This is the mystical meaning of head and body in each level,16The concepts of head and body are references to the formation of partzufim, which will be explained at length in the following sections. since the fusion through the collision of the supernal light against the partition gives rise to the returning light from below to above and enclothes the ten sefirot of the supernal light in the form of the ten sefirot of the head, which refers to the roots of the vessels, as there, in the head, there cannot yet be actual enclothing in order to form complete vessels.
Subsequently, when the Malkhut expands with the returning light from above to below, the returning light ceases to exist as light and now acts as vessels for the supernal light. Then the supernal light is enclothed in the vessels, and it is called the body of that level, meaning it becomes complete vessels.17When the returning light travels upward, it is described as being in its initial state of enclothing of the supernal light.
In this state, it serves as “roots” for the vessels that will be enclothing the supernal light in the next stage of the process that the author of the Sulam goes on to describe. Those roots are referred to as the “head” of that structure of sefirot. Once the Malkhut expands, and the returning light now serves as vessels, the supernal light is enclothed in this complete structure, which is referred to as the “body”; now the vessels are no longer roots but are fully formed.
When this happens, and the structure of sefirot are fully constructed, the returning light is said to cease, since it is now acting as vessels for the supernal light. The author of the Sulam will elaborate on these concepts extensively in the sections that follow.