Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah Reader

Thus we find that what had to be revealed was the underlying Likeness of Man. If so, we may say that what had to be revealed was Atzilut, and the intention of the successive degrees of concealment was to bring the light eventually to this level. But all that we are talking about now is contained in the parts of this radiant splendor that we have been discussing. These parts stand in a hierarchy one under the other, in accordance with the principle of the Line of Measurement, which is that the light of each successive level is less than that of the level above it.

The end goal of these lights is Atzilut. If so, we may say that the purpose of the different parts of this radiant splendor is to bring about Atzilut....which little by little becomes increasingly revealed... gradually, until it reaches the point that it comes into actual existence. Accordingly their various aspects follow a gradual order, one under another.

Accordingly, the inner light and encompassing light are initially far from one another, but they steadily come closer together, little by little... For we certainly see in these lights something that advances gradually, stage by stage, and this is the steadily increasing closeness of the inner light and the encompassing light. Since it is the end of this gradation that actually brings forth the root of the Likeness of Man, as discussed below, we may directly infer that in these lights Atzilut is successively revealed little by little.

...until they reach the mouth, where a Vessel is made. What we see is that the end of this gradual process is the formation of the Vessel, and the Vessel relates to the lower realms, as it goes on to say.

There the Likeness of Man is properly rooted... This signifies two things. The first is that the concept of the Vessel relates to the Likeness of Man, for the essence of the Likeness of Man is the existence of the body and the soul within it, and the true root of the concept of the body is the Vessel. And since the Vessel is the end level that we see in the lights of the Ear, Nose and Mouth, we know clearly that the lights of the Ear, Nose and Mouth lead gradually to the Likeness of Man based upon the body. The second thing signified here is that the lights of the Mouth are actually made to provide the root of the World of Nekudim (Openings 36-58). The gradation is seen even more clearly in the fact that even the lights of the Eyes themselves, as will be discussed later, follow in gradation after the Mouth. This indicates that Atzilut specifically is the Likeness of Man through the mystery of MaH and BaN, which is where the vessels are found in all their details. And the root of this lies in the lights of the Mouth, which is the overall Vessel prior to the detailed revelation of everything connected with it. This is surely the nature of gradation: first comes the overall whole, and afterwards the details. We may not make only one level out of what are actually two levels.

...and this is the aspect of MaH and BaN that is revealed afterwards. This is the end of the entire chain of development: the Likeness of Man in its place, in the mystery of MaH and BaN, as discussed above, and as will be discussed further below.

The connection between AV, SaG, MaH and BaN and their place of emergence from Adam Kadmon’s sensory organs

The passages through which the lights pass were chosen because of the way they are linked to the interior with the four Names that are arranged there, and they correspond to the different combinations in which the lights are interconnected. And the route by which the spirit travels through them is such that the place that it touches first is where it emerges.

Having discussed the radiant splendor that is revealed, we must now discuss the places from which the revelation comes forth.

The proposition has two parts. Part 1: The passages... This explains that there is a relationship between the passages and the lights that pass through them. Part 2:...and they correspond... This explains the nature of the relationship.

Part 1: The passages through which the lights pass... The way in which the inner light emerges through the apertures of the face is not merely haphazard as in the case of a blazing fire covered by a perforated vessel, through which the light of the fire emerges wherever there is a hole. Had this been the way the inner light emerged, it would have had two results, both of which we know not to be the case.

Firstly, since it is the same fire under all the holes, what emerges through each hole is also entirely uniform: the fire does not take on any new movements in order to exit via particular locations that might cause it to undergo some kind of change. Rather, the fire leaves wherever it finds a hole, and it passes through one hole in exactly the same way as it would leave through any other. Secondly, the fire standing covered under one hole passes out through that hole, while the fire standing under a different hole passes out there: the fire does not undergo any kind of change causing what is under one hole to go out via another.

Neither of these phenomena is found in the worlds of Vision, Hearing, Smell and Speech under discussion. In the first place, the light that is within is uniform, while that which emerges is not uniform, for it emerges in stages in several different ways. If it were the case that the light emerged purely haphazardly wherever it found an exit, the light emerging from the Ear would be no different from the light emerging from the Nose. Secondly, we do indeed find that the lights change places. For the lights of SaG emerge from the Ears, Nose and Mouth, while the lights of BaN emerge from a place that is higher than the Ears, Nose and Mouth, namely the Eyes. And the lights of MaH emerge from a place that is higher than all of these – namely, from the Forehead.

