Chapter 29 · Part 4: Chapters 20-30

External vs Internal Names of a Cat 0:00

Yeah. Yeah, that's when it's already transferred all of the בריאה, יצירה, עשיה. The external name of the cat is the actual physical cat itself. Right. With all the things that it does, that's the definitions.

In other words, the definitions, the letters. Right. That's the external name, and there's an internal name to that that's in the DNA. And that's an external name as an internal name to that in the נפש הבהמית. Right. And the and from the external name of the cat, that comes When I see that, right away comes to my brain the word "cat." Right. What was that? Oh, that was a cat.

Where did I get that name "cat" in my head from? Because I saw the externality of the cat, so I saw its external name. Which is like the אותיות מקבילות of עשיה, which that's the actual כלים that hold the the נפש.

From Thought to Name: The Cat Example 1:10

Right. And then what came into my head, that's already not the actual cat anymore. That's like a מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה. But really that's that's not even the that's the real that's the thing of the מחשבה, דיבור, ומעשה of the cat itself, so like the the like the the name of the king, you know, says he made a name for himself, because everybody heard what a great king he is.

Right. You know? So where did his name come from?

אין כבוד מלכותו. So you see that the name that goes out to the wide reaches of his kingdom

is connected through a השתלשלות to his א״ק, Right. to his it's to his self-vision of himself being a great king.

And that's where the ambition came from. And that's connected to even deeper ambition of the מחשבה קדומה.

That has to be connected all the way to the אנא אמלוך in the עצמות. Right. So

so that's the that's the basic thing in uh the basic thing here is the the the the three levels the מוחא, ליבא, וכבדא

Three Levels: מוחא, ליבא, וכבדא Explained 2:47

all the way to where it goes into an outer name, and from the outer name of the upper level comes in the name of the lower level.

But the even the outer name of the lower level is

מכוון on the name of the higher level. Right. And therefore, with the כוונות even with the כוונות on the outer names, you automatically In other words, like when when we said שמואלי, none of us had to make any effort at all Right. actually. We didn't have to sit and meditate. Right. We didn't have to go in a cave for 40 years. And we didn't even have to kvetch our face or do any kind of concentration whatsoever or even any התבוננות.

Right. Why didn't we have to do התבוננות? So why do we have to do התבוננות over here? We didn't have to do התבוננות because over there we know it we know שמואלי. Right. Over here, if you don't know who it is, like if I will tell you Marvin Finkelstein, you'll say, "Who's Marvin Finkelstein?" Right. You'll have no idea you'll have no idea what does he think, is he a good guy or a bad guy, should you stay away from him, is he going to cheat you or is he going to be a good guy and and help you out, Right.

or is Marvin Finkelstein the guy who's going to come up with a million dollars for us? Who is this Marvin Finkelstein? "I don't know. Do you know Marvin Finkelstein?" "Yeah, I don't know Marvin Finkelstein." Right, it's just a name for you. It's just a name. It's not connected to anything. Right. Because you don't know who it is. Right. You don't know the סדר השתלשלות.

You know, or else like somebody who never heard of a mouse, so if you tell him there's a mouse in the house, it won't mean anything to him. It won't mean that what

the whole ענין of what this mouse is going to do or so so so to say, "Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? What is it?" you know? Right. Right. So The thing is that when you learn the, when you do the התבוננות, התבוננות doesn't mean meditation, means understanding. Right. Finding out the particulars of who this guy is, like on on when we said שמולי'ה, we all know all the particulars, we know what he likes, and what he's doing over there, and whatever.

התבוננות = Understanding, Not Meditation 4:59

We know the particulars. So since we know the particulars, we will automatically מכוון to the עצמות.

Automatically, totally automatically, and totally without any effort at all. Right. Absolutely no effort have, no effort was needed, and yet it was a ענין of דעת, which you think דעת

means concentration. Really, if you go back to chapter one, you see that דעת really doesn't mean concentration either. Right. It means התקשרות to the thing, the feeling with your mind of this concept. Right. So we already know in our minds, we know exactly we know exactly who שמולי is.

