Petichah LeChokhmat HaKabbalah Reader

The Talmud states:1Makkot 23b. “Rabbi Ḥananya ben Akashya says: The Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to confer merit upon the Jewish people. Therefore, He increased for them Torah and commandments, as the verse states, ‘It pleased the Lord for the sake of His righteousness to make the Torah great and glorious.’”2Isaiah 42:21. It is known that the word for merit, zekhut, connotes hizdakekhut, purification, and this aligns with the Sages’ statement that the commandments of the Torah were given only in order to refine the Jewish people through them.3Bereshit Rabba 44:1. This purification that we attain by means of the Torah and commandments needs to be understood. What opacity (ovyut) is there in us that we must purify it through the Torah and commandments?

I have addressed this topic in my books Panim Masbirot and Talmud Eser HaSefirot. I will review the ideas here in brief.

The Creator’s initial intent for the Creation was to bestow benefit on the created beings commensurate with His generosity, may He be blessed and exalted. Therefore, souls were imprinted with the great will and desire to receive His shefa (divine bounty). The will to receive is the vessel that contains the measure of pleasure that is in the shefa, because the measure of greatness and strength of the will to receive the shefa is commensurate with the measure of pleasure and delight in the shefa, no more, no less. They are bound together to such an extent that they cannot be distinguished from one another except in terms of that to which they relate: The pleasure is related to the shefa, while the great will to receive the shefa is related to the created being who receives it. Both of these are necessarily drawn from the Creator, only they must be distinguished in the aforementioned manner: The shefa is drawn from His essence, that is, its existence emanates from His essence yesh miyesh. The will to receive, which is incorporated there, in the shefa, is the root of all created beings, that is, it is the root of any new creation, which constitutes the emergence of existence ex nihilo (yesh me’ayin), since the Creator’s essence certainly does not contain any trace of the will to receive, God forbid.4Since the Creator’s essence does not contain any aspect related to receiving, as He needs nothing from anyone, the will to receive could not emanate from His essence, as the shefa did, but rather had to be created as a totally new entity from nothingness.

We can therefore discern that the aforementioned will to receive constitutes all creative material from beginning to end, to such an extent that the myriad species of creations, their innumerable incarnations, and their manners of behavior, both those that have manifest and those that will manifest in the future, constitute nothing more than quantities and differences in the measure of the will to receive.5All things in creation are formed of the will to receive, which can be viewed as the raw material that makes up the vast diversity of all created entities, both matter and living creatures.

The differences between various created entities is rooted in the different measures of will to receive that each one contains. Anything contained within the vessel that constitutes those creations, that is, anything received through their imprinted will to receive, emanates from the Creator’s essence yesh miyesh. It is not in any way a new creation that came into existence ex nihilo (yesh me’ayin), since it is not truly new at all but emanates from the Creator’s eternal essence yesh miyesh.

As stated, the will to receive was necessarily encompassed in the Creator’s initial intent for the Creation, in all its various forms, together with the great shefa with which He thought to benefit them and to grant to them. Know that this is the mystical meaning of light and vessel that we discern in the higher worlds, because of necessity they come bound as one, and they devolve together from one level to the next, descending further and further from their divine source.

The measure by which the levels descend from the light of His countenance and become distant from Him is commensurate with the materialization of the will to receive that is subsumed in the shefa.6The system of Kabbala describes layers and levels of existence, in which the higher a created entity is, the closer to the source it is – that is, to the Creator – and the less material it is. In the process of Creation described here, the supernal light and the vessels descend through the layers, or spiritual worlds, to incrementally manifest as the reality we experience as this world.

One can likewise say the reverse, that commensurate with the measure of the materialization of the will to receive in the shefa, the combined will to receive and the shefa increasingly descends from one level to the next, as will be explained below. This continues until it reaches the lowest place of them all, at which point the will to receive becomes materialized to its fullest potential measure. That place is termed the world of Asiya (Actualization), and there the will to receive is manifest as a human body, while the shefa the created entity receives is the amount of vitality that is contained in that body. The same applies to the other creations in this world.

Thus, the whole difference between the higher worlds and this world is that as long as the will to receive that is subsumed in His shefa has not materialized into its final form, it is still found in the spiritual worlds, which are loftier than this world, whereas once the will to receive has materialized into its final form, it is regarded as being found in this world.

The aforementioned devolvement in which the will to receive is brought into its final form in this world follows the order of the four levels that correspond to the four letters of the four-letter name of God (the Tetragrammaton). For the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, yod-heh-vav-heh, encompass all of reality without excluding even the most minute particle.

