Part 1 · Chapter 9

Questioning Change in the Infinite Kingdom 0:07

והנה לכאורה אינו מובן מה שאמר אני הוי׳ לא שניתי,

שזה מדבר במלכות דאין סוף עצמי, הרי אם בבחינת מלכות דעשיה יש בו שינוי בין דין לחסד, שהוא בחינת התפעלות כו׳, מוכרח שגם במלכות דאין סוף יש שינוי זה, ואיך אמר אני אני הוא כו׳ כנ״ל?

So, how could it be, if in מלכות of עשיה is ממש the same thing as מלכות of אין סוף, and there's an actual change, in מלכות of עשיה there's התפעלות between דין and חסד, so it has, if you say everything comes from מלכות of אין סוף, so it had to be in מלכות of אין סוף also. וכן מלכותך מלכות כל עולמים שוה ממש כנ״ל, דהיינו כאשר עולה ברצון הפשוט בעצמות ממש להיות חפץ חסד, הרי חפץ חסד העצמי הזה יורד עד למטה ממש בחפץ חסד דמלכות דעשיה, וכן להיפך כפי המובן מכל הנ״ל?

So, also the opposite meaning, then in what, in גבורה is also like that. וגם הרי בכל יום מחדש מעשה בראשית למטה מטה, שהוא בקדמן דמוכח דבראשית ברא עד רום המעלות בעצמותו ממש, it comes ממש, we just said that it ממש comes from עצמות. If the חידוש on the outside comes ממש in the עצמות, אם כן יש בחינת חידוש גם בעצמות דאין סוף? So if it comes from the עצמות, and there's a change on the bottom, so there must be a change on the top.

ואיך אמר אני לא שניתי כלל? So how does it says: I totally didn't change at all? וכן אנו אומרים, we also say, אתה הוא קודם שנברא העולם כו׳, you're the same before the world, and you're the same after the world.

So how is that possible? Right. Since there was a change that the world came, and the change came from Him, so it must must have been a change. He must He made a change, that means He must have at least thought of changes. וכן קודם שהאציל, same thing, you're it's before it was created, it's also before it was דאצילות, כנודע.

ועל דרך משל מהאדם התחתון, הרי יש שינוי גם ברצון העצמי מרצון של דין לרצון של חסד, כנודע? So there is, even in the רצון העצמי, there's a there's a change

in the actual רצון העצמי. ואיך אנו אומרים, also how do we say, יהי רצון מלפניך? We're telling Him רצון חדש. שיתהפך רצון של דין לחסד, and we say מלפניך ממש? We said in the רצון העצמי there should be a שינוי.

ואנו רואים שינויים רבים בכל יום ובשעה כו׳, and we see down here all kinds of changes, וכל אשר חפץ עשה תמיד בשמים ובארץ, like even in תורה it says He created the world, and then He was מתנחם, He destroyed the world with the מבול, so there was a change. Right. והתירוץ לכל זה הוא ענין הצמצום, כנודע. The explanation is ענין of the צמצום.

שאם היה השפע על דרך עילה ועלול, if was actually in a way of a cause and effect, היה נופל ענין שינוי והתפעלות כו׳, and you could say that there was actually a change

in the actual cause. If there is a change in the effect, there has to be a change in the cause. The cause that's causing it must have changed, otherwise the effect wouldn't have changed.

Explaining צמצום through Projector Light Analogy 4:12

Right. But it doesn't work like that. אבל מאחר שההמשכה שההמשכה בבחינת אור וזיו לבד, it's not that that there's an actual cause and effect, so you have to say that the that the the cause changed. It's only a light. So in a way, one of the things is, you can already have a משל on it is like in a movie.

You know, the old the old-time movies, I don't know if young men even knows how they worked in those days. In the old-time movies, they used to be a projector that made out light,

and in front of the light, there's a film that's מצמצם the light

into the picture. So it comes out sometimes red and sometimes times green, and sometimes yellow. And different parts had different colors, but the actual light of the projector really stays the same. There's no change, there's no there's no change in the light of the projector that it actually changes. The light of the projector is exactly the same, the only thing that changes is the צמצומים of the light, meaning that the basic thing is that you're מצמצם the light in different ways, but the actual original light doesn't change at all.

