Chapter 3.9 - The Birth of the Partzufim
Behina Dalet is called Malchut (Kingship) because it has the greatest will to receive. When it is filled with Light, it is called Ein Sof (No End), because it receives Light without limitation. Malchut is therefore the only creature. Its parts are called "worlds" (the Hebrew word for it is Olam, from the word Ha'alama (concealment) because they conceal the Light of the Creator from the creatures). The concealment in each world corresponds to the measurement of Light the creatures can receive with the screen.
When Behina Dalet received the Light of Ein Sof she felt that the Light came from the Giver. The sensation of the Giver awakened in her such shame and torment that she decided never to receive again. A decision in the Upper One becomes a binding law for all the following situations. Hence, even if some part of Malchut wants to receive for itself, it is unable to because Malchut controls all her parts. Any new decision is a result of the weakness of the degree; therefore it operates only on the lower degrees.
After the First Restriction, Reshimot remain in Malchut from the Light and the vessel. But the Light still wants to fill Malchut because the intention of the Creator to delight the Creature doesn’t change. This Thought of the Creator is the only active thing in the entire Creation, even when reality appears to not be working in our favor.
The Malchut that stands at the Peh de Rosh of the Partzuf feels the Desire of the Creator to please it, as with the example of the host and the guest. But Malchut feels that she is not giving the Creator anything. Therefore, she decides to receive so that the Creator will enjoy her reception.
Using the Reshimot de Hitlabshut is a Reshimot de Aviut from the previous filling, Malchut can calculate how much she can receive in order to please the Creator and not to please herself.
A Reshimo de Hitlabshut is a Reshimo from the Light that filled Malchut. The screen with which she received that Light has now been refined, and the screen hasn’t the strength to receive the same amount of Light again. All that’s left of it is the Reshimo de Hitlabshut. The Rosh de Hitlabshut of the new Partzuf is born on top of the Reshimo de Hitlabshut from the previous Partzuf.
At that point, the screen performs a Zivug (spiritual mating) on the Reshimo de Aviut. That creates the second Rosh, named Rosh de Aviut, and from there the Light expands to the Guf (body), which is the Hitlabshut of the Light in Malchut.
The part where Malchut decides how much of the Upper Light she can receive in order to bestow is called Rosh. Once the decision in the Rosh has been made, Malchut receives the amount of Light she had decided on inside the Partzuf. That Light is called Taamim. When the Light of Taamim stops entering the Guf, the screen that drew the Light stops drawing it into the Partzuf.
The screen stops the Light from entering because the decision in Malchut is a decision about the maximum amount she can receive without taking for herself. If she receives any more, it would be in order to please herself.
Thus, in the place where the screen stops receiving, Malchut feels a further urge by the Upper Light to receive it. That place is called Tabur. If Malchut receives any more Light, it will be for her own pleasure. Hence, she has no choice but to stop receiving any Light.
The decisions are always taken at the Rosh of the Partzuf and only afterwards are they executed in the Guf. And so it is here: once a decision has been made to stop receiving, the screen rises from the Tabur to the Peh and pushes the Lights out of the Guf of the Partzuf.
The screen arrives at the Peh along with the Reshimo of the Light that filled the Partzuf and a Reshimo de Aviut that remains in the screen. The encounter of the screen with the Upper Light reawakens the screen to want to receive Light in order to bestow, hence new Reshimot awaken in it. It performs a Zivug de Hakaa with the Light and creates the next Partzuf.
In each Partzuf there are two screens: one that rejects the Light and one that receives it. The screen that rejects the Light always remains at the Peh of the Partzuf. It rejects all the Light that wants to enter the Partzuf, and by that it adheres to the condition of the First Restriction.
Once the first screen has rejected all the Light and is certain that receiving will not be done for self, but only with the intention to pleasing the Creator, the second screen is activated. The second screen weighs how much of the Upper Light that arrives can be received in order to bestow.
Once the decision has been made, the receiving screen begins to receive Light. It drops from the Peh, followed by the Light that enters the Partzuf. When the amount of Light in the Partzuf has reached the decided-upon amount, the screen in the Guf stops because the Guf screen always executes the orders of the Rosh screen. Thus, a new Partzuf is born out of the first.
The calculation is performed at the screen in the Rosh. But because the Aviut in the new Partzuf is smaller than in the previous Partzuf, the screen drops from the Peh of the old Partzuf to its Chazeh (Chest). It happens because the Aviut in the new Partzuf is of the third degree, not of the fourth as it was in the first Partzuf.
Therefore, once the screen rises from Tabur to Peh and takes the desire for a new Zivug, it drops to the Chazeh and calculates how much it can receive. That calculation creates the Rosh of the second Partzuf. Once the decision has been made, the screen drops from the Peh to as low as it had decided to reach in order to receive Light. That place will become the Tabur of the new Partzuf.
From the Tabur and below, down to the Sium Raglin (End of Legs, the end of the Partzuf), the vessels remain empty. This is because the screen doesn’t fill them due to a lack of sufficient resistance. The second Partzuf, like all the other Partzufim in the world of Adam Kadmon, cannot reach below the Tabur of the first Partzuf due to the weakness of their screen.
After the second Partzuf, called AB, is born and receives what it decides to receive in the Rosh, the same Bitush (the vigorous pressure of Inner Light and Surrounding Light on the Screen at the Tabur) that occurred in the first Partzuf occurs again. Here, too, the screen realizes that it cannot remain at the Tabur because it lacks sufficient strength to receive any more in order to bestow. If it remains that way, then the purpose of Creation will not be realized.
Because of that, the second Partzuf also decides to refine itself and rises to the Peh. Again, there is a Reshimo left in the screen, and when it is once more included in the Peh, it reawakens to receive Light. The last Reshimo de Aviut, that of Behina Gimel, disappears from the screen and the Reshimo de Aviut of Behina Bet appears. The screen drops once more to the Chazeh, and performs Zivug de Hakaa to create the new Partzuf, called SAG.
The same process now repeats: once Partzuf SAG is born, its screen in the Guf refines as a result of the Bitush of the Inner and Surrounding Lights. The screen rises to Peh, drops to the Chazeh, and creates the new Parzuf in Aviut Aleph, called MA, or Upper MA.
When Partzuf MA stops the expansion of the Light into it, it feels the Bitush of the Internal and Surrounding Lights and decides to refine itself. It returns to the Peh with Aviut Shoresh (root coarseness) because there is no more strength left in the screen to receive Light in order to bestow. It can no longer create new Partzufim but only a Rosh. At this point, the process of creation of the Partzufim stops.