The Creator created the will to receive as “existence from absence” and developed it through 4 phases by exposure to the Direct Light. When the will to receive arrived at the last phase of development and had become as great as the Light filling it, the Light had passed along all of its properties to the will to receive. Then in the very last layer (Dalet de-Dalet, the 4th part of the 4th phase), the creature discerned itself as receiving.
This aroused burning shame in the creature for it saw to what extent it was opposite to the Creator, the Bestowing One. As a result, it restricted itself and refused to receive. This horrific sensation of shame is called “the shining of Malchut.” It is the darkness which is impossible to bear, the “void” where no Light can shine. At this last point, the 4th part of the 4th phase, the restriction (Tzimtzum) occurs. All the previous phases can achieve similarity with the Light for they are not completely opposite to it.
The question is what to do with this fourth part? It cannot be canceled out or discarded because in doing so the creature would cease to exist. The creature that is not “plugged into” the Creator and is opposite to Him in its properties cannot exist. The 4th phase, the point of independence, must be preserved within the creature as its foundation. In fact, it if were not for the shame, the creature (the guest) would become fully subordinate to the Creator (Host) and would do whatever the Creator wished him to do just as it happens on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, just like a pet is loyal to its owner.
So when does the creature become a “guest”? When does that person feel himself as foreign and opposite to the host? And when does he feel as a guest that the host is happy and excited to have as a guest and that the host is constantly asking what else to offer him in order to please him? When does the guest hear the host saying: “Help yourself! It’s all yours!” And when does the guest reply, “Not mine but Yours!”? The guest cannot help but feel this shame in phase “Dalet de-Dalet”; the creature must keep the sensation of shame in order to preserve itself as a creature.
So, if we reside in the Garden of Eden, meaning in pure bestowal (Bina), it is still the level of angels but not that of true humans. Until we come to sense this gaping void that cannot be filled, man is not ready for his mission. The void cannot be filled until all the shame is revealed which makes us feel the need to cover ourselves with “garments,” which means we feel the need for correction.
Hence, in order to assist the “man,” a “woman” derives and detaches from him. This is his “wife” (Nukva) who is “made from his rib.” It is she who imparts this void to him and together, they, (Zeir Anpin and Malchut, Adam and Eve, feel the need for “garments” (the Reflected Light, the intention to bestow). They feel like the guest in relation to the Host. In this way they can achieve correction, meaning they act solely in order to bestow to the Host and to turn shame into dignity and honor.
This path is long and complicated. Everybody knows the story of Adam and Eve, although nobody understands what it conceals.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. Commentaries in brackets are mine.
