Since these three principles are very fundamental, if the reader does not know how to be careful with them, but takes the ideas beyond their proper principles, he will immediately become confused. I have therefore found it necessary to go to the trouble of elaborating on the meaning of these three principles as much as I can, in such a way that they will be comprehensible to everyone.
As you already know, there are ten sefirot, which are called Ḥokhma, Bina, Tiferet, and Malkhut, and their root, which is called Keter (they are ten because the sefira of Tiferet itself incorporates six sefirot: Ḥesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzaḥ, Hod, and Yesod; keep this in mind whenever we state the standard formula “ten sefirot that are Ḥokhma, Bina, Tiferet, and Malkhut”). Generally, they include all four worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Asiya, as the world of Atzilut is the sefira of Ḥokhma, the world of Beria is the sefira of Bina, the world of Yetzira is the sefira of Tiferet, and the world of Asiya is the sefira of Malkhut.3According to the Zohar, all of reality is formed from the basic ingredients known as the sefirot. These ingredients operate at macro and micro levels of reality. The four (and the first, higher world of Adam Kadmon not mentioned here, for a total of five) worlds referenced here represent the macrostructures of existence, each correlating to one of the five main sefirot. Additionally, every individual sefira is formed of the same five (or ten) sefirot, ad infinitum. In particular, not only does each and every world contain the ten sefirot: Ḥokhma, Bina, Tiferet, and Malkhut, but even the smallest detail in each world also contains the ten sefirot: Ḥokhma, Bina, Tiferet, and Malkhut, as I wrote earlier (in my Introduction to the Book of the Zohar,4Hakdama LeSefer HaZohar. This refers to the author’s own introduction to the Zohar, not the first volume of the Zohar entitled “Introduction to the Zohar” (Hakdamat Sefer HaZohar). 43, 50, and 56. Consequently, no explanation will be given here).