Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah Reader

Thus MaH and BaN are both together lights that emerge from Adam Kadmon, and both include vessel and light, which derive respectively from the Residue and the Line. However, MaH is made to display the Line, while BaN is made to display the Residue. Therefore the different aspects of BaN – both its lights and vessels – are discussed in terms of the intrinsic nature of the Residue and undergo processes relating to its function.

All the components of MaH, on the other hand, are discussed in terms of the intrinsic nature of the Line, and undergo processes relating to its function. However within each of MaH and BaN we also differentiate between lights and vessels of their own (both have an aspect that is light and an aspect that is vessel), each in accordance with its intrinsic nature. For the light is always from the Line and the vessel from the Residue. However, the main thing is to understand things as they relate to one another.

The advantage of this pathway is that we need to arrive at man down below and all the material creations, which are merely an image of the entire governmental order. Their different individual parts and aspects are governed in accordance with what they signify in the governmental order, even though they are all in this lowly world. The Residue is the differentiation of the Line, because the powers that are all included in a single overall whole in the Line are differentiated into their particulars in the Residue in all its different parts, as explained in the appropriate place (see Opening 27 Part 3) in accordance with the mystery of soul and body.

Accordingly the Male channels MaH and the power of the overall form, while the Female channels BaN and the different aspects of the form in detail, for it is in the Female that this offspring takes form.

Part 2: Nevertheless, the Male also enters into the repair of the vessels that ascend through the Female: the Male repairs the right side of all the vessels and Partzufim, while the Female repairs their left side. This enables us to resolve a seeming contradiction in the teachings of the holy ARI of blessed memory. In one place we find that the Nukva elevates the selected parts of BaN while the Male brings down MaH (Mevo Shearim II, Part 3 ch. 4). Elsewhere, however, we find that Abba selects the right-hand parts of BaN and Imma the left, as stated in connection with the mystery of the three days of conception (Etz Chayim, Shaar Orot-Nitzotzot-Kelim ch. 1; see Ramchal, Klalut HaIlan HaKadosh 4:2).

The resolution of the apparent contradiction is as follows: The channeling of BaN is through the Nukva, but when it comes to the repair and selection of the parts that ascend, the Male also enters into this, for the Male repairs the right side while the Nukva repairs the left.

And afterwards the parts join up together... And the reason is in order to repair the Kindness-Judgment-Mercy they contain, which was not repaired at first and needs to be arranged in them through the respective roots involved – Kindness through Abba, Judgment through Imma, and Mercy through Understanding, which produces connection. This was not necessary in the case of MaH, which had already emerged from the roots in a proper state of repair arranged in the mystery of three columns.

...and thus MaH is joined together with every one of them, and the resulting offspring is complete. In other words, what Abba himself channeled (not in partnership with Imma, for MaH was already repaired) was already composed of all these aspects, and now that BaN was rectified, MaH could join with it in all these rectified aspects.

Male and Female before the Nekudim. The Balance as the root of Male and Female thereafter.

The aspect of Male and Female is also found above this, since the governmental order had already been founded on the mystery of Kindness and Judgment. The difference in the Nekudim was that initially they lacked the proper repair of the aspect of Male and Female on account of BaN’s having emerged on its own. Only afterwards was MaH put into them through the process of the repair. Accordingly, every root involving Male and Female from Atzilut and downwards depends upon the Balance, which is the mystery of the joining of MaH and BaN.

This resolves a difficulty arising out of our earlier discussion in Opening 63 implying that the aspect of Male and Female was a new innovation after the repair.

This proposition has two parts. Part 1: The aspect of Male and Female... This initial premise explains that the aspect of Male and Female does indeed exist higher up, prior to the Nekudim. Part 2: The difference... This explains a particular aspect of the Nekudim whereby the above-mentioned difficulty is resolved.