From all this it is quite evident that the way in which the light emerges is not merely haphazard. Rather, the passages were specially chosen to match their respective lights in each case. Each individual light must necessarily pass through its own particular passageway and not through any other, because of the special relationship that it has with it. Because of this relationship, the light undergoes a change when passing through the relevant passageway, for the emerging light is already subject to the influence of the aperture or “vessel” from which it comes forth.

If it were merely by accident that the light emerged from one aperture rather than any other, we could say that the light is not subject to the vessel – on the contrary, it would be free of all subjection. If that were the case, as long as the light is contained within the vessel, it could function within the constraints of the particular vessel in which it is contained. In that case, even though the light itself might be intrinsically unchanged, its action would change through being subject to the constraints of the vessel, as discussed earlier in connection with the Line and the Residue (see Opening 28).

However, on breaking through and passing out, it should lose that subjection and act like the soul outside the body. But having said that the light passes out through a given vessel because of the specific relationship it has with that vessel, we must infer that even after its emergence, the light remains subject to the vessel – because it would not have been able to pass out through a different vessel.

Even after passing out, this does not mean that it becomes free of all subjection to the vessel. On the contrary, the very nature of the vessel in question is to serve as a vessel of exit, as discussed earlier in connection with container vessels and exit vessels (see Opening 32, Part 1). This being the case, the light performs only the function of the vessel itself, and its functioning changes as if it were acting within the container vessel itself.

...were chosen because of the way they are linked to the interior with the four Names that are arranged there. This relationship between the emerging lights and the container vessels from which they emerge is not dependent upon the way things appear from the outside. On the contrary, this is precisely what is changed, for Ban and MaH are down below, yet they ascend higher than everything. Rather, the relationship derives from a bond forged inside, within the body.

Thus we see that the whole relationship between the emerging lights and the passages through which they pass is an internal relationship which is dependent upon the order in which the Names stand arranged within, inside the body. The passageways are connected with them in the same order in which they are afterwards revealed outside.

Part 2:...and they correspond to the different combinations in which the lights are interconnected. For even though we say that the Partzuf as a whole consists of ten Sefirot so that we may understand the governmental order that emerges from it, nevertheless we must examine many different details in the Sefirot, these being the totality of all the six hundred and thirteen lights contained in the Partzuf.

Moreover, the main thing is to understand the links whereby these lights are connected to one another and the way they meet so as to connect one end to the other, even though they are far apart from one another in the order in which they stand. This is bound up with the way the lights join up in various different combinations: one light combines with another causing the emergence of a new offspring.

This is how the different parts of the body are related one to another, so that if something happens to one part, it will be felt in the other even though the two parts in question may be very far from one another and other body parts stand between them. The intervening body parts will not feel it while those at separate ends do feel it.

The root of this matter is that the form of every Partzuf, both in general and in detail, depends upon the name MaH, as it is writen: “And the likeness of their faces was the face of a man (Adam)” (Ezekiel 1:10; the numerical value of the letters of ADaM = 45 = MaH). Now this name contains a specific number of powers, and it is these powers that divide up into various particulars, thus producing the limbs of the body with all their different properties.

In some cases the particular components of the power in question unfolded in stages, one after the other, in a gradual developmental sequence. In other cases, the components of the power in question were separated from one another, with one being placed in one location and another in a different location far away from the first. Afterwards, the circuit of the spirit that circulates around all the different parts was instituted, and everything reaches the overall form, which is based on the underlying secret of the “irrigation of the tree”, which is the secret of the name MaH (see Opening 29 Part 3).

Thus, when something happens to and is felt by one part of the Partzuf, it comes to the root, the name of MaH, and from there it immediately reaches the second part, which is likewise a component of the same power whose other component was affected in the first place.

It is the same in the case of man here below: the soul (neshamah) builds the body through one general power contained within it. This is the “Likeness of Man”, and this is the name MaH we have mentioned. For this must also exist in man here below in accordance with the secret of the “irrigation of the tree”. It is from this that the entire structure emerges, and this is what experiences all the feelings and sensations of the different parts of the body, and it is from this power that their interrelationship derives. It is the spirit (ruach) itself that is affected and activated in the place where it dwells.

