Sefer HaKanah Reader

He said to me, my son, hear and listen the matter of Rosh Hashanah After it, we will speak. You should know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he runs creation and he understands it through his traits (middotav = his attributes, the lower 7 sefirot). Whether it is for judgement or for mercy. That is what is written - he who shepherds among the roses(?) and the roses are the six upper haromzim(?

Neither of us recognize this word. We disagree as to whether there are six roses and they are the upper thorns, or whether there are roses and there are six thorns. Or haromez(?) may mean "hint", as in hinting at something). So that when he has mercy on the creations, he has mercy in one of the ways, from his ways of mercy, and that way is kindness(Chesed).

In the time of anger, one of the ways of judgement(Din) is Pachad (lit. fear, another name for Netzach). This is blowing the shofar, from which emanates the Din and the Rachamim (= tiferet). The truah (9) and shevarim (3) blasts are the Din, tekiyah (1) is mercy. And we arouse the traits of Hakadosh Boruch Hu to arouse/bring about goodness on our behalf.

Kenesset Yisrael (assuming that is what כי means), against whom the accusers (Heb. katurgim) come, because from there they are grabbed, and it is among that which hold them back, and that is the tekiyah blasts that are before and after. The accusers will not find any place to come to it. Since it is surrounded by Rachamim, that is, the teruah surrounded by two tekiyah blasts, mercy will be around (upon? before?) us, with our repentance from our sins, and the attribute of judgment (מהד = middas haDin, attribute/sefirah of din) is replaced with Rachamim.

This is that which is hinted: praiseworthy is the nation that knows the teruah blast, that the intention is the ones who bring forth the teruah blast (that is כני = kenesses Yisrael), to the mercy, which is the tekiyah tekiyah (if that's what ת''ת means). This is similar to the matter in the verse, ''And Adam knew Chava'', whose explanation is becoming close to knowledge (Heb. da'at or da'as, which is the child of Chochmah and Binah that may be the active manifestation of keter, or a sefirah in its own right, depending on version of kabbalistic doctrine.

I am not certain whether its usage here means the sefirah, or the simpler meaning of "just knowledge".) And on Yom Kippur, ''both shofar and Tziyon'' (Yoel 2:1, first half) (like Eretz Tziyon?), to signal/indicate mercy, as Tziyon is an extension of the six (roses? thorns?), ''Sound an alarm on the mountain of his holiness'', (Yoel 2:1, second half) which is Yerushalayim, which is signaled(?) in judgement.

And therefore, the shofar of the Beis haMikdash, with which they would blow on Rosh Hashanah, was coated with gold because it was standing in Yerushalayim and the Beis haMikdash, and they would blow and the gold would hint at the din. And the shofar they would blow on a (public) fast day (a type of fast day done in times of severe drought, see Maseches Tainis), was coated in silver instead. Because the silver inspires mercy, and on a fast day you are looking for mercy.

...(Key terms: matziyos = a certain thing that exists in reality. Hisorerus = inspiration-ish) And know, my son, the sound that emanates from the shofar is included in the secret of the water, wind (Heb. ruach), and fire, and ruach is binah water and fire are the arms (Chesed and Gevurah?). This is what Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said (Zohar?): The sound/wind/ruach that emanates from the shofar includes fire and water, and it becomes one sound without separation.

When we blow below (in assiyah), this sound, which includes Din and Rachamim, rises up (to the higher worlds), they are the four and six partzufim. (I'm not sure what it means by "four *and* six"). It is similar to the two arms above. And it becomes unified in its unity, that is, the Binah, and it pushes away all the accusers (Heb. katurgim). And when there is dispersal among the accusers, the opening is opened and the prayers enter. (Reference to Gates of Repentence on Yom Kippur?)

And the king, who is Binah (presumably this refers to HKB, or at least Keter?), he rises from the throne of judgement, and has mercy on Klal Yisrael. Because the sound below has an effect above, without uncertainty, because Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought into existence matziyos (Heb. difficult - more accurately, a certain thing that exists in reality), from above (Atzilut?) to below (Assiyah?), hisorerus so when it wants to go up, this reality goes up/rises. (Heb. difficult).

And this is late the spirit (ruach) of a person, who brings in and releases air, and its entering is the reason why it exists. Because first it goes in, and afterwards it goes out. Yes, י''ת (abbreviation, but we do not know for what. Yitbarach = he will be blessed?), and it (He?) will rise (rises?), the secret of hisorerus of the matziyos does not go out above, until it rises from below, to return to the place of its creation, and then the hisorerus will go out from above like originally.

And similar to this, Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said, if you understand how the influence spreads out when you bring the dove offering or the pigeon offering, the??? (word סטרין unknown to us - plural of "sater"?) and legions(?), which have no number to them (ie they are countless), or when you bring one animal, then so too that happens with blowing the shofar, spread out many legions and many (???) with no count.

