שלהבות של אמונה י״טFlames of Faith 19
א׳
1THE SEPHIROS AND MAN’S PERSONALITY
ב׳
2Man has ten components to his personality. These ten parts appear in the soul piece of nefesh, reappear differently within ruach, and they assume another form within neshamah. Why ten parts? The physical universe was founded with ten spiritual elemental forces and man is a small universe. The spiritual sources for the physical world were miniaturized into the ten parts of human character. The initial primal powers are Godly lights called the ten Sephiros.341Tanya, Chapter 3.
ג׳
3There are many connotations to the term Sephirah. It shares a relation- ship with the word sefar, “border.” It also recalls the words sippur, “story,” and sefer, “book.” Lastly, in the Torah, the word sappir refers to a glittering, light filled, crystal, related to the English word “sapphire” (see Exod. 24:10).
ד׳
4God Himself is an infinite light. He is so overwhelming that He would incinerate any human or physical creature that would directly approach Him. God desired to create a material world populated with frail human creatures. He desired that meager men, despite their infirmities, would experience Divine essence in some measure. To enable such a world, God limited His light by placing borders on the emanations that He released out of His essence.
ה׳
5Imagine an individual who desires to appreciate the sun; can he look directly at a blazing midday sun? To look at such a bright light he must don a pair of thick, colored lenses. The sunglasses limit the light to a degree that makes it appreciable. The reduced light might still be too bright, so he might add more pairs of sunglasses to his nose.
ו׳
6God’s light342God does not have any light, for there is nothing physical to the Creator. Yet, the imagery of light is used to help convey lessons that relate to more abstract spiritual concepts.
It is important to warn the reader that in order to describe certain Kab-balistic notions such as the Sephiros… it is necessary to use metaphors to express abstract concepts, due to the limitations of human language. The reader should understand these descriptions as complex poetical symbols rather than focusing on the imagery as such (Foreword to Innerspace). was too bright, so He fashioned ten tinted lenses, each with a different color, to allow for the light to be appreciated. Examine the light out of the first window pane. It is the light of the first Sephirah. This glow is still too intense; hence the need for more window panes. God pulled out of the first light a more constricted radiance,343In earlier lessons, the limited lights were called universes (olamos). Now we are calling them Sephiros, yet both points are true. Limiting Divinity is the process of tzimtzum, “limitation,” and hishtalshlus, the world’s progressive evo-lution. The general view of this process reveals five worlds; if you look closer within those worlds you will discover the ten Sephiros. The Sephiros display, in greater detail, the same pattern as the universes. and out of the second a third, still lesser ray, emerged. In total, God set up ten barriers to limit His infinite light. These veils are the ten Sephiros, the limited lights of Divinity. The process of limiting His lights was repeated millions of times. It is called seder hishtalshlus, the orderly chain of progressive revelation. Each stage along the emanation chain contains the same ten steps. After each limitation the light became less Heavenly. Eventually out of lights that bordered on the physical a material world emerged. The ten Sephiros are represented in the ten primary colors,344According to Jewish mystics there are only ten primary colors; other colors are composites and shades of the ten. for God’s Light was limited with panels of different hues.
It is important to warn the reader that in order to describe certain Kab-balistic notions such as the Sephiros… it is necessary to use metaphors to express abstract concepts, due to the limitations of human language. The reader should understand these descriptions as complex poetical symbols rather than focusing on the imagery as such (Foreword to Innerspace). was too bright, so He fashioned ten tinted lenses, each with a different color, to allow for the light to be appreciated. Examine the light out of the first window pane. It is the light of the first Sephirah. This glow is still too intense; hence the need for more window panes. God pulled out of the first light a more constricted radiance,343In earlier lessons, the limited lights were called universes (olamos). Now we are calling them Sephiros, yet both points are true. Limiting Divinity is the process of tzimtzum, “limitation,” and hishtalshlus, the world’s progressive evo-lution. The general view of this process reveals five worlds; if you look closer within those worlds you will discover the ten Sephiros. The Sephiros display, in greater detail, the same pattern as the universes. and out of the second a third, still lesser ray, emerged. In total, God set up ten barriers to limit His infinite light. These veils are the ten Sephiros, the limited lights of Divinity. The process of limiting His lights was repeated millions of times. It is called seder hishtalshlus, the orderly chain of progressive revelation. Each stage along the emanation chain contains the same ten steps. After each limitation the light became less Heavenly. Eventually out of lights that bordered on the physical a material world emerged. The ten Sephiros are represented in the ten primary colors,344According to Jewish mystics there are only ten primary colors; other colors are composites and shades of the ten. for God’s Light was limited with panels of different hues.
