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What was the exact discernment made that separates Behina Aleph from Behina Dalet? Since this is happening outside of time and space, I would assume that it is the appearance of the Tzimtzum, and only the appearance of the Tzimtzum, that prevents these two phases from being the exact same thing.
Am I then right in assuming that the appearance of the Tzimtzum is actually the birth of the spiritual desire? This seems like the actual beginning of the Will to Bestow rather than the Creature’s quest for more pleasure, as I assume Aleph, Bet, and Gimmel are supposed to represent. In which case, the fourth phase is where the two things that are completely opposite from each other (and the only two forces in existence) actually begin to become the same thing. That must be the most powerful single force that exists in Creation, unless I am mistaken – my mind actually equates it with the beginning of Creation as it “appears,” itself.
That would also explain why Aleph, Bet, and Gimmel are “Actions of the Creator” instead of “Actions of the Creature,” as the only action a Creature can really take in a world of pure Bestowal is to seek to become like that Bestowal. Everything else is predetermined and non-existential, and thus the work of the Creator alone.
Are the Tzimtzum and Masach the same thing? If not, what is the difference between them?
I know I asked a lot but I’ve needed clarification on this topic for a long time as I still do not quite grasp it. I intuit that this is unfathomably deep wisdom so I am almost hesitant to ask, but I want to understand what I am being taught without skipping anything. Thank you!
Jonathan,
Everything was one, everything was OK, in Godly harmony.
What was missing there?
Only for the created beings to understand where they are, in the Creator.
How is it possible to reach a state where we can feel that we are in the Creator?
Only “as far as light excelleth from darkness”.
That is why we have these phases and all that happens after that.The created being…and we didn’t reach the created being yet.., the created being comes after this sequence of operations that we are learning here. We still need to go through the building of the partzufim, the sefirot and the worlds.
After the four phases of direct light, Behinat Aleph, Bet, Gimmel and Dalet comes the Tzimtzum Aleph.
You are correct that malchut cannot bestow. What does she have that she can bestow? Nothing that she has is hers. She didn’t make herself and the light she is filled with comes from Him.
So she stops receiving, that is called Tzimtzum Aleph. After that she goes through a process of admitting light bit by bit only as much as she can receive it with the correct intention to bestow back to the Creator. To the extent of her rejection, that builds the masach.
Through this process of purification of the desire performed by the masach by which it allows to enter called Inner Light, the masach rejects the rest of the light called Surrounding Light, by this she purifies herself until after many operations there is a shattering and then finally finally we get to the creature.
Seth@KabU
First, the will to bestow and will to receive remind me very much of yin and yang and the symbol for it as one circle, like the light filling the first kli.
Also, I see people acting with the intention of the will to bestow everywhere. Being a mother, I know my intention is to nurture my child over my own desires. People often make sacrifices for others, first responders, health care workers dealing with covid, firemen rushing into buildings to save people, etc.
Doesnt this show that the will to bestow is also inherently part of the creature?
Esther,
If I refer to the musical note E. It means something to me, but it doesn’t mean that much to me.
But if I was a trained musician who practiced for 8 hours a day, I have a relation with E. I can hear that note in my head even without an instrument. I know how to approach the E note to make is sound powerful or subtle. If I play an F# after it it, called a 2nd, it sounds foreboding like in Jaws. If I play a B note after it, called a 5th, it sounds epic like in Star Wars. There are a lot of qualities, maybe endless qualities to the note E.
And so it is with definitions in the wisdom of kabbalah. We are using words that everyone uses, but we are pointing to spiritual operations. So although E is E, E is not always E :))
In other words there is a lot of information packed in the world bestowal.
When a kabbalist writes about bestowal, he is pointing to a spiritual quality.
Certainly in our world the love of a mother is an expression of bestowal and this stems from the root of the mother and the child in Bina and her relation to Malchut. But in our world this is not the bestowal that the kabbalists are writing about.
All of the system of nature is built on reception and bestowal, on – & +.
When we refer to bestowal we are speaking of spiritual + which is something that is on a degree above the animal degree which is where our bodies are.
