Part 11 · Chapter 10

Stage One: The Undifferentiated Soul 0:00

ולא יתכן בהם לומר לשון זה אחדות מדברים מובדלים יחד. You cannot, at this stage, speak, when you're speaking of like the person himself, just like the essence of the human soul, you cannot say that they're at that point that חסד and גבורה are two separate things. It's really just the person, just like the thing of that he's a human.

And the fact that when he comes out to the world, that this is revealed sometimes as, this humanness is sometimes expressed as kindness, sometimes expressed as severity, are not really separate things there. And at that stage in soul, they don't, the whole idea of kindness and severity don't exist yet, it's just a simple humanness.

In the same way with the power of the movements, you can't say that there's different movements there that are included, because there is no thing of movements yet there, it's just life.

There is no existence yet of movement. In the same way with perceptions, there's no, there's no sights, there's no sounds, there's no colors, there's no, you know, pitch.

It's just the soul. So you can't say that there's like these separate things that are put together there, because they don't exist yet. אחר שכולם נכללים בעצם, because they're totally included in the self, it's really just the self. והיו כלא היו מציאות כלל וכלל כנ״ל, it's as if they don't exist at all, because only the self exists at this point. The only thing is included in its existence is that it can give rise to these existences.

By way, by way of what it is, by nature of what it is, these things exist there, but they don't exist there as distinct entities that are like separate.

Those distinctions don't yet exist, just those things are like derived from the essence, from the self. But to the self, they're really all the same thing.

Stage Two: The Ten Powers Begin to Manifest 1:53

והב׳, in the second stage, בבחינת התפשטות י׳ כוחות שהם מוכנים לבוא בבחינת גילוי, is the extension of the ten powers of the soul when they're ready to be revealed.

כמו חפץ חסד העצמי ההיולי שבא לדבר חסד בדרך פרט, like, for example, when a person's inner desire for kindness comes to a particular thing, like he wants to get somebody a present for their birthday or give the person the coat to the shoes.

גם קודם שנמשך בפועל ממש, even before he did it, so he didn't actually give the person the thing yet, רק שכבר עשוי ומוכן לצאת לזה דבר פרט, just that it's ready to come to this particular thing. So like he, with like the poor person with the, with the coat, he goes and he opens the door, and he sees a poor person, and he wants to help him.

And ממילא he wants to, he already knows he wants to give him a coat, but he didn't figure out exactly which coat, where it is, where he's going to get it, is he going to buy it for him, is he going to give him one of his old coats, he didn't figure out the details. He knows the, the general thing that he wants to give him a coat.

So before he opened the door, when he was sitting on his chair, he just had a thing that he's a nice guy, part of himself, of who he is is he's a nice guy. Now he already wants to do a particular thing based on his kindness, he wants to give him a coat.

So שם, at this point, יתכן ענין האחדות מכמה פרטים שבו. So at this point, you can say that he has a, a general desire to give him a coat, and already that desire recognizes that there will be many details, but they're all included in one general point, that he wants to give him a coat. So he doesn't yet see the details as being distinct things, because they're all coming together.

But it's already, the details already ממש exist there. כמו שכל ומדות שבחפץ חסד זה, like the intellect and emotions in this desire for kindness. So at this point,

there already is the idea of the, the intellect and emotions. Now, as once the, the desire comes out, included in that point is really the way that the שכל is going to be, and the way the מדות are going to be.

It's already all like revealed there, it's just that it needs to be brought out in actuality into each of those details. But he already has like the general thing of that he's going to have to come up with a שכל that's going to evaluate which, what's the best way to give him the coat and what coat would be best for this guy. He already knows that, he recognizes that.

He recognizes that he's going to have to have, you know, certain emotions involved. But he just sees all of those things as one general thing, how they're going to work together. The final, when it's all put together, that the final product is going to be that he gave him a coat that's appropriate, and it's could be a kindness.

So the kindness is made up of a lot of different, you know, acts and a lot of different parts, and דוקא when they're all put together, then it's a, the real kindness.

Right, if you wouldn't like use his שכל and he wouldn't give the guy the right-size coat, then it wouldn't really be a kindness. Especially if it's too small, you know? So, he recognizes there's that there's going to be all these details, and דווקא when they're all put together, that's the kindness.

So at that stage, you can say that there are actually different levels, and they're all coming together once it comes to be like to relate to a particular thing.

