“The King's Coffee Table” p: 45

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 45 6/15/2011 Thursday 14 Sivan 5771

Page 45 – below mid point of the page (line starts: bechinat ha-arah...) 

Chochmah / wisdom is called ein / nothing. This is because it has a 'reflection' and not the essence itself. It has the effect of the etzem/essence.

It is also called ein / nothing based on a positive quality. This is that it is not a real/fixed presence as yet. It is not a 'something'. Everything in the physical world, like a table for example, is described by its features and the way we benefit from it. 

To be it must occupy space, and this doesn't have to do with its essence. This is just to bring it into existence. In reality the table originates in the soul of man. Man expresses the need for it. A king doesn't hold his plate and eat, if he needs a book it lies on the table at the ready. This is the status of the human being.

The Rambam says, in the time to come there will be no want. Luxuries will be as common as dust. This will be to facilitate one delving into the wisdom of his Creator. 

The table needs still to have a physical presence. Though it is sourced in the human soul, it gets translated into wood and steel! This is a metzius/presence. The essence is the only thing that is really an ein/nothing. Pure truth. 'I choose the King' is the statement of chochmah, which seeks the 'nothingness' of truth. Though chochmah is an emanation, yet it stays above being a something and seeks truth – it 'goes for the king'! 

We say in the world to come there is no eating and drinking. 'Sages will sit, with their crowns on their heads, and take delight in the shine of the shchina (G-d's presence)' and that is fully satisfying. They have zero interest in developing something of their own.

Bina translates the insight of chochmah into the tangible human thought – 'you understand it at your level'.

Chochmah is like a spark. A fire has a wick or fuel – a substance that it is based on. A spark is fire without a vessel.

“See Beyond Blue” p: 45

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 45 6/15/2011 Wednesday 13 Sivan 5771

Page 45 – mid point of the page (line starts: bechinat ha ein ha eloki...)


In atzilus are 2 levels. Atzilus as it is unto itself. And secondly the level of atzilus that relates to the lower worlds.


This is like the 2 levels of sight. It is a physical process, which corresponds to the lower faculty of touch, though at a higher level. And then there is inner sight.





Sight changes a person's orientation – it makes the world real. Thus when you touch an object it is real not just because it is affecting you. We see a whole panorama in one instant.


When seeing a view there is the overall impact and then there is the identification of various elements in the panorama. One says, 'the sky is blue' and this is the initial observation, but chochmah doesn't see it as 'blue' – it sees the purity and clarity. So the identification of the color is like the identification of one of the elements. The initial experience of sight is not, 'blue'. The 'impact' followed by 'identificaton' the process of 'cause and effect' in sight.


This takes place in atzilus too. There is this process for the sake of atzilus – this is like the full impact of the sight. At first one is entirely involved in the sight and one has no concern about how to report it – it is eino metzius davar – totally beyond presentation.

“Real Sight” p: 45

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 45 6/14/2011 Tuesday 12 Sivan 5771

Page 45 – mid point of the page (line starts: bechinat ha ein ha eloki...) 

Yesterday we discussed chochmah/wisdom and how it is the 'nothing' – a faculty without a perspective of its own. This is like the eye relating to the truth of what is visible. Yet it is ein – not the actual thing. It is what is being observed, not the truth itself.

The level of ein/nothing contains elokus/G-dliness and hence is able to create worlds.

The mashal/metaphor of sight is very accurate and useful in understanding chochmah. Sight is the connection between you and reality. Sight is 'an experience', but the object seen is the main thing.

The animal sees but doesn't have a sense of reality. It sees as a form of touch. Only a human, really 'sees' and does it via sechel. This is a negation of evolutionary theory, where the object is just functional, whereas the reallity is we see the true presence. This is the presence of the Creator, not the created.

The animal says, 'something is hitting my eye, and I better watch out – is this my lunch or will I be his lunch'. While sight does have a physical process, for a human it is based on sechel/mind.

Man sees, 'the truth of it', not 'I see it'.

This class/discussion has been to grasp something of ein ha-eloki – the G-dly nothing...

“Out of the Blue” p: 45

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 45 6/13/2011 Monday 11 Sivan 5771

Page 45 – mid point of the page (line starts: makor...) 

We have explained that to facilitate creation, there had to be an intermediary of atzilus, that was different from ohr ein sof. The infinity of ohr ein sof is beyond created entities and thus cannot be their source.

