End Chapter 15 and Chapter 16 · Chapters 15 and 16

Equal Powers of Expansion and Contraction 0:00

וב' וב' כווים שקולים הם בבחינת אין סוף, על כן גם בהארה זו דאין סוף בקו, so in the קו, also it's like that. שקולים ב' כוחות הללו. It has exactly the two powers to expand or to contract, with צמצום והרחבה ביחד are equal. וכן עניין שינוי האור והמשכתם אם בתוספת אם בגירעון, whether the the power to increase the light or the power to decrease the light, כמו מזמן לזמן, ממוצאי חול לשבת ויום טוב, וכן בזמן בית המקדש ובזמן הגלות, הכל בכוח אחד שקול, it's really one power שנחלק לב' כווים, חסד וגבורה, that is divided into two powers, הבא מכוח והארה הראשונה דעצמות אין סוף, it comes, not עצמות אור אין סוף, עצמות אין סוף, כמו שהוא בעצמו, how He is in Himself, האור והרשימו בבחינת חסד וגבורה, that the light and the רשימו is the חסד וגבורה of the עצמות אין סוף and the and and the the the line is the תפארת, and you can say one way or the other which one is the חסד וגבורה, ודע למבין.

והיינו כמבואר למעלה באות י' י"ד, דהקו לגבי שטח הוא היולי כולל על דרך אות הה' והכוח העצמי שבעצמות שלא משפיע, that a line is a היולי to a שטח, רק שבעצמות הוא בהרחבת האורך ביותר. In the עצמות, in the משפיע, the the the the הרחבה is very wide. And the מקבלים, the way it goes is as the line goes down it's narrower and narrower. In other words, in when you teach college students, you give them much more of a שטח than what you give to little kids.

Right. Right? And that שטח is also the היולי for the שטח is from the קו also.

But in the עצמות is בהרחבת האורך ביותר, there the רוחב is totally wide. ובקו זה בא כוח זה דעצמות, בבחינת הצמצום שבו והמשכתו למקבלים וכולי. ואם כן, גם בבחינת צמצום והתפשטות שבו, משם הוא בא דווקא, ודע למבין. So the עניין of the צמצום and התפשטות in the קו is comes from the צמצום והתפשטות before in the in the עצמות.

ודע למבין. In other words, it's ממש all the way down here to where there's a total צמצום and a tiny tiny little light, but this is ממש the power of the אייבערשטער Himself. So what does it mean exactly משם הוא בא? It comes from there. The power that is down here is ממש the power from there. It's the it's In other words, even the power in a in a kindergarten,

in the kindergarten, you're still getting the whole power of the teacher. Right. Okay. Hold on. Yeah, I got to get going. Go ahead. Okay. It says ז', והנה מעתה יש להבין פרטי ענייני הקו והחוט, ואיך שיש בו בחינת מקיפים ופנימיים כמו שנתבאר בעץ חיים, מתעגל וחוזר ומתעגל. It's it's מתעגל and then it goes back another line from that עיגול down, and then it's again מתעגל. כמו שנתבאר במקום אחר באריכות.

The Line (קו) as Universal Principle 3:23

ובחינת מקיף בעיגול הראשון, הוא הנקרא כתר טהור וכולי, הוא בחינת המקיף הכללי שמקיף לד' עולמות דאבי"ע בשווה, כמו שנתבאר בעץ חיים. ותחילה, but first, יש להקדים כללות עניין הקו הזה. So that's what they were going to get into, but first let's understand what the general עניין of the קו is. איך שהוא בחינת היולי כללי לכל התפשטות והמשכות פרטיים, הבאים ומשתלשלים

ממנו עד סוף עשייה. All kind of things branch out all the way down to the end of עשייה is all from this line, it's the היולי for everything. והנה יובן זה על דרך מה שנתבאר בעניין מחשבה כללית, שמחשבה זו הכללית, so he told you that he is going to explain to you the line

Mekhosha Kadma and Its Relation to the Line 4:36

and how the line is היולי כללי, but you notice he's not explaining the line, he's explaining the first circle. Right. The מחשבה קדומה, in several places he calls the מחשבה קדומה the line.

Right. That's because basically the מחשבה קדומה is is the end of the line. Right. It's מלכות of the line. Right. Even though like you say the line is one thing and מחשבה קדומה is another thing, it's it depends. Even like the קו קצר, which is in some places he says the the קו קצר is before even the מחשבה קדומה. Right. That it's still called סתימא דכל סתימין.

And מחשבה קדומה, the thing is the מחשבה קדומה later he's going to call it that it's it's called עתיקא סתימאה. Right. Whereas the line it's called סתימא דכל סתימין.

