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Baal HaSulam / Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Explains that the four phases HB TM are like a person with a soul clothed in his body, and the body is clothed in a garment, sitting in his hall. Hochma is the entirety of the lights in the world of Atzilut, and it is the soul of the entire Atzilut, called “the upper Adam.” He is clothed in Bina, which is the entirety of the vessels, called the body of Atzilut. The body is clothed by ZA, which is a garment, and Malchut is the hall of them all. Containing four issues:

1. The four phases HB TM are called soul, body, garment, hall. The world of Atzilut, where the upper Adam resides, is a soul clothed in a body, garment and the hall of the King. 2. Keter is their root. It is divided into four: the root of Neshama is Hochma in Keter; Bina in Keter is the root to the body; ZA in Keter is a root to the garment and Malchut in Keter is a root to the hall. 3. All that was explained in the world of Atzilut applies to the world of Beria, as well, being that it is a light of consequence. It is so because Beria was imprinted from the world of Atzilut. Thus, Keter of Keter of Atzilut imprinted Keter of Keter of Beria; Hochma of Keter imprinted Hochma of Keter of Beria etc. and so it is in all the Sefirot. 4. The lights do not extend directly from Keter of Atzilut to Keter of Beria, for the world of Beria does not receive but only through Malchut of Atzilut. Malchut of Atzilut imprinted everything that exists in the world of Atzilut in the world of Beria, and similarly in the world of Yetzira and Assiya.

1. We’ve already explained how all the emanated beings are one phase, containing all four elements, which are the four letters HaVaYaH, being the four worlds ABYA, having a fifth, upper phase, between them and Ein Sof. Now we will elaborate on each and every world, in general, and afterwards we will return to explain all of them as one whole.
Everything that exists in the worlds ABYA is not more than the four phases HB TM, which are the letters Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey, and are soul, body, garments, house.
2. Everything that was created in all the worlds is only four phases, which are HaVaYaH. They are: the spiritual (1), called soul, the organs of the body, the clothes, and the house.

Inner Light

1. This refers to the time when BYA are in completeness, when they rise to Atzilut, such as on Shabbat. At that time they clothe each other like the upper Adam who is soul and body and garment, residing in the King’s hall.

The light in Atzilut is the spirituality called soul, which is Hochma. The soul is clothed in the vessels of Atzilut called body.
3. We will speak of the world of Atzilut and from that the rest will be understood. The internality of the entire Atzilut is the spirituality, called soul. It is clothed inside the organs of the body, called vessels, which are the ten Sefirot called Rosh, arms and Guf (2).

Inner Light

2. They are names for the ten Sefirot of the Partzuf: Rosh is the Sefira of Keter in it; the arms are HG: the Sefira of Hesed is the right arm, and the Sefira of Gevura is the left arm. The Guf is the Sefira of Tifferet, and from Tabur downward they are four Sefirot NHY and Malchut.

There are ten vessels in the Guf, which are ten Sefirot in the boundary and measure that exist in Atzilut, which is Bina.
4. Let us return to the issue of the Guf (3): This phase is ten Sefirot, ten measures, because they contain a boundary and a measure, as it is written in Pirkey Heichalot, of the degree of 236 thousands of tens of thousands parasangs [a measurement unit] etc.

Inner Light

3. Relates to his above words (Chap 5, item 1), that Hochma is a soul, Bina is a body, ZA is a garment, and Malchut is a hall. It has already been explained that there is no boundary from the perspective of the light. Moreover, it is not meticulous with the boundary in the vessels, which is why it performs striking (see Chap 1, item 70 in Inner Light).

The vessels that limit begin only from Bina downward. They are: body, garment, hall, which are phase two, phase three and phase four. Although phase one is Hochma, called soul, it is not regarded as a vessel, as the ARI writes, that the ten Sefirot of the body are called ten measures. It is so because the vessels that place a boundary and a measure begin in phase two.

However, in the ten Sefirot of the soul, meaning phase one, called Hochma, there is no measure whatsoever. It is so because phase one is not regarded as coarseness, and therefore has no vessel and measure.

