{"collection":"Texts of Judaism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm095_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm095_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_jud_zdm_zdm095_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/zdm/zdm095.htm","summary":"This is a passage from the Zohar, the foundational text of Jewish Kabbalah, structured as a multi-voice rabbinic dialogue commenting on Genesis 12 (Abraham and Sarah in Egypt) and related scriptural verses. The text's central argument is that Abraham's descent into Egypt was not a failure or lapse but a divinely ordained trial and initiation: he entered Egypt to be tested in occult knowledge, remained faithful unlike Adam or Noah, and emerged spiritually elevated \u2014 an ascent the text reads esoterically into the phrase \"Abraham went up out of Egypt.\" A recurring cosmological claim runs throughout: the righteous literally sustain the world, functioning as its foundational pillars, and their souls ascend nightly to the Garden of Eden where God rejoices with them at midnight. The text also develops a detailed theology of nocturnal worship, arguing that midnight prayer and Torah study by the living mirrors the celestial praise of perfected souls, with King David's midnight psalms held as the paradigm and a basis for the eternal continuity of his royal line into the messianic age. Distinctively, the passage reframes the episode of Sarah in Pharaoh's house \u2014 including the plagues \u2014 as a cosmic demonstration meant to glorify Abraham's name among the Egyptians, who were the preeminent occultists of the ancient world yet proved inferior to him. The rabbis extend this logic to argue that the Israelites' later Egyptian bondage, and even Canaanite occupation of the Holy Land, were necessary preconditions for Israel's distinctive chosenness and the land's consecration.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Zohar: Genesis: Chapter LXXXVI. Kabbalistic Cosmology","tradition":"Texts of Judaism","translated_text":null,"word_count":1685}