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Chapter 22
Only, the Torah spoke in the language of human beings, and in the Torah the utterance of the Place, blessed be He, is called by the name of an actual utterance, like the utterance of a person. For in truth, such is the way of the descent and the drawing down of the life to the lower ones, through many and mighty narrowings, kinds from kinds that differ, so that from them many creatures may be created, kinds from kinds that differ.
And the narrowings and the hiding of the upper face grew so strong and so mighty that even unclean things, and kelipot, a kelipah (a husk that hides holiness), and sitra achra (the other side), were able to come into being and to be created, and to receive their life and their continuance from the word of Hashem (God) and the spirit of His mouth, blessed be He, through hiding of the face and descent of the levels. Therefore they are called “other Elohim” (Exodus 20:2), because their sucking and their life are not from the aspect of the face, but from the aspect of the back side of holiness.
The meaning of the back side is like a person who gives a thing to his enemy against his will, and throws it to him as one throws behind the shoulder, because he turns his face from him out of hatred for him. So above. The aspect of the face is the inwardness of the supernal will and His true wish, that Hashem desires to bestow life on all who are near to Him from the side of holiness. But sitra achra and the uncleanness are an abomination of Hashem, which He hates, and He does not bestow life on it from the inwardness of the will and His true wish, as if He desired it, God spare us, but only like one who throws behind his shoulders to his enemy, against his will, only in order to punish those who are a rasha (a wicked person), and to give a good reward to those who are a tzaddik (a righteous person), who subdue sitra achra. This is called the aspect of the back side of the supernal will, blessed be He.
Now, the supernal will in the aspect of the face is the source of life that gives life to all the worlds. Because it does not rest at all upon sitra achra, and the aspect of the back side of the supernal will is also not clothed inside it in actuality, but only encompasses it from above, therefore it is the place of death and uncleanness, may Hashem keep us. For the tiny bit of light and life that it sucks and receives into itself from the aspect of the back side of the holiness above is in an aspect of actual exile inside it, in the mystery of the exile of the Shekhinah (the divine presence) mentioned above. Therefore it is called by the name other Elohim, for it is actual foreign worship, and a denial of the oneness of the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He. For since the light and the life of holiness is in an aspect of exile inside it, it is not nullified at all before the holiness of the Holy One, blessed be He. On the contrary, it lifts itself high like an eagle, saying: “I, and nothing else remains” (Isaiah 47:8), and as in the saying “The Nile is mine” (Ezekiel 29:9) “and I made myself” (Ezekiel 29:3).
Therefore the sages of blessed memory said (Sotah 4b) that haughtiness of spirit weighs as equal to actual foreign worship. For the core and the root of foreign worship is what is reckoned a thing in its own right, parted from the holiness of the Place, and not a complete denial of Hashem, as it is found in the Gemara (Menachot 110a), that they called Him “God of gods.” Rather, they too reckon themselves a being and a thing in its own right, and by this they separate themselves from the holiness of the Place, blessed be He, since they are not nullified toward Him, blessed be He. For no upper holiness rests except on what is nullified toward Him, blessed be He, as mentioned above. Therefore they are called “mountains of separation” in the holy Zohar (Zohar, part 1, 158a). And this is a denial of His true oneness, that all before Him counts as nothing, and is truly nullified toward Him, blessed be He, and toward His will, which gives life to all of them and brings them into being from nothing into what is, constantly.
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