ז׳
7The bordered lights enable the telling of the story of God. Absent these limitations, no words would be able to describe Him or instruct man as to the way to approach Him.345“It is through the Sephiros that God limits His infinite essence and manifests specific qualities that His creatures can grasp and relate to. As such, the Sephiros act variously as filters, garments, or vessels, for the light of Ain Sof (Endless Light) that fills them” (Innerspace pg. 40). Varying colors represent the idea that there are different paths to feeling Divinity. For instance, some reach God through acts of love to His creatures, while others experience the Divine through study of His Torah and feeling the harmony of His judicial laws. The different paths a man will choose are usually a reflection of his personality. Some individuals are very kind. Within their temperament the Divine force of kindness is paramount. Such individuals will experience God when giving charity. A woman who is very demanding, for whom the Divine force of restraint and self-control is the dominant strand in her character, might feel true spirituality when she meticulously observes every detail of Jewish law.346This idea is sometimes presented as the lesson of the structure of the first man. Adam was the first human, and as a result, all the future souls of mankind were incorporated in his soul and its parts. Some individuals are very generous. They attain a sense of Divine experience through giving charity. These souls were in the hands and fingers of Adam, that is why their innate nature is gen-erosity, and they reach God through charity. Other souls were in the heart of Adam. These are the singers of Israel, those who pray with extra devotion and reach God through the service of the heart, prayer (Rav Wolfson). See further Wellsprings of Faith pgs. 46-47, Shem Mi-Shmuel on Parashas Vaeschanan pg. 31 s.v. u-va-zeh yuvanu.
ח׳
8The Heavenly lights are themselves extension of God’s very essence.347See further Innerspace pg. 40, note 27. God is a source of illumination, and the sappir-concept indicates that the Sephiros glitter with Divine incandescence. In our world it would be inappropriate to call anything a Sephirah. A Sephirah is a Heavenly, Godly Light. Material items bear meek similarities to the Godly forces that are their source.
ט׳
9“The universe was created through ten statements.”348Ethics of the Fathers 5:1. This Mishnah is based on the ten appearances of the word Va-yomer, “and God said,” in the first chapter of the book of Genesis,349In truth, the Talmud teaches that there are nine commands of creation and the tenth was the first word of the Torah, Bereishis, “In the Beginning.” Perhaps this lesson teaches that the first “statement” was the creation of speech, while the other statements were expressions of speech. According to the Zohar, there is a different list of ten. The first statement is “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’” and the final statement is (Gen. 2:18) Va-yomer Hashem Elokim lo tov heyos ha-adam le-vaddo e’eseh lo eizer ke-negdo, “And God, the Lord, said ‘it is not good for man to be alone I will make for him a helpmate opposite him’” (Rav Wolfson). which are the ten Divine decrees that produced the world. What the Mishnah called ten statements, the mystics termed ten Sephiros. Human speech is a limitation of breath, the essence of human life.350The word for soul, neshamah, shares a relationship with the word neshi-mah, “breath,” for respiration is vitality. The ten Sephiros are the limitations of God’s essence; hence they are symbolically called ten statements.
י׳
10Items in the physical world display traces of their roots, the individual Sephirah they emerged from. Man is be-tzelem Elokim, in the image of the entire spiritual realm. Man resembles all of the spiritual roots, and he has within him traces of all ten statements (Sephiros).
י״א
11Within the name of man is the lesson of his ten components. The numeric value of the Hebrew word for man, Adam, adds up to 45, which recalls the name of God in its fullest form which also equals 45. The full gematria form was discussed earlier, where each letter is spelled out and then totaled. The full gematria of God’s primary name, Y-H-V-H is 45. The spelled out form of the name is ten letters. The ten letters represent the ten Sephiros. Man has innate traces of those ten forces. A life of righteous deeds leads man to become a merkavah, “chariot,” for revealed manifestations of all ten Heavenly forms of holiness.
י״ב
12Since man has all ten distinct forces he can choose how to react to a stimulus. If a lion appears before him and roars, man will decide whether to arouse the force of fear and flee, or to arouse the force of dominance and fight. Other creatures, since they only have one spiritual source, will always respond instinctually, in the mode of their spiritual root, to a given situation. A lion that is suddenly threatened will never respond with generosity and compassion. A lion will always fight when he is attacked. An attack dog will never respond to a threat by fleeing like a mouse. With only one root, they cannot choose what modality of behavior to employ.
י״ג
13Man might have within him traces of all ten Sephiros, yet he will probably have one force as the dominant part of his personality. The other forces lie dormant as latent parts of his persona. Some people are very tough and withdrawn. These individuals have, as their primary force, the attribute of restraint or fear. That is why they restrain themselves and engender fear in others. Usually, they will act in accordance with the characteristics of fear. For example, when faced with a perceived infraction they will get angry and cause others to withdraw. However, as humans, they have latent within them all the Divine forces including, for instance, Heavenly love. Sometimes they will summon forth love and treat the violator of the rule with tenderness. Other individuals are very intellectual because the forces of wisdom and understanding are the dominant motifs to their personality. Even the intellectual can arouse passionate feelings, for as a human he has traces of all ten forces, and he can call any of them forth.
