Part 12 · Chapter 6

The Ari's Text

And behold, the mouth of the womb is narrow, and the fetus cannot come out from there except with great difficulty. And it is because all the lights that Ima has in her NHY depart from them and rise there, into her belly. Then very many lights are found there, and that vessel cannot bear them, and the womb is split through its mouth — since there is an actual split there, it is split and widened, and then the lights of Tvuna, which are the master of the house, push ZA outward, who is the guest, and he 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

1The mouth of the womb is narrow, and the fetus cannot come out from there except with great difficulty: One must recall here everything explained above in Part 9 (page 787, from item 81 onward, the whole continuation, and in the Inner Light there, the passage beginning “Door”), that there are two doors in the womb, which form there the phase of a closed Mem, which closes and detains the fetus so that it cannot come out from there, except through some cause that opens the doors. As is written in the Inner Light there, on page 790, the passage beginning “And the matter” — see there well. And this is what he says here, that the mouth of the womb is narrow, and the fetus cannot come out from there except with great difficulty; that is, that a particular cause must be aroused to open the doors.
2The lights that Ima has in her NHY depart from them, and rise there, into her belly: For at the time of birth, the smallness of the bottom Hey in the eyes returns and is aroused in the Yesod of Ima (as above, in the Inner Light, page 790, the passage beginning “And the matter”), and because of this the GAR of Tevuna depart from her vessels of HGT, and she remains with Ruach and Nefesh alone; whereupon the Ruach rises to the vessels of KHB, and the Nefesh to the vessels of HGT, and the vessels of NHY are found to remain completely empty of their lights. And this is what he means, that the lights of the NHY of Ima depart.
3Into her belly, and then very many lights are found there: You already know that the matter of the abundance of lights means the ascent of new MAN, which causes the coupling there — as above in the words of the ARI, page 404, item 14 — study it there well, and in the Inner Light there. And here too, after the bottom Hey returned to the eyes, and the light of the Nefesh of NHY rose to HGT, as above in the adjacent item, a new coupling is then made there in the belly of AVI, upon the screen of phase one, which was renewed by the power of the ascent of the bottom Hey to the eyes; and from this coupling came out ten Sefirot at the level of the light of Ruach, called the Mochin of nursing. As the ARI wrote in Etz Chaim, Gate 11, Chapter 9, that at the end of the first Ibur, at the time of birth, second Mochin of Ruach come out, and since they enter only through nursing, they are therefore called the Mochin of nursing — study it there well. And this is what he says here: “the lights that Ima has in her NHY depart and rise into her belly, and then very many lights are found there” — that is, that they became there the phase of MAN, and upon them the coupling of AVI is made, from the phase of their middle vessels, which are from the phase of a screen of the coarseness of phase one, which bring out ten Sefirot at the level of Ruach.
And therefore he is precise to say “into her belly,” to indicate the coupling, for the place of the coupling is in the belly, as is known. And from this you shall know that the first Ibur includes two levels: the level of NHY over the course of the months of the Ibur, and the level of HGT from the coupling at the time of birth. As is clarified.
4And the womb is split through its mouth, since there is an actual split there: For the womb is the Rosh of YESHSUT, as above (page 1057, item 102), for the Yesod of the whole is nearly at the mouth of the Rosh of Tevuna — see there. And this is what he means by “since there is an actual split there”: for at the mouth of the Rosh there is already a split, only that it was blocked, in the secret of the two doors that form a closed Mem (as above, page 828, answer 28 — study it there well). And therefore now, after the bottom Hey returned to the eyes, and the smallness of the door and hinge of the first returned to its place, and became separate by itself from the door and hinge of the second, which is of the phase of greatness — this is reckoned that the doors were opened and a split was made in the closed Mem, through which split the fetus comes out to the air of the world. And this is what he means by “it is split and widened”: that is, that a great difference was made between the door and hinge of the first, and the door and hinge of the second, as above.
5The lights of Tevuna, which are the master of the house, push ZA outward, who is the guest, and he is born: Meaning, that while ZA was only in the phase of the coarseness of the root, which is the phase of Keter in the light of Nefesh, as is known, which was the case throughout the entire time of the fetus, he had no discernible existence of his own, but was entirely included in the Rosh of Tevuna, in the secret that the fetus is the thigh of its mother. However, at the time of birth, when the bottom Hey returned to the eyes, and a coupling of AVI was made upon the screen of phase one, as above, and the coarseness of phase one was renewed in ZA, then the great difference is discerned between the Rosh of YESHSUT, which is from the phase above the Tabur of AA, and the phase of ZA, which is from the phase below the Tabur of AA — a difference which is very great between them. And since this great change in ZA was discerned, it is reckoned as though he had gone out and descended from there to his own degree and place, and this is called by the name birth and coming out to the air of the world. And this is what he means: “the lights of Tevuna, which are the master of the house, push ZA outward, who is the guest” — that is, that ZA is pushed away from the high phase of Tevuna, and comes out from her, because his coarseness, which is from the phase below the Tabur, was discerned, and he has no connection at all to the master of the house, that is, to Tevuna, as above. And this change, in itself, is reckoned as birth and coming out. And understand this well: before the coupling was renewed there upon the coarseness of phase one, ZA was not discernible as the phase of a guest in this house, which is the womb, for while he was only in the phase of the coarseness of the root, he was entirely included in the phase of the womb, and was like the very thigh of his mother. But at the very moment that he is discerned as a guest, he is reckoned as born. As is clarified.