Part 3 · Chapter 29

Language Analogy for Divine Expression 0:03

In other words, it's like this, like let's say with a language. So, the language, once you set up the rules of grammar, and you set up the language, and this word means that, and this word means that. So now, as soon as you have a רצון to say a certain thing, which is like a light, it has to come out into certain words.

So if you want to say apple, you have to say apple. If that's the idea that you want to get across, the word apple that's the word for it. That's it.

But really, you're choosing also to besides that you're choosing what you want to say, you're also choosing really to set up the language in that way, and you can really change it.

It's not really In other words, once you choose the vessels, then they're set, and then they act kind of like a machine, and whatever you plug in the light, automatically comes out in the vessel. But it's really an illusion, because really, you have poetic license and you're choosing to maintain that all the time, just like by convention, kind of. And so it's kind of like what we were talking about the other I don't know when, way back, with like the idea of the laws, that even though there's this illusion of the laws being this set thing that's separate from you, and that it just kind of like filters through that automatically, but it's not really like a machine that it just goes through automatically.

You're choosing to uphold those laws all the time, and to interpret it in a certain way, by convention and whatever, and keep that like conservative consistency.

But really, you're choosing to do that. They don't control you, right. So in the same way, the vessels here do not make any sort of limitation or control on God, on the on the contrary, even though that once he chose to reveal himself in a certain way, so then it's like an automatic thing. If God wants to reveal חסד, so then it comes out in this like this.

And if God wants to reveal גבורה, it comes out like that. So you say, "Oh, so if God wants to reveal חסד, he gives me money. And if God wants to reveal גבורה, then he doesn't give me money."

That's Why? Because the light of חסד, when it goes into the the vessel of חסד, gets transformed into money, right? That's the way it works. So all God is doing is choosing the light, and the vessel automatically channels it into something that I can relate to physically, and that's set. That's the way it works. But then you have to recognize that the vessels also not set. In other words, if God wants to, he's deciding to make money a good thing, but money is not inherently a חסד.

It's only cuz he chose to make it the vessel for חסד. And so, besides that God is choosing the light of חסד, he's also choosing to make that vessel the money.

Vessels Can Switch Between חסד and גבורה 2:40

And if he wants to, he can make that into a גבורה vessel.

So you have to, you know, recognize that it's both, that God controls both halves of the thing, and both of them are in a way just as infinite, and they're both just from God's choice. And so, really, that's the thing of like the nature is really higher than the nature, and the higher than the nature is really nature.

That's like the idea, that you have to realize that the vessel is really just as infinite as the light, cuz even though it seems like a nature and like a set thing, but that's really coming by a choice of God also. And really, the light is just as much of like a nature and like a limitation as the vessel, that God chose to reveal himself in the idea as like being transcendent and being infinite, but that's also just as limited to him as the the vessels.

The vessel, like let's say, like the power of creating, or like money, or it depends how, you know, low vessel you want to talk about.

Like money is already like a vessel in בריאה, יצירה, and עשיה. That's already like a That's already like a לבוש for the real thing of the like the vessel of חסד is the power to to give like life and create. So money is just like a לבוש for that. So that's like a vessel in, you know, like עשיה, or יצירה.

I mean, like the concept of money is like יצירה, but the actual currency is like in עשיה. Because yeah, because like, you know, the actual You don't need to have like actual physical bills and coins, it's just a concept of like a currency. It's like a certain thing. Like the fact a person is wealthy is just kind of this It's not really like a real thing. It's just that people know that he has the money.

But it's not really like the actual money, like a lot of people like Bill Gates, for example. He doesn't really have the money. He owns a company, and he owns houses, and whatever. But he doesn't really like even the stuff in your bank, you don't have the money. It's just like, in theory, it's yours. So it's not really like a That's not really like the עשיה thing of it.

The עשיה thing is when you actually have something tangible. Cash, cold cash. Right, and even even that's only representing something. Right. Right, that's the כלי alone without it. That's part of the thing that he's explaining now.

That's connected to that idea. שזהו בא מכח מכח המדה, which this limitation comes from the כח המדה, מבחינת גבורה דאין סוף, from the power of גבורה of the אין סוף, בחינת כח המכווץ, the power to limit, to contract, שדומה לכח המתפשט, which is similar to the power to extend. In other words, that God's power to limit and the power to to extend are equal, they're both infinite.

God’s Equal Power to Limit and Expand 5:30

ובשניהם שקולין הן וכולי, they're both two, they're two equal, opposite sides. כי כל יכול יש בו כח המוגבל גם כן, because if God can do anything, then that includes also the ability to make any limitation. That's what it means: if you can you can do whatever you want, then you can be as infinite as you want or as limited as you want.

That's the whole thing, just like your hand. You say, well, you can you can use your hand to throw as hard as you want, that means you can throw it as hard as you want, but it also means you can throw it as soft as you want. It's a two-way street, you know? It's like a light switch: you can turn it on, you can turn it off.

If you have the power to turn it on, that automatically means you don't have to. Same thing when we say that God has the power of being infinite, that automatically means that he doesn't have to be infinite if he doesn't want to, or else it would be an essential limitation. We're not saying it's an essentially that God is this infinite being, we're saying that he has the power of infinity.

That means that he can also has the power of finity or finitude, whatever it is.

