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4) People should observe the work of the Creator. After all, all the people do not know and do not consider what the world stands on and what they themselves stand on. And those two things are clarified in the essay below.
When the Creator created the world, He made the heaven from fire and water, and they were mingled together and did not freeze. Afterwards, it froze and stood in the upper Ruach. This is so because in the order of elicitation of the Mochin, first the two lines—right and left—come out. These are the two points—Holam and Shuruk, which are called “water” and “fire.” They are disputed with each other, which means that each infiltrates the boundary of the other and wishes to subdue him under himself, like two moist things that mingle with one another. Finally, the level of Hassadim appears on the Masach de Tifferet, the third line, which decides between them so that each will illuminate according to its own way and they will no longer mingle with one another. This is considered that the two lines that were moist and mingled with one another have now been frozen by the middle line, which is Tifferet, and will no longer mingle with one another.
It was said that when the Creator, Bina, created the world, Nukva, He made heaven, ZA, from fire, which is the left line, and from water, which is the right line. They mingled together and did not freeze, for they were disputed among themselves and each interfered with the other’s boundary to subdue him under himself, as is the nature of liquids that mix with one another. After the middle line came out, the two lines froze and stood because of the middle line, Tifferet, Ruach. It became like solid objects, where one cannot penetrate the boundary of the other.
From there, from ZA, He planted the world, Nukva, to stand on plinths—the three lines of Nukva that stand in that Ruach, meaning the middle line in them. And when the Ruach departs, they all become loose and shake, and the world trembles. This is so because as the lines of ZA froze and stood in the upper Ruach, the lines of Nukva that extend from ZA stand only in that Ruach, since without the middle line, there is no sustenance to the illumination of the two lines whatsoever.
Everything stands on Torah, since when Israel engage in Torah, when they raise MAN to ZON and extend the middle line, which is the Torah, the world exists and those pillars and plinths—the three lines of ZA that are called “pillars” and the three lines of the Nukva, which are called “plinths’—are in complete sustenance. At that time, it is said about the Nukva, “How lovely are Your tabernacles,” since the tabernacle is the Nukva, and the world stands on the Ruach, the middle line.
Henceforth, he explains how people stand and persist only on the middle line.
5) When midnight awakens and the Creator enters the Garden of Eden to play with the righteous, all the trees in the Garden of Eden sing and praise before Him, as it is written, “Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for He has come.” The night is the Nukva with respect to her own dominion. She is essentially the illumination of the left line, from the illumination of Hochma that extends from the point of Shuruk in Ima. Also, Hochma shines only from the Chazeh down because the Man’ula [lock] governs from the Chazeh and above of each Partzuf, and the illumination of Hochma cannot appear there. This is the division of the night into two halves, since the point of midnight is the point of Chazeh.
The first midnight is from the Chazeh of Nukva and above. And because the Man’ula governs there, she is Dinim [judgments]. The second midnight is from the Chazeh of Nukva and below, where the Malchut that is mitigated in Bina governs, the Miftacha [key]. Hence, the illumination of Hochma that is in the Nukva appears there. This is the meaning of “She rises while it is still night.” In that respect, too, the Nukva is called “the Garden of Eden,” since from the Chazeh down her own essence is absent, meaning the Malchut of Midat ha Din [Malchut of the quality of judgment]. Hence, she is completely mitigated and becomes like Ima, who is called “Eden” when Bina returns to Hochma. This is why she is called “the Garden of Eden.”
When the middle of the night, the Nukva, awakens to receive the mitigation of Bina, to shine from the Chazeh down in her, which is the Garden of Eden, the Creator enters the Garden of Eden to play with the righteous. In other words, the righteous raise MAN and extend illumination of the middle line there, which is the Creator who shines in the Garden of Eden.
All the trees in the Garden of Eden sing and praise before Him, as it is written, “Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy.” “The trees of the wood” are infertile trees, which do not bear fruit. Before the coming of the Creator, the Sefirot of Nukva were regarded as the trees of the wood, which have no fruits to them. After the illumination of the Creator enters there through the righteous, “The trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for He has come,” and bear fruit.
6) At that time, a herald comes out and declares aloud, “To you, holy heroes, to those of you who allowed spirit in their ears so they can hear, whose eyes are open to see, and whose hearts are open to know.” Through this herald, the righteous awaken to rise from their slumber to engage in Torah, and they extend the middle line.
