“A Completely Different Stance" p: 168

AyinBase / Ayin Beis with R' Paltiel Sunday 7 Tishrei 5772 

Page 168 – 5^th line – (line starts, 'toldot...') For text, see picture below.

To understand the verse mentioning the family of Yitzchak, the Rebbe mentions the concept of tzurah atzmi – an essential form. A tzurah/form is an aspect of light and revelation.

It is not an independent presentation. Meaning that in our world a person can say one thing and mean something else. He can misrepresent himself. This it is not a presentation or form that reflects who he is.

Tzurah/form is a representation of the thing itself. This is ohr – light. It comes without effort.

And then there is an essential form. It is a form that was not formulated for some kind of presentation. It is there due to its source. It provides recognition from the outside.

The essence does not require the form. It is there so there will be revelation of the essence.

Even though it is outside, it this essential form befits the essence.

Think of the wonder of a soul in a body. The soul is eternal. And the body is just physical. Yet there is a proper symbiosis between them!

They are still of different levels, but the physical body is the appropriate vessel. Even though it is very distant, yet the soul can see itself in a human body.

This is a tzurah atzmi – the soul can see itself in the human form.

Although the light is totally distant from the essence, (since light is not essence – it comes into being) and one cannot really say there is 'light' in the essence. There is nothing in the essence, and revelation is a totally novel state. Light is not revealed from the essence.

The light does however have an aspect of essence (koach ha-etzem) and is thus called an 'essential form'.

Essence is impossible to describe. Nothing in the world is essential – worldly things are composites. We can point to essence by describing it in contrast to worldly concepts and realities.

In everything, except essence if there is any kind of performance or effect is by performance of some kind of action. Essence has a completely different stance. It just says, 'I'm here' and this is the cause of the whole effect.

The light of essence is a representation if the presence of essence. It says, 'essence is here'. It has the power is essence in the sense that its statement of presence creates the effect.

This light is like the first presentation of Adam – man – human. This is like G-d's first thought which has a G-dly form.

Adam kadmon / first man is an anomaly. The term is a paradox. Kadmon does not mean first it means 'original' or 'primal', which means that it was always there. But there is no original adam/man, since he is a creation. So what is primal man / adam kadmon? It refers to something that is created, but can still bear the qualifyier that it is the original, because it was created to represent the origin.

He comes into being yet he has the original quality. 

He comes from G-d's first thought that was not a reaction to anything.

And all of reality is in the form of Adam – man. And that is the meaning of Adam Kadmon.

All creatures are reactive. The only creation that acts by choice is man. And thus he brings a reality to the world. He brings reality to the world, just by being present.

And adam kadmon is a metaphor for what we are discussing. Light is the first revelation from the essence and it has an aspect of essence.

Think of a king asking a simple subject to bring him a glass of water. Or think of a minister asking the simpleton to do the same task. The direct kingly presence and request has a different effect and imbues the simpleton with a regal aspect.

We have 5 senses. They enable us to perceive the world. The sense of sight is in a category all by itself. 59 minute of video. All the other senses are based on the effect of the stimulus on the body. Sight is sensing without coming into contact with the object. If you have no contact, how does it exist? Sight tells you, 'there is a reality, this object is real' it brings the reality of the world to us.

The effect of this is: 1. the impact on us is that we realize that there is reality, and 2. there is a profound recognition: seeing the reality beyond world, since sight, if not perverted, lets us know that the world is a creation – not merely a physical creation. It is a G-dly reality. 'I see things not because of personal involvement, but due to reality'.

The sight in man is a reflection that he is for real. It is like koach ha-etzem. To let us understand essence. Man does not belong in the world, he is there only to rule.