497. The verse “Tell me, you whom my soul loves,” was decided according to Elijah. When Malchut rose up and fell off from her armies and from all the camps, which is the letter Yod, in which there are two diminutions. She says, “Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where do you pasture.” You, my soul’s beloved one, where do you pasture, since I am one dot without any expansion whatsoever, since I am incorporated in myself and cannot collect and give to the lower ones.
498. She says to the one who loves her since at that time, she sits restricted in herself in one dot without expansion, and she wants ZA and enter her and make a coupling with her, as it is written, “And a great king came to her,” ZA, although she is the smallest of all the letters.
499. For this reason, since the day when the Temple was ruined, the Creator swore that He would not enter Malchut above in order to make a coupling, before Israel enter the Temple below, as it is written, “The Holy One in your midst, and I will not come into another city.”
“City” means Malchut. It is written “city” here, and it is written “small city” there. As “small city” means Malchut, since she is the letter Yod, the smallest of the letters, “I will not come into a city” also means into Malchut.
500. “For why should I be like one who veils herself?” Why should I be incorporated within me, since I have no expansion whatsoever from all the sides? It is because she is blocked from all the sides more than all the other letters.
501. “If you do not know, O fairest among women, go you out,” spread yourself out to all the sides, to the right and to the left, and collect pleasures, illumination of Hochma from the left, and delights, Hassadim, from the right. In the expansion that became as a canopy over the guardians of the herds of flocks, it is written about that “in the footsteps of the flocks.” This is the letter Hey, which looks like a canopy.
If prior to the coupling with ZA, the Yod was small and without any expansion, now, during the coupling with ZA, she expanded and became Hey, which is a canopy filled with abundance.
502. This is “Go you out.” It does not say “go out,” but “go you out,” as it is written, “Broaden the place of your tent, and the curtains of your dwellings will stretch out.” At first, she was only one black dot, in which there was no place for another, to receive anyone within her. Rather, she was blocked within her. But now that she has risen and connected with her husband, ZA. He told her “Go you out, broaden the place of your tent, stretch yourself out to every side, and then pasture your kids; you will be able to collect pleasures and delights.
503. When she is one dot, Yod, and rises up to ZA, and the upper king, ZA, comes down to her to enter her, he clashes, makes a coupling with that dot and it spreads out to every side, to the right and to the left, to receive Hassadim and Hochma. The dot becomes the letter Hey and is completed from all the sides, from the right and from the left, and collects pleasures and delights. At that time, he tells her, “Pasture your kids,” go and nourish all the camps, small and great.