Part 3 · Chapter 13

God's Power to Limit and Include 0:02

כי הוא יתברך כל יכול because God can do anything, right, he's omnipotent, וכולל גם כן מכח המגביל he also has the power to limit. And if God is going to be able to limit, so he can do a really good job. And he can take even something that's infinite and bring it down and reveal it in an infinitely limited way, infinitesimal way.

להגביל ולכלול ברשימו אחת מכל אור העצמות וכולי. So he also has the power to limit and to include in a single impression, in a single point, all the light of the עצמות. כמו שמבואר במקום אחר באריכות. That's the main נמשל.

But like we said before that the משל of the קיצור, the משנה, is not a really a good משל for the רשימו. Doesn't really give across the point of how so now we're going to say explain based on the other משלים that in the נמשל it's really more limited than that. It's not just that God could make it real dense, but even more than that. אך הנה באמת אין זה דמיון אמיתי לבחינת רשימו הנשאר בחלל וריקן מכל פנים וכו'.

This משל, this comparison to the קיצור, is not the proper comparison for the רשימו that's left over in this empty place. כי הוא מורה שנסתלק משם הכל because the idea of the רשימו indicates that everything was removed, that doesn't mean that it was just made very condensed, it means that it's not there. ולא שנשאר איזה אור רק שהוא בקיצור וגבול and not that there was some light left, there's a little bit of a revelation, it's just very condensed, אלא רק בחינת רשימו בעלמא וכו' but only an impression meaning that the original thing was taken away, like a foot print, the foot's gone.

אם כן, הדמיון האמיתי הוא מרושם וציון קו קצר שעושין האומנין שכולל כל אריכות מעשה הבנין. So if so, the a better משל is like the little blueprint or the little notes that a craftsman makes for how to build the entire thing, that there there's no explanation. Like in the משנה there's explanation of the גמרא, here there's no explanation, it's just like some line. But from that really you can know how to build a whole thing.

Blueprint Analogy for Divine Imprint 1:42

ויותר מזה even more than this כמו אותיות הזכרון like a mnemonic כנ״ל that there it's completely hidden. וכך למעלה so too in Godliness כתיב זכר רב טובך העצמי וכו' that our world is only like a זכר, is only like a remembrance of God's abundant goodness. So it's only like a אותיות הזכרון וכאי גוונא and the like. In other words, the idea is that the רשימו means that God makes the world in a way that his light is completely hidden.

And there's no actual revelation of God, like that's why we don't see God. That's why person can I mean, naturally they don't they feel like they're seeing a physical world. They don't feel like they're seeing God because he completely removed In other words, he completely hid. It's not revealed, his revelation directly, but rather it's revealed just like a mnemonic and it's like a foreign thing or like a blueprint, that's like a foreign thing, but then from that it like hints at it.

So like when we see a table, the fact that it was created hints to us that there's a creator. But we don't see the creator, we see like a hint of it. וכאי גוונא ויותר בהעלם והסתלקות הוא כמשל הזורק אבן וכו' כנ״ל. Or even more so is like the משל of throwing a stone, that which is the main משל of the רשימו. וכך אמר בספר הבהיר like it says in ספר הבהיר, כמו זרקא וכו' like it was thrown.

Stone-Throwing Analogy for Divine Concealment 3:10

שבחינת הרשימו נשאר נבדל בריחוק מקום מעצמות האור וכו' because the רשימו is left that it seems like it's distant from the עצמות האור and that's like the our world that our world looks like it was thrown, that we don't see God's involvement so much. That this is not how it actually is, but the the fact that it looks to us that we are able to look at the world like it was just thrown like God just made it like a one-time thing, and now it's just going on its own.

Right? Like there was a big bang, and it sent everything flying, and now it's going. And in general the the physical world looks like it was thrown In other words, that it looks like it totally left the realm of Godliness and it's like a totally separate thing. So that whole thing of that looks like it's just like a natural system makes it look like it's independent. שהרי בחינת הרשימה הנשאר נבדל בריחוק מקום מעצמות האור וכו' ונקרא כח הנעלם ברשימו זו And power that's hidden within this רשימו is called בחינת העלם אור נבדל מהעלם עצמות האור דאין סוף It's called the concealment of the light which is separate from the essential concealment of the light of the אין סוף.

What does that mean? כמו כח נבדל הנעלם בזריקת אבן שבא מכח היד שכבר נעלם בעצמו וכו' Like when you throw a stone that there's a power of movement, there's a force that's hidden now within the stone, and you don't see the force being applied to the stone. You just see the effect of it on the stone, that it's moving.

And also in the person's arm that threw it, you don't see the implementation of his force. You just see his arm at rest. So it already went, was hidden again. His His movement was hidden in his arm and it's hidden in the stone.

Why does that to say נקרא כח הנעלם ברשימו זו בחינת העלם אור נבדל מהעלם עצמות? מה זה מהעלם עצמות? מהעלם עצמות האור because if there's the There's the way that it's hidden in the stone, there's the way it's hidden in the arm. In other words, that there's two things that it's hidden: there's it's hidden within the world, and then God's involvement, we don't see God revealing His power directly.

It looks like He's just sitting back and watching, and the world is just going on its own. The point is that the world just looks like it's going on its own, and we don't see like, unless there's, you know, miracles like that, we don't see like, so to speak, God's hand involved with the world. If you look, then, you know, but the the fact that the world can look like a separate thing that's just going in a system, that's the main thing of the צמצום, that God is hidden.

