Topics examined in this lesson:
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The Phases of Light
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The Second Restriction (Tzimztum Bet)
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The Reflected Light
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Five Partzufim of Adam Kadmon
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Nekudot de SAG, Tzimtzum Bet
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The Smallness of Nikudim
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The Shattering of Desires
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World of Atzilut
We shall commence with a brief review: the Creation is brought forth by the Light emanating from the Creator, and this Light is the desire to give delight, and is called Behina Shoresh (Root Phase).
It builds for itself the desire to receive delight, Behina Alef, which after being filled with the Light, adopts the attribute of the Light; that is the desire to give, to relentlessly bring delight. This corresponds to Behina Bet.
But there is nothing it has to give. It realizes that it can bring Him delight only if it accepts a portion of the Light for His sake.
So the third stage: Zeir Anpin is created. It already has two properties: to give and to receive.
After perceiving these two kinds of delight, Zeir Anpin feels that receiving is better and nicer than giving. This is its initial character in stage Alef.
Therefore it decides to receive all the Light and is completely filled with the Light, but now upon its own wish. Its delight is infinite.
This has become the fourth phase, called Malchut of the World of Ein Sof, the one and only true Creation. It combines the two conditions: it knows in advance what it wishes, and out of the two states it chooses receiving.
The first three phases do not bear the name of “Creation” because they do not possess a desire of their own, but only the Creator’s or a consequence of it.
The fourth stage, after being filled with Light just as during the first phase, starts adopting the attributes of the Creator, and senses itself as a receiver.
A feeling of shame arises leading to the decision to become like the Creator, i.e. not to allow any Light in and the Tzimtzum Alef (First Restriction) takes place.
How is it that the Tzimtzum did not take place in the end of Phase 1? The answer is that during the first phase, the desire of the Kli was not its own, but was the wish of the Creator.
Here the creation restricts its own desire to receive, and does not use it.
Tzimtzum is made not on the desire to receive delight, but on the aspiration to receive for itself. It refers only to intention.
In the first case the Kli simply ceased to receive. Now, if the Kli made a decision to receive, but not for its own sake, it could fill itself with a certain portion of the Light, depending on the strength of its intention to counteract the force of egoism.
This reception of Light for the benefit of another is equal to bestowal. An action in the spiritual world is defined by its intention, not by the action itself.
The First Restriction means that the Kli will never use delight for its own sake. Tzimtzum Alef will never be violated.
That is why the primary task of a created being is the necessity to neutralize the wish to receive delight for its own sake.
The first created being, Behina Dalet, shows how to receive pleasure from all the Light of the Creator, although the First Restriction means that all that Malchut is filled up with will never be received as delight for its own sake.
We shall see how this principle can be further implemented.
Initially, Malchut places a Screen above its egoism, which pushes away all the incoming Light. This is a kind of test to check whether Malchut is able to resist all the enormous delight which presses against the Screen and which corresponds to an equally enormous desire to receive it.
Yes, it does succeed in pushing away all the delight, and does not luxuriate in it.
But in this case the Kli is separated from the Light. How to achieve a situation, when the delight is not simply pushed away, but some portion of it is received for the sake of the Creator?
For this to take place, the Light reflected by the Screen (Ohr Hozer) must somehow clothe the Straight Light (Ohr Yashar), and together they will enter the Kli, that is, the desire to receive.
Thus Ohr Hozer serves as the anti-egoistic condition, accepting and allowing in the Ohr Yashar , the delight.
Here Ohr Hozer acts as an altruistic intention. Before taking in these two kinds of Lights, a calculation is carried out in the Rosh. How much Light may be received for the Creator’s sake? This quantity passes in the Toch.
The first Partzuf may receive, for example, twenty percent of the Light, according to the power of its Screen. This Light is called Inner Light – Ohr Pnimi.
The portion of Light which did not enter the Kli, remains outside and is therefore called the Surrounding Light, Ohr Makif.
The initial receiving of twenty percent of the Light is called Partzuf Galgalta.
Following the pressure of the two Lights, Ohr Makif and Ohr Pnimi on the Screen in the Tabur, the Partzuf expels all the Light. The Screen then moves gradually up from Tabur to Peh, losing its anti-egoistic power and reaching the level of the Screen in the Peh de Rosh.
Note that nothing disappears in the spiritual world, each consecutive action encompasses the previous one. Thus, the twenty percent of Light received from Peh to Tabur remains in the previous state of the Partzuf.
Afterwards, the Partzuf, seeing that it is not able to manage the 20% of Light, makes a decision to take the Light in again, this time not 20%, but 15%.
For this purpose, it has to lower its Screen from the level of Peh to the level of Hazeh of the Partzuf Galgalta, that is, to move down to a lower spiritual level.
If at the beginning its level was defined by the Reshimot: Hitlabshut of Level 4 and Aviut of Level 4, now it is only 4 and 3 respectively.
The Light enters the same way and forms a new Partzuf: AB. The destiny of the new Partzuf is the same; it also pushes the Light away.
Following on this occurrence, the third Partzuf, SAG, spreads out, and after it, MA and BON.
All five Partzufim fill Galgalta from its Peh to Tabur. The world which they form is called Adam Kadmon.
Galgalta is similar to the Behina Shoresh, since while receiving from the Creator it gives whatever it can.
AB receives a smaller portion for the sake of the Creator, and is called Hochma, as Behina Alef.
SAG works only for bestowal and is called Bina, as Behina Bet. MA is similar to Zeir Anpin, as Behina Gimel, and BON corresponds to Malchut, Behina Dalet.
