What went wrong? The Arizal revealed a new understanding of the account of Creation, explaining the days of Creation in unison with the concept of the seven Kings of Edom who died, in spiritual, non-temporal, terms. The words of the towering Arizal were henceforth propagated widely, too widely, with less than complete understanding, and so it became accepted in broad circles that the Arizal had invalidated the concept of primordial Shmita periods (the same as the Omer weeks of the previous post) which preceded the creation of Adam HaRishon.
The Arizal was misunderstood. He did not come to say that Sephirot and Kelipot do not have temporal correlates. He came to explicate the spiritual underpinning of concepts that hitherto had commonly been understood in a temporal sense. Who would wish to dispute this, let him contemplate on the fact that the understanding of the week of Creation as the Shmita period of human history, with each day representing one millenium, remains universally accepted, together with the understanding of the days of Creation in terms of Sephirot.
In the Arizal's system, the days of Creation are included in the spiritual concept of the kings of Edom: The days of Creation are the eigth King of Edom. Hence, if the days of Creation can be viewed in temporal fashion, by extension the kings of Edom must have a temporal meaning as well.
...אני יהוה רפאך
פז
