Part 1 · Chapter 12

Introduction to the Issue of צמצום and רשימו 0:00

Chapter 12. Now we're talking the ענין now is going to be the ענין of the צמצום and רשימו. ומעתה יש להבין ביאור ענין הצמצום הראשון הנ״ל בפירוש הרשימו שנשאר כולו, אגם שידוע ליודעים, even though in general people know about this, but הרי יש בזה פרטים רבים, וצריך להעמיק הדעת בהם ביותר, כי זהו עיקר היחוד האמיתי בעצמות אין סוף, that the main thing in understanding in terms of the יחוד is to understand the ענין of the of the צמצום and רשימו, איך דכולא קמיה כלא חשיב, גם בבחינת כללות כל ההשתלשלות דקו, עד שיוכל אדם לכוון רצונו ומסירת נפשו לעצמות אין סוף לבדו, and not to not to get fooled by the whole השתלשלות.

כמו שנאמר: אתה הוא הוי׳ לבדך, אתה כולו, וזהו המלך המרומם לבדו מבחינת מלכות דאין סוף שלפני הצמצום, שנתנשא גם מימות עולם דא״ק, שנקרא ימי קדם, which is called ימי קדם, and, by the way, like I said before, usually where you say ימות עולם is אצילות and ימי קדם is the the מדות of of עתיק and אריך, but here he is saying a different a different thing. וזהו השמים מבחינת סובב הכללי שלאחר הצמצום, ושמי השמים שלפני הצמצום לא יכלכלוך, וגם בבחינת כלי לכלי.

יכלכלוך means a כלי to a כלי. כמו גליף גליפו בטהירו עילאה, כולו, that even a גליף גליפו in the טהירו עילאה is not even a כלי for a כלי, for the for the actual אייבישטער, ודי למבין. וכמו שנאמר: מי לי בשמים, שהוא גם בחינת סובב הכללי שלפני הצמצום, שנקרא שמי השמים, so, in other words, he's saying here שמים is what in the previous explanation he calls שמי השמים, ועמך לא חפצתי בארץ, מבחינת קו וחוט מבחינת ממלא הכללי, כולו.

So that's the preface to this chapter, and now he is going to explain the actual ענין. והנה יש כמה אופנים במשלים שונים להשכיל ביאור ענין הצמצום הנקרא מקום פנוי, כידוע למעיין, וכללותו עולה בסגנון אחד, but in general it's one ענין. והוא, כדי שיוכל להיות גילוי סדר בבחינת השפעה בצמצום בבחינת קו, הוצרך לצמצם עצמות אורו שישאר בהעלם בעצמותו, כולו, ולא יאיר כולו, רק אפס קצהו בלבד, וזה שיהיה אחר כך המשכת האור בדילוג הערך, that's

Different Analogies for Understanding צמצום 2:32

the ענין of the צמצום and רשימו. And now he is going to give משלים. הרי זה כמשל אור שכל עמוק ורחב שבעצמות משפיע, שכדי שיומשך ממנו למקבל הבלתי ערך אליו, הוצרך המשפיע להעלים להעלים בעצמו כל עומק השגתו, ולא ישאר רק בחינת רושם בבחינת נקודה אחת מכל העומק והרוחב, שלא שנסתלק ונתעלם לגמרי, it's not

that it actually disappears, because it's talking about this whole thing is happening in the משפיע himself. רק כמו השונה בדרך קצרה, it's like a משנה in relationship to the תלמוד, שכל העומק ורוחב הפלפול ישנו בשכלו, that when he says a משנה, he knows the whole גמרא on it, רק שהוא נכלל לפי שעה בהעלם עצמותו, בשעה שאומר הדין בדרך קיצור, when he's saying the משנה in a short way.

ומיד שישאלוהו ירחיב הדבר, the minute somebody will ask him, he'll be able to tell you the whole big פלפול on it. רק בשביל שיובן למקבל דרך זה הקצר, מעלים גם בעצמו לפי שעה, because he is teaching little children משניות, so even inside of himself he is hiding it for the time being,

כמו שמבואר במקום אחר באריכות, like it explains in another place at length, ומה שנשאר כמו נקודה שהוא דרך קצרה, and what is left like a נקודה, which is a short way, אין זה צמצום גמור ואמיתי, it's not really an actual real total is, first of all, it's not a total צמצום, and secondly, it's not even a real צמצום.