And yet over here, and in several other places, when he says the line he means the מחשבה קדומה.

Right. And that's because the כתר of מחשבה קדומה comes out from מלכות of the line, so it's ממש the מחשבה קדומה is sort of like it's the end of the מלכות of the line, the end of the end of the line. Right. So it's still from the line. But that's the little line. That's the line that that That's the קו המידה. That's The קו המידה itself, the line itself.

Right, that's the מלכות of the קו המידה. And only 10 points come out and that's it. והיובן זה על דרך משל הידוע בענין מחשבה כוללת, שהמחשבה זו הכללית צופה ומביט עד סוף כל הדורות כולם בסקירה אחת, בלשון הרמב"ם היינו מה שבידיעת עצמו יודע את כל הנבראים כמו שמבואר במקום אחר.

So this is already he's he's saying that what the רמב"ם said is really talking about, not really before the צמצום, but it's a it's a קבליסטיק ענין, it means it's really talking about the יחודא תתאה.

Right. And in various places you'll see in the earlier books of קבלה, when they're talking about the עצמות, it's עתיק and אריך of אצילות they call the עצמות. Right. So you have to know what they're talking about, because what he calls the עצמות over here is higher than יחיד. As a matter of fact, it's higher it's higher than higher than יחיד, because remember we were learning that higher than יחיד is the מאור.

Right. And the עצמות is even higher than that. And in most places they call עתיק and אריך they call the עצמות. Right. Which here also later on when he when we get to there, he'll tell us that it's still considered part of the עצמות. And later on in some places where it talks about the עצמות, so it'll really later on we'll we'll talk that really it's all the way to the חיצוניות and which is called the גופא דמלכא, you know, so that's it's still the עצמות, but that's that that's the חיצוניות of the עצמות.

And so even there you got to you got to know what they're talking about. But the basic here, so he's telling us this thing what the רמב"ם said, so most people think this thing that the רמב"ם is saying, ידיעת עצמו יודע את כל הנבראים, that's the self the ממש self. It's really it's not, it's the מחשבה קדומה. Right. וביאור הדברים ידוע, שיש ב' מיני רצון, אחד רצון הפשוט שבעצמות, שנכלל בעצמותו ממש, שלא נקרא עדיין בשם מחשבה ורצון כללי.

Simple vs Absolute Desire 8:12

As a matter of fact, it's not even called a מחשבה and רצון altogether. Right. Like we said in chapter 10, that it's just you have to say there's a מחשבה and רצון there because you can't say that there isn't.

כי מיוחד עדיין בעצמותו ממש. כמו גם שהוחלט רצון זה, and now in the רצון הפשוט there's two levels, he's telling you. This is the second level. There's the רצון הפשוט and the רצון המוחלט. Right. So המוחלט is the גליף גליפו.

That it means מוחלט means it's decided, החלטה, you know. Right. He already decided exactly how it's going to be done. כמו גם שהוחלט רצון זה כבר בעצמו איך לעשות דבר חסד פלוני, meaning the actual החלטה of the external. In the רצון המוחלט also there's three levels, יחיד, אחד, and קדמון, you know. Right. או איך לדבר או לחשוב איזה או להשכיל שכל פרטי או להיות לו רצון ותענוג בדבר וכולו, so even when the actual החלטה is made, which the החלטה is have to you have to say that the החלטה comes from the עצמיות.

אגם שמתחבר רצון המוחלט זה להתפשטות הרצון בדבר הפרטי, like we like we explained before, אבל נשאר כלול בהעלם עצמותו. It really is doesn't really come out, and really does not really actually have anything to do with the thing, even though the thing really comes out of it. Right. ואם כן, אין בו עדיין בחינת כלל ופרט, there really is not a כלל, not a פרט there, even though from the other side you have to say that it has both.

Even the פרטים. Even the פרטים, you can't say that there's no פרט there, like some people think that it means that the עצמות is an ענין of a כלל. Right.

But a real כלל means that the פרטים are not actually there yet. By the עצמות you can't say that.

רק כאשר ולאחר זה עולה רצון זה שהוחלט אצלו לבוא לידי מעשה בפועל ממש, when he decides to actually do it, הרי יוצא מהעלם אל הגילוי.

Then it goes to revelation. אז, at that point, יבוא הרצון בבחינת כלל ופרט. Then it comes in a way of a כלל ופרט. דהיינו, מחשבה כללית שכוללת כל ענין המעשה מראש ועד סוף בסקירה אחת. First of all it comes out in a כלל.

So any רצון that comes out to do a thing בפועל ממש, and remember that in relationship

to the עצמות, this whole השתלשלות, as by us it looks like it's the whole thing, by the אייבערשטער it's really like one little decision.

