ואלה המלכיםThe Kings Who Died

ve-eleh ha-melachimIn Gamatria ↗

Seven kings fell lower, none vanished; the eighth carried mercy.

The sages taught that the world was first created with judgment; God saw it could not endure and joined mercy to it. In Kabbalistic terms, the sefirot were first ordered under BAN, pure judgment, and such rule could not reach its goal: the breaking of the vessels, the world of Tohu, chaos, or Nekudim, points. The kings who 'reigned in Edom' (Genesis 36; red, the color of judgment) are these sefirot. Each 'died' except Hadar, Malkhut, where mercy entered — and with the Zohar, 'death' here is not annihilation but descent to a lower level.

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