Part 12 · Chapter 1

The Ari's Text

*In it we shall explain the matter of birth, how its matter is. Behold, it was explained above the matter of the three chambers that there are in the woman, and how in the last three months, the entire fetus in its three aspects — which are vessels, sparks, and lights — all rise to the upper chamber. And behold, when the time of birth arrives, when the fetus is already complete in the three aforementioned aspects, it rolls and descends to the lower chamber, and afterward comes out even from that lower chamber, and then it is born.

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

1It rolls and descends to the lower chamber, etc.: The matter of the three chambers has already been clarified in the previous part: that the lower chamber is the phase of Nefesh, and the middle one is the phase of Ruach, and the upper one is the phase of GAR — for the fetus is not completed in the NRNHY of Nefesh, but rather by way of its ascent through them, up to the upper chamber — study it there well. However, at the time of birth, it loses all the high degrees of the Ibur, and it descends completely from the phase of Atzilut and descends to BYA, as is written before us. And this is what he means: “when the time of birth arrives, it rolls and descends to the lower chamber” — that is, it then loses the entire NRNHY of the Ibur; as he concludes, “and afterward it comes out even from that lower chamber” — that is, it also loses the phase of the Nefesh of Atzilut, which is the phase of the lower chamber, as above, and descends to BYA. As is written before us.