In other words, the purpose of those lights (i.e. of Nekudim) was to bring forth evil, for the concealment had already reached the level from which it was possible for evil to emerge. The intention here was not that the lights of the Likeness of Man should produce evil. On the contrary, the whole intention was that they should be purified and rectified, as will be discussed in due course. It was then that what stood ready to produce evil became separated from the essential body of the Likeness of Man, which stood ready to arrange things in the the proper way.
It was then that He brought forth and separated this function (evil) from the Likeness of Man, and it came forth and was seen in itself, these being the “sparks” that “flashed… and were then immediately extinguished”. Thus they performed their allotted task. For initially they emerged with a flash, as if they too had control, and indeed it was from their rule that evil emerged. Had they had no place or function at all in the governmental order, they would not have amounted to anything.
Rather, they flashed and appeared and ruled... and because of the evil, they were destroyed. This is the function of the Other Side: to cause destruction to this root. The Zohar accordingly states (loc. cit.) that “the Mind scattered sparks on three hundred and twenty sides”, these being the entirety of all these kings (the shattered vessels).