הקדמה

69. “And he flies in that firmament etc.”“And he flies in that false firmament, that duplicitous man, six thousand parasangs in one go. Once this false firmament stands still, a woman of harlotry immediately emerges and holds that false firmament and participates in it. From there she goes forth and kills several thousands and myriads, since while she is in that firmament she has the permission and ability to fly and to traverse the entire world in an instant.

Explanation: These brains that were drawn out to [the person] in that false firmament are from the Sitra Aḥara that corresponds to the Ḥokhma of holiness, whose units are the thousands. This is the meaning of “he flies in that firmament,” that he soars and is gripped by it, for “six thousand parasangs in one go” – in the six sefirot: Ḥesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzaḥ, Hod, and Yesod, of Ḥokhma. These are called six thousand parasangs, as they are from Ḥokhma.

[The Zohar] continues: “Once this false firmament stands still, a woman of harlotry immediately emerges and holds that false firmament and participates in it.” In other words, after the completion of the new heavens of the male kelippa, which are called only by the name “false,” the “female of the great deep” then reveals her power. Her power attacks the firmament, in order to lie in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, and she proceeds to fly in the firmament, which is then called “the firmament of emptiness,” as stated above (in the previous section).

[The Zohar] continues: “From there she goes forth and kills... since while she is in that firmament, she has the permission and ability to fly and to traverse the entire world in an instant.” While she participates in that firmament, she grows stronger and larger than the level of the male. The male grows only to the six extremities of Ḥokhma, which are six thousand parasangs, as stated above, while the female grows by means of [the male] through ten complete sefirot, which is a whole world. This is the meaning of “she has the permission and ability to fly and to traverse the entire world, that is, a whole world in ten sefirot. “In an instant” is the mystical meaning of the teaching: “How long is His anger? A moment” (Berakhot 7a). She therefore has the power to kill thousands and myriads, in the mystical meaning of the verse: “For she has cast down many slain” (Proverbs 7:26). Rabbi Shimon has thus explained to us that “God made one thing corresponding to the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14) – just as the new heavens and earth for holiness are constantly being built by the feminine waters of the righteous, so too the heavens and earth for the kelippot are continuously being constructed through the feminine waters of those who do not know how to serve properly the Holy One, blessed be He.