כמו המצמצם ומעלים לגמרי, like somebody who actually makes a real צמצום and totally hides it,

שנחסר למקבל לגמרי, that over there it's missing by the מקבל totally. And here, it's not only that it's not that, it's ממש the opposite from that.

Purpose of צמצום: Giving Knowledge to the Receiver 5:34

That the whole reason it's done in the first place is דווקא in order to give it over to the מקבל. It's דווקא דווקא for that.

The whole reason for it is דווקא in order to give it over to the מקבל.

So, not only it's not an actual צמצום כפשוטו, it's really the opposite from a צמצום גמור. That really, it's a a צמצום means that it's going away, and really, this צמצום is דווקא the opposite, it's in order to give it.

It's not really in order to stop it.

And the whole thing is like basically what he's saying, this is like this משל means like a teacher, that a teacher when he's teaching little kids, so he teaches them like mathematics, he has to מצמצם the whole thing, not only that, he has to מגשם it.

Like, he has to make it an ענין of like one fishy plus one fishy, or one apple like they say, if you have an apple and then you have another apple, and then if you have four apples and you eat an apple, in other words, you have to totally מגשם the ענין

in order to have them understand it. And in the beginning, he can just tell them tiny little things, but the whole reason that he's telling them tiny little things is not really to withhold the information from them, just the opposite.

Teaching Method: Small Steps Toward Full Knowledge 7:06

He really wants to give them the whole information over, and that way when they finish first grade, then they'll be able to get to second grade all the way up to where they'll do like post graduate work, and finally they'll become a רבי just like him.

And the the final ענין of this whole thing with a teacher, the goal is not just that they'll know as much as him. That's not the goal.

The goal is that they'll be a רבי just like him. In other words, the actual עצמות is going to be given over.

That when they finish, it's not just there'll be a guy who knows a bunch of knowledge, but he'll actually be ממש have the עצם of a רבי himself.

שנחסר למקבל לגמרי, אלא הענין הוא שכולל בדרך קצרה זה כל האריכות, לא יחסר דבר וחצי דבר. So this is really not even like when we say in in in the משל of a גויישה school, you have to take דווקא the משל in a Jewish school, because in the משנה

it's not just a קיצור that you leave some things out,

but really in the משנה, there is nothing missing at all. The whole תלמוד is included in there.

כמו שכולל ה- כמו שכולל בדין הקצר שבמשנה כל אריכות הפלפול שבגמרא.

Not only that, the real thing, it's not only that he ממש that that he knows the whole פלפול that's why it's in there, just the opposite. The פלפול of the גמרא came out of the משנה because you know the whole story that that רבי saw that

you know the Romans were making problems, and the ישיבות were getting messed up.

So really the the thing is like most most people think that first was the גמרא and then there was the תלמוד, but really I mean first there was a משנה and then there was a גמרא, but really there was really a גמרא before the משנה.

They they had a The whole the whole תורה שבעל פה they had before the משנה, and he took it and put it in a very short way so it could be שונה, that you could go over in a very fast way.

And it's said in such a way that even later on when they forgot certain things, they can like reconstitute it out of the out of the משנה.

Relationship Between משנה and גמרא Explained 10:28

So, you see that the whole previous גמרא was really included in the משנה, and then you can reconstitute and bring out the whole פלפול of the גמרא, because the whole פלפול of the גמרא is included in the קיצור of the משנה. וכמו שנעלם יודע כל הפלפול גם בשעה ששונה לעצמו דרך קיצור. When somebody really knows the whole גמרא, like a big real תלמיד חכם like they used to have in the olden days, even when he says a משנה, he knows like if רש״י would be saying a משנה.

You know, he would know the whole thing. שנמצא שידיעתו באריכות מקיפת בהעלם כל התגלות הקיצור. ולא שנסתלק לגמרי. It's not that it really went away, כשכחה, like he forgot it. Like if you forget it, it went away, like if somebody has amnesia or something like that, חס ושלום, וכולי. But really he knows the whole thing right now even when he's saying in the short way. וכמו שנתבאר ביאור זה באריכות במקום אחר.

ובאופן משל הב׳ חיות הנפש בגוף, גם כן עולה על דרך הנ״ל. It also comes in the same way. והוא בהיות שכדי שישתנה מחיים רוחניים שבנפש שבעצם הנפש לחיות בשר, הוצרך להיות בחינת העלם וכיווץ אור של הנפש בתחילה, לפי שאין ערך ביניהם. Because the soul cannot really come into the body, just the soul.