So therefore there was no effort, no concentration necessary to automatically מכוון straight to the עצמות. Right. And the same thing over here. If you know the השתלשלות, the minute you say the external name, you automatically מכוון directly to the עצמות with absolutely no effort at all.

And automatically, with no effort, no concentration needed, and even no התבוננות needed, no analysis. You notice that when we talked, we said שמולי'ה, there was no analysis necessary. Right. Even התבוננות was not no longer necessary. It was an immediate connection

of a דעת עליון immediately into the actual thing itself. Right. Okay, chapter 29. אמנם הנה בהתבוננות פרטי בכלים דאצילות בדרך פרט יותר, אין כללות ועיקר המקובל בהם רק בענין זה דאיהו וחיוהי חד דאיהו וגרמוהי חד, שבאמת אין הפרש בין איהו וחיוהי חד לאיהו וגרמוהי חד. וגם שהאורות הן בלי מה והכלים בבחינת יש כו', מכל מקום מצד עצמות המאציל הרי עצם שורש להוות הכלים קודם שהעצם שורש להוות האורות.

ומאחר שמיתהוות האור נעשה כלי, הרי קודם לזה עצמו שורש ומקור, והוא שנקרא חומר הפשוט או חומר ההיולי שקודם לצורה. So what he's saying here basically is that the כלי comes before the the כלי really comes before the light.

Tools Precede Light: Balloon Analogy 8:03

And the basic explanation on that is like like a balloon or a tire,

that it gets hard, and it gets its body and shape from the air. Like a Mickey Mouse balloon.

But really that the כלי comes before that, the actual like like the empty balloon, that looks like nothing, looks like just a floppy piece of rubber, really came before that, and that had to stop

the air. Otherwise, there would be no התהוות of air.

So even though that really the whole the whole balloon is really nothing but air, that's what gives it its whole shape and all everything,

but really there had to be a חומר before that to hold that air in. A more מגושם thing than air.

That's like a a basic משל on that, you know. Right. Or like those those buildings, you know, that they have a thing blowing into them all the time.

Balloon buildings basically. Right. So the basic thing is that

the כלי really preceded the light. In other words, the idea of the final world,

which was like the the empty balloon without a soul in it, preceded the the the the whole ענין of the line of blowing the light into it.

So there was like already in the צמצום, like the צמצום has no no dimensions whatsoever. It's like it's like that balloon before it gets blown up, you know, and then it then you take it and you blow it up with the with the light that comes back, a line of light.

But really the the first thing that came up was the idea of what the חומר of the final world will be. So the the the body of the Jew came up in מחשבה before the soul of a Jew.

Right. Otherwise, you wouldn't need this world at all. The whole world was דווקא for the body. Right. The same thing like for for תפילין, all this stuff that it does up in אצילות and stuff like that, the first thing that came up was דווקא the the final physical leathered תפילין, that it should be a physical מצוה like that. Right.

So the כלי really came up first. And there's a ענין of that the כלי is actually, like it like it explains in in certain places, that the כלי is the the final physical whole world is not part of the השתלשלות. It's directly it's directly from the עצמות. Right. What does that mean? Means that השתלשלות יש מאין is actually השתלשלות of the lights.

Right. And even the כלים, you say, "But there's כלים in השתלשלות יש, though? We keep talking about lights and vessels." Yeah, the Rebbe says, "Yeah, but those lights and vessels, those vessels are really basically

the the thing that it comes from the התהוות of the light." Right. But there wouldn't be a התהוות of the light in the first place if there wasn't a כלי that preceded the whole thing, where where you knew what you wanted, so that the התהוות of of the כלים of אצילות, for instance, is just the התהוות of lights, right, which make it into the כלים of אצילות, and these כלים of אצילות become the light of the next level.

Right. But however, if you didn't have actual thing of a כלי that preceded the the light, you couldn't have had the first התהוות of of of the light at any point, because lights don't just מתהווה, they have to there has to be a כלי to hold them back. Right. The same thing like like water or air, because anyways, the whole thing is a משל really, like water or air, if you wouldn't have a כלי, you wouldn't have it.

Metaphor of Air and Vessels 12:58

And and this is like a thing of like a popsicle, you know? A popsicle comes from the התהוות of the water. You freeze it. Mhm. But if you didn't have a mold in the first place, you couldn't have made the popsicle. You can't make a popsicle without having a כלי that first of all, Something has to hold the water. holds it together while it's getting thickened. Right.

