Sun itself does not need to say “I am bright”

Aeter with R' Paltiel 9/10/09 Thursday 21 Elul 5769 Page: Pay


Page Pay – lower quarter of the page. 5 lines from the bottom.

The two levels in malchus – absorbing from above, and descending into biya are the kesser of malchus and the tes sphirot of malchus.


The kesser of malchus is the element of romemus and hisnasus. This is the principle of being a metziut (being malchus as opposed to being an ohr), but the metziut is beyond meziut. Normally a metziut needs some kind of substantiation and support – malchus is completely beyond this.


Like we say in davening – the King is elevated unto himself and is above the days of world. That is a level of the king that does not relate to world.


Ohrot atzmi'im are like rays of the sun in the sun. They say what the sun is. Sun itself does not need to say “I am bright”. The sun is bright 'cos darkness doesn't exist in the sun. Light is a derivative of this essence. Kesser, like the sun, doesn't say what it is.


Malchus is the presence that says “no statement needs to be made” - it has absorbed ohrot atzmium and become an etzem. Ultimately the people relates to the king as he is unto himself.




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Land and sea

Aeter with R' Paltiel 9/8/09 Tuesday 19 Elul 5769 Page: Pay

Page Pay – lower quarter of the page.


When malchus is mashpia below – eretz, the atzmi of the light is not present.


So it is with every intermediary. The lower receives from the higher level, but the essence gets concealed with in the memutzah and what is given to the lower level is the derivative from this.


The meturgaman (translator/explainer) accepts the teaching of the rav as it is, but only he is of sufficient level to benefit from it, and then he gives it over to the lower students and at that level it is the essence of the rav's teaching.


Ohr denotes that we don't just have the article itself, but we have the way it points to its source. Instead of being a limited finite quality, it gives it an infinity – the source from which it comes. The principle of ohr is that it remains connected to its source. Thought speech and actions are like the ohr. Sechel and middot are the source. Things in sechel fit with the nefesh – he can relate to it.


The ohr is not nimshach in thought speech and action – just the chitzoni of the ohr.



 External aspect of malchus is called aretz/land. We have a tree growing on the earth and it is a separate entity. In the sea there is an intrinsic connection between the entities and the sea. The meturgaman receives shefa harav – when he listens he get more than the words of the rav – he gets the intent. When he tells a halacha he has to say, “the rav said...” this shows the connection to the source.


The meturagen is able to give over the intent of the rav.


We learn that a tzaddik that has ups and downs, while down he is sustained by the faith he got from his mother. Why this level? All that he learned later is by sechel and it touches one only to a certain depth. So too if one hears and knows, “my rebbe said it” then it has a whole different level of meaning.

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It is worth having a country in order to have a king!

Aeter with R' Paltiel 9/4/09 Friday 15 Elul 5769 Page: Pay

Page Pay – lower third of the page. Line starts “meir beze...” 


To review what we are learning and what is being discussed: to understand romemus and hisnasus and how these have two levels – internal to the king and how it reflects itself onto biya or onto the people, and the third point which is central to the meimer, this hisnasus is what facilitates the relationship between atzilus and biya and is called shchinah.


These are the 3 points.


In the principle of romemus we tried to identify how the people and the king relate to things and the contrast between their perspectives.


For the people it is all on a practical/existential level, without an intrinsic reality – this is the level of a created entity. From a higher perspective (atik lebriya) the principle that there are many people in the world is not an inadvertent thing – it is part of the essence of the king's rule.


The king represents perfection and completion. Therefore the malchus has, by definition, multiple functions and people have different roles.


The king is above the functional level – he doesn't see things as answers to problems, but as essential entities.


The essence of the king is way beyond the expression of this reality – he is a reflection of a kesser quality. A kesser is a presence that is true in and of itself and does not require there to be any details in order for it to be true.


This is very difficult for us to identify. Sechel cannot comprehend kesser. Sechel identifies everything in metzius, and moreover our sechel doen't recognize a presence that is not a created presence.


But we have to understand that all came from Him and He is a truth that does not require a reason for being, since he doesn't come into being. And this truth reflects itself in the full seder hishtalshalus in a minimal manner and it reflects itself in the world in a king.


