Part 3 · Chapter 11

The Nature of a חק in the Commandments 0:03

And one of those things is, for example, the idea of a חק, that, on the one hand, even though the מצוות come on to a שכל, but at their essence, they're always a חק, that they're just because God said so.

Because if a מצוה was really for a certain reason, then it's not you're not doing it because God said so, you're doing it because it makes sense. So, part of the thing of all the מצוות is that they're a חק.

And there's other things like that that are like the essence, what defines מלוכה and how that comes in to everything. Yeah, we'll discuss מלכות more, a lot more, in the end of the book. אך ענין אנא אמלוך שעלה ברצונו מחשבה פשוטה היינו כשבא בדבר פרט ובבחינת השתלשלות בגילוי מהעלם ההיולי כנ״ל במדת דחפץ חסד באדם למטה.

But the idea of אנא אמלוך, that it says that השם said to Himself, "I want to be king," that's already a lower thing. That's not that the the power of kingship is included in God's essence in a way of יחיד, that just essentially, because God is God, He has the ability to be a king.

That's already when God said, "אנא אמלוך, I'm going to be I want to be king," that's already the next level. That's already when there was an actual עלית הרצון to be king in a particular thing.

That's when it came up in His simple רצון and מחשבה, which is a דבר פרט, which is a particular thing, for the השתלשלות בגילוי מהעלם ההיולי, when it's revealed from its concealed state, like we've said before about the מדה of the חפץ חסד in a person below.

That there, we explained how there's the level of יחיד, where there's the essential thing of kindness, just that he's a kind person, before it comes to a particular desire, just that it includes the ability to come out to all the particulars. And then there's when he actually has a particular desire to help, give the person a coat, the shoes, to give somebody a birthday present, whatever it is.

וכנ״ל במשל יו״ד כחות הכלולים שבבחינת יחידה, like we explained in last chapter about the ten כחות, the way they're included in the יחידה, which that's the משל for the level of יחיד, בבחינת היולי ועצמיות, they're in the way of an essence and one with the self,

שאינם וכולי שאינם נבדלים מן העצם כלל, that they're not separate from the essence, the self, at all, that it's really just you, וכמו כח התנועה שכלול בעצם החי,

like the power of movement that's included in the essence of a living thing, וכהתפשטות החיות ההיולי הכלול בעצם הנפש ממש כנ״ל.

And like the power of consciousness the way it's included in the essence of the soul ממש, like we explained in last chapter. So, just like all those משלים that we explained that the first level in those משלים, where it's totally one with the self, and so you can't find any sort of details to say that they're separate things that are united, so too, this is the משל for the level of יחיד, that the first level of the אין סוף is a גילוי of God exactly the way He is, just to appreciate that God is like an essence, and that He is transcends all limitations and all divisions, and automatically, He also come can come into anything.

Transition to the Next Stage: אחד 3:49

That's the first stage. Now, to the next stage: אחד. ולמטה מזה, and lower than this, lower than יחיד, הוא בחינת אור אין סוף המאיר ומתפשט, is the infinite light that shines and spreads. This is something that can be revealed. And like for example in in באתי לגני, it's explained in כ״ה and in מ״ו, that the idea of the למעלה מעלה עד אין קץ and למטה מטה עד אין תכלית are two levels in the אור אין סוף itself.

And the idea of the למעלה מעלה עד אין קץ is like יחיד. That is the essence of the light that is essentially not revealable because it's it's just the essence that transcends expression and and in particulars. And then אחד and קדמון are the idea of למטה מטה in the אור אין סוף, which is already the light that's שייך to coming down.

So, this is the next level. This is the idea of the אור אין סוף that's מאיר ומתפשט. והכל עדיין בבחינת עצמותו לפני הצמצום,

but this is still in Himself, in the essence, in God's essence before the צמצום. This thing of the אור אין סוף מאיר ומתפשט. The level of אחד is the level of ספירות עד אין קץ.

One Level: ספירות עד אין קץ 5:00

That means that God can make infinite ספירות

and infinite things that aren't ספירות, but all all different sorts of ways to reveal Himself. But the idea of a ספירה is already a thing of a limitation that's that's coming out, a revelation that's going out in a limited way.

Right now, we're only talking about the ten ספירות, but really this is the this level that includes in all the ספירות. But it's just the idea that it's coming out now in a way of a ספירה.

And that's already something that can be revealed as separate from Him. So like the idea of חסד is already not God, that's just חסד.

And so that can be revealed separate from Him, it could be מאיר ומתפשט. The essence of it is God Himself. So in order to to to know that, you'd have to ידעתיו הייתיו, you'd have to be Him to know it.

So that can't be revealed outside of Him. Either you're Him and you know it, or you're not Him and you don't know it. But the once it's מאיר ומתפשט, you can know what kindness is without being God, and you can know what חכמה is without being God.