הנמשך מהעלם ההיולי הכללי וכולי, so when the the חסד comes out from the hiddenness of the היולי, then then you can already say that there's like the details, but they're all included. That's like level אחד.

Stage Three: Ready to Act but Still Blocked 5:38

והג׳, in the third stage, כשנמשך ובא לעשות דבר פרט, when it comes to actually do this particular thing, רק שעדיין לא בא מצד איזה מניעה, so now it's ready to come out and actually do it, but it just didn't happen yet because something is holding him back, אבל ההכנה בעצמו כבר בשלימותה, but from his part he's totally ready to do it. He is totally prepared.

So he figured out exactly what he's going to do and everything, ולא חסר רק להוציא בהתגלות בפועל ממש, he just didn't actually do it yet because there's something that's holding him up. So he already figured out, he has the perfect coat, he figured out exactly what he's going to do, he's going to give that coat to this guy, that's all figured out, you know? And then the wind comes and blows the door, and he gets locked out outside with the guy.

So he can't do it, he has to, you know, ring the doorbell and wait for somebody to let him in, and then he can give the coat.

But, you know, he was all ready to do it, he knows exactly what he's going to do, and it's all prepared. דהיינו שכבר שיער היטב בעצמו בדרך פרט לעשות דבר שבא לפועל ממש. That means that he already estimated very well in himself, in a detailed way, for that thing, how it's going to come in actuality.

והיינו שיער בעצמו בכח מה שצריך להוציא לפועל. And this is this means that he estimates in himself what he's in potential, what he's going to have to what he's going to need to do in actuality.

כמו על דרך דוגמא הנ״ל בכח התנועה, like in the analogy of the power of movement, כשעתידה לצאת בגילוי בדבר פרט, וכמו התפשטות החיות להחיות הגוף, כשמוכן לצאת כשמוכן לצאת.

And the same thing, now he's going back to and and and contrasting the second and third stage in the other two analogies of the power of movement and the and the power of consciousness. That when the power of movement is ready to come out to a particular thing, like you're going to go reach for the salt, or you're going to go, you're playing basketball and you're going to throw the ball into the hoop, so you already know what you movement you want to do.

And the same thing with like the power of consciousness, that you're it's already you're going it's going to come out to ממש be a consciousness, like it's go already went into your brain from your soul, it already went into your brain to be like a general consciousness, and now it's ready to go out to your eye and become a thing of seeing.

שכולם שם ביחד כללי כל החיות פרטים, that at that stage, all the details are included in one in a general thing. So, once the power of movement already comes into your body in general, so then you can say that like there's this general physical power that but that that's there you already have like all the detailed different movements. So like when a person's like going to reach for the salt, he already knows that he's going to have to move his arm like this and his arm like that, and do this whole process.

But you don't think of each detailed movement you have to make. You don't think about like closing your fingers and extending your arm. You just think that you want the salt as a general movement.

And automatically, you know that you're going to have to make all the particular little movements.

And that's like with anything, like or like with basketball, you don't think, "Oh, I need to like twist my wrist that way and my finger that way." When you're practicing, you do. If you don't If you don't have a good shot, then when you practice, they teach you the technique, they tell you hold the ball like this and your finger like that, and twist it, you know, like that, and give it a flick and, you know, with your bend your knees, they tell you all the details.

But once you learn the movement, then you just think the general thing you want, get the ball in the hoop, and you automatically do all the details. And you don't think about all the details. It's actually better not to think about the details, you'll do a better job if you just focus on the general goal and not the details.

Also because it's distracting. ואחר כך, and after that, הוא מה ששיער והכין כבר בכח התנועה איך להניע בדרך פרט. Then afterwards, you have to have that estimation and prepare exactly how you're going to move. So that's why like to, you know, a person, two people can go and know they want to throw the ball into the hoop, and some one person gets it in, one person doesn't get it in, and And the reason is because one person knows how to estimate it properly because he practiced.

And so he knows, he already has the preparation of how to do it and the other person didn't practice.

So it's you have to be to have that that שיעור, that השערה, the estimation in your כח התנועה first exactly how to do it.

וכן מה ששיער השתלשלות התפשטות רוח החיים והוכנה בהם אשר יפעלו החיות בפועל ממש. In the same way with the power of consciousness, it has to become estimated exactly how it's going to come out. So for example, when it goes into the eye, the power of consciousness you didn't actually even before you see something, but when when it goes from your brain to your eye, it now becomes ready to see and it will not hear from your eye.

