GEN1429 … if [a man] wants to acquire the quality of Lovingkindness … the following are the types of benevolence: First, when man is born it is necessary to provide him with all his food. Man should therefore have the following in mind. When Understanding begats Beauty [The Sephirah of Beauty derives ultimately from the Sephirah of Understanding] and it comes to pass that she is in hard labor [this verse] because of the aspect of judgment, God forfend, then Beauty finds its exit towards the Powers [The Sephiroth on the Right are Wisdom and Lovingkindness, those on the Left are Understanding and Power. Beauty emanates from all of them and should ideally be found a little towards the Right. Then there is harmony among the Sephiroth. But if, as a result of men’s sins, strength is given to the Powers on the Left these will draw Beauty towards them and the harmony will be disturbed. The ‘birth’ of the Beauty is then with difficulty. When man performs acts of kindness to the new-born child he should have the intention of performing this tikkun for the ‘child’ in the world of the Sepheroth, namely, Beauty, so that it emerges towards the Right.] and her birth is with difficulty.  It is necessary for man to put things right there as possible so that the birth of Beauty be towards the Right in order that the child be born without blemish. As we say: ‘And bring forth our justice as the light, O Holy God,’ [A New Year Prayer, v. Festival Prayer Book, New Year, ed. Routledge, p. 157] that is, that Beauty ( = Justice) should emerge towards the light, [The Hebrew for ‘as the light’ is la’or and can mean and is so interpreted by C., ‘towards the light.’ The Hebrew for ‘O holy God’ is kadosh and can mean simply holy or separate. One of the symbolic names of Beauty is Justice because it is the Sephirah balanced between Lovingkindness and Power.   Hence C.’s mystical interpretation of the prayer is: ‘And Bring forth (from Understanding = “Mother’) our Justice (= Beauty) towards the light (= the Right and it will then be holy and separated from the Powers.’] which is the Right, and it will then be holy and separate from the Powers. In this is included that he intends, with the deeds he performs, to bind it [Beauty] constantly to Lovingkindness and to bring it forth from Understanding in the direction of Lovingkindness and the child will then be born well formed and of strong vitality. [A Talmudic expression used of the birth of a healthy child. Niddah 31a] Practically every provision of the Torah is included in this [The Rabbis divide the divine precepts into positive and negative commandments. C. here says that practically all the negative commandments have as their aim the prevention of the Powers being stirred up. That is to say, when man commits forbidden acts he causes the power of stern judgment to be removed from its lawful place, just as his acts are unlawful. And this has the effect of preventing the ‘easy birth’ of Beauty. It might here be mentioned that the Kabbalists do not think of the process of the Sephiroth as having taken place in past time but as recurring throughout time.], that the Powers do not stir up the power of stern judgment there so that God forfend, the birth be a difficult one.   CORDOVERO 92