If God can't limit himself, then that means that he must have a bigger God that's telling him what to do. Who told him that he can't do that? You go tell him that he can't do it. If God wants to limit himself, you go tell him that, no, you can't do it, I'm sorry. You know what I mean? Who do you think you

People have a object to whether God can like ממש make himself limited and that's it, that's all he is. And like that's all he ever was, all he ever will be, like the thing of can God make a rock he can't lift, it's like that.

Problem with that, though, is then that you're already going out of השתלשלות. So the problem is that human intellect can't really understand that, because God is revealed in our השתלשלות through יחיד, אחד, קדמון. דווקא all three together do we see the עצמות אין סוף. That's the way God reveals himself in השתלשלות, that's the first צמצום. So anything that doesn't have יחיד, אחד, וקדמון together, we do not see as being God, it doesn't make sense to us really.

We know that like it must be so, but we can't talk about it because it's totally outside of our השתלשלות. But, nevertheless, it's true. That's it.

That's the truth, but we don't understand, it doesn't make sense to us. It's like totally out of our experience to talk about, but it's it's true.

So the answer is, yes, he could, and he could lift it anyway, and whatever, and it doesn't really it's not really something that makes sense to us, because it's not in our השתלשלות.

But that does not change the fact that we do not things do not have to make sense to us. כמו שנתבאר במקום אחר, as explained elsewhere, מבואר למעלה, we explained before, what is it, chapter 15 probably, or maybe even after that we explained it, שזה בבחינת רשימו. The power of limitation in the אין סוף is the רשימו, the רשימו is the revelation of that, שמשם הוא שורש הגבלת הכלים דעשר ספירות דאצילות, that the that the power of limitation in the ten ספירות is coming from the רשימו, which רשימו is God's ability to reveal himself as just something that's like separate from

Understanding the רשימו: Limitation Power 8:36

himself, ובבחינת that's something that's not connected to a בחירה anymore, it's just like is what it is, that's it, set. ובבחינת הקו, and from the קו, which is the God's revelation of God's ability to reveal himself through control of something separate from him, right, and there's the light before the צמצום is revealing God as being just himself, and so it's not like there's nothing separate, it's just him.

The רשימו is God's ability to reveal something that like it's like separate, and the קו is like intermediate between the two, it's like the ability to reveal the conscious control of God in something separate. So you see the two as being like connected. Like the light before the צמצום is revelation of that there's really only God and he can do whatever he wants and he's unlimited. The רשימו is God's ability to reveal something that's just like set and limited, and it appears like separate and it's not connected to choice anymore.

And the קו is the ability that like connects the two, that God has this infinite ability in control, but to do whatever he wants, and then he's, but then there's something else that's separate, limited, and God is controlling that separate, limited thing however he wants.

Like when your soul goes in your body, your body is just a separate, limited thing, but when your soul goes in your body, so it controls it. So then they become like connected.

שנמשך מן הרשימו, which comes from the רשימו, הוא שורש כל האורות וכולי. That's the source of all the lights. The lights are coming from the way that God is choosing to control the כלים וכולי, כמו שבמקום אחר באריכות, as explained elsewhere at length. ואם כן, if so, גם שבחינת הכלים דאצילות שמגבילים ממש בבחינת שמות דע״ב ס״ג, even though the vessels of אצילות actually limit the light, which is the idea of the names of ע״ב, ס״ג, מ״ה, ב״ן, הנקראים אותיות, which are called letters, in other words, that God reveals himself as like a certain type of wisdom, like the wisdom of the תורה, that's like a certain letters, like the תורה שבכתב, that's it, that's the תורה.

How Limitations Stem from Divine Choice 11:01

הרי אין זה רק מצד כח ההגבלה הזה. These limitations are coming from the power that makes it, in other words, that God chose that it should come out in this way.

מעצם תמציתו, which is from the עצם תמציתו, so that's also a revelation of his עצם, that he ממש chose that it should be this way. והיינו דאיהו וגרמוהי חד, and this is why we say that he and his organs are one, in other words, that the vessels are one with God also, מכח דאין סוף עצמו, because it's, they're coming from the כח דאין סוף itself, that God's כל יכול, and so he, and he chose this thing.

כמו דאיהו וחיוהי חד, just like he is one with his, the lights, because he chose it, בבחינת אורות וכולי. So since he chose the, the vessels, therefore he's one with them just like the lights. There's ממש no difference מצד the connection to the

עצם. Within our השתלשלות, that's the thing, צמצום is not כפשוטו, and so really God always has the infinite ability like before the צמצום, and just that he makes it look like it's a limited thing.

Or in a way you, or you can switch it around the other way, those limitations always exist, and the choice is just revealing certain ones of them.

So you could look at it the other way.

That's the עצם דאין סוף. That's the גילוי of the עצמות. But עצמות is already a limitation. God created עצמות. Yeah, why not? עצמות can't even be revealed, let alone let alone pick up a rock or not pick up a rock, whatever it is, you know what I mean? What's עצמות good for anyway, you know?

But it's not ממש, it's not ממש being revealed, because in order to have עצמות be revealed, it has to be it's אילו ידעתיו הייתיו. You'd have to ממש be it to know it.

So you can have like a גילוי coming out from it, but that's already like the אור המתפשט. But to ממש, you're not even getting the עצם דאין סוף. You're only getting the אור אין סוף. But the עצמות of it, you don't get.

That's that's already a חסידות thing. The fact that you can have it be revealed, and that you're it, and whatever, is not that doesn't really make sense. חקירה says you can't do that, but in חסידות, you know, says you can do that. But that's already because we're higher than עצמות, so we can reveal it.