Right. So like, it's like a guy wants made a decision to buy a car. So the thing is really originally that was included, a רצון for a car was really already included in a רצון, in the רצון פשוט, even before the the החלטה. Right. And and the מוחלט really, it's not that the מוחלט really came out in any way from the פשוט, because you can't say that really there's a רצון המוחלט versus a רצון הפשוט up there.

You can't you can't say that there's יחיד, אחד, and קדמון anymore than you can say that there's ten ספירות. Right. You can't really say that. It's just that you have to say that at one point the החלטה is coming out, so the החלטה had to be there.

So therefore, we call it a רצון המוחלט.

But the the thing is that it's not really in a way of a כלל for anything yet. Right. But only when it comes out, then it comes out in a way of a actual כלל and פרט.

And when it comes out, so then there's like one פרט which is to buy the car.

And this came out of the רצון המוחלט, and in the רצון המוחלט even the החלטה of like what kind of car he would like, what color color he would like, and all these things, it's really, it goes according to like a predetermined taste Right. that he already had, actually.

He has a certain predilection for a red car. Yeah. He was born like that. Now, by the אייבערשטער it's not quite like that. In other words, there's no real definition up there at all.

In the soul there's actually ten ספירות, that's all there are. There's ten ספירות and each one comes in a particular way really, in each person.

Right. Like, in other words, in a person there's actually a definition that some people have a little bit more of this ספירה and a little bit less of that ספירה, and that that mix is their character, you know? Right. And that's already in their soul. You know, so the soul is not actually like up there. It's not totally like up there. Although, in the soul also there's levels and levels and levels.

But the basic thing is that the the the the the whole taste that you say it's a רצון המוחלט is really just part of רצון הפשוט. That's the way he is. Right. You know? It's not that he really had to go and make a החלטה, actually. That's the way he is, and that's why you say the החלטה, at one point it came out as a החלטה, so the actual רצון הקדום came out from.

Right. Now the רצון הקדום for the car came out as a simple מחשבה that includes everything, which is, "I want a car." Right. So the the מחשבה קדומה is basically a צמצום of the גליף גליפו, which, in other words, what what is it? It's really the רשימו is a צמצום of the גליף גליפו,

which is what? Means that the light went out of the letters. Right. Well, just the letters without the light. So the thing is somebody who knows how to read the letters, so the whole light is in the letters anyways.

Somebody who's the same like the משפיע. Right. But somebody who doesn't know how to read the letters, it doesn't mean nothing to him.

And this exact רשימו, which is ממש the letters of the גליף גליפו, was copied over into the מחשבה קדומה. That's why it's called עתיקא. עתיק, you know, עתיק means a copy. Right, like a העתקה. העתקה, עתיק means a copy. עתיק means this is various meanings what it means. One is a copy, one is old, and one is removed, like he is going to explain it later, to מעתיק הרים, you know, right, uprooting, he uproots mountains.

Means he pulls them out, and disconnects them. So it means disconnected, removed. Right. But the the copy, even though it's not the original letters anymore, it's like In other words, the גליף גליפו is is like a חותם, what is it, a חותם המתהפך. Right. You know? The the גליף גליפו, there was a גליף גליפו, and then the גליף גליפו turned over into the letters of the רשימו, and then the letters of the רשימו, like, stamped the letters of the מחשבה קדומה.

And the the the thing is, like, you know how you make a a printing press, you have letters, and those they they they press down, and then that's how you got this book, you know. Right. But these letters, even though it it's a whole different מציאות of letters, but it nonetheless, it's the same letters like over there, it's an exact copy of those letters.

So this is the thing, that in the רצון קדום there is an exact copy of there, so what is it? It's the same אנא אמלוך. Right. And it comes in a general fashion, like I want a car.

So like the the משל actually that's used in תורה is I want a house, a home actually. Right. Not a house, but a home.

You know, a crib. Right. The the the אייבערשטער wanted a a דירה. A דירה means actually a home. Right. In the תחתונים. So a home means What does a home mean? Well, depends what you are.

If you're a person, it means a house. If you are a squirrel, it means a hole in the tree, that's a home. Right. That's what a home is, it depends according to what you are, that's how the home is going to be.

Car Desire Example 17:49

So when it comes out, it comes out as one thing, a car. So you so so the guy just says, I decided to have to get a car.

So if somebody will tell you, I decided to get a car, so you can ask him, well, are you going to get a car with a steering wheel? What do you mean? Of course, how can you get a car without a steering wheel?

So say, when you thought I'm going to get a car, did you think I'm going to get a car with a steering wheel? Says, no, I thought just I'm going to get a car.

