Pardes Rimmonim 3

Being [it so] that in the previous chapter we proved that Keter is in the number of the Sefirot, it remains for us to explain the subject of the sayings that are seemingly opposing this logical argument, and it are these which forced the commentators to learn from them. The first [is] from Sefer Yetzira, which says in the ‘mishna of the depths’ [Sefer Yetzirah 1:5], and this is what it says: ‘Ten Sefirot without what-ness, their measure [is] ten, as they do not have end. Depth of commencement and depth of end, depth of good and depth of evil, depth of above and depth of below, depth of East and depth of West, depth of North and depth of South, and the unique Lord El, faithful King governing over them all from the residence of His Holiness forever and ever.’

And they said that since the depth of commencement is Chochma and the depth of end is Bina, as they explained, if this is so, it is forced that the number of the Sefirot, they are exactly from Chochma downward, and that Keter is not among the number of the Sefirot, and [that] the depth of above which is mentioned in the mishna, is Da’at.

And further they added to bring evidence from another mishna as this one in Sefer Yetzirah, and this is what it says: ‘Ten Sefirot without what-ness. One: spirit of the Living God, blessed and welcomed [is] His Name of the life of the worlds, Voice and Spirit and Speech, and this is the Holy Spirit. Two: spirit from spirit, He hew and engraved with it twenty-two letters, three mothers, and seven double ones and twelve simple ones, and a spirit for each one of them. Three: water from spirit, He hew and engraved with them Unformed and Void, mud and clay He engraved them as a kind of garden bed, He established them as a kind of wall, He covered them as a kind of pavement. Four: fire from water, He hew and engraved in it the Throne of Glory and the Wheels and the Seraphim and the Living Ones of Holiness and the Angels (of the Root) [of the Service], and from three of them He founded His dwelling as it is said: “Making His angels spirits, from His ministers burning fire” [Psalms 104:4]. Five: He locked above three letters from the simple ones and fixed them in His Great Name Yud He Wav, and He locked with them six extremities, and He turned upwards and closed it with Yud He Wav. Six: He closed under and turned downwards and closed it with Yud Wav He. Seven: He closed the East, turned facing it and closed it with He Yud Wav. Eight: He closed the West and faced after it and closed it with He Wav Yud. Nine: He closed the South and faced its right and closed it with Wav Yud He. Ten: He closed the North and faced its left and closed it with Yav He Yud. These are ten Sefirot without what-ness, spirit of the Living God, and spirit, and water, and fire, and up above, and below, East, West, South, North [Sefer Yetzirah 1:9-14]. End of citation.

See, in the explanation it is seen that it walked the way of the next mishna and it said: ‘One: spirit of the Living God’ which is Chochma, and ‘Two: spirit…’ which is ‘Bina, ‘Three: water from spirit’, which is Chesed, ‘Four: fire…’, which is Gevura. And ‘up’ with necessity it is Da’at, see with necessity that the number of the Sefirot is only [starting] from Chochma. This now is the opinion of rabbi Shem Tov and his proof. And now for sure we are obliged to explain these mishnayot, so that everything will be put straight with help of HaShem. The start will be: we occupy ourselves with the mishna of the depths, and from there the subject of the preceding [= last cited] mishna will be explained. And on this mishna the Ramban of blessed memory wrote: ‘I do not understand this section’.

But the truth [is that] this mishna is not so hard [to understand] except that we will say that the order [of the Sefirot] is difficult in it. But nevertheless, from this is seen the humility of the pious one [= the Ramban] of blessed memory, that he chose to say that he does not understand, instead of contradicting the judgement of his received teaching out of the forced opinion of one mishna. Because he wanted to suspect his knowledge and not to contradict the limit of the ancient ones. But nevertheless, we do not see in this mishna any forced opinion. And this is its explanation: ‘Ten Sefirot בלי מה/without what-ness’. Explanation: This word is divided into two [words] which means to say: ‘without what-ness’, explanation: ‘מה/what’ is what-ness. And the intention [is] that the ten Sefirot [are] without/ בליwhat-ness/מה, as their what-ness is not comprehended by us. And even if we say that this one is Judgement and this one is Compassion etc., everything is comprehended by us from their action, but from their reality they are without what-ness.Further it [= the word בלימה now considered as one word and a substantive] is from the expression בלום as it is written “its ornament to restrain/בלום” [Psalms 32:9], as it is fitting for a person to restrain his mouth and not to multiply his words on their what-ness and on their subject, as short is who is comprehending and deep is what is [to be] comprehended. Or it is from the expression of the hiding and the concealing, just as “its ornament to restrain” and this is covering of the ornament and hiding it.

