“Primary Light; The Sky Unto Itself” p:174

AyinBase / Ayin Beis with R' Paltiel Sunday 18 Kislev 5772

Page 174/קעד

top line of the page – (line starts, 'hit-ahlmus...') For text, see picture below.

The class opened with a question from Baruch about the difference between essence and light...

We started a discussion about light after the tzimzum and how it still has an element of the essence or tzurah atzmis / essential form.

The effect of the tzimzum an parsah/curtain is different. With the parsah there is a gap, but not a total retraction of light and then a re-introduction as there is with the tzimzum/contraction.

The retraction and then reintroduction is what allows the light to have a relationship with worlds. Primary truth cannot relate to world... so the light before the contraction is primary truth... and this is why it had to be completely contracted and reintroduced. This is more profound than the parsa...

The tzimzum allowed for a light that could relate to the principles of world. The primary light before the tzimzum did not not come from absence. It is Him making himself present. It is unique in that it is not like light from a source. It is like Him knowing Himself. The King appreciates His own presence.

Essence is beyond our grasp. The only way to get a sense is to think of truth. Saying the truth means 'tell it as it is' before you decided to describe it. The reason we can relate to truth is only because our souls come from truth... 

The soul is that element within us, that raises us to the pure realization, that we actually have a presence that is beyond our own presence.

Hashem blew life into him. It is a continuous blow. Your life is continually renewed into you – maintained constantly. Our own 'thingness' is very precarious. Our life is eternal. It is beyond our own limited identity.

If the primary light went through the parsa/curtain (and not the tzimzum) it would not be enough to transform it to a level of relating to world.

Only by means of the tzimzum and full retraction and then reintroduction of light into the vacuum is the light made suitable for worlds.

From the world of atzilus, the parsa/curtain is enough of a transformation to allow the light to thereafter relate to biyah (the 3 other lower worlds). The relationship between atzilus and biyah is like that of chochmah and binah... this is like the experience of sight (look at the sky) (in 36^th minute of video) – this is like chochmah – the experience of an unidentifiable element.

Yet seeing the sky is still not the sky itself. Sight is wonderful and gives a sense of reality. We have sight because we have chochmah/wisdom.

But sight is not the reality itself. The reality itself is higher than chochmah/wisdom and sight. The reason we have reality is because we have a soul. A soul with ratzon/will and oneg/pleasure. There is no explanation for these levels.