Part 1: The aspect of Male and Female is also found above this... (i.e. in the worlds of Adam Kadmon above the Nekudim.) This is obvious, because it is evident in the teachings of the ARI (Etz Chayim, Shaar Derushey HaNekudot ch. 2 p. 36b) that the coupling of AV and SaG (which are in the category of male and female) took place before the emergence of the Nekudim.

...since the governmental order had already been founded on the mystery of Kindness and Judgment. This proves and also provides a logical reason for the existence of coupling prior to the repair. For this entire concept derives from the fact that since each limb is a composite of Kindness and Judgment, it must have two generators, as discussed earlier. However this combination also existed in the supreme lights after the Tzimtzum took place, as soon as there was a Line and a Residue (which are in the categories of Kindness and Judgment respectively). If so, there must likewise be two generators (in the category of male and female).

...on account of BaN’s having emerged on its own. This is the particular reason applying specifically in the case of the Nekudim, in accordance with their intended purpose, as has already been explained. Only afterwards was MaH put into them through the process of the repair. The repair was a new state brought about in these worlds through the revelation of MaH.

Accordingly, every root involving Male and Female from Atzilut and downwards depends upon the Balance, which is the mystery of the joining of MaH and BaN. This is the sense in which we are saying that the aspect of Male and Female derives from the Balance. For the existence of Kindness and Judgment higher up did not cause the Nekudim to enter into the category of Male and Female owing to the difference in the case of the Nekudim, as explained above (that BaN emerged alone). It was only the Balance that introduced the aspect of Male and Female (since the Balance consists of the joining of MaH with BaN, which fixes the relative balance of the parts of MaH and those of BaN contained in each Partzuf), and accordingly we relate the aspect of Male and Female to the Balance. And obviously, since the aspect of Male and Female derives in this sense from the Balance, they are governed by the Balance throughout. For this reason we must recognize the Balance as the root of this aspect.

The repair of each aspect through the Male and Female comes about through the mystery of Coupling, Pregnancy and Birth. Through coupling, the respective parts of MaH and BaN are channeled until everything is placed in the Female. There in a single whole is found everything that needs to exist in the light in question so that there will be no need to add or subtract. Afterwards this overall whole must be differentiated into its detailed parts and the offspring is not revealed on its own until it is fully established in all its different parts as a complete revelation.

Until that time it is therefore concealed within the light upon which it depends in order to receive its completion from it. This is because the lights of the one (the offspring) can only be completed through the lights of the other (the Female in which it is formed). When it has reached the stage where all its details are visible except that each contains only the minimum possible degree of radiation, the offspring is then revealed on its own, since there is no further differentiation that the light can undergo and it can only gain added power and radiance (the mental powers that enter during the time of suckling). Its being revealed from the higher luminary to the outside is what is called birth.

Having explained the overall subject of the institution of Male and Female, we will now enter into the details.

This proposition consists of two parts. Part 1: The repair of each aspect... This introductory statement provides a general listing of the developmental stages instituted in the repair through Male and Female. Part 2: Through coupling, the respective... This explains these stages in detail.

Part 1: The repair of each aspect through Male and Female comes about through the mystery of Coupling, Pregnancy and Birth. For we already know that the entire repair is bound up with the underlying mystery of the Likeness of Man. Having reached this aspect of Male and Female, we may infer that all its various facets are governed in accordance with what this aspect involves here in the lower world – namely coupling, pregnancy and birth.

Afterwards this overall whole must be differentiated into its detailed parts... Clearly, this is always the way of gradation: first there is the overall whole, and afterwards this whole divides up into its constituent parts....and the embryo is not revealed on its own until it displays all its constituent parts fully revealed. Since we are following the path of gradation, the fact is that no light can carry out its functions until all its constituent parts are revealed in it. (The path of gradation requires first the overall whole – through coupling – and afterwards the details – which develop during the pregnancy.)

For all those parts are necessary in order to produce the required function. Thus as long as it has not reached this point, we cannot count it among the governing powers (i.e. as a Partzuf in itself).

