Da'at Tevunot Reader

Said the Soul - Certainly this thing needs to come to its properties, for I see that this knowledge includes many types of knowledge:

Said the Intellect - I need to suggest to you first a general and very fundamental proposition:

Said the Intellect - You need to know that everything that is or is maintained in existence - would not be or be maintained other than through the G-dly emanation which flows from Him may He be blessed, and according to the existence of the G-dly emanation so is the existence borne from it. And this matter was explained well by the great Rabbi the Rambam may his memory be blessed in his book the guide [to the perplexed], in section two in many chapters, and one of them, in chapter 10 of it.

And an example of this is the G-dly emanation of the stars, which we know that gave birth to all the matters of this lower world, and as they say may their memory be blessed, (Breishit Rabbah 10:6), "There is no blade of grass below that does not have a constellation in the heavens that strikes it and says grow"; and like he brought may his memory be blessed in his explanation. And indeed, these provide G-dly emanation according to the rule which has been made their nature by the Lord may He be blessed, and provided G-dly emanation of only that which they receive from Him may he be blessed; but the Lord may He be blessed He is the source of all G-dly emanation which emanates.

And he explained may his memory be blessed in chapter twelve about this, "...the source of living waters is G-d" which was mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah (17:13), and similarly (Psalms 36:10) "For with you is the source of life..." that was said by king David peace unto him, that meant to say the G-dly emanation of existence. And the generality of the matter is said may their memory be a blessing, as was explained to us the He is without a body, and He caused it that all is His action, it it said that the world from G-dly emanation of the creator is renewed, and that he provides G-dly emanation to it for all that is renewed in it, and similarly it is said that He provides G-dly emanation from his wisdom, see there:

And indeed you have heard already, that all the actions that the Master may He be blessed does with us - not one of them are from his matters may he be blessed, according to his straightforward essence, which is elevated above all blessing and praise, for He relative to himself is certainly exalted above all that is relevant to his creations. But all of them are matters that He may He be blessed innovated through His will and desire, and they are the types of G-dly emanation which he wanted and innovated to be a source of G-dly emanation and to go according to the order which he decreed in his wondrous wisdom, all things which are relevant to the existence of those whom he willed to exist.

And it emerges, that the reason and the reasoned are both like one innovated from His will may He be blessed; meaning, the types of G-dly emanation and its ways are the reason, and the creations are the reasoned. And indeed the Master may He be blessed innovated types and ways of G-dly emanation, according to the types of the existent beings whom he willed to be, for each individual type of G-dly emanation produces one type of existent beings.

And this is straightforward, for the G-dly emanation of Wisdom [chochmah] is one type of G-dly emanation and the G-dly emanation of Power [Gevurah] is a different type of G-dly emanation, and the G-dly emanation of Wealth is a different type of G-dly emanation, and so with regard to all of them.

Said the Soul - And couldn't the Holy One blessed is He create all of the existent beings with one G-dly emanation?

Said the Intellect - G-dly emanation - means to say, that which reaches from the Creator may He be blessed to his creations in order to do something with them. And we cannot differentiate it from the aspect of the actor, for we doe not know how the Holy One blessed is He acts; we cannot differentiate it other than from the aspect of the one acted upon. And when Power [Koach] and Strength [Gevurah] reaches from the Creator may He be blessed to the creation this G-dly emanation will be G-dly emanation of Strength, for it was the Heavenly will in this G-dly emanation- that the Strength be born from it; and when Wisdom [Chochma] reaches it - the G-dly emanation will be G-dly emanation of Wisdom, and this is straightforward:

Let us discuss their matter at hand, regarding the goodness and the negativity, we see the birth of good and the negative in the world, who do you think they emanate?

