Part 5 · Chapter 11

Introducing the Fourth Level after צמצום 0:02

Now we finished explaining the נמשל for the three levels of יחיד, אחד, and קדמון. Now we are going to proceed and explain the next step in the השתלשלות, which this will be an introduction to what's going to be explained in the next chapter, and it will also show how everything that's going to come now after the צמצום connects back to these three levels, יחיד, אחד, קדמון, before the צמצום.

מדרגה הד׳, and the fourth level, הוא מה שאחר הצמצום הנ״ל נשאר בבחינת הרשימו, is how after this צמצום, this first צמצום, there is left an impression. So that רשימו, that impression of the original light, is the fourth level. ונמשך ממנו הקו, and from this רשימו comes the קו.

Why don't we count the צמצום as the fourth level? Because the צמצום is not really a level of the אור, of the revelation, that's a process that the אור undergoes.

Upper and Lower Purity Explained 1:15

So the next real stage in the light's revelation is the רשימו, that's revealed as just like an impression of the original light, and we'll explain what the רשימו is in the end of the next chapter.

ונמשך ממנו הקו, and from this רשימו comes the קו, which we'll explain after also, שהוא בכללות בבחינת טהירו תתאה,

which in general this is the טהירו תתאה, the lower purity. This רשימו is, and the beginning of the קו, is called the lower purity, as opposed to the light before the צמצום, which is called the upper purity.

בבחינת מקיף הכללי לכל ההשתלשלות דהקו כו׳, and this is the general מקיף that includes everything that's going to come out in the קו. And the idea is that טהירו means pure.

So טהירו עילאה is the upper purity, it's the revelation of God Himself to Himself, there's nothing else, there's just the revelation of God. טהירו תתאה is the revelation of God, but relating to like something separate.

So it's still only a revelation of Him, but it's already seen as like something separate. It's not that there's actually a מקבל yet even, that's later in the השתלשלות, but it's like, you know, there's the way טהירו עילאה, the upper purity, is like the way the light is included in the source of the light, and טהירו תתאה is already like the light came out, but it's still a total revelation of the source.

Then the light goes through all these different glasses and things and, you know, curtains and stuff, and then it already you can't see the original thing anymore.

So in other words, the טהירו תתאה is the מקיף of this whole השתלשלות. What does that mean? It means the real essence and the real point of everything in this השתלשלות is to reveal God. So the revelation of God in our השתלשלות is the טהירו תתאה.

The revelation the central revelation of God that encompasses all השתלשלויות and everything is the טהירו עילאה. שזהו הבא בבחינת השפעה למטה מן העצמות, this is already the light that comes out to go lower than the עצמות, to like be brought down to like a מקבל.

כמשל חיות מתפשט בגידים להחיות כולי, like an analogy of the the life force, the consciousness, that spreads into the body to to bring out the life in the body so that you should actually be to see and hear and everything, taste and smell and touch, וככח התנועה שמתפשטת להניע הנפעל בגלוי כולי, or like the power of movement that when it actually spreads out, so like יחיד, אחד, קדמון we said is the different levels in your essential ability to move, but then when you actually move, that is your essential power of movement coming out to be revealed in a particular thing, so that is already what we call like the lower purity.

שמשתנה ממהות רוחני למהות הגשמה כנ״ל, at that point it changes from being a spiritual thing, a spiritual essence, a spiritual nature, to being a physical thing.

like we said before. And for that, you need the צמצום, like we said at the end of chapter 10, פרק יו״ד, וכמו צמיחה גשמית מצמיחה רוחנית, or like physical growth of an actual plant from the spiritual power of growth, כך הוא ערך האור שלאחר הצמצום לגבי האור העצמי שלפני הצמצום. This is also the relation this is similarly the relationship between the light after the צמצום to the light before the צמצום, that it's like a complete qualitative quantum leap.

Qualitative Leap from Infinite to Finite Light 5:23

Changes in a total from being an infinite light to being a finite light, and from being a revelation of God Himself to being like like in a totally you know, infinite way, to now being the revelation of like a particular thing and just that you would see God through that. So, now it's like the revelation of the ten ספירות. ומשום זה הוצרך להיות ענין הצמצום הזה, and this is why there has to be this צמצום, רק בשביל שיוכל להיות הארת האור שבקו שבא בשביל מקום אבי״ע כידוע.

In order for the light to come out in a measured, finite way, which is the idea of the קו, that it's a finite, measured light, there has to be the צמצום first.

