Lessons 22-24. The First Restriction [Tzimtzum Aleph] and the Screen [Masach]

Selected Excerpts from "Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah" by Baal HaSulam

13) The thing is that as corporeal objects are separated from one another by remoteness of location, spiritual matters are separated from each other by the disparity of form between them. This can be found in our world, too. For example, when two people share similar views, they like each other and the remoteness of location does not cause them to draw far from one another.

Conversely, when their views are far, they are hateful of each other and proximity of location will not bring them any closer. Thus, the disparity of form in their views removes them from each other, and the proximity of form in their views brings them closer to each other. If, for example, one’s nature is the complete opposite of the other’s, they are as far from one another as the east from the west.

Similarly, all matters of nearness and remoteness, coupling and unity that unfold in spirituality are but measures of disparity of form. They depart from one another according to their measure of disparity of form and attach to one another according to their measure of equivalence of form.

Yet, you should understand that although the will to receive is a mandatory law in the created being, as it is the essence of the created being and the proper vessel for reception of the goal of the thought of creation, it nonetheless completely separates it from the Emanator, as there is disparity of form to the point of oppositeness between itself and the Emanator. This is because the Emanator is complete bestowal without a shred of reception, and the created being is complete reception without a shred of bestowal. Thus, there is no greater oppositeness of form than this. It therefore follows that this oppositeness of form necessarily separates it from the Emanator.

14) To save the created beings from this titanic separation, the first restriction took place, separating phase four from the rest of the Partzufim [plural of Partzuf] of Kedusha [Holiness] so that that great measure of reception remained an empty space devoid of any light, since all the Partzufim of Kedusha emerged with a screen erected in their vessel of Malchut so they would not receive light in this phase four. Then, when the upper light was extended and expanded to the emanated being, this screen rejected it. This is regarded as a striking between the upper light and the screen, which raises reflected light from below upward, clothing the ten Sefirot of the upper light.

That part of the light that was rejected and pushed back is called reflected light. As it dresses the upper light, it becomes a vessel for reception of the upper light instead of phase four, since afterward the vessel of Malchut expanded by the measure of reflected light—the rejected light—which rose and dressed the upper light from below upward, and expanded from above downward, too. Thus, the lights were clothed in the vessels within that reflected light.

This is the meaning of the Rosh [head] and Guf [body] in each degree. The coupling by striking from the upper light in the screen raises reflected light from below upward and dresses the ten Sefirot of the upper light in the form of the ten Sefirot of the Rosh, meaning the roots of the vessels, since there cannot be actual clothing there.

Subsequently, when Malchut expands with that reflected light from above downward, the reflected light ends and becomes vessels for the upper light. At that time, there is clothing of the lights in the vessels, and this is called the Guf of that degree, that is, complete vessels.

15) Thus, new vessels were made in the Partzufim of Kedusha instead of phase four after the first restriction. They were made of the reflected light of the coupling by striking in the screen.

Indeed, we should understand this reflected light and how it became a vessel of reception, since initially it was but a light that was rejected from reception. Thus, it now serves in an opposite role from its own essence.

I shall explain that with an allegory from life. Man’s nature is to cherish and favor the quality of bestowal, and to despise and loathe reception from one’s friend. Hence, when one comes to one’s friend’s house and he [the host] invites him for a meal, he [the guest] will decline even if he is very hungry, since in his eyes it is humiliating to receive a gift from his friend.

Yet, when his friend sufficiently implores him until it is clear that he would do his friend a big favor by eating, he agrees to eat as he no longer feels that he is receiving a gift and that his friend is the giver. On the contrary, he [the guest] is the giver, doing his friend a favor by receiving this good from him.

Thus, you find that although hunger and appetite are vessels of reception designated for eating, and that person had sufficient hunger and appetite to receive his friend’s meal, he still could not taste a thing due to the shame. Yet, as his friend implored him and he rejected him, new vessels for eating began to form in him, since the power of his friend’s pleading and the power of his own rejection, as they accumulated, finally added up to a sufficient amount that turned the measure of reception into a measure of bestowal.

In the end, he saw that by eating, he would do a big favor and bring great contentment to his friend. In that state, new vessels of reception to receive his friend’s meal were born in him. Now it is considered that his power of rejection has become the essential vessel in which to receive the meal, and not the hunger and appetite, although they are actually the usual vessels of reception.

16) From the above allegory between two friends, we can understand the matter of coupling by striking and the reflected light that rises through it, which then becomes new vessels of reception for the upper light instead of phase four. We can compare the upper light, which strikes the screen and wants to expand into phase four, to the pleading to eat, because as he yearns for his friend to receive his meal, the upper light desires to expand to the receiver. And the screen, which strikes the light and repels it, can be likened to the friend’s rejection and refusal to receive the meal, since he rejects his favor.

Just as you find here that precisely the refusal and rejection have been inverted and become appropriate vessels to receive his friend’s meal, you can imagine that the reflected light that rises by the striking of the screen and its rejection of the upper light became new vessels of reception for the upper light instead of phase four, which served as a vessel of reception prior to the first restriction.

