AyinBase / Ayin Beis with R' Paltiel 16 Elul, 5774
Page
72(6)
At
3 lines from end of the page (line begins, “mimenu...”) For text,
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We
have been focused on 'essence'.
We
said that it is not context dependent.
This
means that light/emanation does not relate to it, since emanation and
revelation is context based.
So
light/ohr is an anomaly. How does it come from the essence?
Fire
and light have an initial reality. So basic that they are not hot
and light. At a lower level they give off heat and light...
This
is to illustrate that the essence is not light. But light emanates
from it.
B"H
ReplyDeleteWhat I remember from today’s class:
• The Rebbe is in the process of explaining the dynamic between Atzmus and ohr. Ohr doesn’t emanate from Atzmus because Atzmus is completely removed. It is the First Being, a complete truth unto Itself. How does ohr come about? It is through an intentional decision of Atzmus to bring out ohr.
• The Rebbe explains this with various mashalim. Today we focused on the mashal of the essence sun and the mashal of the yesod of fire.
• The essence of the sun is neither the mitzeus of heat nor light (yet). The essence means that there is no such thing as its absence. Therefore, there is no such thing as mitzeus of light in the essence of sun because light’s purpose is to illuminate the darkness (or bring the sun to a place where it is not) and within the essence of sun there is no such thing as darkness or absence of sun. It is essentially light. Yet, nevertheless light does come from the sun. But it comes not as an automatic emanation that expresses the quality of the essence of the sun, but rather as separate (intentional) action to give light.
• Likewise the yesod (element) of fire is not fire. If it were, it would burn up the world (because everything consists of the four elements), and make light during the night. Therefore we see that even though fire, heat and light all come from the yesod of fire, the yesod is far removed from these things. Nevertheless the fire does come from it.
• Rabbi Paltiel related this to chochma/sight and made several points. The Rambam talks about the yesod ha yesodos (foundation of foundations) and the amud ha chochma (the pillar of chochma) being the First Being who brings all existence into being. The reason why sight/chochma is not a tangible experience is because that which sight/chochma perceives is not a mitzeus, it sees the intentional bringing forth from the etzm. This decision to bring forth existence is a momentary action – thus chochma is the experience of bittel; it perceives something coming from nothing.
• A second point of chochma is that it perceives the meaning in what we see/understand. Why is this? Because reality comes as an intentional act of will from the Creator. Any such action carries the Creator’s intention. He has a reason for doing so. Therefore, chochma looks for this meaning.
• We discussed the concept of a “makom panoi” – an empty place. This is the potential for space that becomes the source for all that develops. It does not consist of space, even though it provides for it.
• We discussed the koach ha tenua (The power of movement). Even when the hand is resting the koach ha tenua is active. Otherwise the hand would disintegrate. This means that the koach of movement does not itself consist itself of movement. These are all mashalim for the above concept of light coming from the etzm but not a revelation of the etzm.
What strikes me?
• There is a G-dly reality.
• The G-dly reality is completely pristine. It is incapable of becoming tainted. This is so because Atzmus is never revealed. He reveals only what He chooses to reveal.
• Everything we perceive has meaning. This is so because Hashem is intentionally bringing everything into existence. Any intentional decision has a reason / a meaning.
• The concept of etzm / revelation expresses itself on many levels in existence, as illustrated by the many mashalim we discussed today.
From Yehudah F