there is nothing else besides Him,”

for “by the breath of His mouth all their host” [were made], and before Him all is considered as nothing. It is like, by way of analogy, a person’s speech, which is nullified to him and considered as nothing compared to him.

5And this every person, according to his own measure, can know and comprehend: that there is nothing else in the heavens above, and all the higher and lower beings are drawn from the breath of His mouth, blessed be He, and there is nothing apart from Him.

Therefore they are truly considered as nothing before Him. And the element of fire is the thirst in the heart of one who understands, through contemplating His greatness, blessed be He, how truly all is considered as nothing before Him.

6Therefore his soul yearns for Him, blessed be He, with a fierce love like flashes of fire, a flame that rises of itself, to be absorbed in the light of G‑d and in His unity, blessed be He; and he does not wish to be below, like the nature of the light of fire, which by its nature is drawn from below upward.

It is not so with the level of water, which goes from above downward, for water descends from a high place to a low place. That is, he draws the light of G‑d, namely Torah and mitzvos, upon his soul, to shine upon his soul even while he is below, in the mode of “against your will you live,” etc.

7And just as water extinguishes fire, so through this he will quench the thirst of his soul, as it is written, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the water,” as is explained elsewhere.

That is, through the level that connects the element of water in the brain with the element of fire in the heart, namely the windpipe (kaneh). It is the level of the source of the letters of the Torah,

as it is written, “Acquire (kneh) wisdom, acquire understanding.” And this level is called the chief butler, for through it the lungs draw drink from the moisture of the brain, from the element of water within it.

8This is the meaning of the chief butler’s dream: “Behold, a vine was before me,” etc., “and I pressed the grapes,” etc., “and I placed the cup on Pharaoh’s palm.” Explanation: the vine is the name for the Congregation of Israel, which is the totality of all the souls of Israel.

9And the grapes are the sparks of souls, for each spark is called one grape, since in each spark there is the level of “wine that gladdens G‑d and men,” which is the level of the hidden love, to rejoice in G‑d; and it is an inheritance to us from our forefathers.

But it is very hidden, like wine concealed within grapes, for the grape is round and smooth and surrounds it on every side, and it is impossible to extract wine from it except

by squeezing and treading in the winepress, to remove from it the peel (kelipah) that surrounds it. So too, it is impossible to reveal the hidden recesses of the love except through the level of crushing.

10“And be lowly of spirit before every man”: not that others should humble him, but “be lowly of spirit”: be so yourself; and “let my soul be as dust to all,” like a threshold that is trodden upon, in order to remove the husk of the foreskin that covers over the heart.

That is, even one who has not actually blemished [himself] and become defiled through the sins of youth must nevertheless circumcise the foreskin of his heart, as it is written, “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart”: that is, [the fact] that his heart burns and craves superfluous things.

11This is called the level of the foreskin that covers over and conceals the revelation of His G‑dliness, blessed be He, in the mode of the hiding of the Face. And he must not be in the mode of the hiding of the Face, and there must be no separating screen at all, not even a thin membrane, which is the level of the membrane of peri’ah.

12And through this, “and I placed the cup on Pharaoh’s palm (kaf),” as it is written, “On [My] palms I have engraved you.” And it is written, “With palms He covers the light.”

“And He commands it concerning the one who entreats (mafgia)”: this is prayer. For the level of Pharaoh in holiness is one opposite the other: just as Pharaoh in kelipah is a harsh kelipah,

so, one opposite the other, Pharaoh in holiness is the level of the revelation of His G‑dliness, blessed be He, from the word peri’ah, [meaning] uncovering; and the revelation of the word of G‑d [comes] through the level of the chief butler, which is the level of the windpipe, for the voice arouses the intention to rejoice in G‑d in one’s prayer.

This is “and I placed the cup,” for the level of the windpipe mentioned above is what carries the arousal of love up, higher and higher, beyond the comprehension of human beings.

13However, not every person merits the level of the gladdening wine mentioned above, only the upright of heart, as it is written, “and for the upright of heart, joy”: that is, one who has walked in an upright path all his days.

But one who has blemished his ways and become defiled through the sins of youth cannot rejoice in G‑d in his prayer, for many foreign thoughts confuse him.

14Therefore this is the counsel that is given: there is another level of wine, namely the level of intoxicating wine, as it is written, “Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to the embittered of soul; let him drink and forget his poverty,” etc.

And as our Sages, of blessed memory, said concerning those executed by the court, that they would give [the condemned man] a cup of wine to drink before the execution, so that his mind would be clouded, so that he could bear the pain of death.

And therefore also in the Shema recited at bedtime, one who wishes to accept upon himself the four death penalties of the court [does so], as written in the Arizal’s liturgy: “If I have blemished the letter yud, and become liable to stoning.”

15Especially when he sees in himself that his heart is stopped up within him and has become like stone: this is the level of stoning, for which he is certainly liable.

Likewise, when his heart burns and craves forbidden things, this is the level of burning; and all the more so if he knows in himself that he has blemished and become defiled through the sins of youth. And so each one according to his own measure, for a person knows his own soul.

This is the counsel that is given, so that he can accept upon himself the four death penalties of the court completely: let him drink the level of the cup of wine mentioned above.

16The explanation: it is stated in the holy Zohar, “The truly righteous, every day they regard themselves as if on that day they were departing from the world.”

At first glance this is not understood, for the “righteous” are tzaddikim, and the “truly righteous” are of a still higher level; so how does it praise them for the quality and level of fear of punishment alone?

