Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Inner Observation
Table of Questions for the Meaning of the Words
Table of Questions for Topics
Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words
Table of Answers for Topics
1. Expansion of lights, as the ARI said (part3, Chap 1, item 3), that Ein Sof expanded to make vessels through coupling by striking and raising reflected light. He says here that right in the world of AK, he began to extend from it the expansion of many lights through the above coupling by striking, enough to emanate twenty-five Partzufim in that world. These twenty-five Partzufim of AK would be the roots and the origins of Atzilut that would later be emanated, meaning the twenty-five Partzufim that would be emanated in the world of Atzilut. That is why the ARI writes “the expansion of many lights to become roots and origins to the Atzilut,” as he will explain henceforth.
2. Know, that this reflected light that is returned to its place through a coupling by striking, as the ARI says (Part 3, chap1, item 3), is called, “vapor that comes out of the Partzuf,” or “Ruach that comes out of the Partzuf.” It means that it cannot clothe it because of the power of detainment in the screen there. For that reason it must return to its place (see Table of Topics, Part 2, item 2).
You should also know that there are five phases that contain the entire reality after the restriction, namely AK, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya. They are five levels one below the other from Keter to Malchut, caused by the refinement of the screen (see Table of Topics, Part 2, item 17).
Because the screen of phase four that operated in AK had been refined, and remained in coarseness of phase three, ten new Sefirot were emanated on the level of Hochma, called Atzilut. Because the screen of phase three was then refined as well, and remained in coarseness of phase two, ten new Sefirot emerged and were born on the level of Bina, called Beria (see ARI’s words in Part 3, Chap 4, item 3, and Inner Light, item 9).
Finally, the entire coarseness was refined from the screen and only its root remained, where there is no striking and no level of reflected light. Consequently, the ten Sefirot emerge here only in the phase of Malchut and they are called the world of Assiya.
For the very same reason and cause that was explained regarding the four general levels, which are AK and ABYA, the five levels of the ten Sefirot must therefore emerge in each and every world, as well. They are called five Partzufim: AA, Abba, Ima, ZA and Nukva.
Moreover, in each and every Partzuf there must also emerge five levels of ten Sefirot one below the other down to Malchut, called Galgalta, Eynaim, Ozen, Hotem, Peh, or KHB ZA and Malchut, or NRNHY. This matter will be explained sufficiently in Inner Observation here, and we should not elaborate it here because of its length.
The ARI wrote here: “As the value of the organ, so is its fineness.” It means that the vessel in which the designated light clothes is called an organ. The fineness or the coarseness of the organ is measured by the coarseness of the screen that operates there.
Thus, the place where the screen of phase two operates is called “a fine organ” and the Ruach that comes out of it is very fine. It means that the reflected light that rises and returns from that vessel is very fine, reaching neither Keter, nor Hochma, but rather Bina. For this reason, the level of these ten Sefirot is up to Bina, as explained above.
It is said: “The next organ in degree is the Hotem. The Ruach that comes out of it is sensed more than what comes out of the Ozen.” It is so because the place where the screen of phase three operates is called Hotem, where the “Ruach that comes out of it”, meaning the reflected light that is turned back and comes out of that vessel is of a greater measure, thus reaching Hochma. This is why the level of the ten Sefirot of Hotem is up to Hochma.
It is said, “The next organ in degree is the Peh, for the strongest vapor and Ruach of all come out of it.” It is so because the place where the screen of phase four operates is called Peh. The vapor that comes out of it, being the reflected light that leaves it and rises upward, is stronger than all of them, for its measure is full, reaching up to Keter. For that reason these ten Sefirot have the level of Keter.
3. The ten Sefirot from coupling by striking in the screen of the Peh are at the degree of Keter, which is light of Yechida, and from the Hotem – the degree of Hochma, which is light of Haya etc. However, the order of the clothing of the lights in her is not so, but the opposite, for the more important light clothes the more refined vessel.
Thus, light of Yechida clothes only the most refined of all, called Keter or Galgalta. Light of Haya clothes only the vessel of Hochma, which is phase one, called Eynaim. Light of Neshama clothes only the vessel of Bina, namely phase two, called Ozen, and light of Ruach clothes the vessel of ZA, meaning phase three, called Hotem. Finally, light of Nefesh clothes the vessel of Malchut, which is phase four, called Peh.
The rule is that “Any giver needs the coarser phase, and any receiver must receive in the more refined thing.” This means that in order to draw upper light to bestow in the lower one, the lower one must have a coarser vessel and screen, as we have said, that the greater the coarseness of the screen, the greater the reflected light that departs from it.
It turns out that it reaches higher too, for if the lower one has no more than a screen of phase three, it lacks the degree of Yechida, and it has only the degree of Haya. However, the reception of the lower one is always in the more refined thing, meaning the light that is imparted to it clothes only the most refined phase, and the more important light needs the more refined vessel. I have already explained that issue elaborately in Inner Observation Part 2, item 87.
