We shall only give one more passage bearing on the subject of the Trinity. [32] “He who reads the word (‏אחד‎) One [i.e., in the declaration of the divine unity ‏שמע‎] must pronounce the Aleph (‏א‎) quickly, shorten its sound a little, and not pause at all by this letter, and he who obeys this, his life will be lengthened. Whereupon they [i.e., the disciples] said to him [i.e., to R. Ilai], he [i.e., R. Simeon] has said, There are two, and one is connected with them, and they are three; but in being three they are one. He said to them, those two names, Jehovah Jehovah, are in the declaration ‘Hear O Israel’ (Deut. vi, 4), and Elohenu (‏אלהנו‎), between them, is united with them as the third, and this is the conclusion which is sealed with the impression of Truth (‏אמת‎). But when these three are combined into a unity, they are one in a single unity.” (Sohar, iii, 262 a.) Indeed one Codex of the Sohar had the following remark on the words “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. iv, 3); ‏קדוש זה אב קדוש זה בן קדוש זה רוח הקדש‎, the first holy refers to the Holy Father; the second to the Holy Son; and the third to the Holy Ghost. [33] This passage, however, is omitted from the present recensions of the Sohar. Some Jewish writers have felt these passages to be so favourable to the doctrine of the Trinity, that they insist upon their being interpolations into the Sohar, whilst others have tried to explain them as referring to the Sephiroth. [34] As to the atonement of the Messiah for the sins of the people, this is not only propounded in the Sohar, but is given as the explanation of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. [35] “When the righteous are visited with sufferings and afflictions to atone for the sins of the world, it is that they might atone for all the sins of this generation. How is this proved? By all the members of the body. When all members suffer, one member is afflicted in order that all may recover. And which of them? The arm. The arm is beaten, the blood is taken from it, and then the recovery of all the members of the body is secured. So it is with the children of the world: they are members one of another. When the Holy One; blessed be he, wishes the recovery of the world, he afflicts one righteous from their midst, and for his sake all are healed. How is this shown? It is written—‘He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, ... and with his stripes we are healed.’ (Isa. liii, 5.) ‘With his stripes,’ i.e., healed, as by the wound of bleeding an arm, and with this wound we are healed, i.e., it was a healing to each one of us as members of the body.” (Sohar, iii, 218 a.) To the same effect is the following passage. [36] “Those souls which tarry in the nether garden of Eden hover about the world, and when they see suffering or patient martyrs and those who suffer for the unity of God, they return and mention it to the Messiah. When they tell