Partie 1 · Observation intérieure 8

Chapter EightHochma is called “light,” and Hassadim, “water.” Bina is called “upper water,” and Malchut, “lower water.”Now we will explain the meaning of the four phases of cause and consequence, necessary to complete the form of the will to receive, as in “The water conceived and gave birth to darkness.” There are two discernments in the light in Atzilut. The first discernment is called “light,” which is Hochma, and the second discernment is called “water,” which is Hassadim.The first discernment is extended from above downward without any assistance from the lower one. The second discernment is extended with the help of the lower one, hence the name “water,” for it is the nature of the light, whose foundation is above, and the nature of the water, whose foundation is below. There are also two discernments in the water itself: upper water, by phase two in the four phases, and lower water, by phase four in the four phases.

Explanation of the expansion of the light of Ein Sof into the four phases in order to reveal the vessel, which is the will to receive.For this reason, any expansion of the light of Ein Sof consists of ten Sefirot since the light of Ein Sof, which is the root and the Emanator, is called Keter. The light of the expansion itself is called Hochma, and this is the full measure of expansion of the light from above, from Ein Sof. It has already been said that the will to receive is incorporated in every expansion of light from above. However, the form of the will to receive does not actually become apparent before the desire awakens in the emanated being to extend more light than the measure of its expansion. Thus, because the will to receive is included as potential immediately in the light of the expansion, the light is compelled to bring the potential to the actual. Consequently, the light awakens to extend additional abundance more than the measure of its expansion from Ein Sof. By this, the will to receive appears in practice in that light and acquires the form of the innovation through a slight disparity of form, for by this it becomes darker than the light, since it grew coarser by the new form.Also, this part, which has become coarser, is called Bina. This is the meaning of “I am Bina [understanding], mine is the Gevura [strength].” In truth, Bina is a part of Hochma, meaning the actual light of expansion of Ein Sof. However, because she increased her desire and drew more abundance than the measure of the expansion in her from Ein Sof, she thus acquired disparity of form and grew slightly coarser than the light. Thus, she acquired her own name which is the Sefira Bina. The essence of the additional abundance that she extended from Ein Sof by the power of the intensification of her desire is called “light of Hassadim,” or “upper water.” This is because this light is not extended directly from Ein Sof like the light of Hochma, but through the assistance of the emanated being, who intensified the desire. Hence, it merits its own name, to be called “light of Hassadim” or “water.” Now you find that the Sefira Bina consists of three discernments of light: The first discernment is the light of Bina itself, which is a part of the light of Hochma. The second is her growing coarser and the disparity of form in her, acquired by the intensification of the desire. The third discernment is the light of Hassadim that came to her through her own extension from Ein Sof.However, this still does not complete the entire vessel of reception, since the essence of Bina is the light of Hochma, which is very exalted, a direct expansion from the light of Ein Sof. Consequently, only the root for the vessels of reception and the operator for the operation of the vessel was revealed in Bina. Afterward, that same light of Hassadim that she drew through the power of her intensification was extended from her once more, and some illumination of Hochma was added. This expansion of light of Hassadim is called Zeir Anpin, or HGT.This light of expansion also increased its desire to extend a new abundance, more than the measure of illumination of Hochma in its expansion from Bina. This expansion is also regarded as two phases because the light of the expansion itself is called ZA, or VAK, while the intensification in it is called Malchut. This is how we come by the ten Sefirot: Keter is Ein Sof; Hochma is the light of the expansion from Ein Sof; Bina is the light of Hochma that intensified in order to increase abundance, by which it grew coarser. ZA, which consists of HGT NHY, is light of Hassadim with illumination of Hochma that expands from Bina, and Malchut is the second intensification to add illumination of Hochma more than there is in ZA.

The four phases in the desire are the four letters HaVaYaH, which are KHB TM.This is the meaning of the four letters in the four-letter Name: The tip of the Yod is Ein Sof, meaning the operating force included the thought of creation, which is to delight His creations, namely the vessel of Keter. Yod is Hochma, meaning phase one, which is the potential in the actual that is immediately contained in the light of the expansion of Ein Sof. The first Hey is Bina, meaning phase two, regarded as the actualization of the potential, meaning the light that has grown coarser than Hochma.Vav is Zeir Anpin or HGT NHY, meaning the expansion of light of Hassadim that emerged through Bina. This is phase three, the potential for revealing the operation. The bottom Hey in HaVaYaH; it is Malchut, meaning phase four, the complete manifestation of the act in the vessel of reception that has intensified to draw more abundance than its measure of expansion from Bina. This completes the form of the will to receive and the light that clothes its vessel, being the will to receive that is completed only in this fourth phase and not before. Now you can easily see that there is no light in the upper and lower worlds that is not arranged under the four-letter Name, namely the four phases. Without it, the will to receive that should be in every light is incomplete, for this desire is the place and the measure of that light.

The letters Yod and Vav of HaVaYaH are thin because they are discerned as mere potential.This might surprise us, since Yod implies Hochma and Hey implies Bina, and the entire light itself that exists in the ten Sefirot is in the Sefira of Hochma, while Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut are merely garments with respect to Hochma. Thus, Hochma should have taken the greater letter in the four-letter Name. The thing is that the letters of the four-letter Name do not imply or indicate the measure and amount of light in the ten Sefirot. Instead, they indicate measures of impression of the vessel. The white in the parchment of the scroll of Torah implies the light, and the black, which is the letters in the scroll of Torah, indicates the quality of the vessels.Thus, because Keter is only discerned as the root of the root of the vessel, it is implied only in the tip of the Yod. Hochma, which is the potential that has not been revealed in practice, is implied by the smallest of the letters, namely the Yod. Bina, in which the potential is carried out in practice, is indicated by the widest letter, the Hey. Since ZA is only the potential for revealing the act, it is implied by a long and thin letter, which is the Vav. Its thinness indicates that the essence of the vessel is still concealed in it in potential, in hiding. The length of the line indicates that at the end of its expansion, the complete vessel is revealed through it. Hochma did not manage to reveal the complete vessel through her expansion, for Bina is still an incomplete vessel; rather, it is the operator of the vessel. This is why the leg of the Yod is short, implying that it is still short and did not reveal a complete vessel through the force concealed in it and through its expansion. Malchut, too, is implied by the letter Hey, like Bina, which is a wide letter, appearing in its complete form. It should not surprise you that Bina and Malchut have the same letter because in the world of correction, they are indeed similar and lend their vessels to one another, as in the verse, “And they two went.”