255. The second chamber from which the Garden of Eden, Malchut, is nourished, is the name El [God]. It is a chamber, and a chamber of the right, and there is a vision in it, illumination of Hochma, called “seeing,” which is covered and concealed, for because it came out and shone for the time being, it was immediately concealed. The name El is Hesed; although it incorporates Hochma, and the Hochma shines in it, it is only for the time being, and it is promptly concealed because the Hassadim rule in it.
256. Why is it called El? The letter Aleph is the first light, Hesed, which incorporates two lights: Hochma and Hassadim. This is why Aleph is numbered as one, since the two lights Hochma and Hassadim became one light under the rule of Hesed. From there is the beginning of the shining and extending of lights to Hesed on the right, and to Hochma on the left. Hence, it is the first of all the letters, the beginning of all of them, since it shines to every side.
257. Aleph incorporates three which are one, three lights incorporated in the Aleph, since the shape of the Aleph is the shape of two letters Yod, on the right and on the left, which are as two arms, and the letter Vav in the middle. In one arm, the right line, there is light of Hesed. One arm, the left, is Gevura, and the Vav in the middle is Tifferet, the middle line, which incorporates both arms of the two sides of the Aleph. Thus, three lights are incorporated in the letter Aleph.
258. The measure in the middle line in the Aleph must be in the two arms on the two sides, to shine as the measure of the two lines, since it takes them, and it, alone, is in both.
Aleph indicates fire from the side of Gevura, in the bottom left Yod. Water is from the side of Hesed, in the top right Yod. Ruach, Tifferet, is the middle line, Vav in the Aleph, which divides in the middle and takes in both sides, and everything becomes one.
259. Aleph expands and is incorporated in all. When the middle line in the Aleph incorporates both sides in completeness, as with itself, they are an awakening of three lines, it awakens to its Nukva [female], Malchut, and the Aleph is inverted, to note another matter in it, where the Vav in the middle of the Aleph is ZA, which contains three lines, and the bottom Yod that is adhered to the Vav is Malchut, and the top Yod is Bina, which bestows upon ZA, and ZA takes the Nukva below her, the bottom Yod, and they connect together.
260. “In the beginning, God created the.” There are four letters Aleph here [in Hebrew], and each Aleph connects together a male and a female in four worlds. In each word, there is an Aleph, which is male, which are the three lines of ZA, and in each word, there is one letter that is Nukva. In Beresheet [in the beginning], the letter Tav is the Nukva. In Barah [created], the letter Bet is the Nukva; in Elokim [God], the letter Hey is the Nukva; and in Et [the], the letter Tav is the Nukva.
261. “In the beginning” are Adam and his wife. “Created” is Abraham and his Nukva. Elokim is Isaac and his Nukva, and “the” is Jacob and his Nukva.
262. The word Et is Nukva everywhere. How can it be that the Aleph of Et is male? Aleph is male, Tav is Nukva, they are both incorporated together, and the Nukva is seen when she is in wholeness, comprising all the letters from Aleph to Tav. This is why the word “the,” although it is Nukva, is incorporated in the male, which is Aleph.
263. For this reason, there are four couplings in the verse, “In the beginning, God created the”: Adam and his wife, Abraham and his Nukva, Isaac and his Nukva, Jacob and his Nukva. In every place, Aleph is a male that connects to the Nukva, which is another letter.
It is called Kyriat Arba [city of four] because the four great appointees over the world connected there, which are Adam and his wife, Abraham and his Nukva, Isaac and his Nukva, Jacob and his Nukva.
264. The Lamed in the name El is a tower floating in the air, a great king, Bina. This is why ZA is called El, for the upper one is Bina, and the middle one, ZA, are together, since Aleph is the middle line, Lamed is Bina, the upper one and the head of Providence is Bina, and the head of all the letters Aleph is ZA, and they are together.
The name El is that the Aleph, ZA, takes for herself to assist that tower that is flying in the air, Bina, and by whose merit she ascends by that name.