In order to save the created beings from the enormity of this distant separation, the mystical first constriction (tzimtzum) was implemented, separating the aforementioned fourth level from all the holy partzufim in such a manner that the ultimate capacity for receiving was left as an empty space, devoid of any light.13The constriction referred to here, and upon which the author of Sulam will go on to elaborate at length, is the formation of a partition that separates the fourth and last level called Malkhut from the supernal light.
This partition prevents the supernal light from entering the final receiving vessel of Malkhut, leaving that level “devoid of any light.” This is meant to “save the created beings from the enormity of this distant separation” because by using the partition to refuse entry to the supernal light, the vessel of Malkhut creates a situation in which the ultimate receiving of the supernal light is actually an act of giving.
As the author will go on to explain, this is like a person giving his friend the opportunity to do him a favor. Once the vessel of Malkhut achieves this, it is not as “enormously separated” from the Emanator, as it now also has the quality of giving, forming a connection to the Emanator through their shared trait of giving, a connection that the author of the Sulam refers to as an “equating of form.”
For all the holy partzufim emerged with a partition placed upon their respective vessels of Malkhut so that they would not receive light in their fourth level.