Why the All-Light God Needs No Lamp - R. Hanina's Parable of the Eye

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Beha'alotcha 7:2

Curated by Arthur·Translated by Maggid (Beta)·

Rabbi Hanina said: The eyes that are within you have both black and white within them; yet you do not see by way of the white, but only by way of the black. [And if your eyes, which have within them both black and white, and you see only by way of the black — then the Holy One, blessed be He, who is wholly light,] would He need light of your own?

Themes

LightAdam EveNoahHumorWit

Biblical References

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Baal HaSulam's Introduction to ZoharEin Sof Light Within a Partzuf and Five Soul LevelsLurianic Kabbalah offers one of the boldest maps of divine reality ever attempted in Jewish thought, and few passages lay out that map more carefully than Baal Introduction to Sulam CommentaryGulgalta, Ab, and Sag in Adam Kadmon's First PartzufimIntroduction to Sulam Commentary turns to Gulgalta, Ab, and Sag in Adam Kadmon's First Partzufim. In these first three partzufim of Adam Kadmon, something interIntroduction to Sulam CommentaryMaturity and Immaturity of the Sefirot ExplainedIt deals with the concepts of "maturity" and "immaturity" within the sefirot (the divine emanations), those divine emanations through which God manifests in theIntroduction to Sulam CommentaryAdam — Keter and the First HumansThe Kabbalah, Jewish mystical tradition, offers a breathtakingly intricate picture. One of the central concepts is that of the partzufim (a divine configurationIntroduction to Sulam CommentaryAtik and the First Humans of AnpinWhen we These partzufim are complex configurations of divine attributes, acting almost like spiritual blueprints for different levels of reality. Think of them Petichah LeChokhmat HaKabbalahKeter and the First Humans of AdamWithin Adam Kadmon, there are these partitions, these veils that filter the divine light. This is important because it's at this level that the ten sefirot, the