226. “And God created, etc.” “And God created the great sea-monsters.” “Sea-monsters” indicates two, and these are the foreskin and uncovering, i. e., the cutting of the foreskin, followed by uncovering. And they are male and female. “And every living soul that creeps”: This is the imprint of the sign of the holy covenant, which is a holy living soul, as we have stated. “With which the waters swarmed” [Genesis 1:21] is the upper waters that were drawn to it, to this imprinted sign.

Explanation: The “sea-monsters” are the leviathan and his mate. Corresponding to them are the foreskin and uncovering, which are “the slant serpent” and “the tortuous serpent” [Isaiah 27:1], male and female. The foreskin is the slant serpent, a male, which must be removed and thrown to the dust, while uncovering is a rectification for removing the evil of the tortuous serpent, the female.

Now, the verse “and every living [soul, nefesh ḥaya] that creeps” alludes to the imprint of the sign of the holy covenant. By means of the uncovering, when the skin of the uncovering is parted this way and that over the Yesod, the imprint of the [letter] yod appears, which is the aspect of the endpoint of the upper world called ḥaya (as stated above, in section #17#; see section #224#, above). This is why it is called “an imprint of a holy living soul,” regarding which the verse states: “And every living soul that creeps.”

[The Zohar] continues: “The upper waters that were drawn to it, to this imprinted sign,” this is referring to the masculine waters [that flow downward from] the higher world, Abba and Imma Ila’in, which are called ḥaya. They are drawn down only as [a result of] the imprint of the yod (as stated in section #17#, above). The [letter] heh emerges, and the yod enters [in its stead]; see there.