And see, the Sefirot are called בלימה/Belimah, meaning to say: ‘Sefirot of the hiding’, that they are hidden. And these three explanations ascend to one place of which the intention is to teach about their hiddenness and the shortness of [our] comprehension [of them], that it is not proper to lengthen talking on them because of their hiddenness. And it says: ‘their measure [is] ten’, and because from this [statement it] could be continued [to the thought that] they do have limit – heaven forbid-, therefore it says that ‘they do not have end’ [Sefer Yetzirah 1:5]. And although that it is [at the same time] a matter and its opposite -that we are giving it limit [by stating that their measure is ten] and after this it is said that they do not have limit, we have already explained this in the previous chapters, as in the order that they have their aspect [directed] towards the Emanator they do not have limit, but in the order of their aspect and their actions extended towards us they do have limit for their actions, according to our tradition that we are limited, and this is the force of the greatness of our Formator, from [being] without limit He limits Himself and contracts Himself for the benefit of the lower ones who possess limit and end. And to this matter one should not frighten the eyes of the wise, who is not far removed, “as the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain Him” [II Chronicles 2:5] yet HaShem be blessed, and nevertheless, for the love of Israel He contracted His presence/Shechinah between two staves of the Ark as our Sages of blessed memory have explained. ‘Depth of commencement and depth of end’, they are Chochma and Bina, as Chochma is called ‘commencement’ as is explained in the previous chapter, and Bina is called ‘end’, as there [in Bina is] the end and finish of the matters in the mystery of Jubilee, and this [= Chochma] is the beginning of the concealment and that [= Bina] is its end in the mystery of the cycle [of things] and the Jubilee, as we will explain in the Gate of the Order of Emanation [Gate VI]. And the reason of its saying ‘depth’ with each one of them, [is] to show that although commencement and end, and east and the rest of the limits teach about the limit, nevertheless they are depths, “depth, depth, who can find it?” [Ecclesiastes 7:25] And attaining them is impossible because they are without limit as we have explained. And good and evil, they are Gedola[/Chesed] and Gevura who are called good and evil, because Chesed acts action of good and reward, and Gevura acts action of judgement and punishment. And nevertheless, the expression of ‘evil’ is not exact. And after it [= the mishna from Sefer Yetzirah] explained these four depths, it returns to explain the six depths which are the six directions, which are the depth of above and depth of below, East, West, North, South. And this is the reason of the delay of Keter up to now: [it is now mentioned] to connect the directions. Although it [= Keter] is not related to the subject of the order of the Sefirot -as it is [actually] removed from this matter-, the commentators found themselves in need to explain, according to their [limited] knowledge, that ‘above’ should be Da’at. Because see, Da’at is above Gedola and Gevura, and [it is] below Chochma and Bina, as the [following] verse proves (Exodus 31:3): “And I have filled him a spirit of God with wisdom/Chochma and understanding/Tevuna and with knowledge/Da’at and with all skill etc.”, and further it is written (Proverbs 24:3-4) “With wisdom/Chochma a house is built, and with understanding/Tevuna [it] is established, and with knowledge/Da’at its rooms are filled”. And thus, our Sages of blessed memory explained: with three things out of the ten with which the world was created: with wisdom/Chochma, and with understanding/Tevuna and with knowledge/Da’at [see Babylonian Talmud, Chagigah 12a]. See [from these evidences] that Da’at comes before Chesed and Gevura. But if this is so, why did it [= the mishna from Sefer Yetzirah] place it only after ‘depth of evil’ [= Gevura] and ‘depth of good’ [= Chesed]? But what do they say? As the reason [for this was] because of the order of the directions. [then] If this is so, according to our opinion the delay of Keter also [can be] because of the order of the directions.

