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January 18, 2005

We have said that we follow certain boundaries, and past the boundaries we reach “He is One and His Name One.” But we obtain that by slowly and gradually climbing on the degrees of the worlds, by which our attainment become elucidated in the form of colors, or other discernments.

“23. To understand that you must remember what is explained in item seventeen. It explains that a necessary object is an essence (the innermost thing) that we have no perception of, even in the corporeal essences; even in our own essence.”

We don’t know who we are and we cannot attain ourselves. It is totally concealed from us. All we do have is the discernment that it does exist, but nothing more than that. He continues, “…all the more so in The Necessary (the Creator).” I would even say that it is same thing: To the extent that we cannot attain ourselves, we are also unable to attain the Creator, and to the extent that we do attain the Creator, we can also attain ourselves; they are interconnected.

“The world Atzilut is a Form, and the three worlds BYA are Matter. The luminescence of Atzilut in BYA is a form clothed in Matter.”

We can learn from that that we are forbidden to engage in the world Atzilut, because it is Abstract Form. We are only permitted to engage in the worlds BYA in and of themselves, meaning in their Kelim and in the Lights of Atzilut that clothe in the worlds BYA, which is Form clothed in Matter.

“Hence, you see that the name Ein Sof that we mention is not at all a name for the essence of The Necessary.” We do not call Ein Sof by the name “Creator” or “Essence.” “…since how can we define (and know) by a name or a word every thing that we do not attain?

“Since the imagination and the five senses (our five senses) do not offer us anything with respect to the essence, even in corporeality, how can there be a thought and a word in it, much less in The Necessary Himself?”

We do not attain our own Essence with our five senses, or even the Abstract Form. First we perceive the Form in Matter, and only afterwards, and using our imagination, we can theoretically distinguish between Form and Matter, and say that they might exist separately. Nevertheless, in our perception, there is no such thing as one existing without the other, unclothed in one another.

It is like the Kli and the Light: They don’t exist as two separate entities in our perception, because it is only from within the Kelim that we attain either the Kelim themselves, or the Light that dresses in them. We never attain the Light and its properties when separated from the Kli. So, imagining with our five senses can never bring us to perceive the Abstract Form, and certainly not the Essence.

If we are referring to things that are, or are not, perceived in our senses, it doesn’t matter if we are talking about corporeality or spirituality, because the same law applies for both. I might be in spirituality, and have spiritual Kelim, distinguished from the corporeal Kelim in their aim to bestow, in which case I still perceive in them, but with a different intention. The intention is my own addition. To put it differently: my aim is my own approach as I use my Kelim.

ONow, neither the Kelim nor the Light in the Kelim change. I would say that Light and Kli are united and integrated in complete rest, and I am in Ein Sof. However, since there is a Tzimtzum (lit. restriction), I remove the Tzimtzum — depending on my aim—and reveal the Light that fills the Kli. By depicting it this way, I want to stress that we never reveal Lights outside of the Kelim, because we are actually discovering the Ein Sof, where the Lights are inside the Kelim to begin with. All that we discover is that permanently existing state.

When we talk about the entrance of the Lights into the Kelim, or the exit of the Light from the Kelim, we only speak of how we come to attain that permanent state. We speak of how we draw near it, how we attain it.

That state exists permanently and in complete repose. I gradually prepare my Kli for reception, hence these changes in my perception, when the Light comes and clothes me. I feel the differences in it, and how it slowly enters me, but in fact it neither enters nor exits, but it elucidates in me as I awaken to feel it, to feel what is always there, all the Lights, in all the vessels.

Thus, the Abstract Form doesn’t exist, and never did exist, because as the Light created the Kli, also filled it instantaneously. There was no gap between the creation of the Kli and the filling of the Light in it. When we say that Light elicits from the Creator, we mean that there is already a Kli and that it is already filled, and this is what we mean by saying that the Light elicits.

There is no such thing in spirituality as a Kli being made first, and only afterwards comes the fulfillment with Light. It is only the way we speak, because our language is time - related. But spirituality is above time, and so these things exist simultaneously. The beginning and the end are at the same point; they are not separated by time.

