1. There Is None Else Besides Him
2. Shechina [Divinity] in Exile
3. The Matter of Spiritual Attainment
4. What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work?
5. Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?
6. What Is Support in the Torah, in the Work?
7. What Is, “A Habit Becomes a Second Nature,” in the Work?
8. What Is the Difference between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra?
9. What Are Three Things that Broaden One’s Mind in the Work?
10. What Is “Run Away, My Beloved,” in the Work?
11. Joy with Trembling
12. The Essence of Man’s Work
13. A Pomegranate
14. What Is the Exaltedness of the Creator?
15. What Is Other Gods in the Work?
16. What Is the Day of the Lord and the Night of the Lord, in the Work?
17. What Does It Mean that the Sitra Achra Is Called “Malchut without a Crown”?
18. My Soul Shall Weep in Secret – 1
19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
20. Lishma [for Her sake]
21. When One Feels Oneself in a State of Ascent
22. Torah Lishma
23. You Who Love the Lord, Hate Evil
24. He Will Save Them from the Hand of the Wicked
25. Things that Come from the Heart
26. One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past
27. What Is “The Lord Is High and the Low Will See”? - 1
28. I Shall Not Die but Live
29. When Thoughts Come to a Person
30. The Most Important Is to Want Only to Bestow
31. Anyone Who Pleases the Spirit of the People
32. A Lot Is an Awakening from Above
33. The Lots on Yom Kippur and with Haman
34. The Advantage of a Land
35. Concerning the Vitality of Kedusha
36. What Are the Three Bodies in Man?
37. An Article for Purim
38. The Fear of God Is His Treasure
39. And They Sewed Fig Leaves
40. What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?
41. What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?
42. What Is the Acronym Elul (I am for My Beloved, and My Beloved Is for Me) in the Work?
43. Concerning Truth and Faith
44. Mind and Heart
45. Two Discernments in the Torah and in the Work
46. The Domination of Israel over the Klipot
47. In the Place Where You Find His Greatness
48. The Primary Basis
49. The Most Important Are the Mind and the Heart
50. Two States
51. If You Encounter This Villain
52. A Transgression Does Not Extinguish a Mitzva
53. The Matter of Limitation
54. The Purpose of the Work – 1
55. Haman from the Torah, from Where?
56. Torah Is Called Indication
57. Will Bring Him Closer to His Will
58. Joy Is a “Reflection” of Good Deeds
59. Concerning the Staff and the Serpent
60. A Mitzva that Comes through Transgression
61. Round About Him It Storms Mightily
62. Descends and Incites, Ascends and Complains
63. I Was Borrowed on, and I Repay
64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma
65. Concerning the Revealed and the Concealed
66. Concerning the Giving of the Torah – 1
67. Depart from Evil
68. Man's Connection to the Sefirot
69. First Will Be the Correction of the World
70. With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out
71. My Soul Shall Weep in Secret – 2
72. Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light
73. After the Tzimtzum
74. World, Year, Soul
75. There Is a Discernment of the Next World, and There Is a Discernment of This World
76. On All Your Offerings You Shall Offer Salt
77. One's Soul Shall Teach Him
78. The Torah, the Creator, and Israel Are One
79. Atzilut and BYA
80. Concerning Achor be Achor
81. Concerning Raising MAN
82. The Prayer that One Should Always Pray
83. Concerning the Right Vav and the Left Vav
84. What Is “He Drove the Man Out of the Garden of Eden so He Would Not Take from the Tree of Life”?
85. What Is the Fruit of a Citrus Tree, in the Work?
86. And They Built Arei Miskenot
87. Shabbat Shekalim
88. All the Work Is Only Where There Are Two Ways – 1
89. To Understand the Words of The Zohar
90. In The Zohar, Beresheet
91. Concerning the Replaceable
92. Explaining the Discernment of Luck
93. Concerning Fins and Scales
94. And You Shall Keep Your Souls
95. Concerning Removing the Foreskin
96. What Is Waste of Granary and Winery, in the Work?
97. Waste of Granary and Winery
98. Spirituality Is Called That Which Will Never Be Lost
99. He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous
100. The Written Torah and the Oral Torah – 1
101. A Commentary on the Psalm, “For the Winner over Roses”
102. And You Shall Take You the Fruit of a Citrus Tree
103. Whose Heart Makes Him Willing
104. And the Saboteur Was Sitting
105. A Bastard Wise Disciple Precedes a Commoner High Priest
106. What the Twelve Challahs on Shabbat Imply
107. Concerning the Two Angels
108. If You Leave Me One Day, I Will Leave You Two
109. Two Kinds of Meat
110. A Field that the Lord Has Blessed
111. Breath, Sound, and Speech
112. The Three Angels
113. The Eighteen Prayer
114. Prayer
115. Still, Vegetative, Animate, and Speaking
116. He Who Said, “Mitzvot Do Not Require Intention”
117. You Labored and Did Not Find, Do Not Believe
118. To Understand the Matter of the Knees Which Have Bowed to Baal