And further it says: ‘depth of above and depth of below’, which is upper Keter as it is being exalted over all of emanation, and ‘depth of below’ is Malkut, which is below all of emanation. And ‘depth of East’ is Tif’eret. And ‘depth of West’ is Yesod, as in it are mixed [מתערבים] all the forces: the force of judgement and the force of mercy and the force of compassion, and therefore it is called West [מערב]. Or it wants [to say] ‘depth of below’, [this is] Yesod. As it is below all of emanation, as the place of Malkut is upwards [above Yesod, face to face with Tif’eret] if it was not for the accusation [on the fourth day of Creation], as will be explained in the Gate of the Diminution of the Moon [Gate XVIII] with help of HaShem. And ‘dept of West’, this is Malkut, as in it all the forces are mixed.

And further that it [= the West] is opposite the East forever. And East and West, Tif’eret and Malkut. ‘And depth of North and depth of South’, these are Netsach and Hod. As Netsach, its inclination [is] towards Chesed which is South, and Hod, its inclination is towards Gevura which is North. And therefore, it is correct [to attribute] to them North and South. ‘And the unique Lord El’, this is En Sof. As it is not in the number of the Sefirot, heaven forbid. Opposite to it [was] the opinion which we have annulled in chapters one and two of this [current] Gate. And the reason of its saying ‘El, faithful King’ (אל מלך נאמן) We can say that the first [letters] of the words [form] Amen/אמן. And Amen rises [to the numerical value of] 91, as [is] the number of יאהדונהי [= the union of the Tetragram with Adoni]. And thus explained the Rashbi of blessed memory many times. And some of those possessing wisdom attributed this name to En Sof, not because En Sof would be receiving a name, heaven forbid, but because this name teaches the union and the connection to the Sefirot that there is through Tif’eret [which is indicated by the Tetragram] and Malkut [which is indicated by the name Adoni] from below upwards and from above downwards. As the Tetragram totalizes all the Sefirot from above downwards, and Adonai totalizes ten Sefirot from below upwards. And this [= the Tetragram] is the Yud at the beginning, and that [= Adonai] is the Yud at the end [of יאהדונהי] as we will expand the explanation [of this] in the Gate of the Inversion of the Light [Gate XV, which was renamed to ‘Gate of Below Upwards] with help of HaShem. Therefore, it attributed this name to it to teach that this union is alluded to with the name יאהדונהי is by means of it. And this is what it names it thus ‘El, faithful King’.

And further, as the word ‘El’ teaches the obligation of His existence, and ‘King’ teaches the existence of His providence and His kingship in the low and in all worlds, and ‘faithful’ teaches His eternity and His existence, that He is faithful and He will not collapse, Heaven forbid! And this all is the subject that is obliged [for] En Sof as we have explained somewhat in chapter one [of the present Gate]. And it says: ‘governing them all’, explanation: from above downwards and from below upwards.

And the subject ‘governing over them all’ [is] to teach about the substance that is extending itself in the vessels, as we will extend the explanation [on it] in the Gate of Substance and Vessels [Gate IV] with help of HaShem. ‘from the residence of His Holiness’. This is Keter as there [is] its hiding as has been explained in chapter two from the Rashbi of blessed memory. ‘forever and ever’ [three times the word is עד used in the Hebrew text] Explanation: Three degrees that are called ‘forever’/ עד: Bina, Yesod, Malkut. As they are totalizing the whole of emanation in a general way. As Binah is totalizing the three first ones [Keter, Chochma and Bina]. And Tif’eret and Yesod, all is one as ‘body and covenant [of circumcision] we consider [as] one’ [Zohar, Pinchas 71], and this is Wav/ואו [the name of the letter ו spelled out in full in Hebrew, in which the first ו indicates and the last ו indicates Yesod], which is totalizing six extremities [the numerical value of the letter ו is six]. And Malkut is [by] itself. See, in the subject ‘forever and ever’ the whole of emanation is contained. Or it is possible to say ‘forever and ever’. Explanation: although [the divine] beings [= the Sefirot] have extended themselves forever, nevertheless He governs over them all, whether they are far or near. Until here the explanation of the mishna [from Sefer Yetzirah]. And we straightened the subject of its [= the mishna’s] beginning with Chochma, as it is not its intention, Heaven forbid, that Keter would not be included in the number of the Sefirot, but [that] ‘depth of above’ is Keter. And if it did not count it according to its order, the beginning for all the Sefirot, this is because of the order of the extremities. And in this subject, this is the way and this is the reason for the mishna of the seals [Sefer Yetzirah 1:13], which we wrote at the beginning of the chapters. And it is [thus] found that these mishnayot are no proof at all for contradicting the hypotheses we are receiving.