Part 9 · Chapter 60

The Ari's Text

The male's Gadlut [adulthood] is made first, over the course of thirteen years and one day; and after the male's Gadlut, the twelve years and one day of the female's Gadlut begin. The reason is that the whole of the male's Gadlut is through the Mochin [minds] extended into him; and after they have finished expanding in him and he has grown, the illumination of these Mochin then goes out through the orifice of the Chazeh [chest] at his back and builds her. Thus she is found to be built after the building of the male, as the verse says, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him," etc. And so we see with the very sense of sight, that a man is always greater in years than his wife.

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

1And after the male’s Gadlut, the twelve years and one day of the female’s Gadlut begin: For it is impossible for the Katnut of the lower to come out before the Gadlut of the upper is completed. As written above (page 739, the passage beginning “And this matter”), the AHP of the upper are always found with the GE of the lower in one degree. Therefore, if the upper has not yet sorted out and corrected his own AHP, how much more so will he be unable to correct the GE of the lower. Therefore ZA cannot enlarge the Katnut of the Nukva, namely her GE, before he attains his own Gadlut — namely the bringing down of the bottom Hey from his Einayim, which returns the AHP to their degree. Then his AHP become the discernment of a vessel that raises MAN and corrects the GE of the Nukva, as written there. And what the ARI writes, “the twelve years and one day of the female’s Gadlut,” does not mean actual Gadlut, for the duration of the twelve years is only for the Katnut of the female, as the ARI writes below, that throughout this whole time she is called a minor. Rather, the intent is to enlarge the building of her Katnut alone, and the word “Gadlut” is from the language of the enlarging of the female. For up to now, the discernment of the MAN of the Nukva, from the standpoint of what pertains to her own building, had no form at all, for she served only in the discernment of a screen for the sake of the level of the male, as above: at first for the level of Yesod, and afterwards for the level of Tifferet, namely for the level of HGT. But now, after ZA has already received his level of Gadlut, the time begins in which he can correct the discernment of the Katnut of the female, as above at length.