L'AcademyOfLife.Org & KabbalahWisdom.org

Just finished a three week stint as Mashgiach for Kedem and in case somebody else is considering this position I wanted to give them the full disclosure.

Pros

1. Sounds decent – you are offered a semi-decent salary – a car allowance (which turns into a shared car rental to go to work.)

2. The people start off quite friendly.

Cons

1. Ultimately they are trying to nickel and dime (yet to be paid).

2. They are severely understaffed.

3. They have an attitude and they are king and you are their servants.

4. They do not train you and they expect you to be a genius in terms of knowing everything to do.

They’re prone to random outburst – in summary, effectively it is a very unprofessional and somewhat demeaning work environment.

Now this that the Rambam said, that God and His wisdom are one with a simple unity – this is true of all His emotions and all the Holy Names by which He is called – and the “descriptive terms” which our sages described Him, such as merciful, compassionate, Chossid etc. Simalerly the term “Wise” as it is written “He is also wise.”

Simalerly His will – as in “God desires those who fear Him,” “He desires kindness,” “He desires the repentance of the wicked and desires not their death or their wickedness.”

So His desire, intelligence, love, compassion and Tifferes (the combination of love and strength) these do not add any addition to Him as they are Him, and as the Rambam said this iss beyond human comprehension – for when a man imagines an emotion or the concept of intelligence or desire, he can only imagine this concept as it exists within himself – however God is infinitely beyond any comprehension, and his emotions and intelligence and desire have no relation to what they are in human terms.

For the first level or quality of a human is Chochmah or innovation.

This is why Chochmah is called Reishis  / beginning.

In truth it is the source of the life-force in all created beings.

For from Chochmah comes Bina and Daas.

And from them all the emotions in the intellectual souls, such as Chessed / kindness, Gevurah / strength ensue.

This is empirically seen, for a small child lacking intelligence we find that they are highly emotional,prone to tantrums and desirous of petty things.

For he lacks intelligence to desire that which is truly desirable.

Now from the emotions, letters and words construct themselves in our thoughts.

The soul thinks about whatever it desires, or how to actualize a kindness / compassion.

Similarly with other emotions, the emotion creates the thought.

Now every thought that exists in the world has some type of emotion which causes this thought.

And this emotion is the life force of this thought.

And then letters of thought can descend into letters of speech, and they are it’s life force.

And the speech creates the action of Tzeddakah and kindness – for example a King that tells his servants to give some money to someone.

Now even if somebody decides to do something… the soul power within this action, relative to the power of the soul that is in speech is nothing – for the soul that goes into speech is much higher, like the distance of the soul to the body.

So too is the distance between the soul that goes into the letters of action versus speech, and similarly the distance between the letters of thought to the actual emotions that give birth to it – and this distance is also similar between the emotion, and the intelligence that created this emotion – all of this is in the soul of man, and all creations in all the universes above and below – and in all of them the level of Chochmah is the beginning and the source of life.

Now we can understand the meaning of the Zohar that “Shema Yisroel” is the higher unity and “Boruch Shem” the lower.

Now Echad and Va-ed, the final words of Shema and Boruch Shem are actually interchangeable.

Now it is known that the entire purpose of the creation of reality is because God desired to be able to reveal Himself.

This is why God concealed Himself from the Creations, for in order to, as in the example of a king and his subjects, have a relationship – there has to be an other who is “distant.”

As a king could never rule on his own sons or even on his ministers.

Now the name of God that demonstrates His Lordship is the name of Adnus / Lord, and hence it is from this name that the concealment of Creations, allowing for there to be this King / subject relationship, ensues.

Without this name there would be no physical world to speak of.

Now the definition of a world is time and space.

Time refers to past, present, future (in other words, the experience of the Soul.)

Space refers to north, east, south, west, up and down (in other words the place of the body / soul.)

Only in the world of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah can we say, that God descends to be within time and space.

This means that the life-force of space and time comes from the emotion / level of Malchus / kingship of God.

Now as this level is one with God, therefore time and space is also one with God (as in Aristotelian logic if A. equals B. and B = C then C. equals A.)

This is the intertwining of the name Adnus with Havaye.

For the name Havayeh demonstrates that it is beyond time, as it incorporates all time in a single moment.

God is also beyond space, for He incorporates all space ( think like the GPS satellite…) every moment.

In other words, this is His incorporation with His emotions / power, which is the source of physical time / space.

This is the lower level Unity.

In other words, that the very essence of God, fills the entire time / space dimension.

God’s Essence fills all time, all space below, exactly as it fills the highest heavens above.

