Part 15 · Chapter 144

The Ari's Text

However, there are two aspects in her, namely Panim and Achor. And at the time of the Achor, all her nine aspects of the back are in him, and only the tenth aspect of the back is in her; and she always stands at his Chazeh, at his back. And afterward, at the sawing, all the nine backs join together in her, and she grows like him.

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 tenth of the posterior is alone in her, and she always stands at his Chazeh [chest], behind him. It is known that the root of the Nukva is the seventh king of Nekudim, that is, the Malchut of ZA of Nekudim. It was also explained above that in ZA of Nekudim there emerged only six vessels, his HBD HGT down to the Chazeh, and his Malchut is the point of the Chazeh, and from the Chazeh downward it became BYA, for the Parsa of Atzilut stands beneath the point of the Chazeh, which already ends all of Atzilut. Thus the root of the Malchut is the point of the Chazeh. For so it is in Atzilut: there was corrected permanently in ZA only these six vessels of the Katnut [smallness/infancy] of Nekudim, which are HBD HGT down to the Chazeh, which are called the anterior vessels, together with the point of the Chazeh that ends them, which is the Malchut. And behold, this is only from the side of the vessels. However, from the discernment of the lights these six are regarded as HGT NHY, for when the NHY of vessels are lacking the GAR of the lights are lacking; and therefore there are in these HBD HGT only the lights of Nefesh and Ruach, the Ruach being clothed in the vessels of HBD, and therefore they are counted as the discernment of HGT, and the Nefesh being clothed in the vessels of HGT, and therefore they are counted as the discernment of NHY, for the vessels are discerned mainly according to the lights that are clothed in them, as is known. And it is found that from the discernment of the lights the Malchut is counted as the Atara of the Yesod, meaning the discernment of the point that ends the NHY. Thus the Malchut, from the discernment of the lights of ZA, is nothing but a point beneath the Yesod.
And this is what he says, “and the tenth discernment of the posterior is alone in her, and she always stands at his Chazeh, behind him” — for it is known that all the discernments of the vessels are regarded as posterior, and the discernments of the lights are regarded as anterior. And therefore at the time of the posterior, meaning before the building of the Malchut from the discernment of the vessels is completed, when she is in the discernment of the posterior, there is in her at first only the discernment of a tenth part of her, that is, the Malchut of Malchut, which is called a point. And she stands at his Chazeh, behind him, because there is her root from the discernment of the vessels; for from the discernment of the vessels the VAK of ZA are found to be HBD HGT down to the Chazeh, and the Nukva is the point of the Chazeh, as above.
And this is what he says, “and afterward, in the anterior, there is another point, apart, from the discernment of the anterior, and it sits in the secret of the Tefillin of the hand, always with him, and never moves from there” — and it is the point beneath the Yesod, that is, the root of the Malchut from the side of the lights of ZA; for from the discernment of the lights he is regarded as HGT NHY, and the Malchut is a point beneath the Yesod, as above. And it is called the point of the anterior, for the lights are always called by the discernment of anterior, as above.
And behold, it is explained in the words of the ARI that there are always in the Malchut two roots in the Nukva: the first, from the discernment of the posterior of ZA, that is, from the discernment of the vessels, and it is regarded as the point of the Chazeh; and the second is from the discernment of the anterior of ZA, that is, from the discernment of the lights, and it is regarded as the point beneath the Yesod. And this one and that one never move from him. For the reason that all that emerged in Nekudim at the time of the Katnut was corrected permanently in ZA, because the breaking in them was not on account of themselves, as is known. And therefore the discernment of the seventh king of Nekudim from the time of the Katnut, which from the discernment of the vessels is the point of the Chazeh and from the discernment of the lights is the point beneath the Yesod, it is impossible that any diminution should occur there after the VAK of ZA were corrected in the discernment of Atzilut. And therefore they exist and are fixed in ZA always and forever, this one in the point of the Chazeh and that one in the point of the Yesod.
And this is what he says (in item 144), “and afterward, at the sawing, all the nine posteriors join together in her and she grows like him” — that is, in two times, which are regarded as nursing and Mochin. For the discernment of the Ibur [impregnation] she receives from ZA by the power of her aforementioned root in the point of the Chazeh, for she is corrected together with the Ibur of ZA himself, as is written above. And at the time of the Gadlut [greatness/adulthood] of the Neshama of ZA, the Nukva attains her discernment of nursing, which is VAK of vessels, and she clothes him back to back from the Chazeh downward. And afterward, through their rising as MAN [Mayin Nukvin], she attains also the NHY of vessels and the GAR of the lights of BON, as above, and then she grows back to back in an equal level with ZA, as above. And this is what he says, all the nine posteriors in her join together, for at first there was in her only one point at the Chazeh, which is her vessel of Keter, and now she has acquired her nine lower ones and grows like him, behind him, as explained.
And this is what he says in item 145, “and afterward, in the anterior, etc., and then all her nine discernments of the anterior are given to her one by one, until she grows face to face like him” — for after she has been completed entirely from the discernment of the vessels, which are called the ten Sefirot of the posterior, she then returns as MAN a second time by way of the root that she has in ZA, which is the point beneath the Yesod, called the point of the anterior; and through IYM [Ibur, nursing, and Mochin] she acquires there all her first nine Sefirot, and she grows face to face like him.
And this is what he says in item 146, “however, all the posteriors are entirely complete” — by this he means that one should not err and think that at the time of her return to the point of the anterior all her building of the posterior from before is now annulled. For this is only the matter of her ascent in the secret of MAN to the discernment of the lights, where her root is only in the discernment of a point beneath the Yesod. However, all the posteriors that she attained before are complete, for they are the ten Sefirot of vessels in which the lights clothe; and if they were annulled, the lights would have nothing in which to clothe. And this is simple.