Part 3 · Chapter 14

Points, Lines, and Hidden Connections 0:02

That's the general answer is that points and a line are not... Rather from a bunch of points coming to being connected, when you connect a bunch of points, right? And that's the truth is that he says, he doesn't say from the points themselves, he says when you connect a bunch of points, then you get a line. You need something connects them with, yeah. אך הענין הוא כידוע שהנקודה הוא כמו בחינת ההיולי לגבי הקו, that the נקודה, the relationship of the רשימו to the קו is like the relationship of a היולי to the התפשטות.

So that even though it's true that we said like, you know, in a היולי, we said, "Is it there or is it not there?" Because in a way it seems like it's not there. Like you say, like in in a person's היולי is his talent for music, right? So you say, "Well, did did like, you know, Beethoven or Mozart or whatever, when they were like a little kid, did they have all their symphonies in there, in their talent of music?"

So on the one hand, you say, "Yeah, they must all be there because or else where did it come from? It came out from there." But on the other hand, you say, "Yeah, but if it was all there, so why couldn't they just write them all out?" Say, "Oh, cuz it was totally hidden and it was there in a way that it was like not really there at all, and that's why he had to do work to pit it, get to hit it out, to get it to come out, you know?"

Cuz not there in a way of like a מציאות at all. So the same thing with the קו and the נקודה and the רשימו, that even though it's all there, but it's totally hidden.

But the fact that it's totally hidden there, that's the point we're going to say, it's not that it can't come out from there, it's hidden there because it's the essence that's the source of everything. You know, like the ground. The reason that the ground won't grow without a seed is not because it can't grow, it's because it could grow anything. So it needs something to tell it what to do, which one to grow.

It needs to be מצמצם to one particular plant, cuz it's too infinite, right? Like the power of movement, the power of sight, and all these things, since it could come out in any way, it's not the reason that it's not coming out is not because it can't come out or because it doesn't have what to come out, it's because it's too infinite.

So the same thing, like if you just put a dot on a piece of paper, and you ask, "Okay, so what is this a picture of?

I'm not drawing the whole picture, I'm just drawing one point that's representing the whole picture, right?" Like I'm doing a caricature, you know, I like to do caricatures and just do the main defining details, right? So you just do this one dot, and you say, "Okay, there, that's my caricature. Guess who it is."

Say, "You can't. It's not enough, cuz you don't..." Because this point is still too infinite, you could use the same point as a picture for anything, depending where you put the other points. When you put the other points, then you can connect the dots and you see that it's this and it's that, and you can tell that it's a caricature, and you can fill in in your mind, you can connect the dots and make the lines and fill it all in and you get the picture, right?

That's the idea of caricatures, you don't need to draw everything. But the point itself is is infinite because it could use that same point for anything. לגבי הקו, right? So you take this one point, you could make it into any line and you can make the lines of any shape. וכמו כל בחינת היולי וחומר פשוט, like any היולי or any simple matter, שאף על פי שהוא בהעדר התפשטות, אף, even though it doesn't spread out, אין זה הכרחי כלל, it's not necessary that it can't spread out, רק מצד עצם מהות ההיולי, rather it's just this is the nature of a היולי, מפני שהוא למעלה עדיין מבחינת התפשטות, it's still higher than spreading out.

A Single Dot Can Form Any Line 2:53

So like let's say you have clay, and you're going to make stuff out of clay. Do you say, "So what is in the clay?" In a way, there's nothing there. But the fact there's nothing there is not because you can't make something out of it, it's because you can make anything out of it. But the thing is, this is, and this is in a way the point is, no pun intended, is that even once you make something out of it, the clay stays just clay, it doesn't really change.

Because it is the essence that it's made out of, it's the same, no matter what. The same thing, if you take the bricks and you build a building out of them, the bricks don't change cuz they're the basic essential unit. The shape that you put them in changed, but the bricks themselves are the same bricks, and you could take that same brick and use it for something else if you take it apart and put them back together a different way, right?

The same thing, if you take the letters and you make them into a book, the same letters can be rearranged in a different order and made into a different book, because the letters stay on the level of like the essential point. And therefore, they could really become anything still, cuz they're just points. Based on the order that you put them in, like the bricks, you put them in a certain order, it makes a house; put them in a different order, it makes a barn; put them in a different order, it makes a wall.

