Two Lights, Black and White, Unite Together

385. “I am black, and lovely,” since when the candle of the west, Malchut, governs and stands at the candle of the east, ZA, it is black, meaning Malchut, which is black color, implying judgments. It is white, meaning ZA, who is under the control of Hesed, white color. How lovely is Malchut when she is unified in that white light, Hesed, as it is written, “I am black,” when I am by myself, and lovely when my blackness is adhered to your white.

386. Two lights connect together in the candlelight: The bottom part is black light; the top part is white. One controls the other, the white light controls the black light, and yet, how lovely she is.

There are two states in Malchut. In the first state, the two great lights, her level is equal to that of ZA since they both suckle from the same root, Ima. ZA receives Hassadim from the right line of Ima, and Malchut receives Hochma from the left line of Ima. However, at that time, she is regarded as black light since the Hochma in her cannot shine without Hassadim.

Then, it is said, “Go and diminish yourself,” and she comes to the second state, when she is diminished into being a degree below ZA. At that time, ZA already governs her, and she is nothing except what she receives from ZA. Nevertheless, the second state is all her wholeness since now that her black light, Hochma, connects with the white light in ZA, Hassadim, Hochma is completed and shines.

That unification in the second state, when the black light of Malchut is connected with the white light of ZA, is implied by the light of the candle since in the light of the candle, its bottom part is seen in black color, and its top part in white color.

The bottom part is black light, Malchut, who is black from the first state, and the top part is white, ZA, Hesed, whose appearance is white. They are both connected in one light where the white light controls the black light since so it is in the second state.

Even though in the second state she was as big as him, and now he controls her, yet, how lovely she is, since now, in the second state, she is lovely when she shines with Hochma and Hassadim. Conversely, in the first state, she was dark and could not shine.

387. In the correction below her, there are several corrections underneath her—wick, candle, and oil—and she stands in the upper, lovely Gadlut in that white light. So are the daughters of Jerusalem: They are the corrections of below, which stand underneath her in her beauty, as it is written, “I am black, and lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon,” one is black and one is white.

The Merkava [structure/chariot], Michael-Gabriel-Raphael-Uriel, are four, and with the one dot that stands on them, which is Malchut herself, they are five. She is called Hey only in those four angels, who are her Merkava, and the final dot, Malchut, which stands above them. That Hey was four, which are the Merkava, and she becomes five through that dot that is on them in the middle, which is Malchut.

This is so because her vessels from the first state clothe in her Merkava, connecting to her in the second state, as well, and clothing in the four angels, who are three lines and Malchut who receives them, and the anterior dot, Malchut from the second state—who receives from ZA only Hassadim—rides them. The two of them together shine in Hassadim and in Hochma, which are all the wholeness, the Hochma from the side of the four phases of the Merkava, and the Hassadim from the side of her own phase, who rides them. This is the meaning of her form being five.

There are several corrections under her—wick, candle, and oil—which are three lines, since oil is the right line, the candle is the left line, and the wick that connects the two is the middle line. The vessel in which these three lines—wick, candle, and oil—are in is the Malchut who receives the three lines. These four phases—oil, candle, wick, and the vessel that receives them—are four; they are the Merkava of Malchut, and she herself is the dot that rides them from above, the fifth [Hey].

She stands in the upper Gadlut that is lovely in that white light, meaning that the dot itself, Malchut of the Panim [anterior] that rides her, receives only the white light, Hassadim. However, her Merkava stands underneath her, the oil, the candle, the wick, and the vessel, and they receive Hochma.

So are the daughters of Jerusalem. They are the corrections of below, which stand below her—the oil, the candle, the wick, their vessel—where the vessels from the first state are clothed, which are black, as it is written, “O daughters of Jerusalem in the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.” One is black and one is white.

The daughters of Jerusalem, who are her Merkava, are black from the first state, like the tents of Kedar. Malchut, who rides them, is white, like the curtains of Solomon. They all shine together, and all five phases in the candle are clarified in Malchut herself, since Malchut of the Panim is the white light in the candle, above everything. The black light in the candle, the left line in the Merkava, the left oil is the right line, the wick is the middle line, and the vessel that receives everything is Malchut, who receives three lines.