Part 14 · Chapter 49

The Ari's Text

And open your eyes and see what is the reason of this thing and its secret, and how this thing is necessary. And the matter is that it was explained above that the Yesod of AA is a soul within ZON, and clothes within them; therefore ZON must ascend upward into AVI, and then the Yesod of AA will also ascend upward with them into AVI; and it is male and female, as above, and couples from within itself; and then the Concealed Brain of AA is aroused, for 'from my flesh I shall behold God' — that the arousal of the lower Yesod causes an arousal in the brain of the man, to draw the drop of birth. Then the upper Concealed Brain of AA is aroused, and gives the power of the drop in the Mochin of AVI.

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

1ZON must ascend upward into AVI, and then the Yesod of AA will also ascend with them upward into AVI. And there is no contradiction here to what was said above in Part 10, that the NHY of AA that ascend to the HGT of AVI raise the ZON with them to AVI — so that the Yesod of AA raises the ZON. And here he says the opposite, that the ZON raise the Yesod of AA to AVI. And the matter is, that there he deals with the first Ibur [impregnation] of ZA, when ZON still have no independent existence by which he could ascend as MAN [Mayin Nukvin], and therefore he needs the upper one to raise him; since the GE of the lower one are attached to the AHP of the upper one, therefore, when the upper one raises his own AHP, the GE of the lower one ascend together with them, as is known. Whereas here the ARI deals with the second Ibur of ZON, who already have some existence of Katnut at least, and therefore he ascends of himself and does not need the upper one to raise him — on the contrary, here the lower one raises the upper one; and this is the practice in all the degrees, that for the first Ibur the upper one must raise the lower one, but in the second Ibur, the lower one ascends of himself and also raises the upper one. As stated in Parts 8 and 9; see there.
2And behold, it is male and female, and couples from within itself, and then the Mocha Stimaa [the concealed brain] of AA is aroused, etc., and then the Mocha Stimaa of AA is aroused and gives the power of the drop in the Mochin of AVI. One must not mistake from this, that the Mochin first come from the coupling of the Yesod of AA from within itself, and afterward they go out in the Mocha Stimaa — for this is utterly impossible, since the Mochin come from above downward, and the coupling of Neshikin [kissing] necessarily precedes the coupling of the Yesod, as is known. Indeed, this coupling that is spoken of here, in the Yesod of AA, to arouse the Mocha Stimaa — the meaning is the discernment of a warming for the raising of MAN, in the secret of drops that rise from below, which precede the MAD [male waters], as is known.
And the reason for the matter is, that the Partzufim, from the side of the fixed Mochin of Atzilut, AVI of the Mochin are always found in the aspect of back to face, where Ima turns her back to the face of Aba, in the secret of “and a wise man will praise her from behind.” For Ima is always found in the secret of “for He desires mercy,” meaning that she longs for Hassadim and not for Hochma, as is known. And therefore it is impossible for there to be a coupling in the upper Mochin except through the raising of MAN from the discernment of ZON; and this is because the Bina of the Mochin has a bond with ZON to bestow upon them the illumination of Hochma, by the power of the ten Sefirot of direct light, whereby phase two grants to phase three the illumination of Hochma in Hassadim (as above, page 5, the passage beginning “And the reason”) — and therefore, at the time that ZON need the illumination of Hochma, which is their GAR, they ascend and raise with them the Yesod of AA to the HGT of AVI, and then the discernment of the warming occurs both in the aspect of the male and female that are in the Yesod of AA, and in AVI themselves, through the MAN of ZON that are included in them. And this warming means the matter of an arousal of coarseness and Katnut, which the discernment of the MAN of ZON causes to AVI, the garments of the HGT of AA — for in truth they are found below the screen of the Peh of the Rosh of AA. And just as Bina came out from the discernment of the Rosh of AA, all the more so AVI, the garments of the HGT, who should already have been the discernment of a body lacking a Rosh — but since the GAR of Bina are in the aspect of “for He desires mercy,” they therefore do not suffer any restraint or restriction at all, as is known. Therefore, now that her children ZON have ascended to her as MAN, and Bina, being the mother of the children, still from the side of the ten Sefirot of direct light, feels the need to bestow the illumination of Hochma, she immediately feels the discernment of the screen standing in the Peh of the Rosh of AA, and the upper Ima becomes restricted like Tevuna, for she too now needs the illumination of Hochma, like her.
