bread¹, for thus is the word ḥolem¹ – the reverse of the letters of LeHeM¹. And this is: (Ps. 78:25) The bread of angels has a man¹ *eaten... *Of which it is stated: (Ex. 15:3) Y”Y is a ‘man of war’...

footnotes: ¹ leḥem ¹ dream ¹ bread ¹ iysh

From the aspect of Ḥokhmah, She is called ḥolem¹, and from the aspect of the Middle Pillar, He is called shureq¹. As it is stated: (Jer. 2:21) And yet I planted you a noble vine², * entirely a seed of truth *– that of which it is stated: (Mic. 7:20) Give truth to Jacob...

footnotes: ¹ ֹ ¹ ּ ² soreq

From its own aspect, She is called ḥireq¹, – and with the letters reversed: ḥeqer². And because of Her is stated: (Job 11:7) By searching² *, will you find God? *And She is (Ez. 1:22) ... the awesome ice² *... *– which is the third ‘Name’ of prayer, of which it is stated: (Deut. 10:17) ... God, the great, the mighty, the nora² ... ... the awesome² ...– this is the Middle Pillar.

footnotes: ¹ ִ ² searching ² ḥeqer ² qeraḥ ² awesome ² nora

And shureq¹, it is hidden and concealed, from the aspect of the Righteous-One², Who is ‘covenant’ – the hidden light, which is ‘mystery’³⁴, as the numeric-value of ‘light’³⁴.

footnotes: ¹ ּ ² Yesod ³ raz ⁴ 207 ³ aur ⁴ 207

As the Masters of the Mishnah have established:¹ (Ps. 97:11) *A light is planted for the righteous... *And this is the ‘light that is hidden for the righteous’.

footnotes: ¹ See BT Ta’anit 15a

For the five lights that are above it, they are all revealed. And what are they? Three lights of segol¹, and two lights of shva¹. When it ascends upon the wings of the two points that are shva¹, it is made into ‘shureq’ qubutz¹.

footnotes: ¹ ֶ ¹ ְ ¹ ְ ¹ ֻ

And the mystery of the matter: (Song. 2:5) *Support me among barrels... *And when it descends below tzerei¹, it is made into a segol¹, and about it is stated:... furnish me with apples.

footnotes: ¹ ֵ ¹ ֶ

And what are these ‘wine-barrels’¹ ? They are the two ‘fires’¹, which are man¹ and woman¹ – the white fire¹ and the red fire. For Father and Mother are found there – Who are Y-Q, and they are ‘the faces of judgement’ and ‘the faces of mercy’.

footnotes: ¹ ashishot ¹ ishot ¹ iysh ¹ ishah ¹ esha

Why does She¹ wish to be supported there? Because they are the two colours of the rose: white and red, mercy and judgement, which are Ḥesed and Gevurah.

footnotes: ¹ Malkhut

And there is found ‘the scent of the rose’, and this is the Middle Pillar¹. And because She smells it, she says: Support me among barrels...

footnotes: ¹ Tipheret

And through it, She is made into a segol¹. When She descends – furnish me with apples, – these are ‘the two pillars of truth’², which are white and red. And because She smells the letter Vav¹, which is in the covenant, She says:... furnish me with apples.

footnotes: ¹ ֶ ² Netzaḥ-Hod ¹ ו

And when She joins with Him, She is made into a segol¹. That which was tzereiy¹, is made into tziyeyr². It is this that is written: (Gen. 2:7) And Y”Y ELQYM formed² the human, dust from the ground... etc.

footnotes: ¹ ֶ ¹ ֵ ² depicted ² yiytzer

(Gen. 2:9) And Y”Y ELQYM caused to sprout, from the ground, every pleasant-looking tree... etc. – this is a righteous person, he is (Gen. 1:11) *... a fruit tree making fruit to its kind... *And in this place, it is Her love, in the joining and unity with Her Husband, and because of this She says: (Song. 2:5) ... for I am love-sick.

And when the People of Israel sin through the covenant of circumcision, the flow of the vowel-points is interrupted, from the letters which are included in the Lower Shekhinah, and She remains dry [in them]. At that time, what is written of shureq¹ and ḥireq¹ ? (Lam. 2:16) ... they hissed² and gnashed² teeth, they said ‘we have swallowed...’

footnotes: ¹ ּ ¹ ִ ² sharqu ² ḥarqu

Qametz¹ and pataḥ¹ – this one shut and this one open. These two, are those that close and open wellsprings – which are the vowel-points – towards the letters.

footnotes: ¹ ָ ¹ ַ

And the letter Vav¹, – when it is stretched upon the tops of the letters, the higher ḥayot [Var. letters] – is called rapheh. And when it is in the middle of the letters, it is called dagesh.

footnotes: ¹ ו

These letters are angelic-beasts¹, of whom it is stated: (Ez. 1:14) And theḥayot were ‘rushing and returning’... – rushing with dagesh, returning with rapheh.

footnotes: ¹ ḥayot

The crowns¹ of the letters, which are dependent upon ‘thought’, which are like [Var. these te’amim¹¹ depend upon ‘thought’, letters in action, for there, the vowel-points depend upon speech, letters upon deed, 7 Zayins are like this ש² ² so it is that the****ז²³, the seventh, do not require crowns, like] the crownlets¹.

footnotes: ¹ kitrin ¹ notes ¹ reasons ² Shyn ² Shyn ² Zayin ³ 7 ¹ tagin

The vowel-points are suspended in or depend upon speech, the letters are suspended in or depend upon action.

The seven ‘Zayins’ are like this:

– Yod-Vav¹ is Zayin¹. They do not require tagin², for these letters are called ‘tagin’, like this: .

footnotes: ¹ י־ו ¹ ז ² crownlets

The crownlets depend upon thought of the heart and mind, vowel-points upon the speech of the mouth, letters upon the action of the limbs.

And for these [Var. from these] vowel-points, cantillation notes, and letters, that Hidden and Concealed One made a higher hidden Throne, and about it is stated: (Lam. 5:19) You Y”Y shall sit forever... etc. What is You... ? He of Whom is stated: (Is. 25:1) Y”Y, You are my God, I shall exalt You¹ ...

footnotes: ¹ aromimkha

Of that of which it is stated: (Ḥab. 3:10) Rom¹ has lifted its hands. And because of that it is stated:² ‘To whom does one raise hands? To the High-One¹ of the heavens...’ It is this that is written: *Heaven has lifted its ‘hands’... *And what are they? YOD QE VAV QE³ which is Ḥokhmah – the power¹ of ‘what’¹³. And about it is stated:

footnotes: ¹ Heaven ² Sepher ha-Bahir Ot 139 ¹ rom ³ 45 ¹ ko-aḥ ¹ mah ³ 45