Zohar: Genesis: Chapter LV. Various Kabbalistic Expositions of Biblical Texts

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This is an excerpt from the Zohar, the foundational text of Jewish Kabbalah (likely in English translation, given the transliterated Hebrew terms and folio-style page markers like 76a). The passage presents two rabbinical homilies in the Zohar's characteristic form of scriptural close-reading filtered through mystical theology. Rabbi Simeon addresses why the divine name YHVH appears in the Noah story instead of the usual Elohim: he argues through an extended domestic metaphor that the ark functions as a "wife," and just as a wife cannot receive a guest without her husband's consent, Noah required permission from YHVH — representing divine goodness — before entering. Rabbi Jehuda then interprets Psalm 24:1 through a Kabbalistic lens, arguing that "the earth" means the Land of Israel, and its "fulness" is the Shekhinah (divine presence), while the seven seas and rivers of the verse represent seven cosmic pillars sustaining the world. His central claim is that the earth's fertility is directly tied to the proportion of righteous people in it — when the just multiply, the land flourishes; when the wicked prevail, it dries up. The text is distinctive for its treatment of scripture as a layered mystical code in which grammatical choices (one word form versus another) and narrative details encode theological truths about divine attributes, cosmic structure, and the relationship between human righteousness and earthly well-being.

Zohar: Genesis: Chapter LV. Various Kabbalistic Expositions of Biblical Texts

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