זוהר, תוספות כרך א ט״וZohar, Addenda, Volume I 15

Segment 1א׳

חֲמִשִׁים הֵם כְּנֶגֶד חֲמִשִׁים שַׁעֲרֵי בִּינָה וְהֵם רְאוּיִים לְהַצִּיל כָּל הָעוֹלָם בְּצִּדְקַתָם וַיְיָ הוֹדָה לִדְבַרֶיהָ וּכְשְׁרָאַתָה שֶׁלֹּא מָצְּאָה אָמְרָה (בראשית י״ח:כ״ח) אוּלַי יַחְסְרוּן חֲמִשִׁים הַצַּדִּיקִים חֲמִשָׁה, כְּלוֹמַר אוּלַי יֵשׁ בָּהֶם בְּנֵי אָדָם שְׁעַסְקוּ בִּיְדִיעַת שִׁמְךָ שֶׁהוּא הַשֵׁם בִּמְלוֹאוֹ שֶׁהוּא מָ"ה יוֹ"ד הֵ"א וא"ו הֵ"א כְּמִסְפָר אָדָם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים י׳:י״ב) וְעַתָּה יִשְׂרָאֵל מָה יְיָ אֱלהֶיךָ שׁוֹאֵל, וּכְשְׁלֹא מָצְּאָה חוֹזֶרֶת לוֹמַר, אוּלַי יִמָצְּאוּן שָׁם אַרְבָּעִים (ככתוב בדפוס)

The fifty are against the fifty gates of binah, and they are fit to save the whole world by their righteousness; and the Lord assented to her words. And when she saw that she had not found them, she said, “Perhaps there shall lack five of the fifty righteous” (Gen. 18, 28) — that is to say, perhaps there are among them men who have laboured in the knowledge of Your name, which is the Name in its filling, which is mah: Yod-Vau-Daleth, He-Aleph, Vau-Aleph-Vau, He-Aleph, the numerical equivalent of Adam; as it is said, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you” (Deut. 10, 12). And when she did not find them, she returns to say, “Perhaps there shall be found forty there” (as it is written in the printed edition)