That’s kind of like trying to understand the highest realms of Kabbalah, especially the world of Atzilut.

Atzilut… It's a Hebrew word that means "Emanation," and in Kabbalistic thought, it's the highest of the four worlds, closest to the Divine. Baal HaSulam, in his “Preface to Zohar,” uses a fascinating analogy to help us wrap our heads around it – or, more accurately, to understand why we can’t fully grasp it.

He compares the world of Atzilut to the white space in a book. Think about it. The white space is essential; it provides the background, the context. Without it, the letters would just bleed into each other, a meaningless mess. But can you actually read the white space? No. You read the ink.

Baal HaSulam explains that Atzilut, which is the mystical meaning of Ḥokhma (Wisdom), is entirely Divinity. It’s so pure, so absolute, that it's beyond our comprehension. We simply have no way to grasp it directly. It’s the unwritten, the potential, the source from which everything else flows.

So, where do we find manifestation? In the lower sefirot – the divine attributes or emanations – of Bina (Understanding), Tiferet (Beauty), and Malkhut (Kingdom). These sefirot are associated with the three lower worlds of Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Action). These are the worlds that are progressively further from the Divine source, and closer to our experience.

These three worlds, according to Baal HaSulam, are the ink in the book of the heavens. The letters and combinations – the very fabric of reality as we perceive it – are manifested through them. It’s only through these lower realms, through this "ink," that the Divine light is revealed to us, the recipients.

Think of it this way: you can’t look directly at the sun. It’s too bright, too powerful. You need a filter, a lens, something to mediate the intensity. Similarly, we can't directly perceive the Divine in its purest form. We need the "ink" of Beria, Yetzira, and Asiya to make sense of it, to experience it in a way that our limited human consciousness can handle.

So, the next time you look at a book, remember Baal HaSulam’s analogy. Remember the vast, unwritten potential held within the white space, the world of Atzilut, a realm of pure Divinity that remains just beyond our grasp. And appreciate the “ink,” the manifested world around us, for it is through this ink that we catch glimpses of the Divine light, and begin to piece together the story of the heavens.