Part 9 · Chapter 9

The Ari's Text

Now we shall explain the matter of the MAN [Mayin Nukvin] in the Nukva [female] of ZA [Zeir Anpin], and from her we shall learn about the others. We have already explained that all these discernments of the Melachim [kings] are called by the name BON [the filling of HaVaYaH amounting to 52]. Therefore know and understand: MAN anywhere, plainly stated, are alluded to by the name BON. Yet there must necessarily be the discernment of the MAN themselves, and also the discernment of the Kli [vessel] itself in which the MAN are placed — to which our sages alluded in saying, "A woman makes a covenant only with him who made her a vessel." This is why a woman does not conceive from the first intercourse: for in the first intercourse he made in her the discernment of the Kli, and thenceforth there is a place for the MAN to be depicted within it, and then she conceives.

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

1MAN, anywhere, are alluded to by the name BON: For the whole matter of MAN comes from the force of the breaking of the vessels and the nullification that occurred in all the Partzufim that came out in the world of Nekudim. All the corrections that come in the six thousand years, until the days of the Messiah, are nothing but to return and build all these Partzufim to their level as they were before they were nullified. And it is known that the world of Nekudim is called by the name BON. Therefore, every discernment that we raise in order to correct it — which is the MAN — is regarded by the name BON. But the lights that are newly extended from Ein Sof, through all the degrees, to correct the aforementioned MAN, are regarded by the name MA, as said above in Part 8.
2The MAN themselves, and also the discernment of the vessel itself in which the MAN are placed: You already know that no degree can rise even the slightest above itself, for the upper one that comes to the place of the lower one becomes like it, and likewise the lower one that rises to the place of the upper one is obligated to become like it, for the whole matter of spiritual difference is only disparity of form, and as long as there is any disparity of form between the lower one and the upper one, how could the lower one rise to the upper one? Therefore, since there is no possibility of correction for the lower one in its own degree, unless the upper one corrects it within its own upper degree — as said at the end of Part 8, that there is no possibility of correction for BYA in their own place, but only in their rising to Atzilut, and likewise Atzilut above — therefore, every single degree needs a special vessel whose property it is to descend to the place of the degree below it and to raise it up to its own place. This is what the ARI says, that there necessarily is the discernment of MAN by itself, and the discernment of the vessel that raises it by itself; for otherwise, how could the MAN of the degree of the lower one rise to the upper one above it, as said above?
3A woman does not conceive from the first intercourse, for in the first intercourse he made in her the discernment of the vessel, and thenceforth there is a place, etc.: And you should know that this matter of the vessel that raises MAN is one matter with the discernment of the firstborn sons that the ARI wrote about just above, that no MAN can rise except by means of them. And as we explained there, that in every MAN two discernments are regarded — namely, the posteriors of the upper one and the anterior of the lower one — and the posteriors of the upper one are always regarded as the firstborn brothers to the anterior of the lower one. See there. And in this manner the ARI continues the same matter with regard to the MAN of the Nukva, so that from it we may learn about the others, for here he explains them well in the secret of the posteriors and anterior of the name HaVaYaH of BON, as brought before us.