Movement Analogy: General Intent vs Detailed Action 10:29

And when it goes into your ear, it becomes ready to hear. So there's already a certain estimation of what type of a thing it's going to perceive.

It's ready now to perceive a sight only or it's ready to perceive a sound only. So that's already a a potential estimation for how it's going to come out.

וכמו כן דמיון כח הצומח And similarly, now the מיצעלער רבי introduces a new משל, which he didn't bring in before, of the power of growth of a plant.

And you see also with like the power of growth, כשהוא מוכן להצמיח when it's ready to grow בפועל ממש in actuality, שיש בזה גם כן ענין ג' מדריגות הנ"ל That there also, you see these three stages also in the power of growth.

והכל טרם שבא הדבר עדין בפועל ממש But this is all before it actually happens. So what are these three stages in the power of growth?

First, there is just like the the power of growth is really this a spiritual thing that's higher than any particular growing any particular plant.

Then there's like the general power of growth where it comes like in the dirt. If there's already a general thing that it that that even though really it can grow pretty much anything, but there's it's already now you know, cuz really like the dirt is higher than the thing of growth. It can, it's just dirt, just that it also has this thing that it can grow.

And now it's coming in a limited way and there is there is a certain general thing there that it's that it's going to grow something and it grows only in a certain way. And depending on like what kind of ground it would be better even for growing certain things than other things.

And then there's when it's ready to grow a particular thing, like a certain tree. Like you're going to grow an apple tree. And so now it's ready to grow that exact tree, but it didn't grow it yet.

And I think that the reason that he brings this analogy in is because here you see the need for the צמצום. This he'll explain in in the next chapter. I mean in in then in י"ב. the next ענין, because you see that in the power of growth you need the seed.

That if you don't put a seed in the ground, even though the ground has a potential to grow any tree, and it also has a potential to grow this exact tree, but if you don't put the seed in, nothing is going to grow.

But this is all before it actually happens. כמו התנועה קודם שבאה בגשם הנפעל, like the power of movement before it actually comes into the physical thing that is moved.

Right? So you didn't actually move anything yet. או החיות הרוחני קודם שבא בגשם הגוף, or the spiritual power of consciousness before it comes into the actual body to actually perceive like before there's like the biological, you know, neuro- neurochemical signal before that happens, ששם משתנה ממהות רוחניות למהות גשם that there it changes in when it goes into the body or the physical thing, it changes from a spiritual thing to a physical thing.

שהוא בחינת תנועה גשמית וחיות גשמית. Then it becomes a physical movement that your hand moves and you throw the ball, or a physical consciousness that your light hits your eye and then you you know, so it makes a chemical reaction in the your cones and your rods, which sends a thing from your optical nerve up to your brain. You know, it's like a biological thing.

וכהאי גוונא בגשם הצמיחה And the same way with if actual physical growth of the plant, כו'. That when the plant actually grows, that's what that then it changes from just a potential to growth to an actual.

plant, שצריך לזה בחינת צמצום ועיכוב וכיוצא בזה הרוחני בתחילה. Before it's able to come out from the spiritual to the physical, you need something, some sort of a channeling and a contracting to focus this spiritual power so that it should be revealed דווקא in this way, כדי שיבוא מכלל רוחניות לגשמיות, so that it should go from spiritual to physical, כמו שיתבאר באות י״ב, like he'll explain in chapter 12.

The Role of צמצום and the Seed Concept 15:04

And this is like you see in the in the power of growth, you need the seed. And the same way in the power of movement, that you have to when you actually want to do it, your design, when you actually decide you're going to do it, first you just decide that in theory you're going to want to do it, and you start thinking about how to do it, but then there's a new thing that you have to decide you actually want to do it.

At that point, you limit it, and you say I'm only, you pick which movement you're going to make, and you, like in English the word decision means like literally like to kill, means that you kill out all the other options, and you only have, you know, you narrow it down to one. Then you decide you're going to do that, and you actually do it.

And the same way like with the power of seeing and hearing, that even once it comes into your brain, into your eye, and it's ready to see, you're not going to actually see something until light hits your eye.

And you're not going to actually hear something until a sound hits your ear.

And that is like the seed that focuses it, that limits it to come out in one particular way. The difference is that in the משל of the חסד and the משל of the power of movement, the צמצום comes only from you, that you decide how to do it.

And in the משל of the power of perception of consciousness and the power of growth, you see that there is like, you see clearly how there's like a seed or something that like triggers that, so it's easier to see the the need for that צמצום there to bring it out.