Looks like He's not involved. And that makes us feel like we're independent from God.

Planets Moving by Hidden Divine Power 5:40

וכדמיון כל גלגלים וכוכבי לכת, like all the orbits and stars, or the planets and the stars, just סובבים בכח התנועה אלוקית, that are moving from God's power of movement, הנעלם שבה בבחינת זריקה מהאור וכח אלוקי, which is hidden within them from God's power of throwing.

In other words, that God actually made them start moving. כי ט' כלים חיצוניות דמלכות דעשיה, the חיצוניות nine כלים of מלכות דעשיה, which they are what set moving the whole universe, but in general specifically the nine planets correspond to nine כלים. שנקרא זה כח הנבדל, once they're actually thrown, that is called בבחינת מלכות שבמלכות. In other words, the power of movement, the way it's still connected to מלכות, is the first nine ספירות of מלכות.

Like when you're holding something with your hand and moving it, that's the first מלכות, plain, plain מלכות, which is the first nine ספירות. When you throw it, and it becomes separate from your power, that's מלכות שבמלכות. So, when you look into things and you realize how really every moment God is controlling and moving the world and and the planets, so that is a revelation of, because all these levels are really existing, it's just a question of how what you're perceiving.

So, if a person would like investigate and realize that really every single moment the planets need to be moved by God, that would be the ט' ספירות of מלכות. When a person looks at it, though, as if they were just thrown on their own, and maybe God threw it, you know, once upon a time, but now, you know, Big Bang and then it's just going, that is מלכות שבמלכות.

Direct vs. Indirect Divine Influence 6:57

It looks like it was just set flying. So, that's like the idea of of a רשימו, that you don't see God's involvement directly, but the idea is that since He did it, you can look into it and find like a hint about Him, like graphology or something. הבא בערך ריחוק נבדל ולא כמו כתיבה באצבע או כח יד הפועל וכו' עדיין בנפלו, which מלכות שבמלכות is where it becomes far from you, and not like when you're writing or when you're moving something with your hand, where it's שזהו גילוי עצם הכח בקירוב, that when you're actually moving something directly with your hand, that's the revelation of your power in a way that's close, that you see the connection.

שנקרא בבחינת מלכות, that's just plain מלכות. כמו שמבואר במקום אחר באריכות, and there should probably be another parenthesis after that or the first parenthesis before כמו שמבואר should not be there.

ומשלים היותר קרובים לזה, and משלים that are even closer for this, the idea of the רשימו, הוא כמו הרמז, like a hint with a hand motion for a שכל. שהשכל בהעלם בתנועה הגשמית, like a peace sign, right? That the movement lifting those two fingers hints at a whole thing, but the שכל is completely hidden there. A person looks at that, they don't see intellect, they just see a movement.

Hint Analogy for Hidden Intellect 8:01

Right? The same thing, so we look and we just see a physical world. We don't see meaning. You say, "Yeah, that's because you don't understand the language, you don't understand what's going on. You don't understand what it's supposed to represent." So it's true that you're seeing a physical thing, you're seeing fingers, or you look in the נמשל, you're seeing the trees and the tables and everything in the sky.

Say, "Well, I don't see God." You say, "Yeah, that's because you don't understand how this is a symbol for what this represents." שזהו נקרא בבחינת הלבשה ותפיסה בדבר נבדל וכו', that is the idea that like it changes its מהות, so it changes like a משל that it's it's being represented by something that's and it's being it's מתלבש in something different, and it's being expressed by that. וכך כשהכותב שכל וחכמה בתנועת האצבע וכו' כנ"ל.

Same thing when you're writing, that there the intellect goes through the hand, and it's hidden, but then it comes out through being on paper. It's the same way that even though here it's just like a physical movement and and physical things, but it's like a language, that God is like writing, as He's writing His autobiography. And all the different changes that we see in the world are like the changes on the paper.

We That's the idea of how the revelation can come out from the רשימו again. That when you look and see the differences between everything, then it reveals it again. But initially it's just hidden as a physical movement, but really there's an intellect there. The רשימו is like the the written thing. Or right, or like the movement of the hand, that's that where the intellect is completely hidden.

And that's the idea, that if you look at the world, as long as you just take it at the simplest face value, and you just see it as like something separate, and you look at everything individually, and you see it as these individual objects that have no connection to anything else, and so then you don't see any meaning. But like we're explaining in the next chapter, When you start to look at the picture of how they all fit together, and then you see that there's like a language, that even though if you look at each letter on the paper, you won't be able to figure out any meaning, we'll talk about that next chapter.

Reality Appears Separate Yet Holds Hidden Light 10:12

כך למעלה בבחינת רשימו בבחינת דבר נבדל בערך, so too רשימו is the idea that reality seems like something that's separate from Godliness. And it I mean the way that we perceive reality of like, you know, a physical created world is something that is separate. The table as we know it is not God, it's a table.

That's the whole thing of עבודה זרה, the world that we know it we say what, that's not God, this is a world, right? And it's also God's involvement in it is hidden. So it's both God's being revealed through something that's both seems separate from Him, and it see and it's also like a change of a מהות, a change from like a spiritual thing to a physical thing, or not whatever, from a godly thing to an infinite thing to a physical limited thing.

שבו מלובש בהעלם מכללות אור העצמות וכו' וד"ל, but nevertheless, really the whole light of God is hidden within our world, and if we'll look into it, we'll be able to find it. And that's what we're going to try to do.