Part 15 · Chapter 105

The Ari's Text

But the ReYu (216) of back to back is called a coupling that is not complete, for it is only to make her a vessel. And it follows that that ReYu is that spirit that he casts into her, which are the male Hasadim from the aspect of NRN; but the drop of Chaya does not remain in her, for it is a complete male power. Therefore the ReYu is Benjamin: Ben-Yamin (son of the right), male power. And it is called Ben-Oni, female power, for it is from the Neshama, Bina, the female.

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 RIU is that same Ruach that he casts into her, etc. The RIU is Benjamin, Ben-Yamin, male power; and it is called Ben-Oni, female power, for she is from the Neshama, Bina, the female. These words require explanation. For he has already explained that these RIU are for the sake of the completion of her vessels of AHP, which are the discernment of NRN. And now he says that they are only the Ruach that her husband casts into her, whose implication is Mochin of the discernment of Ruach alone; and immediately he says that they are NRN alone; and after that he says, “but the drop of Haya does not remain in her,” which implies that there is here a complete NRNH in these Mochin, except that the drop of Haya does not remain in her. And likewise he says that the RIU is male, Ben-Yamin, and immediately he says that she is female, Ben-Oni, female power, since she is Bina, a female. And we must understand how all these differing discernments are sustained together.
Indeed, it has already been explained that these Mochin themselves, which come for the completion of vessels, are complete Mochin of AB; for there is no completion of vessels except through a drop of AB that brings the bottom Hey down from the Einayim to the Peh [mouth]. If so, they are necessarily a complete AB, which is Haya. But since the Nukva does not yet have corrected vessels in which to receive them — for they are now coming to correct the vessels — therefore she is regarded as an AB that is not complete, that is, as RIU, which is the discernment of the Gevura of AB, meaning Mochin of BON. And this is what he says, “that the drop of Haya does not remain in her,” that is, that in truth Haya is there, which is a complete AB, except that it does not remain in her now, since her vessels have not yet been completed; and therefore it is regarded as an AB that is not complete. And this RIU is likewise regarded as the discernment of Benjamin, meaning that the Yesod of the Nukva is called Benjamin, as the ARI wrote above (in Part 14, page 1536, item 76); study it there well. And these RIU complete her AHP, which are the new NHY.
And it is known that although we discern the Katnut [smallness/infancy] as being only HGT NHY of lights and HBD HGT of vessels, lacking the NHY of vessels and the GAR [first three] of lights, nevertheless this matter applies also in the finest particulars, that is, in all the ten Sefirot of the Nukva: that in every Sefira there are only the upper two thirds of that Sefira, which are the discernment of HBD HGT of that Sefira, while the NHY of vessels are missing there in that same Sefira. So that these new NHY complete each and every Sefira of her ten Sefirot with the particular NHY of that Sefira, which is called the lower third of the Sefira. And it is known that the ten Sefirot of the Nukva are essentially five discernments, which are called HGT NH. And thus these HGT NH have, at the very least, even in Katnut, the existence of the upper two thirds in each one of them, that is, the HBD HGT within it. However her Yesod and Malchut, which are only two collectives of the five discernments HGT NH, and are not true discernments in their own right, as the ARI wrote above in Part 4 (page 249, item 8) — study it there well — behold, they have no existence at all at the time of the Katnut of the Nukva; for as long as the five discernments HGT NH themselves are not in wholeness, it is impossible that the collective discernments drawn from them, which are Yesod and Malchut, should be corrected.
And therefore the RIU are regarded as correcting mainly the Yesod and Malchut within the Nukva, which are called the discernment of Benjamin. And this is the making of the vessel of Yesod, which is corrected through this RIU, as the ARI wrote above (page 746, item 17); study it there well. And that vessel is corrected through the RIU that ZA bestows upon her, which are the Mochin mentioned above; and therefore there is here a vessel and a Ruach. For these Mochin of BON, although they are AB as above, are nevertheless only the discernment of VAK [six ends] of Gadlut [greatness/adulthood], which are the discernment of Ruach alone, since now she does not yet have corrected vessels in which to receive the GAR of AB, which are the drop of Haya, as above. And therefore the Mochin are regarded only by the name of the Ruach that her husband casts into her at the first coupling; for in the first coupling of Gadlut, which comes to correct and to complete the vessels, they are only VAK of Gadlut, and they are Ruach alone. And behold, from the side of the Mochin it is regarded as a male Ruach, since they come to her from ZA, and therefore they are called Benjamin, Ben-Yamin, which is male. And from the side of the vessels that are corrected to raise MAN [Mayin Nukvin] they are called Ben-Oni, which is female. However, this is not the actual discernment of male, for the discernment of the male is called Joseph and not Benjamin; rather the intention is that they come through the male.
And with this you will understand all those differing discernments that the ARI wrote concerning these RIU. For they are regarded as NRN, after the three [discernments of] AB that are included in the drop of AB in order to raise the AHP from the breaking, which are from the discernment of the sparks, the three discernments of AB of SAG, MA and BON; and therefore the drop too is divided according to their discernment. However, in general these Mochin are nothing but the discernment of Ruach, that is, VAK of Gadlut. But from the side of the emergence of the Mochin they are a complete AB, that is, including the GAR of AB, which are the drop of Haya; except that there is as yet no place in the vessels of the Nukva for the discernment of the GAR to remain in her, since her vessels of NHY are only now being corrected. And as long as the vessels of NHY are not in wholeness, it is impossible to receive more than the discernment of VAK of the Mochin, which is the Ruach of Haya. And this is what he says, that the drop of Haya does not remain in her. And that they are called Benjamin is the discernment of the bestowal of the male upon the Yesod and Malchut of the Nukva, which corrects her. And that they are called Ben-Oni is her own discernment, which receives within her the correction of the male, called Benjamin; and for this reason the Yesod of the Nukva is always called by the name Benjamin. But the discernment of the Yesod of the male is never called anything but Joseph; only that he has an inclusion from the discernment of the female, and therefore he is regarded as being included of Benjamin, while the discernment of Benjamin is nothing but the Yesod of the female. And therefore he is precise in saying “male power,” that is, the male power that the Yesod of the Nukva received.
And that which he says in item 106, “that he returns to take NRN and Haya that are more upper, from the upper AVI themselves and not from YESHSUT, and they must return to Katnut and to a second Gadlut,” etc. — behold, this prevails in the Mochin of the day of Shabbat. But on a weekday all the Mochin come only from YESHSUT, as is known. And he informs us by this that all those particulars that are explained in the Mochin of YESHSUT of the weekday prevail likewise in the Mochin of AVI of Shabbat.