Come and see from one candle that fills the whole world with lit candles. How many thousands and thousands that are lit from them! This is what Rabbi Yehuda bar Nachman said in the name of Rabbi Levi, when they bring up the judgement (Din), that is, the congregation of Israel (via the shofar), then the understanding (Binah) sits on a seat of judgement. (Wedebated the meaning of this. I believe it to be both literal and metaphorical.

Literal in that Gevurah, AKA Din, is in fact below Binah in the etz chaim, and so "bringing up" Din can mean it literally moving up until it is right below Binah so that Binah can "sit" on it. It may also refer metaphorically to Hashem's judgement on Rosh Hashanah being tempered by His understanding.) And when we blow a tekiyah blast with the shofar, immediately, the attribute of judgement (Din) is reversed to the attribute of mercy (Rachamim), and when we blow a teruah blast, it goes up as judgement.

And when we blow a tekiyah blast, it goes up as mercy. (we have tekiyah twice, and its description is slightly different each time. Significance unclear.) And this is the order of judgement. And when the binah sits on the seat of judgement, the world stands in judgement.

The attribute of judgement is on His (HKB)'s left, and the attribute of mercy stands on His right side. And they fight with each other in front of Binah. The attribute of judgement says (word "says" is feminine), "I have not gone out to work for naught. If you judge with mercy, there are those who sinned, and it is not collected from. Rather, pay back to them like what they did."

And the attribute of mercy says (also feminine) (quoting Psalms 130:3),"If you keep a count of sins, oh Lord, who will survive? Heaven forbid!" Therefore, Hashem joins Din and Rachamim, for if he would judge them with Din alone,??? (מ''י unclear acronym), who will stand with all her sons? All of them will be destroyed.

And the attribute of judgement says, "A sinner should die for his sins (and no one else). The entire world should not deserve destruction! There is enough to sustain the world, through the hands of the righteous. And the wicked ones should die."

And the attribute of compassion says (also a (paraphrase of a) pasuk), "He does not desire the dead to die," that is, the wicked, for also he can repent, and Hashem accepts repenters. And if he dies, if so, what is there in the way of teshuvah(?)

...And the attribute of judgement says, (paraphrasing "For the transgression of Ya'akov, and for the sins of the house of Israel", Michah 1:5) "For the transgression of Ya'akov, all this", this means to say, that there should never be any complete sinners, because complete sinners should die, and the attribute of mercy says "No more shall Ya'akov be shamed(, no longer his face grow pale", Isaiah 29:22), and the attribute of judgement says, "It is true that a small amount of sins should not be shamed, but at the same time, remember the sins of the fathers onto the sons (unto the fourth generation)", that is, they will exchange and accept their sins.

And the attribute of mercy says, "But the pasuk also says that the father should not die for the son's sins!", meaning, the father should swap to return to the sons(? Meaning, neither should take responsibility for the other) And the attribute of judgement says, "I in turn will do this to you: (I will wreak misery upon you—consumption and fever, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for your enemies shall eat it."

Vayikra 26:16), meaning, the anger and attribute of ani (א-נ-י: self? God referring to God's self?) That is what is called, this is for you, it will be the taking of judgement. The attribute of mercy replies, "For my sake, my sake I will do, ( Lest [My name] be dishonored!

I will not give My glory to another." Isaiah 48:11), meaning, I will do judgement with them, with mercy, for the sake of Your name, that he is with them in their goodness and their exile.

...I said to him, "Rebbe, my master, if so, why do they not require tekiyah shevarim teruach tekiyah? ( ק = tekiyah, ש = shevarim, ר = teruach, so קשר''ק = tekiyah shevarim truach tekiya.) And there, they were uncertain." He said to me, "My son, I will teach you a great matter. You should know, that the mother of Sisra is Lilit the Wicked. And Sisra is possessed (may also be held/grabbed) by Samael, and Tanin'iver stands between Samael and Lilit.

He gives to that name of Sisra. What did Barak do? He made a tekiyah and three shevarim. That is the fear that descended on the crown by way of the shevarim, which dwells on Hod, and from there on the crown which are Pachad, Hod, and Atarah.

And afterwords, from the wailing of the crown, woe, woe in the world! And it must be (lit. against your will), there is never wailing (teruah) before groaning (shevarim). And three of them (groanings, three of them because shevarim is composed of three sounds) are placed in the middle, and they also took the wailing which is the attribute of Din the broad(also rough/wide) which returned from the shard of wailing (teruah, the sound of which is broken up into shards) and then did a tekiyah and that is tekiyah shevarim teruah tekiyah.

And immediately (lit. at hand), the power of Samael, Tanin'iver, and Lilit are interrupted, and came with them outer powers to help Sisra, to no purpose and count and all of them will be humiliated. And they remove the shade (meaning unclear) of Sisra from upon him, and it is given into the hands of Barak because he brought close all ten (sefirot) and unified them. (ב ר ק -> ק ר ב backwards, ק ר ב "means "come close) And he sweetened the Din and in his name, so did he do.

And in any case, there is what to sweeten the judgement from every side, between the two tekiyahs? Perhaps the judgement came down through the shevarim and wailing? One should also do tekiyah shevarim (groaning) tekiyah. Perhaps the judgement came down only through groaning, and it will turn out that that pathway is not sweetened.