Said the Soul - Is it not something visible to the eyes? That which is good is a G-dly emanation of giving goodness, and that which is negative is an emanation of the negative:

Said the Intellect - Two things shall I say to you, One that the Holy One blessed is he does not emanate negativity G-d forbid, for his is the source of good, and from the source of good negativity does not emerge:

Said the Soul - If so, where does the negativity come from? For it says (Isaiah 45:7), "...makes peace and creates negativity...":

Said the Intellect - it is written "creates negativity" and not "does negative", for he created negativity into existence, for it he did not create it it would not exist, but he did not make it through positive action:

Said the Intellect - In the text it is written (Psalms 30:8) "G-d with your will you raised me up like a mighty mountain, when you hid Your face, I was afraid.", (Psalms 104:29), "When you turn your countenance they fear..."; and Moshe our teacher peace upon him already said (Deuteronomy 31:17) "...and hid my countenance from them and they will be for consumption..." And this, is because the good - the Holy One blessed is he literally makes it with his G-dly emanation of good, but the negativity is not other than the absence of his G-dly emanation and its nullification, whether minimal or substantial.

For the G-dly emanation of the good comes through every rectification which is needed for the good of the object of the G-dly emanation, and if the G-dly emanation were nullified and absent entirely - this would be nullification for the object of the G-dly emanation, complete nullification, but if the G-dly emanation is not completely nullified, but if some conditions of its completeness are nullified and absent - there will be a deficiency in the object of the G-dly emanation, but not complete nullification.

By way of example, the G-dly emanation of existence and life if it comes complete with all of the good preparations, then the object of the G-dly emanation will be alive and healthy; and if it were to be nullified completely - the object of this G-dly emanation would die. But if it were not completely nullified, but its preparations were absent and the conditions of its completion, this object of G-dly emanation would not die, but would be side and live a life of affliction, and this is straightforward.

And it comes out, that we cannot say that the good and the negative are two G-dly emanations, like you thought, rather they are consequences of the G-dly emanation or its absence in total or in part:

Said the Soul - This is one reason. and the second that you specified that you would tell me - what is it?

Said the intellect - When we look with precision at the existence of things, we find that negativity is not other than the loss of goodness itself. And were we to take all of the types of goodness that are in existence, and understand their boundaries, and all types of negativity and understood their boundaries as well, we would see that there is no existence to the negative ones other than deficits in those good ones themselves. Therefore it is not applicable her to say there are two G-dly emanations, rather the G-dly emanation and the absence and its nullification in total or in part as we explained.:

Said the Soul - And if so, this world which we see is certainly a composite, for it has good and negative, we would need to say that it was made in two ways, with G-dly emanation and through nullification of the G-dly emanation:

Said the Intellect - And is this an astonishing thing? This is straightforward, and one cannot differ, for all that is good - is born from His G-dly emanation, and all that is negative - is born from the absence of G-dly emanation and its nullification with certainty. And if we see goodness and negativity, we certainly know that these two were made by the Lord, He gave G-dly emanation and removed his G-dly emanation, and these two creations that we mentioned were created:

Said the Soul - But this I don't understand. When it was said that from the G-dly emanation creations were created this was good, but from the absence of G-dly emanation how can creations be created? Existence is not born through absence. And if so we can't escape from one of the two, either you need to say that the Holy One blessed is He created negativity through actual action, or that it was impossible for it to have creation or existence.

Said the Intellect - When we say that the Holy One blessed is He created this world, certainly we will first understand the general creation and afterwards the details, meaning, at first nature itself, and afterwards its personalities [the objects of creation]. And when the Master may He be blessed wanted to innovate nature with good and negativity, it is certain that G-dly emanation came from him to innovate the existence of the nature, and this is goodness; and this is the G-dly emanation itself - a portion of it was absent, that is, the preparation of good that was within it, and a condition of its completion was that the nature was made with the aspect of goodness.

And it is that the existence of this absence was that which innovated in nature the deficiencies in the existence of good, which is the generality of negativity. And this, that nature is certainly damaged by that which is not maintained by the G-dly emanation for it. And after innovating these two matters in general nature, then the personalities [objects of creation] were made in detail, some according to the matters of goodness according to the matters of negativity.