Until that time it is therefore concealed within the light on which it depends... You have already heard how the Supreme Will wanted to reveal the powers by way of sequential development, showing how one emerges from another. Obviously there is no revelation of how the second emerges from the first until the first has truly produced it with its full array of powers. As long as the resultant light is not yet complete in this sense, it is merely concealed as an embryo within the power that produces it, until it gains sufficient power to reveal all of its own constituent parts.

It will then appear on the outside as a single, complete governmental power that develops out of the first power. That first power will then go on to clothe itself within the resultant power, in the same way as all the higher powers clothe themselves in lower powers and direct them. Initially, however, the lower power is merely concealed within the higher power and is not revealed to the outside at all.

...in order to be completed thereby. I.e. in order to emerge sequentially with all its parts fully revealed.

This is because the lights of the one (the offspring) can be completed only through the lights of the other (the Female in which it is formed). This is the principle of sequential development that I have discussed.

When it has reached the stage where all its details are visible... Two things must be understood about each level (i.e. each Partzuf): the number of details it includes, and the degree of power they have. The full tally of all the constituent details must be revealed (at the time of birth) because each detail is the root of one function or of some condition governing one function. However the degree of power merely governs whether the function itself is carried out with greater or lesser power (e.g. with mature or immature mental powers). Accordingly the revelation (i.e. differentiation) of all the details has to come before the resultant light is (actually) revealed to the outside at birth, in order that it should be complete in all its powers. For afterwards there will be no additional revelation of any further component power. There can only be an increase in the force exerted by the existing component powers themselves. Indeed, there are different periods of time according to the order of gradation. There is a time for the details to be revealed, and when this time comes to an end, no further details can be revealed. Later there comes a period when the power of those particulars that have already been revealed is increased.

...even though each contains only the minimum possible degree of radiation, the offspring is then revealed on its own... As already explained, there are different degrees of power, but as soon as the offspring reaches even the first degree, once all its detailed components are present, it is revealed on its own, for it is already a complete governmental law in itself, separate from the governmental law that brought it forth.

...since there is no further differentiation that the light can undergo and it can only gain added power... For if there were any details to add, they could not be added now (after birth), but additions of power and radiance are possible. This is because the difference between the powers from level to level (from Partzuf to Partzuf) depends on the intensity of the lights within each one. These have the power to expand or contract in accordance with the nature and dimensions of the different vessels. However, the number of specific powers depends on the parts of the vessels themselves. (After birth, the higher powers – the parent lights – cannot add any additional parts to the vessels of the resultant offspring, but they can expand those vessels depending on their quality.)

Everything that has to be joined in as a component in the resultant light so as to be fixed as a part of the governmental order is already joined from the outset, prior to its emergence from the place where it develops (concealed within the parent power) to the outside (as a Partzuf in its own right). For once it comes forth, its unique mode of government is known as soon as it emerges, and it descends under the upper branch (the parent power that produced it), and its mode of government is not susceptible to any change or increase in terms of its constituent parts. However the actual mode of government itself can “ascend” or “descend” depending on the higher lights that enter the Partzuf itself and give it new strength.

The folding of the legs of Arich Anpin was what first gave the broken vessels the power to ascend, making possible all their subsequent ascents. The truth is that the vessels were dependent upon these legs. At first they were sustained through them down below. Then, when the legs were folded up, this gave the vessels the power to return and go back up. It is in this sense that Arich Anpin (of the first Atzilut) is the root of everything. The legs were the part of Arich Anpin in which the vessels were rooted during the time of their descent. Then afterwards (as a result of the folding of the legs) they also became rooted in Chessed-Gevurah-Tiferet as the extent of their repair increased.

This proposition has three parts. Part 1: The folding of the legs of Arich Anpin… This explains the concept of the folding of the legs of Arich Anpin. Part 2: The truth is… How this folding causes what it causes to the vessels. Part 3: It is in this sense… This explains the reason why it was in Arich Anpin that this occurred.

