After that comes the fourth level. At the end of the third level, the vessel was also awakened to draw the full measure of the light of wisdom, as in the first level. This awakening constitutes a state of yearning that is similar to the will to receive that was present in the first level and in a way exceeds it, for at this point the will to receive has already been separated from that light because in this level the light of wisdom is no longer enclothed in the vessel of the will to receive, but rather the vessel yearns for it, to receive the light of wisdom.
Thus, the form of the will to receive has been fully established, since the vessel is completed after the expansion of the light and its subsequent removal from the vessel, as stated above. When the materialized vessel subsequently returns to receive the light once again, the vessel will precede the light.9At this stage of the process, the vessel yearns to receive the light of wisdom. This yearning is what constitutes the completed vessel since the loss of the light of wisdom is what drives the vessel to yearn for it.
The idea that the vessel now “precedes” the light refers to the fact that in this context the vessel is present yet, lacking light, yearns for it, so the vessel is said to be first in that it is present but the light is not. By contrast, in the first level the vessel and the light were both present, with the vessel subsumed within the light. Therefore, this fourth level constitutes the completion of the vessel, which is called Malkhut.