שער הכללים

The light and vitality of this point descend into it from the Emanator together — vessel and soul arriving as one, like the snail whose garment is grown from within itself. Within this point there were ten inner lights and ten surrounding lights. The surrounding light envelops the vessel from outside, and it is known that the surrounding light is greater than the inner light, for the inner light is contracted within the vessel, while the surrounding light is not. This is the secret of the verse "I will speak to you from between the two cherubim" — for the Shekhinah was contracted there. From this primordial point, ten points then spread forth from Keter down to Malkhut: from the most refined and exalted aspect of this point, Keter was formed and spread downward with the remaining nine contained within it. From what remained within the point, the next most refined aspect spread downward below Keter and became Chokhmah, with eight contained within it. Then Binah with seven, then the six lower Sefirot together, and then Malkhut. This is what is called the world of Tohu — chaos and void — the world of Points.

The supernal light entered into them, that is, into the vessels, while the light of Ein Sof surrounded Keter and spread to the end of all ten Sefirot. The inner light of Keter became the inner and surrounding light of Chokhmah, and the surrounding light of Keter became the outer surrounding light above the surrounding light of Chokhmah, and so on with all of them. The principle is this: whatever each vessel was able to receive from the light shining within it remained as its inner light, and whatever it could not contain became surrounding light from outside — and so it went from Keter to Chokhmah, from Chokhmah to Binah, and from Binah to the six lower Sefirot together.

Know that "God is a sun and a shield" — and just as the sun is a great supernal light that cannot be looked at directly except through diminishment, through a window, through a screen, through distance, or through a small aperture, so too in the world of Atzilut the light comes without any screen at all. However, when the light of Ein Sof enters Keter, Keter cannot bear it except through distance. From Keter to Chokhmah there is no distance, but the light comes through a window — meaning through the foundation of Arich Anpin, which is called a window, through which the light is diminished from what it was. From Chokhmah to Binah it likewise comes through a window, through the foundation of Abba, which is another, smaller window. Among the six lower Sefirot themselves the windows are equal to one another, for they are all of the same nature. But from Yesod to Malkhut the light comes through a very small and narrow window — through the Yesod of Ze'ir Anpin, which is also called a window, and is exceedingly narrow, like a tiny aperture. Among the six lower Sefirot there is no difference from one to the other except in terms of distance and proximity alone, not in the width or narrowness of the window, for they are all equal.

This is the secret of the seven circuits, for they correspond to Malkhut, which contains within herself the totality of seven circuits. From the three upper aspects of Keter goes out the first surrounding light to the seven lower aspects within Keter itself. From the seven lower aspects of Keter goes out the second surrounding light to the three upper aspects of Chokhmah. From the three upper aspects of Chokhmah goes out the third surrounding light to the seven lower aspects within it. From the seven lower aspects of Chokhmah goes out the fourth surrounding light to the three upper aspects of Binah. From the three upper aspects of Binah goes out the fifth surrounding light to the seven lower aspects within it. From the seven lower aspects of Binah goes out the sixth surrounding light to the six lower Sefirot. And from the six lower Sefirot goes out the seventh surrounding light to Malkhut — and all of these are encompassed within Malkhut. This is why the seven circuits allude to Malkhut. I have also found in the writings of Rabbi Meir of Mintz another approach, which is the secret of seven surrounding lights ascending to Malkhut from below upward: the first is her own surrounding light, the second is the surrounding light of Yesod, the third is the surrounding light of Binah, then the inner and surrounding light of Chokhmah, then the inner and surrounding light of Keter — making seven surrounding lights in all.

To return to the matter: in the world of Atzilut there is no screen at all. But from the world of Beriah downward, the light comes through a complete screen and passes through it and shines.

Know that when the ten points spread forth as described, Keter had the capacity to bear the light. But Abba and Ima were not equal in this, for Abba received the light from Keter face to face and had the capacity to bear it, whereas Binah could not receive the light from Chokhmah face to face — she received it back to back, for she could not bear it face to face. This is the secret of the verse "the wise man praises her from behind," for Chokhmah — Wisdom — illuminated Binah back to back. This is also the secret spoken of in the Zohar on Bereshit in the form of the letter Tzadi, which represents Abba and Ima — Yod and Nun — bent and facing away from each other, back to back.

When the light then went out from Binah to the six lower Sefirot, the first to emerge was Da'at, and then it was annulled — this is the first king, Bela son of Be'or. Then Chesed emerged, and it too could not bear the light, and its vessel shattered and fell below. Then Gevurah, and so with all seven. These are the seven kings who died, of whom it is written "he reigned and he died" — first they reigned, and then they died. These seven vessels were annulled because they had no capacity to bear the light spreading through them from Sefirah to Sefirah. Even though one had already been annulled at Chesed, the light did not cease spreading through all seven lower Sefirot to see whether perhaps one might not die and might be able to bear it on account of its greater distance — for the further away, the more it might be able to bear. But since each lower vessel is smaller than the one above it, even the more distant ones could not bear the light.

