Direct Light and Returning Light, Part 2

 

The prophetic vision was so instituted because all ten Sefirot are a complete cycle of government emerging from Eyn Sof, blessed be He, and returning to Eyn Sof, blessed be He. Now if you count the levels from the concealment [Tzimtzum] onward, the first will be Keter and the second Chochmah, and so on until the end. But if you view the steps as leading to the ultimate future revelation after the entire cycle – for this is where the entire cycle leads – the first step after the concealment is the very first to approach the end and is thus the furthest away from it. Inasmuch as it is close to the head, it is called Keter, but because it is furthest from the end, it is called Malchut. So it is in the case of all of them. Thus the descent of the worlds under the government of the Sefirot one after the other turns out to be their ascent, as will be explained presently.

 

As it says: “I am first and I am last” (Isaiah 44:6). This refers to His encompassing everything above and below, to show that He is everything. And He is revealed as such at the beginning as at the end. What this means is that in order to understand the government of the worlds it is necessary to understand as follows: At first, there was complete perfection – “Everything was filled with the simple light of Eyn Sof” (Eitz Chayim, Igulim VeYosher 1:11:3). This perfection was concealed [through the first Tzimtzum or “contraction”]. Then the government of the worlds came into being [the Kav or “line”]. The end goal of the government is also complete perfection as at first [the complete revelation of His unity].

 

The closer any given level is to Him, the more it is magnified with His Name, and what was Malchut becomes Keter. This means that the ends turn about (from Malchut to Keter and from Keter to Malchut) and all the others change around in sequence (Yesod into Chochmah etc.).

 

 

The first kind of direct and returning light – in the government of the worlds, as we have been discussing until now – is constant. The second kind relates to how the lights are emanated within the causal chain (Hishtalshelut). No light is emanated except through the descent of the flash (He’arah) and its subsequent ascent from there [i.e. from the place to which it descended], for then the level in question remains there, as stated below.

 

In other words, the light descends with great power all the way down to the bottom. When a given light has to make one or several levels, it descends without deficiency or hindrance but rather with great power. It then ascends again, leaving behind what it leaves [i.e. a trace, reshimu, of its radiation, namely the level that remains there below]. This is because what descends is the actual light of Eyn Sof, blessed be He, for all the lights emerge from Him. Through their standing there in their place [after the ascent of this great light], the individual limited light suited to that level takes on its own existence. When the great light ascends to return to its Source, this part remains. This is what creates the bond connecting the lights themselves with their Source.

 

For every branch is rooted in its source, and not like its power below is its power at its root above. Do not think that the way a given power appears down below now is the same as its power above at source. When a power descends, its own essential root descends, for as yet the branch does not exist. After reaching the place of the branch, the root ascends, leaving the branch it produced in its place down below. The branch pursues its Source after the Source’s ascent.

 

Afterwards, as it ascends, it leaves down in its place below the level in question, while the light itself goes up. This is when it has to make levels: the light descends with power and then ascends. As the light ascends, so it leaves levels – the levels from which it ascends, leaving them behind. The given level then remains there, built in its place within the structure, and so in the case of all of them. For it is when the great power of the root activates the branch that the branch emerges. The branch emerges only in its proper place. The root power descends to the place of the branch, and from there ascends, leaving the branch formed there and built into the structure. The root light does the same thing [i.e. it leaves level after level] as it continues its ascent to the very end of all the levels.

To be continued, G-d willing

 

 

(Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum is the director of Azamra (http://www.azamra.org/). The 138 Openings of Wisdom is available for purchase online at http://www.azamra.org/Product_pages/openings.htm)