Part Three: The Structure of the Upper Worlds

All holy books describe spiritual emotions that one should attain. They all deal with one thing only: choosing the spiritual over the physical; the greatness of the Creator. The Creator doesn’t need our respect because He is completely denied of egoism. The one thing he does need is to bring us pleasure, to the extent that we prefer Him over the corporeal world, and become like Him...

Scientists have discovered that plants react differently when different people approach them. For example, if a certain person harms a certain plant, the plant will remember it, and if that person approaches it, the plant will react with intensive internal "waves." Fish and animals also feel others in various ways. Much like plants, when the Creator is revealed to us, we can feel our surroundings, feel the "other." That revelation occurs in the same senses in which we feel other people as ordinary people. That external sensation is absent in the inanimate nature, and exists only a little in plants...

This course is based on the article, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, written by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. Rabbi Ashlag wrote this article as one of his introductions to the Sulam commentary that he wrote on the Zohar. According to the method of the Kabbalah, one learns about the extension of existence from Above downward, from the Creator down to this world...

It is written in the Book of the Zohar that all of the worlds, both Upper and lower, are found within man. Our entire reality was created for us alone. However, while we feel that we are inside reality, we do not feel that reality is inside us. Why is this world alone not sufficient for us? Do we need the other worlds, the Upper ones, and what they contain?..

Kabbalists attained spirituality and wrote about it in their books. They perceived that the root of the entire reality is a Supreme Power, which they named “His Essence”, because they could not attain the power itself. However, they did perceive that there is a thought, an aim, to create creatures in order to delight, which comes from His Essence. They named that thought and aim “The Thought of Creation”, or “Upper Light.” It turns out that from the creature's perspective, the Light is the Creator, because it cannot attain His Essence. Hence the Creator-creature contact is maintained through the Upper Light...

When the Light of Wisdom fills up the will to receive in the first phase, it also gives it its nature–that of bestowal. That is why in the end, after having felt the nature of the Light that fills it, the first phase changes its desire from that of reception to that of bestowal...

Once Malchut (who is considered a female Partzuf) decides to receive some of the direct light into her Toch, she stops receiving. Malchut always calculates in the Rosh (head) what is the maximum amount of Light she can receive in order to bestow. She always receives only a small part of the Direct Light, as receiving in order to benefit the Creator is against her nature...

The five parts of Malchut are called Behinot Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet. After the restriction, when those parts receive Lights through the screen, they are called Sefirot, because the Light shines in them (Sapir means illumination in Hebrew). Therefore, from that stage on they are referred to as Sefirot:..

Behina Dalet is called Malchut (Kingship) because it has the greatest will to receive. When it is filled with Light, it is called Ein Sof (No End), because it receives Light without limitation. Malchut is therefore the only creature. Its parts are called "worlds" (the Hebrew word for it is Olam, from the word Ha'alama (concealment) because they conceal the Light of the Creator from the creatures). The concealment in each world corresponds to the measurement of Light the creatures can receive with the screen...

After the restriction, Malchut decides to receive in order to give to the Creator. This intention is called a "screen." A series of Partzufim then comes out on this screen...

After the First Restriction Malchut decides to fill herself with Light in order to bestow using the Reshimot that remained from the world of Ein Sof. Reception in order to bestow goes against the nature of the creature, therefore Malchut cannot receive the Upper Light that filled her in the world of Ein Sof all at once, but only in small portions, called Partzufim. That way Malchut receives five portions of Light: Galgalta, AB, SAG, upper MA, and upper BON. That concludes the surfacing of her Reshimot and the expansion comes to a halt...

Nekudot de SAG went below Tabur de Galgalta and filled the empty vessels of the Sof de Galgalta with Light of Mercy. They felt that in the empty vessels of Galgalta there were Reshimot from the Light that filled the Sof de Galgalta before it had been refined...

The entire process of the descent of Nekudot de SAG below Tabur de Galgalta, their mixture with Sof de Galgalta and the Second Restriction, occurred while the screen of SAG was rising from the Tabur to the Peh. Thus, when the screen arrived at the Peh, the Reshimot of everything that happened in Nekudot de SAG, and in Tabur de Galgalta, were already there...

