Five Levels in the Partition

Up to this point, we have clarified the first three principles of the wisdom of Kabbala.

The first is the concept of light and vessel, how the light is drawn directly from the Creator’s essence, while the vessel is comprised of the will to receive that is necessarily encompassed by that light. Commensurate with the measure of this will to receive that was created ex nihilo, an entity emerges from the Emanator as an emanated entity. This will to receive is the Malkhut that is discerned in the supernal light. This is why Malkhut is called shemo, His name, in accordance with the mystical meaning of “He is one and His name is one,” as shemo has the same numerical value as the word for “will,” ratzon.

The second principle is the explanation of the ten sefirot and the four worlds of Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Actualization), which are four levels, one below the other, through which the will to receive must devolve until the vessel is established properly as an entity in itself.

The third principle is the constriction (tzimtzum) and the partition that was formed upon this receiving vessel, which is the fourth level. This fourth level was then replaced by new receiving vessels in the form of ten sefirot called the returning light**.**²¹, so too is the returning light comprised of ten sefirot.

footnotes: ²¹ The returning light is the supernal light that was rebuffed when it impacted against the partition. Since the supernal light is comprised of ten sefirot