Zohar on Tehillim 44 – Suffering
Tehillim 44:23
- "Ki alekha horagnu kol hayom, neḥshavnu k’tzon tivḥah" - (For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep for the slaughter).
Those who make no effort to study Torah must offer themselves as a sacrifice during prayer and are destined to suffer, as it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long..."
(Tikkunei Zohar 21, 59a)
Rabbi Shimon, son of Manumi, said that there is not a single righteous person among those who engage in Torah study who does not have two hundred coveted worlds on account of Torah, two hundred worlds that preserve its fruits, and two hundred worlds for offering themselves as a sacrifice, as though they were dying for the sanctity of the Almighty and His eternity. Their readiness to do so is counted as though they had died for Him, because it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long."
(Zohar I, 124b, "Midrash HaNe'elam")