Part 2 · Chapter 13

Clarifying the Abstract Nature of Concepts 0:00

Yeah, so it's like we said before that like what people think that it gets abstract, it doesn't mean like that. And it's not even like the נמשל, what by the נמשל we said that the רצון for a sandwich is included in the רצון for חסד.

But in the נמשל, we said that because otherwise where did it come from? Right. In the נמשל, we have to say that the actual sandwich itself was included there,

because here's a sandwich in front of us, and you bite into it, and say, \"Wow, it's the actual sandwich.\" And where did it come from?

Right. And you have to apply the same thing like he said over there. On one side, to say that it's actually there is ridiculous. On the other side, to say that it's not there is ממש a כפירה in the in the יחוד.

Right. ממך דוקא, means in you, שזה הכל נעשה ונמשך בגילוי, that everything came out in גילוי. מה שעלה בכוונה פשוטה בעצמותו האור שלפני הצמצום, מה ששייר בעצמו וכולי.

שהרי במחשבה קדומה זו, the מחשבה קדומה is after the צמצום, כששייר בעצמו before the צמצום, הוא צופה ומביט הכל בסקירה אחת. It's all He sees the whole thing in one shot, everything.

It's all included there. דהיינו מה שנזכר בהעלם ובקיצור וברמז ברשימו זו, that in the מחשבה קדומה is the beginning of the reconstitution of what was already included in a העלם in the רשימו.

And was really already משוער even before that,

in the השערה of the גליף גליפו. Right. והרי זה כמשל רושם אומן, it's like the blueprint, שממנו דוקא ידע לעשות כל אריכות מעשה הבנין בפרטי פרטיות מראשו לסופו.

רק כדי שלא יתעלם מן הטעם ונימוקו בעצמותו לאריכות הענין. It's just that really what he's telling you here is that really the blueprint has a source in a previous blueprint that was in his head.

And in order that he shouldn't have to rethink it every time, but, \"Oh yeah, how did I plan to make this wall?\" So what does he do? הוא עושה לו רושם לזכרון. Therefore, he makes a blueprint to remember his original plan, שלא יטעה בזה, ולא יצטרך לעיין בעצמו מחדש. He doesn't have to look inside of himself anymore.

But really, the blueprint originated before the blueprint.

So, over here, this says basically what the אייבערשטער does is he makes the blueprint,

and in a way it's not that you say why would he why why couldn't he just look inside of himself, he's he's already inside of himself. But over here it's a little bit different because actually this it's almost like he just makes the blueprint and the blueprint makes the world.

Blueprint Analogy for Divine Creation 3:34

You know, it's like almost like, you know, the blueprint is a computerized blueprint that like if you had sort of a robot, a building robot, and all you had to do was put the blueprint into the robot, and then you can walk away and the robot will build the whole building.

And it's sort of like that. In other words, like אדם קדמון is sort of like he made a a a

a primal thing of a man like. In other words, like these levels, it's not just like the levels, it's ממש like a being. And gave him over this thing, and now he can walk away. And that and that's the thing of a blueprint, by the way, that really the blueprint is actually, if you look a little bit closer at the משל, the blueprint is not really for himself.

The way it's done is that the blueprint is given over to a contractor. The blueprint is made, it's conceived by an architect,

it's drawn by a draftsman, and then it's given over to a contractor. And the architect doesn't have to do nothing with a contractor. If he makes the blueprint properly, he doesn't he doesn't have to, every two seconds the the contractor will call him up. It's all in the blueprint.

Right. And basically this ענין of a blueprint can be applied, this these משלים can be applied to the whole סדר השתלשלות, like we're going to see later, the whole משל of the blueprint.

And the different people that are involved with it, there's four people involved with a blueprint:

There's the person who's going to build the house,

the architect who comes up with a concept of the house, the draftsman who makes the צורה of the house, and the contractor who does the עשיה of the house.

And later on we'll, this משל is used over and over again when we get into different levels.

וכמו כן ענין הציון ללימוד עמוק שבעצמו, שזהו תועלת לידע מהם כל אורך עיון עומק עצמותו. In other words, that that if he wants to remember, instead of having to start thinking about the whole thing, he just thinks the ציון, and automatically remembers the whole thing.