For that reason, there is never any Abstract Form, but the Form, meaning the Light, immediately clothes the Kli. It is only in our perception, in our imagination, that we seemingly distinguish them from one another, and say that the Light inside the Kli most likely exists outside the Kli as well.

But outside the Kli means outside of my perception. You might say that I have a Kli in which I perceive reality; I have a Kli in which I perceive only a little bit of the reality; and I have a Kli in which I perceive absolutely nothing. When I correct my Kli and expand my small Kli into a bigger one, I say that the Light comes and fills it, and that it did not fill it previously. But it is only to my perception that reality manifests in this way.

It is like an unconscious person who gradually awakens from the coma and begins to feel more and more. Reality already exists; everyone is standing around, watching, and that person slowly opens his eyes and begins to recognize where he is. That person will say something like: “Reality came to me,” or “Reality fills my tools of perception.” So basically what Baal HaSulam is saying, is that everything is with respect to the receiver.

“Instead, we must understand the name Ein Sof as defined for us in the third boundary, that all that The Book of Zohar speaks of pertains precisely to the souls (see item 21).”The receivers, which discover the everlasting, permanent Ein Sof.

“Thus, the name Ein Sof is not at all The Necessary Himself,” it is not something outside of the creatures, “but pertains to how all the worlds and all the souls are incorporated in Him, in the Thought of Creation. It is in the form of, ‘The end of an act is in the preliminary thought’ (where there is the final form to begin with).” In other words, the future end of the act is already carried out and present in the first thought.

“ Ein Sof is the name of the connection that the entire creation is connected in until the end of correction,” the beginning and the end together.

That is where all the creatures are, with all their Kelim and all their fillings, without any difference, or gap, or change, to begin with. In their gradual and slow revelations, the creatures are coming to discover their true state. This is why our world is called “the imaginary world.” It seems to us as though we exist in all these forms, like an unconscious person who slowly regains consciousness and begins to recognize reality. In fact, that person was already in that reality, but now he begins to progress in the degrees of awareness, toward the complete consciousness.

“It is that which we refer to in the as the First Situation of the souls (Introduction to the Book of Zohar item 13).” In other words, we say that the souls move from the first situation to the second situation, and from the second, they seemingly return to first, but it is actually the third situation, which is like the first.

“It is that which we refer to in the as the First Situation of the souls (Introduction to the Book of Zohar item 13), since all the souls exist in Him, filled with all the pleasure and the gentleness at the ultimate height that they will actually receive at the end of correction.”

Everything is already present in the first situation, in the beginning of creation. But through their birth, and correction, the souls reach the third situation. In it, they obtain what already exists in the first situation, though unattained by them. In the first situation they were in potential; in the second, they were unaware; and when they reach their correction, it is considered an elevation to the awareness of the situation they are actually in.

Question: Can we say that the Thought of Creation is the third situation?

Answer: The Thought of Creation - To do good to His creations - is the final state, where the creatures must be in their sensation. If they do not feel it, it is not the Thought of Creation. If the Thought of Creation had not been realized in its final, third situation, right in its first situation, it wouldn’t have been considered the Thought of Creation.

There cannot be a thought in the Creator, followed by some actions, then arrival at the end of the act, and only regarding it as existing. This is not perfection. Perfection means that there is no difference between the desired and the existing. There cannot be a difference between the decision and the act. Rather, the decision, the action, and its final outcome, have to be connected in such a way that they are indistinguishable.

For this reason, you cannot say whether the egg or the hen came first. We cannot say if there was first a thought of delighting the creatures, or a thought of delighting the creatures, and then the creatures themselves and their fulfillment with pleasures. This is an impossible question to ask, because there is no concept of time in the Creator, there is no cause and effect in His actions.

Thus, when we refer to the Thought of Creation to do good to His creations, it is the beginning, the middle, and the end, all within the same indivisible thought. It is only in our perception that this thought is seemingly divided into several layers.

Question: Why is there no concept of time from the perspective of the Creator and there is such a concept from the perspective of the creatures?

Answer: This is because we are uncorrected. There are several states in the uncorrected Kelim: the corrupted state; the preparation for correction and the correction; and finally the filling and the Dvekut (lit. adhesion). The order of these actions creates the sensation of time in us.