And the same thing, the words, if you may put in one order, it makes one book; put in another order, it makes a different book.

But the letters stay the same, but they're staying the same not because they can't express intellect, the fact you're not seeing any intellect there is not because they can't be used to express ideas, it's because they're the essential building block and you can use them to express any idea. And they always stay kind of like that essence, and then the fact that it's being revealed like this or like that is just from the order that they're put in.

Divine Essence Embedded in the רשימו 4:50

The same way, God put His whole עצם into the רשימו. So if you want to bring out just this little התפשטות from it, so you say, "What do you mean? God could do anything! How do we now that we know..." To bring out this one, this השתלשלות, you could bring out any השתלשלות. Because if you're talking about מצד the רשימו, it's all there.

But when He made a bunch of נקודות in a certain So then we start to connect the dots and it like draws out, you know, like in our mind, like we see it in a certain way, it reveals in a certain way. The points stay points, but then it like reveals this like the light is revealed and again is rereveals the light, but only within a certain within the dots, the the imaginary lines that connect the dots, and so it it only reveals a certain thing.

ולזאת לא ירד מעצמותה, and that's why, since it's still the essence, it doesn't go down from its essential state. וכמו היולי של חיות החי בגידולו בעודנו כולו בעצם, like the היולי of the lifeforce, like the consciousness of a living thing, the way it's still included in the essence, שאינה מתפשטת לחיות כולי, that it doesn't spread out to enliven, nor to be any consciousness. So the fact that your essential power of consciousness, the way it's in your soul, doesn't come out to seeing, or hearing, or any type of חיות, any type of lifeforce, it's not because it can't, it's because that's the essence, it's always there.

That you're just there, that you're just alive. That's always there, that's always the basic essence of it. וכיוצא בו כח התנועה בעצם טרם שנתפשטה לנוע, like the היולי of movement, the way it's in the essence before it spreads out to move. So the fact that it's not moving, it's not because you can't move, it's because you can move any way. Or ככח הצמיחה, like the power of growth, טרם שנתפשטה לצמוח, before it grows something.

Why a Seed Is Needed for Growth 6:34

So it's not that it can't grow. Say I want to grow an apple tree. So I'm going to go get me some dirt, and I'm going to grow me an apple tree. And he just gets dirt, and he waits, and waits, and nothing grows, not not anything, not not even weeds, just nothing, and he doesn't even get an apple tree. And he all disappointed, he doesn't know why.

He says, the other guy, he had his dirt and all his apple trees were growing. I took the same dirt from that same place. Yeah, because you need you have to have a seed. Say, why? Why do I need a seed, you know, if it can grow it? Because it's not going to know what to grow. So it's not that the dirt can't grow. You say, oh, so then I just need the seed, great, I'll take the seed, I don't need the dirt.

Say no, cuz the dirt's really what grows it, not the seed. The seed just tells it how to grow. וכוח השכל, or like the power of the intellect, טרם שנתפשט להשכיל, before it spreads out to intellectualize, to come up with ideas.

You know, he could understand anything. The fact that he didn't that he's not didn't come up with any ideas now is not because he can't, it's because he just not it's not coming out.

He's not bringing it out into a particular idea. Right, because he could bring in anything. I mean, you know, if he's a genius, or whatever according to his ability, he'll be able to bring out according to his ability. וכגונא רבים בדומה, so too, there are many other examples of this type of היולים.

Right? That any essence is like this. So like the music, or I mean dancing, or I mean anything, you know, any talent, any anything, it's all it's like that.

הרי יובן, it's understood, שהעדר התפשטות הזה, this lack of התפשטות, לא נקרא צמצום אמיתי, is not called a true צמצום, מצד עצמו, from itself. It's not that it's being held back. It's not that the ground, for example, is like trying not to grow anything, saying, no, I'm not going to grow.

No, it's not on the contrary. אדרבה, on the contrary, והוא כח היולי עצמי שממנו נמצא הכל במשך התפשטות, it is the essential היולי from which everything is found and spreads out. You know, the ground is saying, here, I'll grow anything, I'll grow everything. Just tell me what I'm ready, you know, whatever you want. Tell me, I'll do it. וכגונא יובן בבחינת נקודה לגבי קו, so too, the נקודה compared to the קו.

