However, together with this fusion, the remnants of the opacity of the body, which were within the partition of the body at the outset, are manifest anew within the partition of the body.56The author of the Sulam is clarifying here that this partition is slightly different from the original partition of the Malkhut of the head because it contains a different measure of opacity than that of the original partition.
Since the surrounding light degraded some of the original measure of opacity in the process that led the partition of the body to merge with the head, this partition lacks the opacity of the fourth level, but retains only that of the third level and above. As a result, this partition gives rise to a different structure of returning light, purified of the opacity of the lowest, or fourth, level. Accordingly, it cannot contain the highest light in its vessels, since it lacks the lowest vessel.
The head of this new partzuf, then, is only as high as the bottom of the head of the previous partzuf, as the author will explain. The difference in form between the partition of the body that was purified and then unified with the partition of the head and the partition of the head is then discernible once again within the partition of the body to some extent. This detectable difference of form between the two partitions separates the partition of the body and expels it from the mouth of the head of the upper partzuf.57The upper partzuf here refers to the complete structure of head and body with their respective partitions discussed in the previous sections.
This process of unification of the partition of the body of the upper partzuf with that of the head of the upper partzuf leads to a new fusion through collision, since the partition of the body is now a fusing Malkhut instead of an terminating Malkhut. The surrounding light then beats against this partition and creates a fusion through that collision. This fusion leads to a new returning light arising as a result of that fusion that can serve as vessels for the surrounding light that was beating against the partition, creating a new head that will then expand into a complete body.
However, this entire emergent structure of head and body rises only as high as the headof the previous partzuf since that is where the partition was operating. As a result, the head of the new partzuf is only as high as the bottom of the head of the previous partzuf. Once the original source of the partition of the body is again discernible, from the mouth of the upper partzuf and below, the partition of the body can no longer remain above the mouth of the upper partzuf, unified with the partition of the head, since the difference in form separates spiritual entities from one another.
Instead of remaining on the level of the head of the upper partzuf, it must descend from there to the place that is from the mouth of the upper partzuf and below. Consequently, it is necessarily categorized as a second body in relation to the upper partzuf,58This answers the author of the Sulam’s first question (see section #38#): Why is this structure is viewed as a separate partzuf? This difference in the height of the structure, resulting from the returning light being unable to enclothe the same amount of vessels as it did in the first partzuf, means that the upper partzuf and this partzuf are different and therefore exist as spiritually different entities. as even the head of the new emergent structure is categorized relative to the upper partzuf as merely its body, since it is drawn from the partition of the body of the upper partzuf.
Therefore, this difference in form divides them into two separate bodies. Since this new structure is entirely an offshoot of the partition of the body of the previous upper partzuf, it is categorized as a son in relation to it and like a branch that extends from it.59This point answers the author of the Sulam’s second question (see section #38#) as to why this second partzuf is viewed as the “offspring” of the upper partzuf.