I have Reshimot, which stem from my spiritual gene. As they surface, I begin to want things, to think of things. In the next moment another Reshimo might surface, and I will want, or think of something else. The difference between what I wanted, or thought, in the previous state, and what I want and think in the present state, is what produces the concept of time in me.

If my thoughts and desires do not change significantly, I feel that time doesn’t really change, as thought it’s dead. If I am in a constant racket of new thoughts and desires, then I feel that time flies, and I feel like things are happening very fast. This is the concept of time in our world.

The truth is that the minute we disclose all the Reshimot, correct them and fill them with all the Light, there will be no more changes between states. In that situation we are in completeness, in the state of infinity of time, infinity of place, and infinity of unity and fulfillment. In that state, the concept of time disappears.

Actually, the concept of time disappears even with the attainment of the first spiritual sensation. For that person, the concept of time disappears — as something that follows the clock. This is because one begins to relate oneself to a different time, to the flow of the spiritual prcocess.

Because the spiritual process is at a higher level than the corporeal process, it suppresses the corporeal one, and one sympathizes with the spiritual process. In that state, one feels the spiritual time instead of the corporeal one.

The spiritual time pertains to the number of changes and operations with respect to our connection with the Creator. It is the number of reciprocal “impulses” that we send to each other. That frequency creates the sensation of time in me, regardless of how many days and years I have spent in this world.

“24. I shall give you an example from the conducts of this world. Take a person who wants to build a handsome house. In the first thought, one sees before him an elegant house with all its rooms and details etc. as it will be when its building is finished.” In other words, he thinks of the end in the very beginning.

“Afterwards one designs the plan of execution to its every detail. He will explain to the workers every detail in its due time, the wood, the bricks, and the iron, and so on.”

For example, he first plans to make a hole here, and a foundation there, then I have to build the floor over it, and over that put up the pillars, then the roof, the windows etc.. In other words, he knows the phases for building the house, plans it, makes a list of the necessary materials, tools, and craftsmen, and puts everything into the plan.

“Afterwards one begins to actually build the house, to its end, as it was set before him in the preliminary thought,” meaning he carries out his premeditated blueprint.

“Know, that the Ein Sof pertains to that first thought, in which the entire creation was already pictured before Him in its utter completeness.” In other words, Ein Sof, or the Creator, decided and made the creatures in their complete correction, in a state of utter goodness.

“However, the lesson is not quite like the example, because in Him (the Creator), the future and the present are equal, and the thought completes (the act) in Him. He does not need tools of actions as do we (because the thought operates as action). Hence, in Him it is an actual reality.” So, He completed in the very moment He contemplated. With respect to the Creator, there are no changes and we exist in our final state from His point of view. The fact that it gradually elucidates before us, has no bearing on Him; it induces no changes in Him.

His relation to us is a finalized situation; so when we pray and plead, we pray to the state of Ein Sof. It is Ein Sof that we pray to and regard as the Creator. It is that reality that He had designed for us and in which He positioned us. We must take our powers, our discernments and desires, from that final state, and it is to there that we must aspire. We have no reason to turn to the essence past the Ein Sof because it is a predefined, preexisting state.

“The world Atzilut is like the details and the contemplated plan,” meaning we have Ein Sof, which is the thought, and then we have the world Atzilut, which is the detailed blueprint, “which will later need to manifest when the building of the house actually begins (the entire plan). Know, that in these two, the preliminary thought, which is Ein Sof, and the contemplated design of the details of the execution in its due time, there is still not even a trace of the creatures. This is still in potential, not in actual fact.” All these, Ein Sof and Atzilut, are before us, meaning before it is actually executed.

“It is like a human (who is building a house): even though one calculates all the details, the wood, the bricks, and the metal that he will have to make while executing, it is essentially a mere conceptual matter.” In other words, neither in that person’s mind, nor in his blueprint, are there any wood, and bricks, and metal. It is all either in the mind, or in the blueprint. “There is not even a trace of any actual wood and bricks in it.”

“The only difference is that in a person (in our world), the contemplated design is not considered an actual reality, but in the Godly thought, it is a far more actual reality than the actual real creatures.”

We see that both the comprehensive thought, and the designed blueprint, are enough for the Creator to complete everything. He doesn’t need the Parsa that comes after the world Atzilut, with the creatures located in it from Parsa downward. He doesn’t need our actions and He is not waiting for what we will seemingly do. For Him, the thought and the design cover the entire reality.