The whole כח העצמות is put in there, and it's ready to put out bring out any השתלשלות. God just has to pick which one to bring out, which is the idea of the קו. But it's not that it can't come out from the רשימו, even though in the רשימו it was totally hidden, it's true that it's totally hidden, but as soon as you put some more dots there, then it will reveal according to the way that you put the dots, it will reveal different things.

Right? According to the way the קו goes, that's the way it will reveal. שהעדר התפשטות הוא רק מצד יתר בחינת העצמי שלמעלה מבחינת התפשטות עדיין, the only reason that רשימו, the נקודה is not spreading out is because it's still the essence that's higher than spreading out.

It's the essence of everything that could ever come out from this line thing. וגם שבאה על ידי הצמצום הכל, even though that the נקודה is made from everything being contracted, עד שלא נשאר רק נקודה אחת כנ״ל, until it's only left like one point, and there's no revelation, אך זה עצמו מורה שכל בחינת העצמות כולו בה. The fact, very fact that it's a point shows that the whole essence is there.

Why? ולהיות כן, and therefore, בלתי מתפשטת למטה. And that's why it's not coming out to be revealed below, is because everything's there, and so it's not being revealed into one particular thing. Like the ground that can grow everything, and so therefore, it's not being revealed in any particular plant.

Yeah, well we're not talking about that kind of a point. We're talking about a point like this, like this משל he's about to give, וכמו משל התלמיד, like the משל of a תלמיד, of a student, לפני רבו, sitting before his teacher, דאידי דטריד למבלע, that when he's trying to absorb the teaching of the teacher, ונעשה כנקודה בצמצום כו', where he makes himself like a point, totally focusing his his whole being, לא פליט, he will not spit out, להשפיע וללמד, like, let's say, to teach to somebody else, בהתפשטות, spreading out.

The Focused Student as a Point 10:34

In other words, a good student, who's the one that can help you with your homework and he's going to be able to be a teacher and he'll be able to explain it to you later, if you'll come to him in class when he's listening to the teacher, he won't talk to you at all.

And you let's say you missed the last point, and you say, "Hey, what did the teacher just say?" He's going to say, "Not now, not now." Say, "Why not? If the whole thing is he wants to be able to teach it and understand it, why won't he do it?" Because right now he's trying to absorb it. And that's why he's a good student, because since when he's listening he's totally focused and listening, actually like some people say it's better not to take notes for this reason, that we should listen during class, and after class take notes, because if you're spending your time taking notes during class, then you're not listening fully.

You're not putting your whole self into listening, so you're not really absorbing it properly, because that's already spitting out. You know, a student can't be spitting out while he is absorbing, or else you're not going to absorb, because that shows that he's not putting his whole essence, he's not totally focusing on what the teacher is saying, right? And that's like the משל, like if you want to have your attention focused on one point, that means you can't be looking anywhere else, can't be thinking about anything else, can't be looking out the window, can't be thinking about playing baseball outside, you know, you have to be totally right there, totally focused like a point.

Somebody could say, "Oh look, he's being so mean, he doesn't want to teach anybody." You say, "No, because he wants to teach everybody, that's why he's doing it, to make himself like a point so that he'll be able to explain it afterwards."

Teacher Pauses to Internalize New Ideas 11:56

Or like even the teacher himself, like the משל the רבי gives, when he gets a new idea and he thinks about it, and so he stops teaching for a second to think about it, so he's going up to the idea and making himself like a point, and he's stopping to explain, but the reason he's doing it is so that he can bring it down afterwards to them, so that he'll he'll כאפ it and then he'll be able to explain it to them, because he wants to explain it to them.

So that's the משל the רבי gave. It isn't that the teacher's not really being מצמצם himself to hide from the students; the teacher is being מצמצם himself up to idea so that he can get it and bring it down to students, because he really wants to give to them. So he says the same thing, that the פריערדיקער רבי is like going up and in a way is being hidden from us, but that itself is a גילוי, because that shows you how much he cares and shows you that he he's thinking about the students, because he's going up and stopping to to get them this, so same thing, he's like going to bring down the גילוי of

משיח.