You know, so that's what he's saying here, that there's basically a כלי that comes before the light, and the כלי that comes before the light is the fact that the end physical world was really the first thing, and that's the whole thing that's holding everything together.

Even the the the כלים of אצילות are really preceded by original מחשבה for the for what your final thing is going to be. Right.

ובביאור הדברים ידוע מובן מהקדמה ידועה בענין כלים מגבילים ממש, שיש ב' מיני גבול.

הא' כח המגביל בעצם, כמו כלי המוח המגביל ו והעין המגביל כהאי גוונא, אבל הוא רק בכח ולא בפועל עדיין. כמו שיש בכח ביד להגביל כל תנועה בגשם קודם שיגבול בפועל ממש התנועה, before the the the hand has this power of הגבלה before it actually makes any particular תנועה, ואף על פי שגבול זה שבפועל ובגילוי הוא ממש כמו אופן איכות כח המגביל הרוחני שביד, in other words, It it's according to what the power is, like the power of the eye can have sight and the power of the hand can have movement שהוא מקור ושרש להגבלה זו שבפועל מכל מקום נבדל ערך הגבול מכח המגביל בפועל It's a whole different type of גבול.

איך עד שזה רוחני ועצמי וזה גשמי ונבדל מן העצם. The the כח התנועה is really a רוחני. It's not an actual תנועה. And it's a עצמי, it's part of the עצם. Right. And the actual גבול of an actual תנועה is נבדל מן העצם and it's physically. Right. ועוד שגבול דכח אינו גבול ממש.

Power vs Actual Limits (כח התנועה) 15:25

רק שמגביל בכחו על פי רצון ובחירה. It's not a matter of an actual גבול. It's it's just the opposite. It means that he has a רצון and a בחירה to make a הגבלה. ואינו גבול מוכרח. It doesn't mean that he has to do this particular גבול.

לא מה שאין לו כח התפשטות עוד, meaning that he couldn't put out more.

That, in other words, like like if he wants to give $50, it doesn't mean that he can't give $100. Right. רק שאינו רוצה להתפשט יתר. So a person who only has $50, that is an actual גבול. But in the אויבערשטער, it it means it's not an actual גבול.

Like in the כח התנועה, he doesn't have to make a particular תנועה at all. Right. And he doesn't have to make this תנועה. He can make another תנועה. He makes this תנועה because that's what he wants to make. והרי זה רק עושה מעשה הגבלה ואינה הגבלה אמיתית כגבול בפועל. And this is just that the כח הגבול makes the הגבלה and it's not an actual גבול. שהוא הגבלה אמיתית.

That's a real הגבלה. כמו שמבואר במקום אחר בענין פנימיות הכלים וחיצוניות הכלים שיתבאר בעזרת השם. And this explains about the פנימיות וחיצוניות הכלים. דכמו כן יובן למעלה דשרש ומקור כלים המגבילים לאור דהיינו דשרש ומקור כח המגביל שלהם שבא ונמשך מן העצמות, meaning the actual כח to make the כלים in the first place, comes from the עצמות, שמשם נמשך התהוות האור עצמו.

The same place where the light comes from, that's also where the power of the גבול comes from. כמו מקור התהוות אור הרצון מהעלם עצם המקור לכל רצון, הרי משם גם נמשך כח הגבול להגביל כח התפשטות אור הרצון שלא יתפשט עוד בכדי שיוכל להיות טעם לרצון.

שאם לא יפסיק כח אור הרצון לא היה בא לעולם כלל טעם לרצון. והוא מקו המדה, it's the called גבול בפועל, like like we explained before that the קו המדה had the power of all גבול,

ממש באורות. וכח הוא שעושה כל גבול בפועל ממש בכלים דעשר ספירות שמגבילים.

So it's the קו המדה has both both powers because it gets both of these powers from before, like like was explained, the the power of the צמצום and the power of the of the light.

Right. But really, the the the the actual כלי comes first really. Because in מחשבה, like this is when you plug

a thing into the wall to get the power, the whole thing is not that you just wanted power to come out. The whole thing is you wanted like the vacuum cleaner to clean the floor.

