TEACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Damascus Document 1:1-11.
"Now hear ye all who know righteousness and understand the actions of God; for He has a dispute with all flesh and will carry out judgement on all those who spurn Him , He hid his face from Israel and from His sanctuary and delivered them up to the sword. But when He remembered the covenant with the forefathers, He saved a remnant for Israel and did not deliver them up to destruction. At the moment of wrath three hundred and ninety years after having delivered them up to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, He visited them and caused a sprout from Israel and from Aaron, a shoot of planting, in order to posses His land and become fat with the good things of His soil. And they realized their iniquity and knew that they were guilty men but they were like blind persons and like those who grope for the path for over twenty years. Yet God discerned their works because they sought Him with a whole heart and raised up for them a teacher of righteousness in order to direct them in the path of his heart."
SMITTEN SHEPHERD "O sword, awake, against | my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, says God\7, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered,. | and I will turn my hand to the little ones. And they that watch him are the poor of the flock\ - Damascus Document Ch. 9?:6-8 - Reference may be altered.
THREE NETS AND THREE KINDS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ".... let loose against Israel as God hath spoken through Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz, saying: Fear and the net and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the land. Its explanation is: three nets of Belial concerning which Levi the son of Jacob hath spoken by which he ensnared Israel and directed their faces to the three kinds of righteousness. The first is |*1 fornication, the second is |*2 wealth, the third is the |*3 pollution of the sanctuary." - Damascus Document 6:14-19
"Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." - James 1:15
"Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth." - Isaiah 24:17
BUILDING THE WALL \6. And they justified the righteous and condemned the wicked\7. And all they who come after them| to do according to the interpretation of the Law in which the forefathers were *instructed\8 until the *completing\9| of the end of these years. In accordance with the covenant which God has confirmed to the forefathers to make atonement|10| for their sins, so shall God make atonement for them\10. And after the completing of the end in accordance with the number of these years| *one shall not join the house of Judah\11, but every man shall stand up against his| net\12. The wall is built, the decree is far removed\13. And during all these years there will be| Belial\14 let loose against Israel as God hath spoken through Isaiah, the prophet, the son| of Amoz, saying: Fear and the net and the snare are upon thee, O inhabitant of the land\15. ## Its explanation is\16|15| : three nets of Belial concerning which Levi the son of Jacob hath spoken\17 by* which he ensnared Israel\18, and *directed their faces to the three kinds of righteousness. The first is fornication, the second is *wealth\19, the third| is the *pollution of the sanctuary\20. He that fleeth from this will be ensnared by that, and he that escapeth the one will be ensnared| by the other\21. ## They that builded the *wall\22 who walked after the *commanding one. Damascus Document Ch. 6:6-22
DIGGING THE WELL And He took from Aaron men of understanding and from Israel wise men and made them understand, and they digged the well. "The princes digged the well; they digged it, the nobles of the people, by the lawgiver. The well is the Law, and they who digged it are the captivity of Israel who have gone forth out of the land of Judah and sojourned in the land of Damascus, all of whom God called princes. For they sought Him and their bough was not turned back in the mouth of one. And the Lawgiver is he who interprets the Law concerning whom Isaiah said, "He bringeth forth an instrument for his work. And the nobles of the people are they who came to dig the well by the precepts which the Lawgiver ordained to walk in them for all end of the wickedness. And they shall reach nothing beside them until there will arise the teacher of righteousness in the end of the days. And all they who were brought into the covenant they shall not enter into the Sanctuary to kindle His altar, and be shutting the door, concerning whom God said, "Who is there among you who would shut the doors, neither do you kindle my altar for naught." If they will not observe to do according to the interpretation of the Law, until the end of the wickedness, and to separate from the children of destruction, and to separate from the wealth of wickedness which is contaminated by a vow and curse, and from the wealth of the sanctuary, and rob the poor of his people (so that) widows be their prey, and they murder the fatherless and to distinguish between clean and unclean and to make known between the holy and the profane, and to observe the Sabbath according to its interpretation and the feasts and the day of fast according to the command of them who entered in to the New Covenant in the land of Damascus. |*1 To raise their offerings according to their interpretation, |*2 to love every one his neighbor as himself, and |*3 to strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy and the stranger, and to seek every one the peace. - Damascus Document 8:4-35
TYING IN JACOB'S LADDER & THE TREE OF LIFE
JACOB'S LADDER & THREE COLUMNS AND BEHOLD, THE LORD STOOD (nitsab) UPON IT, ETC. Here Jacob discerned the essential unity of the object of faith. This is implied in the term nitsab (firmly knit), which implies that |*3 Jacob saw all grades stationed as one on that ladder so as to be knit into one whole. And inasmuch as that ladder is situated between two sides, God said to him: I AM THE LORD, THE GOD OF |*1 ABRAHAM THY FATHER, AND THE GOD OF |*2 ISAAC , these two being respectively of the two sides, one of the right and the other of the left. - Soncino Zohar, Bereshith, Section 1, Page 150a
The Middle Pillar [of the G-dhead] is Metatron, Who has accomplished peace above, According to the glorious state there. - Zohar, vol. 3, p. 227, (Amsterdam Edition)
Better is a neighbor that is near, than a brother far off. This neighbor is the Middle Pillar in the Godhead, which is the Son of Yah.
- Zohar, vol. 2, p. 115, (Amsterdam Edition)
THREE COLUMNS & THE TREE OF LIFE Creation of the universe was made possible by a withdrawal of the light of the creator, which was otherwise present everywhere. This was for our own sake, as we cannot receive the full intensity of God's light. Therefore we are separated from God with a sequence of ten energy fields known as the sefirot. Each of the sefirah is distinguished from others with different teachings. Together they make up 'The Tree of Life'. As we ascend each sefirah, we grow in spiritual capacity, giving ability to capacitate light, we draw closer to the creator. Like any tree there is a source of goodness, however this is drawn from the crown being in regards light. Three columns - central, right and left make up the tree. These three columns represent three necessary energies for essential transformation. The right Column represents: benevolence, mercy and desire to give or share. The left power, judgement and desire to receive. Centrally we have the mediation of free will, enabling to meld and transform the desire to receive with purpose of sharing. - A study of 'The Essential Zohar'
INTERPRETATION
God abhors those who imposed the building of the wall - 'shoddy-wall-builders' and adores the diggers of the well. The transgression was made in forsaking the covenant and renewed by bloodshed; not until the completed time, there was a remnant for God's people. From that point there was a new covenant on a purification basis of waters and opposing those who impose the building of the wall. The covenant was sanctioned by an oath and a curse. The curse a smitten shepherd, scattered flock; the blessing a united assembly towards a Teacher of Righteousness. The three kinds of righteousness are of firstly the noblemen (in confirmation/rod/Abraham), then the teachers of the law (in digging/staff/Isaac) and lastly the Teacher of Righteousness & the law (well itself/goal/Jacob).
In parallel attributes these correspond to: column |*1 - Right/yang, column |*2 - left/yin and column |*3 - central in the tree of life. Where the well itself or mediation is represented by the Teacher of Righteousness/Chief Priest and the law in this sense.
Note: |*1, |*2, |*3 refers to corresponding source.
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