Rather, the matter is that even a perfect tzaddik, when he goes to Gan Eden, needs immersion in the river of fire, and the immersion is to remove the faculty of memory of this world. For it is impossible to inherit one’s place in Gan Eden as long as one remembers even the smallest fraction of the matters of this world.

17Likewise, when he goes “from strength to strength,” [as it is written,] “From New Moon to New Moon and from Shabbos to Shabbos all flesh shall come to bow before Me,” etc., he needs a further immersion in another river of fire, to forget even the comprehension he attained in the lower and upper Gan Eden.

And let a person take this to heart: the essence of Gan Eden is that [the souls] delight in the radiance of the Shechinah, and this is only radiance, etc.

Now if one who comes only to delight in the radiance of the Shechinah must remove the faculty of memory of this world, then one who comes to cleave to Him, blessed be He, through Torah and prayer, how much more so!

(And this is the meaning of the Zohar, “they regard themselves,” etc.: to remove the faculty of memory of the matters of this world in order to cleave to Him, blessed be He, in Torah and prayer.)

Now there is the level of another river of fire below, which is formed from the sweat of the holy Chayos. Explanation: the holy Chayos are the supernal love, of the level of the gladdening wine.

And their sweat is their waste: in the descent of the love, level by level, to a very low place, it becomes dregs and waste, in their descent to this material world.

18And let a person take this to heart: the level of the descent, how he has descended very, very low; and let his heart become very bitter, and let him cry out to G‑d in his distress,

as it is written, “Their heart cried out to the L‑rd,” until he goes out of his mind. Explanation: out of his mind and thought to which he was bound all day.

19And let him fix his thought with strength and depth in the bitterness of his soul, until he removes the faculty of memory of his affairs and his dealings. This is the level of the intoxicating wine, “let him drink and forget his poverty.” And through this he will be able to pray and say “Blessed are You,” in direct address, from the depth of the heart.

For the bitterness is over the past: his soul is bitter over the hiding of His Face, blessed be He, for would that there were a revelation of His G‑dliness, blessed be He, at least like the fear of flesh and blood, as Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said to his disciples, “May it be [His will] that the fear of Heaven be upon you,” etc.

20Therefore, when he returns to G‑d, he will ask for the revelation of His G‑dliness, blessed be He, from the depth of the heart; and this is “Blessed are You,” etc. And all the prayers and requests are arranged in this way.

Likewise in the acceptance mentioned regarding the [bedtime] Shema, [it is] in truth: for truly his will and desire is to cleave to Him, and his soul is bitter over its distance from the light of the King’s countenance.

And although in truth he is still distant, nevertheless there is a distinction [as to] who is the one that is distant, as is explained elsewhere.

And also with this level of wine, before the squeezing he must make himself like leftovers, by thinking deeply about all the deeds, words and thoughts that have passed over him that were not for G‑d, and he should be very lowly of spirit.

21But there is one more thing: he must take counsel in his soul with regard to the two levels of wine mentioned above. And this is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said on “And G‑d saw the light, that it was good”: “that it was good to hide it away.”

The explanation of the matter is as it is written, “I sought him whom my soul loves,” etc., “I held him and would not let him go until I brought him into my mother’s house and into the chamber of her who conceived me.”

“My mother’s house” is the Written Torah; “the chamber of her who conceived me” is the Oral Torah. They are the level of vessels into which to bring the revelation of His G‑dliness, blessed be He, the level of Pharaoh’s cup.

22As it is written, “I will lift up the cup of salvations”; and then the wine is preserved within it. Whereas when there are no vessels, the light departs, as is known.

Further, let him keep in mind the matter of his deeds: that they not be for his own sake, but to bring gratification before Him, blessed be He, to be a fixed place for His abode, that He have a dwelling place among the lower realms.

That is, that he set His light within the letters of the Torah, which are vessels for His light, blessed be He. And this is the level of Yosef, meaning “he will add” (yosif) delight and gratification before Him, blessed be He.

23And this is what the verse says: “Yet the chief butler did not remember Yosef, and he forgot him,” “And it came to pass at the end.” The explanation [is as follows].

Through “he did not remember” the level of Yosef, which is to increase delight before Him, blessed be He, there came about through this “And it came to pass at the end” (miketz), a term of end and cessation, of the level of “two years of days.”

Meaning that the level of Torah should, G‑d forbid, cease for him, which is the level of “two years of days,” as it is written, “And I was [His] delight day [by] day”: the Torah preceded the world by two thousand years.

24And this is as it is written in the Tikkunim: “Wise, but not with a known wisdom; understanding, but not with a known understanding.” The level of Chochmah is the Written Torah; the level of Binah is the Oral Torah.

For since his intention is for his own sake, he is not concerned to hide away the light in a vessel, and the revelation of the light alone in prayer is enough for him.

But in the course of time there comes about “and Pharaoh was dreaming”: meaning that even the revelation of the level of wine mentioned above that he has is not true, but only in the manner of imagination and a dream, which causes the departure of the light, etc.

25Therefore he falls to the level of the emotive attributes, for the attributes are felt in his soul: “seven good cows,” etc., and immediately after them there come up “seven other cows,” “and they ate,” etc.

“And it was not known that they had come inside them”: meaning that the light has departed and been hidden so much that it seems to him as though he had never prayed.

It is not so with the level of Yosef, who adds and increases delight and gratification before Him, blessed be He, to be a fixed place for His abode,

And that He have a dwelling place among the lower realms. Then the attributes are not felt in his soul at all, not [even] the “seven good cows,” etc.; and all the more so, since no evil descends from above, only good hidden within it.