The spirit is affected through one of the body parts according to the distinctive nature of that part, and this has an effect upon the second body part that is the natural partner of the first. When activated in one part, the overall form sends a current to the second part, which is also activated there in its place in the same way through the overall form that connects the two of them, while the intervening parts are not affected. (Thus “the eye muscles depend upon the understanding in the heart”, Avodah Zarah 28b.) For no other part will be affected in this way except one that is the natural partner of the first and structurally coupled with it.

This is comparable to the way water is affected according to the place where it is contained. The influence of the stars also proves this point, for the stars send their influences through the entire atmosphere yet their effects are felt only in the place prepared for them: there alone and nowhere else does the particular influence flash forth to act.

And the route by which the spirit travels through them is such that... In other words, this phenomenon has its own individual law whereby the spirit (ruach) circulates in this way....the place that it touches first is where it emerges. For these names circle around inside, within the body (of Adam Kadmon) in accordance with the laws instituted for them. The spirit finds the limbs that it comes to first and enters into these limbs and body parts, sending forth the radiation through the parts of the face that are related to those bodily limbs and organs.

This is what makes it possible to find that the lights of BaN emerged through the Eyes while the lights of SaG emerged through the Ears, Nose and Mouth. For the circuit of SaG is arranged in such a way that it first reaches the organs that are structurally coupled with the Ears, Nose and Mouth, and its radiations passed out from there immediately. The circuit of BaN, on the other hand, reaches the limbs that are structurally coupled with the Eyes, and the same applies to MaH in relation to the Forehead.

An objection could be raised on the basis of our earlier statement that the radiance of the fissures or apertures of the face derives from the fact that the entire soul is included in the face. How is this connected with the fact that it circulates in the body?

The explanation of this matter is as follows. Every action that the spirit brings about in the body must, as we have already said, be revealed in the face. Accordingly every action that this spirit performs in the body immediately produces a corresponding power in the face which stands ready to reveal it. Simultaneously with the performance of the action through the body, it rises up and is seen in the overall expression of the face. Yet this is still not the end of its circuit. For, as you already know, the face as a whole divides up into the various sensory apertures. Accordingly, every action of the spirit in the body has a corresponding power that starts in the face and ends in one of the apertures. The general form divided up its powers in such a way that every action performed by AV or SaG brought forth and revealed in the face certain corresponding powers in the Ears, others in the Nose and others in the Mouth. The same applies to SaG of SaG and BaN: it brought forth certain corresponding powers in the Eyes in the way explained above, whereby the general form divides up into the various specific powers contained in the body.

Thus we see that the powers corresponding to AV (i.e. AV of SaG) were placed below, while those of BaN were placed above (in the Eyes) and those of MaH higher still (in the Forehead). However, the parallel is not between the parts of the spirit and the parts of the body (e.g. between BaN and the Eyes) for they are not in the same category. Rather, it is between these parts of the body and those parts of the body.

If so, we must say that the limbs and organs where BaN circulates are those corresponding to the Eyes. Accordingly, when BaN reaches those limbs below, it immediately shines forth in the corresponding part of the face, and from there to the Eyes, and the same applies to all of them. In summary: The circulating spirit – the totality of AV, SaG, MaH and BaN – produces powers in the body. For example, the light of BaN produces the powers of the legs, and there is thus a link between BaN and the legs.

Everything that happens in the body is visible in the radiance of the face and produces a fissure, i.e. one of the senses. Thus the power in the leg eventually produces vision, and this is how BaN is connected with the Eyes.

Absorbed within the lights that break forth from the branches of Adam Kadmon is the root of the Vessel.

It is in Adam Kadmon that the connection of the Line with the Residue which it took as its vessel was brought about. Thus the light emerging by way of the senses is light that is already joined with the vessel, which is why it afterwards brings forth the vessel through the lights of the mouth. This alone is the light suitable for the construction of all the structures built out of it, and that which was necessary to build all the intended structures went forth and unfolded gradually in stages as necessary to serve the intended purpose of these structures.

Having discussed the light emerging from the apertures of the face and the locations from which the radiations go forth, we must now explain what has to be understood about the nature of the emerging light itself.

The proposition consists of two parts. Part 1: It is in Adam Kadmon that the connection... Mixed in with the light emerging from Adam Kadmon is the Vessel. Part 2: This alone... This explains why this must be so.

Part 1: It is in Adam Kadmon that the connection of the Line with the Residue... was brought about. All the different aspects of Adam Kadmon are the aspects that are necessary in order to join the Line and the Residue together, because these are the two foundations of the government of the world, as discussed earlier. The entire purpose is to bring about the return of evil to good. Evil is rooted in the governmental order that came about after the concealment (i.e. in the Residue) and the various laws which constitute this order. The Line has to assert itself against each of these laws and take control in order to bring it back to good.