It is worth having a country in order to have a king! The king shows there is truth in existence.

The rebbe said it is impossible to destroy the world, because there is a truth in it that is indestructible. This is to say the level of romemus as it is to the king is reflected in the world. This is called shchinah and allows biya (world) to have a sense of atzilus.

To explain the essence of malchus we are looing and yam/sea and yabasha/land. Within the melech all originates from kesser – from the unity of the nefesh and then it develops into a whole structure. After it is all developed it returns to a unity that reflects where it all came from, but it is a reflection on the practical level.

The conclusion incorporates all above it and then there is the next level of “and i'm going to act” - this is a separate chitzoni/external level – this is the level of eretz/yabasha/land.

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Connecting opposites

Aeter with R' Paltiel 9/3/09 Thursday 14 Elul 5769 Page: Pay

Page Pay – lower third of the page. Line starts “meir beze...”

we said that in malchus there are two levels, since it is a memutze that connects atzilus and biya. Atzilus and biya are opposites and malchus somehow has the ability to connect them. To connect two different levels it is necessary that the entity must have the elements of both. In malchus these two levels are called yam and eretz.

Just like all that is in the yam/sea is contained and hidden, so too the higher level of malchus absorbs the ohrot atzmium of atzilus. Aretz in contrast has the same things as are found in yam, but everything stands out and is revealed.

Last night this was looked at in the way this is processed in a human being. Sechel and midot of a person are a reflection of his nefesh. Sechel is called ohr hanefesh/ohr hasechel. Just like light emanates naturally from its source and is representative of its source, so too the sechel is a reflection of the nefesh. In the person this can be called ohrot atzmi'im – ie something that is not involved in external matters, rather it is reflective of his nefesh.

The malchus aspect of this process is that just as the nefesh (the source of this activity) is one, at the end it gets reconvened into one. So too in man, he has one nefesh and at the end man has everything that can be summarized into one.

Malchus is able to collect all the kochot and conclude by saying, “I'm now going to do such and such,” thus providing for external expression. Internally the conclusion is reflective of the nefesh and there is ohr in it.

When it comes to outer expression it is chitzoni/external, without ohr. This external decision is reflective of the strength of the nefesh (internally it unifies all ohrot and outside it has the same strength without the ohrot being revealed).

If the decision was already made internally what is the strengh in doing it? On the inner level the decision was not reached “I must go west”, in pnimius east and west are not seen as contradictory since they both come from the same source. At the external level it looks as if the whole thing is responding to circumstance without unity.

Sechel and midot are thus mehus hanefesh. Beis hillel and beis shammai according to their sechel don't sense that they are opposites, but when it comes out externally one rules lenient and the other stringent.

And the both learned properly from the same teacher.

when internal the divisiveness does not really exist – only when it comes into an external realm.



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The king and the traffic lights

Aeter with R' Paltiel 9/2/09 Wednesday 13 Elul 5769 Page: Pay

Page Pay – about a third from the top.

Romemus permits a relationship without involvement. Sechel doesn't have this ability. Malchus can relate without being absorbed – drawn into it.

Malchus, so to speak, requires a creation to express itself. But this is the lower level of malchus – etzem hamalchus is the principle of supremacy as it is unto itself.

We used the example of a traffic light – on the people's level the light is a security measure, but from the perspective of each driver they would rather not have a cross-street. A king has a completely different perspective.

He's the king of the entire land and the land expresses his greatness, and he encompasses everything – thus the king will have many, many people, each with their own path in life – so it is part of his malchus that he has people going north-south and others going west-east. So now the light represents the essence of the malchus.

This is malchus being dressed in biya – the nature of the king is dressed in the nature of his people.

The infinity in creation/nation is representative of malchus of hashem. The co-ordination of this variety shows the greatness of the king.

The US government was formed to protect the individual. In a kingdom the people represent the greatness of the king. The people serve the king and this elevates them to the level of the king. In the US the constitution it does say, “one nation under G-d” so there is an acknowledgement of a higher principle. This is a current debate, do we live in a spiritless system or a G-dly kingdom?



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