Part 1 · Chapter 11

Linking Past Chapter: Soul Levels and Divine Forces 0:01

והנמשל מכל הנ״ל בנפש, the נמשל for everything that we spoke about in the previous chapter, in chapter יוד, regarding the soul, that there we explained the three levels of how the כוחות are revealed from the יחידה, יובן למשכיל למעלה, so the the correspondence to these three levels is understood to a משכיל, to somebody that knows how to find the the point, the abstract point, the

חכמה, למעלה בעצמות אין סוף שלפני הצמצום, it's understood above in godliness, in the essence of the infinite light that precedes the צמצום, שנקרא יחיד, which this light is called יחיד, alone, single, וכלול גם שם עשר ספירות, and even there are included ten ספירות, ונקראים עשר ספירות הגנוזות בהעלם העצמות ממש.

The Ten Hidden Sefirot Concealed in the Essence 1:07

And these are called the ten hidden away ספירות in the concealment of the very essence, the very self. Sometimes or usually when you say עשר ספירות הגנוזות, you mean the way that the ספירות are in א״ק or something like that, but here they're called עשר ספירות הגנוזות בהעלם העצמות ממש, which means the way that the ספירות are hidden in the in the עצמות אין סוף before the צמצום.

כמו בחינת חפץ חסד שכלול בבחינת עצמיות דאין סוף, like the desire for kindness, which was included in the essence of the infinite light,

שמחמתו וסיבתו היה הרצון הפשוט דכל ההשתלשלות, that because of it and as a result of it came the simple desire for the entire השתלשלות.

שזהו בדבר פרט, which this is a detail. So, in other words, like we said in the משל of the person that he's a nice person, חפץ חסד, and then he sees the poor person and has a desire to help him, right, which or like he wants to give buy his friend a birthday present or something, so that's a particular desire for חסד, so so too it says that the world was created because of the חפץ חסד, like we're going to say in a minute, and the desire to create this particular השתלשלות with these ten ספירות is the דבר פרט, that's the particular thing.

Human Kindness Expressed Through Intellect, Traits, Speech, Action 2:12

כמו שכתוב בעץ חיים בהקדמה, like it says in עץ חיים in the introduction, כשעלה ברצונו הפשוט וכולי, when it came up in God's simple desire to create the world, בוודאי סיבת להיות הרצון הפשוט בעצמותו, היינו רק כי חפץ חסד הוא בעצמו, and it explains that the the reason for that this simple desire in himself to to create the world is because he desires kindness within himself. על כן, therefore, עלה ברצונו להיטיב חסדו, therefore it arose in desire to make good, in other words, to express his kindness, להיות מקור למקור להשתלשלות דהקווים וכולי, to make a source for a source for the השתלשלות of the קווים וכו'.

So, it explains in תניא that the idea of חסד למעלה, that the נמשל for חסד is השם's כוח, השם's ability to create and enliven to no end. So, the the source of the the השתלשלות is this idea of God's power of creation.

That's the idea of the חסד, and surely the חפץ חסד הוא, that that's coming because God is a creator. So, really, essentially God has this thing that he's a creator, and the whole השתלשלות is just revealing the ability of creation. Just like a person is essentially a kind person, and then he expresses it by doing with a desire for the kind thing.

The the point is that that even though the idea of creation is like something that's separate and that's a limited thing, but we say, we must say that its source came from God.

Creation Requires a Creator: God as the Ultimate Source 4:54

And the only way that a creation could exist is if there's a creator, and only God could be a creator. So this is the way that we say that the ספירות are there in the level of יחיד, not that they're ממש there like like a ספירה, but we must say that the יכולת for that comes from the עצם, comes from השם. והרי זה על דרך דוגמא, this is, compare, this is similar, כשמחמת עצמיות המדה דחפץ חסד הכלולה בבחינת יחידה כנ״ל, like when, as a result of a person's essential desire for kindness, which is included in his יחידה, עולה ברצונו לעשות טוב וחסד בדבר פרט כנ״ל.

It then comes up in his desire to do a particular חסד and טוב in a particular way, שבא בגילוי מן העלמו ההיולי דחפץ חסד, לכלול כל מה שיעלה בפרט ברצונו להיטיב.

And then it becomes revealed from its concealed היולי, its concealed essential state in his essential desire for חסד, and now it becomes a desire that includes everything that that that will come up in detail, every detail that he'll ever want to do, every kindness he'll ever want to do. הכל בא מחמתו וכוחו וכולי.

