רפ"ח ניצוציןThe 288 Sparks

rapaḥ nitzotzinIn Gamatria ↗

Inside every shard, a spark kept alive for its return.

Three things in Ze'ir Anpin need repair: the lights that withdrew upward, the broken vessels in Beriah, and 288 sparks of light left inside the broken vessels. The sparks give the vessels a constrained life so they can later be revived. Vital compares a bit of the soul that stays in the bones after death until the resurrection (Zohar, Shelach). The number 288 is four times 72, derived from the spelled-out names. All these sparks are judgments (gevurot). The Zohar's 320 sparks of the 'hard lamp' (botzina de-kardinuta) are, he says, the same matter counted differently.

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