And even like a little piece of the soul, like one power of the soul, like what we were talking about before, that, you know, when, you know, with Abbott and Costello and the Wolf Man, right. You know, even even like the כח הדיבור or the כח התנועה, if the whole כח התנועה is trying to come in, it won't it won't be able to and it won't there won't be able to be a תנועה.

So, certainly the whole soul cannot go into the body, for first of all it's too it's too infinite for it, and secondly because שאין ערך ביניהם, it's a totally different ענין.

Soul's Reaction to Physical Events Discussed 12:46

Has nothing to do with the body, it's a whole different ענין.

ועם כל זה, הרי מתפעלת הנפש ממקרי הגוף. But nonetheless, the soul is מתפעל, it gets excited from what happens to the body.

Like if something happens, whether bad or good, the soul is מתפעל from it. אם כן, גם אור הנשמה אור הגשמת החיות, the light of the הגשמת החיות, which is the actual physical life, תתחבר ותקשר אל אור עצמות הרוחני.

So it's connected. It's not, the same like the the משנה is completely connected to the גמרא, the same thing, that the the life of the the physical is completely connected to the spiritual, and there's two reasons, two reasons how you see this: one thing that you see is is from the fact that the actual happiness is really in the soul, the actual happiness and sadness is really in the soul, not in the body; and the second thing is that dead dogs don't bark, if if the soul isn't there, there won't be the חיות

הבשר. Right. Immediately when the soul leaves, there won't be no חיות בשר at all. It means, so that they're connected and the the the spiritual life is מקיף on the physical life. כצמיחה גשמית, it's like a צמיחה גשמית, שנקשר בכח הצומח הרוחני, that it's connected to the כח הצומח הרוחני, and you see if you'll take the plant out of the ground, it'll stop growing.

וכולי, ובהחתך אבר הגוף, and another proof of this is that if somebody accidentally loses a limb, like an arm or a leg or something like that, חס ושלום, לא יחסר באור בחיות רוחניות של אבר זה The the the spirituality of it will not be missing anything. ראיה מסומא שלא מוליד סומין, that somebody who,

חס ושלום, gets blind it it doesn't mean that from now on all his children will be like that, but rather they are born whole, and the same thing with anybody who loses any other limb.

So like if if if somebody loses a finger, חס ושלום, that doesn't mean that from now on all the rest of his generations will be with missing that finger. Just the opposite, they they will actually have a finger. And then another thing is it's a known thing that people who

Phantom Limb Phenomenon and Spiritual Continuity 15:40

lose a piece of their body they still feel it there. There's a ghost, you know. That's called the phantom limb. A phantom limb, that's it. Right.

They still feel it there and as a matter of fact, one of them, one of them sometimes even have a problem because they can it itches and you can't itch it. Right. ידוע, אין זה רק שהרוחניות הוא בהעלם, וישנו במציאות החופף על חיות הגשמי שבגוף, ונקרא צלם איש. And that's called a phantom person.

It's not really a phantom person, it's the צלם. That that's the I don't know how you say צלם in in English, a picture, or whatever. I mean, it's not really Image. It's not just an image, it's more than an image.

It's Like the form. בצלמנו כדמותנו, yeah, but it's not really. In in Hebrew it means a little bit more than that. It's actual צלם means the whole the whole

actual actual form of the person is there. Right. And this this צלם is included in, like by a tree also, and by a person, it's already included in the first cell. Right. In other words, when a person is conceived, the minute that he's conceived, and there's only one or two cells, if you would know how to look at it, you'd be able to see exactly how he's going to look when he grows up.

Right, the whole codification is already there. Yeah, you'd be able to see if it's a frog or a person,

or a dog, or a horse. And you'd be able to see ממש what color his eyes are and how smart he's going to be, like what what not not not not according to the education, but the the potential. What? Even to the tiniest detail. Even to the tiniest detail, right. You can actually you can even like if if you knew how, you'd be able to get his fingerprints.

Right, like I was just listening they had a whole big article on the news today, Yeah. that they made a study of this family of about a hundred individuals, Yeah. that they have a very strong propensity for heart attacks in that family. Yeah, I heard about that, yeah, I know.

Okay, so they out of like 10 siblings, nine of them have heart trouble. Yeah. And then all their offspring too. Right.

