Kabbalah Library

100. The eagle, Tifferet, takes Ruach that is incorporated in the Peh. He leans to the rear, to the west, where Malchut is, and takes one color from the moon, Malchut, whose color is black. He leans forward, to the east, which is Tifferet, and takes one color from the sun, Tifferet, whose color is green.

He leans to the right and to the left, south and north, HG. He takes two colors from them: white and red. You find that the eagle consists of all the colors. This is the big eagle, the feathered one, with big wings, in which all the colors are seen.

101. A man leans upward. He is present in the shape of the face of the lower man, and inscribes there the shape of all four animals, and dresses in all of them, and his form is seen in them, as it is written, “As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle.” He inscribes in them shapes and colors of the faces, and lines of the forehead.

102. In the four animals, there is an impression of thirty-two paths, paths of wonders of wisdom, the thirty-two paths of wisdom. They all cover in the thirty-two, between the face and the wings of the animals, since the four animals are incorporated in one another. Hence, the four of them have sixteen faces, and sixteen wings to the four of them, which add up to thirty-two. So are the lines on the forehead and the lines on the eyes.

103. Thirteen colors are in the depictions of the faces of the measuring line, the middle line. All the colors walk in the path of truth, in the measuring line, which is ZA, the middle line, Vav, and it is called “truth.” They are all inscribed in the letter Vav-Aleph-Vav [Vav], since Vav with a filling is thirteen in Gematria.

Thirteen colors and thirty-two paths are depicted in the Yod-He-He, since Vav is thirteen in Gematria, corresponding to thirteen colors, and Yod-He-He is thirty-two in Gematria, corresponding to the thirty-two paths of wisdom.

104. The twelve colors of the three animals, which are Vav-Vav [Vav written without an Aleph], and the image of their face is the face of a man, is the Aleph that dresses inside the two Vavs and is covered in them, a Vav below, and a Vav above. The Vav above is six upper colors; the Vav below is six bottom colors. In the six upper colors, he blossoms upward, and in the six bottom colors, he blossoms downward.

The animals are four—lion, ox, eagle, man—HGTM, four colors: white, red, green, and black. When the animals are incorporated in one another, there should be sixteen colors in them, since each animal is incorporated with the four of them, and four times four is sixteen. However, there are only thirteen colors in them.

The reason is that in the incorporation of the three lines and Malchut in ZA with each other, there are not sixteen phases in them, but rather twelve phases, since the phase of the actual Malchut, Malchut of the quality of judgment, has been concealed, and only the Malchut that is incorporated in Bina is revealed. For this reason, Malchut lacks her own phase, and she has only the first nine incorporated in her, which she receives from ZA, and her own phase disappears. For this reason, it is considered that there are four animals—lion, ox, and eagle, three lines HGT of ZA, and man, Malchut, who receives from the three lines, from ZA.

When they are incorporated with one another, in each of the four animals, there are only the three lines and not the Malchut, since the actual Malchut is absent in each one, since even Malchut herself has only three lines in her, which she receives from ZA, and she does not have her own phase in her, much less that she is deficient of each of the three lines.

For this reason, after they are incorporated with one another, they do not have sixteen phases in them, but only twelve phases. This is the twelve combinations of HaVaYaH, twelve colors, where with the Malchut that is concealed and hidden, they are thirteen colors.

Twelve colors of three animals are Vav-Vav, since the four animals lion, ox, eagle, and man in ZA, when they are incorporated with each other, there are only three animals in each of them—lion, ox, and eagle—three lines.

Thus, in the lion, there is lion, ox, and eagle. In the ox, there are lion, ox, and eagle. In the eagle, there are lion, ox, and eagle. And in man, there are lion, ox, and eagle. However, the actual man, the actual Malchut, Malchut of the quality of judgment, disappeared even from the fourth animal, the man, since there are only lion, ox, and eagle in it, and it is lacking the man. It is much more so with the rest of the animals.

Hence, there are not sixteen colors in them, but twelve colors, which are Vav-Vav, since ZA is the Vav in the name HaVaYaH, and when we say Vav, we hear Vav-Vav, two Vavs, implying twelve colors.

“And the image of their face is the face of a man‎.” The Aleph dresses inside the two Vavs and is covered by them. This means that because man’s face, Malchut, disappeared from all four animals, and even from the fourth animal, Malchut herself, and she is called “man,” nevertheless, there is only Malchut that is sweetened in Bina in her, who is regarded as Yesod of Malchut, and not Malchut herself. That hidden Malchut was implied in the Aleph of the filling of Vav-Aleph-Vav, which is why it was said, “The Aleph dresses inside the two Vavs, and is covered by them, since the Aleph, which implies Malchut herself, disappears among the twelve colors, which are Vav-Vav.

