Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah Reader

For every branch is rooted in its source, and its power below is not like its power at its root above. Do not think that the way a given power appears 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 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.

Sefirah and Partzuf: Government – overall and detailed.

There is a Sefirah and there is a Partzuf. A Sefirah is a power that is one power out of the ten overall powers. As one of these powers, the Sefirah is the foundation on which is built the entire structure of particulars dependent upon it. But the Partzuf shows in detail the complete perfection of each whole power, seen explicitly in the form of the fundamental Likeness of Man. Its root lies in the secret of 613, which constitutes the entire structure of Adam.

We will now discuss another fundamental that must be understood in relation to the Sefirot themselves.

Part 2: A Sefirah is a power that is one power out of the ten overall powers. When we speak about the laws of the government, the Ten Sefirot constitute all the basic types of laws. It is clear that since the entire government is also included in them and the details of the government are many, if so these are the ten types that include all the details. As one of these powers, the Sefirah is the foundation on which is built the entire structure of particulars dependent upon it. Everything relating to the government must be understood in terms of these two categories: either which Sefirah or which Partzuf it is?

As we have already discussed earlier, the Partzufim are nothing but arrays in which the powers extend, ordered along the lines of Kindness, Judgment and Mercy and their levels, in all their pathways, their laws of control and their mode of government.

The ten Sefirot are ten powers and no more, and they constitute the appropriate levels of Kindness, Judgment and Mercy as discussed by the early Kabbalistic sages, the Mekubalim (Sefer Yetzirah 1:3, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, Pardes, beginning). And these are the foundations of the entire government. But the detailed pathways of each one of these ten powers is what we call a Partzuf. There is no Partzuf without a Sefirah. This means that in order to understand matters relating to a Partzuf, it is first necessary to understand the Sefirah and to undertand its function among the other ten powers. After this, we will seek to understand its pathways in detail, and then we will understand it as a Partzuf.

You will therefore find no problem in the fact that Rabbi Moshe Cordovero of blessed memory interpreted the entire Zohar only in terms of the Sefirot, for it is certainly true, of course, that the entire government depends upon the Ten Sefirot. Except that in this aspect, we understand the government through them but not through their parts – we know in general what comes out of them.

And when we know the Partzuf, besides knowing from which Sefirah something in the world derives, we will also know from which part and which aspect or feature of that Sefirah it derives. Thus each Partzuf is initially a Sefirah: this is the foundation upon which that particular structure is built. More than that, it is a Partzuf. Thus the proposition continues:

But the Partzuf shows in detail the complete perfection of each whole power, seen explicitly in the form of the fundamental Likeness of Man. To be called a Partzuf, it is not enough that it is a particular. It is because this particular is ordered according to the fundamental Likeness of Man that it is called a Partzuf or “face”.

Its root lies in the secret of 613, which constitutes the entire structure of Adam. This is in respect of the way the array of parts extends. It is true that each Sefirah consists of ten, and there could have been any number of parts when the Sefirah divides up into its particulars. Nevertheless, in truth what the Supreme Thought calculated was 613, and this is what we see here below in the human form with its 248 bones and 365 sinews making a total of 613. So too the commandments of the Torah consist of 248 positive commandments and 365 prohibitions making a total of 613. For everything goes according to this measure.

The government of the worlds is implemented through the letters.

In order to produce an actual effect, all the supernal lights must enter into the category of letters. The letters constitute a complete order that exists to bring all things into actual being. This is the meaning of the verse: “...and through the word of God the heavens were made” (Psalms 33:6). For speech exists only in virtue of the letters of which it is made up.

Having explained what the Sefirot are, we now turn to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet with which they are associated, as discussed by the Kabbalistic sages.

The proposition consists of two parts: Part 1: In order to produce... This introduces the subject by explaining that the lights can operate only through the letters. Part 2: The letters constitute... This explains what the letters are.

Part 1: In order to produce an actual effect, all of the supernal lights... The entire purpose of the wisdom of the Kabbalah is to understand the particular root of each of the different phenomena we find in the world. Anything that can exist without being dependent on something else must have its own root.

