In addition, the Malkhut upon which the partition was placed for the fusion through collision is called mouth. This alludes to the fact that just as in a corporeal mouth the letters emerge by means of a fusion through collision of the five kinds of utterances of the mouth, so too there is a fusion through collision in the spiritual mouth through which the ten sefirot of the returning light emerge, which are the aforementioned five levels, Keter, Ḥokhma, Bina, Tiferet, and Malkhut.10Here, the author of the Sulam employs an analogy to explain why the Malkhut of the head of the partzuf is called the mouth.
The mouth of the body operates to convey the intangible world of a person’s thoughts into the more tangible form of audible words. Words are compiled out of combinations of letters, which serve as “vessels” to carry our thoughts into the world, where they can be received by others. Letters serve as containers, which are inherently limiting, hence why we often misunderstand each other in verbal communication.
Additionally, the formation of letters with our mouths involves the shaping of the sounds emanating from our throats through the impacting of the different parts of the mouth with each other. This is the meaning of the “fusion through collision” that we have in our mouths, analogous to the fusion through collision in the mouth of the partzuf. The fusion through collision in the mouth of the partzuf gives rise to the fully formed vessels of the body of the partzuf, which can then contain the supernal light.
It is this containment that allows the supernal light to be experienced by finite beings like us, just like the containment power of letters allows our own inner worlds to be experienced by those around us. These emerging sefirot of the returning light are the vessels of the ten sefirot of the direct light, and the vessels are therefore referred to as letters.11The five vessels of the sefirot are analogous to the five parts of the mouth used for verbal articulation.
They are the throat, palate, teeth, tongue, and lips. The flow of sound travels through these five “levels” and collides with them, forming the letters. This is the explanation of the ten sefirot of the head.