When the light reached Yesod, two lights came together — one its own, and one to be given to Malkhut. Its own portion, being too great, it could not bear, and it was annulled like the others. But the portion it had received to give to Malkhut remained within it and was not annulled — this is the secret of "the son of Jesse lives upon the earth," and this is why Yesod is called the Living One. When Yesod then gave Malkhut her portion, had it been given through a channel there would have been strength in Malkhut to receive it. But since Yesod had shattered, the light was exposed and came from Yesod openly and with force to Malkhut, and so she too shattered — though not completely as the others had, for after the rectification she became a complete Partzuf. This was because she had not received the full light but only the portion that Yesod had received to give her, and also because she had not received it through a channel.

The meaning of what we have said — that the kings shattered — is that the lights withdrew upward to their place, yet still some sparks of holiness remained within the vessels, and these fell with the shattered vessels below, and from them the root of the husks — the Kelipot — was formed. Even though the food was separated from the waste and rose upward, still the sparks of holiness remained within them. And this is what remains for us to rectify through prayer and good deeds, and through the souls of the righteous when they depart from this world — they pass through the world of Asiyah and lift from it the sparks of holiness that are within the Kelipah up to Yetzirah, and so on as they ascend from Yetzirah to Beriah, and from Beriah to Atzilut, returning the great light to its proper place. This is the secret of the feminine waters, and this is also the secret of the Ten Martyrs who were killed at the time of the destruction — for the sins of the generation caused the Kelipah to strengthen, and there was no power to raise the feminine waters, which are those sparks, and the world was desolate and crumbling. Therefore those ten gave their bodies over to the kingdom and served as masculine waters to Malkhut, while their souls raised up to the feminine waters of Abba and Ima those sparks that were within the Kelipot. This is the secret of the saying "thus it arose in thought before Me" spoken regarding Rabbi Akiva, and it is also the secret of the cause of the kings who reigned and died, and the secret of "He built worlds and destroyed them."

Even though we have said that the kings who died are the seven shattered vessels from Chesed to Malkhut which required rectification, Chokhmah and Binah also required rectification. For Binah at first received the light back to back, being unable to bear it face to face, and her vessel thereby shrank and diminished, and this diminishment fell below — meaning the back-aspects of Abba and Ima fell and from them were formed Jacob and Leah. And Chokhmah likewise, since Binah could not receive the light from it properly, Chokhmah too did not receive the light due to it as it would have had Binah been able to receive face to face, and this aspect also fell below. This is the secret of "the righteous one is lost" — for the righteous one, who is Yesod, when he flows to the Shekhinah is given both his portion and hers. But when he does not flow to the Shekhinah he has only his own portion — not because of any fault of his own, God forbid, but because of the deficiency of Malkhut who receives, who is unable to receive in any other way.

Thus some of the light that Chokhmah was fit to receive beyond what it actually received, and some of what fell from Binah, descended to the place of Ze'ir Anpin. This is the secret of what the Sages said: "the fallen fruit of the supernal Wisdom is Torah, and the fallen fruit of the supernal Binah is the Shekhinah" — for the light that fell and descended from the light of supernal Chokhmah, which is Abba, became Torah, which is Ze'ir Anpin; and what fell from Binah, which is Ima, became the Shekhinah, the feminine principle. For when Ze'ir Anpin ascends on high, he raises with him that light which fell from above in its place as feminine waters to Abba and Ima, and returns now to lift the fallen fruit and the sparks of holiness that descended below. For just as the souls of the righteous raise feminine waters for the union of Ze'ir and Nukva, so do Ze'ir and Nukva raise feminine waters for the union of Abba and Ima from those fallen sparks that descended from them below. The meaning of all this is that the feminine waters of Rachel are what we surrender — our souls unto death — through the falling of the face in prayer, and with that raising of our souls we lift from within the Kelipot the sparks of holiness up to Rachel. And so the righteous at their death ascend and lift the sparks of holiness with them, as feminine waters for Rachel, for the union of Ze'ir Anpin with his feminine counterpart. And the parallel of this in Ze'ir and Nukva, when they ascend to Abba and Ima in the secret of the unification of Shema Yisrael, is that they then lift the sparks of holiness that descended from the fallen fruit of Abba and Ima and raise them up to Binah, to be there as feminine waters for the union with Abba.