Part 11 · Chapter 1

The Ari's Text

*The lights do not stand in the secret of the pregnancy but seven months, and afterwards they are completed to be corrected. And the sparks are completed after nine months, and the vessels are completed after twelve months. Hence you will find three pregnancies that there are in the world: the time of seven, of nine, and of twelve. As mentioned in the Gemara, in that matter of one who tarried twelve months of the year, and Rabba Tosfa'a declared him fit. (Yevamot 80b).

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 lights do not stand in the secret of the Ibur but seven months: And although it was stated above (page 947, item 152) that in the first three months is the correction of the vessels, in the phase of the lower chamber, which is the Yesod of Tevuna; and in the second three months is the correction of the sparks, in the phase of the middle chamber, which is the place of the cut; and in the last three months is the correction of the lights, in the phase of the upper chamber, which is the Yesod of the upper Bina. See there. The intention is not that the whole correction of the vessels is completed in the lower chamber, or that the beginning of the correction of the sparks starts only in the middle three months, in the middle chamber. Rather, in truth, all of them begin to be corrected at once in the lower chamber, and all of them ascend together also to the upper chamber in the last three months, only that what is spoken of is from which phase of screen they receive their correction: that all the couplings of AVI for the need of the vessels in particular are from the phase of the Yesod of Tevuna. And all the couplings for the need of the sparks are from the phase of the place of the cut. And for the need of the lights, they are from the Yesod of the upper Bina, as is written there. And besides this, there is in them a phase of clothing, one within the other, for they receive correction from one another, since before the lights are completed to their full need, certainly the vessels, too, are not yet in completeness. And not only that, but even after the completion of the lights, the vessels are still not ready to clothe them until after twelve months, as is written here in the words of the ARI. Hence, when the correction of the sparks begins, in their particular coupling in the middle chamber, there is an ascent also for the vessels to the middle chamber. And likewise, when the correction of the lights begins, in their particular coupling in the Yesod of Bina, namely in the last three months, the vessels, too, ascend to the upper chamber, to the place of the lights. And from another phase it is likewise reckoned that all the corrections that reached the lights and the sparks in the first three months, in the lower chamber, are only the phase of their Assiya, which in their value is reckoned like the phase of vessels, and likewise the corrections that reached the lights in the middle three months are only the phase of their Yetzira, which, in the value of the lights, are only the phase of sparks of lights, and not actual lights, for the name “lights” pertains mainly to the phase of GAR of every degree, whereas the phase of Assiya and Yetzira, which are Nefesh and Ruach, are reckoned only as an illumination of vessels, as is known. And since the phase of GAR of the lights comes only in the upper chamber, it is therefore reckoned there as the place of the correction of the lights. However, certainly, the phase of the Nefesh of the lights comes together with the correction of the vessels in the lower chamber. And the phase of their Ruach, in the middle chamber, together with the sparks — and so, too, with the sparks — as the ARI explains before us.