4. It tells us that the force of the coarseness of the screen is only apparent as it expands from above downward (see Inner Light, Part 3, Chap 4, item 50). It is so because after every coupling by striking, reflected light rises and clothes the ten Sefirot of direct light from Malchut upward to the ten Sefirot of Rosh and the roots of the four phases. After that, it descends once more and expands from Malchut downward by the same measure it has in the ten Sefirot of Rosh from below upward.
Thus, the reflected light that rises from below upward does not carry any coarseness there with it. Rather, the same ten Sefirot that expand from above downward are completely limited in the measure and boundary of the level of the screen, since the screen is their entire root.
5. It means that coarseness of phase one, called Eynaim, is very faint for the reason stated in Inner Light, that the above coarseness refers to the will to receive in every emanated being, which differentiates it from the upper light, in which there is no will to receive. Thus, phase one, whose coarseness is faint since it is extended from the upper force, as the will to bestow in the upper one is a compelling law in the lower one, to have a desire to receive its bestowal. For this reason, it is not regarded as disparity of form and coarseness in the lower one until the desire awakens in it by the power of its own awakening, namely phase two.
Thus, there is no coupling by striking in the light of Eynaim, namely phase one, because the reflected light, which is the vapor that comes out of phase one, remains in its place. In other words, it does not depart from it as reflected light. This is the meaning of the ARI’s words, “The Eynaim are not so because their vapor itself remains in its place.”
6. It means that light of Hochma does not have a vessel to clothe in, for lack of any reflected light, which is a vessel in the Eynaim. Hence the light of Hochma remains outside and shines from afar without clothing. This light is called light of Haya, or Neshama to Neshama.
7. You should know that the restriction and the screen relate only to light of Hochma, not to light of Hassadim (see Table of Topics, Part 1, item 6). Thus, relating to the expansion of Ein Sof to make vessels (mentioned in the words of the ARI Part 3, Chap 1, item 3) by coupling by striking in the screen, this coupling by striking relates only to light of Hochma, called sight and look.
It is so because only that light is not received in phase four due to the screen and the restriction. However, phase two and Bina, which is light of Hassadim, is not detained by the screen.
That is the meaning of the ARI’s words, “Sight alone had sufficient power to create and make the vessels and their vapor itself was not needed. It is not so in the AHP.” It means that only the light of Eynaim, called sight, which was restricted, has striking and reflected light, which are the vessels.
The AHP, whose primary light is the light of Hassadim, do not perform any striking. Also, any coupling by striking in the AHP comes only by the power of the light of Hochma that shines in them. This is called the look of the Eynaim in AHP. It means that because of the illumination of light of Hochma in them, the screen detains the lights in the AHP as well.
8. Meaning from vapors that expand from them downward (as written in Inner Light, this chapter, item 4), which is reflected light that descends from above downward. It is similar to what is written about the Sefira of Malchut in Inner Observation (Part 2, item 109).
This is because phase four, called Peh here, does not receive anything from the direct light, because of the screen in her. Instead, after she raises reflected light from her upward, this reflected light descends once more from the screen downward, and expands Malchut into ten Sefirot from her and within her (see Part 3, Chap 2, item 3). She receives the entire level of the ten Sefirot that the reflected light clothed from Malchut upward within them.
By the very same way, the vessels of the Ozen and Hotem do not receive anything from the vapor, namely the reflected light that rises from them upward. It is so because since the screen had been refined from phase four to phase three, it is considered that Malchut rose to the place of ZA, meaning the Hotem.
Because of that, the screen detains vessel of Hotem from receiving any direct light and pushes that light back up, which is called “coupling by striking in phase three”. Thus, the vessel of Hotem does not receive any direct light because it departs from it, but only afterwards when the reflected light expands from the Hotem downwards, in Malchut, in the place of phase four, namely the Peh. Similarly, the vessel named Ozen does not receive any direct light for the above reason, but through the reflected light that descends from Ozen downward.
The ARI writes, “It is not so in the Ozen, Hotem, Peh, which are lower. That is because their very vapor itself had to expand.” It means that after the vapor itself, meaning the reflected light, descends and expands from above downward, they expand into ten Sefirot and become vessels to receive the light.
It is said, “nothing real came out of them except by the power of the vapor itself.” In other words, by the power of their reflected light, called vapor, which turns over and descends from above downward, as has been explained.
9. It is written above that phase one does not raise vapor, which is reflected light, because her coarseness is very faint, and she does not perform coupling by striking. The ARI writes, “was not actual vapor, but only sight.” It means that there is no reflected light there, only direct light, which is light of Hochma, called sight.
10. It means that no vessel was made of the phase of the Ayin itself. That is because there is no vapor there, but her phase of striking makes the vessels in the Ozen, Hotem, Peh. Had it not been for the light of Hochma, called sight, there wouldn’t have been any coupling by striking there, and there wouldn’t have been a vessel in the AHP as well.
20. It is so because the vapor of phase four that expands from Peh downward became a vessel to Nefesh, vapor of phase three to Ruach and vapor of phase two to Neshama. Remember the inverse relation between bestowal of the light and the reception of the light, as written in Inner Light (this chapter, item 3).