However, this was established only in the Partzufim of Kedusha of ABYA, not in the Partzufim of the shells, and in this world, where phase four itself is considered the vessel of reception. Hence, they are separated from the upper light, since the disparity of form in phase four separates them. For this reason, the shells are considered wicked and dead, as they are separated from the Life of Lives by the will to receive in them, as it is written in Item 13.

Five Phases in the Screen

18) Now we shall explain the five phases in the screen by which the levels change during the coupling by striking performed with the upper light. First, we must thoroughly understand that even though phase four was banned from being a vessel of reception for the ten Sefirot after the restriction, and the reflected light that rises from the screen through the coupling by striking became the vessel of reception in its stead, it must still accompany the reflected light with its power of reception. Had it not been for that, the reflected light would have been unfit to be a vessel of reception.

You should also understand this from the allegory in Item 15. We demonstrated there that the power to reject and decline the meal became the vessel of reception instead of the hunger and appetite. This is because hunger and appetite, the usual vessels of reception, were banned from being vessels of reception in this case due to the shame and disgrace of receiving a gift from one’s friend. Only the powers of rejection and refusal have become vessels of reception in their stead, as through the rejection and refusal, reception has been inverted into bestowal, and through them he achieved vessels of reception suitable to receive one’s friend’s meal.

Yet, it cannot be said that he no longer needs the usual vessels of reception, namely the hunger and the appetite, as it is clear that without appetite for eating, he will not be able to satisfy his friend’s wish and bring him contentment by eating at his place. But the thing is that the hunger and appetite, which were banned in their usual form, have now been transformed by the forces of rejection and refusal into a new form—reception in order to bestow. By this, the disgrace has been inverted into honor.

It turns out that the usual vessels of reception are still as active as ever but have acquired a new form. You will also conclude, concerning our matter, that it is true that phase four has been banned from being a vessel for reception of the ten Sefirot because of its coarseness, meaning the disparity of form from the Giver, which separates from the Giver. Yet, through establishing the screen in phase four, which strikes the upper light and repels it, her previous, faulty form, has been transformed and acquired a new form, called reflected light, like the transformation of the form of reception into a form of bestowal in the above allegory.

The content of its initial form was not changed there. Now, too, it does not eat without appetite. Likewise, here, all the coarseness, which is the force of reception that was in phase four, has come inside the reflected light, hence, the reflected light became suitable for being a vessel of reception.

Therefore, we must always discern two forces in the screen:

The first is hardness, which is the force within it that rejects the upper light.

The second is coarseness, which is the measure of will to receive from phase four included in the screen. By the coupling by striking through the force of the hardness in it, its coarseness has turned into refinement, meaning the inversion of reception into bestowal.

These two forces in the screen operate in five phases: the four phases HB TM and their root, called Keter.

Glossary

Baal HaSulam "Study of the Ten Sefirot", Vol. 1, Part 1, Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words:

46. What is “restriction” (Part 1, Chap. 1, Inner Light, 40)

One who conquers one’s desire. In other words, one who restrains oneself and does not receive despite one’s great desire to receive, is regarded as restricting oneself.

Baal HaSulam "Study of the Ten Sefirot" Vol. 1, Part 2, Answers on the Meaning of Words:

2. What is reflected light (Part Two, Inner Observation, 79)

It is the light that is not received in phase four. It is the light that is designated to fill phase four, and which she does not receive because of the screen that detains it and pushes it back. This operation is called "zivug de-akaa" [“coupling by striking”] (Part Two, Inner Observation, 22). All the vessels of reception in the Partzufim [pl. of Partzuf] from the restriction onward, are extended from that reflected light, which serves them instead of phase four in Ein Sof.

Baal HaSulam "Study of the Ten Sefirot" Vol. 1, Part 2, Answers on the Meaning of Words:

43. Screen (Part Three, Item 2)

A screen is the force of restriction that awakens in the emanated being toward the upper light, to stop it from descending to phase four. This means that as soon as it reaches and touches phase four, that force promptly awakens, strikes it, and pushes it back. That force is called a “screen.” You must understand the difference between the screen and the restriction in the emanated being, which are two completely separate matters. The force of restriction that was made on phase four is aimed toward the vessel in the emanated being, which is a yearning to receive. This means that because of the desire to equalize the form with the Emanator, he detained himself from receiving while yearning to receive, since the yearning in him, called “phase four,” is an upper force that the emanated being cannot revoke or diminish even a little. Rather, he can detain himself from wanting to receive despite the great yearning.

This force of detainment is always placed on phase four in the emanated being, except when he draws a new light. In that event, he must necessarily revoke the force of detainment, meaning the restriction in him, and a yearning for the upper light appears in him. That gives him the power to draw the light to himself. Here begins the operation of a screen in the emanated being, since any yearning draws the upper light in completeness, as it was in Ein Sof, since it is an upper force, which the lower one has no power to diminish. Hence, the light comes down in order to fill phase four.

However, the moment the light touches phase four, the screen promptly awakens, strikes the light, and pushes it back. It follows that he receives only the light of three phases, and phase four does not receive it. You therefore see that the screen operates only when the light comes, after the restriction is temporarily revoked, in order to drew a new light, as was explained. However, the act of restriction is permanent, restraining himself from drawing light. Thus, the restriction and the screen are two completely separate states, and know that the screen is a result of the restriction.