י״ד
14The ten statements are a creative pattern that keeps repeating itself. Each universe has a different expression of all ten Sephiros, for to be a universe it must be an arena that has all of the primal forces.351The technical term for a complete array of forces is Shiur Komah, which literally means, “the full measure of height.” They appear in different forms in each world. In the world of beriah352See Lessons Eight through Twelve for discussions about the spiritual uni-verses and their corresponding soul parts. they appear in a virtually entirely spiritual form.353The Sephiros appeared in the realms of atzilus and Adam Kadmon as well. However, those levels are so exalted that Chasidim hardly speak about those concepts (Rav Wolfson). See further Innerspace pg. 41. In yetzirah they take on a slightly more corporeal form; they then progress to a more physical state in the world of asiyah, and out of these spiritual lights all the physical items in our world appeared. Even within each Sephirah in each universe there are component parts that correspond to the full array of ten Sephiros. Within each component part of each Sephirah there is another reflection of the full ten Sephiros, for this pattern appears a myriad of times within the world.
ט״ו
15Earlier lessons taught that the parts of the soul emerged from the different supernal universes. Each part of the soul has within it the full ten forces that animate its corresponding world. Neshamah has ten forces that resemble the ten Sephiros in beriah. Ruach has ten forces that share similarities with the Sephiros of yetzirah, and the ten forces of nefesh correspond to the ten Sephiros of asiyah.
ט״ז
16To describe the Sephiros themselves and to attempt to define them is not the goal of Chasidus. Kabbalah teaches how the Sephiros appear in different worlds. Chasidus seeks to use the Sephiros concept as a means to understand the nature of man.
י״ז
17Defining the Pattern: Three Sources, Seven Offspring
י״ח
18If you examine the creation account, the first three statements detail spiritual items that do not fully exist in our dimension of reality: “In the beginning,”354The words “and God said” are missing from this statement, because this creative power is the hidden root. With it, God created speech and the incipient forces that would later become material existence (Rav Wolfson). “Let there be light,” and, “Let there be a divider between [spiritual] waters above and the waters below on earth.”355The first statement created an initial existence, one which could not be fully verbalized. This does not exist fully in our world, where items are relatively completed. The second statement created a light that according to our sages was too holy for mere man so it was hidden away for the righteous in the World-to-Come. The third statement created a spiritual barrier that will never be touched by man. The fourth statement, “Let the waters gather and reveal the dry land,” and all the subsequent creative demands deal with the earthly realm. Evidently, in our dimension of reality, God appears through the seven lower Sephiros, and the first three lights are only fully realized in Heavenly worlds.356Later on it is taught that the deeper meaning of seven days of creation is that they refer to the seven lower Sephiros, or the seven revelations of God’s light that animate the seven days of the week—each day has a different revelation. The Temples that stood in Jerusalem and the mobile tabernacle the Jews constructed in the Desert were places that were filled with these seven Lights. That is why Betzalel, who constructed the tabernacle, knew the secrets of creation, because he had to bring down the same influences that fill the physical world (See further Innerspace pg. 57). This is also the meaning of the verse about Solomon’s temple, va-yivnehu sheva shanim, “And he built it seven years” (1 Kings 6:38). It does not say, “he built it for seven years,” rather “he built it seven years,” for the building was a manifestation of the seven emanations that are symbolized with the term, seven years. We mourn for the destruction of Temples of Jerusalem on the ninth of Av. During the subsequent seven weeks, on each Shabbos, we read a different prophecy of consolation. The seven prophecies of consolation correspond to the seven lower Sephiros. During each of those seven weeks, a different Sephirah light appears. Since the Temple was a display of the full seven, re-experiencing the seven Sephiros is a partial rebuilding of the Temple and a consolation for its loss (heard from the Stitchiner Rebbe).
י״ט
19Our dimension of reality has seven points that correspond to these seven Sephiros: south, north, east, west, above, below, and the point of reference, which is the inner point that all the directions surround. Our world bears traces of the seven lower Sephiros, which is why most physical items in our world have these seven directions and not eight or nine directions. According to the Talmud357Shabbos 115b-116a. the section of the Torah, Va- yehi Bi-nsoa, “And when the ark traveled” (Num. 10:35-36), is a separate book of the Torah. According to that classification, there are seven books to the Torah instead of five. Rabbi Tzadok Ha-Cohen of Lublin358See Pri Tzaddik to Parashas Devarim. explains that there are seven books in the Torah to correspond to the seven lower Sephiros. Each book of the Torah is a reflection of a different one of the Sephirah lights. The Torah is the means through which God is revealed in this world. Since our world, primarily, only accesses the seven lower Sephiros there are only seven books and not eight. At special times, forces and atmospheres from another realm enter our world, and then we too might taste a product of the first three Sephiros.
כ׳
20Within man, the Sephiros became two sets of forces. The first three are called mochin, “intellects,” and the lower seven are middos, “emotions,” or “behaviors.”
כ״א
21Lesson Twenty will further detail the meaning of the forces within man.