So that's that's the first ענין of the of the thing, that it's not a change in the actual self, because

it's not actually like a cause and effect, that in other words, I'm pulling something, so if I let go, it'll fall, so meaning the change was because I let go.

That means I changed my hold on it. It doesn't work like that, it's it's a matter of the צמצום. So like the thing, you know, you go there one day and and you see a funny movie, and you go the next day and you see a scary movie, you say the light changed.

The first light was a funny light, and the second light was a was a a scary light. It really doesn't work like that, it's exactly the same light coming coming coming out of the projector. The difference was in the צמצומים.

So, but the המשכה is only in a way of a אור וזיו בלבד, וגם הוא על ידי צמצום. And even that, the fact that it's a אור וזיו, meaning that the the projector for sure didn't change, and it was just the light coming out from the projector, and even that was through different צמצומים. אם כן, אין בעצמות אלוקות שום שינוי כלל,

Further Thoughts on צמצום and Perceived Light Changes 6:53

גם במלכות דמלכות דעשיה. Really, even in מלכות דמלכות דעשיה there really isn't a change, meaning the light that's that's in מלכות דמלכות דעשיה actually didn't change. The actual selfness of it doesn't change, it's only the external thing that comes to you that changes.

וכך הוא עד רום המעלות, and this is the way it's all the way to the top, אחר הצמצום יש בחינת שינוי, it's only after the צמצום there's a שינוי, וזה מצד המקבלים בלבד, this is only as far as the receivers, כידוע.

Distinguishing Between Light (אור) and Flow (שפע) 7:55

וביאור ענין ההפרש בין אור לשפע ידוע לכל. There's a difference between a אור and a שפע. A שפע means an actual thing like water coming out, a light doesn't mean like that, a light means if it's it's the עצם is nothing is nothing is being lost from the עצם, and it's just a light coming out, not an actual שפע. Like the basic the basic thing is it's not really like the light of the sun, the light of the sun is actually a שפע, it just looks like a light.

There's a actual something coming out of it, but the thing is like

the light of משה רבינו on the on the זקנים, that it wasn't a שפע, it was a light,

meaning that nothing was lost. And a שפע, if if you give a שפע, like if I have a million dollar and I'm giving you a שפע of of even one dollar, I have one dollar less than a a million now.

A light is not like that, a light is not the actual from the עצם, nothing comes out from the עצם of the thing. A שפע means that the עצם of the thing is coming out.

ואמנם גם בבחינת אור הוא צריך להיות על ידי צמצום, and even in the light itself it had to be דווקא through a צמצום.

ולכן צריך כל אדם לידע ענין הצמצום ולהתבונן בו בכל עולם לפי ערכו. So you have to understand how the צמצום works, that the changes are not in the actual self certainly, and they're not even in the light.

It's only in how in how much light reaches you. There's a צמצום in the light.

So that's why you have to know and you have to be מתבונן in the ענין of the צמצום בכל עולם לפי ערכו, כי הוא העיקר בכלל. This is the main thing of how the whole thing did not really change, and over here the thing of the צמצום is that you say, "But wait a minute, in the projector,

there is a change between before it hits the film and after it hits the film, there's less light coming through. And here you're saying it's the same thing, there's a צמצום and there's less light coming through, but the real thing is it really is less light coming through, it's only to the מקבלים. Really the whole light is still there."

Right. And the צמצום is it's not כפשוטו. It's not in in in in in a projector, the צמצום is כפשוטו. Right. It means there's actually less light coming through, and the light that's afterwards is ממש less light.

In in in the השתלשלות, the light that's down here is really ממש the original light. It's just coming down in a hidden way. But really if you know if if you really you can expand it back into the original light. In other words, that the actual light that came down is the light of the תורה, which seems to be just a book of stories

and laws which are equivalent to like American law, or Aesop's Fables, or Confucius says, but really it's not like that.

