tzedek tzedek — the two tzedeks

Derash on the doubled word of Deuteronomy 16:20 (‘justice, justice you shall pursue’): the repetition is read as two distinct grades. The first is ‘tzedek proper’ and is identified outright with the Shekhinah (Isaiah 1:21, ‘tzedek lodges in her’) — Tzedek being a standard name of the indwelling presence (later Malkhut). The second is ‘the tzedek that terrifies the righteous,’ the stern, judging face. Sod: the Shekhinah bears both a merciful and a severe aspect, and the doubled word encodes the pair. The prooftext ‘from the brightness before Him’ (Psalm 18:13) anchors the reading in the imagery of the nogah (brightness). Scholem, Gershom 1987

tzedek is not tzedakah

A prooftext chain distinguishing tzedek from tzedakah (righteous-giving): tzedakah is worn ‘as a breastplate’ while tzedek is ‘a helmet of salvation on the head’ (Isaiah 59:17); ‘the head’ is truth (Psalm 119:160, ‘the head of Your word is truth’); and truth is peace (Isaiah 39:8). The equation head = truth = peace lifts tzedek above tzedakah — the stern grade is not the same as charitable giving.

Hezekiah and the measure of David

Hezekiah’s saying (2 Kings 20:19 / Isaiah 39:8, ‘peace and truth in my days’) is read so that ‘the measure (middah) You gave to David my father’ is half his days and ‘peace and truth’ the other half — ‘and all is one.’ The middah of David is the Kabbalistic grade of David (the Shekhinah / kingship), and ‘one day’ (Genesis 1:5) is glossed as peace. It closes with David’s throne ‘like the sun before Me’ (Psalm 89:37). Derash woven from prooftexts; the sod is the Shekhinah-Tzedek-David’s-measure identification.

shekhinah

Selected sense: divine-presence

Active senses: divine-presence, the-indwelling, malkhut, the-feminine-aspect

Rationale: The first of the two tzedeks is identified in the body with the Shekhinah (שכינה): ‘the first tzedek is tzedek proper, and she is the Shekhinah’ (Isaiah 1:21). Kept transliterated in the body, since the technical grade is what the passage defines. The Shekhinah’s name Tzedek and her twofold (merciful/severe) face are the sod here.

Lexicon: lexicon/shekhinah

tzaddik

Selected sense: righteous-one

Active senses: righteous-one, righteous-master, Yesod

Rationale: In ‘the tzedek that terrifies the righteous (הצדיקים)’ the plural refers to the HUMAN righteous who fear the stern/judging tzedek — NOT the sefirah Yesod (the singular tzaddik-configuration). Rendered ‘the righteous’ accordingly; the sefirotic homonym is excluded here.

Lexicon: lexicon/tzaddik

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