And then it can be the source for the worlds of אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה. אך עם כל זה, הרי כל פרטי עשר ספירות דאבי״ע, הכל כלולים מתחילה בעצמות אור אין סוף, בבחינת היולי ועצמי. And this is the main point that he wants to bring out here in bringing out the fourth level here is that that that even though there's this whole צמצום between the third level and the fourth level, between קדמון and the רשימו, nevertheless, all the details, the ten ספירות, in all the levels of השתלשלות, in אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה, all of those details were originally included in the עצמות אור אין סוף, in the היולי בעצמות אור אין סוף.

So, what's coming out now is what was already there. ואחר כך, על ידי הצמצום נשתנה לפי אופן מוגבל בהשפעה כללית דקו, בבחינת סדר. Then, through the צמצום, it gets changed to be instead of being this essential היולי power, it's now revealed as a general power that relates specifically to what's going to come out in the השתלשלות, and then it becomes more and more detailed as it goes in the השתלשלות.

והרי זו כדוגמת חיות הנפש הרוחנית, כשבא להחיות הגוף, this is like when a person's soul their their their soul's power of consciousness comes into the body, שכלולה ברוחניות מכל פרטי חיות הגשמיות, ראיה, שמיעה שבגוף הגשמי, כנ״ל. That before the soul came into the body, the soul already had the power of sight and the power to hear, and the power to smell, and touch, and all those different things, red and blue, and all different sensations that the soul experiences when it's in the body, those sensations really come from the soul.

It's just that when the soul comes into the body, it links certain things in the body to will trigger certain sensations. But it's in it's really something that's essential to the soul, not the body, because all of all perceptions are not really a physical thing. They're a they're a psychophysical, that's what they call them, and that means that it's the way that your your soul reacts to the certain stimulus from outside.

Yeah, that means that you already have all of the perceptions in your soul, and your body just triggers them, just brings it out. You know, like the משל they give with like the light with its stained glass, that it's really just holding back some of the light. That really, like, white light has all the colors in it, and then when you put it like through through different colored glasses, it just hides everything in the light except for that color.

Soul Analogy with Stained Glass Perception 9:09

So, if it goes through a blue glass, it hides the the red in the light, and it hides the yellow in the light, and just reveals the blue in the light. If it shines through a red glass, it hides the red and the yellow. So, that's the same way. The soul really, its perception of itself, its like self just essential self-awareness, already includes all of these perceptions of colors, and sounds, and all these things.

And then when it comes in the body, the body just like filters away and hides the different perceptions so that so the So the soul focuses on certain aspects of itself, which are the different perceptions. All your body does is triggers which צמצום should happen, but it's really all coming from itself.

So the same way, and this is the point that we should, seemingly why should this fourth level, why does it belong here? Here we're talking about levels of the revelation of the עצמות.

So why now we're saying that really after the צמצום is still revelation of God Himself? It's still part of the עצמות אין סוף. It's like the fourth level in the עצמות אין סוף.

Even though when you look at it from the השתלשלות's point of view, it's like something separate, but when you look at it from this point of view, and like we're going to explain the next chapter, that the צמצום is not כפשוטו, it's everything that's coming out after the צמצום is really a revelation of ממש what was before the צמצום. It's just a little in a little way, in a מצומצם way, but it's still ממש revelation of God.

The ענין of צמצום ורשימו איז ווייטער זאגן, and we will explain the idea of צמצום ורשימו soon in the next chapters. And this is why this level is in this chapter, because like we just explained, that what comes out, the רשימו that comes out after the צמצום, which includes all the details that's going to be after the צמצום in the השתלשלות, all of those details were included first, before the צמצום.

Fourth Level Still a Revelation of God 11:09

What the רשימו is is the letters of קדמון that relate to this השתלשלות without the light in them. So you don't see how it's a revelation of God, but you just see the letters that were estimated in קדמון. So this is the point, is to connect everything after the צמצום to before the צמצום, to see how everything is still a revelation of the עצמות אין סוף, of השם Himself.

The present that you give your friend for his birthday, you bought in the store, doesn't come from your היולי of kindness. The shoes and the coat don't come from the היולי of kindness, only the desire to give them comes from the kindness.

But in the משל of the consciousness in the body, the actual perceptions, the actual blue and red comes from your soul and it happens in your soul. That's the difference, because in that משל it's going up, it's not going down.

You're receiving, so it's going up to you, into yourself, not going out from yourself. So that's why that's a משל for how everything is ממש coming from before.