Remembering Through a Simple Marker (ציון) 6:24

So you have ופן ינטו מן הקו וכו׳, without veering away from it. וכך בחינת הרשימו הזה, the same way, this רשימו,

הכלולה ברמז ובקיצור מכל אור העצמות הנעלם. הנעלם בה. What's the next thing? It's unclear over here. הוא עצמו המקור. All right, והוא עצמו המקור לכל ההמשכות דהקו וכו׳, the this רשימו itself is the מקור to the whole המשכה of the קו וכו׳ בבחינת מקיף ופנימי מראשו לסופו. והכל כמו שעלה ברצונו ובחכמתו הפשוטה בעצמות אור אין סוף ממש, that everything should be exactly like it was planned before the צמצום.

וזהו מה שנאמר במקום אחר, שהנקודה יש בה העלם והתגלות, ב׳ הפכים. העלם מכל מה שעליונה ממנה בערך is a hiding away of everything that's above it, וגילוי הכל למקבלים נמצא ממנה דוקא. And everything that's going to come to the מקבלים will come דוקא out of this נקודה of the רשימו.

Which, by the way, the the concept of נקודה is used in various places. One is נקודה of the רשימו. The other words is נקודה like נקודה, שיעור, פרטות, if you know the נקודות of תהו.

Then later on when חכמה is called נקודה, and in each place, even though the basic concept is the same, but it's a little bit different. This is not just like the נקודה of חכמה.

Over here, it's ממש basically a total נקודה of nothing,

and it includes the infinity in it. Right. Means like, for instance, like if I tell you a whole long explanations, and then I tell you: did you get the point?

Right. And the thing of getting the point is not really the whole explanation, even though it includes the whole explanation, and it really is more than the whole explanation, because if you really get the point, you can make 10 more explanations on it. Right. That are totally unlike the original explanation that was given to you,

if you really get the point. Because the point includes more than the explanation, actually. Right. And this point that I just said, that's the point of חכמה, by the way. Right, that's חכמה. That's חכמה, which is a much lower point than the רשימו, which is a much higher point.

And yet, everything's included in it. Okay. So

the whole thing will come out of it. והוא בחינת הקו שנמשך מן הרשימו שהוא כצורת ו׳, שראשה י׳, והולך ונמשך למטה, כמו ש... מבואר במקום אחר באריכות.

And there's one thing that's in ע״ב, then there's the מאמר, it's too bad I forgot which one it is, I think it's in י״ד or י״ז, a מאמר of the רבי that explains the two שיטות.

He says there that the מיטעלער רבי is leaving out one letter of the name here,

and he's having the ו׳ come straight out of the י׳. Right. And over there he explains that there's an עולם המלביש. Right. What's the עולם המלביש? The עולם המלביש is the whole thing that could come out, various קווים out of the point really. It doesn't have to be דווקא this קו, it could be really many other קווים.

But really over here he's saying it's almost like it's coming straight from

the point to the ו׳, to the line.

And basically the רבי said that that's, according to this שיטה, and also since he's talking about a higher level, it's almost like there is no עולם המלביש.

Because according to the שיטה of the רבי הרש״ב, there's an actual עולם המלביש in between. Right. And the קו comes out of the עולם המלביש.

Point (נקודה) as Source of Lines 11:41

Right. The thing of the point is that over here the רשימו actually includes the עולם המלביש inside of it, and it doesn't really get it doesn't really get manifested, but it's really there.

In other words, what it is is that

many different קווים could come out of it really, out of this רשימו. It doesn't have to be only this

קו. So, this like a side issue over here.

And that's like a ו׳, שראשו יו״ד, that the head of the ו׳ is a י׳, והולך ונמשך למטה is like a point with a line coming out of it. כמו שמבואר במקום אחר באריכות. ומכל זה מובן כללות ענין הצמצום, מקום פנוי, בחינת הרשימו והקו, שהוא רק בחינת הגבלה בעצמות רשום שחקק בגלוי.

וזהו שנאמר כי עמך מקור חיים, באורך העצמי נראה אור, means אור של תולדה, שהוא בחינת הקו. But it doesn't really mean that the actual קו comes from the original אור, but it comes from the original אור which is hidden in the רשימו.