This is the attribute of Malchus, which is the attribute of Tzimtzum / concealment for it conceals all.

For without Malchus there could be no  concealment, and therefore there could be no physical time space.

Now this is the meaning of verse, “I am God who has not changed.”

In other words, there has been absolutely no change within God at all – the same God who existed prior to Creation, is the same God that exists after creation – and creation being subsumed within Him, like a thought within the person, does not take up any space at all.

And this is what it says that, “You are the one from before creation – You are the one after, without any difference in you at all!”

Not only did this not affect any difference in God, it furthermore did not affect any difference within His understanding, for He understands all reality not outside Himself, but within. For all comes from Him and is completely humbled / subsumed within Him.

As the Rambam writes, He is the knowledge, the knower, and the known.

Now this is not something that the human brain can comprehend.

For God’s Essence and His intelligence are a simple unit, with no separation at all.

This is unlike a person who’s knowledge is different to himself, for he exists prior to his knowledge.

By a person, the capacity to study exists prior to the study – and the knowledge, which increases daily, therefore is in addition to the study itself.

Whearas by God, there’s absolutely no addition to Him.

As such, just as no human being can understand the essence of His Creator, it is impossible to understand His knowledge.

One must simply believe, God is beyond human understanding, for everything that He understands is not in addition to a human – when He understands a small worm at the bottom of the ocean – this is not in addition to anything in Him, for it is within Him.

As this is very hard for us to comprehend, therefore the Prophet said, “As your ways are not my ways – my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”

And it says, “If you research God, will you discover.”

And it says, “Does God have eyes like men, that see.”

For a person sees everything, as it is outside  Himself – whereas God sees everything inside Himself.

Based on the above, we can understand the error of some people who thought they were wise….

And looking at the doctrine of Tzimtzum / Diminution of the Divine Light as the Ari-Zal speaks about it – they think that God actually removed Himself from this world. (This in fact was the fundamental error of the Misnagdim, their leader who I wish not to mention, who in his own way was a great man but considering himself very clever, he saw the doctrine… and as we will see misunderstood a fundamental fact.)

They thought that God simply observes the world from above, like a king looking out of his Palace.

This of-course is a gross error, for apart from the fact, one cannot speak about physical dimensions with the infinitely beyond physical God.

However it’s simply nonsensical, because they themselves are believers in God, and so God’s knowledge encompasses every created thing – and as His knowledge is Himself, therefore it does not create any addition within Him.

And this is what it explicitly States in Tikkunim that above and below is God.

And in Rayeh Mehemna it is written, “He Holds onto everything, but no one holds onto him.

He encompasses all universes and nothing is outside of His Dominion.

He is the substance of all worlds, and connects all substances together.

And the four elements of air, fire, earth and water, cannot be connected except for the fact that He is within it.”

The idea that “Nothing can hold God” is that there is no mind that can conceive of God, even the highest intelligences, of the highest worlds.

As it writes in Tikkunim, “The secret of all secrets.”

“And there is no thought that can conceive of Him at all.”

The fact is, that even though God is a substance and fills all reality down here below – unlike the soul which feels the pain of the body, say stubbing the toenail – nothing, whether it’s heat or cold etc. is a physical sensation to God.

Likewise night and day do not affect any change in God – as it says, “Darkness does not conceal from God.”

This is because the universe is within God, and cannot conceal from Him.

This is also the concept that God encompasses all universes.

For example, when a person is thinking about a physical object, at that time his mind is encompassing the object. Though it doesn’t actually physically encompass it.

But God upon whom it says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts”.

His thoughts continuously encompass every single being for eternity.

This is it’s very existence and life force in actuality.

Now God “filling all worlds ..” is the notion of His life force sustaining every being.

And this life force diminishes to the “size” and importance of every Being.

For example, the sun is 167 times the radius of the Earth.

Now the quality / important of the sun of course is it’s light and being a finite creation, has a limit on its radiance, for it cannot shine indefinitely.

Similarly all creation are finite, even great distances – such as the Earth to the sky which is the distance of 500 years – it is still a limited number.

As such the energy and life force in them is also limited.

For it had to be condensed through many many diminutions of their light, until a physical creation could come from it.

For the source of all life is the breath of God which is within all creations.

Now the breath of God could have spread forth and created universes and beings who were infinite in their size and quality.

For just as God is infinite, so too are His emotions / abilities, and causations.

“The breath of his mouth” goes into His emotions / Chessed – Gevurah etc. and hence as they are one – they can have infinite Dynamics.

It is only that as God decided, He concealed the light coming from His emotions, say Chessed into the Ten Sayings.