So they did the the whole genome, you know, they studied their their their genetic codes, Yeah, right. they found one little tiny protein that's missing from their genetic code, Yeah, and that's why. and that's why they have these heart attacks, whereas the the one the one brother that doesn't have this missing protein, he doesn't have the heart attacks. And then all the offspring that have this protein missing, they have either have already heart troubles or they're going to have heart troubles.

The other ones don't. And you could really see this from when there was one cell. Just from one tiny protein out of a huge, you know, the whole genome, you know what I mean? Yeah, but you'd you'd be able to see it with with the first cell. Right, exactly, it's it's it's encoded in all It's by the first cell, it's already there. Right, exactly. In other words, the minute that the conception, that the male and female parts come joined together, not only that, it really was already there even before that, only in two pieces.

Right. You know. So and not only that, even before those two pieces was there, it was already included in the genetic makeup of his father and his mother, except you don't know you don't know which pieces he would get from each one of them. Right.

So the spirituality, the form, the צלם, the form, does is is already there before that. Right. וכל זה מבואר באריכות במקום אחר. וכן כח התנועה הרוחניות שבא בתנועת הגשם מצטמצמת בעצמותה,

like what we said about if if all of a sudden a dinosaur if if the guy is walking down the street and all of a sudden a dinosaur comes up, you know?

Right. The the if there's no צמצום of the תנועה הרוחניות when it comes into the תנועת הגשם, there won't be a תנועת הגשם. He'll freeze. Right. He'll freeze up and he won't be able to make any תנועה at all. Right. And the same thing like when a guy is very excited, you know, like he's very excited and they you know, like he's just saw the the Twin Towers fall or something like that, you know?

And the the cop is telling him, "Calm down for a minute, and you'll be able to tell me," you know. In other words, what's he trying to do? He's trying to make a צמצום in order that he should be able to get the speech out of the כח הדיבור.

Right. וכהאי גוונא, בהרבה דברים אחרים. And you can this is exactly the same משל you can say in many different ways, כמו ענין התחכמות שכל פרטי מכח המשכיל שלו, ששם היה לו בהעלם וכולי, and all kinds of other things.

ואמנם להבין בחינת הרשימו, שענינו מורה על בחינת הסתלקות בהעלם, ולא נשאר מהכל רק רשימה, which these first things, it's not really just a just nothing is left over, because in the משנה, even though it's a קיצור, but it's the same ענין as as the גמרא.

Right. It's just It's just as it's called a המועט המחזיק את המרובה, but it's not that it's totally gone. That's first of all. Secondly, it's the same ענין. Right. By the way, I was reading in what what is it? I think it was רנ"ט. No, it was רנ"ט? No, תרע"ט?

I can't remember. Not ע"ב, I think I think it was ע"ט. I have to look at the book again. And he says there's basically four ענינים here.

Four Analogy Categories and Their Relation to the Worlds 22:31

He says one of them is the משנה and the גמרא, the next one is he says is the רשימת אומן. Right. In other words, that over here he says there's four משלים, but really you see more than four משלים. But this whole thing here, like the חיה רוחנית and the חיה הגוף, it's also like a a small thing that holds a big thing, that even though it's like the תנועה is like a different ענין, but it's still the תנועה that was included in the original תנועה.

It's not like a total removal. Something is left over. Then the next one is the the a blueprint. Right. And then the next one is the the the אות, you know, in acrostic or something like that.

And then the last one is a a רמז. Right. And then he says, but the זריקה, that's actually the ענין of the רשימו, that actually is a separate thing. Right. So he says those four things is like the four worlds, אבי"ע, that in אצילות is like a קיצור.

אצילות is still the same ענין as the עצמות really, even though it's a big קיצור of it. Right. Then he says בריאה is like the רושם and יצירה is like because in in in יצירה, even though it's not really like a בנין, but nonetheless, you have everything from the the exact things that's in the בנין, like a map. It's like a map of a big thing. It's it's exactly the same thing.

Right. It's not that it's really gone, the צורה is still there. Right. And then the in the ציונים,

like ראשי תיבות, it's already ממש gone, but it's still something is left over, the first letter.

Which is not really the thing, the actual thing is gone, but it's still something of it is left. And the and the רמז is total is a totally different ענין, and that's like עשיה.

Right. So, you know, it's an interesting thing, you know, like you know, when you read רש"ב he fills in he fills in stuff from here, you know? Right.

