Part 10 · Chapter 31

The Ari's Text

And behold, Bina has two states: either in the form of a round Samech, which is when she is concealed above with Chochma; or in the form of a closed Mem, at the time when she returns and sits as the fourth upon the structure below, to nurse them, as is said at the beginning of Torah portion Terumah.

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

1 Bina has two states: either in the form of a round Samech, which is when she is concealed above with Chochma: As stated above, the discernment of HBD-HGT of the upper AVI are called Samech up to their Chazeh, and their closed Mem is clothed within the second Partzuf called YESHSUT. And when YESHSUT are at Gadlut, they too divide into Samech and Mem: from their Chazeh and above, from where the bottom Hey has descended, is called Samech, and from their Chazeh and below, where the discernment of the new NHY is, below their Parsa, is called closed Mem. See well the adjacent item, where we elaborated on this. And this is what he says: “either in the form of a round Samech, which is when she is concealed above with Chochma” — meaning, that these YESHSUT have two states: one is at the time of their Gadlut, when they are considered like AVI, since they too — their HBD-HGT are clean of the bottom Hey, for the bottom Hey has already descended from their Nikvey Einayim through an upper coupling; and this is regarded as YESHSUT, who is also called Bina, having risen above and become concealed with Chochma at an equal level; then the river is regarded as being included and found within Eden, which is Chochma. And therefore Bina, who is YESHSUT, is also called by the name round Samech, like Chochma.
2 Or in the form of a closed Mem, at the time when she returns and sits as the fourth upon the structure below, to nurse them: Meaning, that when YESHSUT bestow Mochin of Katnut upon ZA, they must then arouse within themselves the discernment of their own Katnut, corresponding to the measure of Katnut that they need to bestow upon ZA, as is known. And therefore it is regarded that they raise the discernment of the bottom Hey to their Einayim, in order to bestow this discernment upon ZA. And we find again that the upper AVI, who are both called Aba, now bring Bina outside, by the secret of the closed Mem, since YESHSUT, who are Bina, then return to their Katnut in the discernment of GE alone. They then bestow from the discernment of their old NHY, which have returned and been diminished to the discernment of Nefesh-Ruach, and they then bestow Mochin of Yenika upon ZA. And these NHY of Katnut, which Bina arouses in herself, are called crouching, by the secret of the mother who crouches over her children, in the manner of the bird that tucks in her legs while she warms her children; and since, in truth, Bina already stands, in relation to herself, in the NHY of Gadlut, which are the new NHY, but she arouses the discernment of her old NHY, from the discernment of the screen of phase one, which she once had, at the time of Katnut, and which are now already fixed within her in the discernment of HGT — so she bestows upon ZON, who are her children, from the discernment of her Tifferet, and not from the discernment of her legs, which are the NHY of Gadlut. And this is similar to what is said regarding the Nukva at her Katnut, that she receives from the discernment of the old Yesod of ZA, even though it has already risen to the upper third of the Tifferet of ZA, since he himself is already at Gadlut; nevertheless he arouses there the Butzina de Kardinuta [the lamp of darkness], and makes a hole in his posterior at the Chazeh, and bestows upon the Nukva by way of the Tifferet and not by way of the Yesod of Gadlut. See above (page 826, the passage beginning, ‘And we find’). So it is also here, that Bina bestows upon ZON from the discernment of her Tifferet, which is the discernment of her Guf, and therefore this is called crouching. And this is what he says, that she returns and sits in a crouch over the children below her, to nurse them — meaning, in order to measure out to ZON the discernment of Mochin of Yenika, which are the discernment of Nefesh-Ruach.