Right. כמו שיתבאר בעזרת השם. זה הוא כל האדם. And this is the whole reason that a person is here, להעמיק דעתו בכל זה וכיוצא בו, to think about this. That's the whole reason we're here. כי מזה דווקא יבוא לכלל יחוד האמיתי בהתקשרות נפשו בחיי כל החיים העליונים, שהוא עצמות אור אין סוף ממש.

והטעם הנ״ל וד״ל, like like he explained before that by understanding that the whole thing down here is just nothing but a צמצום of it, therefore he'll be connected דווקא to the to the עצם. Okay, and I'm going to have to stop here, even though it's kind of early, because they come early on on שבת. By the way, you don't go to work on מוצאי שבת? No. So it would be better maybe if you call like at 1:00 instead of a 1:30 next time, if you can if you can manage it, which would be 10:00 your time.

Okay, go ahead. All right, י״ד, we finished the ענין of the אור אין סוף and the צמצום and רשימו, and now we're starting on the קו והחוט. ועתה יש להבין בחינת הקו והחוט שנמשך מבחינת הרשימו הנ״ל דרך פרט.

ותחילה יש להבין בו בענין כללותו, שהוא בחינת ההיפך ממש מבחינת הרשימו הנ״ל. כי הנה הנקודה מורה ההעלם והסתלקות הכל עד שלא נשאר רק נקודה אחת. וגם נקודה רושם זה מורה בחינת העדר ההתפשטות למטה דווקא.

דהיינו ענין העדר המשכה והתגלות לאורך ולרוחב כצורת היו״ד, כצורת היוד שאין בו תוך וחלל וכו', כידוע. והנה בענין צמצום שלא יאיר מלמעלה, דהיינו מה שנשאר בחינת נקודה לבד, יוכל להיות שיהיה מזה להיפך. It could be that really it could be the opposite from this. מפני שמחמת זה יוכל לבוא הכל בקיצור ורמז כהוגן.

ואדרבה, just opposite. זהו עיקר סיבת כל גילוי השפעה כנ\"ל.

אבל מה שבנקודה זו מורה העדר התפשטות לגמרי למטה, והעדר זה בעצמו נקרא צמצום גמור, means כפשוטו,

ואמיתי, להעלים ולהסתיר לבלתי יבוא האור למטה. So it appears that the fact that the רשימו is totally into itself, and really the רשימו does not spread, so it would seem it's a real צמצום. ואם כן, איך יומשך מנקודה זו היפוכו ממש, ממש opposite, שהוא בחינת המשכה והתפשטות הקו? And the whole thing of the קו is the ענין of התפשטות.

Like it says in various places in קבלה that the whole thing of the line is the fact that it goes up and down. In other words, התפשטות is the main is the main ענין of the קו. Right. אך הנה ידוע שבאמת הנקודה והקו אינם ב' הפכים, not really ב' הפכים, שהרי הקו נמשך מן הנקודה, since the קו actually comes out from the נקודה, ומחיבור נקודות יחד נעשה קו, and geometrically, now he's giving a this is this this thing of like נקודה and קו and שטח and אורך and רוחב and all these things are basically geometric משלים.

Right. And this is like the thing, you know, there's by the Hermetics they have and in some of these things they have what they call the mystical geometry. Right. And they have all kinds of crazy משוגעת'ס, you know. But don't forget גימטריא, you know, גימטריא means geometry basically. גימטריא, I mean geometry גימטריא really means not geometry, geometry comes from גימטריא.

Right. But the real upper geometry is the ענין of that's the real ענין of a נקודה is not דווקא in a shape, but the the whole ענין of a נקודה is that it's בלתי מתפשט.

And and however, though, you can you can get the from the downstairs geometrical shapes, you know, like a circle with a line coming down and all that business, Right. you know, there they represent

like like a משל on an upper thing. Right. And one of the things you can see from downstairs נקודות is you see that a line is made out of dots.

As a matter of fact, in geometry, the whole the whole definition of a line is the shortest distance between two dots. Right.

So a dot represents a position, which that's the position, which the whole thing about a position is that that's the position. דווקא that's the position, means it's not מתפשט. Right. And a line is דווקא the distance between two positions. Right. From one position to another position.

So we see that a line is actually made up from dots, even in physical geometry. אך הענין הוא כידוע, שהנקודה הוא כמו בחינת היולי לגבי הקו, that it's not that a נקודה is opposite from a קו in terms of of being actually like an antagonistic opposition to it, but rather in the fact that it's a היולי. וכמו כל בחינת היולי או חומר פשוט, שאף על פי שהוא בהעדר התפשטות דווקא, אין זה הכרחי כלל.