So that's the idea of the אין סוף that's מאיר ומתפשט. והכל עדיין בבחינת עצמותו לפני הצמצום, but we're speaking about the way that this is all within God's essence before the צמצום.

What do we mean? We mean that before God makes the צמצום, part of knowing Himself is that He knows all of these different ספירות and how He could reveal them. If He were going to make a צמצום and make a השתלשלות, He knows all the different ספירות He could reveal and make.

Yeah, like so yeah, if you were going to sit God down and ask Him, you know, "Let's say you were going to make a world, how would it be?", so He could tell you all the different how He would make it exactly, or let's say He would make He'd make a different one, you could ask Him every way that He could make a world, and He could explain it to you.

And this is like the משל that they always give of like the a teacher, that he knows already how to explain it to the student.

He knows it in a way that's higher than explaining to the student, and he also knows it in a way that he could explain it to the student.

So this is like the thing of being able to explain it. וזהו הנקרא אחדות הפשוטה, this is what's called a simple unity, שייתכן שם בבחינת התכללות ואחדות בעשר ספירות. There you can speak of the ten ספירות as being separate things that are included and united.

Simple Unity and the Ten Sefirot 7:28

In other words, there you can say that you already see the the the ten ספירות, you see that the idea of ספירות, that they're separate things, that there's חכמה, and there's חסד, and you see God as being this greater being that has all of them.

So in other words, that you appreciate that God is not just חסד, He's not just חכמה, but He has all of them. Really, you have to appreciate that He's really something higher, which is יחיד. But at this level, you appreciate that God has every ability.

Now really, that doesn't define God, that's not good enough. You would say, "What is God?" God is a being that possesses all ten ספירות, and not only that, He really possesses infinite ספירות, every different ספירה that could be, every different power.

That's not good enough, cuz like then you could say, "Oh, so it's like this magic wand that has every different magic power or something," you know, that totally doesn't reach God.

But that's the best that like a philosopher could come up with if they're trying to define it. That's already what's מאיר ומתפשט. Once you're going outside the עצם, you're never going to really get the עצם, but that's the best type of a גילוי. That's the way it's revealed.

וגם הם נקראים עשר ספירות בלימה, and not only are these ten ספירות there included and all like become like put together like one thing, so you see that you really need all of them, and you they they that, but they're also called the ten ספירות בלימה, without a what, meaning without a מהות.

The Ten Sefirot Without Distinct Essence 9:14

You can't say what they are. They don't have a distinct entity or nature. כי הוא למעלה לגמרי מבחינת הכנה והשפעה למטה בגלוי עדיין, because they're that it's still before the preparation to give something, to reveal something below.

So for example, like in the משל of the חסד, when the person knows he wants to do a particular חסד, you know, he wants to give his friend a present, but he doesn't yet know at all what he's going to give him.

So you say, "Well, what are you going to do?" Says, "I want to do a nice thing." "Well, what do you want to do?" He says, "I don't know."

Or even if he says, "I want to buy him a present," you'll say, "Okay, well, what do you want to get him?" He says, "I don't know." "How are you going to get it?" "I don't know." So, he doesn't have a מה, he can't tell you what he's going to do.

So, similarly, at this level, the the and and really whenever we're speaking about the ספירות before they have כלים, but this is the highest level of that, before they have the כלים, you can't really say what is חסד and what is גבורה. They're, in a way, they're not It loses the distinction of the difference between them.

What's the difference between חסד and גבורה, really? So, even though you're saying that there's two different things, but they're not yet like in a חכם יודע or anything. רק שמוכן לצאת מההיולי בדבר פרט,

just that it is ready to come out from the essence to a particular thing. But it didn't yet come out in a particular way, so it can come out still in any way. כמו חפץ חסד ההיולי הנ״ל, like the חפץ חסד היולי that we explained before, כשבא לענין הרצון וחפץ חסד בהשתלשלות וכולי, the second stage is when the desire for kindness, which in the נמשל this is, like we said, the power to create, the power of creation, when God's desire to reveal Himself, express Himself as a Creator comes to the second stage, which is that God is actually going to make a creation, make a השתלשלות to reveal this thing of חסד, so there, there's already a recognition that there's going to be פרטים, and there's going to be separate things.

That's the whole idea of creation, is that it's something separate from Him. In other words, in the level of יחיד, we say that because we know what God is, we automatically know that He's also a Creator. Not that we can define Him as being a Creator, but He He obviously can also create. He's also a Creator. The next stage is that in order to appreciate that He's a Creator, we can also appreciate creation.

So, if God will show you everything He could create, the whole power the power of creation, that is a גילוי of that He's a Creator, but that already recognizes that there's something separate. He's showing you the power of creation and not that He the Creator.

So, that's the idea of אחד here, is that even before there's a any particular השתלשלות made, the idea that there can be a השתלשלות is already like a recognizes parts because it's already the way it's going to come out to a השתלשלות. But that's still included in the עצמות אין סוף because it's part of revealing that He's a Creator. It's not knowing the creations that He could make.