Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto ("RaMChaL"):
138 Openings
of Wisdom
Opening 65
Male and Female before the Nekudim. The Balance as the root of Male and Female thereafter.
The aspect of Male and Female is also found higher than this, since the governmental order had already been founded on the mystery of Kindness and Judgment. The difference in the Nekudim was that initially they lacked the proper repair of the aspect of Male and Female on account of BaN's having emerged on its own. Only afterwards was MaH put into them through the process of the repair. Accordingly, every root involving Male and Female from Atzilut and downwards depends upon the Balance, which is the mystery of the joining of MaH and BaN.
This resolves a difficulty arising out of our earlier discussion in Opening 63 implying that the aspect of Male and Female was a new innovation after the repair.
This proposition has two parts. Part 1: The aspect of Male and Female... This initial premise explains that the aspect of Male and Female does indeed exist higher up, prior to the Nekudim. Part 2: The difference... This explains a particular aspect of the Nekudim whereby the above-mentioned difficulty is resolved.
Part 1: The aspect of Male and Female is also found higher than this... (i.e. in the worlds of Adam Kadmon above the Nekudim.) This is obvious, because it is evident in the teachings of the ARI (Etz Chayim, Shaar Drushey HaNekudot ch. 2 p.36b) that the coupling of AV and SaG (which are in the category of male and female) took place before the emergence of the Nekudim.
...since the governmental order had already been founded on the mystery of Kindness and Judgment. This provides the proof of and also a logical reason for the existence of coupling prior to the repair. For this entire concept derives from the fact that since each limb is a composite of Kindness and Judgment, it must have two generators, as discussed earlier. However this combination also existed in the supreme lights after the Tzimtzum took place, as soon as there was a Line and a Residue (which are in the categories of Kindness and Judgment respectively). If so, there must likewise be two generators (in the category of male and female).
Part 2: The difference in the Nekudim was that initially they lacked the proper repair of the aspect of Male and Female... According to what we have just stated (that the aspect of Male and Female was present even before the Nekudim), how can we say that the aspect of Male and Female depends on the Balance (מתקלא, matk'la), which originated only in the time of the repair? The answer to this difficulty is that the lack of the repair of the aspect of Male and Female was not overall but specific to the Nekudim. It was in the Nekudim that there was no coupling until after the repair.
...on account of BaN's having emerged on its own. This is the particular reason applying specifically in the case of the Nekudim, in accordance with their intended purpose, as has already been explained hitherto. Only afterwards was MaH put into them through the process of the repair. The repair was a new state brought about in these worlds through the revelation of MaH.
Accordingly, every root involving Male and Female from Atzilut and downwards depends upon the Balance, which is the mystery of the joining of MaH and BaN. This is the sense in which we are saying that the aspect of Male and Female derives from the Balance. For the existence of Kindness and Judgment higher up did not cause the Nekudim to enter into the category of Male and Female owing to the difference in the case of the Nekudim, as explained above (that BaN emerged alone). It was only the Balance that introduced the aspect of Male and Female (since the Balance consists of the joining of MaH with BaN, which fixes the relative balance of the parts of MaH and those of BaN contained in each Partzuf), and accordingly we relate the aspect of Male and Female to the Balance. And obviously, since the aspect of Male and Female derives in this sense from the Balance, they are governed by the Balance throughout. For this reason we must recognize the Balance as the root of this aspect.