Seth@KabU
Good morning, Thank you all for Teaching us this amazing Wisdom.
Could I say, the Creator is 100% giver of the light and the creature “should’ be 100% receiver of the light but in this process the receiver can be a “glass”, receiving the light to shine brightly as for itself. The receiver can also be corrected to be a “mirror” receiving the light but now reflecting it back so that the giver can shine brightly?
Etienne,
It’s mostly correct. It’s a very good understanding.
The receiver will remain a receiver. This receiver is the only thing that the Creator created.
Upon her will to receive she will build a screen. According to her intention/attitude to want to be like the Creator, that determines how much she bestows back to the Creator.
Seth@KabU
I can not avoid imagining how this four faces work. It might be because we are limited by senses and time… the latter is only a theory as far as science can explain it.
How are these four phases happening? I don’t think we can talk about the past here… How should we perceive this? or Is it only a a tool used so we can understand why we feel the need to seek for an answer, to seek for the Creator?
JP,
We have a problem.
In spirituality there is no time, no past and no present.
So we need to speak about something, and we are a little bit more than monkeys and we need to perceive spiritual reality beyond time.
So what the kabbalists gave us in their books is what they attained. They felt those spiritual things and then with a pen and paper they conveyed those attainments to us. For us as we go from sensation to sensation, we perceive that as the passing of time. We write these four phases and their root phase as a sequence, but it is more like a like of code and until the whole line of code is read and executed, nothing happens, once the code is executed, it all takes place together.
We’ll come across this blueprint when we learn about worlds, the sefirot, the partzufim, about our soul and in many more places.
Seth@KabU
hi sir may i ask too – what is in the screen that it is only through it that the creature can experience true delight? in our corporeal life, so it means that when someone wants to bestow to us, we have to receive it not because we totally want it, but because part of us wants to delight the giver too? is pacman a good analogy? like if one just takes everything out of greediness. there really is no lasting fulfillment versus when what i receive is really given with love from somebody else? thank you
Elizabeth,
Take any of our corporeal senses, our physical senses, such as the eyes. We do not receive all of the light coming from the sun. There is a screen (a masach) that reflects back most of the light and a small amount enters inside and from that we project in our brain a depiction of the outside world.
Also our ears. There are sounds 1000 kilometers away, if we had different ears, we would hear them. There are sounds in this room now that if our ears were stronger, we would hear them. So there are many waves and some of them, depending on the nature of the screen, those vibrations hit the screen and from that we perceive sound.
From these examples you can imagine a spiritual screen that works with spiritual light.
Seth@KabU
if the vessel is meant to receive in order to bestow tothe creator, why did the phases not end in bechina gimel? and does this mean that our next level in returning should be bechina gimel?
for example, a married couple. the husband receives fr the creator and bestows to the wife because this is what the creator is and wants? what if the wife receives but does not bestow back to the husband or maybe does not even receive what the husband wants to bestow. what should the husband do?
on a different angle, if i receive an idea for a project, how can the 4 phases work on this?
thanks
Elizabeth,
It’s very good to see how you are thinking of this.
We are learning about the system, we are visiting a factory where they for example process wheat.
So the wheat is harvested (of course before that it is planted and there are many steps there), and then gathered and brought to the factory where it is sorted, cleaned and processed to make flour and later it will become bread and cakes and many things.
So we are looking in the window and we are seeing one part of the process.
Let’s imagine for now that we are not applying this all to our lives. It is good to think about how it all fits, but in truth we can’t solve all of this yet because we are just looking at one part of the process we didn’t get to the part where our world is created and then our soul is created and shattered and then finally we come into the picture.
So far, in these four phases, there is no created being yet.
We are observing, studying the process.
The purpose of creation is to create a creature and fill it with fulfillment.
In order to do that we need a vessel that can hold all of the abundance, that is called malchut, the fourth phase.
Until then the vessel does not reach it’s completeness.
Let’s leave the husband and wife example aside for a minute since there are many many discernments in your example.
But simply if you have an idea, first the idea appears from the air, then you draw it, make some plans, then you collect materials and then you build. The final material goal is contained in that initial thought.
Seth@KabU
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