Ears are Bina, and their light is called “hearing.” Eyes are Hochma, and their light is called “seeing.” At night, the eyes are shut since they cannot shine due to the Dinim. At midnight, the illumination of the left from Ima arrives. While it is illumination of Hochma from the point of Shuruk in Ima, although the force of seeing is already there, it is still impossible to open the eyes because the light of Hassadim is still absent and Hochma does not shine without Hassadim.
At that time, the righteous arise to engage in Torah and raise MAN to ZON, and ZA rises for MAN to the two lines that extend there from the two points, Holam Shuruk in Bina. Then the level of Hassadim extends over the Masach de ZA, which decides between the two lines and they are included in one another, the Hochma in the left dresses in the Hassadim in the right and she can shine. This is when the eyes open.
“Those among you who put spirit in his eyes so as to hear,” since the righteous raise MAN in the engagement in Torah and instill the Ruach, the middle line, ZA, to the ears, which are the two lines in Bina, through which the Hochma in the left dresses in the Hassadim on the right. At that time, the eyes, Hochma, open to see, since they can shine once they have been clothed in Hassadim.
The middle line is called Daat, and then these three lines become HBD in Bina, from which they are extended to HBD de ZON, and from there to HBD of the souls of the righteous. All those Mochin come out through their engagement in Torah. And this Daat, which is the deciding line in the HB of the Rosh [head], overturns and shines from above downwards, to the Guf [body]. And the Daat in the Rosh spreads downwards and fills the heart and the whole body.
This is the herald that comes at midnight, at the start of the illumination of the left line from the point of Shuruk for the righteous to raise MAN for extension of the middle line. The herald comes out and calls aloud because it is in the blocking of the Dinim of the point of Shuruk. This is why it is discerned that he comes out with great force and calls upon the righteous to correct him.
Before us is the clarification of the order of extension of the three lines from Bina to ZA, from ZA to Nukva, and from Nukva to the souls of the righteous.
When the wind that is the root of all winds raises the sweetness of the soul, and the voice that is the root of all voices comes from there, the forces spread to the four directions of the world. ZA, which rises and decides between the two lines in Bina, is called the Ruach of all the Ruchot [plural of Ruach] because it is the root middle line from whom the middle lines extend to all the degrees.
Neshama is Bina because the light of Bina is called Neshama, and once the Ruach, ZA, rises to the Awznayim [ears], which are Bina, and decided between the two lines in her, the Ruach became an audible sound. This means that prior to the decision of the Ruach, no lights were heard in Bina, which is called Awznayim, and the Ruach activated the hearing in them because they were completed through it and they shine outwards.
When ZA rose to Bina and raised the mitigation of the lights of Bina, called Neshama, to there, it means that he revealed the three lines HBD there. After the Ruach revealed the three lines and a voice was made, it comes out of there and becomes the root of all the voices because it comes out and spreads downward. Its powers spread and scatter to the four directions of the world, to ZA and Nukva below the Bina because south, north, and east, are ZA, and west is the Nukva.
7) One rises to the right side of ZA. This is south, which extends from the point of Holam of Bina. Another descends to the left side of ZA, which is north, extending from the point of Shuruk in Bina. One that enters between two is the middle line of ZA, east, which extends from the point of Hirik in Bina, meaning from ZA, to decide between the two lines in Bina.
Those three sides—south, north, and east—are HGT in ZA. And what he says concerning the illumination of the right—that one rises—means that its illumination rises from below upwards. And when he says, concerning the illumination of the left, that one descends, it means that its illumination descends from above downwards, since it concerns the order of their elicitation before the emergence of the middle line.
In the beginning, the right line comes out in VAK without a Rosh, MI. Afterwards, the left line, ELEH, returns to the MI and the name Elokim in blocking is completed. At that time the right shines from below upwards, as is the nature of illumination of VAK, and the left shines from above downwards like GAR. However, they are blocked due to absence of Hassadim.
However, after the elicitation of the middle line and their inclusion in one another, the order of their illumination is reversed: the one that rose descends and the one that descended rises. Thus, the right shines from above downwards and the left only from below upwards. And the reason why he does not count the HBD de ZA is that HBD de ZA are not real HBD but are only HGT that became HBD.
