Kabbalah Library

37) “But he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar because he has a blemish.” At the time when the river that stretches out of Eden, which is Yesod, brings all those souls out to the Nukva, and the Nukva is impregnated by them, they are all found in the interior, in the room within the room, whose walls are covered by paper or by carpets.

Each Sefira of the Nukva consists of three vessels: external, middle, and internal. The external vessel is made of her own essence. The middle vessel is considered the ZA in her, and the inner vessel is the Bina in her. And each light is received in the vessel that relates to that light.

Since the souls are lights from Bina, the Nukva receives them in her inner vessel, discerned as Bina. The middle vessel, a garment of carpets over the walls of the house, is not called “a room,” which is a house, since the name “house” relates only to the Nukva. Hence, the outer vessel, which is extended from Nukva herself, and the inner vessel, which is extended from Bina, are both females, called “house.” But the middle vessel, which is extended from ZA, is a garment and not a house.

38) And when the moon is blemished by that discernment of the evil serpent—although the souls that emerge at that time are all pure and holy, since they emerged at the time of the flaw—all the bodies that the souls reach in every place break and are flawed by much anguish and sorrow. And these are the ones that the Creator wants and loves, after they break, even though the souls are in sadness and not joy.

There are two kinds of flaws in the moon, the Nukva: 1) When she is under the governance of the left. This is considered the darkness of Ima. 2) Relating to the evil serpent. This was caused by the sin of the tree of knowledge, that if he is not rewarded, he is evil, the quality of judgment in the Nukva from the first restriction appears, and she is unfit to receive the light. The flaw is from the Nukva herself, since it was uncovered, and she is not fit to receive light by the evil serpent in the sin of the tree of knowledge.

That flaw does not concern the souls within her whatsoever, since the souls are extended from Bina, upon which there was no restriction whatsoever. Yet, they were flawed along with the Nukva, too, since this flaw concerns only the Nukva, and not the souls that come to her from Bina. Thus, because they are inside the Nukva, the souls were flawed along with the Nukva, as though they are part of Nukva. Hence, later, when they come and clothe within the person, even if that person is righteous, his body is flawed because of that soul that had been clothed in him.

Yet, how can it be said that the soul blemishes the body? The thing is that it is a special correction for the righteous, where by that correction, the body of the righteous is qualified to receive the great light of the soul. That correction begins from Bina, a mother who lends her clothes to her daughter. And since Bina saw that the Nukva was unfit to receive the Mochin, she raised the Nukva to her, and because of her, she was diminished into being VAK without a Rosh [head]. Thus, she returned with MI [letters Mem-Yod] and lowered the letters ELEH [letters Aleph-Lamed-Hey] to the Nukva. And since the Nukva received the Katnut [infancy] of Bina, she later became fit to receive her Gadlut [adulthood], as well.

It is written, “And a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.” Eden is Hochma, the river is Bina, and the garden is Malchut. This why the river, which is Bina, flowed out of Eden, which is Hochma, and was diminished into VAK without a Rosh, to water the Garden, to give Mochin to the Nukva. This is so because through that exit, Bina imparted Katnut to Nukva, and after she received her Katnut, she became worthy of receiving her Gadlut, as well.

It qualifies the Nukva to receive the Katnut of Ima, which is Ibur [impregnation]. By this she can receive the Gadlut, as well. Similarly, after the Nukva was completed and wished to bestow upon the souls, to people, whose body is extended from the Nukva prior to her correction, and who are unfit to receive the light of Neshama, she diminishes into VAK without a Rosh once more, which is the flaw of the evil serpent. Thus, the souls in her are flawed, as well, and she imparts the blemished souls to people, so their bodies will receive the flaw and the Katnut of the souls.

At that time, the bodies become fit to receive the light of Gadlut of the souls, as well. Thus, this flaw, that the souls blemish the bodies, is to correct the body and to qualify it to receive the light of Gadlut.

Once the body breaks through the flaw and the Katnut of the soul, by which the vessel to receive the Gadlut of the soul was created, then the Creator wants them. But before the body breaks due to the flaw in the soul, the Creator does not want them because they are unfit to receive the light of Neshama, since they are extended from the Nukva prior to her correction, when the first restriction rides atop them.

39) The thing is that as they are above, in Nukva, the body is blemished and within it the soul, where the soul is within the flawed Nukva, here, too, the soul is in the flawed body. For this reason, they need to be resumed during the renewal of the moon, as it is written, “From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come.” This is because they will be completely renewed and will need to be renewed in the renewal of the moon.

After their bodies received the flaw and the Katnut of the soul, they are now worthy of receiving the lights of Gadlut, imparted on beginnings of months and on the Sabbath, which is the light of Haya. And it is known that there are five vessels in the Partzuf, called marrow, bones, tendons, flesh, and skin, which are KHB TM. And before there is a vessel of flesh in a Partzuf, it is unfit for the light of Haya, since the vessel of flesh is dedicated to drawing the light of Haya, which is drawn in beginnings of months and on the Sabbath. But the vessels of marrow, bones, and tendons receive only some of that light, for they are intended primarily for the three lights, NRN.

40) And these righteous are always in partnership with the moon, Nukva, and are flawed by the same flaw as hers, the flaw from the Katnut of Bina, for which she is worthy of the light of Gadlut of Bina. Because of that, she is always within them and does not leave them. It is written, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,” to those who suffer the same flaw as the moon, from the Katnut of Bina. They are always close to her, for by that they are rewarded with receiving the Gadlut of [of] Bina, too.

This is why it is written, “to revive the hearts of the dejected” with this life, the light of Haya, which comes to the Nukva to be revived. This is so because those who suffered with her will be renewed with her, since because they received the Katnut, they will receive the Gadlut, as well.

41) These flaws that the righteous suffer because of the Katnut of Bina are called “pains of love,” since they are from love and not for the person himself. They are of love because the light of the small love—the Nukva when she receives from Katnut of Bina—was blemished because she was rejected from the great love, which is Bina in her Gadlut. For this reason, these righteous are her friends and partake in her flaw. Happy are they in this world and in the next world, for they have been rewarded with being her friends, and it is written about them, “For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, ‘May peace be within you.’”