Part 5 · Chapter 51

The Ari's Text

It is the same matter in Bina, too, except there is a difference in her, which is that some light of Bina remained in her during the departure, and now light Hesed has entered her. It is known that Hesed is the son of Bina, and it cannot be the male while the light of Bina itself a female to it. If we say that the light of Bina will be a male, and the light of Hesed will be a female, that, too, is impossible. This is why that turning face-to-face that we described above is needed. When the eight lights are given to her, Hochma turns her anterior downward, and the male and female of Hochma make a coupling there in their place, and elicit one light through their coupling, called Yod, which is then given below by turning their anterior to Bina. At that time, that Yod clothes inside the light of Bina as did the others, the Yod becomes a male, and the Bina, Nukva. Afterwards, when the seven lights are placed in the vessel of Bina, the light of Hesed is placed in her, and the light of Hesed remains in her permanently, in the state of MAN.

Inner Light

This commentary hasn't been matched to individual seifim yet — items are shown in reading order, and the number beside each one counts the notes themselves, not the seifim of the Ari's text.

Not matched to a seif

1That the light of Bina should be male and the light of Hesed female — this too is impossible: For the ten Sefirot are discerned as two males, who are Hochma and ZA, and two females, who are Bina and Malchut. And male means the expansion of the light, and female means the reception of the light. And your sign is that the male has his face downward, to bestow to the lower ones, and the female has her face upward, to receive. And these relations are rooted still in the ten Sefirot of direct light: for the Keter of direct light is the secret of the root, and the first expansion from the root is the light of Hochma, and the second expansion is the light of Hassadim, that is, ZA, and both of them are the aspect of males; and Bina is the female of Hochma, and Malchut is the female of ZA. And this is what he says, “that one cannot say that the light of Bina should be male and the light of Hesed female,” since the nature of the lights from their root is the reverse: the light of Hesed is male, that is, the light of ZA, and the light of Bina is female, as explained.
2That Hochma turns her face downward, etc. This matter has already been explained above (page 320, the passage beginning “Hochma,” in the Inner Light), and seek it out from there.
3They couple, etc., one light that is called Yod: See in the Inner Light, page 320, the matter of this coupling. And although this male, who comes from the coupling of HB, is discerned as their VAK — since every offspring is reckoned as VAK relative to those that gave birth to it — nevertheless, since it is the VAK of Hochma, which is Yod, it is discerned in its own value as a Yod as well. However, the aspects of true VAK are always called by a Vav.
4The Yod clothes inside the light of Bina. Namely in the record that remained in the vessel of Bina from the time of the first expansion, after the light of Bina departed from there. For all the lights left records there in their vessels at the time of their departure from them, as the ARI says above (Part 4, Chapter 2, item 2). And that record that is in the vessel of Bina became the aspect of the female to the above Yod.