Really the whole entire light is in the תורה. It's just hidden like it said that he saw that the light was He didn't want he didn't want the the light to go to the רשעים, so he hid it. Right. And where did he hide it? In the תורה. But the thing is that really it's all there.

Right. Where are we? וכמו כחשיכה כאורה. חשיכה כאורה, רוחניות וגשמיות שוין. Really, as far as that's only the way we see it. But as far as the way He sees it, it's really equal. עד דאצילות ועשיה ועשיה שוין כידוע, still by Him, אצילות ועשיה is ממש the same thing.

הגם שזהו לגבי בחינת המקיף בלבד, even though this is only in relationship to the מקיף, המקיף הנקרא סובב כל עלמין בכלל ופרט, מכל מקום מהדרגות האור שבבחינת ממלא כל עלמין, in the it's in in a בחינה of ממלא כל עלמין,

there seems to be, yes, a difference. The מקיף is מקיף all the By the מקיף it's all the same, but in the אור פנימי, the אור פנימי as it goes down gets lessened.

Right. כידוע, אך הנה גם בבחינת אור פנימי, בבחינת ממלא, בכלל ופרט אין שינוי וכולי. Really, in the אור פנימי it's really also no שינוי.

דעליון ותחתון שוין, so that the upper and the lower is really ממש equal,

so that really there's just as much light down here as there is up there.

In other words, a ממש total infinite light here. Right. The only thing is the change is in the מקבלים, that you don't see it, and this is like You say, "What do you mean you don't see it and it's there?" And this is like the ענין of the angel with בלעם, you know?

Angel and Balaam Story Illustrating Hidden Light 13:59

Right. That the donkey could see it. Right. It was there, really. It was just it was just there in an invisible fashion. It's not that it wasn't there. It was invisible to him. It was just invisible to him. To the donkey, it wasn't invisible. Because it was actually there, and you see that really that really, actually, the angel was not invisible. Right. If it would have been invisible, donkey shouldn't have been able to see it, either.

That means really it was visible, and there was a sort of an adjustment, and this is what what basically the מפרשים explain, there was an adjustment in בלעם's head

not to see it. Right. So that the the change is not really actually in the light but in the מקבל, that he shouldn't be able to see it. But like the אלטר רבי could see it down here. He could ממש see how it's ממש the actual infinite light.

Why? Because how come he could see it? If if it really was a צמצום, then he also shouldn't be able to see it. Right. He should only see what came through. But really the whole thing came through. That's why he could see it.

And this is also I think it's by יחזקאל. יחזקאל or or ישעיהו, or I can't remember which one. You remember the king of ארם sent his whole army and the guy's servant the the the נביא's servant was scared. He said help, the whole army רבי, the whole army is surrounding us. And he said, אייבערשטער open up his eyes, and he saw there's millions of chariots of angels all around them.

Right. So, the thing is that before he opened up the guy's eyes, they were still there. Right. Otherwise, how could the prophet see them?

Not only that, he didn't make them come there, he just opened up his eyes,

and he saw what was already there. And he just showed him the angels. There's more than just angels over there. There's all kinds of There's There's all kinds of things, like he says, עד רום המעלות, it's all right here.

Nothing really changed. Right. The only thing that changed is in the מקבל

that he can't see it. So really, even

in the in the ממלא it's also equal. דעליונים ותחתונים שווים כמו שנאמר אני לא שניתי, ואני הוא בחינת ממלא כידוע. Right. Whereas הוא is הוא is סובב.

אני is ממלא. So really, in the ממלא, also there's no change. וכן מה שנאמר את השמים ואת הארץ אני מלא, בהשואה אחת דווקא. מלא, it says. Doesn't say סובב, it says מלא. Right. מלא זה גם בבחינת אור פנימי. It's also it's talking about the אור פנימי. כמאמר לית אתר פנוי מיניה, there is no place that's empty from Him, כידוע. והיינו משום דגם בבחינת ממלא, בא ירידת האור והשפע על ידי צמצומים דווקא.