In general, the letters are expressed as the ten divine attributes known as sefirot, the letters being synonymous with them: Ḥokhma, Bina, Tiferet, Malkhut, and their root, Keter. They are ten sefirot because the sefira of Tiferet encompasses six sefirot: Ḥesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzaḥ, Hod, and Yesod, and the root is called Keter.7Keter is referred to as the root sefira in this context because Keter is like a bridge, so to speak, between the Creator and the creation.

It is connected to the infinity of the Divine on one side and to the finite creation on the other. Thus it acts as a doorway, a link between His essence and the finite world. Without this doorway, there could be no process of creation at all. Note, however, that it cannot truly be thought of as a “bridge,” since His essence is infinite and can never be reached or grasped by anything within creation. However, they are mainly referenced as Ḥokhma and Bina, Tiferet, and Malkhut. Keep this in mind.

Additionally, the four letters of the divine name correspond to the four worlds, which are Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Actualization).8The yod of the name corresponds to the world of Atzilut, the first heh to the world of Beria>>, the vav to the world of Yetzira, and the second heh to the world of Asiya. The world of Asiya includes this world within it. Thus there is no creature in this world that is not engendered from Ein Sof, blessed be He, meaning it is rooted in the initial intent for the Creation, which is to give His creations pleasure, as stated above.

This initial intent is necessarily comprised of light and vessel, that is, a certain measure of shefa together with the will to receive that shefa. The measure of shefa emanates from His essence yesh miyesh, while the will to receive the shefa comes into existence anew ex nihilo (yesh me’ayin), as stated above. In order that the will to receive may reach its final form, it must devolve, together with the shefa it contains, through the four worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Asiya.

At that point, the created being is complete, composed of both light and vessel, which is referred to as body and the light of vitality it contains.

The reason that the will to receive devolves by means of the aforementioned four levels, Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Actualization), is due to an important principle that applies to the vessels: It is the expansion of the light and its subsequent removal that renders the vessel suitable for its function. This means that as long as the vessel has not been separated in any way from its light, it is encompassed in the light and subsumed within it like a candle in the presence of a torch.

This subsummation occurs because the vessels and light are complete opposites from one extreme to the other. The light is shefa that emanates from His essence yesh miyesh. From the perspective of the intent to create that stems from Ein Sof, blessed be He, the light is intended purely to grant shefa and contains nothing of the will to receive. The vessel is the opposite, as it is composed of the ultimate desire to receive that shefa, a desire that is the entire root of the created being, containing no ability to give whatsoever.

Therefore, when they are bound together, the will to receive is negated by the light within, and a created being is unable to achieve a final form until the light has been removed from it at least once. For after the light is removed from it, the will to receive begins to yearn very much for the light, and this yearning determines and finalizes the appropriate form that the will to receive will take. Subsequently, when the light returns and is enclothed in the form that the will to receive has taken, from that point the entity is categorized as possessing two separate elements: vessel and light, or body and vitality. Consider this carefully, as it is the most profound of ideas.

Therefore, the four levels that correspond to the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God, which are Ḥokhma, Bina, Tiferet, and Malkhut, are necessary. The first level, called Ḥokhma, actually contains the entirety of the emanated being, both light and vessel. It incorporates the full will to receive together with the entirety of the light within it, which is called the “light of wisdom,” also called the “light of vitality,” as it comprises all the light of the life force that is in the emanated being enclothed in its vessel. Yet this first level is categorized as entirely light and its vessel is barely recognizable, since the vessel is mingled with the light and subsumed in it like a candle in the presence of a torch.

Then follows the second level. At the end of the first level, the vessel of Ḥokhma prevails by equating its form to that of the supernal light it contains. In other words, a will to give to the Emanator is awakened within the vessel, resembling the nature of the light it contains, which is entirely to give. Then, by means of this will to give that has been awakened in the vessel, a new light is drawn to it from the Emanator, which is called the “light of giving.” As a result, it is disassociated almost completely from the light of wisdom that the Emanator bestowed on it, since the light of wisdom can be received only in its own vessel, which is the ultimate will to receive in its fullest measure, as stated.

Accordingly, the light and vessel in the second level are completely different from those of the first level, as the vessel of the second level has the will to give, while the light within it differentiates into the light of giving, a light that emanates from the power of the cleaving of the emanated being to the Emanator. That is, the will to give that is awakened within the vessel brings about the equating of its form with that of the Emanator, and the equating of form is the way an entity cleaves to another in the spiritual realm, as stated below.