“Thus we have explained the meaning of Ein Sof and the world Atzilut, how all that is said about them is only with respect to the creation of the creatures, though they are still in potential, and their essence is not known at all. It is similar to our parable of the person who designs a work plan, which does not contain any wood, and bricks, and metal.”

“25. The three worlds BYA and this world are considered execution from potential to actual, such as one who builds one’s house in actual fact, and brings the wood, the bricks, and the workers, until the house is completed. Hence, the Godliness that shines in BYA clothes the ten Kelim KHB HGT NHYM to the extent that the souls should receive in order to reach their perfection.” It follows, that we receive illumination from Atzilut to the extent that we want to build the house.

“These are real Kelim with respect to His Godliness. It means that they are not Godliness, but are renewed for the souls.”

The thing is that the Kli is intention (Heb. Kavana)! This is what I elevate to meet the Upper Light. It is not the desire itself. These desires exist in Ein Sof too, and they exist in the second situation. What I need to elevate toward the Creator are intentions; they are my Kli.

You might put it this way: I have desires, 613 desires, but these desires are not the Kli to receive the Upper Light, they are under the first Tzimtzum. Instead, I must position a different Kli, called “craving for the Creator,” to give to Him, to delight Him. This is called Kavana (lit. intention), and this is my Kli, the Kavana, the Returning Light, and not these desires.

Hence, there is no reason for us to work on our desires, there is no work in them. The whole work and the exertion is only on the intentions.

“26. In the above parable you learn and find how the three categories of the person who contemplates building the house are interconnected by way of cause and consequence. The root of all of them is the first thought since no item comes in the contemplated plan, except according to the end of the act that emerged before him in the preliminary thought. Also, one does not execute anything during the building but only according to the items set out for him in the contemplated plan.”

Baal HaSulam says this: Here is the beginning, and here is the end (see below drawing). You should know that all the actions along the way between the beginning and the end are predefined from the very beginning. It is not that the end is predetermined in the beginning, but every single situation along the way is also predetermined in the beginning.

If I want to build a house, I know that I have to erect a post and then another post, and then a wall, then a window etc. etc.. All these situations are predetermined, because they all stem from this Kli that must be gradually corrected.

This Kli contains all kinds of desires in all sorts of levels of Aviut (will to receive). They are interconnected as though in a body, and you cannot correct something without affecting the entire body. If you correct one thing, it is absolutely certain that there is something else that is connected to it, and will have to be corrected afterwards.

All of these things are mandatory, and for this reason there is not a single act in one’s life that is not predetermined by the structure of the will to receive, which in turn, was also prearranged. The will to receive is already present here (see above drawing), hence, it is absolutely certain that the entire path of corrections is predefined and pre - divided into prearrangements that appear before us.

I am always in the ultimate state. The Reshimo raises a state in me, and I, who is in it, must realize it. This is all I need to do. I do not choose the situations; we have already learned that I have no free choice in that. All I can do is realize my situation through my environment in greater efficiency to produce greater effectiveness. After that I move on to another state.

If I realize a situation more or less efficiently is also predetermined by the Creator. There is nothing new here from His perspective, but it is hidden from me in order to give me an opportunity to choose to add exertion.

Later on, when it no longer affects my efforts, the fact that even these things were preordained reveals to me, meaning how much I was to err or succeed. When it no longer affects me, it is considered that I have been absorbed in the absolute and complete guidance of the Creator. In that state, the beginning, the middle, and the end, equalize and become as one in me, provided I rise in my Tikkun (lit. correction) so that the beginning, the middle, or the end, do not affect me. I am past the interest in the fate of own Kelim, and expected upshot in them.

Therefore, those who correct their Kelim, transcend above the transitory times and situations. They feel the states that they experience as necessary cause and effect situations, it is clear to them. It is also clear to them that it makes no difference whether they fail or succeed in any given situation; they make the maximum effort, and this is their success. They have made a Tikkun where the result no longer bothers them. Our whole correction is, in fact, to become detached from the result, from self-interest. This is how we revoke the concepts of time, space, and motion.