The twelve colors are the four animals lion, ox, eagle, and man, which are incorporated in one another. In each of the four animals there are three animals: lion, ox, and eagle, and four times three is twelve. They are called “twelve colors.”

It is considered that six of those colors are above, the three that are in the lion, Hesed, and three in the ox, Gevura. They are above because they are not ZA himself, but he rather receives them from Bina. And six colors are below, in ZA and Malchut, three in the eagle and three in the man.

Six below and six above are six colors in the lion, and in the ox they are above, and six colors in the eagle and in man are below. With the six upper colors, he flies up to Bina and receives abundance from her. With the lower colors, he blossoms below, for in the six bottom ones, three in the eagle and three in man, he blossoms and bestows them upon the bottom Nukva.

105. It is written, “With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” These are the twelve colors, the shapes in which the upper Aleph, the glory of man, ZA, dresses. It is Yod-He-Vav-He, and they are the paths of wisdom by which the Hochma is revealed, as it is written, “a path that the eagle does not know, which is Aleph, Adam, Malchut.

We learn about this, “Do not delve into what is hidden from you, and do not explore into what is covered from you,” since she was crowned with twelve colors, which are Vav-Vav that she was clothed in, but she herself was not revealed. It is written about it, “for you saw no image.”

There are two phases of man: 1) ZA, who is called “man,” HaVaYaH filled with letters Aleph—Yod-He-Vav-He—which is MA (45) in Gematria, as the number of Adam [man]. 2) Malchut, who is called “man,” the fourth animal, the face of a man.

The twelve colors, the shapes that the upper Aleph, the glory of man, ZA, clothes in, are the twelve colors implied in Vav-Vav. ZA dresses in them. He is called upper Aleph, and he is called “man,” the glory of man, Yod-He-Vav-He, who is Adam [man] in Gematria (45).

The paths of wisdom in which the Hochma is revealed, as it is written, “a path that the eagle does not know,” is Aleph, man, Malchut, who is called “man,” Aleph filled with two Vavs, Malchut herself, who was concealed and hidden. She is crowned with twelve colors, which are Vav-Vav, and she herself is not revealed.

106. Below, there is an image of a man and not a man. It is written about it, “And the image of the Lord does he behold.” This is the noetic soul from the side of Malchut, which is inscribed in all these colors. She is also called Yod-He-Vav-He, and this is the name MA of below, in Malchut.

The actual Malchut, Malchut of the quality of judgment, was concealed and hidden, and what is revealed in the Sefira Malchut is only Malchut that is sweetened in Bina, who is regarded as Yesod, and not as Malchut herself. For this reason, below, in Malchut, there is the image of a man, the form of Malchut, and it is not the form of a man, since the actual Malchut has been concealed and is gone. For this reason, she is regarded as the face of a man, receiving into her the three lines lion, ox, and eagle, but not man, since she does not have in her the actual phase of a man. This is the reason that there are not more than twelve colors.

It is written about her, “And the image of the Lord does he behold.” This is the revealed Malchut, but the actual Malchut is not revealed. This the soul that is inscribed in all these colors, that Malchut that is sweetened in Bina receives into her all the colors, meaning she is a fourth animal, and not her own phase.

107. The Ruach, Tifferet, inscribes records in the four angels Michael, Gabriel, Nuriel, Raphael. They add up to ten: Elelim, Seraphim, Hashmalim, Shananim, Tarshishim, Ophanim, Elokim, Ishim, Hayot, Children of Elokim.

108. They all dress and shine in colors of the four faces—the face of a lion, the face of an ox, the face of an eagle, and the face of man—in which there are thirteen colors, since the colors are garments for the angels like a body that wears clothes. They show the prophets the forms in these garments.

The Ruach, Tifferet, rides in the angels in the spirit that rides in the body. The world of Yetzira is where the angels are a body for Tifferet of Atzilut, and Tifferet is the spirit that dresses in the body, as it is written, “When you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation.”

109. The Neshama is from the side of Bina, and on her, there is a thought that has no end. There is no imagination in her, no form, and no image, since she is the next world, Bina, in whom there is neither form nor image, as we learn, the next world has neither a body in it nor an organ. The Neshama, Bina, dresses in the throne, in the man in the world of Beria, and in the four spirits in that world. It is written about the Neshama, “for you saw no image,” and it is written about it, “The eye has not seen a God besides You.”

110. With this thought, all the prophets would depict all the imaginations and all the depictions below her, and above her, no depiction is perceived at all. They could not perceive a depiction in it or any color, much less above her.