Zohar on Tehillim 65 – Atonement for Sins
Zohar on Tehillim 65 – Atonement for Sins
Rabbi Chiya says: It is written in Tehillim (65:4):
“Iniquities have prevailed over me, our transgressions atone for”.
From a grammatical standpoint, this phrase is incorrect: the end of the sentence does not agree with its beginning. At first, the singular is used – “iniquities have prevailed over me” (gavru meni). Then it continues in the plural – “our transgressions atone for”.
Why is the sentence formulated this way?
David first asks on behalf of himself, and then on behalf of everyone. At first he speaks about himself, saying that the iniquities have prevailed over him, and then he adds: I know that I have sinned, but there are sinners whose sins are even greater than mine. If so, I am afraid and ask on my own behalf, but I also ask that G-d atone for our transgressions—the transgressions of everyone.
The Zohar says: Look—when there are many sinners in the world, their sins rise to the place where the books for sinners are revealed.
As it is written: there are judgments, and the books are open. The Book, one of the names of the sefirah of Malchut, is filled with judgments, which causes a defect to form within it.
However, what does a defect or damage in the sefirah of Malchut mean?
Sinners cause this damage by bringing about separation between the sefirah of Malchut and Zeir Anpin. Seeking to receive not in order to give, but for themselves, they cause the left and right lines to separate: the desire to receive becomes detached from the desire to give.
David feared that his sins might cause such harm to the sefirah of Malchut, and he asked for atonement for everyone. Therefore, he said that the iniquities had prevailed over him, and asked for atonement both for himself and for the other sinners.
The author’s explanation.
These words reveal David’s humility. The Zohar says that David was a completely righteous man; he never sinned, and anyone who thinks that David was a sinner knows nothing. Everything he did, he did not for himself, but for the sake of G-d.
What appear to us to be his sins were in fact the fulfillment of G-d’s will. At David’s level, a sin consists of things that are altogether impossible for an ordinary person—for example, insufficient foresight, as in the episode of Bat-Sheva. Nevertheless, he asks for atonement first and foremost for himself, and then also for others.
Similarly, Jacob feared that he might sin, since there are many sinners in the world, and this would cause damage to the sefirah of Malchut. For this reason, he was not certain that G-d’s promise to him that he would return home in peace would be fulfilled. And do not think, G-d forbid, that he lacked sufficient faith in G-d or in His promises.
Of course he believed. However, he was not certain of himself; he feared that he might sin, and that his sins, together with the sins of the world, would cause him not to return home in peace—that the Shechinah would depart from him. He was not overconfident; he asked that G-d be with him, that His mercy, rachamim, be stronger than judgment, and that he always be able to serve the Creator.
(“Zohar Chok LeYisrael”, Zohar on Vayetzei, Baal HaSulam, translated by Rabbi Tzvi Nisanzon)
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