But, you know, you have to know over here first of all before you read over there. Not only that, over here it doesn't necessarily we don't necessarily have to know exactly that how it applies in אבי״ע, but that, he says that's why, I mean, what do you see over here is there's different משלים. One gives you the thing that like in the משנה in the משנה and the גמרא you see how the whole thing is ממש there and nothing at all is missing.

Right. Nothing at all. It's ממש the whole גמרא is right there in the משנה. Right. Let's see. Where are we? והנה בחינת רשימו שהוא שענינו מורה בחינת הסתלקות בהעלם ולא נשאר כל רק רושם.

Another קיצור. מובן יותר מענין משלים אחרים כהרושם שעושה האומן שיוכל לעשות הבנין

בקיצור. בקיצור קו זה שבראשם שכולל כל אריכות המעשה בקיצור רשמים אלה. He's talking about a blueprint. That in this little blueprint there's a whole ענין of exactly how to build a building.

אה, כמו ממי שעושה So why is that not as good as the teacher and the student? Well, because it's a different, it's a different ענין. The the משנה is the same ענין. There's a חכמה and there's a חכמה. The the the blueprint is not a building. It's only a shape of a building. Right, right. Right. So, not even really First of all, it's First of all, it's ממש the whole thing is there.

That's why it's such a good משל that you see that not even a half a thing is missing and you can reconstitute the whole גמרא out of the משנה. Over here also you can reconstitute the whole thing, but it's not exactly the same because it's a different ענין. This is a building and this is a drawing. So is it correct to assume or to say that the the משל of the משנה is going on the צמצום, to show how that in the צמצום is really included the whole thing, and the and this משל of the house and the blueprint and and all the other משלים are on the רשימו?

No, later on he says on רשימו. Actually the ריקא is on the רשימו itself. Yeah, but what I'm saying is is these, well, over here he says Yeah, that's רשמים, right. Over there he's talking about a משל on the צמצום. No, משנה is also like a רשימו. There's a צמצום, he's מצמצם, and leaves over a רושם. It's a רשימו. Right. And it's called רשימה. You see, you know like the רשימות of the רבי?

Right, right. A רשימו, a רשימה is a is when a guy in in school sits in a lecture and takes notes. Right, so included in his little notes is the entire lecture. Yeah, and in his little tiny notes there's a whole lecture there. Right, and when he looks at it he'll see the whole lecture. where's the whole lecture? I don't see the whole lecture, but because he wrote it for himself in a short way that he can understand it and he will remember Right.

And when he looks at it, he'll see the he'll remember the whole lecture. He'll remember the whole lecture. And that's like the next ענין here.

Memorizing with a simple אות (sign) 28:00

And that's like a a a זכרון הנקרא אות. Meaning not just, not notes, but even less than notes. Right. Just like a אות, like a sign.

שאין האות ענין שייך לעצם הענין. Like when he

ties a like he ties a string around his finger or something like that. Although that's really an ענין of a רמז. A אות is like ציונים is like you know Like ראשי תיבות. Huh? Like ראשי תיבות. ראשי תיבות is one thing, another thing is you know the the פרשיות that you learn on that you read on פסח? Right. You know what I'm talking about? Like the first letter.

Also in also like it says what's his name made ציונים in it, דצ״ך עד״ש באח״ב. Right. That's like ראשי תיבות, but it's not just ראשי תיבות. It's made into like a thing. Also there's like, Every Good Boy, what is it?

You know that thing, Every Good Boy? What is it? I don't remember what. Is it the colors of the rainbow or something like that?

You make up a little a little nonsense verb. A a nonsense verse. There's various things to make ציונים to remember it by. Right. Every Good Boy Does וזהו בחינת העלם יותר מקיצור ההלכה ששונה וכולל בו הכל, and over there, why, שעל כל פנים שייך ענין הקיצור והאריכות.

In other words, when he says that You know, if you find a money, so there is a whole פלפול and this, but nonetheless, the ענין is if you find money, that's the actual ענין.

In the משנה, that's that's ממש the ענין that you're talking about. Whereas in the אות, it's not the it's not the ענין. It's just לזכרון בעלמא, just in order to remember.

Rashim’s teaching on הצמצום והעלם 30:27

Right. ויש עוד איזה רשימו שהוא מורה ענין הצמצום וההעלם הרבה יותר, and this this already shows this is the actual ענין of the רשימו.

I need to put in a new tape. Yeah.