Everything comes as a result of and through the power of this חפץ חסד. So it's really all an expression of this חפץ חסד. So the same way that the entire השתלשלות is all a גילוי of השם's essential יכולת to create, to make an השתלשלות.

And so that's the way that the השתלשלות really comes from the עצמות אין סוף, which mean because because that's the real question that chapter פרק י׳ and י״א are coming to explain.

How does a השתלשלות, a creation of something that's separate from השם, which is the whole idea of the השתלשלות, how does that have a מקור?

How is that a part of the עצמות אין סוף, which means the גילוי of השם himself? The revelation of God's essence exactly the way he is? So the answer is that since God essentially, among other things, you can't define him as this as this, that that's all he is, but he surely is a creator also, meaning that he has the ability to create.

Therefore, included in knowing him is the idea of creations. Because in order to know what his ability of creation is, you have to understand the creations.

And God himself, since he knows what he is, he knows that he can create, and he knows all the creations he can make. וכמו שבגילוי רצון שבא מחמת חפץ חסד זה, כלולים י׳, חב״ד מדות וכולי,

and just like the revealed desire of kindness—now we're back to the person, in the משל of the person—that comes as a result of this essential desire for kindness, just like when it's revealed it includes ten ספירות, that there's the חב״ד and the מדות and the מחשבה דיבור ומעשה.

He has a whole שכל and the מדות and everything, how to do the חסד, like we explained the last chapter, מזה מוכרח שגם בבחינת חפץ חסד ההיולי שכלול בעצמות ממש, כלולים י׳, חכמה מדות וכולי.

So therefore, since when the person actually expresses the kindness, we see that it comes out with intellect and emotions and all these things, so we must say that inherent in the kindness, in other words, that he has this essential thing in himself, that he knows what kindness is. It's it's a certain aspect of the human soul that when it expresses itself, part of the way it expresses itself is in kindness.

And included in that is that in order for it to be a kindness, it has to be done with a שכל, and it has to be done with מדות, and it has to be done with מחשבה דיבור ומעשה. And he knows how to make all of those come out in the way of חסד.

So we see that the היולי, since all these details came out from him, we see that they're all included in this the essence of the kindness the way it was in his soul.

רק שלא יתכן בהם לומר גם ענין ההתכללות והאחדות, אך שכלול בעצמות בבחינת היולי עדין וכולי. Only that even though we're saying that all these ten powers must be there in the חסד, in the kindness, but you can't say that they are that they are separate things that unite and are included in one there, but that they are are distinct in some way. Why can't you say that?

Because they're completely one with the self, and they're they're still like a simple essence. They're still what's called a היולי, a simple essence.

And the idea is, which this is explained in קונטרס ענינה של תורת החסידות and also in other places, that the idea of an essence is that it's higher than everything, and it goes into everything. Like oil, that it's אינו מתערב בכל דבר, מפעפע בכל דבר.

Kindness as an Ineffable Essence Beyond Checklists 10:34

So, the real essence of kindness is something that's higher than any details and any sort of an explanation. And that's why only a person can really have a thing of kindness.

You can't like make a checklist of what it means to be kind: that if you do this, and you do that, and you smile, and, you know, you could teach a computer how to be kind. No, you can't do that, because the real thing of kindness is something that is essentially beyond explanation.

It's a higher thing. It's an essence. And once you have that point, then automatically it will come out in everything, though, that will express itself in a certain way in the שכל, and in a certain way in the מידות, and in a certain way in מחשבה דיבור ומעשה. The kindness will affect everything, and everything in its own way.

But it's all really coming from that one point of חסד. And if a person has that thing that they appreciate the חסד, automatically they'll know how to bring it out in the in the שכל, and in the מידות, and in everything. And if they don't have it, you could try to act it out, and make your שכל look like it, and make your מידות look like it, and everything, but it still won't really be חסד.

And this is the idea of the עצם. So even though in the the היולי of the חסד, in the essence of the חסד, we say that it includes all the ten, the שכל and the מידות, and everything, but there, there's only the חסד. There's really only the kindness, there's nothing else.

You don't see that there's a שכל and there's מידות there at all. In the same way, with in the נמשל, that even though when God actually reveals this thing of חסד, and He actually makes the השתלשלות, it comes out with ten ספירות, but really it's all included in one thing. It's really all included in the thing of חסד, that He His power of being a Creator.