NOTE 1The concept of the folding of the legs takes its meaning from the way the legs of the embryo in the womb are folded up to its chest. Kabbalistically, the legs of a Partzuf are Netzach-Hod-Yesod, while the arms and chest are Chessed-Gevurah-Tiferet. The proximity of the folded legs to the arms and chest signifies how the lower levels are elevated in order to receive power from the higher levels.NOTE 2 There is an apparent difficulty in this Opening since the folding of the legs of the Partzuf of Arich Anpin took place after the emergence of the Partzufim of Atik, Arich Anpin, Abba and Imma, as a preparation for the repair of the Partzuf of Zeir Anpin (see Etz Chayim, Shaar Zeir Anpin ch. 2). Here, however, the folding of the legs of Arich Anpin is explained as a general preparation for the repair of the vessels, out of which all the Partzufim were subsequently built, including that of Arich Anpin. The intent may be that there was already a similar folding of the legs in the overall Arich Anpin or Adam Kadmon in relation to the broken vessels, which were seven Nekudot or “points” in the relative category of Zeir Anpin. Thus in the present Opening, Arich Anpin may refer to Arich Anpin of the ten Nekudim – i.e. to their Keter, which was not broken. This is the source of the upper three Sefirot of the first Atzilut, which were not broken, and which rectify Atzilut-Beriyah-Yetzirah-Asiyah – including Arich Anpin, which is the Keter – of the second Atzilut.Part 1: The folding of the legs of Arich Anpin was what first gave the broken vessels the power to ascend... We see that this raising of the legs was necessary in order to lift up the vessels for the first time, and nothing further was required from Arich Anpin with respect to the vessels. It was to give the vessels the ability to ascend that this folding of the legs was necessary, and from then on, through the power gained thereby, they can rise to all the heights befitting them....making possible all their subsequent ascents. It was this action of folding the legs that initiated the ability of the vessels to ascend.

At first they were sustained through them down below. This is evident from the fact that with the ascent of the legs, the vessels also ascend. We thus infer that they had some dependency on those legs. We see that as long as the vessels needed to be kept below, the legs were down below and radiated to them, and when the vessels had to rise up, the legs of Arich Anpin were folded up. From this we can understand that the vessels are dependent on these legs, as stated above. When the vessels had to stay below, the legs were below and shined in them. And when the vessels had to ascend, the legs were folded and the vessels ascended after them.

The legs were the part of Arich Anpin in which the vessels were rooted during the time of their descent. There is nothing lower than the legs, and during the time of their descent, the vessels were rooted only in such a lowly part because of their own lowly status.

Then afterwards (as a result of the folding of the legs) they also became rooted in Chessed-Gevurah-Tiferet as the extent of their repair increased. This was what was gained from the folding of the legs – that the vessels also became rooted in Chessed-Gevurah-Tiferet of Arich Anpin, as explained in the writings of the ARI (Etz Chayim, Shaar Zeir Anpin ch. 2).

All parts of the creation and its laws serve the general repair

The parts that ascend and their various levels and ways of interconnecting are precisely what is necessary for the making of this world in the way it needed to be made, with just so many positive repairs and just so many deficiencies and laws as are necessary to bring the cycle of the governmental order to completion.

Having explained what was involved in the repair of the vessels that MaH sorted, selected and joined back to Himself and the ascents they make, we will now explain the law that underlies all of this, whereby all their detailed aspects must be understood.

There are two parts to this proposition: Part 1: The parts that ascend... This gives a general introduction to this matter. Part 2:...with just so many positive repairs... This explains the introduction.

Part 1: The parts that ascend... These are the purified portions selected for what is needed for the vessel of the Partzuf....and their various levels... These are the stages of the ascent. Thus at first the vessels ascended to the place of Netzach-Hod-Yesod of Atzilut, and afterwards go up to their place little by little. And every Partzuf that went down at first to the top of Beriyah ascends from there to Atzilut, with all the other things involved in this....and ways of interconnecting... i.e. such as MaH being in Atik in front while BaN is behind, whereas in Arich Anpin, MaH is right and BaN is left, and all the other things involved in this.

