Daily Zohar # 5104 – Vayikra – Moses’s blessing to Yosef

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Hebrew translation:

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Zohar Vayikra
Continued from previous DZ
#218
Rabbi Yitzchak said: It is written, ‘בְּכוֹר שׁוֹרוֹ הָדָר לוֹ’ “His firstborn bull — majesty is his, etc. (Deuteronomy 33:17). Yosef — because he guarded this covenant (the sign of the brit), he merited the bull (שׁוֹר), which is the first among the sacrifices.
Rabbi Yehuda said to him: If so, why was he blessed with something that is the left side — which indicates judgment — when he should have been blessed with the right? For behold it is written, “וּפְנֵי שׁוֹר מֵהַשְּׂמֹאל” “and the face of an ox from the left” (Ezekiel 1:10). He said to him: In order that it might protect against the sin of Yerovam. For the sin of Jeroboam was that he strengthened the left over the right in his idolatry.
Notes:
Moshe’s blessing to Yosef is considered a reward for guarding the brit milah (the holy covenant). The bull symbolizes the first sacrifice, linked to Yosef’s merit. Rabbi Yehuda questions why this blessing is associated with the left side (Gevurah/din, as in “the face of an ox from the left” in Ezekiel’s chariot vision), which seems to indicate judgment rather than mercy (right/Chesed). Rabbi Yitzchak explains that the left-side bull was granted to Yosef specifically to counter and protect against the sin of Yerovam ben Nevat, who empowered the left (severity and idolatry) over the right in his establishment of the golden calves, thereby tipping the balance toward din. The blessing thus serves as a rectification and shield against that historical spiritual imbalance.
#219
He said to him: I have learned a secret in this verse. Since Yosef guarded this brit, and this brit is grasped in two levels — which are Yessod and Malchut — both of which are called “brit,” and these two upper levels are called by names. And we have learned in Parashat Parah (Red Heifer), which is Malchut, is one level of these two upper levels in the brit. And the zivug of the parah is called “שׁוֹר” (bull). That is to say: since Malchut of the brit is called parah, Yessod — which is connected with her — is called shor.
And this is what is written: “בְּכוֹר שׁוֹרוֹ הָדָר לוֹ וְקַרְנֵי רְאֵם קַרְנָיו” “His firstborn bull — majesty is his, and his horns are the horns of the wild ox” (Deuteronomy 33:17). “Majesty is his” — certainly, for from the illumination of the left, which is called shor, beauty and majesty are drawn. And this is not a simple bull like the bulls of the world, but “and his horns are the horns of the wild ox” — his horn is supernal above all others. And therefore “with them he shall gore the peoples together to the ends of the earth.”
Notes:
The kabbalistic depth of Moshe’s blessing to Yosef (“בְּכוֹר שׁוֹרוֹ הָדָר לוֹ וְקַרְנֵי רְאֵם קַרְנָיו,” Deuteronomy 33:17): Yosef merited the “bull” (shor) as reward for guarding the brit milah. The brit encompasses two levels — Yessod (shor/male) and Malchut (parah/female) — united in zivug. The left-side illumination (Gevurah/Chokhmah from the left of Zeir Anpin, “face of an ox”) provides the “majesty” (beauty drawn through pri’ah in circumcision). Still, Yossef’s horns (illuminations) are supernal and upward-drawing, elevating rather than descending into klipot (as in Yerovam’s sin of strengthening the left). This protects against the imbalance of din and idolatry, transforming left-side power into holy elevation and rectification.

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