קרח

More than what he wanted to uproot the illumination—to do this thing—what did he want to do? He wanted to uproot the illumination of the Partzuf Yaakov and draw it to the Shekhinah—Rachel.

But first, we must explain that which the Ari z"l brought in Sha’ar HaMitzvot concerning the sin of Hevel, that he blemished the letters A"Y from the Name Adn"y, and removed Imma Ila’ah upward, so that she would be concealed from every possibility of attainment in the supernal thought. The holy Zohar is found in Tikkunim bringing the source of these matters, through the creations above and below.

These matters will be clarified, and as a result, in the wake of the deed of Hevel, there were yet several blemishes, which are scattered among the writings of the Ari and are explained in the verses.

The Zohar begins with the words of the Tikkun that was brought above:

“‘Hevel—where is Kayin?’ and he said: ‘I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ etc. Rather, A"Y is that which departed from Adn"y, for Imma Ila’ah departed—A’.

“And because of this, Y"H remained from YHV"H, which ascended with him to judge Kayin. For because when A"Y departed from Adn"y, ‘where is Hevel your brother?’ is that.”

That is, at the time that Kayin killed Hevel, he blemished the letters A"Y of the Name Adn"y, and thereby blemished the aspect that is Imma Ila’ah, and she departed to Abba Ila’ah, the Name Ehyeh, and ascended to judge Kayin.

“‘Shekhinah,’ which is ‘I’—that is, ‘I’ of ‘Your Shekhinah’—‘I do not know’—with Him there. (There), it is also found: ‘I do not know’—that the Shekhinah was removed, and the ‘A"Y’—Imma departed, and the son went toward Chokhmah to take her also. (Imma Ila’ah departed together.)

And why? Because the supernal Adam was created for Chokhmah, and He is exactly the lower Adam.

‘And He said: The voice of your brother’s bloods cries out to Me.’ What is ‘bloods’? It should have said ‘blood’. And further: ‘and afterward they shall go out with great wealth.’ Here, not so: what is ‘bloods’? D"N is the calculation of D"M"Y, and this is ‘Dan A’.

What is ‘the voice of bloods’? It should have said ‘the voice of blood’. Rather, translate: ‘the voice of bloods’—the voice of judgments that are destined to go forth from Hevel, from the one about whom it is said, ‘Hevel your brother,’ in which He blemished. Sixty myriad are destined to go forth from Hevel, and all of them cry from the earth: the iniquities of judgment, and perverting of judgment, and violence, and robbery, and breaking. Here it hints that Kayin intended to do. ‘The voice of your brother’s bloods’—this is it: HaKadosh Barukh Hu judges (them)—but only with those about whom it is said ‘your brother.’ ‘Your brother’ is called from the side of ‘a man killed his brother.’”

Rabbi Elazar said: If so, it is known that all this is in the last exile. Why is it said, ‘Kayin shall kill a man’? If you say, because a good seed went forth from him. (Behold, he is a man.) After the strength of Kayin will be exhausted, they will be aroused in the world for destruction.

‘The voice of your brother’s bloods cries out’—this is what is written (Psalms 13): ‘From the plundering of the poor, from the groaning of the needy…’

Rabbi Shim’on said to him: My son, Kayin is from the side of the good evil and its expansion; he is from the side of the evil good and its expansion, in gilgul until Kayin (Moshe’s father-in-law); from then on, the expansion of evil, until they depart, and from there the side of evil to Israel. And because HaKadosh Barukh Hu showed him what they are destined to do in every generation and generation—He showed him everything—he said: ‘My iniquity is too great…’ etc.

Come and see: ‘Where is Hevel your brother?’ and further: these letters were ascending to the supernal place. Hear: and these letters departed with the sin.

And Hevel sinned in a place that in this is ‘thought’—Yud—and it is covered, wondrous, faithful—Aleph—(Aleph, Yud). These letters departed upward: thought—Yud; supernal Keter—Aleph. And it is said that this sin departed upward.

Rabbi Elazar said: Father, but there are many thoughts; and Shekhinah is called ‘thought.’ And how many thoughts are Yud; and Chokhmah is thought; and Keter, which is Aleph; and from Adn"y—(Aleph, Yud) from Adn"y. This is above that; this is upon that—this is upon that. This is what is written (Ecclesiastes 5): ‘For one higher than the high watches, and higher ones over them.’