“From this you learn about the worlds that there is not a tiny renewal in the worlds that does not extend from Ein Sof, from the first situation of the souls, which are there in their ultimate perfection of the end of correction, pertaining to “The end of an act is in the preliminary thought.” You will find all that will manifest until the end of correction contained in there.

“In the beginning it extends from Ein Sof to the world Atzilut, as in the parable, where the contemplated plan extends from the first thought. Each and every item extends from the world Atzilut to the worlds BYA, like the parable, where all the details stem from the contemplated plan when they are actually executed in the building of the house (when it is clothed in actions).

“Thus, there is not a single tiny item, renewed in this world (there is nothing new under the sun), that does not extend from Ein Sof, from the first situation of the souls. From Ein Sof it extends to the world Atzilut, meaning to the specific association to the renewed thing in this world de facto. From the world Atzilut, the renewal extends to the three worlds BYA where (in the worlds BYA) the renewal appears in actual fact (before the souls), where it departs from the form of Godliness and becomes a created being, and to Yetzira and Assiya, until it extends to the lower one in this world.”

By creatures he means something that feels itself detached from the Creator, seemingly being in its own authority. With respect to that person, the house is not yet finished. That person feels that he can add something of his own in building the house. If one wants to reveal the blueprint of the house in order to complement it, complement the construction of the house, it is considered bringing oneself back to Ein Sof.

“Understand that thoroughly and compare everything to the conduct of building a house in a corporeal person, and then you will thoroughly understand. It has been explained that you have not a renewal that is made in the world that does not extend from its general root in Ein Sof and from its private root in Atzilut. Afterwards it travels through BYA and adopts the form of a creature, and then it is made in this world.”

It is only gradually, from below upward, that one gathers counsel and strength to understand the Creator’s plan and to realize it. By that one comes to know the design more and more intimately and is included in that pre-constructed house, but through seemingly adding to it every brick, every bolt, and every plank etc..

We add to it by wanting to be incorporated in it, not by actually building it, because the tools for the building are our desires. The metal, the bricks, the trees, all these are our own desires. All we need is to want to position every single desire in its proper place as designed in the blueprint of the Creator. Thus, by building that house out of our own desires, we also attain the thought of the Creator, and this is our gain.

There is no other way to reach it, because we, who are in this world, very slowly learn “By Your acts we know You” so to speak. We learn from the Creator what He does, and want to do the same things. By that we obtain the mind, the thought of the Creator.

In that state we transcend the level of the creature, because we were born from the thought of creation. So now we not only return to our place of birth, we raise ourselves even higher than our place of birth, and literally to the degree of the Creator. The thought of the Creator precedes our creation, and by that one seemingly rises above one’s birth point. By so doing we literally attain Dvekut (lit. adhesion) with the Creator, in the same mind.

Question: Does the plan become more revealed or more concealed as we advance?

Answer: The plan that was previously concealed becomes more revealed, it appears in greater detail. In fact, the entire plan appears at the very first contact. Every spiritual degree consists of ten complete Sefirot and the Light of NRNHY. But it is only at the degree of Nefesh de Nefesh.

It is as if we see a building from very far away. As we get closer we begin to see more details: from what materials it is built, how it is built, what it was built for, who built it, and with what thought in mind. However, all these things appear right at the first picture, call it NRNHY. The materials in the building, the structure, the order of construction, and when you learn who built it, this is considered Light of Yechida, for example.

These things become clear right at the first contact, but afterwards we delve deeper and deeper until we come to a state as though we built this building by ourselves. This happens because we agree with the building, with our intention to bestow.

This building, the world of Ein Sof, is in fact what the Creator gives in His love to the creature. This is His benevolence, and this is what we must give back to the Creator as benevolence. In other words, just as the Creator builds the house for us, we must seemingly build the same house for the Creator. In that state the Creator and the creature equalize and the creature ascends to the Thought of Creation.

Question: How is the additional exertion measured?

Answer: The additional exertion is not in actions, in building, but in consent, in the intentions. It is considered addition because it is something that never existed. It is not an addition to things that He had already done, and I only need to add to His deeds. I add something that He has never done, I add my consent, my desire, my aim to bestow. This is why it is not considered addition to things that already exist, more of the same, but it is something new.