SAG, having the properties of Bina, is able to spread under the Tabur and fill the lower part of Galgalta with the Light.
Below the Tabur, with the exception of empty desires, remain the delights induced by similarity with the Creator.
All this because the NHY (Sefirot: Netzah Hod Yesod) of Galgalta below the Tabur refused to take in the Light of Hochma. They enjoy the Light of Hassadim, the delight of similarity with the Creator. This delight is also on the level Dalet de Aviut.
The Nekudot de SAG have Aviut Bet, and may enjoy from bestowal of the Light on this level only. Hence they cannot longer resist the delight of the level Dalet, otherwise they will begin to receive the Light for their own sake.
The above should normally occur, but Malchut standing in the Sium of Galgalta rises to the middle of Tifferet of Partzuf Nekudot de SAG and forms a new Sium (Conclusion). This is the restriction of the Light, called Parsa , below which the Light cannot go.
With this action Malchut makes the second restriction on the spreading of the Light, called Tzimtzum Bet by analogy with the first one.
To take an example from our everyday life: imagine a man with pleasant manners and good upbringing who would never steal up to the sum of $1000. However, if $10,000 were laid before him, his education might not “work” because in this case, the temptation, the prospective delight, is too powerful to be resisted.
Tzimtzum Bet is the continuation of Tzimtzum Alef, but on the Vessels of receiving, the Kelim de Kabbalah.
It is interesting to note that in the Nekudot de SAG, the Partzuf, which is altruistic by nature, has disclosed its selfish properties; immediately Malchut, ascending upward, covers it and forms a line, called Parsa, to limit the downward spreading of the Light.
The Rosh of the Partzuf SAG, as every Head, consists of five Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut. These in turn, are divided into the Kelim de Ashpa’a (Keter, Hochma and half of Bina) and Kelim de Kabbalah (from the middle of Bina to Malchut).
Kelim de Ashpa’a (Vessels of bestowal) are also called Galgalta ve Eynaim .
The Kelim de Kabbalah are the Awzen, Hotem, Peh: AHP .
The restriction of Tzimtzum Bet means that from this point on a Partzuf must not activate any of the Vessels of receiving. It is prohibited to use AHP; so decided Malchut, when it rose to the middle of Tifferet.
After Tzimtzum Bet all the Reshimot move up to the Rosh of SAG, there requesting to form a Partzuf of the level of Galgalta ve Eynaim exclusively. This allows the Partzuf to receive some Light from contact with the Creator.
It now means that the Screen must be located not in Peh de Rosh, but in Nikveh Eynaim, which corresponds to the line of Parsa in the middle of Tifferet in Guf.
After a Zivug in Rosh of SAG, a Partzuf will emerge from this point and will spread below the Tabur and down to the Parsa.
The new Partzuf, which spreads below the Tabur to Parsa, clothes the previous Partzuf of Nekudot de SAG, but on its upper part only, meaning on altruistic Kelim.
The name of the new Partzuf is Katnut of Olam Nikudim (Smallness of the World of Nikudim). This Partzuf appears on the level of the restricted Reshimot of Bet-Alef.
In fact, of the five worlds previously mentioned (Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya) there does not exist such a world, because as soon as it was born, it broke apart immediately.
During the brief existence of this world, the Sefirot of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura and the one third of Tifferet are divided into ten and have the usual names.
In addition, there are special names for the Sefirot of Hochma and Bina: Abba ve Ima (Father and Mother) and also, the Sefirot of Zeir Anpin and Malchut: ZON , Zeir Anpin and Nukva (Female).
Following the Zivug de Aka’a in the Nikveh Eynaim in Rosh of SAG, upon the request of the Reshimot of the lower Partzuf, SAG performs a second Zivug on the Reshimot of Gadlut (Greatness) in the Peh de Rosh.
As this action takes place, a great Light begins to spread out from SAG and tries to descend below the Parsa.
Partzuf Nikudim is absolutely certain that it will be able to receive the Light for the sake of the Creator, and that it has enough power for this, notwithstanding the Tzimtzum Bet.
However, at the moment the Light touches the Parsa, the Shevirat haKelim (shattering of the Vessels) occurs, because it becomes clear that the Partzuf wants to receive delight for itself only. Light immediately exits the Partzuf and all the Kelim, even those which were above the Parsa, are shattered.
So from the desire of the Partzuf to use the Kelim de Kabbalah for the Creator’s sake; to form the World of Nikudim in Gadlut, using all ten Kelim, a shattering of all its screen-intentions occurred.
n the Guf of the Partzuf Nikudim, i.e. in ZON above the Parsa (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet) and below the Parsa (Netzah, Hod, Yesod and Malchut) there are eight Sefirot. Each of these consists of four phases (apart from phase zero).
These, in turn, bear ten Sefirot, yielding a total of 320 Kelim (4 x 8 x 10), which have been broken.
Of the 320 broken Kelim, only Malchut cannot be corrected and this represents 32 parts (4 x 8).
The remaining 288 parts (320 - 32) can be corrected. The 32 parts are called Lev haEven (lit. Heart of Stone). These will only be corrected by the Creator Himself at the time of Gmar Tikkun (Final Correction).
The altruistic and selfish desires have simultaneously broken apart and intermingled. As a result, every element of the broken Kelim consists of 288 parts that are fit for correction and 32 which are not.
Now the achievement of the goal of Creation only depends on the correction of the broken World of Nikudim. If we succeed in our required task, the Behina Dalet will be filled with the Light.
Olam haTikkun (World of Correction) is created to build a coherent system which will then correct the Kelim of the World of Nikudim.
This new world is also called Olam Atzilut (World of Emanation).