And the Man Knew Eve

324) There are several aspects to the verse “Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it goes downward to the earth?” Also, there are several aspects to all the words of Torah, and they are all true.

325) The whole Torah is explained in seventy aspects, opposite the seventy ends and the seventy faces in ZA: seventy ends in his ZAT, where each end comprises ten Sefirot, and seven times ten is seventy. And there are seventy faces to his GAR, which are also seven times ten Sefirot in his Rosh, except that GAR are called face, as it is written, “Man’s wisdom makes his face shine.” So it is with everything in the Torah: several aspects explained to all sides.

326) When a person walks by the path of truth, he goes to the right and draws upon himself a high and holy spirit from above. That spirit becomes to him a holy desire to unite above and to cling to the upper Kedusha so it will never cease from him.

327) When a person walks by the path of evil and his ways stray from the upright path, he draws upon himself the spirit of impurity that is on the left side. It defiles him and he is defiled in it, as it is written, “And you shall not be defiled in them so that you are made impure by them.” One who comes to defile is defiled.

328) When a person walks by the path of truth and draws upon him a high and holy spirit, and he clings to it, he will extend the upper Kedusha upon the son he will beget and that will come out of him to the world. He will be holy in the holiness of his Master, as it is written, “And you will be sanctified and be holy.”

329) When a person walks on the left side and draws upon him the spirit of impurity and clings to it, he draws the spirit of impurity upon the son that comes out from him to the world, and he will be defiled in the impurity of that side.

330) This is why it is written, “Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it goes downward to the earth?” When a man is in adhesion with the right, the light he draws from below upward ascends. And when a person is in adhesion with the left, the left side—which is the spirit of impurity—descends from above downward, extending the illumination of the left from above downward, and makes the man his dwelling place and does not leave him.

It is so because when one is in adhesion with the right, the spirit of men rises from below upward, and when a person is in adhesion with the left, the spirit of the beast descends, and the son he will beget in impurity will be regarded as the son of the spirit of impurity.

331) Adam HaRishon clung to the spirit of impurity, the serpent. His wife clung to it at first, and received the filth from it. He begot a son, and that son is of the impure spirit. There were two sons, one from that impure spirit, who is Cain, and one when Adam repented, who is Abel. For this reason, one was from the side of impurity, Cain, and one was from the pure side, Abel.

332) When the serpent cast the filth into Eve, she conceived from him. And when Adam had intercourse with her, she begot two sons. One was from the impure side, Cain, and one from the side of Adam, Abel. Abel had the form of above, and Cain the form of below. This is why their ways parted.

333) Cain was the son of the impure spirit, the wicked serpent. And because Cain came from the side of the angel of death, he killed his brother, since the killing of Abel is on a par with the sin of the tree of knowledge, to which the serpent incited.

And as the angel of death received domination on the entire world with the sin of the tree of knowledge, here he received control to take out Abel’s soul. Cain is from his side, and the evil and harmful sections, the demons and the spirits all come to the world from him.

334) The name Cain indicates a Ken [nest] for all the wicked sections that come to the world from the impure side. Afterwards, they brought an offering. One offered from his side, and one offered from his side. It is written, “And it came to pass that at the end of some days, Cain brought from the fruit of the ground.” “At the end of some days” is the end of all flesh, the angel of death. Thus, Cain’s offering was from the impure side.

335) Cain brought the offering from that “end of days.” “At the end of days [Yamim],” and not “At the end of the right [Yamin],” since the end of days is an evil shell, and Cain brought his offering from the end of days, from the side of the angel of death. Thus, he made his offering from his side.

336) “Cain brought from the fruit of the ground,” as it is written, “And from the fruit of the tree,” the tree of knowledge, the wicked serpent. From the fruit of the ground is as it is written, “For they shall eat the fruit of their actions.” The angel of death is the fruit of the actions of the wicked, for were it not for the sin, he would not have come to the world. “Will eat” means that the angel of death was extended over them and clung to them, to put them to death and defile them. This is why it is also written here, “from the fruit of the ground,” indicating that Cain offered from his side, from the side of the serpent and the angel of death.