Next comes the third level, which comes after the light in the emanated being has been reduced to the light of giving and there is no light of wisdom at all. Yet it is known that the light of wisdom is the essential life force of the emanated being. Therefore, at the end of the second level, the emanated being awakened and drew into it a measure of the light of wisdom to shine into the light of giving within it. This awakening thus draws once more a certain measure of the will to receive, which forms a new vessel referred to as the third level, or Tiferet. The light within it is called “the light of giving illuminated by the light of wisdom,” since the light is primarily comprised of the light of giving but a little of it is the light of wisdom.

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.

The four levels described above are the mystical meaning of the ten sefirot that can be discerned in every emanated being and each creation, both in the overall system of existence comprised of the four worlds and in the smallest minutiae of existence. The first level is called Ḥokhma, or the world of Atzilut (Emanation). The second level is called Bina, or the world of Beria (Creation). The third level is called Tiferet, or the world of Yetzira (Formation). The fourth level is called Malkhut, or the world of Asiya (Actualization).

We will now elucidate the four levels as they apply to every soul.

When a soul is drawn from Ein Sof, blessed be He, and enters the world of Atzilut, it is in the soul’s first level. There it is not yet called neshama, as the term neshama indicates that there is some divergence from the Emanator, blessed be He. This state of divergence reflects how the soul has left the level of Ein Sof and has reached a state in which it is revealed as a separate entity unto itself. Prior to this separation, when the soul does not yet possess the form of a vessel, there is nothing to identify it as distinct from His essence so that it may merit its own name. It has already been established that in the first level of development of a vessel, it is not recognized as a vessel at all but rather is entirely subsumed by the light.

This is the mystical meaning of the statement regarding the world of Atzilut, that it is entirely divinity, in the mystical statement “He, His life, and His attributes are one.”10Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction 3b. Even the souls of other living creatures, when they pass through the world of Atzilut, are categorized as still cleaving to His essence.

In the world of Beria (Creation), the aforementioned second level is dominant, which is the level of the vessel that constitutes the will to give. Therefore, when the soul descends and enters the world of Beria, acquiring the type of vessel that exists there, then it is called neshama. At that point, it has already emerged and separated from His essence and has merited its own name: neshama. Nevertheless, this vessel is extremely pure, since it equates its form with that of the Emanator by acquiring the will to give, and therefore it is categorized as wholly spiritual.

In the world of Yetzira (Formation), the aforementioned third level is dominant, which includes the incorporation of a small amount of the form of the will to receive. Therefore, when the soul descends and enters the world of Yetzira, acquiring that vessel, it leaves the spiritual level of neshama and is then called ruaḥ. On this level, its vessel is intermingled with a slight degree of opacity (ovyut) because of the small amount of will to receive that it contains. Nevertheless, it is still considered spiritual, as this amount of opacity is insufficient to separate it entirely from His essence to the extent that it can be called a body that exists in its own right.

In the world of Asiya (Actualization), the fourth level is dominant, which is the completion of the vessel that constitutes the ultimate will to receive, as stated above. Accordingly, it acquires a body distinct and separate from His essence, one that exists in its own right. The light and vitality that it contains is called nefesh, which is indicative of light without movement of its own.11The fourth level is the final stage of this process. In this final level, the light is “without movement” since it does not transition to further stages and descend any lower.

Know that there is no minutia of existence that is not comprised of all the levels of Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya.

One thus discovers how this soul level called nefesh, which is the light of vitality enclothed in the body, emanates from the Creator’s essence yesh miyesh. As it passes through the four worlds of Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya, it becomes increasingly distant from the light of His countenance, until it enters its designated vessel, which is called body. At this stage, the vessel has acquired its proper, final form.

Admittedly, the light it contains has also greatly diminished until the root of its origin is no longer discernible. Even so, by engaging in Torah study and the performance of the commandments in order to give one’s Creator satisfaction, one continuously purifies one’s vessel that is called body until it merits receiving the ultimate shefa in the fullest measure that was encompassed in the Creator’s initial intent for the Creation when He created the world.

This is the meaning of Rabbi Ḥananya ben Akashya’s statement that “the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to purify [lezakot] the Jewish people.12The Hebrew word lezakot means both “to confer merit” and “to purify.” In section #1# above, it was translated as “confer merit” since in that context, the author of the Sulam had not yet developed his concept of the purification of the vessels (our bodies) through Torah study and commandments.

