Introduction to the Zohar by Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai
Rabbi Shimon said:
Woe to the man who says that the Torah comes to teach tales of this world and to speak about ordinary affairs. If that were so, even today, we could create a Torah dealing with ordinary matters that would be far superior. If it comes merely to explain the matters of this world, even the princes of the world have more advanced things to say. If so, we should follow them and compose a Torah from their teachings! But this is not the case. For all the words of the Torah are concerned with exalted matters and celestial secrets.
Come and see, the upper world and the lower world are weighed in an exacting balance. Israel here below is mirrored by the angels above. Of the celestial angels it is said, “Who makest His angels spirits” (Tehillim, 104:4). When they descend down to earth, they dress up in the garments of this world, for if they didn’t dress in the garments of this world, they could not exist in this world, nor could the world endure them.
Now, if this is the case with the angels, how much more must it be with the Torah that created them, and that created all of the worlds and that sustains them all. How much more so the Torah in descending to this world had to dress herself up in the garments of this world so that the world could endure.
Thus, the stories of the Torah are only her worldly garments, and whoever thinks that this worldly attire is the Torah itself, and not something deeper, may his soul be obliterated – he will have no portion in the world to come. For this reason, David said, “Open mine eyes, that I may see the wonders of Your Torah” (Tehillim, 119:18), meaning the things that are beneath the Torah’s worldly garment.
Come and see. There are garments that everyone sees. When fools see a man in smart-looking clothing, they don’t look any deeper (but rather judge the worth of the man according to his clothes). However, the pride of the clothes is the body, and the pride of the body is the soul.
In the very same way, the Torah has a body made up of the commandments of the Torah, which are called the body of the Torah . This body is dressed up in garments that are the stories of this world. The fools of the world only see the garment, the worldly narrations. They do not know anything more, nor do they look beneath this outer garment. Those who understand more, do not look just upon the garment, but on the body that is under the garment. The sages, the servants of the exalted King, those who stood on Mount Sinai, peer down to the soul, which is the principle thing of them all, and this is the real Torah. In the future, they are destined to gaze into the soul of the soul of the Torah.
Behold, in the same way, the upper world has a garment, a body, a soul, and an inner soul. The heavens and their hosts are the outer garment. The Community of Israel is the body which houses the soul, “Tiferet Yisrael.” This soul of “Tiferet Yisrael” is the Torah. And the soul of the soul, this is Ancient Holy One. All of these are attached one with the other. Woe to those sinners who say that the Torah is merely a story, who only see its outer garment and no more. Fortunate are the tzaddikim who gaze properly on the Torah. Wine cannot be contained except in a flask. Likewise, the Torah requires an outer garment. Therefore, one needs to look only upon the things that are under the garment. And therefore, all of these ordinary matters and all of these stories are only exterior garments.