And the body of Atzilut is clothed in garments, and it is ZA, which clothes Bina.
5. This body is clothed inside the garments of Atzilut, as our sages said: “The Creator was clothed with ten garments: a garment of pride, as it says, ‘the Lord reigns; He is clothed in majesty.’” It is written in Pirkey Heichalot that the robe (4) of the Creator is called Zahariel there, but the soul inside has no measure at all. However, when compared to Ein Sof (5), we can call them by the names “measures” and “Sefirot” in relation to the soul, as well.

Inner Light

4. It is a garment.

5. It means that compared to Keter, called Ein Sof, Hochma is also regarded as having coarseness, for Ein Sof does not have any will to receive, hence the name phase one (see Inner Light, Part 1, Chap 1, item 50).

The garments are inside the houses, which are the seven halls of Atzilut, being Malchut. Altogether, it is considered that the upper Adam, which is a soul that is clothed in a body, and the body in garments is placed in the King’s hall.
6. These clothes are inside the discernment of the houses, which are the seven halls of Atzilut, which are the discernment of the world itself, being the heaven and earth and the air between them. All this is the discernment of the houses and they are called the world of Atzilut, where the upper Adam resides, who is a soul, body, and garment of Malchut placed in the upper hall of the King, which is the world of Atzilut in general.
The four phases, soul, body, garment, hall, are HB TM. Keter is their fifth, containing the roots of these four phases NGLH.
7. These four phases are the ten Sefirot that begin at the above Hochma and have four phases. Then there is also the discernment of Keter, which is the fifth phase, the root of them all, which contains the root of the above four phases as well.
Each of the four phases NGLH (Neshama, Guf, Levush, Heichal, lit. soul, body, garment, hall) in Atzilut contains ten Sefirot HB TM. The soul in Keter is the root of the ten Sefirot HB TM of the soul in Atzilut, and the body of Keter is the root to the ten Sefirot HB TM of the bodies. The garments of Keter are the root to the ten Sefirot HB TM of the garments, and hall in Keter is the root to the ten Sefirot HB TM of the halls.
8. It turns out that the light and the soul in Keter are the root of the ten Sefirot of the souls of Atzilut, which begin from Hochma. The body in Keter (6) is the root of the ten Sefirot of the bodies in the ten Sefirot of Atzilut, which begin in Hochma. The garments in Keter is the root of the ten Sefirot of garments in the ten Sefirot of Atzilut, which begin in Hochma. The hall in the Keter is the root of the ten Sefirot of Atzilut that begin in Hochma.

Inner Light

6. It has been written above that in Keter too there are the four phases, called: soul, body, garment, hall, which are HB TM, but as mere roots.

All that exists in the world of Atzilut is imprinted in the world of Beria.
9. Then the world of Beria was created the very same way. That is because through the screen (7), which is the bottom of the hall of Atzilut, it illuminated downward and there imprinted everything that was in the world of Atzilut (8). It is called the world of Beria because it is a light of consequence (9), and is not the upper light itself. However, because it is a seal of Atzilut, it should have all the phases that are in Atzilut.

Inner Light

7. The Sium of the degrees in any place is only because of the screen in their vessel of Malchut. Thus, the expansion of the degrees from Ein Sof to the emanated being stops and remains “standing” from expanding when it touches the screen. It is like standing on the ground above it, where the bottom does not let it expand inside and within it. By the same manner, the screen stops the light from expanding inside and within it, hence the screen is called “ground”.

It has already been explained (Part 3, Chap 3, item 6) that the ten Sefirot of the world of Beria were created by the refinement of the screen of phase three in the world of Atzilut into phase two (see also Inner Observation, Part 2, item 72). It is written there that it illuminated downward through the screen, which is the bottom of the hall of Atzilut, meaning because of its refinement, as it explains there.

8. It means that just as the imprint does not lack any of the forms that exist in the seal, so all the forms in the world of Atzilut emerge in the world of Beria, hence the names seal and imprint. There is yet another most original reason: the entire upper light that comes to Beria comes because of that reflected light that rises by the power of the coupling by striking on the screen of phase two in the bottom from her and above in Atzilut itself.

That very same reflected light sparkled once more and passed through the screen, broadening the vessel of Malchut into ten Sefirot from her and within her. It expanded in her from above downward (as thoroughly explained in Inner Light Part 3, Chapter 2, item 3).