Here in truth is the underlying secret of the soul and the body. All the different aspects of evil are rooted in the body, while the soul is placed in the body with the intention that it should gain control over each one of these different aspects and bring them back to good. This is accomplished through the unique power of the commandments (mitzvot), which the Supreme Will prepared for this purpose.

With careful consideration you will find that according to this, everything in creation exists only to come to the soul and the body, for it is precisely here that evil is turned back to good in actuality. Physical man is at the end of all existence – the end point and goal for which everything was brought into being in order to turn evil back to good – while Adam Kadmon is the head and start of all existence and thus the beginning of this goal.

All the different measures and aspects required to serve as the root of this goal were instituted in Adam Kadmon so that in the end they should function in actuality. All the lights emerging from Adam Kadmon always proceed in stages, one after the other, in accordance with the underlying secret of the soul and the body (i.e. as their roots) until the actual body and soul of man emerge below in their place, as will be discussed further in Part 2.

...which is why it afterwards brings forth the vessel through the lights of the mouth. This proves that aspects of the vessel are absorbed in the emerging light, for in the end we find that the vessel comes out of these emerging lights themselves. If the light were simple, it would have been impossible for the vessel to come from there. For, as you have already heard, the vessel and the light are two completely different categories, and it is impossible for one kind to emerge from a completely different kind.

For a cause cannot produce an effect with which it has no integral connection. Aspects of the vessel must certainly exist absorbed within the lights, except that this is not discernible in the higher levels up above. But the further it descends, the more it becomes successively revealed, until it is revealed completely.

And know that this is the secret of the letters mentioned in the Kabbalistic writings in connection with the lights of the Ears, Nose and Mouth, for wherever there are letters, they indicate the presence of some aspect of the vessel. It is just that in the lights of the Ear, the roots of the vessel are barely discernible except in the form of one letter (a Heh). In the Nose they are a little more revealed (as the letter Vav of the Heh, consisting of six Alephs), and in the Mouth even more so (in the form of another four Alephs). Finally, in the action brought about in the lights of the mouth (their emergence and return) the vessel is revealed completely.

Part 2: This alone is the light suitable for the construction of all the structures built out of it... The reason why it is logical that the emerging light should contain within it the category of the vessel is because the structures built out of it need to follow the dichotomy of the soul and the body, and if so, the light must necessarily derive from this category.

...and that which was necessary to build all the intended structures went forth... This resolves what appears to be a major problem, which is that things do not proceed in a perfect order. In a perfect order, all the Names should bring forth their lights equally. Yet we see that while all the branches of AV went forth (although they are concealed), out of SaG only three aspects of AV of SaG emerged and only the beginning of SaG of SaG, while afterwards MaH came forth in its entirety and so too did BaN.

The answer to this is that...This alone is the light… This means that each function depends on a particular combination of lights designed to produce precisely that function with its unique characteristics. This is connected with our discussion below of the purification of BaN. We cannot ask, “Why these combinations rather than any others?” For the Supreme Will knew that in order to bring forth existence in the necessary way, it was precisely these combinations of those roots that were required, no less and no more.

On the contrary, when it comes to combinations, things do not proceed in order. Rather, it is necessary to add more of one kind and less of another in order to produce exactly the desired combination with its unique properties. The intention here was to bring forth Atzilut in accordance with the underlying secret of the Likeness of Man. What was required in order to accomplish this were three aspects of AV (i.e. of AV of SaG), one aspect of SaG (i.e. one aspect of SaG of SaG, namely BaN of SaG of SaG), MaH in its entirety and BaN in its entirety.

Out of all of these together, the Likeness of Man emerges with its unique character. This would not have been the case had it emerged in accordance with the character of the lights that brought it forth, as they would have had to maintain the order between them. But since it goes according to the resultant compound and its unique intended character – i.e. not according to the intrinsic nature of the light itself but rather according to the needs of the intended structure that was to be built out of it – only what was required according to the nature of the desired structure went forth.

...and unfolded gradually in stages as necessary to serve the intended purpose of these structures. This means that since this light emerged in order to build these structures, it had to be sufficient for everything required for this. Accordingly it went from passage to passage, emerging in different ways as required in order to prepare the structures that were to be built in accordance with their intended purpose. The ultimate goal was to produce physical man here below, for this entire existence is for him.