...are precisely what is necessary... For the Supreme Wisdom undoubtedly calculated exactly everything that was necessary, neither more nor less. For with just one degree higher or one degree lower, things would immediately be different. For example, if man were one level higher than his actual level, he would be like the angels, with no evil inclination, whereas if he were one level lower, he would be like an animal.

...for the making of this world in the way it needed to be made... In order that it should have the exact nature required in accordance with the ultimate purpose intended through it, namely to provide the possibility of free will and the return of evil to good.

Part 2:...with just so many positive repairs and just so many deficiencies... We have already explained above (Opening 50, Part 2) that the nature of the different creatures depends on degrees of closure and openness and making them as strong as necessary and as weak as necessary.

...and laws as are necessary... This is the mystery of the use of the repairs and deficiencies each in its necessary time and manner....to bring the cycle of the governmental order to completion. The overall calculation that includes all this is the complete cycle of the governmental order. For everything is calculated in a way that can, through this cycle, reach the overall end – which is perfect goodness.

Balance. Cooperation between all the lights brings the complete repair.

The foundation of the repair lies in a balance such that all the lights must carry out their repairs taking each other in account, with just so many kinds of openness and so many kinds of closure as will collectively produce a repaired government with all the great orders that enable it to bring about one cycle of the entire creation whereby everything will end up in a state of goodness and complete perfection.

Having explained what happened in order to join MaH and BaN and build the worlds from them, we will now give an overall explanation of the comprehensive order that repairs these worlds.

Part 2: …with just so many kinds of openness and so many kinds of closure... As already explained, it is the different kinds of openness and closure that affect and change the mode of government in order to strengthen things or weaken them as necessary.

…as will collectively produce a repaired government... This is obvious, because everything that exists in the lights produces an effect among the creations in the world. The purpose of all the individual details prepared in the lights is to produce all the required effects in the governmental order that runs those creations.

...with all the great orders that enable it... No mind can grasp the depth of the great governmental order that the Holy One blessed be He operates, which contains things that are seemingly so strange, and yet everything leads only to repair. And the entire order depends upon these laws in all their details (i.e. upon the Partzufim, which govern the worlds).

...to bring about one cycle of the entire creation... It has already been explained at length that the entire governmental order is only one cycle at the end of which lies the law of general perfection.

...whereby everything will end up in a state of goodness and complete perfection. At the end of everything there must be only good with no further evil in existence. The cycle will be completed in such a way that everything will be fixed for good, and there will be no further destruction. All the damage will have been repaired and from then on there will be only good.

Partzuf – a complete mode of government with 613 parts

A Partzuf is how a single light spreads and is revealed in all its particulars in one order in which certain parts remain interior while others are exterior, some are higher and others lower. All of them are bound together in one order so as to be joined to one another and governed by one overall governmental law, each in accordance with its own function. Altogether there are 613 parts, each of which is in turn built of a number of smaller parts as required for its complete perfection.

After the repair, the Sefirot were made into Partzufim, and this is what we will now discuss. The first thing that must be explained is the concept of a Partzuf.

This proposition consists of two parts. Part 1: A Partzuf... This explains under what conditions the term Partzuf is applied. Part 2: Altogether there are 613... This explains the lights that make up the Partzuf.

Part 1: A Partzuf is how a single light spreads and is revealed in all its particulars... The difference between a Sefirah and a Partzuf has already been explained above (Opening 17). Our purpose there was to explain the difference in the way they appear in the prophetic vision of the Chariot (i.e. to explain the place of each in the Chariot, which is a composite of all the modes of divine government). Now, however, it is necessary to discuss the concept of Partzuf in more detail in order to provide the necessary foundation to understand the governmental order later on. As stated above, a Partzuf is one of the powers (i.e. Sefirot) that becomes differentiated into its constituent parts and conditions in a revealed way.