Through the exchange and the interchange of letters in their Gematriah / numerical equivalencies.

This causes that they can create creations that are of lower quality and quantity than the actual energy within the 10 Sayings themselves.

Which is the type of combinations in the word of the lower combination.

After all the contracting and diminutions, the light can go into say the stones and dirt of this world.

For the word Even / stone shows that it takes itself in the name Ban.

And there is an extra Alef for reasons known to Her Creator.

Now the name Ban is a very high name.

However it’s light goes through many many contractions until it can come into the stone.

And this is the life force of the stone that brings it into life, every second.

And this is the level of Memaleh Koil Almin – God fills all the worlds.

Now each and every name (from the substitutions, such as Even) has a capacity to create creations without limit and end (in its vein.)

As it is a name from God, therefore like Him, has an infinite capacity.

However these names are not as great as the source names in the Ten Sayings.

Ki

Now the name of God, Eloikim, refers to God’s emotion of strength and concealment.

As such, it is also the Gematriah / numerical equivalent of “the nature.”

Because it conceals the light that creates and sustains the world, causing the world to seem as if it operates independently / naturally.

Now this name Eloikim, is a shield and cloak for the name of Havayeh, in other words, it conceals the great light which comes from Havayeh, that causes all to come into existence from non-existence constantly – in order that this should not be known to the creations, for then they would cease to have an independent existence.

Now this level of strength and concealment is in fact also God’s kindness which the world is created with.

This is what it’s called: “strength” which is merged with kindness.

Now from the merging of these emotions – one in the other… – it is obvious, that God and His emotions are one.

As they are in a complete Unity with Him, therefore they can also unify.

This is what Elijah said, “You are the one that connects and unifies them, and besides you there is no Unity above and below.”

This is what the verse States, “You should consider and place it upon your heart, that Havayeh is Eloikim.”

This means that these two names are really literally one.

That even the name of Eloikim that conceals the light, is really God’s favor / kindness, just like the name Havayeh.

Because the emotions of God are one with Him in a complete Unity, and He and His emotions are one and His emotions are His names (as each name refers to an emotion / ability.)

Therefore it is obvious that in Heaven above and earth below, there is nothing besides God.

In other words, even this physical world that appears as a complete existence to the eye, all of it is actually non-existence and nothing relative to God.

For the name Eloikim does not conceal from God, only from His creations – for God and His name Eloikim are actually the same.

And therefore even on the earth below and even below the earth, all this is literally nothing relative to God – in other words, it doesn’t have any existence and it cannot even be called as “something else.”

It is not like a body which is subservient to the soul and the life-force in it (rather it is simply God.)

(This is what the verse says, “I will praise God/Havayeh with my life, and will sing to my God/Eloikim with my might” for life comes from the name Havayeh, and the body from Eloikim.)

Now the soul does not create the body out of nothingness – whereas God actually creates everything out of nothingness – so therefore relative to Him it doesn’t exist, like the light of the sun In the Sun.

As such, the verse had to warn us to realize “Place in your heart…” that we should not think that heaven and everything in it and the Earth and all the things in it are separate from God, and God like a soul, fills that life force and places the power of growth into the Earth, the ability of movement in the planetary and celestial orbs and moves them as He desires, like the soul moves the body – (rather God is the very substance, or more accurately the very substance is within God Himself, and it is like with His thoughts that God creates and causes the natural observations that we see.)

Now in truth, the soul and the body are actually opposites – for in their source they come from different places – as the body does not come from the soul above it – rather from the drops of the father and mother – and even after this, its growth does not come from the soul alone – but through the food and drink of his mother for the 9 months in the womb, and then through his own food and drink – whereas Heaven and Earth, their very essence is continuously created from the word of God and the breath of His mouth which continuously remains within them and pulsates every single nanosecond to bring them into existence out of nothingness – just like the light of the Sun within the sun itself.

As such, they are truly non-existent relative to the word of God and the breath of His mouth, which is one with His essence – as we explained before, just like the light of the Sun relative to the sun itself is not existence.

This is the strength of God, and His ability and strength and concealment, to hide the life force which goes into the creative things, and as such, Heaven and Earth and all within them seem as if they are independent entities.

Now this emotion of strength does not conceal the truth God forbid from God , rather God of-course knows that His two names of Havayeh and Eloikim are one.

Regarding the process of creation through the agency of Tzimtzum / diminution of light, our sages say, that in the beginning God desired to create the world through complete Tzimtzum, but realizing that the concealment of light would disallow anyone vision (of God/truth…) He put into it “Mercy” namely the miracles recorded in the Torah and the Tzaddikim (who serve as Divine role models.)

