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Page 42 – at the break between the paragraphs (line starts “ein ha-adam...”)
Evil is the misuse of reality. Our job is to see through it. Evil does not eclipse the truth. The real thing remains the real thing.
Gemara says that the snake was a great servant of the human being, if he had not stepped over the boundry.
We have been looking at the way that something rooted higher manifests itself on a lower level. It shows itself in physicality. The higher the source the lower the platform where it shows itself.
G-dliness is above good and evil. The real manifestation of G-dliness is by kabalos ol (accepting the yoke/command) which seems to be a low faculty. This is because the essential connection only reflected at that level. “I don't have a separate presence – I reflect the G-dly presence!”
“The higher something is the lower it comes down” is a common expression in chassidus.
The Rambam says the basis of chochmah is to know that there is a First Creator. Without that premise, chochmah does not have a foundation – it would seem to be just the product of human imagination. What makes chochmah real? It is the recognition in daas that there is a First Creator.
Chochmah is like sight, which is different from all other senses – you can relate to objects by sight without coming into contact with them – so it seems imaginary, yet it is the most powerful of all senses.
Sight means you see objects as part on an infinite reality and thus they are real. So too with chochmah. The concepts are real since there is a fundamental reality behind everything – this is the First Creator. In darkness you have only the object you touch. In light you have the whole context. So too with chochmah – things are real when they are part of the basic reality – His reality – the First Being who is bringing everything into being.
Chochmah requires this recognition of a First Being, since it doesn't stand by itself. The higher/more spiritual something is, the more it is dependent on a recognition of a supreme truth. The higher it is, the more dependent it is on it's source. So coming down it finds expression at that level where the source is recognized in the metziut itself.
Now we start the final paragraph of the meimar. Sea and dry land correspond to the aspects of circular and straight respectively. Circles indicates concentric circles where nothing becomes separate. Straight/Yeshar indicates different levels where the lower level becomes an entity unto itself.
Igulim/circles is “one within another”. This means the inner circle is totally bitul to the surrounding circle. The inner circle does not express/extend itself beyond the outer circle.
This is expressed in the fact that Moshe/Moses had a difficulty expressing himself. “Moshe was drawn from the water”, by Batya. His soul came from igulim/circles and he was this constantly in a state of complete bitul, while speech is the aspect of yeshus/self expression/objectification.
Bitul misconstrued becomes it's opposite (this is what happens in tohu). And yeshus properly used is bitul.
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