In this section, lezakot connotes “to purify,” since his point here is the purification of vessels. Therefore, He increased for them Torah and commandments.”

With this in mind, you will understand the true basis for delineating the distinction between spirituality and corporeality: Anything that contains a fully formed will to receive, with all its aspects, which constitutes the fourth level, is considered corporeal. This level exists in all facets of the reality that is visible to us in this world. Anything beyond this ultimate measure of will to receive can be categorized as spirituality. This constitutes the worlds of Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Actualization) – they and all of reality that they contain – which are loftier than this world.

With this understanding, you can grasp that all the ascents and descents mentioned with regard to the higher worlds do not refer to an imaginary place, God forbid, but rather to the concept of the four levels of will to receive. Anything that is distant from the fourth level is described as being in a higher place, while anything that is closer to the fourth level is described as being in a lower place.

However, one must understand that since the central element of a created being, and of all of creation in general, is solely the will to receive, anything beyond this is not actually in the category of a creation but rather emanates from the Creator’s essence yesh miyesh; that is, it constitutes the light of vitality found within the creation. If that is the case, why do we describe this desire to receive with negative appellations such as opacity (ovyut) and murkiness, and why is it that we are commanded to purify it by means of Torah study and commandments to the extent that without this purification we would not achieve the lofty goal of the Creator’s intent for the Creation?

The explanation is that just as corporeal beings are separated from one another by spatial distance, so too spiritual beings are separated from one another by their difference of form. You can find comparable cases in this world as well. For example, two people who are similar to one another in their perspectives love each other, and physical distance does not cause them to grow apart. By contrast, when they are far apart from one another in their perspectives, they hate each other and physical proximity will not bring them one iota closer.

The difference in the form of two people’s perspectives distances them from one another, while the similarity of form in their perspectives draws them closer to each other. If, for example, the nature of one of them is the opposite, in all aspects, from the nature of the other, they will be as far apart from each other as east is from west.

In the same way, you can understand this concept in the realm of spirituality. All the dynamics of distancing and drawing close, or fusion and unification, that are applied to it, are just measures of changes of form. They are separated from one another commensurate with the extent of the difference of form, and they are attached to one another commensurate with the equating of form.

With this in mind, you will understand that although the will to receive is an indispensable quality in a created being, since the will to receive defines an entity as a created being and is the appropriate vessel for receiving the purpose of the Creator’s intent in the creation of the world, nevertheless this quality separates the created being completely from the Emanator. This is because there is a change of form that leads to opposing states between the created being and the Emanator. The Emanator is entirely about giving and lacks even a trace of receiving, God forbid. By contrast, the created being is entirely about receiving and lacks even a trace of giving. There is no difference of form more opposite and distant than this, and therefore this difference of form necessarily separates the created being from the Emanator.

In order to save the created beings from the enormity of this distant separation, the mystical first constriction (tzimtzum) was implemented, separating the aforementioned fourth level from all the holy partzufim in such a manner that the ultimate capacity for receiving was left as an empty space, devoid of any light.13The constriction referred to here, and upon which the author of Sulam will go on to elaborate at length, is the formation of a partition that separates the fourth and last level called Malkhut from the supernal light.

This partition prevents the supernal light from entering the final receiving vessel of Malkhut, leaving that level “devoid of any light.” This is meant to “save the created beings from the enormity of this distant separation” because by using the partition to refuse entry to the supernal light, the vessel of Malkhut creates a situation in which the ultimate receiving of the supernal light is actually an act of giving.

As the author will go on to explain, this is like a person giving his friend the opportunity to do him a favor. Once the vessel of Malkhut achieves this, it is not as “enormously separated” from the Emanator, as it now also has the quality of giving, forming a connection to the Emanator through their shared trait of giving, a connection that the author of the Sulam refers to as an “equating of form.”

For all the holy partzufim emerged with a partition placed upon their respective vessels of Malkhut so that they would not receive light in their fourth level.

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.

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.

Thus, new vessels were made in the holy partzufim, instead of the fourth level serving in that capacity, after the first constriction (tzimtzum). They were fashioned through the rebuffing of the returning light by means of the fusion through collision of the supernal light against the partition. It is necessary to understand this returning light, how it became a receiving vessel. Initially it was merely light that was rebuffed from being received, and now it subsequently serves a function that is the opposite of its own type.18The rebuffed light can be viewed as the supernal light that was blocked from entering the fourth level. Since the supernal light is wholly giving, the author of the Sulam questions how it can now serve as a receiving vessel.

