And one fascinating concept that emerges is the idea of Reshimu – the Residue.
We touched on this earlier, didn't we, when we were exploring Opening 27? But it’s worth diving in deeper, because it's truly mind-bending. The Reshimu – picture it as a category, a container. But not just any category. This one holds everything. Every single detail, every tiny piece that will eventually break off and become its own thing.
But here's where it gets really interesting. This massive, all-encompassing category is also described as a single “substance.” The Kalach Pitchei Chokhmah, a vital text of Kabbalah, presents it this way. Think of it: The Residue, the Reshimu, is the overall category of Tzimtzum – that pivotal moment of divine contraction that made space for creation. And it's also the very "stuff" from which all of creation emerges.
It’s like saying that the blueprint for an entire city is both the overarching plan and the concrete, the steel, the glass that make up each individual building. It's a single, unified “substance” precisely because it contains the totality of all the separate entities.
These entities? They're destined to divide and differentiate, each according to its own unique form. Imagine a prism, where white light enters and then splits into a rainbow of distinct colors. The Reshimu is that white light, holding the potential for all those individual colors within itself.
So, the Reshimu is both the One and the Many. It's the unified source from which all diversity springs. It’s a single “substance” that includes the totality of all individual entities that must divide into their various divisions, each one by itself, according to their appropriate form.
What does this mean for us? Perhaps it's a reminder that even in our fragmented world, there's a fundamental unity underlying everything. That we're all connected, all part of a single, vast cosmic substance. Even when we feel separate, divided, unique, we are still, in some fundamental way, part of that original Reshimu. Something to ponder, isn't it?