Course: General Overview of Creation

Today we will try to speak about the structure of reality starting from beginning, which is actually the whole topic of the wisdom of Kabbalah. This ancient wisdom comes to us from people who have attained this spiritual nature through attributes, tools and methods that they have developed. What they attained, what they felt, what they understood of the structure of reality in its depth, this is what they convey to us.

There’s a part of reality where we exist and research it with our five senses- sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Through our research we open up, develop our worldly or mundane teachings, the natural sciences. There is another part of reality, which is concealed meaning that we do not feel in our five senses. We can research it if we develop an additional sense, new attributes. This is why Kabbalah is called the hidden wisdom—it explains to us what is naturally hidden from us.

In the Wisdom of Kabbalah, when we talk about the situations of the creature, we need some measurements, numbers and discernments to measure the situations, write them down and, as in any other science, convey them to another in their true form so that another will be able to take these discernments and, according to them, imagine the exact situation that we want to convey. So there are a few signs that describe the states of the creature. Without knowing how to register them, how to understand them it is impossible to talk about the evolution of the creature.

We have said that every single situation consists of a creature, which is called a Kli or a desire and the fulfillment—the Light that can be called Creator, which is the seed within the desire perceived as pleasure. Every situation in reality consists of these two discernments, a desire and pleasure.

In the previous two lessons we learned about the filling of Malchut of the world of Infinity (Malchut Ein Sof) through a series of five Partzufim called Galgalta, AB, SAG, MA, and BON.

We said that there is the Thought of Creation, which is to do good to His creations. This Thought is the root of everything. That’s the Creator relative to us. Before that there is something called Atzmuto—the unattainable essence of the Creator which we cannot research.

Light comes out from the Thought of Creation. This light is called Behina Shoresh (root phase), which builds the Kli. This Kli wants to resemble the light and performs an action of resembling the light until it comes to a state where it wants to receive everything - the pleasure that comes from the Creator as well as His greatness.

Today we will be talking about the result of the breaking of the vessels and world of Tikkun (Correction). Ultimately, in order to correct the creature and bring it to an equivalence of form with the Creator, we need to add the attributes of bestowal within Malchut. Malchut knows only one thing – to receive and to enjoy. If it acquires an understanding of what is bestowal, it will be able to build above itself the Masach, meaning the intention, so that its reception would also be in order to give to the Creator. This act is called “receiving in order to bestow”. That is all you need and that is all you can have because the creature is only a receiver – it cannot give. It can desire to induce pleasure to someone by receiving.

In our world, we are able to give because we are in the body. In the external form, I take something and give it to someone. We call it giving—in its external form. But if we are talking about our inner Kli, about what we are inside, without being clothed into a body, just a soul – a soul knows only how to receive. Our body misleads us as though we are capable of giving. It tells us “Take it!” Why am I doing this? – Because inside of myself, in my soul I know that it will please me.

We have learned how the Thought of Creation, to do good to His creations, operates in the Kli that was created and brings it to receive light in order to bestow in every way, everything possible, except the stony heart, which is called Lev HaEven. Now we will learn for what the system exists.

The Creator created a Kli (a vessel), a will to receive, through the light. This Kli, this vessel, received as much as it could in order to bestow both directly, which is called the world Adam Kadman; and also after the breaking, when Malchut was mixed with Bina, and the worlds Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya came out. The special thing about them is that Malchut entered Bina and gave to Bina all the attributes of Malchut so that Bina now understands and knows how to monitor, how to supervise, how to correct Malchut.

Until now, we have talked about the Upper Worlds and how they emanated from the Thought of Creation to do good to His creations. Here in the drawing, schematically, we have some combination of both worlds, the spiritual and the corporeal. We learned in the previous lessons how from the Thought of Creation the situation of Malchut—the foundation of the future creature—was made.  Being in the world Ein Sof (the world of Infinity) Malchut received all of the light, felt shame, performed the Tzimtzum (restriction) on itself and decided to reach the equivalence of form with the Giver, with the Emanator. And that is actually how the Emanator arranged all of the powers that act upon Malchut at the beginning, so that future creation would come to this particular conclusion, this desire.