And indeed the existence of the personalities were also certainly made with G-dly emanation, for we already established the first foundation that there is nothing made except through G-dly emanation. And perhaps this G-dly emanation is the G-dly emanation which comes after the G-dly emanation which we mentioned, that innovated with general existence being and loss, and therefore has in its rules to take from the generality of nature for the purpose of making the personalities which are needed to compose them from the good and from the negative which has been innovated already:

And nevertheless you will see that I am not saying that the G-dly emanation was nullified entirely, for then all of the existent beings would certainly be nullified, and this is the absence that I said could not cause existence, but the matter is that it was only nullified in part, that it is its preparation and rectification that are nullified. And this is like the matter that reaches a person that becomes ill but does not die, so is the general existence of the nature which is damaged with the removal of some G-dly emanation, and not entirely, and negativity is innovated which is non other than damage to the existence of nature in its perfection.

And that which is set before us is eternally existent - that the Holy One blessed is he does not do other than goodness, and negativity is not made by Him, rather it is born from the absence of His G-dly emanation:

Said the Soul - In the end I understand the existence of negativity how it comes to be. Now we need to complete this matter, to understand all of its boundries:

Said the Intellect - Indeed it is necessary for you to know one great introduction, and it is, even though in His rule may He be blessed it was certainly preordained to do all of the actions, for nothing shall change in Him at any time, even so it shall not be called out that these things occurred through power, that need to emerge through action, for this is one of the mistakes that early believers of the world stumbled upon.

Indeed the generality is, that all that are in the matters of the Master may He be blessed that predate the creation of the world - it is impossible to grasp them at all, and there is no relevance there to any of the boundaries which are mentioned now, and not to mention power or action, which would obligate from this the presentation of the relationship that exists between the power and the action.

Indeed at the time that He wanted to create the world, He Himself innovated the existence of power and action, and He Himself made the world and all of its creations first through power an then through action, to innovate this existence of power and action. For with his first utterance to create the world the world was [extant] in power, and afterwards emerged through action and this was hinted to by our Rabbis may their memory be for a blessing (Rosh HaShanah 32a) "...Breishit was also an utterance...", and was different from the other utterances to be inclusive of the world in power, before it emerged to action.

And indeed when He innovated nature in power, then all the these matters which we mentioned in regard to G-dly emanation were made and afterwards all emerged into action as they were prepared in power, like we explained:

And I will tell you another deep matter in this item, and it is the generality of the existence of the world in all its time periods. For the root of all is that the Master may He be blessed desired and wanted to provide G-dly emanation from his goodness to the extant beings which he wanted to exist, and he innovated therefore the existence of illumination and G-dly emanation from Him may He be blessed, appropriate for the value of the existent beings that He wanted to exist.

Indeed that which the Master may He be blessed wanted with the G-dly emanation, was that the G-dly emanation be of holiness specifically from him, for He is the essence of holiness and its source, and the derivatives of this G-dly emanation are only matters of holiness, like it is now with the angels, that do to have any matter other than matters of complete holiness; because the intended purpose of the innovation of this G-dly emanation is not other than that it emanate from His holiness, may He be blessed, towards the extant beings, in order that they benefit from the radiance of His holiness, and not apart from that:

But since he willed the existence of this lowly world, he therefore also decreed that his G-dly emanation should be lowered in its level, to bear these things that are lowly and physical, for it is certainly reduction for it, for not for this purpose was it innovated. And it emerges, that that which we see that He now provides G-dly emanation for lowly and physical things, we know that this is a diminution and lowering for the G-dly emanation itself, that it needs to dress itself in these ways that are reductions with regard to it, for it to be the G-dly emanation of the Lord may He be blessed, the source of perfection and holiness.

