Emunah makes a person truly free

עוד בזוה"ק מאן דאפיק גרמי' מצלא דמהמנותא אתחזי למיהוי עבד לעבדי עבדים דכתיב וישב ממנו שבי ע"ש.

Further, in the Zohar HaKadosh: whoever removes himself from the shade of emunah (faith) is fit to become a slave to the slaves of slaves, as it is written "and he took captives from him"; see there.

The Zohar warns that a person who steps out from under the protective "shade" of emunah — the sheltering canopy of the sukkah, which represents faith — forfeits his freedom and is liable to fall into the lowest servitude.

דכ' ארור כנען עבד עבדים יהי' כו'.

For it is written: "Cursed is Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be."

The archetype of this curse is Canaan, condemned to be the lowest of slaves — the very opposite of one who dwells in the shade of emunah.

הרי שעיקר הקללה העבד.

We see, then, that the essence of the curse is slavery.

The deepest curse a person can fall under is this loss of freedom — to become a slave, cut off from his own root.

כי שורש הברכה להיות דבוק בשורשו ואז עושה פירות ותולדות.

For the root of blessing is to be bound (davuk) to one's source, and then one produces fruits and offspring.

Berachah means being connected to your root; only from that connection can a person bear lasting fruit and leave true offspring.

והוא ענין ברכת השבת ויברך את יום השביעי במה שמתעלה בשבת הכל אל השורש.

And this is the matter of the berachah of Shabbos — "and He blessed the seventh day" — in that on Shabbos everything is elevated to its root.

The blessing of Shabbos works precisely this way: on Shabbos all of creation is lifted back up to its source, which is exactly what berachah is.

והעבד היפוך זה דלית בי' מהימנותא ואין לו יחוס ואין הבנים נמשכים אחריו כי כל מעשיו במקרה.

And the slave is the opposite of this, for there is no emunah in him, he has no lineage (yichus), and children are not attributed to him after him — for all his deeds are by chance (mikreh).

The slave embodies the reverse of blessing: lacking faith, he is severed from his root, has no real yichus, and his children do not carry forward his line — because his life is governed by randomness rather than rooted purpose.

ואהרן כ"ג כתיב בי' ותקעתיו יתד במקום נאמן.

And concerning Aharon the Kohen Gadol it is written: "and I will drive him in like a peg in a faithful place (makom ne'eman)."

Aharon is the antithesis of the slave — firmly fixed like a tent-peg in a trustworthy place, utterly stable because he is rooted in faithfulness.

והוא ראש כל העשרה יוחסין שזה עיקר היחוס כשדבק בשורשו.

And he is the head of all the ten lineages (yuchsin), for this is the essence of yichus — when one is bound to his root.

True yichus is not mere ancestry but rootedness in one's source; Aharon, foremost of the ten genealogical ranks, exemplifies this connectedness.

ולכן זכה אהרן לכל תולדותיו אחריו.

Therefore Aharon merited all his offspring after him.

Because he was so firmly bound to his root, his descendants — the kohanim — continued faithfully in his line for all generations.

והברכות נמסרו בידו לפי שהי' נאמן ודבוק בשורשו העליון.

And the blessings were given over into his hand because he was faithful (ne'eman) and bound to his supernal root.

It was precisely Aharon's faithfulness and attachment to his higher source that made him the channel through which the priestly blessings flow.

ולכן מאן דאפיק גרמי' מצלא דמהמנותא אתחזי למהוי עבד.

Therefore, whoever removes himself from the shade of emunah is fit to become a slave.

The Zohar's warning is now clear: severing oneself from faith means severing oneself from one's root, which is the very definition of slavery.

ולהיפוך ע"י אמונה נקרא בן חורין:

And conversely, through emunah one is called a free man (ben chorin).

Faith is what makes a person truly free: staying bound to one's source under the shade of emunah is the opposite of slavery — it is genuine freedom.

Summary: The essence of the curse is slavery, which stems from leaving the "shade of emunah" and being cut off from one's root, where all deeds become mere chance. Blessing, by contrast, is being bound to one's source — the work of Shabbos which raises everything back to its root. Aharon, fixed like a peg in a faithful place and foremost of the lineages, shows that true yichus and the power to bless come from faithful attachment to one's supernal root; through emunah a person becomes a ben chorin, truly free.