And this matter of the warming that was explained regarding the upper Ima also causes a further warming higher up, namely in the three heads of AA — for it was explained in Part 13 that Galgalta and Mocha Stimaa are the discernment of male and female in the Rosh of AA; it was also explained there that the discernment of Galgalta of AA does not suffer at all from the screen in the Peh of the Rosh of Atik, and is as though it were attached to the Rosh of Atik, and this is for the reason that the Mem of Tzelem is the discernment of the correction of the GAR of Bina, in the secret of “for He desires mercy,” and therefore they do not feel any distancing or restriction at all from the discernment of the screen in the Rosh of Atik. Thus, the discernment of the Galgalta of AA has the same relation toward the three heads of AA as the throat, which is the discernment of Galgalta, has toward AVI. And it is now found that just as Ima felt a warming and a diminution because of the ascent of ZON to her, that same diminution also reaches the whole of the Rosh of AA, for now they too feel the discernment of the distancing from the Rosh of Atik, which they did not feel at all before. And therefore this is regarded like the upper Ima raising MAN to the Mocha Stimaa, who is the Nukva of the Rosh of AA, for all MAN rise only to the females, as is known. And likewise the Mocha Stimaa raises MAN to the Nukva of the GAR of Atik, who is the discernment of AVI of Nekudim, as is known, and she raises MAN to the AB SAG that are in the SAG of AK; and then the coupling is made in the AB SAG of AK, upon the MAN and the discernment of the warming that ascended there — for all that warming and that coarseness that is in the MAN comes by the power of the second restriction, whose meaning is that the bottom Hey that rose into the Einayim and put out the AHP outward, as is known. It is now found that, after the coupling was made upon this MAN, in the Peh of the Rosh of the SAG of AK, the AB of this Rosh, which has no part or contact at all with the discernment of the second restriction — since the matter of the ascent of the bottom Hey in the Einayim begins only at the point of the SAG that is below the Tabur, and not at the AB of SAG that ends above the Tabur, as is known — therefore its MAD, which is the discernment of the upper light that passes through the discernment of its vessels and strikes upon the screen of the discernment of the bottom Hey that is in the Einayim, included in this MAN, immediately brings down the bottom Hey to its place, to the place of the Peh of SAG.
And then the GAR of Atik ascend, and are included in the GAR of SAG of AK; for after the MAN of the GAR of Atik are included there, in this coupling of AB SAG, as above, these Mochin are found to reach also the GAR of Atik, who are the discernment of the GAR of Nekudim, for the GAR of Atik took this place of the GAR of Nekudim, as is known. And if so, the whole discernment of the difference between the GAR of Nekudim and the GAR of SAG descends, for the whole difference from the GAR of Nekudim to the GAR of SAG of AK was through the second restriction of the bottom Hey in the Nikvey Einayim, for therefore they descended below the Tabur of SAG of AK, as is known. And now that this difference has been nullified because of the Mochin of AB of AK, there is no longer any distinction between the GAR of Nekudim and the Rosh of SAG; and then the GAR of Atik ascend and clothe upon the SAG, and couple there upon the MAN that the Mocha Stimaa of AA raised to them. And since AA too receives these Mochin of the descent of the bottom Hey to the Peh, they too ascend to the place of the GAR of Atik, for their difference and the discernment of the screen that put them out of the Rosh of Atik was nullified. And in this way, the GAR of AA, who are in the place of the GAR of Atik, again couple upon the MAN that AVI raised to them, and then those Mochin reach AVI as well, and in them too the difference and the screen in the Peh of AA, which used to put them out of the Rosh of AA, is nullified, and they too are found ascending to the Rosh of AA. And then AVI, who are in the place of the Rosh of AA, also couple upon the MAN of ZON that are in them, and the Mochin are found to reach ZON as well, and from them too the discernment of the bottom Hey descends from the Einayim, and they too raise their AHP, with which the discernment of the GE of the souls of the righteous that are attached to the AHP of ZON also ascends, as is known. And it has already been explained that the essential action of the descent of the bottom Hey from the Einayim raises the AHP of every degree, together with the lower one that clothes the degree of the upper one — for the AHP that descended from the upper one because of the second restriction return after its nullification, and together with them the lower one also ascends to the place of the upper one.
Here you have before you how the Yesod of AA, through its ascent with ZON to AVI, arouses the Mocha Stimaa of AA, so that it too raises MAN to Atik, and then the Mochin descend to AVI, as the ARI’s words state.