Kabbalah Library

283. “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of citrus trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook.” It is written, “Everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, as well as made him.” “Everyone who is called by My name” is Adam, whom the Creator created with His name, as it is written, “And God created the man in His image,” and called him by His name when he brought out truth and judgment in the world, and He is called Elokim [God] in the Torah, as it is written, “You shall not curse God.”

284. He called him by His name, as it is written, “And God created the man in His image,” and it is written, “Let us make man in our image, according to our own likeness,” written about the coupling of ZA and Malchut. It is likewise with the coupling of the two of them; it is with an image and a likeness, for the image is from ZA, and the likeness is from Malchut. Adam came out from a male and a female, from ZA and Malchut.

285. “And God created the man in His own image.” When there is a coupling below, the Creator sends one shape, such as the face of the man, inscribed and engraved in an image, and it is on that coupling. If the eye were given permission to see, the man would see on his head one image, inscribed as the face of the man. The man was created in that image, and as long as the image his master had sent him does not stand over his head and is present there, the man is not created, as it is written, “And God created the man in His own image.”

286. That image is available for him until he goes out to the world. When he comes out to the world, he grows in that image, walks in that image, as it is written, “Only in the image shall a man walk,” and that image is from above.

287. When these spirits come out from their places, each spirit is corrected before the holy king with a dignified correction in that Partzuf that is in this world. The image emerges out of that shape and dignified correction, since the image is a clothing for man’s spirit, which is extended together with his spirit, as they are like a light and vessel. The image is a third to the spirit, a third discernment, since Ruach [spirit] is the first, Nefesh is the second, and image is the third. It comes to this world sooner when there is a coupling, and there is no coupling in the world without an image within it. However, holy Israel, the holy image is in them from a holy place, while the image in idol-worshippers is from evil kinds, from the side of impurity. Hence, one must not mix one’s image with an image of idol-worshippers since one is holy and one is impure.