“Fire, Vessels, and Light” p: 168-9

yinBase with R' Paltiel ThursdayNight 15 Tammuz 5772 

Page 168 – 1 line from end of 2nd paragraph of the page (line starts, 'baynayhem...') For text, see link top right of the blog. Or for text right click here.

We were unexpectedly introduced to a subject that is counter intuitive. The Rebbe explained that ohr was gevurah/severity and vessel is chesed/kindness.

What is the gevurah/severity of ohr?! We usually say ohr/light is revelation, kindness and expansiveness. Yes, light is revelation but he does not bring it down to your level, without a vessel. The external level in a vessel can be shown to you irrefutably, this is a freebie, a gift... so here we see how vessel is associated in this perspective with gevurah/severity.  

Contrast an explanation from the king and a decree from the king. The explanation will be grasped by some of the scholars of the nation, but the common people will not grasp it... the decree is like a chesed/kindness – a gift from above.

The content of ohr is chessed and the content of vessel is gevurah. Yet the function of ohr is gevurah and the function of vessel is chessed.

It is also explained in chassidus that the root of vessels/keilim is higher than that of ohr/light.

What is the point for us? The point is: The 'vessel' is a descent downwards and disassociation from its source. Light by contrast exists only in connection with its source.  

If you want wisdom/chochmah, you have to recognize there is a source. The basis of wisdom is the recognition of the First Being, who is above wisdom. Wisdom resorts back to the source.

Real sechel/mind does not exist unless you recognize the source of the sechel.

Every sechel is an expanse, but it always looks back to where it is a point – 'what's the point' it asks, and you can't put it in your pocket and take it with you. This is gevurah/severity, because it says, “I'm not giving you anything, come to Me and you can have everything...!”

When Noach was 600 years old, 'the wellsprings of the great deep, and the windows of the Heavens opened up'. The Zohar says this is also talking of a different element – that 'in the 600^th year of the 6^th millenium there will be a bursting forth of knowledge from above and also matched from a knowledge from below'.

But what is the 'knowledge from below' – earthly knowledge descends downwards?

This is a great chesed/kindness. It may be so limited in content but it is available to all.

The cause for the difference between the vessels and the light is because the vessel/keili does not cleaving to its source. Light on the other hand cleaves it its source.

This explains how the Rebbe could go to the Sorbonne. He expended minimal effort. He learned gemara in the lectures, and seemed to give credence to their knowledge, and the answer is that this is part of the chessed of Hashem.

Top of p169. Similarly the fire here below tends to rise, due to its cleaving to its source.

Fire exists only in an active state. This is because its essence is in its source.

Earth is coarse and descends downwards.