This is what the Zohar says, that above there are two emotions of kindness and strength.

In other words, both are the Divine emotions transcending any human ability to comprehend them.

In fact these two things are one, as God and his emotions are.

Even the comprehension of Moses in the Divine emotions, was only as they vested into the world of Beriah (from Atzilus) and there descended into Netzech, Hod, Yesod.

However the reward for the Tzaddikim in Gan Eden / the world of Beriah is the comprehension of the light and energy that radiate from these two emotions.

This is the “food” of the Tzaddikim that study Torah in this world altruisticly / for God.

For from these two emotions, a sky spreads over the souls in Heaven.

This is called “the sky of Torah.”

This is the secret (knowledge) of the twenty two letters of the Torah.

As it States, “From His right hand, He gave the Torah” in other words, the Torah descends from Chessed.

From this sky, dew, namely insights into the Torah descend.

This is the comprehension of the 22 letters of the Torah.

The Torah is the food of the souls in heaven, and the Mitzvos are her garments.

Now it is written that “God is a sun and a shield” – in other words, there are two names of God – Havayeh and Eloikim (the first represents God as the infinite Creator, the second as the infinite concealer as will be explained – point of this chapter is to explain: how is it that everything, as said in the previous chapters is Divine energy, yet we are unaware?!?)

The explanation of this is that a shield here refers to the covering over the Sun (perhaps the solar winds that cool the heat or the ozone layer) which protects us from its intense heat – now just like the covering / shield protects us from intense radiation of the Sun, similarly does the name Eloikim protect us from the name of Havayeh Blessed Be He.

For the name of Havayeh means that God consistently creates everything from nothing.

The Yud in the name represents that this is a constant action – in other words, the energy comes literally every single second within all creations from the word of God and His spirit and brings everything out of nothingness into “something.”

As mentioned previously, the original creation is not the ability for it to continuously exist – rather it needs a constant force bringing it into existence every nano-second.

Now in the Siddur / prayer book, when we speak about the praises of God, it is written that He is great and strong etc.

The explanation of “great” is the emotion of God’s kindness and His giving life to all the universes and the creations within, to constantly bring them into existence out of nothingness into “somethingness” which is done purely from His infinite love.

The reason it is called great, because this comes from the greatness of God-Himself who has no limitations, therefore He constantly creates and sustains all the universes and the infinite Creations within them out of sheer non-existence, as the “nature of the kind / good, is to do kindness / goodness.”

Now just as this emotion is the praise of God alone, for no other creation can possibly cause something to come into existence out of nothingness and sustain it, similarly this emotion is beyond the understanding of a human being – for no human being can understand this capacity to create matter out of nothingness, and to continuously give it life.

Creation of matter out of nothingness is beyond the understanding of any creation as it comes from the emotion of God’s greatness – and God and His emotions are a completely and simply a single entity, as it states in Kabbalah, that He and His emotions are one.

Now just as it is impossible for any mind to understand their Creator, so also it is impossible to understand His emotions.

Now just as no mind can understand God’s emotion of greatness, which is the capacity to create matter out of nothingness and continuously revive it – as it says “The world is built on kindness” in the exact same way it is impossible for any creation to understand the strength of God, which is the capacity to diminish and restrain the life force that it should not be revealed to the creations.

In other words that they should not perceive that their energy actually comes from God, and they will perceive that their body is an independent entity, non-reliant on the life force and the spiritual energy that makes them exist.

Though in fact they are entirely dependent, they are like the ray from the sun which is 100% dependent on the sun.

God’s strength is such that He can so condense the spirituality and life force which comes from the breath of His mouth, and conceal it, in order that the individual should have an independent identity.

Now it is impossible for any created intelligence to comprehend how God’s light can be both diminished and concealed yet nonetheless have the capacity to create the body / matter out of nothing.

(Now the dimunition and concealment of the life force is called “Keilim” (the containers of energy / bodies.) Whereas the life force itself is called “light.”

The reason for this is, just like a container conceals what is within it – so too the diminution of the light conceals the light and the energy that comes into it.

Now the Keilim / containers are the actual letters of Hebrew.

And these letters come from the 5 source letters Mem Nun Tzaddik Pei Ches – which are the five strengths / Gevurah of God, that separate the breath and the voice and the five articulations of the mouth which create the 22 letters.

And the source of these five strengths that separate the letters is the Kabbalistic level of the darkness that transcends light – in other words, the Divine who decides exactly what should and shouldn’t be / created. This is the higher Gevurah of Atik Yomin – and the source of the kindness of God is Chessed of Atik Yomin, as known to those knowledgeable in Kabbalah.