READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN THURSDAY

Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 17. What Does It Mean that the Sitra Achra Is Called “Malchut without a Crown”?

17. What Does It Mean that the Sitra Achra Is Called “Malchut without a Crown”?

I heard in 1941, Jerusalem

Crown means Keter, and Keter is the Emanator and the Root. Kedusha [holiness] is connected to the root, meaning that Kedusha is considered being in equivalence of form with its root. This means that as our Root, namely the Creator, wants only to bestow, as it is written, “His desire to do good to the creatures,” so the Kedusha is only to bestow upon the Creator.

The Sitra Achra [other side], however, is not so. She aims only to receive for herself. For this reason, she is not adhered to the Root, being Keter. This is why the Sitra Achra is referred to as having no Keter [crown]. In other words, she has no Keter because she is separated from the Keter.

Now we can understand what our sages said (Sanhedrin 29), “All who add, subtract.” This means that if you add to the count, it subtracts. It is written (Zohar, Pekudei, Item 249), “It is the same here, relating to what is inside, it writes, ‘Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains.’ Relating to what is outside, it writes, ‘eleven curtains,’ adding letters, meaning adding the Ayin [the added Hebrew letter] to the twelve, and subtracting from the count. It subtracts one from the number twelve because of the addition of the Ayin to the twelve.”

It is known that calculation is implemented only in Malchut, who calculates the height of the degree (through the Ohr Hozer [reflected light] in her). Also, it is known that Malchut is called “the will to receive for oneself.”

When she annuls her will to receive before the Root, and does not want to receive but only to give to the Root, like the Root, which is a desire to bestow, then Malchut, called Ani [I], becomes Ein [nothing], with an Aleph. Only then does she extend the light of Keter to build her Partzuf and becomes twelve Partzufim of Kedusha.

However, when she wants to receive for herself, she becomes the evil Ayin [eye]. In other words, where there was a combination of Ein, meaning annulment before the root, which is Keter, it has become Ayin (meaning seeing and knowing within reason).

This is called “adding.” It means that one wants to add knowing to faith, and work within reason. In other words, she says that it is more worthwhile to work within reason, and then the will to receive will not object to the work.

This causes a flaw, meaning that they were separated from the Keter, called “the desire to bestow,” which is the Root. There is no longer the matter of equivalence of form with the Root, called Keter. For this reason, the Sitra Achra is called “Malchut without a Crown.” It means that Malchut of the Sitra Achra does not have Dvekut [adhesion] with the Keter. For this reason, they have only eleven Partzufim, without Partzuf Keter.

This is the meaning of what our sages said, “ninety nine died of evil eye,” meaning because they have no quality of Keter. It means that the Malchut in them, being the will to receive, does not want to annul before the Root, called Keter. This means that they do not want to make of the Ani [I], called “the will to receive,” a quality of Ein [nothing], which is the annulment of the will to receive.

Instead, they want to add. And this is called “the evil Ayin” [eye]. That is, where there should be Ein with Aleph [the first letter in the word Ein], they insert the evil Ayin [eye, the first letter in the word]. Thus, they fall from their degree due to lack of Dvekut with the Root.

This is the meaning of what our sages said, “Anyone who is proud, the Creator says, ‘He and I cannot dwell in the same abode,’” as he makes two authorities. However, when one is in a state of Ein, and annuls himself before the Root, meaning that one’s sole intention is only to bestow, like the Root, you find that there is only one authority here—the authority of the Creator. Then, all that one receives in the world is only in order to bestow upon the Creator.

This is the meaning of what he had said, “The whole world was created only for me, and I, to serve my Maker.” For this reason, I must receive all the degrees in the world so that I can give everything to the Creator, which is called “to serve my Maker.”