The vessels Keter, Hochma, and the upper half of Bina, are referred to as Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), or vessels of bestowal. The upper half of Bina belongs to the vessels of bestowal because it is filled with Light of Wisdom, and hence wants to receive nothing for itself, wishes only to have the Light of Mercy. But the lower half of Bina wants to receive Light for Zeir Anpin. Partzuf Nekudot de SAG is Partzuf Bina. From the lower half of Partzuf Bina meaning, from Tifferet de Nekudot de SAG and below, there are vessels of reception...

Keter and AVI don’t know that the Light of AB SAG, that comes from Above and gives the vessel the power to go from Katnut to Gadlut, cannot go under the Parsa. That is why, until now, the Parsa was not cancelled. But now, when Light of Wisdom begins to fill the vessels below the Parsa, the vessels begin to break, as they are still working in order to receive...

The world is led by the orders of the Creator. We call this leadership, "Nature." In it, the will to receive pleasure in every degree (still, vegetative, animate and speaking), necessarily determines our every reaction. The law is that every creature always chooses the greater pleasure and escapes pain...

Once broken, the screen refined and rose to AVI together with the Reshimot. The Reshimot in the screen demanded to be corrected and to have a Zivug over them for the reception of the Light. But the Rosh of AVI de Nekudim returned to a state of Katnut and could not do it; hence, the screen rose to the Partzuf of the adjacent Partzuf, that of Rosh de SAG...

The Zivug for the creation of the world of Beria was performed in Bina of Atzilut, and hence took the place of Zeir Anpin of Atzilut. The world of Yetzira, which was created after the world Beria, expands below it in the place of Malchut of Atzilut. Partzuf Malchut of Atzilut clothes only the four lowest Sefirot of Partzuf Zeir Anpin (NHYM) so that only the first four Sefirot of Malchut, KHB and Tifferetare in Atzilut facing the four Sefirot NHYM of Zeir Anpin. The Sefirot Gevura, Tifferet, and NHYM of Partzuf Malchut are below Parsa.

The First Man is a different creation than anything that preceded it. He is the only one that was created from the actual Malchut de Ein Sof, and is therefore the only one that can be called a "real" creature. He too was created by Malchut de Atzilut, which rose to AVI. She (Malchut) created Partzuf Adam ha Rishon just as she had created the worlds of BYA. Consequently, Adam ha Rishon is always inside the worlds of BYA...

The real place of all the worlds is the phases before the sin: Zeir Anpin occupies the place of Arich Anpin; Malchut, the place of AVI; Beria, the place of YESHSUT; and Yetzira stands in the place of Zeir Anpin. The first four Sefirot of the world of Assiya occupy the place of Nukva of Atzilut, dressed over TNHYM of the world Yetzira. The last six Sefirot of the world of Assiya stand in the place of the world of Beria, below Parsa. Lastly, the first six Sefirot of the place of the world of Beria, meaning the place from Parsa to the "Chazeh of the place of the world of Beria," is called the “outskirts of the city,” because they belong to the world of Atzilut, called Ir (city)...

The screen rose along with the Reshimot to Rosh of Nekudim and from there to Rosh de SAG. The screen sorted the finest Reshimot Aleph de Hitlabshut and Shoresh de Aviut, and rose from Peh to Keter of Rosh de SAG, and from there, even higher up to Bina de Keter. There it stopped above the Sefirot KHB HGT of Keter, so that above the screen there are only vessels of bestowal of Keter, meaning those of Aviut Shoresh. That place is called Metzach (forehead). The screen mates there, creating Partzuf Keter of Atzilut, called Partzuf Atik...

Throughout the corrections of Malchut that we have been discussing, Malchut of Malchut still has not been filled, the central Malchut of all the worlds. Everything that happened up unit now, the First and Second Restrictions, the breaking of the vessels, and corrections were all done on the Upper Nine Sefirot of Malchut, not on Malchut itself, Behina Dalet of Dalet. That is because she was restricted not to receive anything inside it, meaning within the will to receive...

We feel the properties of the Creator as a certain Light that awakens a unique feeling in us. We name each Sefira according to that feeling. Every Light that comes from the Creator is a certain form or providence, a sign that awakens a certain response. Generally speaking, all the forms of Light that emanate from the Creator toward us are denominated “the Light of divinity”...

What is Kabbalah? What are the principles of the wisdom of Kabbalah? What is the mathematical structure of the wisdom of Kabbalah? What is the difference between the perspective of the Creator and the perspective of the creature? What is the work of God and why is it called by that name? What is the meaning of the name HaVaYaH? Does the Creator have a concept of “benevolence”? What is “our world”? What is the meaning of the term “this world”?..