Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto ("RaMChaL"):
138 Openings
of Wisdom
Opening 61
The connections between MaH and BaN produce the "Tree" - Atzilut-Beriyah-Yetzirah-Asiyah. The repair is completed through men's deeds.
MaH went through the process of joining up to Him all the levels that were being selected from BaN, out of which He produced the entire Tree of Holiness, namely Atzilut-Beriyah-Yetzirah-Asiyah. However, there remained further levels of BaN that were not attached to MaH. Accordingly the creation was not yet complete, because it contains certain deficiencies. This is steadily repaired little by little until eventually everything will be repaired and everything will be in a state of complete perfection.
We have already explained the overall repair - that the government ran in a mode of repair. We must now explain things in greater detail. The first thing that must be explained is the interconnection between MaH and BaN.
The proposition consists of three parts. Part 1: MaH went through the process of joining... Part 2: However, there remained... Part 3: This is steadily repaired...
Part 1: MaH went through the process of joining up to Him all the levels that were being selected from BaN... We explained earlier (Opening 54) that the Sefirot of BaN, which were the first to emerge, were awaiting another radiation that would repair them. For as already explained, the Primordial Kings (the Sefirot of BaN) were merely one aspect of the Likeness of Man which the divine Mind rejected. Now, however, came the true completion of the Likeness of Man which emerged from the Supreme Mind. And then even those aspects which had originally been producing evil started turning back to good.
The repair was not brought about in the vessels themselves to bring them to return to a state of repair by themselves. (The repair did not operate on the vessels themselves. Rather, it came about through the construction of the Partzufim out of the lights of MaH and BaN combined, and the vessels were then repaired as a matter of course as each entered its proper place in the structure of the Partzufim. The vessels - from BaN - thus could not be repaired by themselves but only through being connected with the lights of MaH.) For the Sefirot of BaN - which were in a state of breakage - were aspects that took control only at the time when the Likeness of Man had not yet been revealed. (Their existence was temporary from the very outset.) But with the emergence of the essential Likeness of Man - MaH - the repair of these initial aspects also followed as a matter of course.
The way this root is seen in the people of Israel is as it is written: "The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise" (Amos 5:2). Yet it is also written: "I will raise up David's fallen tabernacle" (ibid. 9:11). In other words, when the Assembly of Israel fell, it was because the Supreme King had not yet properly revealed His glory, which is the root of the governmental order. As long as it still waits to be revealed, all that has happened happened. The Holy One, blessed be He, did not merely want to bring them back to what they were on their own so that they would get up from their fall by themselves. He wanted to bring them to a new state of being through which they would be repaired. (The Zohar Pekudey 239b states that the raising up is accomplished only through the Holy One blessed be He.)
This new state is the mystery of "new heavens and a new land" (Isaiah 66:2). "I will raise up David's tabernacle" - through the mystery of MaH, which enables BaN to stand. BaN cannot stand by itself and can only be lifted up with the emergence of the new light of MaH, which is the main root of the governmental order. (If they had rectified themselves, they would only have gone back to their initial state of repair, but He wanted to bring them to a greater state of repair - one of complete repair.) It then retrospectively becomes apparent that everything that took place even from the outset was for good. (When the vessels enter into the structure, it is then revealed that even the bad part was for good because of the function it plays in the world.) All the bad then turns back to good, this being BaN as repaired through MaH. The root of what was to come about in the world is found here in this process that took place in the Sefirot.
...out of which He produced the entire Tree of Holiness. It was necessary for the governmental order to consist of two things joined together: deficiency on the one hand and the complete perfection that repairs it on the other. For all this successively makes known God's unity. (Without the preceeding deficiency, there would be no revelation of the unity.)
Thus the Supreme Mind set to work making what it made through this repair, until all of the different levels and Partzufim were produced, all constructed out of parts damaged in the earlier destruction together with the repair that came to fix them (the parts of MaH and BaN from which the Partzufim were made). It is in this mode that the world is now governed, and now the work is in the hands of man to complete this repair in all its details.
...namely Atzilut-Beriyah-Yetzirah-Asiyah. As explained earlier (in Opening 35), Atzilut-Beriyah-Yetzirah-Asiyah are one whole (and are therefore jointly referred to as the "Tree").
Part 2: However, there remained further levels of BaN that were not attached to MaH. As explained earlier (in Opening 35) regarding the Primordial Kings, there remained certain levels that had yet to be sifted out, and these are the parts that bring perfection.
Accordingly the creation was not yet complete... In the light of what I have said, this should be clear - because certain pathways were lacking in the governmental order and certain parts of the creations were lacking. It is therefore obvious that the original creation still needed to be completed. This is the meaning of "...which God created to do" (Genesis 2:3). He started in order that the work should be completed by mankind.
...because it contains certain deficiencies. This is the clear proof that verifies the above assertion that the creation was not complete - because there are deficiencies in the creation, and it is therefore not in a state of complete perfection. For when it will be complete, there will be no more deficiency left, just as in the case of an artifact whose manufacture is complete.
Part 3: This is steadily repaired little by little... As explained earlier (Opening 53 Part 1), the process of repair proceeds in stages, power after power, until the end.
...until eventually everything will be repaired and everything will be in a state of complete perfection. This too is as I have written above, that all this is a continuous progressive cycle until everything is altogether perfect.