Introduction to Sulam Commentary

82. Therefore, no partzuf is complete until after it receives gestation, infancy and brains of the back, and gestation, infancy and the brains of the front. For on account of the additional purification of the partition in Atzilut, until it reaches the opacity of the root, the partzufim of Atzilut can only receive their ten sefirot through three consecutive phases, which are called gestation, infancy and brains (as stated in section 72, above). And since, in the first emergence of the brains, the beating of the right and left occurs, until the left purifies all the opacity in the partition, consequently, all the illuminations of gestation, infancy and brains which the partzuf received, depart. For with the loss of the opacity in the partition, the fusion through collision is negated and the lights depart, and the partzuf returns to the head of the upper partzuf for gestation, and it receives a renewed “three within three.”253As explained in the preceding sections, 76 and 79. It is subsequently born and receives a renewed infancy which brings down the Malkhut from the forehead to the eyes, and the Ḥesed, Gevura and Tiferet emerge from Netzaḥ, Hod and Yesod, and the partzuf receives a renewed height of ruaḥ. It then ascends as feminine waters and it receives renewed lights of neshama, ḥaya, and yeḥida, in which there already exists the middle line that unites the right and the left together – which are called “the brains of the front” – and then they illuminate and persist. Thus, until the partzufim attain the brains for the second time, they cannot persist.