To apply this to the subject of our present discussion: The lights are preparations on the level of thought for all the different created realms and beings and the entire governmental order through which they are run. However, for these to come into actual existence is a further stage, because thinking about something does not necessarily make it actually happen. If so, we need to identify a separate root through which they actually come into being.

The particular root involved here is the letters. Accordingly, in order for the supernal lights to produce an actual effect, they must enter into the category of letters. The letters consititute a single root produced through a separate radiation. Everything prepared in the Sefirot on the level of thought must enter this level and pass through this root in order to come into actual being.

Part 2: The letters constitute a complete order... Each root that we can identify as serving a particular purpose or function is ordered appropriately in its own unique way, and everything that has to pass through the root in question must enter into this unique order. Since the letters are the root through which what is conceived in thought is executed in actuality, when the thought is ready to be implemented, it requires the order of letters...which exists to bring all things into actual being.

The letters do not stand as part of the governmental order in the same way as the attributes and Sefirot, which define and shape it. Rather, the purpose of the letters is to put into actual effect the governmental order already prepared on the level of thought. The order of the letters is so arranged as to ensure the fulfillment of the executive function dependent upon it.

This is the meaning of the verse: “...and through the word of God the heavens were made” (Psalms 33:6). For initially there is the thought – Adam Kadmon – but this is concealed. The revelation of thought comes about through speech, which consists of letters. Whatever is concealed in thought must enter into the category of speech in order to be revealed.

However, the component parts and organizing principles of thought are by no means identical with those of speech, for a thought is in the mind, whereas in speech we express our thoughts in words and letters. In order to communicate what is in our minds, what is conceived in thought must be submitted to the rules of language and cast in the form of letters and words. The same applies in the upper worlds.

The first order is that of thought. Its revelation comes about through speech. What is conceived in the mind within the parameters of thought can come forth in speech only within the parameters of speech, namely through the letters.

For speech cannot exist without letters. The verse provides clear proof that all things come into being through the letters, for speech is made up of letters. The actual creation of the universe came about through speech. If so, the actual creation of the universe came about only through the letters, as will be discussed further below.

In total, the letters consist of twenty-two different kinds of orders or arrangements, no less and no more, in order to give the lights the power to act.

Having introduced the subject of the letters, we will now discuss their number.

...no less and no more... The reason why there are twenty-two is rooted in the first foundation, into which it is forbidden to inquire, as discussed earlier (Opening 15). For these are the levels required for the intended purpose …in order to give the lights the power to act… so that the lights prepared in the Sefirot can produce their requisite effects, as will be discussed further below.

The letters are different combinations of Kindness, Judgment and Mercy – lines and dots, signifying opening and closure.

The entire key to the organization of the various orders or arrangements constituted by the letters lies in the secret of Kindness, Judgment and Mercy – right, left and center – which join together in different combinations, varying in terms of closure and compression or opening and unfolding: the line and the dot.

Having explained that the letters are orders or arrangements, we will now explain the basis on which they are organized.

The entire key to the organization of the various orders or arrangements constituted by the letters... Each of the letters is a particular arrangement or order of lights based on a specific organizational law whereby the lights operate in union for one purpose: to ensure that the intended effect emerges in the proper way. It is necessary to understand the foundation on which this organizational law depends. It lies in the secret of Kindness, Judgment and Mercy. For every effect comes about as a result of the force produced by a particlar combination of the three fundamental qualities of Kindness, Judgment and Mercy. These join together in different combinations varying in terms of closure and opening, as discussed below. These three qualities correspond to right, left and center – namely the sides of the letters.

...which join together in different combinations, varying in terms of closure and compression... In this case the lights shine in a mode of concealment, radiating only as a source. …or opening and unfolding… In the latter case, the lights shine in such a way that the radiation spreads. Sometimes the closure or compression may be in the middle, while the opening may be on the right or the left, and so on.