And it automatically included all the פרטים. Right. A steering wheel, seats, windows,

engine, everything. Where is it? ואחר כך נתחלק ברצונות פרטיים. Yeah. So, ובפועל ממש ירד מלמעלה אז יבוא הרצון בבחינת כלל ופרט, דהיינו מחשבה כללית שכוללת כל עניין המעשה מראש לסוף בסקירה אחת, meaning just I want a car and it includes everything, ואחר כך נתחלק ברצונות פרטיים, what kind of color he wants, what kind of shape he wants, that it should have wheels, that it should have a good engine, etc., etc.

וכל רצון שכל ומידות, and each רצון has its own שכל ומידות. ובאים זה אחר זה בהשתלשלות, זה עליון מקיף לתחתון, כאשר האופן מתוך האופן, כו׳. And a general first explanation of this is like of a house, which that's the basic

House Desire and Composite Wishes 19:31

משל that he gives. And the the the basic משל, if you want a house, so you go to the guy and you tell him, I want a house. He'll say, well, oh, you want a house, so do you want a kitchen also?

So, well of course I want a kitchen. I told you I want a I want a house, so that means I want a kitchen.

So inside the רצון for a house is a רצון for a kitchen. And then he says, oh you want a kitchen, so you want a sink? So, well of course I want a sink, 'cause I want a kitchen, that means I want a sink.

And he says, "Oh, oh, you want a sink? Good. So, you want a sink to have a hole in the bottom?" "Of course! If you have a sink, you have to have a hole in the bottom." So you see that each רצון includes inside of it more פרטיותדיקע רצונות, and you see that the רצון for a house is a רצון כללי to a רצון פרטי of a kitchen, right, and the רצון פרטי of a kitchen is a רצון כללי to the various things in the kitchen, right, which again become a רצון כללי to the various things in them.

And that's like a very גשמיותדיקע משל of of how they come one after the other, with השתלשלות, so one is higher and מקיף on that one, like the רצון for the house is מקיף on the רצון for the kitchen, right, כאשר אופן בתוך האופן, like a wheel inside of a wheel.

והוא נקרא רצון המורכב. That's it's called רצון המורכב, שיש בו כלל ופרט. It's made up of particulars. Whereas the previous one is composite, מורכב means composite,

right, it's made up of particulars, whereas the רצון הפשוט is not made up of anything at all. ויובן זה על דרך משל הידוע, אדם שרוצה לבנות בית גדול, כפי הרצון שהוחלט מכבר אצלו, להיות באופנים מיוחדים דווקא. It's already in his inner החלטה that it should be in a certain way. שאותו הרצון שהוחלט אצלו מכבר, הגם שהוא בא במידה ותענוג מיוחד באופן כך וכך, he has a particular taste actually, right, even before it came out to anything.

וממילא, so since it's already in a certain way, so ממילא it has to have בשכל ומידות, בא בשיעור ומידה, since the שיעור ומידה is the whole thing, אך כל זה הוא השיעור וההכרח שבעצמותו עדיין, ונכלל בעצמו והיה כלא היה, it's like it doesn't really exist. It's just his personal taste, not that it's an actual thing of actual החלטה as a separate thing from what he is, right.

It's just that in what he is, so like in a certain person, the the the the the image of the house that's included inside of him will be a very modern house, right, you know, with like everything square and stuff like that, and another guy will want like, you know, if he thinks of a house, he'll think like the Addams Family house with gargoyles and stuff like that, you know.

Baroque. A what? Baroque. Baroque, yeah, that's it, you know. So, that's already predisposed to the point that if you know the person, you can already know that if he would buy a house, he would buy this kind of a house, right.

But it doesn't mean that he actually made an actual החלטה. That's not what the רצון המוחלט means. רצון המוחלט is just part of the רצון הפשוט. Means that inside of himself, you have to say there's a point that why was the החלטה on the outside? Because it had to be on the inside, right. But on the inside it was not really a separate thing, והיה כלא היה, it's like it it's not even it's not there, you can't really say that it is there at all, right.

So, where are we? היה כלא היה וכולי, רק כאשר אחר זמן בא מחשבה זו לו במעשה ניכר ומעט למעשה, it means that this החלטה

was already מוחלט before he made the actual החלטה, is what he's saying here. That he already had the predisposition for a certain house or a certain car ahead of time, right, even before the החלטה. Right, so that like, you know, like, you know, well, women go shopping, if somebody knows another person very well, he says, "Oh, she would love this dress," right. "How do you know? She never saw this dress."