And we should also do tekiyah teruah (wailing) tekiyah, because perhaps the Din came down the way of wailing and was not sweetened. Therefore, one should do all of this three times, correspending to Pachad, Hod, and Atarah. And in the prayer that adds additional blessings (that is, Musaf adding on Malchuyos, Zichronos, and Shofaros on Rosh Hashanah) one should be careful to do Tekiyah-Shevarim-Teruah-Tekiyah, Tekiyah-Shevarim-Tekiyah, Tekiyah-Teruah-Tekiyah, for the Malchuyos, and the same for Zichronos and the same for Shofaros. (This indicates that each of the three additional blessings for Rosh Hashanah Musaf is for one of the three aspects, Pachad, Hod, and Atarah.

I am not certain which is which, but I believe that Malchuyos is Atarah, Shofaros is Hod, and Zichronos is Pachad. This is because Malchuyos, meaning kingship, would be most associated with Atarah. Zichronos being Pachad checks out because Hod is of the same concept as Din/Gevurah, which is of judgement, and Zichronos is of judgment. The parallel breaks a bit here, as one might think that Shofaros would be associated with compassion, but that would actually associate it with Atarah because that is on the same line as tiferet/rachamim.

However, its association with the kinder right line at least somewhat holds (even though it is on the left - for some reason, Netzach and Hod are associated with the left and right respectively, even though they are *on* the right and left in that order). Note that we say zichronos and shofaros on major public fast days, **but not malchuyos**, which further cements malchuyos being associated with the same line as rachamim (recall the above, that we sit in judgement and use the silver shofar of Din on such days, and so Rachamim/Atarah/Malchuyos is absent).

Because the matter of malchuyos, zichronos, and shofaros is similar to turning to every direction to sweeten the judgement (like lulav and esrog on Sukkos). In truth, it would appear that you should not change these blasts (Heb. tekiyos), because of Rabbi Avahu the great, he was afraid of the fourteen(? Educated guess but could be completely wrong), which is the attribute of Din. Behold!

It is the hand of Hashem. Therefore, since his (Abahu's) name is the Gematria of 14 (א ב ה ו = 1 + 2 + 5 + 6 = 14), he would be careful not to interrupt with their fixing (change from fixing to better translation when possible) and then hand to hand would not be clean, and Rabbi Yochanan had many merits (Heb., or Aramaic as the case may be, slightly unclear). And he thought that everyone else was like him.

And that which they blow teruah (Heb. has verb form of "teruah"), and they blow tekiyah and teruah when they are standing - that is, the prayer of musaf which is hinted at in Sod (the Kabbalah), If you do not blow when sitting, which is hinted in the congregation of Israel (meaning unclear), that is, the gate which they entered to the king. Therefore, with the tekiyah blasts, we also need to enter with this, as it says, "With this, Aharon will enter the inner sanctuary."

And because the tekiyos of the sitting part (when we blow the shofar not during Musaf) are the opening of the (heavenly) gates, the Satan is grabbed from there against his will, trembling and not trembling. And when the guardian(/doorkeeper) attached with the king, he has no fixing. Certainly, when his attribute (Heb. middah. Kabbalistic term generally but I think it is being used literally here.) is to interrupt the power from within him.

He is busy with his things, and he is not learning prosecution. (That is, by using the shofar to trick the Satan into believing that he is in trouble, we distract him from creating a case to prosecute humanity that he would bring to HKB, and therefore prevent disaster from befalling us at his hand.) And therefore, do not make a mistake and say, "There is here extra blasts", for everything is needed.

It makes sense that the additions with tzitzis that is attached and tied, it is a mitzvah to you, the king, to unite the sons with the mother, and she is included in the spirituality of Chochmah and Keter (is this talking about lifting up Binah to Chochmah and Keter?), He will give too many pregnancies of the mitzvos of the king (Heb. *really* unclear, could also be too many sins of the mitzvos of the king, but frankly neither makes much sense).

See, my child, all the mitzvos that have a set time, and that women are therefore exempt from doing, we therefore do not make them do them, for that is the decree of the king, because their doing these things damages above. Behold! "All your males shall appear." (Part of Devarim 16:16, which is in full: Three times a year—on the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Pesach), on the Feast of Weeks (Shavuos), and on the Feast of Booths(Sukkos) —all your males shall appear before your God יהוה in the place that [God] will choose.

They shall not appear before יהוה empty-handed.), and that appearance is the appearance before the face of the king with the queen, and the abscondence of the Din from there (I think this refers to the breaking of the vessel of Din?) The Writer (the one who wrote the Torah, that is, HKB) if you go up and see, the damage is because the Din goes up. And similarly by the shofar, judgement does not appease judgement.

Similarly, by circumcision, a matter of pasulah (disqualification), as Rabbi Yochanan said: "And see earlier in the laws of circumcision and its secrets." And said to him, "My master! If so, we should warn the women with a warning of punishment, that they should not do like the matter of do not destroy to go up (Heb. unclear).