And the whole thing of a היולי, like we learned over there in the previous chapters, so for instance like a talent or a כח התנועה or something like that, we learned that it's really not מתפשט into the actual thing. The actual talent is not מתפשט. That's why it stays the same like it was before. In other words, like a guy who wrote a song, his talent did not decrease.

Right. And not only that, even though you can see the talent from the song, like you say, \"Wow, this guy is really talented.\" Right. But really, the talent didn't go into the song. The talent is a talent that's inside of itself. It's a thing that's inside of itself. Right. And this is the general thing of a היולי, that that a היולי is a thing which is not מתפשט, but nonetheless the התפשטות comes דווקא from the היולי, like the like the כח התנועה and the things that like dead dogs don't bark and stuff like that.

Understanding היולי: Non‑Expanding Essence 20:16

Right. Even though the soul doesn't really go into the the the תנועה, and yet the תנועה is מתפשט from the soul to the point that it's a סימן on it. Right. And you can see by the fact that this thing is just lying there, and and this is something that even even a chicken can understand.

Like like we say, הנותן לשכוי בינה, a chicken has a certain amount of understanding. Right. A chicken can tell between day and night, it can make the הבחנה, right? Right. So, a chicken, like the whole thing like you say, \"How do you know a chicken can understand?\" You say, \"Well, because you see that that's how a vulture can tell.\" Right. A vulture makes הבחנה between life and death by movement.

Right. And a vulture is a kind of bird, it's the same like a chicken. A vulture has about the same brain like a chicken.

You see that this is something that really you don't need to be a genius. As a matter of fact, a lot of these things here you really don't need to be such a genius to understand, it's just that nobody ever pointed it out to anybody that, \"Oh, hey, look at this.\" Right. That really, even a chicken can understand this, that the התפשטות is coming from the עצם, and the התפשטות of the כח התנועה shows that this thing is alive.

And yet, the actual the actual soul is is really a thing in itself. It's not really the soul itself is בהעדר התפשטות. Now however, the thing that every היולי or חומר פשוט, even though it's בהעדר התפשטות, אין זה רחיקא כלל, doesn't mean it cannot be מתפשט.

Right. רק מצד עצם מהות ההיולי, just because of the fact that it's a היולי, מפני שהוא למעלה עדיין מבחינת התפשטות, ולזה לא ירד מעצמותו.

That's why, it's not because it cannot be מתפשט. Just the opposite, the whole התפשטות does come from it. But the the thing itself is a היולי which is which even when there is an התפשטות, it still remains higher than the התפשטות, really. Right. וזאת לא ירד מעצמותו, כמו היולי של חיות החי בגילוי, like like what we said that even a a a chicken can understand this, ועדיין הכלול בעצם, while it's still included in the עצם, שאינו מתפשט להחיות כולו, וכהיולי של כוח התנועה בעצם טרם שמתפשט להניע, וכוח הצמיחה טרם שמתפשט לצמוח, וכוח השכל טרם שמתפשט להשכיל, וכהאי גוונא רבים ודומים.

There's many many משלים that you can say for this. הרי יובן שהעדר התפשטות הזה לא נקרא צמצום אמיתי מצד עצמו. It's not that it's actually a lack of ability to to be מתפשט, אדרבה, just the opposite. הרי הוא כוח ההיולי העצמי שממנו נמצא כל התגלות התפשטות. It's דווקא from this is what the התפשטות is coming from. Right. Like like we said, and a chicken can understand this.

וכהאי גוונא יובן, so in the same way it'll be understood, לבחינת נקודה לגבי הקו, the the the the רשימו in relationship to the קו, שהעדר התפשטותו הוא רק מצד היותו בחינת עצמיות שלמעלה מבחינת התפשטות עדיין.

ואף גם שבא על ידי צמצום הכל, עד שלא נשאר רק נקודה אחת כנ״ל, אך הרי זה עצמו מורה שכל בחינת עצמיות כלול בה.

It doesn't it doesn't matter even even though it comes from a צמצום, it means that the whole thing, like like we explained like the like the גמרא in the משנה, that the whole עצמות is included in the רשימו.