119. That Disciple Who Learned in Secret
120. The Reason for Not Eating Nuts on Rosh Hashanah
121. She Is Like Merchant-Ships
122. Understanding What Is Written in Shulchan Aruch
123. His Divorce and His Hand Come as One
124. A Shabbat of Beresheet and of the Six Thousand Years
125. He Who Delights the Shabbat
126. A Sage Comes to Town
127. The Difference between Core, Self, and Added Abundance
128. Dew Drips from that Galgalta to Zeir Anpin
129. The Shechina in the Dust
130. Tiberias of Our Sages, Good Is Your Sight
131. Who Comes to Purify
132. In the Sweat of Your Face Shall You Eat Bread – 1
133. The Lights of Shabbat
134. Wine that Causes Drunkenness
135. Clean and Righteous Do Not Kill
136. The Difference between the First Letters and the Last Letters
137. Zelophehad Was Gathering Wood
138. Concerning Fear that Sometimes Comes Upon a Person
139. The Difference between the Six Workdays and Shabbat
140. How I Love Your Torah
141. The Holiday of Passover
142. The Essence of the War
143. Only Good to Israel
144. There Is a Certain People
145. What Is He Will Give Wisdom Specifically to the Wise
146. A Commentary on The Zohar
147. The Work of Reception and Bestowal
148. The Scrutiny of Bitter and Sweet, True and False
149. Why We Need to Extend Hochma
150. Sing unto the Lord, for He Has Done Pride
151. And Israel Saw the Egyptians
152. For Bribe Blinds the Eyes of the Wise
153. A Thought Is a Result of the Desire
154. There Cannot Be an Empty Space in the World
155. The Cleanness of the Body
156. Lest He Took from the Tree of Life
157. I Am Asleep but My Heart Is Awake
158. The Reason for Not Eating at Each Other's Home on Passover
159. And It Came to Pass in the Course of Those Many Days
160. The Reason for Concealing the Matzot
161. Concerning the Giving of the Torah – 2
162. Concerning the Hazak We Say After Completing the Series
163. What the Authors of The Zohar Said
164. There Is a Difference between Corporeality and Spirituality
165. An Explanation to Elisha's Request of Elijah
166. Two Discernments in Attainment
167. The Reason Why It Is Called Shabbat Teshuva
168. The Customs of Israel
169. Concerning a Complete Righteous
170. You Shall Not Have in Your Pocket a Big Stone
171. In The Zohar, Emor – 1
172. The Matter of Preventions and Delays
173. Why We Say LeChaim
174. Concealment
175. And If the Way Be Too Far for You
176. When Drinking Brandy after the Havdala
177. Atonements
178. Three Partners in Man
179. Three Lines
180. In The Zohar, Emor – 2
181. Honor
182. Moses and Solomon
183. The Discernment of Messiah
184. The Difference between Faith and Intellect
185. The Uneducated, the Fear of Shabbat Is on Him
186. Make Your Shabbat a Weekday, and Do Not Need People
187. Choosing Labor
188. All the Work Is Only Where There Are Two Ways – 2
189. The Action Affects the Thought
190. Every Act Leaves an Imprint
191. The Time of Descent
192. The Lots
193. One Wall Serves Both
194. The Complete Seven
195. Rewarded - I Will Hasten It
196. A Grip for the External Ones
197. Book, Author, Story
198. Freedom
199. To Every Man of Israel
200. The Hizdakchut of the Masach
201. Spirituality and Corporeality
202. In the Sweat of Your Face Shall You Eat Bread – 2
203. Man's Pride Shall Bring Him Low
204. The Purpose of the Work – 2
205. Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets
206. Faith and Pleasure
207. Receiving in order to Bestow
208. Labor
209. Three Conditions in Prayer
210. A Sightly Flaw in You
211. As Though Standing before a King
212. Embrace of the Right, Embrace of the Left
213. Revealing the Deficiency
214. Known in the Gates
215. Concerning Faith
216. Right and Left
217. If I Am Not for Me, Who Is for Me?
218. The Torah and the Creator Are One
219. Devotion
220. Suffering
221. Multiple Authorities
222. The Part Given to the Sitra Achra to Separate It from the Kedusha
223. Clothing, Sack, Lie, Almond
224. Yesod de Nukva and Yesod de Dechura
225. Raising Oneself
226. The Written Torah and the Oral Torah – 2
227. The Reward for a Mitzva–a Mitzva
228. Fish before Meat
229. Haman Pockets
230. The Lord Is High and the Low Will See - 2
231. The Purity of the Vessels of Reception
232. Completing the Labor
233. Pardon, Forgiveness, and Atonement
234. He Who Ceases Words of Torah and Engages in Conversation
235. Looking in the Book Again
236. My Adversaries Curse Me All the Day
237. For Man Shall Not See Me and Live
238. Happy Is the Man Who Does Not Forget You and the Son of Man Who Exerts in You
239. The Difference between Mochin of Shavuot and that of Shabbat at Minchah
240. Seek Your Seekers when They Seek Your Face
241. Call Upon Him When He Is Near
242. What Is the Matter of Delighting the Poor on a Good Day, in the Work?
243. Examining the Shade on the Night of Hosha’ana Rabbah
244. All the Worlds
245. Prior to the Creation of the Newborn
246. An Explanation about Luck
247. A Thought Is Regarded as Nourishment
248. Let His Friend Begin
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All the Worlds
 