He said, "Well, because I know her. She would love this dress," right. So you mean that already she would love this dress means that there's already החלטה in her for this dress even though she never saw the dress yet and might never see the dress, right. And you can tell that she already decided that she would like that she has a רצון for this dress. A רצון and a תענוג, so the רצון and תענוג is already מוחלט, and it didn't come to מעשה at all.

But only when it comes to מעשה ניכר בו התחלקות Certain אופן שיהיה ממש, exactly according to ההחלטה, ממש exactly שכבר הוחלט אצלו בכל פרטיהם, and every particular little part, what he would like, what kind of kitchen, what kind of bathroom.

Right. Will come out, and it all comes out with all the particulars, רק except שמתחילה בא הרצון הזה בדרך כלל, it comes in a general way, just I want a house. But even then, when he just says I want a house, it's it's שיהיה לו רצון בציור כך וכך, it's for this particular house. It's it's like it's like a baroque house or a modern house already.

Right. ואחר כך מתחלק ברצון פרטי לכל ענין פרטי. And then, only afterwards, first he has to have the general רצון, and then the general רצון can divide into all the particular פרטים, והירידה בא בסדר הדרגה מכלל הראשון, it comes down בסדר הדרגה from the first כלל שכולל הכל בסקירה אחת, that includes the whole house in one סקירה, I just I want a house, but in that I want a house, it really he has an image in his brain of the whole entire house already, everything that he wants.

Huh? When he says a house, it conjures up in his mind a whole image. It's all there, בסקירה אחת. Right. Not one thing, not one פרט at a time, but the whole thing in one shot. Right.

בסקירה אחת, it comes from that, from the כלל all the way down the פרט רצון שהוא נקרא כלל לגבי רצונות המסתעפים ממנו, like the kitchen. Right. So the the the the סקירה אחת of the first רצון then is divides into sub-רצונות, which each one of those also comes בסקירה אחת, like the kitchen, comes the whole kitchen but with a סקירה אחת. Right. And then from it there's התפשטות of lower and lower רצונות, each one בסקירה אחת, עד שבא אל רצון ושכל פרטי היותר אחרון שבסוף מעשה בכללות הכל כו' ודי למבין, till he comes to the final particular thing at the end of the מעשה,

Understanding סקירה אחת and the spreading of desires 27:04

and this is enough to understand. And now we're going to have to switch

משלים basically, it's not really such a גשמיות משל like that. Right. והנמשל יובן, מכל זה יובן למעלה ההפרש שבין בחינת טהירו עילאה לבין בחינת טהירו תתאה שלאחר הצמצום, שמה ששיער בעצמות בכח בטהירו עילאה כולו הוא כמו ההחלט ברצון הפשוט שבעצמות הנ"ל, הנ"ל, שעדיין לא בא כלל לבחינת התפשטות חוץ מן העצמות עדיין, וגם שיבוא מרצון המוחלט הזה אל התפשטות הרצון, really it is connected, that's where it comes from, שאחר כך, מכל מקום itself נשאר כולל בהעלם עצמות דאין סוף.

ועל כן למעלה הוא מבחינת כלל, it's even higher than a כלל, and you can't say it's a כלל, and you can't say it's a פרט, and you can't even say that it's not a כלל and a פרט. להיות נקרא צופה ומביט בסקירה אחת, you can't say about it צופה ומביט בסקירה אחת. So some people when they think, they say, "Oh, I know what's God. It's צופה ומביט בסקירה אחת."

Warning against defining God as צופה ומביט בסקירה אחת 28:40

That's עבודה זרה, because he's told you, you can't say it's צופה ומביט. It's למעלה it's still higher than צופה ומביט בסקירה אחת, it's not even סקירה אחת. Right. That's just the way He is. You don't have to it's not looking at all. Right. אך הרצון הב' הוא אחר הצמצום הנ"ל, שעלה רצון הפשוט המוחלט שבעצמות לבוא לידי בחינת התפשטות, when it comes to spread out that he actually is going to get a house, הוא בחינת הכח הכולל ההיולי, שכולל כל המשכות פרטיות שבאים מראשו לסופו כנ"ל, ובחינת המקיף המקיף הראשון שבו הוא הנקרא טהירו תתאה, שזהו כמשל רצון הכללי לבנין גדול כולל כל מה שבפרט מפרטיו מראשו לסופו בבת אחת, ואחר כך מתחלק בו בסדר הדרגה מכלל לפרט, על דרך משל הנ"ל, like we explained before, והיינו כמו שעלה ברצון הפשוט ההיולי לבוא לגילוי דוקא.

Concluding note – flipping the tape 29:49

I need to flip the tape. Yeah. I need to flip the tape. Yeah.