Opening and closure are signified respectively by the line and the dot… these are the fundamental components of all the letters. The letter Yud is a dot, while the letter Vav is a line. For example the letter Aleph has closure on the right and the left (the two Yuds), and extension in the middle (the diagonal Vav).

The action of the letters is completed by the musical notes, vowel points and crowns.

NOTE In the Torah scroll, only the Hebrew letters (otiot) are written, in some cases with “crowns” (tagin) over them. The associated vowel signs (nekudot) and musical notes (taamim, the cantillation marks) although unwritten are also integral parts of the oral Torah tradition (the Masoret).The completeness and perfection of the letters depend on the musical notes, vowel points and crowns that are joined with them. All of them contribute, each in its own proper way, to the full and complete execution of the intended effect or action. However, the main action comes about through the letters.

Having explained the letters, we will now discuss the musical notes, vowel signs and crowns that are joined with them.

The completeness and perfection of the letters depend on the musical notes, vowel points and crowns...

Each thing has to be examined as an individual root in order to establish whether it is the main factor in itself or merely a component part that comes to complete the main factor, as discussed below. The main action is executed by the letters themselves, while their completion and perfection lies in the musical notes, vowel signs and crowns...

...that are joined with them. All of them contribute, each in its own proper way, to the full and complete execution of the intended effect or action. This is something we can see with our own eyes. As it is below, so it is above. Here below in this world, we see that the letters of the Torah are complete only when accompanied by their accompanying musical notes, vowel signs and crowns. So too above, the notes, vowel signs and crowns are bound up with the letters themselves and serve one and the same purpose.

However, the main action comes about through the letters. Similarly in this world, we see that the written letters alone are sufficient to give us an understanding of the text.

The musical notes, vowel signs, crowns and letters are governed by the order of the ten Sefirot included in the name of Havayah and its expansions.

The proposition has two parts: Part 1: All the various kinds... This explains that all the different orders fall under this overall order. Part 2: And this is the order... This explains how the musical notes, vowel signs, crowns and letters fall under this order.

Part 1: All the various kinds of functions found in the Sefirot are without exception governed by the order of the ten Sefirot… All the different categories we distinguish in the Sefirot apply to everything. Thus each Sefirah divides into ten Sefirot, for each Sefirah and every part of each Sefirah contains the entire order of government (except that in any given case the particular Sefirah in question has more influence). Accordingly, wherever we look, we will always immediately distinguish ten divisions corresponding to the ten Sefirot. Even when the lights need to divide in other ways in order to carry out their function, nevertheless everything must come under this tenfold division. Each of the different levels divides into its own individual levels, but overall they make up a total of ten levels.

...which is the order of the four letters of the Name, blessed be He. The four letters of the Name of Havayah, blessed be He, contain all the ten Sefirot according to their essential division into five Partzufim. Thus the cusp of the Yud is Arich Anpin (=Keter) while its main body is Abba (=Chochmah). The first Heh is Imma (=Binah), the Vav is Zeir Anpin (=Chessed-Gevurah-Tiferet-Netzach-Hod-Yesod), while the final Heh is Nukva (=Malchut).

Part 2: And this is the order that governs the musical notes, vowel signs, crowns and letters through the four letters... The musical notes, vowel signs, crowns and letters are all separate functions, each of which emerges from its own particular source. Yet all are governed by the overall order, which is that of the Name of Havayah, blessed be He....and the four names... namely AV, SaG, MaH and BaN, the four expansions of the Name, which also correspond to the four letters

...contained in each one of them. Each one of the four levels – the musical notes, vowel signs, crowns and letters – contains the four root letters of the Name and the four expansions of AV, SaG, MaH and BaN. Thus each of these four levels extends as a complete array of ten Sefirot, which are contained in the four letters and four names we have mentioned.

The lights execute their functions through the holy names which make up the Torah.

It is through the names that the lights come to execute their functions, and their sum total constitutes the Torah. It is therefore called the craftsman’s tool of the Holy One, blessed be He.

Having discussed the letters, we now turn to the holy names, which are made up of various letter combinations.