337) “And Abel, too, brought of the firstlings.” It is written, “too,” including the upper side, from the Chazeh and above, which comes from the holy side. This is why it is written, “And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering,” since it was from the side of Kedusha. “But for Cain and for his offering, He had no regard.” The Creator did not accept his offering because it was from the impure side. This is why “Cain became very angry and his face fell,” since his face was not received, the face of his side, but He rather received Abel’s.

338) This is why it is written, “And it came to pass when they were in the field.” “In the field” indicates a woman. Cain was envious of Abel for an additional female that was born with Abel, as it is written, “And she continued to deliver his brother, Abel.” The double Et [the (in the Hebrew)] is to add the two females that were born with Abel.

The souls of Cain and Abel were supposed to be one soul, like Seth. But because Adam made a coupling with Eve before he repented for the sin of the tree of knowledge and the serpent’s filth was attached to them, he begot only the left half of the soul, separated from the right, and there is the place of the serpent’s filth. This is why his name is Cain, indicating a Ken [nest] to all the wicked sections that come to the world from the impure side.

It is so because the section of the serpent’s filth is on the left side of the soul. But on the right side of the soul, he has no place to grip. For this reason, afterward, when he repented for his sin, he begot the soul of Abel, who is from the right side of that soul, where there is no place for the serpent’s filth.

Each soul is extended in three points—Holam, Shuruk, Hirik—in the name Elokim. 1) The point of Holam is the letters MI of Elokim, the right side. 2) The point of Shuruk is the letters ELEH of Elokim, the left side. 3) The middle line comes out on the screen of the point of Hirik, which unites the letters MI and ELEH with each other, completing the name Elokim.

First, this order comes out in Bina, then in ZON, and then in the souls. By their root, MI are regarded as GAR, and ELEH as VAK. In the Partzuf, from the Chazeh and above is regarded as MI, where there are GAR of Guf of the Partzuf, and from the Chazeh and below is ELEH, VAK of Guf of the Partzuf. Accordingly, Abel, MI, is from the Chazeh and above, and Cain, ELEH, is from the Chazeh and below.

Four Malchuts emerged from the sweetening of Malchut in Bina and their inclusion in one another, two Malchuts, Bina and Malchut at the point of Bina, and two Malchuts, Bina and Malchut at the point of Malchut. There are not more than three revealed Malchuts where two Malchuts operate from the Chazeh and above of Partzuf Malchut—namely Bina and Malchut of Bina—and one from the Chazeh and below, Bina of Malchut. But Malchut of Malchut, the quality of judgment, Malchut of the first restriction, is unfit to receive direct light in her, only reflected light, hence she was concealed.

This is why there is no face of a man from the Chazeh of ZON and below. And because of the fourth Malchut, which was concealed, the Nukva became the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If he is not rewarded, it is bad, for if he draws the coupling to below the Chazeh, he thus discloses the fourth Malchut that was concealed, and by that the lights promptly flee.

It therefore follows that Abel, who is MI, from the Chazeh and above, has two Malchuts, Bina and Malchut of Bina, meaning that two females came out with his soul, implied in the double Et [the] in the verse “And she continued to deliver his brother, Abel.” But because Cain is ELEH, from the Chazeh and below, he has only one Malchut, Bina of Malchut, and lacks the fourth Malchut. Thus, only one female came out with the soul of Cain: the third Malchut.

Cain envied Abel for the additional Nukva that was born with him because he wanted to disclose and make a coupling on the fourth Malchut he was missing, so he would have two females, like Abel. It is like the sin of the tree of knowledge, where the serpent seduced them to make the coupling from the Chazeh and below so he could extend the lights from above downward.

Because of it, the fourth Malchut—for which all the lights departed—had appeared, and he was fined with death, since the departure of the light of life is death. The killing of Abel is on a par with the sin of the tree of knowledge: He, too, wished to disclose the coupling on the fourth Malchut from the Chazeh and below. And because that Malchut was disclosed, the lights, which are GAR, promptly disappeared from all the souls of Cain and Abel, and the vessels, which are VAK, fell to the shells.

However, lights do not fall to the shells, but rather depart to their upper root. It follows that Abel, who is considered GAR, departed to his root and died, while Cain, who was considered VAK, fell to the shells. In this way, the only difference between the killing of Abel and the sin of the tree of knowledge is that Adam was the sum of all the souls, hence his sin touched the entire world, while with Cain and Abel, the sin touched only their souls.