By this, all the phases that the reflected light clothed in Atzilut from the gound up returned, extended, and went from the gound downward as well. Thus, this reflected light is completely similar to a seal: everything imprinted in it is copied to its imprint.

Similarly, regarding that reflected light, all the phases and the level that it clothed from below upward, it once again brought them to Beria from above downward and copied them there in Beria without any absence and change. For that reason this act is called seal and imprint.

9. This is the rule: In any place where this reflected light rises from below upward, the upper light itself is clothed in that reflected light. This indicates the expansion of the light of Ein Sof to make vessels, which the ARI speaks of above (Part 1, Chap 1, item 1).

However, in a place where reflected light is considered to be expanding from above downward as it is in the ten Sefirot of Beria, this upper light that is clothed here in this reflected light is no longer the upper light itself. Instead, it is regarded as a light of consequence, extending from the upper light, but “it is not the upper light itself”.

The reason is that it extends by the power of the screen that raises reflected light because of the detainment in it. For that reason, the force of the lower one is already involved in it, and it too is limited in the measure of the vessels and the level of the screen, for the screen precedes the expansion of these ten Sefirot.

It turns out that the screen is the reason that causes the appearance of these ten Sefirot. As a result, the light is limited by it, and is no longer the upper light itself, but is regarded as a light of consequence. However, reflected light that rises from the screen upward cannot raise any of its coarseness (see Part 3, Chap 4, Inner Light, item 50). Indeed, this applies from the world of Beria downward, but in Atzilut there is no screen whatsoever. Consequently, any light there, until Sium Raglin, is regarded as the light itself.

Keter of Atzilut imprinted the four roots of NGLH in Keter of Beria. From the soul in Keter of Atzilut, the soul in Keter of Beria was imprinted. From the body in Keter of Atzilut, the body of Keter of Beria was imprinted, from the garment, the garment, and from the hall, the hall.
10. It is because the phase of Keter, which is the fifth phase, comprising the above four phases, imprinted Keter in the Rosh of Beria as itself. From the light of Keter of Atzilut the light of Keter of Beria was imprinted, and from the body of Keter of Atzilut, the body of Keter of Beria was imprinted. The garment of Keter of Beria was imprinted from the garment of Keter of Atzilut, and the hall of Keter of Beria was imprinted from the hall of Keter of Atzilut.
NGLH of Keter of Atzilut, which are extended to NGLH of Keter of Beria, are extended through Malchut of Atzilut that was clothed in Keter of Beria. Likewise, the rest of the Sefirot of Atzilut that were imprinted in Beria were extended through Malchut of Atzilut by the coupling by striking on the screen in her.
11. However, these lights did not extend from the actual Keter of Atzilut to Keter of Beria but through Malchut in Malchut of Atzilut, which is Atik of Beria, clothing Keter of Beria. She extended these four phases in Keter of Atzilut (10) and created them in Keter of Beria.
The ten Sefirot of Atzilut did similarly and extended their light through the above Malchut in the above Keter. They imprinted a seal of Atzilut in Beria: soul from soul, body from body, garment from garment and hall from hall.

Inner Light

10. Because of that, Malchut of the upper one is called the spark of the Creator, since it extends and emanates its inferior degree. It is written above that all the degrees and the Partzufim and the worlds from the beginning of the line to the end of Assiya emerge and are emanated from one another by way of cause and effect.

It means that Malchut of Malchut of every upper one descends below her degree and extends to all four phases of the lower one, as is explained in detail in Part 2, Inner Observation, Chapter 5, item 59. (All these things should have been written here as well, had I not spared the costs of print).

Malchut of Beria descended and clothed Keter of Yetzira. She extended the seal of the five Partzufim KHB TM of Beria, which are NGLH, to the world of Yetzira, souls from souls, body from body, garment from garment, hall from hall, as it is in Yetzira and Assiya as well.
12. Similarly in Yetzira, Malchut of Beria was Atik, connected with AA of Yetzira. There it was named Keter of Yetzira, and the five Partzufim of Beria extended and imprinted their seal in Yetzira by the same way as in Beria: souls from souls, bodies from bodies, garments from garments and halls from halls.
Similarly, the five Partzufim of Yetzira imprinted their phases in Assiya: souls from souls, bodies from bodies, garments from garments and halls from halls and so on by the same way, all the worlds together as one whole‎.