Part 15 · Chapter 42

The Ari's Text

And afterwards, when the sins caused the First Temple to be destroyed, at the very time of the destruction, Malchut descended behind the Yesod of ZA. However, her upper ten Sefirot did not descend into the Klipot, as was at the sin of the first man, but ascended above, within ZA, into their roots, as above in the matter of the waning of the moon. And had this great diminution not been made, the Klipot and the nations of the world would not have had the ability to destroy the Holy Temple. However, the upper ten Sefirot returned to become hidden above, in ZA, and the Klipot did not rule over them.

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

1However, the upper nine Sefirot in her did not descend into the shells as they did at the sin of Adam HaRishon, but rather ascended above, within ZA, into their roots, as above in the diminution of the moon. And at first glance this is very puzzling, for the whole difference between the diminution of the moon and the sin of Adam HaRishon the ARI distinguishes above (in item 21) as being because in the diminution of the moon the departure was not on account of a sin, and therefore they ascended above into ZA and did not fall into the shells; which is not so in the sin of Adam HaRishon, where the departure was on account of a sin, and therefore they fell into the shells. If so, here in the destruction of the Holy Temple, where the departure was on account of a sin, just as with Adam HaRishon, they should have descended into the shells; so why did they ascend above to ZA, as in the diminution of the moon?
And the matter is that the descent into the shells means that they grip the corruption that was made through the sin, and do not allow the holiness to return and be built as it was before the sin, in the secret of “I shall be filled with her that is laid waste,” for Tyre was built only out of the ruin of Jerusalem. And therefore, although at the time of the destruction the Nukva returned to a point under the Yesod, this was only at the moment of the destruction, as the ARI writes, that were it not so it would not have been possible for the Temple to be destroyed. And immediately after the destruction the Nukva returned to be corrected in the third discernment, and a Partzuf of ten Sefirot back to back with the illumination of the first five was made, as is written in item 22. And it turns out that the discernment of VAK of the Nukva was not destroyed, but only her discernment of GAR and face to face, namely the discernment of the expansion of Bina in the first seven Sefirot of ZA, which the Nukva attained through the building of the Temple — that alone is what was lost from her and fell into the shells, in the secret of “I shall be filled with her that is laid waste,” as above. For this did not return to her after the destruction, and the shells gripped them.
Thus the sin did not flaw the discernment of VAK of the Nukva at all; for had the sin reached them, she would not have returned and been built from them after the destruction. And since immediately after the destruction she returned and was built in a Partzuf of ten Sefirot back to back from the Chazeh [chest] and below with the illumination of the first five, necessarily the sin did not flaw them at all. Rather, only at the moment of the destruction alone was it necessary for them to depart, as above in the words of the ARI. And this is what he says, “the upper nine Sefirot in her did not descend into the shells etc., but ascended above within ZA into their roots, as in the diminution of the moon” — for his intention is to those ten Sefirot of the Partzuf of VAK from which she returned and was built after the destruction. And concerning the moment of the destruction, when they departed, the ARI emphasises that you should not think that they fell into the shells at that moment; for if that were so, she would not have been able immediately to return and be built from them. Rather, they ascended at that moment to ZA into their roots, because the sin neither touched nor struck them, as above. And therefore he likens them to the diminution of the moon, to teach that the sin did not reach them, and that they were therefore fit to return to ZA and not to fall into the shells, and were able to return to the Nukva immediately after the destruction. However, had the sin flawed them, then certainly they could not have returned to the Nukva immediately after the destruction, for they would have fallen into the shells. And see below in the words of the ARI, in item 45, and in the adjacent item.