Part 16 · Chapter 261

The Ari's Text

However, his Nukva has ten lights illuminating in her ten Sefirot. And this is the secret mentioned in Parashat Pinchas: that Lilith is called 'the growth upon the liver,' that she overcame her husband, and she rules over her male. And it is as we stated above, that she has an advantage over him: she has ten lights, and he has only his six lights. However, the reason that he spread out to ten Sefirot, although he has only six lights, is for the sake of Lilith, his Nukva, who also spread out her ten Sefirot, by his giving her her ten Sefirot, as is known that the Nukva has nothing except from the side of the male. However, with regard to the spirituality within her, she takes those nine Sefirot that departed from the Nukva of holiness of Atzilut.

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

1Lilith is called the growth upon the liver, that she overcame her husband, and she rules over the male. For he has only six lights, and his Nukva, Lilith, has ten lights. And this matter must be understood: since the Nukva has nothing except what the male gives her, if so, how does she have more lights than he? And the matter is that before the sin of Adam HaRishon, all four worlds, ABYA, were already corrected, for all three worlds BYA had already ascended to the holiness of Atzilut; except that the correction was not yet complete, for the shells were still in BYA from the Chazeh [chest] downward, in the four lower ones of Yetzira and in the ten Sefirot of Assiya, as above. And they are the discernment of the heart of stone, which are not fit for sorting until the end of correction, as above, page 1942, the passage beginning “Now.” See there. And then there was in them only the discernment of ZA and Nukva of the shells, back to back, which means VAK and a point. That is the secret of “He castrated the male and cooled the female.” For the male of the shell lacked NHY, and he was castrated, meaning that he would never be fit to attain the discernment of NHY of vessels and GAR of lights. And likewise He cooled the female, in that He set her in a point, so that she would never be fit for building. And it is known that were it not for this correction that was made in these ZON of the heart of stone, there would be no possibility of existence for the worlds.
And with this you will understand that also after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, when all the TNHY of the vessels together with the sparks of the GAR of the lights fell again to the shells — that from the TNHY of ZON the shells of Atzilut were built, and from the TNHY of BYA the shells of BYA were built, each one opposite the discernment that stands opposite it, as above — behold, all these vessels and sparks that fell to them were of the discernment of the 288 sparks only, for there was nothing there of the discernment of the heart of stone, as above; for also of the Nukva of ZA nothing was built from the discernment of her point of the Sium, but only from what her husband gave her of the Mochin of AVI, as above. For that is why BYA were forced to ascend from the point of the Sium of Atzilut and above, and BYA remained empty, as above. And it is found that what the shells of Atzilut extorted of the nine first ones of the Nukva for their portion was then from the portion of holiness, and not from the portion of the shells, which are the heart of stone.
And this is the secret that Lilith is built with ten complete Sefirot: for from her own discernment, which is the heart of stone, she had only a point alone, and from the extortion of holiness she gained a complete building of ten Sefirot. But the ZA of the shell has none of these lights that he extorted from the TNHY of ZA but evil VAK alone, meaning that he did not gain the NHY that he lacks, for this is the secret of “another god was castrated and bears no fruit.” And although he is now with his Nukva Lilith face to face, this is not regarded as a real coupling, for he gave her nothing from his own discernment, which is the heart of stone, but only from violence and extortion, from what he robbed of the 288 sparks of holiness; therefore he himself did not grow through this, only his Nukva alone, for this is not regarded as his offspring but as mere robbery. And it is found that he himself was castrated and bears no fruit, as our sages said. And from this extortion and robbery the Nukva became greater than the male, and is called “the growth upon the liver,” and “she rules over the male,” because she is greater than he.