THE WELL AND THE TREE OF LIFE

Three Kinds of Righteousness & Three Nets ".... 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

The Digging of 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 |*1 vow and curse, and from the |*2 wealth of the sanctuary, and rob the poor of his people (so that) widows be their prey, and they |*3 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

The Ten Sefirot , Three Columns & 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 - Parallel Attributes / Similarities The three kinds of righteousness are of firstly the noblemen (in confirmation/rod), then the teachers of the law (in digging/staff) and lastly the lawgiver and the law (goal/well itself). These correspond to: column |*1 - right/Yang attributes, column |*2 - left/Yin attributes and column |*3 - central in the tree of life. Where the well itself is the law and mediation is represented by the Teacher of Righteousness/Chief Priest in this sense. Note: |*1, |*2, |*3 refers to corresponding righteousness derived of each form of righteousness.

NOTE: In the digging of the well the source of 'light' is metaphorically the waters of life.