It's the כלים that you want more than the light. The light is just what what enlivens the כלים. Right. וכח הוא שעושה כל גבול בפועל ממש בכלים דעשר ספירות שמגבילים, איך יגביל בפועל ממש, אבל מקור ושרש שלהם אינו בבחינת גבול אמיתי, it's not a real גבול that they're actually מוגבל, רק שהוא עושה את אופן הגבלה, in other words, that's the רצון of the אויבערשטער that does it.

It's all is it's the כח הבחירה of the אויבערשטער that does both of them. Right. שזהו בא מקו המדה, and קו המדה really comes from higher, like explained over there,

מבחינת גבורות דאור אין סוף בחינת כח המגביל שדוחה לכח המתפשט. Which חסד is Huh? שדומה לכח המתפשט. No, it should be דוחה. Over here it says דומה. Well, they they they they mis- they mis- corrected it. Right. They thought it They thought it they thought it's a correction, and it shouldn't have been a correction. It should be דוחה. The original here is דוחה.

And that's what it means. גבורה דאור אין סוף בחינת כח המגביל שדוחה לכח המתפשט. Not דומה. It's the opposite. It's דוחה it. I I guess you could say דומה also, but as far as that it's both infinite. וב' כחות שקולין הן, and they're both equal. The the same power of the התפשטות is the same power of the of of קיבוץ, which means like like חסד and גבורה of of אין סוף.

חסד vs גבורה: Equal Divine Powers 20:53

כי כל יכול יש בו כח המגביל גם כן וכולו. It's the same ענין of כל יכול. He can he can be he can make he can spread out infinite, and he can stop it.

כמו שמבואר במקום אחר. ומבואר למעלה שזהו בחינת הרשימו, that this רשימו is the כח המגביל.

And the אור אין סוף is the כח המתפשט, חסד. And the line is a combination of both of them, like it said before, והנורא. Remember that? Yeah. Yeah. So that's תפארת, שמשם הוא שורש הגבלת הכלים דעשר ספירות דאצילות.

ומבחינת הקו שנמשך מהרשימו הוא שורש כל הע"ס וכולו כמו שמבואר במקום אחר באריכות. And it's also the שורש of all the הגבלות. It's a combination of the two of them. ואם כן, גם שבחינת הכלים דאצילות מגבילים ממש בבחינת שמות דע"ב ס"ג דנקראין אותיות, הרי אין זה רק מצד כח העשוי לגבול זה בעצמות המאציל.

דהיינו דאיהו וגרמוהי חד מכח דאין סוף עצמו, כמו דאיהו וחיוהי חד בבחינת אורות וכולו. Really, it is the same power. Even though it seems like that over over in the lights they're connected directly and they're בלי מה, and the כלים, the whole thing of the כלים is דוקא that they're disconnected

from the מקור. Right. And that they're in a way of a of a מציאות, of a מציאות of a דבר מה. Right. But nonetheless, it's the same the same אייבערשטער is making both of them.

Not only that, it's the actual final thing that he wants. It's the it's the lower world that he wants. It's the final כלים of the lowest world that he wants. ובאמת

גם בחינת הכלים דעשר ספירות דאצילות הן כח הגבול ולא גבול בפועל. So now he's saying, so how come before he said it's like a גבול בפועל? He says it depends in comparison to what.

In comparison to the עצמות, remember, in the in the עולמות הכללות, אצילות is עשיה. Right. But as far as our world, אצילות is still part of the עצם. Right. So it's it's still a matter of a כח הגבול ולא גבול בפועל, because as far as עשיה, that's a גבול בפועל. As far as אצילות, אצילות means the עצם ה עצם the עצם השכל. Not the בינה, but the עצם השכל.

Right. Not the מחשבה. מחשבה, דיבור ומעשה. It's it's the it's the עצם השכל, which like he said before, like the עצם המוח and עצם השכל, that's it's not a גבול בפועל, it's a כח הגבול. ורק כאשר האור והשפע נגבל מאין ליש בבי"ע, אז נקרא גבול בפועל ממש. It's only in בי"ע, that's when you're talking about the the עולמות הפרטיות, it's in בי"ע, but in עולמות הכלליות, so why did he say before that אצילות is a בפועל?