Chochmah has cognizance of the ohr ein sof, but in a 'knowable' manner. And this becomes the 'reishis' of atzilus – the origin of the world of atzilus. The world of atzilus is bitul to the chochmah. Chochmah can see a topic as it is, without the need to format it or personalize it. This chochmah is the start of the ein eloki – 'the G-dly nothing' to be the source of the worlds of biyah (the lower worlds).

Atzilus is an intermediary and the worlds of biya by contrast are created entities. How is atzilus not a creation? Atzilus is chochmah and no matter what chochmah experiences, it sees it in its place, in the ohr ein sof, it doesn't translate and say, 'this is mine, this is my knowledge'.

What is the ein eloki – the 'G-dly nothing' that it becomes a source for the worlds of biya. We said yesterday, speech describes something, but doesn't give the essence – it deals with the effect, the nothing rather than the actual, so too there is a 'nothing' that precedes creation.

To explain something to someone, you have to 'put yourself in his shoes' – you feign not knowing about it. This is the 'ein' / nothing of this sechel. You look at the topic from the 'not knowing position' and there he sees the ein/nothing. For the one who knows he sees how the topic/sechel originates from his ratzon. But that he cannot give to the student. What can he give? He gives it from the ein/nothing. He presents it 'out of the blue'.

When one sees a tree and doesn't understand how it stands, and where it gets its life from, then it is a representation. But when you know about the roots in the earth and the power that He placed in the earth then you have a real sense. There is not tangibility to the source. This is the ein to which he can begin to relate. Ein – nothing – is the hidden truth. 

“Soul Beyond System” p: 45

AyinBase with R' Paltiel p: 45 6/12/2011 Sunday 10 Sivan 5771

 

Grand Canyon

Page 45 – mid point of the page (line starts: makor...) 

We'll start with getting some sense of the meaning of ein/nothing.

We've been talking about the world of atzilus. The infinite light was withdrawn and a rishima/trace remains.

The same thing occurs in biya – the lower worlds.

Chochmah is the head/starting point of atzilus, represents the start of ein/nothing of G-dliness that allows for the source of worlds.

Everything in world has the aspect of not being and then coming into being. No matter what there is, there is always the element that it is something, 'that was made to be' and not something that is 'there in and of itself'.

Victoria Falls

Within world we can see two elements – the worldly and the G-dly.  

Everything in the world has to have the space where it exists. Space precedes the object and is taken for granted – it is there by default. We have pointed out that 'worldly space' is really a creation.

Ohr ein sof doesn't have the element of 'coming into existence'. World has this element.

Within the human being this is reflected by his 'thought, speech and actions' coming into being. A car and a man both move, but for the man it comes from an inner life that is much higher than movement – sourced in a higher truth. Even so, thought is constant. It is the representation of the constant presence of the soul in the body. But even this highest element, and the most representative that the man is alive, is only a reflection.

Grand Canyon, Skyway

The real thoughts draw from chochmah, binah and daas. This is like the atzilus/higher world for the thought. Sechel/mind is really rooted in ratzon/will. Sechel is will at the level that can ultimately become thought. For there to be the lower worlds there has to be the intermediary state – and this is atzilus. 

In our world and all the experiences we have, the worldly element is so prevalent it is hard to identify their source. From the world perspective everything that happens has an external stimulus. This 'system' has been identified so clearly and given such range, that one can explain everything without mention of the soul. This is the way things are from a worldly perspective. In contrast to that, there is a soul. All the faculties are not in response to stimulus, they are based in the nefesh – a living, G-dly entity.

We have a sense of it (soul) in chochmah. This is because chochmah is above sechel/mind. Chochmah is like sight.

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Why can the world not come into existence from ohr ein sof/infinity? You see the word as 'cause and effect' because that is what it is. So something that is essential cannot directly translate into something that is completely external. Ratzon/will cannot relate to that. Ratzon/will has no sense of falseness. It cannot relate to something coming into being. How is the ratzon brought down into thought, speech and action? Via an intermediary, chochmah, binah and daas (sechel). 

The easiest way to get a grasp of chochmah is to think of sight. We see the whole panorama at at a glance. It takes no time. 'its just there', yet there is the sense still of, 'I'm seeing what there is to see'. I see it as reality, I'm not part of that reality – so there is a sense of 'coming into being and I can close my eyes to it'.

Life is that which is given to you. Think of breathing. If you take it for yourself then it's not life. Life is not within your realm. You don't name its price. You're being given something beyond world. Understanding only applies to that which is limited.