The next aspect of Zeir Anpin to be understood is the aspect of Yosef (Yesod). As is known, Yosef is called Yosef HaTzaddik (Joseph the Righteous). Likewise, the sefirah of Yesod is called Tzaddik (Righteous) as in the verse, “Tzaddik Yesod Olam” – “The Righteous is the foundation of the world”.
Psalms, states, “Hashem, yoursis the greatness (Chesed), the might (Gevurah), the beauty (Tiferet), the conquest (Netzach), the majesty (Hod), for all (Yesod) is in the heavens and the earth. To you Hashem is the kingship (Malchut) etc.” Now, in the Aramaic translation of Onkolos the verse, “All is in the heavens and the earth” is translated as, “He unites the heavens and the earth”. From this it is understood that the function of Yesod is to unite the heavens and the earth. This is similar to the connection between teacher and student etc. Because of this, Yesod is also called “Good” (Tov), because it is the nature of the good to bestow goodness upon others.
The aspect of Yesod is the capability of uniting the giver with the recipient by bringing the influence out from the giver to the recipient. A teacher who himself understands a deep concept, but is incapable of tailoring it to the capacity of his students with explanations and examples which they can understand, has clearly not reached the aspect of Yesod. In contrast, one who possesses the ability to bring out even the loftiest concept in a manner that the student understands is called Yesod for he is uniting the “heavens” and the “earth”- the giver and the recipient, so to speak.
Now, all the influence from Yaakov (The emotions), gathers in Yesod before it actually comes out into revelation. This is the meaning of the verse, “These are the offspring of Yaakov, Yosef ect.” This means that all the influence of the emotions first gathers in Yesod, which is the ability to bring the influence out into revelation.
Furthermore, this ability of Yesod, to bring the influence down according to the recipients, is specifically because it is rooted even higher than the intellect and influence itself. This is because it is specifically one who understands a concept at its very essence and source, who is capable of bringing it down to the comprehension of a child. One who does not understand the concept at its essence and source will have difficulty understanding it himself, let alone explaining it to someone else. He will certainly be incapable of bringing it down so that a child could understand it.
(In the Torah Yosef is also known as “The Interpreter of Dreams”. This will be explained later.)
