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159) When Abraham was told of Isaac’s birth, the tent door, meaning Malchut, was speaking to him, as it is written, “And He said, ‘I will surely return unto you when the time comes.’” However, it did not say who was speaking. It was the tent door. Yet “And He said” is Divinity. “And Sarah heard” is the degree of the tent door, which was speaking with Abraham, which she did not hear before. Hence, when it writes, “And Sarah heard,” it is the words of the tent door, which was announcing and saying, “I will surely return unto you.”
160) See how the Creator is fond of Abraham: Isaac did not come out of him before he was circumcised. Only after he was circumcised was he told of Isaac, for then he was a seed of holiness. And before he was circumcised he was not a seed of holiness, for then he was as it is written, “Yielding seed after its kind,” for a holy kind such as Abraham.
161) Until Abraham was circumcised, his seed was not holy because it came out inside the foreskin and was attached to the foreskin below. After he was circumcised, the seed came out inside holy and clung to holiness above, and procreated above, and Abraham was adhered to his degree, Hesed. When Abraham begot Isaac, he came out holy, and these waters that are Abraham and Hesed conceived and begot darkness.
Isaac, the left line, is darkness before he clothes in Abraham’s Hassadim. By coming out of Abraham, he was clothed in his Hassadim and became light.
162) Why did the Creator call him Isaac? It should not be said that it is because she said, “God has made laughter for me” [in Hebrew: Itzhak, will laugh], for it seems that the Creator called him Isaac even before he came out to the world, before there was this reason.
163) Fire is left and Gevura. He took water, which is right and Hesed, but water comes from the side of Gevura, meaning that the left and right were mingled in each other. Then the left side became wine that delights God and people.
This is what he asked of the Levites, who extend from the left line and delight that left with musical instruments and praise that are opposite that side. Musical instruments and praise extend from the left side, too, which is why Isaac is joy and laughter, since he comes from the left side and it clung to him.
164) Isaac is joy and gladness, since he replaced water with fire and fire with water, meaning that the left and right are mingled. This is because he is left, fire, which is mingled with water—right and Hesed. At that time, every joy and gladness extend from the left. This is why the Creator called him Itzhak [Isaac] even before he came out to the world and announced Abraham.
165) The Creator allowed everyone to call names, except for Isaac. Even women would give their sons names. But here the Creator did not let his mother give him a name, but to Abraham, as it is written, “And you shall call his name Isaac,” you and no other, to replace water with fire and fire with water, meaning the inclusion of left in right and right in left, to include Isaac in his right side. This is because he imparted him with his quality, the quality of Hesed, called “water” and “right,” and received of the illumination of the left from him, meaning fire, and they were intermingled. Through this mingling, he gave him the name, Isaac, in a way that what the Creator told him, “And you shall call his name Isaac,” will make the integration with him, and by that he became the source of joy and laughter.