AYIN BEIS | Existence Unplugged

The first meaning of the word sefirah is number. As the Pardes writes: number signifies the finite. Though the sefirot are not finite on their own, compared to their source they are considered finite, and also based on their affect on existence. A number connotes two things: 1) A finite entity, 2) revealing the distinct number of an entity whose distinction was previously concealed. The number does not add or subtract anything from the entity; all it does is reveal.

The sefirot in atzilus are only in a state of number — meaning that they reveal the distinct personalities and structure of the ten sefirot that were previously concealed in the ten hidden sefirot. But in atzilut they are still archetypes, and only in biy”a, where existence begins to emerge as independent state of yesh, do the sefirot take on actual defined shape.

[The next 9 chapters, ch. 83-90, all discuss this first interpretation in sefirah: number. In ch. 91 he begins with the second interpretation which continues for 13 chapters, 91-103. Followed by chapters 104-123 where he moves on to the third interpretation, upon whose conclusion he returns to answer the initial question: how can we associate sefirot to transcendence (igguilim)?]