Part 9 · Chapter 52

The Ari's Text

The matter is that the Yesod has no measure like the other Sefirot; it is smaller than they, and its measure is a quarter of the Tifferet, as stated in parashat Balak, p 204, on the verse "and the number of the fourth part [Rova] of Israel": the Yesod — which brings out their fourths, the drops of seed of ZA [Zeir Anpin], who is called Israel — its measure is a quarter of his Guf [body]. As is written there: "the measure of the Guf is four Britot in its measure, and the Brit [covenant] is a quarter in the measure of the measuring of the Guf," etc. And now she is called Pesia LeVar [a step outward], as above, and she is as great as the measure of the Yesod itself.

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

1The Yesod has no measure like the other Sefirot, etc., and its measure is a quarter of the Tifferet: It has already been clarified in the adjacent item that the measure of the Yesod is in the level of Malchut, and that it is not of the discernment of the five extremities of ZA, but rather came out after the screen of phase one was refined; therefore the Yesod is not incorporated in the five Hassadim of ZA, for it has only the light of Malchut, and not the light of ZA. This is what is meant by “the Yesod has no measure like the other Sefirot,” for it is not of the discernment of the five Hassadim, which are the level of phase one, in the measure of all the other Sefirot of ZA. “And its measure is a quarter of the Tifferet” — meaning, like the measure of Malchut, who is called a quarter in relation to the level of ZA, which is the Tifferet, as is known in several places.
2“The measure of the Guf is four Britot in its measure, and the Brit is a quarter in the measure of the measuring of the Guf”: You already know that the measure of the Yesod, which is called Brit, is the level of Malchut, which is called a quarter. You also know that in the Ibur, the measure of the Guf, which is ZA, is found to be only like the level of the Yesod alone. It is also known that there are five discernments in the screen, from the level of Malchut to the level of Keter. This is what they mean by “the measure of the Guf” — namely, the complete measure of ZA — being “four Britot”: meaning, that there will be in him four screens, which are: the coarseness of Keter for the light of Nefesh, phase one for the light of Ruach, phase two for the light of Neshama, and phase three for the light of Haya. For then he is found clothing AA, which is the level of Hochma of the new MA, and then this is the utmost of the rising of ZA, as is known. And the matter of four Britot is like four levels, one above the other, for the level of ZA ends in the Brit, which is the secret of the Yesod — there the screen is corrected, as is known.