Baal HaSulam

Study of the Ten Sefirot

Vol. 1, Part 1

Explains the issue of the first restriction, when the light of Ein Sof became restricted in order to emanate the emanated beings and create the created beings; containing five issues:

1. Before the restriction, Ein Sof filled the entire reality. 2. The reason for creation was the revelation of His Names and Appellations. 3. The restriction of the light around the middle point. 4. The space that remained after the restriction was circular. 5. Because the light of Ein Sof was even, the restriction was also even. This is the meaning of the circle.

Inner Light

"We must remember that the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is founded on spiritual matters that do not take up time or space. They are not subject to change or absence and all the changes that are spoken of in this wisdom do not imply that the first form becomes absent and is replaced by a different form. The above change rather implies an additional form, while the first does not move from its place, as absence and change are corporeal conducts.

It is difficult for beginners, for they perceive matters by means of corporeal boundaries of time, space, change and exchange. However, the authors only used those as signs to point to their upper roots.

For this reason, I will make an effort to give every word its spiritual identity, detached of space, time and change. It is upon the readers to memorize the meaning of these words thoroughly, for it is impossible to repeat them every time."...

Inner Observation

"First, we must know that when dealing with spiritual matters, which have no concern with time, space or motion, and moreover when dealing with Godliness, we do not have the words by which to contemplate and express. Our entire vocabulary is taken from sensations of imaginary senses. Thus, how can they assist us where sense and imagination do not reign?

For example, if you take the subtlest of words, namely “lights,” it nonetheless resembles and borrows from the light of the sun or an emotional light of contentment. Thus, how can they be used to express Godly matters? They would certainly fail to provide the reader with anything true.

It is even truer in a place where these words should disclose the negotiations in the wisdom in print, as is done in any research of wisdom. If we fail with even a single inadequate word, the reader will be instantly disoriented and will not find his hands or legs in this whole matter.

For this reason, the sages of the Kabbalah have chosen a special language that we can call “the language of the branches.” There is not an essence or a conduct of an essence in this world that does not derive from its root in the upper world. Moreover, the beginning of every being in this world starts from the upper world and then hangs down to this world.

Thus, the sages have found an adequate language without trouble by which they could convey their attainments to each other by word of mouth and in writing from generation to generation. They have taken the names of the branches in this world, where each name is self-explanatory, as though pointing to its upper root in the system of the upper worlds.

Indeed, those whose eyes have not been opened to the sights of heaven, and have not acquired the proficiency in the connections of the branches of this world with their roots in the upper worlds are like the blind scraping the walls. They will not understand the true meaning of even a single word, for each word is a name of a branch that relates to its root.

Only if they receive an interpretation from a genuine sage who makes himself available to explain the matter in the spoken language, which is necessarily like translating from one language to another, meaning from the language of the branches to the spoken language, only then he will be able to explain the spiritual term as it is.

This is what I have troubled to do in this interpretation, to explain the ten Sefirot as the Godly sage the Ari had instructed us, in their spiritual purity, devoid of any tangible terms. Thus, any beginner may approach the wisdom without failing in any materialization or mistake. With the understanding of these ten Sefirot, one will also come to examine and know how to comprehend the rest of the issues in this wisdom"...

Pic. 1 The Study of the Ten Sefirot, vol. 5

Pic. 2 - First page of "The Study of the Ten Sefirot"

Pic. 3 - Baal HaSulam's manuscript of the "Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words"

Pic. 4 - Baal HaSulam's manuscript of the "Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words"

Pic. 5: Rav Michael Laitman's personal copy of "The Study of the Ten Sefirot"