The two are crowned and illuminate, meaning they became three—HGT—through the middle line that decided between them. Hence, three enter into one because the middle line, Tifferet, receives and spreads into three other lines by itself—NHY. This is so because the lower one is rewarded with the full measure that it causes in the illumination of the upper one, since it is its cause. Hence, since ZA rose and decided in Bina and became the middle line there, ZA himself was rewarded with the three lines that emerged in Bina because of him, and he himself expanded into three lines—HGT.
Similarly, Tifferet de ZA, which is the middle line that decides between the two lines—HG de ZA—was himself rewarded with all three lines and the Tifferet expanded into the three lines—NHY. This was so because the two—HG de ZA—became two lines through Tifferet, hence all three entered the one, which is Tifferet, and he himself spread into three other lines, which are NHY. Thus, six Sefirot, HGT NHY, came out in ZA.
The one that decides, Tifferet de ZA, elicited colors. He emanated the Sefirot of the Nukva, which are called “colors”: six of them, HGT NHY, to one side, to the right, and six of them, HGT NHY, to the other side, to the left. It follows that the six, HGT NHY, entered twelve Sefirot. The six Sefirot of ZA spread in the Nukva and became twelve Sefirot, six to her right and six to her left, and all those twelve Sefirot are from her Chazeh and above.
Also, they are doubled because from her Chazeh and above, the Nukva comprises two Yesodot [plural of Yesod] that extend from two points, which are called Miftacha [key] and Man’ula [lock]. Hence, two levels of HGT NHY emerge in her—one from Miftacha, in illumination of Hochma, and another of HGT NHY, from Man’ula, without illumination of Hochma, but covered Hassadim. Therefore, the six of ZA became twelve in her, two levels of HGT NHY.
The twelve Sefirot from the Chazeh and above spread from the Chazeh of Nukva down and become twenty-two Sefirot. This is so because the six of ZA do not become twelve here, but consist of ten, since ten stand in one. This is so because the Nukva has no Zivug from her Chazeh down due to the absence of Yesod de Man’ula, the face of a man. It is therefore considered that only two times HGT NH are extended down, and not the Yesodot, since although the Yesod de Miftacha extends from the Chazeh down, he is unfit for a Zivug because he doesn’t have Yesod de Man’ula to be included in. Thus, he is not considered a Sefira and she has only ten Sefirot from the Chazeh down.
Thus, the six of ZA from the Chazeh down consist of only ten Sefirot, which are two times HGT NH, and not twelve Sefirot because ten stand in one. Because these ten Sefirot stand only in one Yesod de Miftacha, and he cannot be included in the Man’ula, he is unfit for a Zivug and is seemingly absent. This is why two Yesodot are missing here and there are only two times HGT NH here, which are ten Sefirot. However, all the illumination of Hochma appears only in those ten Sefirot from the Chazeh down. But the Zivug is carried out from the Chazeh and above, and the level of the Zivug extends in ten Sefirot from the Chazeh down, and from there the souls of the righteous receive.
8) Woe unto those who are asleep, that sleep is in the holes of their eyes, who do not rise from their slumber to engage in Torah, to extend the middle line. Thus, the illumination of the left blocks their sight and they sleep. They have no eyes, Mochin, but sleep is in the holes of their eyes. They do not know and do not look into how they will rise in Din [judgment], that they will be called upon to give an account when the body is defiled and the soul roams over the noon air, rising and falling, and the gates do not open to her. They roll like stones in the hollow of a sling. Who will ask for them when they do not rise in this refinement and the places of pleasure of the righteous are absent? They will be given into the hands of Angel Dumah; they will go down to Hell and they will not rise, and it is written about them, “As the cloud is consumed and vanishes, so he that goes down to the grave shall come up no more.”
9) At that time, at midnight, a flame awakens from the north and strikes the four directions of the world, for then the illumination of the left spreads out in the world, meaning Din, and descends and comes between the wings of the rooster, Gabriel. And that flame awakens in him and he calls. This is the herald that comes out and calls aloud, and there is none to be awakened by the sound of the calling except those true righteous who rise at that time and engage in Torah, extending the middle line. Then the Creator and all the righteous in the Garden of Eden listen to their voices, as it is written, “You who sits in the gardens, friends are listening for your voice; let me hear it.”
This explains how the existence of all the people is on the middle line, which is extended only by engagement in the Torah. Were it not for the middle line, they would have no existence whatsoever. Rather, they would be given into the hands of Dumah and would go down to Hell and be gone.
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