Part 1 · Chapter 15 Q and A

Opening question about today’s topic 0:02

Right, so the question is, the great question for today. Oh, so you want to know why am I talking about squirrels and trees and things, those are like עשיה, גשמיות things. And we're talking about this high spiritual level before even אצילות. And what does could possibly have to do with acorns and squirrels and trees and furry rabbits and all these kind of things, right? This is like cosmic energies of like the subconscious vibrations of supernal energies that vibrate in the inner core and essential quintessence of everything, something like that that nobody knows what it means.

First of all, no. No. Everything that we talk about in the השתלשלות is here in front of us. That's the point of learning the book, is that the עצמות אין סוף is here in front of us, that God Himself is sitting here with us and we're staring Him in the face and we don't know it. And not only that, that we're actually getting a full גילוי of the עצמות אין סוף לפני הצמצום.

And the question is: why don't we realize it? So it's explaining this whole process of what's going on, but at the end of the whole process, we want to see everything, and mainly the beginning, back here in where we are. That's what we want to see. The whole main point of learning this is to see: where is the עצמות אין סוף in my coffee?

Finding the Divine in Everyday Coffee 1:53

That's what we want. So I want to see, and this is what's called השגחה פרטית, is when you see the things in your coffee, not cosmic energies.

Now, that's the first thing. So, everything you can see right in front of you. Now this, that the that in general, like what like you're saying, the קו and the רשימו are things before the world was created, yeah, that's true. Right, because the ענין of the קו and the רשימו is not the particular example that I'm giving, but it doesn't mean that the example is not actually coming from that thing.

In other words, that like in order to have a language, if you're talking about like how languages work, so first you have to have like a concept, then you have like a symbolism, representation, you have letters, right?

So you say, "Well, but letters are this is this like idea that you have to come up with, a concept of letters, that exists before you get to like the ABCs, especially like ink on paper, the physical shapes." It's, yeah, you're right. There is the concept of a letter, and then this is, when it comes all the way down the השתלשלות, though, this א on my paper is a letter.

So the idea of the רשימו is God's ability to reveal a particular form. In other words, because God is כל יכול. Before the צמצום, we realize that God is כל יכול, He could do whatever He wants, and that means that He can assume any form He wants. He can be whatever He wants to be.

So if God wants to be a butterfly, then like He could be a butterfly. But before the צמצום, we realize that He is having a בחירה to do that, and so we So before the צמצום, you see the whole עצמות in whatever He chooses to be, and to Him, it's all the same. The רשימו is the idea that השם hides Himself and just reveals all the options as if they're something separate from Him.

Rashimo as God’s hidden‑and‑revealed power 3:50

So that's the idea of the רשימו before it comes to like any particular thing. But because everything is in the השתלשלות, from the רשימו down is coming from the רשימו, is coming through the רשימו, everything has a רשימו-ness to it.

There's a certain aspect of it which what is done to it by the רשימו, and that aspect, it says, is the source of the כלים, the source of the fact that it seems like a separate, limited, defined thing. So the idea of the רשימו is when we're able to look at something and see it as just as like a point, its own distinct entity, right?

So when I give you an example, I'm giving you an example when it comes all the way down into like עשיה or something, but that is actually the idea of the רשימו.

Five parables explaining the Rashimo 4:59

Also another thing is that when he goes through the משלים for the רשימו, he goes through five משלים. Only one of them is a משל for the רשימו.

The other four, explained, the הרש״ב explains in עתר, the other four are משלים for how the רשימו is revealed in אבי״ע. So in other words that there's like the way that that the רשימו is viewed in like עשיה, and there's a way the רשימו is viewed in יצירה.

The stone, throwing a stone, that's the משל for the רשימו. And the other four משלים of the משנה to the גמרא, the blueprint, the mnemonic, and the hand motion correspond to the way the רשימו is revealed in אבי״ע. But that משל is for the general ענין of the רשימו, where the other משלים are for the way the רשימו is revealed in each of those worlds. Because the general ענין of the רשימו is that it is the ענין that something looks like it's separate and distant from השם and that He is no longer involved in it, that maybe it came from Him, but now it is separate.

Right, the squirrel is not the רשימו part of it. The the fact that you see existence as being separate, the fact that you see anything as being separate and being distant from God, that is the רשימו of it, that it appears thrown.

The essential nature of reality is that is that you see is that it appears separate. You don't need a squirrel for that. A squirrel is just a a thing in it.

Right. So the רשימו is the גילוי of God's power of גבול, but as seen as separate from the power of בלי גבול. And so that is where you see things as seeming like they're thrown, like they're separate.

Teacher‑student analogy and memory letters 6:52

And the teacher teaching a student? That's a teacher's ability to make the information into like אותיות, as if it's separate from him, like as if the knowledge is going separate from his mind. Because really you can't, and this is like, you know, in different philosophies about the way ideas work, the ideas don't really exist outside of your mind.

But we make them like they do. And that's the idea of like אותיות. And this thing of being put into אותיות like that, that's it's, you know, it's like his memory. That's like the רשימו. You see, he has a power of memory where he's able to have ideas like letters stored in his brain without having to consciously think about them, as if it's just like its own existence that you can like file away.

But really you have to always be thinking about everything in order to keep it in your mind, but it's in a hidden way, so you don't see it. Otherwise you would really forget it. To make a צמצום to leave a רשימו is when you clear your mind, and you put everything just in your memory, and you leave your conscious mind blank, which is the idea of like a חלל ריקן and a מקום פנוי.

Now you have a מקום פנוי in your mind, and now you're able to bring up the אותיות in a way of a קו to bring out to the student.