Part 14 · Chapter 85

The Ari's Text

And know that just as the Malchut is called the lower Hochma, so too the Hochma in ZA is called the lower Hochma, with respect to the ancient upper Hochma. And to it he intended in saying, 'these are they who look into the secret of wisdom' — that they look into the internality of the wisdom, this one in ZA, in the secret of the soul, which is the upper Hochma, in the secret of the Daat.

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 ancient upper Hochma, etc., into the internality of this Hochma that is in ZA, in the secret of the soul, which is the upper Hochma, in the secret of the Daat. Meaning: it is already known that there are two kinds of Hochma in Atzilut. One is the concealed Hochma of AA, which is the true Hochma, that is, the Hochma of the five phases KHB TM. The second is the Hochma of the thirty-two paths, which is the discernment of the Hochma of ZA — that is, it is the Tifferet that became the bearer of the illumination of Hochma for the sake of the upper AVI, which is called the sun, above on page 1543 (item 84), see there. And therefore this Hochma of the thirty-two paths that is in AVI of the level of AB is called by the name of ZA, which is the general Tifferet, since it is what causes her, as above. And the concealed Hochma that is in AA is called the ancient Hochma; and that is because it precedes the Hochma of ZA, for the Hochma of the thirty-two paths is not revealed except through the ascent of Bina to be one discernment with the concealed Hochma, and then she draws the illumination of Hochma to the Tifferet, that is, through the ascent of AVI to the GAR of AA, as above. Thus the Hochma of the thirty-two paths is drawn from the concealed Hochma, and therefore the concealed Hochma is called by the name ancient Hochma.
And this is what he says, “just as the Malchut is called the lower Hochma”: with respect to the Hochma of the thirty-two paths of ZA, since the reflected light that she raises reaches up to his Hochma, and therefore there is drawn to her nine from above downward within the nine that are from below upward, which she raises to him, as above, in the secret of Joseph and Benjamin. So too is the matter in ZA, for he too must receive his Mochin from his own upper one, in the manner of the Nukva who receives from ZA. That is, that at first that coupling is made in the Mochin of the upper AVI while they clothe the GAR of AA — for Aba is in the place of the Galgalta of AA, and Ima is in the place of the Mocha Stimaa [the concealed brain] — and then the Mochin of the thirty-two paths are bestowed upon ZA through the coupling of the palate and the throat of AA, which are the discernments of the Yesods of AVI that are included in the Mocha Stimaa of AA. And the order of their coupling is in precisely the same way that was explained in the Yesods of ZA and his Nukva, that is, in the secret of a coupling by striking from the upper light that is in the palate upon the discernment of the two screens that are included in the throat; and they raise reflected light that reaches up to the concealed Hochma, and then Ima of the Mocha Stimaa bestows nine Sefirot of direct light and nine Sefirot of reflected light, which she received from the Yesod of Aba, which is the palate, to the Mochin of ZA.
In such a way that all the details that were explained above in the coupling of ZON — namely: stars and constellations, and the seven planets, etc. — all of it applies also in the coupling of AVI that is in the Mocha Stimaa. And likewise at first the coupling is made in the palate itself, that is, in the Yesod of Aba, which by itself likewise includes the two discernments of Joseph and Benjamin; and afterward the coupling of AVI together is made, and he bestows from the palate, which is the discernment of his own Yesod, to the throat, which is the discernment of the Yesod of Ima, all the details of the Mochin that came out in his own coupling. Indeed, this coupling does not draw the discernment of the ancient Hochma from the self of the Mocha Stimaa, but from the discernment of the Daat of Radla [the unknown head], for there the Mocha of the air ascended, which is the discernment of the Lamed of Tzelem [image], as written in part 13.
2that they look into the internality of this Hochma that is in ZA, in the secret of the soul, which is the upper Hochma, in the secret of the Daat. That is, as above, that the upper Hochma, which is the Mocha Stimaa [the concealed brain], does not bestow there from the discernment of her own self, but in the secret of the Daat, that is, from what the Mocha Stimaa receives from the Daat of Radla [the unknown head] that is in the Mocha of the air. And therefore he is precise in saying “which is the upper Hochma in the secret of the Daat,” and not from the self of the Mocha Stimaa.
And likewise he divides above, that the Hochma of AA he calls by the name ancient Hochma, and the Hochma of ZA he calls by the name the Hochma of the thirty-two paths, whose meaning is the measure of Hochma that the Bina of AVI draws for the need of the ZA of AVI. And therefore the principal bearer of this Hochma is the Tifferet, which is the discernment of the Hassadim that are in the Daat, which unites with the Gevura that is in the Daat; and therefore he calls it here by the name Hochma in the secret of the Daat.