It's only it's not really a different light, it's only a צמצום, and even that is not really a צמצום כפשוטו.

וגם בבחינת הקו והחוט שנמשך מעצמות אין סוף שנקרא ממלא כל עלמין,

דבי"ע בכלל, הרי הוא נמשך על ידי צמצום בתחילה בעצמות. והוא צמצום הראשון נקרא מקום פנוי. והוא צמצום הראשון נקרא מקום פנוי וחלל וריק וכולי.

כמו שמבואר בעץ חיים, like it explains in עץ חיים. And this is what the this is what Hillel Paritcher was talking about, that this חלל, it doesn't mean that there's a hole in the light.

The really the light is still there, it's just you can't see it, that's all. וכן בירידת הקו למטה בבחינת עיגולים ויושר, the same thing, how the the קו comes down with עיגולים ויושר וכולו, עד שנעשה בחינת כתר דא"ק, הוא על ידי צמצום.

וכן מא"ק לעתיק ולאריך אנפין, וגם באצילות עצמו יש מסך בין כתר לחכמה בכלל. והוא מה שנאמר וילון פרוסה פרוסה בין וכולי, in other words, it's like a film in between. Like the film between the projector, you know. Right. And that's what makes the shapes. Really, in the original light, it's the light you can make any kind of movie out of it.

כמו שמבואר בזהר. וכן מאבא לאמא, מז"א לנוקבא כידוע, וממלכות דאצילות לבריאה יש מסך. והמלכות בוקע המסך, ונעשה כתר לבריאה. And the light goes through the מסך, but as it goes through it

gets מצומצם. And really it's not like a film.

It's actually more like a television, that in a television the light doesn't go through the מסך. Doesn't go like it goes through a film. Right. What happens is there's a light that hits the screen from the inside, and that makes the screen shine out from the outside.

Right. And you're really seeing a different light. In other words, there's little pieces of phosphorus, phosphorescent material, and when the there's a beam that hits it from the inside, so then there's a light comes from the outside.

So Induced light. Huh? Like an induced light. An induced light, and that's also a better משל on this, that over here it's not really the light that's getting lessened. The original light is exactly the same.

And really the original light, like in a color TV, the light that's hitting the back of the screen doesn't really have any colors. Right.

It's just when it hits a red thing,

it produces a red color. So there's a better משל, why? Because now the change is not at all in the light. Over there you could say, well there's a change, when the light goes through there just seems to be a change in the light. Right. Over here the light is not really going through.

It's a light of a תולדה. Right. And and the light of the תולדה is coming from the כלי actually, not it's not really the original light. Right. You don't see the original light, the original light is hidden.

And the light of the תולדה, because it hit a blue כלי, so it so it induced this כלי to shine forth a blue light, which is the only kind of light it can shine. Right. And it it shined a blue light because the inner light hit it.

So over here also the ממלא כל עלמין really doesn't change at any point. Right. Not only that, it really it's not only the colors, like the the the thing of like big and little, like אצילות and עשיה. You say yeah, but like in אצילות there's fantastic amounts of light, and in עשיה there's tiny little amounts of light. You say yeah, but the the אור פנימי doesn't change.

The אור פנימי is ממש it's the אור of the קו, and really the אור of the קו really also doesn't change. It's really ממש the the אור עצמי.

So why is it different in in in עשיה? Because the כלים of עשיה, when the light hits them and tells them to do something, so when it hits חסד of עשיה, it's a tiny little light of חסד comes out. Right.

But that's the external light. It's the אור of the תולדה.

The actual אור פנימי in עשיה all the way down to down here even in the קליפות

So so in other words, the the inner lights even all the way down to here, even in the קליפה. Right. So like it says that like now we're learning about יעקב and עשו, it says יעקב and עשו are brothers.

Right. And this is also the thing even like by עמלק, המן, which is even worse than עשו. Right. It says עד לא ידע. If you look as far as the inside of it, it's עד לא ידע. Why? Why is it עד לא ידע? I mean this is המן and this is מרדכי, so how can you say עד לא ידע? It says yeah, because if you're talking about the external thing of המן, המן was the biggest רשע ever.