But thus did it arise in thought before Him may He be blessed - to dress the G-dly emanation in these dark ways, until the proper time when it will be disrobed from all of these garments, and will remain in its clarity and essence of its nature, that the creation and all its matters not be other than holy unto HaShem:

And behold that all of the period of the service man the G-dly emanation is clothed in these garments, and at the end of the period of service - it will also be disrobed from these garments. And indeed great happenings and revolutions were placed by the Master may He be blessed to this for it to reach its purpose. And it emerges, that the root of the changing periods of the world is the manner of His G-dly emanation may He be blessed, for He progresses and changes His G-dly emanation from elevation to elevation, until it reaches the essence of its matter, that all that is innovated in that which exists will only be the Holy of Holies, as we explained:

The general rule is, the Master blessed is he innovated the G-dly emanation towards the existent such that the internality of the matter is not other than an extension of holiness from Him may He be blessed towards the existent; and he also innovated paths for G-dly emanation, that are lowly and lesser relative to the elevation of its holiness; and innovated in the G-dly emanation itself the nullification and damages to the organization that I mentioned.

And all of this is dependent on the matter of the revelation of the singularity that we mentioned above, that from the aspect of the hiding of His countenance are innovated all of these things through the rule of his G-dly emanation, and from the aspect of the revelation afterwards all of these coverings are removed from it. And we will speak regarding all this within with the help of heaven:

What we need in this place is to know that in the G-dly emanation itself innovated things were innovated by the heavenly decree, and these are fundamental to that which is subsequently extant in the world, for only after all these preparations was this lowly world made, built according to all of these matters, and composed of all of these things, to proceed from matter to matter according that which the heavenly will decreed upon it:

Said the Soul - In truth this introduction is fundamental, to know all the many preparations which exist for the needs of the existence of this world, that all of its attributes are not completed except after all of these preparations. Let us now complete our subject:

Said the Intellect - We already said that this negativity that was created, was not created except with the limitation wanted by the heavenly desire. And indeed even though the Master may He be blessed innovated the nullification to being, he did not innovate it other than to being without completeness. But to the being with completeness there will be no nullification, rather its sustenance will be eternal.

And you will see that therefore now there is nullification to the existence of the world, and in the future there is not be anymore. And this is not other than that now the creation is not complete, therefore He decreed upon it the nullification. But in the future will be innovated the renewed heavens and the renewed earth whose creations will be complete, and therefore they will not have nullification:

And we find, that the original G-dly emanation which caused the existence of general nature, and the nullification of its organization that caused the destruction of this nature, was not the G-dly emanation which will derive perfect things, like the heavens and the earth which will be renewed in the future, for they will not have nullification, like we explained, but rather it was G-dly emanation which di not have in its rule to derive things other than imperfect, therefore the rule was put in place for the them the nullification which is needed for the destructive elements in nature.

And the G-dly emanation that caused the existence of the beings of nature, is composed of both the good and the negative, it is G-dly emanation that differentiates the negative to themselves, so that will not nullify the existent, rather they are restricted through the power of the heavenly decree, and dependent through His word that they will not strengthen and nullify the existent, only to cause to exist in the measure and boundary needed for the purpose of these existent beings, and to be strengthened in another time period where greater strengthening is needed, and at other times to be diminished, everything properly in its time as was decreed by the heavenly will.

For now there are in the existent beings deficiencies and damages certainly, but not so sever that they would be nullified from being, and indeed there are in a measure that in the end will be strengthened, until they will be nullified, for all will be lost; and we find their existence is measured in a very precise measurement, as is known by the heavenly wisdom:

And you will see that the heavenly thought that innovated the first G-dly emanation which we mentioned, was intended to innovate the nullification, for therefore it was not created intrinsically perfected, rather in order that there be nullification and negativity in the world, as we already explained, not due to an in adequacy of ability or deficiency of power G-d forbid, And that which will be done in the final future in the renewed heavens and the earth that we mentioned, could have been made from the beginning, but were therefore made without perfection in order that nullification befall them.

