In this respect, the partzuf of Adam Kadmon is like a mere thin line in relation to Ein Sof, blessed be He, who fills all of reality. This is because the partzuf formed of skin encloses the light and limits it all the way around from without so that it cannot expand to fill all the space from which it was constricted, and only a thin line is left positioned in the middle of the space. The measure of light that was received in Adam Kadmon, which is the thin line, is called inner light.
The vast difference between the amount of inner light contained in Adam Kadmon and the amount of light that remains beyond Adam Kadmon, which is the remainder of the total amount of supernal light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, before the constriction, is called surrounding light. It remains a surrounding light around the partzuf of Adam Kadmon, since it cannot be enclothed within the partzuf.46Following the constriction and the fusion through collision, when the returning light enclothed the supernal light, the returning light does not have the capacity to enclothe and receive the supernal light in its totality.
It can absorb only the small amount that it is able to receive and subsequently transmit. This small amount that can be received in this way is referred to as the inner light. The remaining light that cannot be received by the vessels while they maintain the dynamic of receiving in order to give remains outside the vessels and is called surrounding light. Consider a pipe that is being fed water from a lake.
For the purposes of this analogy, the walls of the pipe are the “outside” of the aspect of “within to without” and the length of the pipe is the aspect of “above to below.” The pipe can receive only the amount of water that it is capable of channeling to another destination that will receive the water. The remaining water must wait outside the pipe, surrounding it, as the pipe is incapable of taking it in while simultaneously channeling it and would simply be overwhelmed by the sheer quantity.