Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto ("RaMChaL"):
138 Openings
of Wisdom
Opening 63
For every function and for each effect there are two generators through the coupling of male and female - Kindness and Judgment coming from MaH and BaN - and likewise in the soul and body.
Since the government runs in this way on the foundation of Kindness and Justice, a root of good and a root of evil, accordingly for every function two generators are required. Therefore any given light will only emerge through two lights that draw it forth. Of these two lights, one will be male from the side of MaH and one female from the side of BaN. They will then produce the light that needs to be produced - built out of MaH and also BaN.
Having discussed the overall functions of MaH and BaN in the governmental order, let us now explain the effects that develop out of their joint functioning.
There are two parts to this proposition: Part 1: Since the government... This is a prefatory statement about the offspring or effects brought about through the functioning of the Sefirot. Part 2: Accordingly any given light... The developmental chain through which the lights emerge is founded on the mystery of Male and Female.
Part 1: Since the government runs in this way on the foundation of Kindness and Justice... - namely for the sake of reward and punishment - ...a root of good and a root of evil... All these things are aspects of one process - Kindness and Justice for the sake of reward and punishment. And so too man's service involves the possibility of both damage and repair.
...accordingly for every function... For everything has to emerge with the consensus of two sides. If what emerges comes from the side of good, this is what rules and evil agrees to it. If the opposite is the case, God forbid, then the opposite applies. Accordingly every act or function (פעולה, pe'ulah) contains a part of both of them. This includes the functions involved in the governing of the creations, and likewise the actual creations themselves, which, as we already know, emerge from the same root as the functions that govern them. Thus each creation exhibits one of the functions that constitute the governmental order. The same applies in the case of the supernal lights as they develop to serve the needs of the governmental order. (Each light also has two generators - from the side of Kindness and Judgment.)
...two generators are required. For the causes need to be suited to the production of their required effect, and thus we refer to two generators or producers (מולידים, molidim).
Part 2: Accordingly any given light will only emerge... The beginning of this phenomenon is in the supernal lights, as stated above, for it is these that were emanated for the sake of the governmental order. Each light has its own particular function, and this light will only emerge in the developmental chain if it has for its root two suitable causes in order to jointly produce their effect - the light - which then emerges compounded of both of them.
...through two lights... This is the nature of the developmental sequence (השתלשלות, hishtalshelut), whereby each light is emanated by and emerges from another light. It is caused by that light in accordance with the principle of gradation. ...that draw it forth.... The emanated light is a particular detail whose source is from the Supreme Will, this being the Master of all the powers, which are revealed from Him one by one. Since He wanted to display things in a graded way, level by level, He instituted the entire developmental sequence so as to show in an orderly manner what is first and what comes second to it. In order to display this continuity, it was necessary for one light to draw out another from the Supreme Source. This comes about through the mystery of new mental states (התחדשות המוחין, hitchadshut hamochin) and coupling (זיווג, zivug), as will be explained below in its proper place with the help of heaven. (It is not that the lights which couple together bring the light they produce into existence, but rather, they draw it forth from the Supreme Source.)
Of these two lights, one will be male from the side of MaH and one female from the side of BaN. The Supreme Will wanted to display the developmental sequence in stages, power after power, until the creation attains perfection, as explained earlier (Opening 10). This is the concept of His creating "in partnership with the letters" as explained in the Tikkuney Zohar (Tikkun 69, p.115b), for many powers must exist in order to produce one thing. It is necessary to know which is the first power and what derives from it afterwards in order to understand the way in which the particular creation in question was produced. Accordingly, He displayed the powers as developing one out of the other, as stated above.
This works in the same way as the human mind, which contains various powers. The functioning of the mind is marked by ever-renewed excitement in the form of the new thoughts or new levels of understanding that enter the mind. (I.e. the new thought comes in the wake of the excitement produced by the previous thought, although the new thought is not actually caused by it. So too in the case of the overall developmental chain: the Source of all of the lights is indeed in the Supreme Will, but they are revealed in stages, one after the other, because the eternal Will continually creates everything.)
Indeed, the entire functioning of the soul, whether through the body or within the soul itself or through the interconnection of different parts of the soul - i.e. the vital Nefesh with the intelligent soul, etc. - everything is all through the mystery of coupling (זיווג, zivug). In other words, in order to display the developmental sequence, there must for each effect exist a cause fit to produce it, and this is the concept of a Partzuf. (The construction of a Partzuf is brought about through the coupling that takes place between two higher Partzufim.)
The way in which the effect is produced is not through flashing excitement alone, but rather through the functioning of the different individual aspects of the Partzufim involved - by means of actual coupling. The roots begin in the mind and brain of each of the powers involved and continue down by way of their organs of procreation - the Yesod in each case. Two causal factors underlie every level in the developmental sequence. One provides the overall root, and one provides the specific preparations and repairs for that entire generality.
This is the underlying mystery of male and female as we actually find them in this world: the seed comes forth from the male, while it is in the female that its form is steadily delineated and it undergoes its necessary repairs. Two pathways are involved in this, for the female also produces seed, as our rabbis stated: "The woman emits seed of a red color..." (Niddah 31a). This means that the very material (חומר, chomer) itself contains a part that relates to the female, and this is the red-colored component in the body. However, besides this, the fact is that the male side provides the power governing the overall form. This means that the power governing the overall form of the Likeness of Man exists through the power of the male, while the details of the design are from the side of the female (see Ramban on Leviticus 12:1).
Thus we find that when the Supreme Will wanted to display His powers in this way, He adopted the way of the human mind, even though He did not need to. Humans go through a series of thoughts, one after the other, in accordance with a certain pattern, stage by stage, even though God could have created everything with a single utterance. But He wanted to show how each power develops, from where it emerges, what is its overall cause and what it is that produces its various specific details and everything else that can possibly be discerned in it. Accordingly He so ordered His powers - i.e. those that relate to the creation of the worlds - in such a way that they should function in this way we call the way of male and female, just as the powers of the soul function in the soul itself (through Chochmah and Binah, which are in the category of male and female). The Partzuf is the way in which the causal agent must stand in order to be fit to draw forth and reveal its effect. In this way the various powers of the soul themselves become differentiated into their particular components, and then they have the power to produce new effects. If not, they would not have this power.
We have thus found two aspects that involve the principle of male and female. The complete emergence of the effect comes about only through the operation of the two factors of male and female (1) in the aspect of the preparations (the male provides the overall generality while the female divides it into particulars) and also (2) in the aspect of the parts of the actual effect itself. (Some of the characteristics of the resultant effect derive from the side of the male - Kindness - while some of its characteristics derive from the female - Judgment.) Accordingly they divide up in such a way that the male draws down the white (=Kindness) and the female the red (=Judgment). The first aspect, that of the preparations, whereby the male sends a general influence while the female delineates the details, will be explained below (Opening 64) with the help of Heaven. At this point it will suffice if we discern the principle of male and female in the interaction of MaH and BaN, for both are required as a generating cause, the one contributing one part - i.e. MaH - and the other a different part - i.e. BaN.
They will then produce the light that needs to be produced - built out of MaH and also BaN. This is because the intention is that the resultant effect should also be joined together in the same way. Accordingly two generators are required so that each one can provide that part in the resultant effect.