Part 10 · Chapter 14

The Ari's Text

The matter of the division of these kings into the 32 paths of wisdom is this: the kings are eight, and each one divides into four, in the secret of the four letters of the name HaVaYaH; and eight times four makes thirty-two. And each of these is included of ten, making three hundred and twenty. This is “the venom of the king's wrath” (320), which is in the secret of judgments and wrath.

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

1Each one divides into four, etc., and each of these is included of ten: The division into four is according to the four discernments of coarseness in the screen, since each of the four discernments brings out a level of ten Sefirot, as is known. Thus the four discernments comprise forty Sefirot. And each and every one of the eight kings is included of these forty Sefirot; hence there are 320 discernments in them. And here one must understand why he does not count five discernments in the screen, since there are five discernments of coarseness in the screen. Rather, the matter is that phase four is not present here, for after it disappeared through the refinement of the Guf [body] of the Keter of AK, it was never renewed again; and there is nothing here in Nekudim but phase four of clothing, with no coarseness at all. Hence there are only four discernments of coarseness here. And this is what alludes to the secret of the four letters of the name HaVaYaH — for even in HaVaYaH there is no level of Keter in them, but only by the hint of the tip of the Yod, as is known, which is likewise for the reason stated.