Eyn Sof: Without Limits

 

 

 

Let me prove to you that the way He acts in all that He does must be without limits. For in Eyn Sof by necessity there can be no change. To act at one time in one way and at another time in a different way would be a change. If so, Eyn Sof, blessed be He, does not act at one time in one way and at another time in a different way. We are forced to say that the way in which Eyn Sof acts is the same, and that the very act which comes to us within limits is executed by Him in His way, without limits, while we receive what relates to us. That there can be no difference in the way Eyn Sof acts is obvious, for we cannot in any way attribute bodily accidents to Eyn Sof, and change is certainly a bodily accident, which therefore cannot exist in Him. This is quite clear from the words of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who said: “He does not change in any place” (Zohar, Ki Tetze 281a. See also Zohar III, 257b, as discussed in Opening 29).

 

In sum, we have two things: (1) The results of Eyn Sof’s action; (2) His execution of that action. It is the results that reach us, and these are within limits. However, the way in which He executes the action is concealed from us, and this is without limits. The limited result of His work is the Residue. But the work has to be executed, and His execution of it is without limits, for it is performed by Eyn Sof, blessed be He, Who acts without limits. Thus we see that what is rooted in the Residue exists only through the Unlimited, but if the execution of the action had also been within limits, the Residue would have functioned by itself without need of the Unlimited.

(2) The Unlimited actually governs and orders the Residue directly at one and the same time as He executes His work in His aspect of limitlessness. For in this way He brings it about that even though the accomplished work follows a different path — the way of bounds and limits — even so, its entire destiny is laid down by Him and its government is under His control. To explain: The Unlimited has the unique property of possessing the ultimate perfection, and in His perfection He is entirely good, as we explained earlier when speaking about His unity. Before Him, there is no evil. It is only when His perfection is concealed that evil has any existence, but as soon as His perfection is revealed, evil does not exist anymore, as it says, “He will consume death forever” (Isaiah 25:8).

 

In order to reveal His unity in the clearest way, He concealed His perfection and instituted a way of imperfection in order to create and govern imperfect creatures. This is the Residue. For even if God’s creatures could attain the ultimate perfection, they still could not attain His perfection, for since they are created beings, they could never attain the level of the Creator. Indeed, inasmuch as this Residue came into being through the concealment of perfection, it has many deficiencies and imperfections rooted in it. The truth is that the intention of these deficiencies is thereby to make it possible for His creatures to exist on different, graded levels and to draw closer to perfection gradually, level by level. This would not be possible if there were no bounds and limits, for the Unlimited contains no levels, and accordingly He is perfect from the very outset.

 

However, this Residue could have come into being in two ways. Either it could have been subject to a single imperfect law governing imperfect creatures in such a way that they could never emerge from their imperfections. Alternatively, it could come into being subject to a single law such that the very deficiencies it contains will gradually be turned around until they attain the perfection that was concealed at the outset.

 

Let me illustrate this with an example. Reward and punishment indicate a lack of perfection, for in a state of complete perfection, everything must be good. With the concealment of perfection, the government hangs in the balance whether to confer goodness or the opposite, depending on men’s deeds in the lower world. This is rooted in the Residue, which contains everything connected with reward on the one hand and punishment on the other: everything is prepared and ready, waiting for the arousal from below — men’s initiatives in the lower world. But it could have been that things would go on this way forever, with the righteous receiving their reward and the wicked being punished. This would have been the case were it not for the fact that the Residue is governed by the Unlimited. However, since everything in the Residue is governed by the Unlimited, it must be that the pathways of the Residue go around until they reach perfection, not that they remain as they are. For this reason, there is a limit to the period of choice, reward and punishment: “The world will exist for six thousand years” (Sanhedrin 97a). The Residue is thus like a wheel that turns through just so many degrees until it completes the entire cycle, and at the very end there will be perfect rest.

 

Thus we see that it is Eyn Sof, blessed be He, Who acts in His intrinsic perfection on His plane of limitlessness. It is Eyn Sof Who executes even what is done within limits. And just as the execution of the action is carried out to perfection, so too the intention of the action is to bring everything to perfection. It is in order to accomplish this very purpose that the action is executed within limits and without perfection. And what is the benefit of this? That even though the intermediary is imperfect — for the work is deficient — nevertheless, the result is to bring everything to complete perfection at the end of all the cycles.

 

Part 3: Nevertheless, the Unlimited acts only in accordance with what is rooted in the Residue. Even though we have said that the source of the government is Eyn Sof, blessed be He, in His intrinsic perfection, nevertheless He has already decreed that this action should reach the lower realms and creatures only within the limited order constituted by the Residue. The goal is to attain perfection, and the truth is that the action itself is perfect, for all is good, as it says, “All that the Merciful One does is for good” (Berachot 60b) and “I will thank you, God, for you were angry with me” (Isaiah 12:1). But in the lower realms the perfection is concealed, and nothing reaches them except as permitted by the law of concealment. However, the law of concealment was brought about by His perfection, and thus it goes in one direction in such a way that it certainly comes to complete perfection, as discussed above.

 

This is like the soul that governs the body solely according to what the body is. This means two things. Firstly, the entry of the Unlimited to govern the Residue does not add any new power to the Residue but rather moves and arranges what was already rooted in it. This is like the soul in the body. The soul does not add anything new to the body but simply animates what is already naturally present in the body. Secondly, the presence of the Line of Eyn Sof in the Residue is itself the root of the soul in the body in this world, and accordingly what happens to them is parallel.

   

To be continued.