244. All the Worlds

I heard on the 12th of Adar, February 17, 1943, Tel-Aviv

All the worlds in which we discern many degrees and covers are all from the perspective of the souls, who are the receivers from the worlds. According to this, we will understand the rule, “Everything that we do not attain, we do not know by name,” for a name indicates attainment. This means that all the names, the Sefirot, and the numbers, are all from the perspective of the receivers.

Therefore, we have three discernments:

1) Atzmuto [His Self], of which we do not speak at all because the place where we begin to speak is from the thought of creation, where we are included in potential, as in “The end of the act is in the preliminary thought.”

2) The thought of creation. We call this Ein Sof [infinity], and it is the connection between Atzmuto and the souls. We understand this connection as a desire to do good to His creations, and besides this connection of a desire to do good, we have no utterance. Therefore, there is no perception or attainment.

Because all the discernments in the world are only from the perspective of the souls, it follows that we have no attainment of the worlds in and of themselves. Therefore, they, too, are regarded as Atzmut and there is no attainment in them whatsoever. With regard to the souls, which receive from the worlds, the worlds are regarded as Ein Sof.

The reason is that this connection between the worlds and the souls is what the worlds impart upon the souls. This extends from His desire to do good to His creations, which is the correlation between Atzmuto and the created being, and this connection is called Ein Sof. That is, when we begin to speak of the upper light, it speaks of two discernments together, the attaining and the attained, meaning how the attaining is impressed by the attained

However, individually, they do not come under the name Ein Sof. Rather, the attained is called Atzmuto and the attaining is called “souls,” which is an initiated discernment that is a part of the whole with regard to the desire to receive called “existence from absence” that was imprinted in the souls. (And the Creator created such a reality that we would feel this way.)

