Partie 3 · Chapitre 6

We will now speak once more of the upper worlds. After we have explained the allegory, we will now explain the lesson. The lesson is made of four rudiments only1, being the four letters HaVaYaH, namely Hochma, Bina, Tifferet and Malchut, and that is why Hochma is first.

You should also understand what is written, that Keter is always the highest phase2, which is not included in that world. It is like the crown of a king, which is above his head and not a part of him. Hence it is not regarded as a part of the Sefira, and Daat, mentioned in Sefer Yetzira (Book of Creation), is counted instead. However, sometimes we do count it in the ten Sefirot. It will be explained by our earlier words that there is a median phase between each and every two phases. It is similar to what nature scientists have written and the Rambam wrote in the beginning of the verse, “Now the earth was Tohu [unformed] and Bohu [void].” He also wrote inSefer HaBahir [The Book of the Bright One], that before He created the four rudiments, He created one substance, called primordial. This is something that is prepared for acquiring the form of the four rudiments later on, but it does not clothe in any form whatsoever. Because it precedes the Tohu, it is called “nothing,” as in “They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”

The thing is that Ein Sof is called “nothing” because there is no perception of it. It has no substance3 and no form4. After that comes Tohu, which is the Keter5, and after that Bohu, which consists of four rudiments HB TM.

Explanation: It is necessary to have a median degree between the Emanator and the emanated being, for the distance between them is as between heaven and earth. How can one shine in the other and how can create one create the other when they are two ends, if there is no median between them that connects them, and be a phase that is close to the Emanator and close to the emanated being? This phase is Keter, called Tohu6, for it contains no rudiment and is therefore not implied in the name HaVaYaH at all, only in the tip of the Yod. However, it is a median, since Keter is like the prior substance, called primordial, containing the roots of all four rudiments in potential, but not in practice. It is called Tohu because it perplexes humans’ thoughts, and they say: “We see that it is formless, yet we see that it is an emanated being7 and has the potential of all four forms8.”

It turns out that we can call it Ein Sof and Emanator, as is the opinion of some Kabbalists, that Ein Sof is the Keter, but we can also call it emanated being, because Ein Sof is certainly greater than it. This is why the sages warned regarding it, “Do not ask about that which is beyond you.” However, it is all we can speak of, for the Keter is the median between the Emanator and the emanated being. The reason for it is that it is the last phase in Ein Sof. It emanated one phase9 that contains the root of the entire ten Sefirot in concealment and great subtlety. In fact, the emanated being cannot be subtler than that, for Tohu, which is above it, there is nothing more but the absolute zero10.

Thus, this phase has two degrees: The first is the lowest and the most inferior among all the phases of Ein Sof. It is as though we say, as an allegory, that it is the phase of Malchut in Malchut, although it is not so, since there is no image or a Sefira there whatsoever; we only say so for the purpose of clarity. That lowest degree in Ein Sof contains all that is above it and receives from everyone, as it is known that Malchut receives from everyone. This low degree emanated the second phase, which is the highest degree in the emanated beings. It contains the root of all the emanated beings and bestows upon all of them. Thus, the smallest in all of the Emanator emanated the finest of all the emanated beings, and there is no other degree between them whatsoever because beyond that Emanator, there is no emanated being closer and more similar to Him than this one.

These two phases are actually one phase called Keter. With respect to phase one in her, some Kabbalists called it Ein Sof, and with respect to phase two in her, some Kabbalists called it Keter, counted as one of the ten Sefirot. However, our opinion is like neither, but rather that it is a median phase between Ein Sof and the emanated beings and has a phase of Ein Sof and a phase of the emanated beings. These two phases are called Atik and Arich Anpin, and they are both called Keter.

It is written elsewhere that Malchut in Malchut in the world of Atzilut that clothes the Rosh of Beria, which is Keter, called Arich Anpin, is Atik of the world of Beria.