I will explain this to you by means of a parable that relates to the affairs of this world: It is human nature to like and respect the attribute of giving, while the attribute of receiving from another person is viewed as repulsive and degrading. Accordingly, if one visits the house of a friend, and the friend invites him to dine with him, he will decline to eat even if he is very hungry because he considers it demeaning and degrading to receive a gift from his friend.

However, if his friend implores him sufficiently, so that it becomes abundantly clear to him that he would be doing his friend a great favor by eating, he will agree to dine with him. He no longer feels that he is the one receiving the gift and that his friend is being the giver, but rather the converse: He is the giver, the one doing his friend a favor, by accepting this favor from him.

You thus find that although hunger and appetite are the specific receiving vessels for eating, and this person had sufficient hunger and appetite to accept his friend’s meal, he was nevertheless unable to taste even a morsel of his friend’s food out of embarrassment. However, when his friend began to implore him, and he repeatedly declined his offer, a new receiving vessel for eating began to be formed within him.

As the force of his friend’s entreaties and the force of his own repudiations increase and grow, they will ultimately combine and grow large enough that his attribute of receiving is transformed into an attribute of giving to the extent that he can imagine he is doing his friend a favor and providing him with immense gratification by eating. At that point, receiving vessels for his friend’s meal are generated within him.

We can now see how the force of his rejection became the central element of his receiving vessel with regard to the meal, and not hunger and appetite, even though in truth they are the usual receiving vessels.

From the aforementioned parable, which involves an interpersonal relationship, one can understand the aforementioned concept of fusion through collision and the returning light that rises by means of it, which becomes a new receiving vessel for the supernal light instead of the fourth level that was initially meant to serve as the receiving vessel. The collision of the supernal light against the partition and how the light desires to expand into the fourth level, can be compared to a person imploring someone to dine with him. Just as he very much wants his friend to accept his meal, so too the supernal light wants to expand into the receiver. The partition impacting the light and rebuffing it can be compared to the rejection and refusal of his friend to accept his meal because he rebuffed his offer. Just as you find in this case that it is the refusal and the rejection themselves that are transformed and turned into proper receiving vessels for accepting his friend’s meal, you can likewise imagine that the returning light, which arises by means of the impact of the supernal light against the partition and the partition’s repudiation of the supernal light, transforms into a new receiving vessel for the supernal light instead of the fourth level, which served as the receiving vessel before the first constriction (tzimtzum).19Just as the guest’s repudiation of the host’s meal forms a new receiving vessel, that of receiving in order to give, the rebuffing of the supernal light is the returning light, which serves as a new receiving vessel for the supernal light because the receiving along with the element of giving – receiving in order to give – allows the receiver to accept the gift. Although the returning light is also light (like the supernal light), it is light that comes from the receiver (the created being) and can therefore serve as a vessel for the supernal light.

However, this occurs only in the holy partzufim of Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Actualization), but not in the partzufim of the kelippot nor in this world, in which the fourth level itself serves as the receiving vessel. 20Generally the fourth level constitutes the fully developed form of the will to receive. Therefore, it is separated from the Creator, since it is the opposite in form from that of the Creator in the sense that He is the ultimate giver and has no trace of the attribute of receiving.

In the higher worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Asiya the fourth level is tempered with some of the attribute of giving through the fusion through collision described above. However, the partzufim of the kelippot mentioned here represent creations and beings that operate within the plane of the fourth level, which means they are formed solely within the realm of pure receiving and so are totally separated from the Creator.

In these contexts, such creations are unable to interact with or receive the supernal light, since, in their receiving nature, they are fundamentally opposite to the pure giving nature of that light. Therefore, they are separated from the supernal light, as the difference in form of the fourth level from that of the Emanator, which is the attribute of giving, separates them from each other. Consequently, the kelippot, and similarly the wicked, are regarded as dead, for they are separated from the Source of Life, who bestows life, by the will to receive within them, as mentioned in section #13# above. See the description there in detail, as it cannot be explained any further.

Up to this point, we have clarified the first three principles of the wisdom of Kabbala.

The first is the concept of light and vessel, how the light is drawn directly from the Creator’s essence, while the vessel is comprised of the will to receive that is necessarily encompassed by that light. Commensurate with the measure of this will to receive that was created ex nihilo, an entity emerges from the Emanator as an emanated entity. This will to receive is the Malkhut that is discerned in the supernal light. This is why Malkhut is called shemo, His name, in accordance with the mystical meaning of “He is one and His name is one,” as shemo has the same numerical value as the word for “will,” ratzon.