The supernal above all supernal ones—concealed of all concealment—thought—above all, and higher than them all. And there are no other thoughts above it. And it is a garment; and how many thoughts there are! This is what is written: this garment that is in thought—but the sin that is not known. This is what is written (Genesis 3): ‘And I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid.’ It is said of Adam: ‘and I hid’; and it is said of Moshe: ‘And Moshe hid his face, for he was afraid…’

Rabbi said: Shim’on, my son, Adam certainly sinned in everything: in thought, which is the garment; and from within, which is in thought. Because of this, He said to Moshe at the time when he said, ‘Show me, please, Your glory’: He said to him, ‘No man shall see Me and live,’ for if he merits that he will see—forever and live.

That which is said, ‘You cannot see My face,’ is not ‘faces’ here, but ‘face.’ And it is not those faces that are seen in the place that is revealed. And because of Adam’s sin—which caused that Moshe could not—he could not look at it, in which the total elevation is revealed. Therefore, the elevation of elevations departed from thought, in which Adam sinned. And another Shekhinah, in which the life of the living dwells, cannot be attained by it; and no thought dwells there, and it cannot contain it. And in the place of death—there Chokhmah is certainly the garment for Chokhmah, and the thought that departed from Chokhmah. Adam sinned in it certainly; and because of this it is said of him, ‘And I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid.’

Since the reason is that no thought can grasp Him at all—and even Moshe Rabbeinu himself could not attain Him in thought—this is all because of the sin: A"Y departed, the aspect of thought departed; this is because of the sin for which the place became exceedingly high and covered, to the very utmost.

Rabbi Elazar said: But is it not understood from here that the sin is not in supernal thought, but only in that garment that is in that (thought) from within, which remained: in the brain without the skull? And because of this, ‘And I was afraid’—from that which trembled from within—since thought is concealed, the elevation of elevations.

Rabbi Shim’on said to him: My son, even so, he sinned in thought, which is brain, from which seed comes forth, for it is the tree of life—this is the primordial light, a clear light and a polished light, in which three drops are hinted. A supernal thorn, and a thorn below, and the interior in the middle; there darkness and evening ceased between the elevation of elevations to the concealed brain. And because of this, ‘For no man shall see Me and live’—until that darkness passes from there.

And this is the mystery: (Isaiah 59) ‘But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.’ And because of that darkness—there is no thought able to attain there—there all the eye cannot dwell until that passes from there. And as it is said: darkness is below it, like: ‘You have screened Yourself with a cloud…’ etc.

No created being can attain anything in supernal thought, and there is no (creature) [able], and in HaKadosh Barukh Hu He and His thought are one.

In the plain sense of the words of the Zohar, we have found proof here and there: who blemished the letters A"Y? On the one hand, the blemish was from the side of Kayin, and therefore HaKadosh Barukh Hu said to him after he sinned and killed Hevel: ‘Where is Hevel your brother?’ for כביכול those letters departed because you killed your brother Hevel. And on the other hand, it appears that the blemish at its root was done by Adam and also by Hevel himself.

Also further on, in the writings of the Ari, we find matters here and there concerning: whether the blemish is the blemish of thought or the blemish in the letters A"Y; for in Sha’ar HaGilgulim (Introduction 28) it is written that Kayin blemished in thought concerning him.

And in Sha’ar HaMitzvot, Parashat Shoftim, the mitzvah of cities of refuge, it is written that Hevel blemished the letters A"Y and in thought concerning him.

And seemingly, it appears that it is the same: the blemish of thought and the blemish in the letters A"Y.

It was caused on account of Hevel, and it is explained in Sefer HaLikkutim (Genesis, Parashat Miketz): And it was high—HaKadosh Barukh Hu illuminated for him from a high place, and Hevel swore when he offered his offering; the supernal was in the aspect of the shin-ayin [370] nehorin, and in that aspect Hevel gazed, and through this the aspect of the shin-ayin nehorin of darkness was caused, in those shin-ayin.

These sayings that explain the sin of Hevel are seemingly not in one place, for together they are consistent: in one place he says that Hevel’s sin is that he gazed at the Shekhinah, and the intention was the inclination of the light designated for the Partzuf Yaakov toward Rachel; and in another place he explains that what Hevel gazed at when he offered his offering was the supernal aspect, which is called the shin-ayin nehorin.

In another place he says that Hevel also blemished and removed the aspect of Imma Ila’ah upward, upward, and thereby he also blemished in supernal thought and in the letters A"Y in the Name Adn"y.