Ten Sephiroth

6) It is in order at this juncture to explain the word "WORLD" in the sense that it is used in this context. There are ten SEPHIROTH. The SEPHIROTH are, at times, subdivided into Five "PARTZUFIM", thus:

  1. PARTZUF "K E T H E R"

  2. PARTZUF "C H O C H M OH"

  3. PARTZUF "B I N A H"

  4. PARTZUF "T I F E R E T H"

  5. PARTZUF "M A L C H U T H"

The last two "PARTZUFIM": "TIFERETH" and "Malchut" together are called "WORLD" (THE SPIRITUAL).

It is "TIFERETH" and "Malchut" that are the key factors in the bestowal of light to all the worlds below them, including the earth, which is inhabited by man.

 

7) Inasmuch as "TIFERETH" and "Malchut" bestow to the worlds below them, they too are called "WORLD".

The inclusion of "Z.O.N" in the SEPHIROTH "CHOCHMOH" and "Binah" is dramatized in the Zohar wherein it is said that for two thousand years before "creation", the Creator was reflecting upon "the letters", pondering over them and deriving great joy from their presence; and at that time "Z.O.N" acted in the capacity of "M.N" to the two thousand years, which are "CHOCHMOH" and "Binah".

 

8) The SEPHIROTH of the HEAD "CHOCHMOH" and "Binah", being "the brain" of the body of the SEPHIROTH are all inclusive, and as such, must be perceived as a unit wherein is found a variety of a thousand manifold SEPHIROTH, equivalent to the changes of the seasons of the year. Thus, "CHOCHMOH" and "Binah", each of the two SEPHIROTH can be connoted as "ONE SEPHIRAH", and, on the other hand, can also be called a "thousand" SEPHIROTH together. It is for this reason that the Kabbalah compares the SEPHIROTH to "the layers of an onion". An onion may have a thousand layers, but it is still one onion.

 

9) The initial letters of "M.N" mean "MAYIN NUKVIN", designating "the waters" of "the feminine polarity". This is the posterior part of the light that stems from WISDOM and INTELLIGENCE. The aim and aspiration of these WATERS is to rise to their SOURCE. The raising of "M.N" by the servant of GOD may be likened to the yearning of an only child to return to his parents after a long absence.

After creation, man became the instrument employed by GOD to raise "M.N". The returning light is that which man brings up by means of prayer, his study of the Torah, and his performance of the "Mitzvoth". In return, man is vouchsafed from above the vertical light known as "MAYIN DUCHRIN": "THE MASCULINE WATERS". These waters constitute "the light of Mercy".

This is in agreement with the expression voiced in tractate "TA- ANITH" as well as in the Zohar:

"No drop of spiritual bounty (light) can descend from above; there two drops of the ESSENCE called the Returning Light ascend from below"; which is to say: in order to be able to draw one drop of light from above, the servant of GOD must excel himself first in bringing up two drops from below. They are the two SEPHIROTH "TIFERETH" and "Malchut". They are also connoted as the love for GOD and the fear of him.

 

10) In other words, when GOD willed to create the world, all the letters appeared before him in reversed order. At the outset, the letter "Tav" presented herself and said: "Lord of the world, may it be pleasing in thy sight to create the world with me; for I terminate your seal, which is אמת ("EMET", TRUTH), that is, the last letter ת ("TAV") of the word אמת ("EMET"). Since you are called by the name אמת (TRUTH), it is fitting for the king to begin the creation with the concluding letter: ת ("TAV")".

The holy one, said to her: "You are beautiful and upright. However, because you lack the proper requisite, the world cannot be created with you. For, just as you are destined to serve as a mark of life upon the foreheads of the faithful ones who have fulfilled the Torah from "Aleph" to "Tav" ( A to Z), so, on the other hand, your mark will show that, because one has failed to fulfill the Torah from "Aleph" to "Tav", he will have to perish (SHABBAT 55)". Furthermore, you are the seal of מות ("moveth", death): that is to say: the "Tav" ת is also the last letter of the word מות (death). "Being what you are, the world cannot be created with you". The Tav left.

 

11) To be specific, after the shattering of the primordial vessels, that is, before creation, GOD began to select the sparks that became scattered because of the breaking of the vessels, "The seven SEPHIROTH" from tht SEPHIRAH "CHESED" (MERCY) to "Malchut" (KINGDOM).

This ingathering of the sparks was for the purpose of issuing forth the ten SEPHIROTH of "ATZILUT" and of establishing the two spiritual phases. They are the two terminating "PARTZUFIM" of "ATZILUT", that is, the SEPHIROTH "TIFERETH" and "Malchut" which were to subsequently govern "B.Y.A" and to bestow light thereupon as well.

 

12) Each one of the letters, beginning with the last one, which is "Tav", appeared before GOD. They all consecutively approached GOD in reversed order, rather than in their "proper" order. Thus they appeared in the form of "M.N", in which the letters are arranged in the reversed order, i.e., Tav, "Shin", "Reish", "Koof", etc.; rather than in the form of "M.D" in which the letters are arranged in consecutive order, i.e., "Aleph", "Beth", "Gimel", "Daleth", etc. ("M.D": the initial letters of the two words "Mayin Doochrin", that is, "Masculine Waters", the light of the Sephirah "CHESED" (MERCY). In order to shed more light upon this "Droosh" (exposition), it is necessary to point out that the expression in the Zohar "THE CREATION OF THE WORLD" intimates that the world is to subsist in its imperfect state until it is brought to its completion and perfection.

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