Right. He was a total רשע, he wanted to kill all the Jews, and מרדכי was a רבי, one of the great רביים.

So how can you say there's no difference on the inside? You say, well look, I mean in terms of the מגילה, you have to read the whole מגילה.

If you leave out one המן, it's a Same as if you leave out one מרדכי. Right. You leave out one המן, it's not the מגילה.

Right. And so how can that be? It's like because when the המן, as far as המן, the external thing of the המן is the thing that he's a רשע. Right. But as far as the internal thing of the אייבערשטער, so you know, in the מגילה, it never says the אייבערשטער. Right. Why? Actually, it says it explains, I mean just a short a short digest of what all these explanations are saying in regards to what we're talking about here is that really the whole מגילה is ממש the אייבערשטער.

Megillah as the Hidden Name of God 25:46

Right. And of course, I mean, it's תורה, which תורה is the אייבערשטער's name, means the whole מגילה is the אייבערשטער's name. Even though that at no point is the אייבערשטער's name mentioned once in the מגילה, because the whole מגילה is the אייבערשטער's name. But in order to say the אייבערשטער's name in the מגילה, you have to read the whole מגילה from beginning to end.

Right. The same thing like אלוקים. If you just say the first three letters, it means אלה, which doesn't mean God. Right. You know, or if you just have the ה and the י, it's like, "Hi, hi, how you doing?" Right.

You know. So, the the thing is that if you leave out one המן, it's not God's name anymore. So, "How's that possible?" Right. "How could המן be God's name?" So, you say, "Yeah, as far as the outside, from the צמצום, המן is המן.

But as far as even the אור פנימי,

there's no difference. It's just when the אור פנימי hits you say ויהי בימי אחשורוש, it's like the the light is traveling along the pixels on the TV, you know, it hits you know, it hits, now you say this one, you know." Mhm. "And when it comes to המן, it says, 'Now you say המן.'

And all the kids are going to make noise. If you leave that out, you didn't do the מצוה of the מגילה. You didn't say God's name." Right. So, as far as even though there seems to be a change on the outside, there is a change between המן and מרדכי, but on the inside, there's no change. The same thing that the same thing that's telling you to say המן, it's the same thing that's telling you to say מרדכי.

Right. הנה פאר דעם א פרוכת פרסא בין חלק מה שכתוב בזהר, אבער האריז"ל ז"ל נוקבא כידוע, מלכות דאצילות לבריאה יש מסך, ומלכות בקיעת מסך, נעשה כתר לבריאה. ועל דרך זה יש מסך really ליצירה, מלכות דבריאה בקיעת מסך ונעשה כתר ליצירה, וכן מלכות דיצירה בקיעת מסך ונעשה כתר לעשיה, בעשיה, עד מלכות דעשיה שנקרא המלך המרומם לבדו. Right. Which what do you mean מלכות דעשיה is המלך המרומם לבדו?

מלכות דעשיה as the Sole Exalted King 28:27

מלכות דאין סוף is המלך המרומם לבדו. So he says, "No, it's the same מלך." Right. It's the opposite. דווקא when he reaches עשיה, that's when he's called המלך המרומם לבדו,

because in אצילות, I can in my head I can also be a king, you know. Right. In other words, you know it like like you know you know what they say, "He's a legend in his own mind." Right. To be a legend in your own mind is easy. Right. It's דווקא when you hit עשיה that he's really the מלך. Then he's המלך המרומם לבדו. דווקא when you reach עשיה.

It's not when it's not when מלכות of אין סוף. You would think מלכות of אין סוף would be and and by the way, that's also sometimes In some places המלך המרומם לבדו means מלכות of אין סוף. All right. Let me flip, let me put the tape. וערים נשמות יושיבו.

Season of Transition Between שבעה עשר בתמוז 29:47

Now, as we said, we are in a season of transition. We are between שבעה עשר בתמוז and תשעה באב, and we know that this season is called בין המצרים.