הקדמה

32. “Yod entered etc.”The letter yod entered [and] said before Him: Master of the world! It is good for You to create the world with me, as I am the beginning of the holy name, and [thus] it is fitting for You to create the world with me. He said to her: It is enough for you that you are engraved in Me and you are inscribed in Me, and all My desire is in you. Depart; it is unfitting for you to be uprooted from My name.

Explanation: Since yod is the first letter of the name Havaya, which means [the yod is] the start of the revelation and the highest aspect of this holy light, she argued that the world should be created with her attribute and then the completion of the rectification would be assured.

To this, “He said to her: It is enough for you that you are engraved in Me and you are inscribed in Me etc.” As you know by now, the questions and answers of the letters represent the playing of the Holy One, blessed be He, with the letters. The question is the aspect of feminine waters while the answer is the masculine waters of the supernal light.1"Masculine waters" represents the divine flow from above, usually as a response to the feminine waters from below. One can thereby understand that the phrase “it is enough for you” is the mystical meaning of the establishment of a boundary, in the mystical meaning of His statement to her: “It is enough for you, " and do not expand further, as was said previously with regard to the holy name of Shaddai. Once the yod began to expand in this great and holy light, the Holy One, blessed be He, stopped her and did not let her expand until the letter tav, but only until the mystical meaning of the letter shin (as stated above, section 24, second paragraph), as He told her: “It is enough for you; expand no further.” This is the meaning of the statement: “Depart; it is unfitting for you to be uprooted from My name,” for if you expand any further, you will no longer be able to be fixed in the name Havaya.

The meaning of this is as the Sages said: I am not read as I am written, as I am written as Havaya but read as Adonai (Pesaḥim 50a). This is because the name Havaya never changes, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “I, Havaya, do not change” (Malachi 3:6). But since, during the times of the world, there are corruptions and rectifications, [it can be seen that] there are changes. Therefore, before the completion of the rectification He is called Adonai, as a change is possible in this name, but [He is] not [called] by the name Havaya, in which there is no change, God forbid. However, after the completion of the rectification, [Havaya] will be read as it is written, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “And the name of the city from that day shall be: Havaya is there.” (end of Ezekiel; 48:35). This is the meaning of His statement to her: “Depart; it is unfitting for you to be uprooted from My name,” for if some corruption were to occur in you, you would be uprooted from My name, since there are no corruptions or rectifications in My name of Havaya, as explained.2In other words, since the yod is part of the unchanging name of Havaya, it cannot be used to create a world filled with corruption and growth, the essence of change and flux. Consequently, you are unfit for the world to be created with you.

The comment: “It is enough for you that you are engraved in Me and you are inscribed in Me, and all My desire is in you,” indicates three levels in the yod of the name Havaya: “Engraved” in Ḥokhma of Ze’er Anpin; “inscribed” in Ḥokhma of Abba and Imma Ila'in; and “all My desire is in you” in Ḥokhma of Arikh Anpin, which is called the sealed Ḥokhma.