הקדמה

170. “Furthermore, she rises from the wilderness etc.”Furthermore, she rises “from the wilderness [midbar],” as it is stated: “And your mouth [midbarekh] is comely” [Song of Songs 4:3]. That is, she rises in that wilderness of the whispering of the lips, for midbar means dibur [speech]. And we learned: What is [the meaning of that] which is stated: “These mighty gods” [I Samuel 4:8]? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. But was everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, did to them in the desert? Was it not in an inhabited place? Rather, “in the wilderness [midbar]” means with speech, as it is stated: “And your mouth [midbarekh] is comely,” and it is stated: “From the wilderness comes lifting up” [Psalms 75:7]. So too, “rising from the wilderness” is the same – certainly “from the wilderness,” i. e., with that speech of the mouth, Malkhut rises and enters between the mother’s wings, which is Bina. Subsequently, through speech, Malkhut descends and rests over the heads of the holy people.

Explanation: Before the completion of the rectification, when the Malkhut is still called “the tree of [the knowledge of] good and evil,” its entire rectification is achieved through the feminine waters by means of which the righteous raise the Malkhut to the Bina. By virtue of this ascent, Malkhut temporarily becomes as holy as Bina. These feminine waters are the mystical meaning of a whispered prayer, since Malkhut is the mystical meaning of speech, and it is not possible that in the aspect of speech there should be only good without any evil at all. [The exception is] only when the voice in the speech is of the aspect of Bina. [This state] is the mystical meaning of the unification of voice and speech, which is a fusion of [Ze’er Anpin] and Nukba in maturity.

The Ze’er Anpin receives the voice of the [aspect of] Imma [Bina] and bestows [this] to the speech of the Malkhut. In that state, the speech is all good without any evil at all, and [the Malkhut] receives the brains of holiness. Indeed, without this tempering from the voice of Bina, the voice of Malkhut is of the aspect of good and evil, as stated, and there is a purchase point for the kelippot [upon Malkhut] and [Malkhut] cannot receive from the holiness. Therefore, the ascent of the feminine waters raised by the righteous in prayer are considered a “whispering of the lips,” i. e., speech without a voice, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “Only her lips moved but her voice could not be heard” (I Samuel 1:13). Then there is no purchase [for the kelippot] upon the feminine waters that they raise, and they can also raise the Malkhut to Bina, so that [Malkhut] receives the voice from the Bina. [The Malkhut] then becomes a holy structure and receives brains in a fusion of voice and speech, and the sanctity of the speech [of Malkhut] “rests over the heads” of the righteous who rectified [that speech] in this manner.

This is the meaning of the statement: “She rises from the wilderness [midbar], as it is stated, and your mouth [midbarekh] is comely.” The bride is now prepared for the great fusion, to enter the wedding canopy through the raising of the feminine waters by the righteous, in the mystical meaning of “and your mouth is comely,” when they extend the voice from the Imma [aspect of Bina] through speech, which is the Malkhut. The wilderness of the Malkhut is thereby rendered as comely and as beautiful as the Bina, because all those fusions that were performed one after the other have now been collected together into the great fusion, to admit her to the wedding canopy. As a result, [before, ] “she rises in that wilderness of the whispering of the lips,” by means of the feminine waters that they previously raised through the whispering of the lips, i. e., in a speech without a voice, when the voice [of Malkhut] was still [a mixture of] the aspect of good and evil, as stated, and the voice of the Imma [aspect of Bina] was extended into [Malkhut]. Now, [at the time of the great fusion, ] all those good deeds [before the completion of the rectification] form the great fusion to bring [the bride] up into the wedding canopy. Now her own voice has also become good without any bad at all, and she has become holy of holies like the Imma.

A whispered speech is regarded like the “speech of the mouth,” i. e., without the inclusion of the palate, throat, tongue, and teeth, but only the outlet of the lips and the mouth, so that it is an aspect of “her voice could not be heard,” as stated. [Rabbi Elazar] thus states: “With that speech of the mouth, [Malkhut] rises,” like in the manner of raising feminine waters. [The Malkhut] then “enters between the mother’s wings” and ascends between the wings of the Bina. In other words, [Malkhut] receives the voice of the wings of the Imma into her speech, and “subsequently, through the speech that [Malkhut] receives, [Malkhut] descends and rests over the heads of the holy people.” Once [Malkhut] receives the voice of the attribute of mercy from the Imma, [Malkhut] becomes holy like [Bina] and the holiness [of Malkhut] returns to those who rectified her [which are the righteous], and they are also called “holy people,” like [Malkhut], because the speech of [Malkhut] is now holy, like the Imma. This is the meaning of “through speech, [Malkhut] descends etc.”