The blaspheming son who tries to penetrate the heavens ......

This blog post is based upon my understanding of a source text from the teaching of the Arizal, quoted in English in the book " Apples from the Orchard" (Translation and commentary by Rabbi Moshe Wisnefsky).  I understand my comprehension is rudimentary but on the level that I understand, I would love to share....

The Zohar tells us that Cayin (Cain) who killed Hevel( Abel) did so because he was jealous....not about the fact that Hevel's sacrifice to G-d was preferred, but that G-d had given Hevel two twin sisters to marry, whereas he, Cayin only had one wife/sister to marry.... as these were the first people in existence,  populating the world was a higher value than avoiding incest.

This story is significant now because in this weeks Torah reading we read about a man who blasphemes G-d after a quarrel with another man.. ( after taking their quarrel to be judged by Moshe and finding  out that his opponent is in fact correct) ...but the Torah does not go into too many details  about what the quarrel was about. The commentator Rashi tells us that the quarrel was over where the man, who had a Jewish mother and a non Jewish father ( these details are explicit in the Torah verses) could pitch his tent...the man argued that his lineage in terms of his mother was perfect for him to camp in that spot... but he was informed that the real estate was awarded based on who the father was....

What could this story have to do with the story of Cayin and Hevel??

In order to answer this question we need to look at one more story...something that happened when the Jewish people were still in Egypt. One night , the husband of a Jewish woman was called out to do a night shift... while he was out of the house, his Egyption foreman who had ordered him  to go work, slipped into his place.... into his bed, and had relations with his  unsuspecting sleepy wife whose name was Shelomit bas Divri...( which is a hint that she said "Shalom" to too many people and had spoken...(Diber= speech) too much, her name could thus mean "talkative daughter")  ... that is why she had drawn the attention of the foreman in the first place..) When the Jewish man returned home, he found the Egyption , discovered what had happened and the two men got into a deadly battle...this is the battle that Moshe happened to observe, and using the Divine name of G-d he killed the  Egyption.

Here is the juicy part:
According to the Zohar (Kabalistic text) Moshe was a reincarnation of Hevel, The Egyption foreman was a reincarnation of Cayin ( the evil of Cayin was transferred to him) and Shelomit bas Divri was a reincarnation of the second wife of Hevel, over whom Cayin was so jealous. That is why the Egyption desired her so much!When Moses kills the Egyption its a correction , or an avenging of Cayin killing Hevel!

The Zohar tells us that the Jewish man who discovered his wife with the Egyption took a second wife...
all of this is relevant because in our parsha this week the argument that takes place is between the son of Shelomit bat Divri and the Egyption and the son of the second wife the Jewish husband took !

When the son of Shelomit bas Divri blasphemed Hashem, the Zohar tells us his intentions were to exonerate his mother! What does this mean? The Hebrew word for the blasphemy is "Vayikov", this word also means to bore.. like "he bored a hole in the door"... The Zohar tells us that  when his father was killed by Moshe, it was a rectification for the slaying of Hevel... a cosmic fixing releasing great spiritual energy and potential...and as Moshe used the Divine name in this act, the son acquires a unique spiritual power connected to the Divine name.. and in this instance tried to use it.. to  "bore a hole in the name of G-d" so to speak , or  as the Zohar explains, to penetrate through the levels of holiness in the worlds, to reach a place where the distinctions between good and bad are transcended and bring that  undifferentiated energy down into this world.... which is supposed to be a world of distinction and judgement...and somehow flood this world with that divine energy that does not recognize the distinction between right and wrong, between different tribes,( and their respective rights to different parts of land..)  and thus with the illumination of the higher worlds flowing down through this "punctured hole" the scourge  of the immodesty of Shlomit bas Divris would be neutralized! Then he, being the son of that union also would not need to continue to pay the price for that unfortunate happening.... The verse says.."The son of the Yisraelite woman cursed(blasphemed).." but it also could be read " he bore into the Divine Name...."

But we cannot sugarcoat evil.. some things are just bad and wrong, and some things are evil... we may like to turn the world upside down to make something that really was a mistake seem like its ok... but sometimes, wrong is wrong, bad is bad and the judgement just needs to prevail!