Part 16 · Chapter 230

The Ari's Text

And indeed, Ima and ZON of Assiyah were also diminished, and there is in each of them only the aspect of three within three. And the difference among them is that Ima has no Makif, and ZA has one Makif, and the Nukva two Makifim. And behold, also in Assiyah there is the aspect of Atik, which is the point of Malchut of Yetzirah that descended to Assiyah and was clothed in AA.

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

1Ima has no surrounding light, and ZA has one surrounding light, and the Nukva two surrounding lights: Meaning, that although all these three Partzufim, YESHSUT and ZON, came out, all of them, at an equal level on the screen of phase two, which is the level of Neshama, and each one has the five Partzufim NRNHY [Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida]. Nevertheless, all the five Partzufim of YESHSUT are all Neshamot, and the five Partzufim of ZA are all Ruchin, and the five Partzufim of the Nukva are all Nefashot. As is written in Etz Chaim, the second Gate 42, Chapter 1. And in Beit Sha’ar LaKavanot, page 76, the passage beginning “And with this”; see there. And it is found that their surrounding lights must receive from AVI and from AA. However, every discernment receives from the discernment opposite it, and it is found that Ima, who is YESHSUT and is entirely Neshamot, must receive the discernment of the surrounding light of Haya from the Neshama of AB and the surrounding light of Yechida from the Neshama of AA. However, AA came out only in the discernment of Nefesh, which is called the TNHY of AA, as above, for the HGT of AA belongs to Atik, and there is in him no discernment of Neshama. And likewise AVI came out in the discernment of VAK, which is Ruach, and there is no discernment of Neshama there; and therefore Ima has nothing from which to receive the surrounding light, for she cannot receive except from the discernment of Neshama in the upper ones. But ZA, in whom all the discernment of the five Partzufim is the discernment of Ruach, therefore can receive the inner light of Haya from AVI, for there is the discernment of Ruach in AVI. But the surrounding light of Yechida, which he needs to receive from AA, is lacking in him, for in AA there is no discernment of Ruach but only the discernment of Nefesh alone. As above. Whereas the Nukva, all of whose five Partzufim are Nefashot, therefore can receive the surrounding light of Haya from the Nefesh in AVI, and the surrounding light of Yechida from the Nefesh in AA.
And this matter applies both in Beria and in Yetzira and in Assiya. For even YESHSUT of Yetzira is also the discernment of Neshama, and must receive the surrounding light from the Neshama in the upper ones, and therefore she has no one to receive from; and likewise in Assiya. But ZA of Yetzira and Assiya can receive his surrounding light from that part of the Ruach that shines in AVI of Yetzira and Assiya, but the surrounding light of Yechida he does not have, because in AA there is only the discernment of Nefesh. But the Nukva of Yetzira and Assiya can also receive the surrounding light of Yechida from AA, since she relates only to the discernment of Nefesh, as above. And you already know that there is no difference at all between AA of Beria and AA of Yetzira and Assiya, except in his division into three thirds: that in Beria all three thirds of his TNHY shine, and in Yetzira only the bottom two thirds of his TNHY shine. And in Assiya only the bottom third of his TNHY shines. And in the same way the VAK of AVI are divided, and in the same way the complete ten Sefirot of YESHSUT and ZON are also divided; and therefore the relation of YESHSUT and ZON to AVI and AA does not change at all in all three worlds BYA.