The second principle is the explanation of the ten sefirot and the four worlds of Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Actualization), which are four levels, one below the other, through which the will to receive must devolve until the vessel is established properly as an entity in itself.

The third principle is the constriction (tzimtzum) and the partition that was formed upon this receiving vessel, which is the fourth level. This fourth level was then replaced by new receiving vessels in the form of ten sefirot called the returning light.21The returning light is the supernal light that was rebuffed when it impacted against the partition>>. Since the supernal light is comprised of ten sefirot, so too is the returning light comprised of ten sefirot.

You should understand and thoroughly review these three principles, as well as their explanations as described above, for without them there is no comprehending even a single word of this wisdom.

Now we will clarify five levels that are in the partition, on the basis of which the shiurei koma (literally, “dimensions of height”) change during the fusion through collision between the partition and the supernal light.22As the author of the Sulam will go on to describe, there are actually multiple rejections of the supernal light as it impacts, or beats, against the partition, which results in multiple fusions through collision.

The partition changes after each fusion, so the measure of returning light that is refracted from it as a result is also different each time. Each measure of returning light is able to enclothe up to a certain “height” or level of light (defined by the author in previous sections), resulting in structures made up of vessels and lights of different “heights.” These are referred to as shiurei koma, or “dimensions of height,” referring to the “height” of the structure of receiving vessels that are formed as a result of the rebuffing of the returning light off the partition.

One must first thoroughly understand that although after the constriction (tzimtzum) the fourth level was disqualified from serving as a receiving vessel for the ten sefirot of the supernal light, and the returning light that rises from the partition by means of the fusion through collision became a receiving vessel in order to receive the supernal light in its stead, the fourth level must nevertheless, with its power of receiving, accompany the returning light.

Otherwise, the returning light would not be fit to serve as a receiving vessel.23The returning light changes the form of the receiving vessel by adding an element of giving, so that the receiving vessel resembles the supernal light, which is wholly giving. This allows the returning light to serve as a receiving vessel for the supernal light. Despite this added element, the original receiving capacity of the unconstructed vessel of the fourth level remains and is combined with the giving capacity of the returning light.

Recall the analogy of the guest who accepts a meal at his friend’s house captures this. Though he accepts the meal only after he understands that by accepting the meal, he is doing his friend a favor, adding an element of giving to the receiving, he still eats with the same original receiving vessel, which is his hunger.

You can understand this, too, through the aforementioned parable in section #15#. We proved there that the force of the guest’s rejection and refusal to accept a meal became a receiving vessel instead of the hunger and appetite. The hunger and appetite, which are the usual receiving vessel for eating, were disqualified here from being a receiving vessel on account of the shame and degradation the person felt at receiving a gift from his friend, and only the powers of rejection and refusal became receiving vessels in their place, because as a result of the rejection and refusal, the receiving was transformed into giving once the guest realized that he would be doing the host a favor by accepting the meal, and through them the person attained appropriate receiving vessels for accepting his friend’s meal.

However, it cannot be said that now he no longer needs the usual receiving vessels, which are hunger and appetite, as it is clear that without an appetite for eating, he will be unable to fulfill his friend’s wishes and give him the satisfaction of eating with him. Rather, what happens is that the hunger and appetite, which were disqualified in their normative form, have now been altered, due to the force of the rejection and refusal, and have received a new form: receiving in order to give.

Through this, the degradation is transformed into honor. Thus, the usual receiving vessels still function now as they always did, only they have received a new form. You can apply the same idea to the matter at hand. It is true that the fourth level was disqualified from serving as a receiving vessel for the ten sefirot of the supernal light due to the opacity (ovyut) within it, meaning the contrast in form as a receiver in comparison to the Giver, which separates it from the Giver, as stated above.

However, through the establishment of the partition in the fourth level, which collides with the supernal light and rebuffs it, the fourth level’s previous, disqualified form was altered, and it received a new form, which is called “returning light,” similar to the alteration of the receiving form into the giving form in the aforementioned parable. The contents of the first form did not change there; also now the person will not eat without an appetite.

Here too all the opacity, which is the power to receive, that was in the fourth level was altered and entered the returning light, and thus the returning light was made fit to be a receiving vessel. Understand this well.24Thus the fourth level called Malkhut, which solely comprises the will to receive, is replaced with the returning light, which contains the element of giving, but the fourth level – the original receiving vessel – is still required in order for the supernal light to be received.

When the opacity, or the will to receive, of the fourth level enters the returning light, the new receiving vessel is formed, which is receiving in order to give.