It therefore follows that with regard to themselves, all the worlds are regarded as simple unity, and there is no change in Godliness, as in “I the Lord did not change.” In godliness, there are no Sefirot or Behinot [discernments], and even the finest words are absent in them, themselves, as everything is regarded as Atzmuto. Rather, all the Sefirot and discernments come with the person who attains the upper light, since the Creator wanted us to attain and understand the abundance as “His desire to do good to His creations,” and He has given us these senses.

This means that according to how our senses are impressed by the upper light, to that extent we receive many discernments. Our overall sense is called “will to receive,” and to the extent of the reception we discern many parts and details, ascents and descents, expansions and departures since the will to receive is already called a “creature” and an initiated discernment existence from absence.

For this reason, precisely from a place where the will to receive begins to be impressed, the utterance of the parts begins, to the extent of the impression. All this is already called a “correlation between the upper light and the will to receive,” and this is called “light and Kli [vessel].” Conversely, there is no utterance in the light without a Kli since light without someone who attains, called a Kli, is still regarded as Atzmuto, of which speaking is forbidden because He is unattainable, and where there is no attainment, how can we speak of something that we do not attain?

It follows that what we call “light and Kli” in spirituality, while they are only in potential, it is called Ein Sof prior to the Tzimtzum [restriction] of the world, which is regarded as the root, meaning that the potential will yield the actual. There are many worlds and discernments that begin from the Tzimtzum through the world of Assiya where everything is included in potential, and one who attains, attains them so in practice, for in the attaining, these many details are determined in actual fact.

From this we will understand why we say that the Creator will help us, or that the Creator will send us healing or salvation, or that the Creator has given us a gift; Lord, send me good business, and so forth. There are two discernments about this: 1) the Creator, 2) something that extends from him.

The first is regarded as Atzmuto, in which utterance is forbidden since we do not attain Him.

The second is the discernment that extends from Him. This is regarded as the expanding light which enters our Kelim, meaning our will to receive. This is regarded as Ein Sof, meaning the connection that the Creator has with the lower man, whom the Creator wants to delight. The desire to enjoy is regarded as the light that expands from Him, which finally comes to the will to receive, meaning that the will to receive receives the expanding light.

It follows that the expanding light is called Ein Sof, and that expanding light comes to the lower one through many covers by which the lower ones can receive them. This means that all the discernments and the changes were made specifically in the receiver to the extent that he is impressed by the salvation, and all the many names and discernments in the world are according to the impressions of the lower ones. At that time, many discernments are made in potential, from which the lower one will be impressed in practice.

In other words, the attaining and the attained come together, for without one who attains there is no form to the attained, for with regard to whom will he acquire the form, with regard to the one who attains? After all, He does not exist in the world, and with regard to the attained Himself and what form they acquire, this is unattainable. Therefore, if we have no attainment in His Self and we cannot depict any senses there, then how can we say that the attained will acquire some form in and of himself if we have no attainment whatsoever in Atzmuto? Thus, we have nothing to speak of but our own senses to the extent that we are impressed by the expanding light.

This is similar to looking at a table. Then, according to our senses, we feel that it is a hard object, through our sense of touch. Also, we can determine length and width, etc., and it is all according to our senses.

However, this does not necessarily mean that the table will appear in the shapes we see to the eyes of someone who has different senses, meaning in the eyes of an angel. Certainly, when he looks at the table, he does not have these forms in the table. Rather, he sees according to his senses. Therefore, we cannot say or determine any form about the table from the perspective of the angel because we do not know the senses of the angel.

It follows that as we have no attainment in Him, we cannot say which form the worlds have from His perspective. We attain in the world only what is attained through our senses and sensations. And this was the will of the Creator, that we will attain in this way in the upper worlds, and this is what it means that there are no changes in the light, but all the changes are in the Kelim, meaning in our senses for everything is measured according to our senses and imagination.

It therefore follows that if many people look at one spiritual thing, each one still attains differently, according to each and every one's imagination and senses. Likewise, in a single person, the spiritual thing will change him according to his states.

Therefore, he himself feels a different form each time, and it is all because the light is simple and formless, and all the shapes are from the perspective of the receivers.