Part 3 · Chapter 10

The Simple Light of Ein Sof and Upper Purity 0:00

והענין הוא, so what's the ענין? How is it that they're it's there? דבאמת כמו שעצמות האין סוף הוא אור פשוט בתכלית הפשיטות, that just like the essence of the אין סוף is completely simple

light, כך ממש בחינת אורו וזיוו הנקרא אור אין סוף, so, too, the light of the אין סוף is also completely simple. In other words, it's true that really the עצמות, the אין סוף, the מאור, the source of the light is completely simple, and

the light that comes out from it is also completely simple because it is a revelation of the אין סוף exactly the way it is. That's the idea of light, so light reveals whatever you see the way it is.

דהיינו הוא ושמו בלבד כנ״ל, and this is what we said that it's just God and His name alone, that and which is totally simple. It's Him, which He is totally simple, and His revelation of Himself to Himself, which is also totally

simple. והוא הנקרא טהירו עילאה, and this is what is called the upper purity. In other words, the עצמות אור אין סוף before the צמצום is called the upper purity because like we back to the pure olive oil, what does it mean pure?

Pure means that there's no parts. There's nothing else. So the upper purity is when God and His name alone, that there's nothing else at all. And then the lower purity, we're going to talk about later, that is after the צמצום, when the whole world is seen as revealing Him, but it's already seen as being something separate, but it's like connected with Him.

Upper vs Lower Purity and the Concept of יחיד 1:38

That's the lower level of purity. שזהו ענינו בחינת התגלות אור עצמותו כמו שהוא דוקא. What is in the upper purity? That is the revelation of God's essence exactly the way He is.

והוא הנקרא יחיד, and this is what's called יחיד, that it's

alone, שאין עוד מלבדו דלא יאמר בו לשון אחדות אלא לשון יחוד, that there's nothing else to say that there is a אחדות, that there is a unification of parts or that there's a אחדות means like that that things stay separate, but they work together, right? Like you want אחדות between the Jews. That means that we stay the separate people, we have our own ideas, and we sometimes disagree, but nevertheless, we all love each other and we work together.

יחוד means that you ממש become one thing, that you like connect.

Like when a father and a mother have a child and there they become ממש like one thing, even there it says בשר אחד though, but that's like called like a thing of a יחוד.

Yeah, יחוד is like unite, that two things should unite. So you can't you can't say that there are separate things there that are like connecting or or uniting, because it's just

Understanding יחוד vs יחד and God's Unity Beyond Numbers 3:20

God. וזהו אנת הוא חד ולא בחושבן יוד וכו׳. This is what it says in פתח אליהו, says that You are one, but not with a a חושבן, not with a calculation, not with a number. And the האר״י ז״ל explains what number, what חשבון would you have made? You would have made a חשבון of 10, that you might have thought that God is one, but He's made up of 10 ספירות.

And so he's saying, no, that it's one that's not made up of 10 ספירות, it's just God, totally simple. So the truth is that really the עצמות of the אור אין סוף is completely simple and doesn't have 10 ספירות, cuz it's a revelation of God exactly the way He is, and that's called the upper purity.

So then, how do we say that there are 10 ספירות there?

Because we said that they're there, but it's like not in a חכמה ידיעה. אך מה שאמרו חכים ולא בחכמה ידיעה וכו׳, but this that we said that there are an ענין of 10 ספירות there, that God is wise, but not with a knowable wisdom, etc., שיש על כל פנים חלוקי מדרגות חכים ומבין חסד ורחמן וכו׳, that implies that there are divisions, that there are still different levels.

There's wise and understanding and kind and compassionate, and there's a difference. If there's a difference between calling God wise and calling Him understanding and between calling Him kind and merciful, that means that there are already divisions of ספירות there.

So, right, it may not be a knowable wisdom, it may not be like my wisdom, But who cares if it's like my wisdom? If there's something that I can say that this is different than that, then that's already a division. Even if it's much greater than my wisdom. So the answer is that when we say that it's not knowable, what we really mean is not that it's just not like our wisdom, but it really means that it's nothing to do, like he says, ולא מכל אלו מדות כלל.

It really has nothing to do with these מדות at all. And really you cannot say that it's a חכמה. You can't even say that there's a difference between חכמה and בינה.

They really are not at all definable. You can't even say that it's a חכמה.

So why do we say that they're there? Really it's totally simple, it's just God, and it's not really a thing of a wisdom at all. So why do we say that they're there then?

הכל לא מצד עצמותו. These we, when we speak of these divisions, we don't mean that מצד השם's עצם that there are these

divisions, רק מצד מה ששיער בעצמו בכח מה שעתיד להיות בפועל אחר הצמצום הראשון, and all. Rather, when we speak of the 10 ספירות, we mean that since God decided to make a world, and in the world He decided to make 10 ספירות and to make a division between these things,

so we say that they came from Him. But we're But we're not saying that the way they're in their source that they are separate things.

So basically it's like this: when we say that the ספירות are not there, they're not in the in the עצמות of the אין סוף, or they're not in the עצמות, what do we mean? We mean that it's totally simple, and that it's God is so much higher than any ענין of the ספירות that you can't say that there's an ענין of חכמה there, because it's much higher than being חכמה.

