Subsequently, the same fusion through collision was repeated on the partition that was placed on the vessel of Malkhut that now has only up to the opacity (ovyut) of the third level.40The opacity of the fourth level was already purified, or removed, in the first fusion described in the previous section, in which the first partzuf emerged. The author of the Sulam explains the mechanism of this purification in the sections that follow.
Accordingly, only the structural height of Ḥokhma, both head and body, emerge from it. On account of the lack of the opacity of the fourth level in the partition, it contains only the opacity of four vessels: Keter, Ḥokhma, Bina, and Tiferet. Consequently, there is only the capacity in the returning light to clothe four lights alone, which are ḥaya, neshama, ruaḥ, and nefesh, and the light of yeḥida is missing.
This partzuf is called “Ab (or ayin-bet) of Adam Kadmon.”41As the author of the Sulam explained above, the vessels always emerge from highest (Keter) to lowest (Malkhut). Since the returning light is now formed from a partition that is lacking some opacity, that of the level of Malkhut, it cannot form the vessel of Malkhut. As a result, it only forms the vessels of Keter, Hokhma, Bina, and Tiferet.
By contrast, when the different levels of the supernal light emerge to be contained in vessels, it is the lowest levels that emerge first: nefesh, then ruah, and so on. When the vessel of Malkhut is missing because the partition has been purified of the fourth level of opacity, the highest light of yeḥida cannot be received in the vessels. Therefore, the light of nefesh is contained in Tiferet, ruaḥ in Bina, neshama in Ḥokhma, and ḥaya in Keter.
The structure that emerges, which is missing the vessel of Malkhut and the light of yeḥida, is the partzuf of Ab. This pattern continues with the successive purification of each level of the partition.