Because in עולמות הכלליות that is בי"ע. As a matter of fact, even א"ק is already considered a גבול up there. Right. כמו שיתבאר בעזרת השם. ועל פי זה, מה שכתוב בשמות דע"ב ס"ג שהם בבחינת הכלים מגבילים ממש וכולו, הרי זה עצמו הכוונה במקור השמות דע"ב ס"ג, like for instance here that We're מכוון in these letters and words, but the כוונה is not in the letters, the כוונה is in the actual idea of the שערי יחוד.

Right. Which is upstairs. שמהם נמשך מקור אורות דאצילות.

The the names of ע"ב ס"ג of א"ק like you said before, from which these כלים actually precede the light of אצילות actually. והוא שם העצם שמורה על עצם המקור כנ"ל, that shows on the עצם of the thing.

So שם העצם is like, what do you call that, in English a proper noun? A proper noun. Yeah, so the שם העצם means that like various things, like when we say שמואלי, so it shows on actually שמואלי himself. Right. Or when you say a cat, it shows on a cat itself.

והיינו ממקור התהוות הכלים, דאיהו וגרמוהי חד. It's from the actual מקור, it really shows on the מקור of התהוות הכלים, that when you're מכוון in the outer name you're really מכוון automatically on the inner name.

וממילא מובן דגם בבחינת תיקונים הנ"ל, על זה אמר גם כן איהו וגרמוהי חד,

משום דגבול בפועל, so even on the external תיקונים it says even there, and even all the way down to the כלים in בי"ע. Why? Because גבול בפועל מתאחד עם הגבול בכח המגביל לגבול זה שבפועל, על דרך דוגמא מכח המגביל שבאיש מיוחד מקושר בגבול בפועל התנועה כנ"ל. Like for instance, if somebody takes a baseball bat and hits somebody else over the head, it's his עצם that did it, it's connected to the to the עצם כח המגביל that he he did the הגבלה to have this particular תנועה.

Right. Therefore he's guilty of that's why you can go and he say, "What do you mean? It's a תנועה. What do you want from me?" You say, "Yeah, but you did it." וכל שכן בכלים דמוחא ולבא וכולי שאינם נקראים גבול בפועל עדיין. And those for sure are not called a גבול בפועל, it's just an ability like the מוח, like your brain. The brain doesn't mean that there's an actual הגבלה of any particular thought yet.

Right. Just that there could be. Or the eye also doesn't mean that, or the hand, it doesn't mean a particular תנועה, it's just a כח התנועה, but certainly in מוחא, ליבא וכבדא, which are which are the inner כלים, certainly is is not a גבול בפועל.

רק שמגבילים הענין להורות שיהא ניכר במציאות יש בלבד. It only brings it to a הגבלה of a מציאות יש that the מוח is now a היולי for השכלות.

Right. And the eye is a היולי for Sight. Sight. And the heart is a היולי for emotions. Not that there's actually emotions yet, but it's already מגביל to a particular היולי.

So it already does give it a מדה that the מוח is השכלות and the the the heart is emotions, מדות,

and the the liver is התפעלות המדות, the the gut feelings.

Right. Where are we? אבל. The last word? אבל, yeah, שיהא ניכר מציאות יש בלבד, אבל יש להם שורש בעצמות כמו שיש לאורות שורש בעצמות, בשוה.

Tools Higher Than Lights: Final Insight 29:14

It's ממש they're equal. So it's not like the lights are really higher than the כלים. If you're at all going to say which is higher, it's actually the כלים are higher than the lights. That's what it says, אשת חיל עטרת בעלה. Right.

That the as a matter of fact, the whole thing of of a כלי is like a כתר. It's an outside thing that holds it in. דכח ומקור אחד ממש, it's ממש one power and one מקור, שהוא בחינת אין סוף ממש, דכמו שאין סוף למטה

עד וכולי, כך למעלה וכולי. The same thing that the the light can go up into total infinity. Yeah. It can go down, down into total finiteness.

Let me flip the tape. Hold on. Yeah, go

ahead.