“Simple Reality” p:23

AyinBase / Ayin Beis with R' Paltiel Wednesday 20 Sivan 5773

Page 23 (chuf gimmel). A few lines below the middle of the page – (line begins: 'atzmiut...') For text, click: Here.

The letters of ink, are 'like something added to the parchment' – sure the ink is on top of the parchment... but that is not the meaning of something 'added'. When the ink is applied to the paper then that reveals how the letters are in the parchment.

We look at the letters that are on the paper. The letters call our attention. But the reality is the paper. The truth is omnipresent. But often our attention is taken elsewhere.

Really we live with the simple reality.

The simple presence is the paper. This is what provides for the letters to be written. The letter is real because it is given reality and presence by the paper. The room gives the table a presence.

The ink reveals something from the paper by hiding part of the surface. This concealing is accomplished by the ink. This is in contrast to engraving. There the form is directly in the stone. You see them not due to concealment, but due to a revelation of the form in the stone.

Secularists see things as fighting for survival and trying to exist in empty space. This is the halal (vacuum) perspective that does not relate back to its source.

We see things existing in 'available space' (makom panui) – this means that there is a provision for things. The space 'holds' what is put into it. And you have been given the right to occupy this space. There is real ownership. This is our inner reality. Things are not precarious.

Thus we see the letter is provided for by the paper and parchment that holds it. It does not fear that it will be pushed away. The letters reveal the reality that the parchment provides...

We are going to look at an even deeper way to understand tzurah atzmiut (essential form). We are looking for a form that represents the essence. How can a form describe a fundamental reality?

This is different from letters written on, or even engraved in a material. The letters are a revelation of the essence, but not the essence itself (etzem mamash).