Part 14 · Chapter 225

The Ari's Text

And since the three upper ones are the letters YHV of the HaVaYaH behind his shoulders of Arich Anpin, and there is no such great illumination there, therefore they do not have enough to illuminate except in the two lower ones, and not in three, as their number. There remained now the last Hey of the upper HaVaYaH, and the lower Hey of the lower HaVaYaH behind his shoulders of Arich Anpin, and these illuminate here in ZA, in the attribute of Vnakke.

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

1YHV [Yod-Hey-Vav] of the HaVaYaH behind the shoulders of AA, and there is no such great illumination there, therefore they do not have the power to illuminate except in the two lower ones, and not in three, as their number. Meaning, that although there are here three illuminations — the Yod of the lower HaVaYaH together with the Vav-Hey of the middle HaVaYaH — they serve only for two of the corrections of the Dikna [beard] of ZA, which are “and bearer of iniquity” and “transgression.” And this is for the reason that he receives his discernment of Ruach from the Vav-Hey of HGT, which is behind the shoulders of AA; for from the discernment of Ruach, ZA has of the very substance of his emanation only VAK alone, and therefore he cannot then receive from the discernment of the GAR of the HaVaYaH of HGT, which are “Apayim” and “and abundant in mercy,” which are Yod-Hey and a Rosh [head], but only from the Vav-Hey, which are the VAK of that which is behind the shoulders, which are “and truth” and “and keeps mercy.” It is thus found that there is there only a small illumination, which is Nefesh-Ruach of the NRNHY [Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida] of Ruach, and therefore it illuminates for him in two corrections alone. However, from the first HaVaYaH, which illuminates for him in the Ibur [impregnation], he takes all five discernments of NRNHY of Nefesh, as above, and therefore they illuminate for him in three corrections, as above. And one should not ask: is not the Ruach higher than the discernment of Nefesh, and if so, he ought to have received the discernment of Ruach from the first HaVaYaH and the discernment of Nefesh from the middle HaVaYaH? For it is known that from the discernment of the vessels it is always reckoned that the upper ones grow first, and therefore he first takes the discernment of Nefesh in the GAR of the vessels; and therefore the illumination of the Ibur depends upon the first HaVaYaH of the Dikna, where the discernment of the HBD of the Dikna is. However, from the discernment of illumination this is only the illumination of NHY; but this illumination he has in completeness together with the GAR, and therefore he takes from there the whole YHV. And the discernment of Ruach is always reckoned in the middle HaVaYaH, both from the lights and from the vessels, as is known. And from this discernment he has in his fixed state only VAK of Ruach, and therefore he takes from there only the Vav-Hey alone, and not the Yod-Hey, which are the GAR.
2There remained now the upper Hey of the upper HaVaYaH of AA, and the lower Hey that is in the lower HaVaYaH behind the shoulders of AA, and these illuminate here in AA in the quality of VeNakeh. It has already been explained that the ARI speaks here of the VAK of ZA, which he has in his fixed state, which come from the first Ibur [impregnation] of ZA and the nursing of two years, as is known; for then he has only NRNHY of Nefesh and VAK of Ruach. And from the discernment of the vessels he has only HBD HGT and lacks NHY, which is for the reason that his bottom Hey is still in the Einayim and he lacks AHP. And the light of Ruach is reckoned in the vessel of Galgalta, which from the discernment of the correction of lines is called HBD; and the light of Nefesh in the vessels of the Einayim, which in the three lines are called HGT down to the Chazeh [chest]. And it is thus found that in this Chazeh, which is the discernment of the Einayim, the two Heys are included there together, which are: the Hey of the discernment of the Malchut of HBD, and the Hey of the discernment of the Malchut of HGT — whereby afterwards, when he attains the vessels of AHP, the Hey of HGT descends to the discernment of the new NHY, and then he acquires the GAR of the lights, as is known. And this is what he says, “the upper Hey of the upper HaVaYaH, and the bottom Hey that is in the lower HaVaYaH, etc., illuminate in the quality of VeNakeh” — for the quality of VeNakeh is the point of the Chazeh, which is the discernment of the Malchut in him; and she is now included, at the time when he lacks AHP, of the two Heys together, for the bottom Hey too, which is to serve in him in the NHY, is now included there together with the Malchut of the Rosh [head]. Thus the Malchut of the first HaVaYaH, which is from the discernment of the vessels of HBD that are destined to be in his Rosh, is now included in the point of the Chazeh, which is the discernment of the Hey of the Vav-Hey of the HaVaYaH of HGT, namely the Hey out of the Vav-Hey behind the shoulders of this HaVaYaH, as above. And they are included there together.
And one should not ask how he counts this Hey behind the shoulders of the HaVaYaH of HGT for two corrections, for he counted her for the correction of “transgression,” and now he counts her also for the correction of VeNakeh of ZA. And this is because there, in the two corrections “and bearer of iniquity” and “transgression,” this Hey is counted as the discernment of the left line; yet from the discernment of the place of the coupling she is counted as the middle line, and therefore she serves for two corrections — here for the left line, and here for the point of the Chazeh, which is called VeNakeh. For there is the place of the coupling afterwards, after he acquires the new NHY, when she descends from there to the discernment of the Atara [crown] of the Yesod.