The proposition has two parts: Part 1: It is through the names... This introduces the subject of the divine names of which the Torah consists. Part 2: It is therefore called… This explains the executive function of the names, which are the “craftsman’s tool” of the Holy One, blessed be He.

Part 1: It is through the names that the lights come to execute their functions... For we see that the execution of all the different functions depends upon the holy names, of which there are many. All of the various names are understood as different combinations of interconnected lights (since each name is a unique combination of letters, and the letters are clusters of lights, as explained in Opening 20).

It is from these lights that the angels receive their power to act. At the root of the matter lies the fundamental idea set forth here: that it is the letters which bring the lights to execute their functions. The letters join together in various combinations, producing different names to execute the various functions. Each name possesses a unique power to execute a particular function, and it is through the different names that all the different functions are executed.

The Torah constitutes the sum total of all these names, as the sages said: “The whole Torah is made up of the names of the Holy One, blessed be He” (Zohar, Yitro 87a, and Ramban’s Commentary on the Torah, Introduction).

...and their sum total constitutes the Torah. In other words, the Torah is the sum total of all the different arrangements that were instituted in order to actually bring forth the various functions into the world. This is besides the Torah’s esoteric meaning, for the esoteric meaning of the words of the Torah is bound up with the mystery of the Sefirot, which are the very roots of the different functions. Thus it is through the Sefirot that we may understand the way in which the world is governed. However the actual execution of the different functions comes about through the letters. Thus, in addition to their esoteric significance, the various names and letter permutations possess this special power of execution.

Part 2: It is therefore called the craftsman’s tool of the Holy One, blessed be He. From the point of view of its esoteric meaning, the Torah is called “plans and registers... as used by a master builder to know how to make the rooms and how to make the openings...” (Bereishit Rabbah, beginning). In other words, the content and esoteric meanings of the words of the Torah explain the “why” of creation: its blueprint and reasons.

But besides this, the actual letters of the Torah are literally the craftsman’s tools with which the work is actually executed. This comes about through the different permutations of letters, as in the case of the various names, which can visibly be seen to bring about an immediate effect either through their very mention or when they are used in other ways (such as in writing in the form of amulets, or in meditation in the form of Yichudim).

Thus everything is contained in the Torah, including both the underlying thoughts and arrangement of creation, which are contained in the esoteric meanings of the words of the Torah, and the execution of these thoughts in actuality through the permutations of its Holy Names.

The proposition has three parts: Part 1: In bringing about the creation as a work outside of Himself... This tells us where the Tzimtzum took place – to what it applied. Part 2:...the Eyn Sof, blessed be He, willfully... This tells us what the Tzimtzum was. Part 3:...and adopted a path of limited action... This tells us how the Tzimtzum took place.

Part 1: In bringing about the creation as a work outside of Himself.... The Supreme Will, which is Eyn Sof, blessed be He, includes different kinds of powers having no end or limit. But we are not talking about His aspect of limitlessness, with which we have no connection. Rather, we are talking about that particular power among His innumerable powers that is the cause of us. The power that causes us is His power to bring about a work “outside” Himself – in the sense of creating and governing apparently separate, independent realms and beings. This He did in accordance with His quality of goodness, for the nature of goodness is to bestow goodness upon others. If so, we are talking only about His acts and works, not about His own intrinsic essence.

The truth of this is affirmed by the Tzimtzum itself. For the Tzimtzum took place only for the sake of the creation. If it had some other purpose, it would have had a different outcome. Since we see no other outcome of the Tzimtzum except the creation, which is its true outcome, we may say that the Tzimtzum was for the sake of the creation.

Further, His act of Tzimtzum prepared the way for the creation to come into being in a way suited to the nature of the created realms and beings, which exist within limits. If so, the Tzimtzum was for the sake of the creation. What is accomplished by all of Eyn Sof’s other powers – with the exception of the particular power that is the cause of the creation – is not for the sake of the creation. If so, the Tzimtzum took place only in that which is for the sake of the creation, namely in His power to bring about the creation as a work outside of Himself.

