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There are a couple of things here.
There is some interchangeability depending on what we want to emphasize. Like in school, if a kid is misbehaving, the teacher might say, “Should I call mom?” – meaning call home. Mom is a stand-in for both parents as Bina can be for AVI. The Partzufim don’t change, but what we call them might, depending on their function. Like I can be called dad, teacher, etc. If we want to deemphasize Atik because it’s practically irrelevant to the actions we’re talking about now, we can consider AA the Keter, because toward the Lower Ones, it is truly working as Keter because Atik can have no connection with the Lower Ones because it belongs to Tzimzum Aleph, and the Lower Ones belong to Tzimzum Bet. Too, we can decide to emphasize the Bina in AVI, or in some cases, it’s as if Bina is not working and instead it’s YESHUT, which is part of Bina.
There are additional sub-Partsufim as well as other names for them, and indeed a whole ocean that stands behind the few words we have to talk about this. So, it’s probably best to learn one text at a time. Zohar is also not really a study text that we can learn systematically. But I’m happy to keep answering…
These terms are sometimes flexible since AA and Atik are functioning as Keter. Sometimes Atik is not taken into consideration, in which case AA in as the Keter. Because Atik is hidden; it as if has no relation to the Lower Ones.
Sure, there are many degrees in Lo Lishma (not for the sake of the Creator) as well. But it’s already on way to the spiritual goal. Because “from Lo Lishma one comes to Lishma.” Specifically through the degrees of Lo Lishma.
“There’s no coercion in spirituality,” but in corporeality, “he is coerced until he cries out, ‘I want.'” We’ll be squeezed until then. Upon us is only to run faster than the boot that is definitely raised in the air already to kick us again and again until we go faster toward the goal of life.
In the corporeal world I behave according to the corporeal laws that the Creator established. “If someone comes to kill you, kill him first.” If it already manifested at this level, now I have deal with it at this level. Going forward I try to deal with all things in a spiritual way, scrutinizing my relationship with others and through them, with the Creator. But what’s manifested corporeally I deal with by corporeal means, what’s considered appropriate among the general public.
