Thus, when the supernal light is drawn down and expands toward the emanated being, this partition rebuffs the light backward, and there is a kind of collision between the supernal light and the partition. This collision gives rise to the returning light, which returns the light from below to above and enclothes the ten sefirot of the supernal light. That part of the light that is rebuffed upward is called the returning light.
When it enclothes the supernal light, it becomes a vessel that serves as a receptacle for the supernal light instead of the fourth level.14As explained above, the fourth level called Malkhut cannot receive the supernal light directly because they are opposites. The Malkhut has to be modified through the deployment of the partition, which represents Malkhut expressing its agency to choose not to receive the supernal light except on its own terms.
This rejection transforms the act of receiving the light into a gift itself, as in the analogy of a person giving his friend the opportunity to do him a favor. The first part of that transformation is when the supernal light is rebuffed, or sent back, which allows that returning light to act as a partial receiver instead of the fourth level of Malkhut. The mechanism of this rebuffing of the light and the way it is used to enclothe the supernal light is explained further in the next sections.
Subsequently the vessel of Malkhut expands commensurate with the amount of returning light that was rebuffed by the partition, which is the rebuffed light that ascended and enclothed the supernal light from below to above, which then expanded from above to below.15After the returning light bounces off the partition and is rebuffed backward, it serves as a vessel to enclothe the supernal light. This process is referred to as “enclothing from below to above,” since the returning light emerges from “below” at the level of the partition and travels upward.
The enclothing of the supernal light is actualized when the Malkhut expands to form complete vessels, and this expansion takes place “above to below” because the supernal light travels downward, so to speak, to be enclothed in the fully formed vessels. In this manner, the lights are enclothed in the vessels, meaning in that returning light.