You must understand how this gradual process develops and advances stage by stage in accordance with the dichotomy of body and soul, for it is quite evident that the body, being thick and coarse, can only be produced through concealment and a lack of light. Thus, as long as the lights were shining with great power, the root of the body was not discernible among them. This is why in AV, where the lights are very dominant, there is no mention of any letter, for no root of the vessel can be seen or discerned there. At first it is revealed, albeit slightly, in the Ear. More of it is revealed in the Nose and even more in the Mouth, until it is completely revealed.

You will also see that the powers of the soul (neshamah) consist of the Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah and Neshamah-of-the-Neshamah. AV is the Neshamah-of-the-Neshamah and the ultimate illumination, and accordingly, the root of the body is not revealed at all on that level. In the Ear, the Neshamah-of-the-Neshamah is concealed, and the body begins to be revealed. In the Nose, the Neshamah too is concealed, while the body is even more revealed. In the Mouth, the Ruach is also concealed, while the body is completely revealed. This is bound up with the teaching that the lights of the Mouth emerged only on the level of the Nefesh, as discussed in detail elsewhere (see Ginzey Ramchal p. 300).

...were successively being made... This indicates that Eyn Sof did not want to produce everything fully-formed from the very outset but rather, gradually, stage by stage, starting with the minimum perfection and advancing steadily towards ever-increasing perfection, until complete perfection reigns. Accordingly, what exists at the end is what existed at the outset, although it then lacked the perfection that was intended to come afterwards.

Part 2:...like the way in which a craftsman makes a vessel out of a piece of wood. This means that Eyn Sof did not want to act in accordance with His own intrinsic, limitless power, for He would then have produced complete perfection instantaneously. Rather, He acted like a craftsman who is only able to work gradually, in stages. He takes the lump of material in front of him and shapes it little by little. It undergoes many different changes of form, from one to another, until finally it ends up in its complete form.

At first it is a shapeless mass, but afterwards, when its form is completed, its beauty is then visible in its complete form. It starts off as a completely formless substance, then afterwards it steadily takes on more and more of a distinct form. Nevertheless, only when the form is complete is the beauty visible, but one who sees the shapeless mass at the outset or in its initial forms will merely see something faulty. However, in the end the true form will be seen in all its beauty, and it will then be evident that all this was necessary in order to come to that beauty.

Two things must be understood here. The first is that the World of Nekudim came into existence when the World of Atzilut first began to take shape, before it was complete. Atzilut was then like a vessel whose form was as yet incomplete. The second thing that must be understood is that the World of Nekudim is not to be identified with the World of Atzilut itself. Rather, it is what emerged while the form of Atzilut was still incomplete.

Thus the Zohar states: “When the Craftsman pounded with the iron hammer, it produced sparks on all sides, and the emerging sparks came out as flashes that lit up and were then immediately extinguished, and these are called the Primordial Worlds, and because of this they were destroyed and did not endure...” (Idra Zuta 292b).

Let me explain this: The other levels prior to the World of Nekudim (e.g. the worlds of Vision, Hearing and Smell of Adam Kadmon) can properly be called levels leading to the world of Atzilut, because they continue to possess the same quality they always had. When we examine this more closely we find it to be one quality which steadily approaches the Likeness of Man that typifies Atzilut, although it is still a little distant from it because the development is gradual.

However, we cannot call the World of Nekudim a “level”, because it is not something that endured. It existed, and then it was negated, and now, in its place, is the actual Atzilut. If so, Nekudim cannot be called a level leading to Atzilut, because if it were, it should have remained in existence. Otherwise we would be faced with a “leap”, because one level would be missing, while the supreme intention was to arrange all the lights in order, one under the other, and if there is no need for this level now, it was also unnecessary at the outset.

Rather, we should say that the Nekudim are not to be understood as a level on the scale leading to Atzilut. They are something different. The Nekudim correspond to the “flashes” and “sparks” mentioned by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Zohar II, 254b). As the craftsman pounds the metal, the flashes and sparks are what separates from the body of the metal under the impact of the blow that comes to shape and fix the vessel. Following this metaphor, Atzilut is where the Supreme Mind took the underlying mystery of the Likeness of Man in order to establish it on its foundation, and the Supreme Mind then picked out what had to be removed and discarded from there. And what was it that had to be removed? Evil.