But with the secondary G-dly emanation which was intended to give being to the existent creations, it was in truth the intention of the heavenly thought to save the being from nullification, and to distance it from them until a set time, as we explained, for therefore nullification was not nullified from the world, but limitations were placed on negativity and they were placed in the boundary that he wanted for the purpose of the attributes of the world, as we explained, until the time comes and he removes all negativity from existence, and all of the creations will remain complete and eternal:

And perhaps you will remember now that which I mentioned to you earlier, how the the foundations of all of haShem's interactions are through two characteristics - concealment of the countenance and illumination of the countenance, whose consequences are perfections and deficiencies, and a type of which is - good and the negative. And indeed the existence of negativity is only born out of the essence of concealment of the countenance, the purpose of His concealment may He be blessed; for when the heavenly will desired to create man a possessor of soul and body, according to the attributes which we see today in the soul and body - he equalized his characteristics to apprehend and activate always through these two characteristics, the character of concealment of the countenance and the character of illumination of the countenance, in order to affect with this and also with that not to hold back His hand, in order to maintain all of the attributes of man for the good, the weaknesses and the strengths, the worthy and the lowly, everything which is needed to maintain him according to the intended purpose for him.

Indeed, here you need one introduction, and it is that just because one is made deficient in perfection one may not say that it is actual negativity, because there can be deficiency, that even though it is not perfection and complete goodness is not negative. Can you not see, the angels are also certainly deficient, for they are not on a perfected purpose, for there is no perfected purpose other than to the Master may He be blessed, and amongst them they have several steps and levels, where the second level is lower than the first and more deficient than it, and even so they are not in sure great deficiency that there would be borne within them actual negativity, for there is not amongst them jealousy or hate, they have no inclination for evil within them, they have neither sleep nor weariness, and no illness or death.

But people are lower than angels and more deficient than them, and the deficiency within them is so strong within them that it is actually actually negative, for they have within them an evil inclination, they become sick and die. And animals have even more deficiency, for they have neither intellect or speech, and they are filthy and unclean. And there are demons and angels of destruction, and spirits of impurity which are actual evil, and they are the actual opposite of good and perfection, those that the heavenly Name blessed is He conceals from them a complete concealment, as per the reason in (Breishit Rabbah 3:6, Midrash Tanchuma Tazria 9, see there), "The Holy One blessed is He does not set his name aside upon evil".

And indeed the chain of deficiencies is what brings out negativity, for when this matter is extended, and deficiency is added to deficiency, in the end actual evil is born. And prior to when the Master may He be blessed innovated the existence of his divine interaction that was innovated for the needs of the existent beings, there was not matter of any deficiency at all, and when he innovated this existence, it comes out that he innovated the existence of one order though whose extension is born negativity, for since there is existence for deficiency - its end will be actual evil:

Indeed from the essential matters that HaShem innovated may He be blessed, is the matter of measurement and measure, for with His perfection there is no relevance to any measurement or measure, from there He wanted there to be a rule of gradation - he designed everything with measurement, and ordered all existent beings with gradations, this one under that, from the first amongst them until the last of them, and in every level he measured with its measurement, how much deficiency there should be within it and has much should remain within it of the Good and the Rectification. And according to the measurement measured, so are the consequences born from this level, and all of their laws and rules, everything according to the whole, each in its place:

And afterwards he returned and set his mind, as if that were possible, to the existence of beings that they would exist and not be nullified even if they are liable to nullification. And behold the righteous one grasped his path to rectification and not to distortion, and returned and illuminated his countenance upon the world that stood to be created. And were He to have illuminated it with great light, then from this the existent beings would have existed in their ultimate rectified form, which would be their eternal maintenance.

But indeed he did not act like this, rather caused to exist beings which are maintained, but not eternal. Indeed he already put in place a way for his interaction, may He be blessed, to cause the progression of all of his creation towards his honor to be perfected in his perfection, in order that a great multiplied and awesome light illuminate his world, whose consequence will be the eternal and perfect maintenance.

