Because of the above, the Holy One, blessed be He, will say to them: Although I manifest Myself to you in your forms, i.e., in vision and imagination, nevertheless, “to whom will you liken Me, that I should be equal?”45Isaiah 40:25. For before the Holy One, blessed be He, created an image in the world and before He fashioned a form, the Holy One, blessed be He, was singular in the world, without a form or image.
One who grasps Him above the level of Beria which corresponds to the sefira of Bina, above which He is beyond any likeness, is forbidden to compare Him to any form or image in the world, neither by the letter heh nor by the letter yod, or even to call Him by the holy name Havaya the four-letter name of God, or by any letter or dot.46Each of the five worlds corresponds to one of the five main sefirot. The world of Beria corresponds to the sefira of Bina, while the world of Atzilut corresponds to the sefira of Ḥokhma. As was explained in the previous sections, the world of Atzilut is divinity and beyond any kind of quantification. Accordingly, there is no possibility of even a subjective perception of a created being creating an image that pertains to Atzilut. There is simply no quantitative grasp of this level of reality. This is even more true with regards to the level beyond Atzilut, the world of Adam Kadmon, which corresponds to the sefira of Keter. This is the meaning of the verse: “For you did not see any image.” In other words, the verse “for you did not see any image” refers to those who merit grasping Him above the level of Beria which is Bina. For in the two sefirot, Keter and Ḥokhma, there is no form or image at all, meaning vessels and boundaries, as stated in section #18#, above. The vessels start from the sefira of Bina and downward, and therefore all the allusions in letters, dots, or holy names, are only from Bina downward, and even then, they are not in the place of the sefirot themselves but only exist with respect to the recipients, as stated earlier with regard to the sefira of Malkhut.