Right. And and since it's really a point of the עצמיות, that the רשימו, even though the רשימו is after the צמצום, but the רשימו is still part of the עצם,

it means that the עצם was מצמצם itself in to a a point. Right. There's no התפשטות to the outside yet. The רשימו did not go outside of אין סוף yet. It's the line that's going outside. Right. ולהיות כן, בלתי מתפשטת למטה, that really does not, it didn't go out of אין סוף at all.

And here's a very good משל for this. וכמשל התלמיד לפני רבו, דאידי דטריד למיבלע that he is very busy with swallowing, in other words, with absorbing what the רבי is saying, ונעשה כנקודה בצמצום כל עצמותו, that he totally, you try to talk to him, he will not talk to you.

Like you know the, like the ר' יואל כהן, for instance, when he would, when when the רבי was was was talking, he would be totally entranced like, you know, listening to the רבי. The חוזר? Right, right. Or else in general, a student that's listening to to a רבי, ונעשה כנקודה בצמצום כל עצמותו, and his whole עצמות is like gone there and he's becoming a whole נקודה, in other words, this is the whole ענין of דעת.

לא פליט להשפיע ולא שייך התפשטות. If the next guy will ask him what is the רבי saying, he'll, they'll just shove him away, as to get out of here. He won't even say get out of here, he won't even hear him, actually.

Right. Huh? He's so busy listening to the רבי. Right. אמנם אחר קבלתו, but after he received, אדרבה, just the opposite. מזה הצמצום שהיה בבחינת נקודה, הוא שנמשך ממנו כל ההשפעה והתפשטות למטה. That's why he can חזר the whole thing by heart.

Right. Or, not just a matter of that's the thing of חזרינג by heart, but also the ענין of understanding it and giving an explanation to another guy works exactly the same way. Right. The fact that he listened to the teacher, when his teacher was there, he listened to him so good, that he ממש had nothing to do with anything outside of this and became the whole, his whole being was מצומצם away and he was totally a נקודה of just listening to his teacher.

Student Absorbing Teacher as a Point 27:05

Not only was that not a צמצום, but אדרבה, from this itself came the whole השפעה and התפשטות to to to downstairs. Right. וכמו וכמו שמבואר במקום אחר. ומכל זה יובן שהקו הנמשך מן הנקודה הוא רק כמו בבחינת התפשטות מהיולי העצמי. It it's not a opposite, just the opposite. It's not a opposite. It's it's a source. The the the the the the the רשימו is actually the source for the for the line.

And the thing is that they show opposite ענינים doesn't mean that they are actually opposites. אדרבה, the fact that the that the point is בלתי התפשטות, this is what gives it the power to have the התפשטות of the קו because that's why it absorbs into itself the whole entire אין סוף like the student is absorbing from the רבי. אמנם מה שנמשך, so that's one ענין. Now it's starting another ענין.

Introduction to the Short Line (קו קצר) Concept 28:28

That it's not two opposites really. אמנם, so now the next thing, מה שנמשך בבחינת קו קצר, this thing that it is coming out in a way of a קו קצר. So, now we have to there's there's several ענינים in the קו. In the קו, in some places, you'll see that he calls it a קו קצר. And this קו קצר, later on you'll see that he says that it's even before the טהירו תתאה.

And it's called סתימא דכל סתימין still. Right. And and it really is actually also really part of the אין סוף, even though it's after the צמצום. It is part of the אין סוף just like the רשימו is. Right. Not only that, it's not a lesser thing than the רשימו is, in the same way that the רשימו is not a lesser thing than the אור אין סוף is.

But they're different powers. It's exactly the same as the as the רשימו, except that it's coming down. Yeah, but it's not just the the that it's it's not just that. I'm talking about the level of power that it is. Yeah. is not a lower level of power, really. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, in in in in the in the way that basically, you know, sometimes it's explained backwards, but but this explanation is that the אור אין סוף is basically חסד of אין סוף.

The התפשטות, the כח ההתפשטות is חסד. The the צמצום and רשימו is גבורה of אין סוף. Right. And the the קו is basically תפארת of אין סוף. Right. Which combines the two powers together into not a infinite like חסד means infinitely חסד without any צמצום to it. Right. And the צמצום means a infinite צמצום without any spreading to it, and תפארת means a combination of the two of them.

Hold on, let me flip the tape.