And just the opposite, this negativity that he created - will be removed from the world. And not only this, rather it will become known to all that exist that everything that he did in the earlier period was also for their good, is this not the matter (Isaiah 12:1) "...I thank you haShem for you were angry with me...", that the prophet Isaiah told us in his prophecy, and I already spoke of this above:

Said the soul - gather in summary that which you said at length up to here:

Said the intellect - this is the generalization - when the master may He be blessed willed to innovate the general existence of nature in Good and negative, that its personalities be a mixture of both, he caused to flow from him may He be blessed a heavenly flow which causes the existence of the good which is in His nature and is etched in this good nature. And he returned and caused an absence of completion in this heavenly flow with his turning away of his countenance of goodness in complete concealment and etched in nature all of the deficiencies. Afterwards he returned and caused a flow through the illumination of his countenance to cause the existence of extant beings - beings in nature that are combinations of good and negative in one combination:

And now I will explain to you the existence of man according to this matter of the presence of negativity that we have mentioned

Said the intellect - To begin I will inttroduct for you one introduction, needed for our subject:

Said the intellect - The existence of man is constructed on deep wisdom without limit. For the master may he be blessed created many and great creations, one higher than the next and yet more above them. Each is needed in their position, for nothing if purposeless; and it all stands on the fundemental corner which is that which the master, may he be blessed, wants from the service of man - that he rectify all the deficiencies in the creation and elevate himself in elevation after elevation, until he cleave to His holiness, may he be blessed.

And behold there are all the matters of the distance from him may he be blessed, and and of their consequences, and all the matters of of that which causes one to draw near to him and all their consequences, and allf them are deep and very awesome things, all all stand to progress through great revolutions to reach general perfection:

And indeed the Heavenly Will wanted that the hand of man reach to all these many matters - that all of these move through the movements and actions of man. Indeed these great established places [Chullin 56b] are like a timepiece whose gears engage one another, and one small gear moves larger and many ones - so is the connection of the master may he be blessed with all his creations in great connection, and all connected through man.

In order that he cause movement through his actions, and all fo the remaining movements come from him. And behold all of this is covered with the physical skin and flesh, such that only the region of the physical is apparent; but in truth hidden within great established places that The Holy One blessed is He created in hsi world for this purpose are all for his actions and service, for the elevation and addition to his holiness or to his descent and diminution G-d forbid, and all of his many situations.

And this is only through the Neshoma soulin all of its parts and roots which He included in its substance. and this is that which King David, peace upon him, said (Tehillim 40:6) "Many things have you my Lord G-d done for us, your wonders and thoughts...", and he said (Tehillim 139:14) "I praise you for the awesome wonders you have imbued in me, your actions are wonderous and my Nefesh soul knows this well" - for the body cannot grasp these many things like the Nefesh soul, because the matter is not evident in physicality rather in spirituality:

We know, then, with certainty, that even those qualities that we do discern in His acts – they are only things that have been innovated for us and our needs, according to our level, not of His level at all. And in generality, the qualities that He innovated for His acts, they are the sources of all that is done with His creations at all times. They are an set order of conduct toward the perfection of all creations, all matters on their level, one higher than the other, until even the highest among them is included in these qualities.

However, we can only discern this hierarchy through His acts alone. That is, when we marshal all that is activated by the Blessed One with His creations, and define everything as it truly is, and appraise all of these acts one against another, we find in them this arrangement whereby one act may be termed more honorable than another, and, therefore, it is called higher than the other. And we ascribe attributes to the Blessed One according to the acts that come from Him, and in accordance with the order of the acts, we ascribe order and value to the attributes.

And we find sages who understand the mechanisms of [divine] conduct, who decreed that certain qualities, and, consequently, the acts issuing from them, are connected with each other in many ways and many aspects. For although each quality is certainly an entity unto itself, the Blessed One wanted and made the generality of qualities to connect with each other, so that the perfection of one factor would require the assistance of the other, to the degree and extent necessary.

And there is deep wisdom regarding this connection, to know the connection of all matters of conduct, through the links of the chain that enter into one another.