Part 10 · Chapter 13

The Ari's Text

*The matter is that when it arose in the will of the upper Emanator to emanate Atzilut with the Upper Land, the first kings went out at first in the secret of complete judgment within the upper thought, as it is written, ‘And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom,’ and among them the Klipot and unholy judgments were mixed in. And from the abundance of judgments, the earth was nullified — that is, Malchut — until the root of the judgments struck like a hammer striking an anvil, and sparks fly out in every direction. So too the root of the judgments divided these kings into three hundred and twenty sparks, in the secret of the thirty-two paths, each one including ten. And from these sparks he clarified the sparks of holy judgment, which are the thirty-two [names of] Elohim in the account of Creation, on the side of holy judgment.

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

1To emanate Atzilut with the Upper Land: Bina is called the Upper Land, and Malchut is called the lower land. And the matter of the partnership of Malchut in Bina is regarded as Atzilut being emanated with the Upper Land — that is, that the screen and the coupling are made in the place of Bina, at which time Bina is called the land of Edom.
2The root of the judgments, like a hammer striking an anvil, and sparks fly out in every direction, etc., in the secret of the thirty-two paths: Butzina de Kardinuta [the lamp of darkness] is always called the root of the judgments, whose meaning is the discernment of the bottom Hey of the first restriction that served in the Partzufim of AK, which is the secret of the middle point, as its matter is written in Part One. Study it there well. And the matter of clash means striking: for the screen, in which is the coarseness of the restricted bottom Hey, strikes the upper light and raises reflected light, called sparks, as is known. Now this clash went out first in the seven kings of Nekudim, which brought out there four kings through the four levels, one below the other, in the couplings of the upper AVI of Nekudim; and four kings TNHYM, through the four levels that came out in the couplings of YESHSUT. From all these eight levels, sparks fell to BYA. This is what he says: “like a hammer striking an anvil, and sparks fly out in every direction.” And the number of these sparks is 320 sparks, as he goes on to explain. Now afterward, at the time of the correction in the world of Atzilut, that same coupling returned and clarifies from them only the nine first ones of them — that is, the nine discernments of the thirty-two sparks, which total 288 in gematria — and these are called the thirty-two paths of wisdom that illuminate the fifty gates of Bina, as will be explained below.