The Law of Roots and Branches
So it is with the worlds, where each lower world is an imprint of the world Above it.
Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
The whole of reality that we detect in the conduct of nature in this world is only because they are so extended and drawn out from laws and conducts in the Upper, Spiritual Worlds.
Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”
Through the clothing of the Torah you enter its internality. There is nothing in the revealed Torah that was not caused by the concealed. It is like a seal imprinted in wax—there is no protrusion or depression in the imprint that does not exist in the seal.
Ramak, Know the God of Thy Father, 67
The Mitzvot in the Torah are no more than laws and conducts set in Higher Worlds, which are the roots of all of nature’s conducts in this world of ours. The laws of the Torah always match the laws of nature in this world as two drops in a pond.
Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”
Kabbalists have found that the form of the four worlds, named Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, beginning with the first, highest world, called Atzilut, and ending in this corporeal, tangible world, called Assiya, is exactly the same in every item and event. This means that everything that eventuates and occurs in the first world is found unchanged in the next world, below it, too.
It is likewise in all the worlds that follow it, down to this tangible world. There is no difference between them, but only a different degree, perceived in the substance of the elements of reality in each world.
Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
Each of the manifold still, vegetative, animate, and speaking in this world have their corresponding parts in the world Above it, without any difference in their form, but only in their substance. Thus, an animal or a rock in this world is a corporeal matter, and its corresponding animal or rock in the Higher World is a spiritual matter, occupying no place or time. However, their quality is the same.
And here we should certainly add the matter of relation between matter and form, which is naturally conditioned on the quality of form, too. Similarly, with the majority of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking in the Upper World, you will find their similitude and likeness in the world Above the Upper. This continues through the first world, where all the elements are completed, as it is written, “And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”
The substance of the elements of reality in the first, Uppermost world, is purer than in all the ones below it. And the substance of the elements of reality in the second world is coarser than in that of the first world, but purer than all that is of a lower degree.
This continues similarly down to this world before us, whose substance of the elements in reality is coarser and darker than in all the worlds preceding it. However, the shapes and the elements of reality and all their occurrences come unchanged and equal in every world, both in quantity and quality.
They compared it to the conduct of a seal and its imprint: all the shapes in the seal are perfectly transferred in every detail and intricacy to the imprinted object.
Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
Each lower world is an imprint of the world Above it. Hence, all the forms in the Higher World are meticulously copied, in both quantity and quality, to the lower world.
Thus, there is not an element of reality, or an occurrence of reality in a lower world, that you will not find its likeness in the world Above it, as identical as two drops in a pond. And they are called “Root and Branch.” That means that the item in the lower world is deemed a branch of its pattern, found in the Higher World, being the root of the lower element, as this is where that item in the lower world was imprinted and made to be.
That was the intention of our sages when they said, “You haven’t a blade of grass below that has not a fortune and a guard above that strike it and tells it, ‘Grow’! ” (Omissions of The Zohar, p 251a, Beresheet Rabba, Chapter 10). It follows that the root, called “fortune,” compels it to grow and assume its attribute in quantity and quality, as with the seal and the imprint. This is the law of Root and Branch, which applies to every detail and occurrence of reality, in every single world, in relation to the world Above it.
Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
There is nothing in the reality of the lower world that does not stem from its Superior World. As with the seal and the imprint, the root in the Upper World compels its branch in the lower one to reveal its entire form and feature, as our sages said, that the fortune in the world Above, related to the grass in the world below, strikes it, forcing it to complete its growth. Because of that, each and every branch in this world well defines its mold, situated in the Higher World.
Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
The corporeal mount before us, called Mount Olives, also has relation of a borrowing in that name. This is the meaning of the words, “And his feet stood upon Mount Olives on that day…” Thus, it is clear that if one with attainment named this mountain so, he certainly understood the complete perception of that name. And if some nefarious person [named this mountain], surely… it so happened that he regarded its soil good for olives, or that he saw many olive trees growing on it, or something of the kind.
Baal HaSulam, Ohr HaBahir [The Bright Light], Mount Olives