Moshe Chaim Luzzatto ("RaMChaL"):
138 Openings of Wisdom
Nukva is built separately with mitigated Strengths.
Nukva undergoes her own separate process of building through her Mental Powers so that they can repair all her different levels as required, some with Kindnesses and some with Strengths. This is because of the need for Nukva to embody Judgment - but that it should be mitigated so that she can receive the Kindnesses from Zeir Anpin.
Having completed our discussion of Zeir Anpin, we will now discuss Nukva.
Nukva undergoes her own separate process of building . Despite the fact that, as discussed earlier (Opening 119), Zeir and Nukva grow together and she is with Zeir Anpin through all his different stages of Pregnancy, Suckling and Maturity, none of this is for the purpose of building Nukva, who requires a further separate process of building. Her being with him serves the repair that comes from their being joined and bound together, but this repair is almost entirely for the sake of Zeir Anpin, who as the giver of influence requires Nukva as his end level - the receiver - in order to complete his Sefirot.
However, what Nukva needs in order to fulfill her own function requires a separate process of building - for two reasons:
1. Nukva's function is not at all equal to that of Zeir Anpin, and in each case the repairs must correspond to the functions of the lights. The two repairs cannot be said to be a single process in which each is built with its own unique aspects, because this is not the purpose of Nukva being with Zeir Anpin in each stage of his building. The intention is rather that he should be built in a way that suits his role as giver of influence to Nukva, who thus had to be bound with Zeir Anpin in each of these different stages.
Thus while Nukva is involved in all of Zeir Anpin's repairs, she afterwards requires a separate process of building suited to her unique function in the government. Nukva cannot be built in one process together with Zeir Anpin since this would be of no benefit and there is no connection between the unique aspects of Nukva's own building and Zeir Anpin's times of Pregnancy, Birth, Immaturity and Maturity. During these periods Nukva does indeed ascend successively with Zeir Anpin from Yesod up to Daat, but this is only for his sake.
2. The second reason why they cannot be built together is that Nukva has to be built by Zeir Anpin himself, and this is only possible after he is already repaired and fit to build her.
.through her Mental Powers. I.e. through Netzach-Hod-Yesod of Zeir Anpin, which build Nukva as required to suit her function.
.so that they can repair all her different levels as required. There is no need for symmetry with Zeir Anpin in this. Quite the contrary, Nukva requires her own unique repair to suit her intrinsic structure.
.some with Kindnesses and some with Strengths. The Strengths spread only in the center column, while the Kindnesses spread in the other two columns, right and left (see Pitchey Chochmah VaDaat ch. 75).
This is because of the need for Nukva to embody Judgment - but that it should be mitigated. In truth both of these two aspects are required in Nukva in order for her to govern properly. She has to embody Judgment, because the very foundation of Nukva is the rule of Judgment - as required in this world - through the power of BaN and the Strengths of Daat. On the other hand Nukva's judgments must be mitigated, for it is not fitting to run the world with Harsh Judgment since that is destructive Judgment, whereas the world needs mitigated Judgment - the sweetened Judgment that gives rise to joy and the intense excitement of love, as explained in the Zohar (Idra Zuta 296b; see Opening 52).
.so that she can receive the Kindnesses from Zeir Anpin. Nukva is given these Kindnesses only to mitigate her strict Judgments but not in order that she should rule with Kindness, for that is not her purpose. It is when Judgment is sweet in its intrinsic nature that it seeks out its own mitigation through joining with Kindness. (In the building of Nukva, her Strengths - which extend in her center column - are sweetened through the radiation of Netzach-Hod of Zeir Anpin in the two side columns, and this is what mitigates the intrinsic nature of Nukva making her long to receive Kindnesses through coupling with Zeir Anpin.)
For all that is deficient seeks fulfillment - a hungry person wants to eat. But when a person's proper nature is impaired, he no longer seeks fulfillment, as in the case of sick people who are repulsed by food. Likewise Harsh Judgment is darkened by the accusations of the Other Side and does not turn to be sweetened. However, when Judgment is mitigated, it turns to be sweetened. Then through the mystery of coupling Justice receives actual Kindnesses - i.e. Zeir Anpin's Male Waters, as will be discussed below.
138 OPENINGS OF WISDOM INDEX PAGE
by Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
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