In other words, among His limitless powers there is one power – the law that goodness bestows goodness – which is the power to create realms and beings that exist as separate entities “outside” of Him. This is the power that is affected by the Tzimtzum, for initially this power was limitless, but He contracted it in order to create beings that exist within limits.

Correspondingly, in the vision, the Tzimtzum appears in one place, while all around it is Eyn Sof, blessed be He. In other words, His power to create creatures – one among all His other powers – appears in one place. All around it are all His other powers, endless and without limits. His aspect of limitlessness is removed from one place only, and this is what is subject to the contraction.

Part 2:...the Eyn Sof, blessed be He, willfully set aside His limitlessness... It is already clear to us that the Supreme Will in Himself is beyond all limits. Accordingly, we must not think that He created only what He was able to create and that he was unable to create any more than this. He is certainly capable of much more, but He did not want to do more. He acted not in His aspect of omnipotence and limitlessness, but with precisely the degree of power that He calculated to be perfectly suitable to accomplish the intended purpose of His action. Thus we see that even though in Himself He is without limits, He set aside His limitlessness in order to bring about the creation. Accordingly, we may say that the power that is the cause of creation already lacks the aspect of limitlessness, which has departed from it.

To say that He set aside His limitlessness implies firstly that the Sefirot are not something new that was not already included in Eyn Sof, blessed be He. Prior to the Tzimtzum, the Sefirot already existed on a plane of limitlessness, and this is what He set aside in the Tzimtzum. The second implication of saying that He set aside His limitlessness is that as long as the Sefirot were totally subsumed in Eyn Sof, we cannot say they existed in the same way as they do now.

We must say that they existed in some other way. For the difference between existence within limits and existence on the plane of limitlessness is not only one of quantity but also of quality. In their unlimited aspect, those same Sefirot had a different quality: they existed in a different way. If so, when they took on limits, they received a new quality.

This is the sense in which they were an innovation. Through being revealed within limits, they came into being in the way they exist now, and this is the innovation.

Proof of these two inferences is as follows: The concept of limitlessness implies that every power which can possibly exist in the world and which might afterwards be found within bounds and limits must also exist on the plane of limitlessness without any boundaries at all. Accordingly, we must think of the limited power that brought the created realms into existence as being subsumed within the unlimited, and there its limits disappear. We may conclude from this that the pathway of limitation is included within the unlimited without boundaries.

It could be objected that if the pathway of limitation exists on the level of the unlimited without limitations and boundaries, this cannot be said to be the pathway of limitation. This objection may be answered if we distinguish between the kind of concept that includes another concept in the sense of affirming or maintaining its existence, and a different kind of concept that includes or involves another concept only in the sense that it is its very opposite and its negation. An example of the latter is death. The idea of death has no meaning without life, which death brings to an end. Death thus includes life in the sense that it is the negation of life, not that it sustains life. This is not so in the case of life, which does not include death at all.

Similarly, limitlessness includes limitations and boundaries – in the sense that it is their very negation. This is the way in which the Sefirot exist in Eyn Sof, blessed be He. For the entire way in which He acts now – within boundaries and limitations – was already conceived on the plane of limitlessness as a hypothetical possibility that was, however, negated by His very limitlessness. If so, the finite existed in the infinite as a hypothetical possibility. When Eyn Sof wanted His intrinsic limitlessness not to touch this part, it came into being in the way that it exists now, within limits.

This is quite simple, for the pathway of limitation was conceived by Eyn Sof, except that at the level on which He conceived it, it was beyond limits and boundaries because His intrinsic limitlessness held sway and brought it back to His level, which is beyond limitations. However, when Eyn Sof, blessed be He, removed His limitlessness from it, it remained as He conceived it prior to the removal of His limitlessness, except that now it was an actual creation as opposed to a hypothetical possibility. Thus, prior to the Tzimtzum, the Sefirot were included in Eyn Sof – which is the first inference made above. However, on that level they existed not in the way they exist now but in a different way, which is the way of limitlessness. This is the second inference made above.