Sepher Yetsira/Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation): The Third Sephira
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Third Sephira: Shalosh/Binah - Mayim Merouahh: Water of Breath
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| 1:11 Three: Maim Merouahh Hhaqaq Vehhatsav (legislates or organises and chisels or cuts) with (in) them Tohou and Bohou. In Refesch (mud) and Tith (clay), organises as a kind of flower-bed (garden), hewn as a kind of wall, and covered as a kind of roof. |
| The Sepherotic permutation of Maim Merouahh shows that the substance of Mem is tripled and partially centrifugal: 2 Mem brought by Rouahh become Maim, yet only one nucleus re-forms. SY p.79 |
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Maim Merouahh: Water of Breath. The two breaths and central Mem of the Second Sephira have transformed into one breath, water (Mayim) and again, a central Mem. Mayim is alchemical water, prima materia, the unstructured, physical basis of all substance and life. At the Third Sephira, energy continues its materialization by forming basic material, for the first time, in three dimensions. Kaplan (SY, 1991, p.76), discussing the Third Sephira (which he confuses with Hhockmah) says the three-ness refers to the top, center and bottom of the Hebrew letters, though "according to some authorities, this also alludes to the creation of space." In the Sepher Yetsira, the materialization of infinite consciousness/energy forms its first element, formless Water, at the Third Sephira, which it then qualifies with Tohu ve Bohu, substanceless form and formless substance, and then mud and clay, or primordial ooze. Then it organizes this development or construction of primary substance in the three dimensions necessary for matter to exist. Oomq Tov Depth of Good, could be translated "Depth of Stability." With the Third Sephira (synthesis) energy/consciousness has achieved, or stabilized, itself in the very beginnings of materialization. But the three dimensions of Adam Kadmon's interior consciousness require the resistance of the Fourth Sephira for Fire, and Iysch, realized human consciousness, to be born in the Waters in the Depths of Uncertainty. |
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The 3rd Sephira shows how this phenomenon is produced.
Its names is Binah
(know with Hhockmah and apply the knowledge with Binah, says the text of verse 1:4).
This sephira is the third: Schlesch (Sheen-Lammed-sheen). The numbers of those Autiot, 300.30.300, express motion within a double cosmic movement, 300. The name of this Sephira, Binah, intelligence, (Bayt-Yod-Noun-Hay: 2.10.50.5) is a twofold life -- a life in a state of existence (50) and an archetypal life (5) -- conferred on the being of Bayt. But the qualitative description of this Sephira, Oomq Tov (depth of Tov) shows that Adam Qadmon is not yet completed, for we know that Tov (40.6.2) is a congealed structuration recurring ad infinitum. This word is always translated "good," because the psyche which is caught in its own structure considers that its own "good" consists in settling down for ever. SY p.80 |