You can't say there's an ענין of בינה, and you at that level, it's it's the the level of the עצם, the חכמה and בינה are the same thing.

The real essence of the חכמה is the same as the essence of the בינה, it's really just God.

Yeah, that really, the whole השתלשלות is an artificial thing, and really we our job is to see that it doesn't exist. Really we want to look past and find look past the the השתלשלות and see the עצם, and see how it's really all one thing, it's really just God. Right, but in order to do that we have to go through all the details and see the essence, and see why they look different and how they look different, and then we'll realize that it's not that it's not that that the differences are really not there, they're not really different, and we'll find the עצם.

The Oil Metaphor: Essence Higher Than All Yet Permeates Everything 7:53

And this is the idea, like it explains in different places, that the idea of the עצם, it goes into everything, but it's really higher than everything, like oil, like it explains in קונטרס ענינה של תורת החסידות.

In English it's called \"On the Essence of Chassidus\". And in other places also it explains that like oil floats above everything, but it also permeates everything.

That this is the idea, that the essence is really higher than all the things, it's higher than the idea of 10 ספירות, but yet it could go into everything, it can go into all the ideas of the ספירות. So in other words, that when we say that there aren't 10 ספירות there, we mean that it's higher than everything, that God is really higher than than what than wisdom or intellect or anything.

And when we say, like it says in תניא, to say that that God is so much higher than wisdom, that like to say that God is so great that you can't understand Him, is like saying that an idea is so spiritual is so deep that you can't grab it with your hand. It's like a joke.

But on the other hand, we say that the ספירות are there because two things: first of all, when we say that there wisdom isn't there, we don't mean חס ושלום that God is stupid.

We don't mean that God is missing something, that He's missing חכמה. When we say that there's no wisdom there, we don't mean that there's no wisdom there that God can't have wisdom. We mean that it's so much higher than wisdom that you can't call it wisdom.

It's higher, much higher than that. But when we say that they are there, we're saying that God could come into wisdom, that God God's existence includes wisdom. It's a much greater, higher existence that's much higher than wisdom, but included in God is also that He has the thing of wisdom. Because He's God, He automatically has wisdom. And that's like what רמב״ם says, that from the first thing is you should realize that there is a first being that's higher than everything, And from Him comes everything, that everything is really just coming out from his his existence, his being.

That wisdom is really something that's just coming out from God's existence. So we're going to explain this, you know, how this works a little bit, we can give a משל for this. But this is the basic idea is that since in the world we see that there is wisdom, so it must have come from somewhere. It came, and we're saying that it came, it must have come from God.

It couldn't have come from anywhere else. So on the one hand we must say that God has wisdom, because it came from Him. But on the other hand, we're saying that the way that it's in God, it's not like the way we know wisdom, and there not only is it not like we know wisdom, you can't even call it a wisdom. It's a much higher thing, and at that level there's no difference between wisdom and understanding or anything.

It's all, it's a much higher thing that connects everything. And this is the idea that we're going to explain in this chapter, how the idea of when you have a higher essence, it automatically includes all the parts, but to it, they're all the same.

And that's the idea that it says like oil, that it floats above everything, means that really it's higher than any of the things, but yet it's able to go into everything, because to it, they're all the same.

So this is what we're saying. And the idea is here too, that we're explaining in this chapter, we're trying to explain, is that the idea of God's essence is that it's something that's higher than anything and everything.

And so that's completely, that's in that way, it's like unknowable because it's higher than anything, everything. But on the other hand, it's found in everything. And really, a piece of the essence is the whole essence. So you can find God's whole עצם in חכמה, and in בינה, and all the way down to things in the world, like a piece of cake or a tree, that השם's whole עצם is found there.

Two‑Step Process: Separate the Essence then Reconnect to All Things 11:59

This chapter, in a way, the whole rest of the book is coming to explain this chapter, this point, because what the whole book is trying to help us do is to look at everything in השתלשלות, in everything in the world, and a two-step process: the first thing we want to do is separate out the oil, to separate out the essence, and find how that that thing is really something that's like separate from that God is really higher than that thing, and realize that that is not God, that there's really a higher reality.

And once we recognize that higher reality, then reconnect that to that thing and see how really the real essence of that thing is really God. It's not really what we thought it was. So like חכמה, first thing we have to do is realize that חכמה is not the ultimate thing. The wisdom, God is not wisdom, and God is not love, and God is not, you know, God is higher than that.

And then we should realize that really what wisdom is is really a revelation of God. It's really higher than what we think wisdom is.

It's really a godly thing, and now we see everything as being a godly thing. And we'll see what this means as we start to do that throughout the book.

Key Chapters 10‑13: Essence, Revelation, and the Concept of צמצום 13:44

Now we're going to explain this in general in this chapter, yeah.

So really like at the end of chapter 13, and also the beginning of chapter 12, when he explains the צמצום, he says that this is the whole point of man, and this is the whole point of learning this book, is basically these chapters, 10, 11, 12, and 13. To understand in 10 and 11 the idea of how the essence is really higher than everything, and yet everything is a revelation of it.

And then with the idea of 12 and 13, to understand the idea of the צמצום, to understand how it is that it comes to look like something separate from with God, but it's really still Him. And the rest of the book is just the details of that, these chapters.

Yeah, these four chapters is like the key.