Unity, Good, and Evil

 

 

 

The proposition consists of three parts: Part 1: It was rooted in the Tzimtzum… This explains what was embedded from the outset in this first act of Tzimtzum in accordance with what had to develop from it. Part 2: In accordance with this pathway… This explains what it is that develops out of this root. Part 3: The intention is… This explains what is the purpose of all this.

 

You have already heard that the entire wisdom of the Kabbalah is only to understand the government of the Supreme Will and for what purpose He created all these different creatures, what He wants from them, what will come at the end of all the cycles of the universe, and how all these strange cycles are to be explained. For the Supreme Will Himself already calculated the entire cycle of government ending with complete perfection. These calculations and measures are what we are explaining when we speak about the Sefirot and the worlds.

As you have already heard, the Tzimtzum was the first calculated measurement by the Supreme Will in order to create all His creatures. We have already called this the Place of all the worlds, and as we have also said, this Place is sufficient for the whole of existence. He therefore surely calculated from the very outset what this existence would be, and He made the Place accordingly, sufficient for all of it. This calculated measurement constitutes the pathway of boundaries and limits which, as we have already said, was subsumed within Eyn Sof. Afterwards it came forth in the form of the Residue in this Place. The act of limitation, which made it possible for independent creatures to exist, is called the Place, while the revelation of the realm of limits — existence itself — is the Residue left from the Light of Eyn Sof.

 

Thus the first act was the formation of the Place brought about by the Tzimtzum. This Place was the first innovation produced when Eyn Sof, blessed be He, removed His limitlessness. This gave existence to the new pathway so that it could be revealed and operate. The pathway of limitation is the order underlying the course of the government of the universe. If so — It was rooted in the Tzimtzum that the government of the universe should follow its course…

 

There are two things that we must know here:

 

1. In as much as this Place is the root of the lower realms and beings, we must understand what is the root of the Place itself. To explain: We cannot say that because Eyn Sof, blessed be He, created the universe in its present order, this is what He was able to create and He could not have made it in any other way. An example of such an argument would be if we were to say that exactly so many worlds had to be created because the light of the first world was so great that it was impossible for the creatures to receive it. A similar argument is to say that a given thing was necessary because it would have been impossible without it. But we cannot say that Eyn Sof was forced to act in this way (God forbid). We must understand that Eyn Sof is completely all-powerful, possessing every kind of power that the mind can and cannot grasp.

 

The end of the matter is that there is not a single limitation or other accident that we can possibly ascribe to Eyn Sof, blessed be He, except that He is the Master of all. The natural world that we see and experience with our eyes and other senses was made by Him just as it is, with all the sense perceptions to which it gives rise. But He is in no way subject to the limits of any order or law. Wherever we say that something would not have been possible without a certain given, what we mean is that according to the way of gradation and measure, it would have been impossible otherwise (see Etz Chaim, Iggulim VeYosher 11b). Thus it is true to say that the way of gradation and measure made it impossible to bring forth the lower worlds directly from Adam Kadmon, for example, in order for them to receive this light. For according to the way we understand the nature of graded measure, it is not possible for a lowly creature to receive the light of the Supreme Keter. But all this is after we know that Eyn Sof wanted graded measure. If Eyn Sof had not wanted this, He could have done it any way He might have wanted.

 

Accordingly, the first thing to be understood about the government of the worlds is that it depends on gradation and measure. This is the first foundation that Eyn Sof, blessed be He, willed, and the Place was made according to this will. The very fact of the Tzimtzum itself shows that He wanted gradation and measure, for if not, Eyn Sof, blessed be He, could have made the lowest of all creatures according to His will without any Tzimtzum whatever. On the contrary, the Tzimtzum is the first foundation of what we are explaining. Since He wanted to contract Himself in order to bring forth creatures, clearly He wanted to put the light on a level corresponding to what was to be born out of it. That is why He removed His limitlessness from here, bringing forth the Place that came forth — the pathway of government by gradation and measure, though certainly, if He had not contracted His light, He could have brought His creatures into being from elsewhere.

 

If so, we may say that the roots of graded, measured government lie in this Place. But that the Place of the created realms and beings should be one of gradation and measure, as opposed to one following some other pathway, is rooted in the Tzimtzum itself. On the basis of what we have explained here, you can understand that, had it not been for the Tzimtzum, even though this Place was included in Eyn Sof in potential, it would not have emerged in actuality. If so, the Tzimtzum was the cause of the Place, yet it could have come into being in some other manner.