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If the letters, HaVaYaH (Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey), in His Name contain the whole of reality, without any exception, how are we below them? It sounds like we are a separate extension or derivative after all this, or maybe we are the end point of the second Hey. When we start achieving the goal of creation in the next time period, will there be another letter added to the Creator’s name?
Also, during these four phases, was the Creator completely revealed to the creature? If so, do we have reshimot that remember the revealed Creator?
Also, I am trying to understand the exact perspective of Malchut. . . since in past representations of this diagram I was thinking of her as the kli. And in the diagrams of the offset boxes I thought of them like snowmen, like each has a head and a body, and the two together are the entity (called Malchut most of the time.) But when I am looking at yours I am feeling like that might have been the wrong idea, and maybe Malchut is actually just a point of perspective working with this body, and it’s not her body at all. Just like how I am a point of perspective riding in this animal called a human.
Is Malchut a point of perspective situated at the level of the screen, who is looking at all the interactions on the screen and making calculations and observations? And the “guf” is what appears to be all the other people and every entity in our world? And she is not anatomically (in the spiritual sense) similar to the other people at all. They are each opportunities for her to fill more desires, and if she connects to them her point of perspective can see the filling of the desire and feel the feeling of filling it. And the “rosh” is her knowledge and perception of the filling of those desires? It’s the extent that she can see it happening?
(I suppose if this were the case each person would be their own universe overlapping each others’ like a hologram. But, idk, because Rav says the world doesn’t actually exist.)
And I read this:
“In other words, they draw lights for the benefit of the world in a depiction of clothing – drawing direct light – and through striking, they raise reflected light that clothes the direct light in a depiction of clothing. They draw direct light for the benefit of the world downward, and raise reflected light from below upward, clothing the direct light, and this is called by the name ‘depiction.'”And it sounded like we might be a point of perspective looking at this depiction and interpreting it according to our own qualities. So, I guess my question is if that kli is actually part of me, or it’s just something I can sense, and I am just the point of perspective having this question.
And is Malchut one perspective, or billions of them? When the shattering is knit back together, will there be billions of discrete points of perspective that can sense each other’s senses, or just One?
. . . speaking of contradictions… I know I keep pestering you with this question about “graven images” in different ways. But it’s really an idea my mind chews on and turns over and over constantly. I was watching the video about the days of creation and the Rav Ravsays that after the initial stages our work is to write the Torah on our own heart. The context was about a person implementing the Torah in their own life.
I am an artist and writer, and I can understand how it’s impossible to depict these concepts we are learning as pictures. If a client came to me with an assignment for that at first I’d be excited, and then once I understood the concepts, I’d have to decline. As you say, it is impossible.
But when the Rav was talking about the person creating the Torah in their life it occurred to me that you created a curriculum, or individual classes where the story took the person on a path where they depicted the concepts to themselves in their feelings. And the world itself seems like that. The corporeal objects and situations take us on a path where we learn the laws by interacting with them and we depict the true reality inside our feelings. Since this is the case, would it not be possible to make games in this way? The obvious example would be an RPG game with a campaign of ordered scenarios, structurally like Gloomhaven. The maps, the materials, the currency, the characters… they wouldn’t really matter. But if you made the mechanics of the gameplay work in a way that rewarded cooperation, generosity, balancing . . . like, let’s say you modeled all the rewards, buffs, boosters, timers, unlocks, etc on the Rav’s description of the Ten Commandments… but never depicted them as commandments at all. And you arranged the scenario conditions and order in a path kind of like your course syllabus might take a student to encounter a series of metaphors in order to build an internal understanding.
I feel I might have already played a game called Journey that might have been designed to do this.
Would this kind of project be a more appropriate way to work through my notes and studies when I have this constant urge to “do something,” “apply effort,” (MAKE SOMETHING, ANYTHING) and “write the Torah on my own heart,” when I can’t draw it as pictures or tell it as stories to people who don’t study?
I know I am being led on a very long path that I have not gone very far on. It’s clear to me that I’m being shown each increment of it. I have no desire to become a teacher or try to lead other people on it. But would this be an appropriate format that I could work with it myself without it being a “graven image?”
Thanks for you patience with the questions… as always.
In the “Spiritual States with Kabbalist Dr.Michael Laitman” playlist on YouTube there’s an episode on the Ten Commandments, and one on Prophecies. My interpretation of the two is conflicting.
In the Ten Commandments one the Rav says describes 5th Commandment – Honor thy Father and thy Mother. I think he’s saying we must maintain an attitude of receptivity. If we are trying to control or dictate the world, we’ll create it in our own likeness which is egoistic, and it will only harm us. We must allow Hochma and Bina (our father and mother, and their 6 derivative forces) to create our reality. Our role is to work on our internality so that we can accurately perceive its qualities. He goes on later in the Commandment about the sabbath to say that it works specifically by not interfering.
But in the Prophecies episode, in the section about why a person shouldn’t know about their future, he says that we have difficult corrections coming up that might look harrowing to us, but that we will be better prepared and able to make the final corrections. And he goes on in the next section to say we need to create our own future. We need to be convinced we’re making our present as well. And that everything appears in relation to the perceiver. It sounds like there is an expectation for a proactive attitude.
So I think I’m trying to reconcile the idea of being receptive with the idea of applying effort. How do I know when I’m interfering? How do I know when I’m expected to be active or passive?
When these are describing what happens to the Light when the screen is repelling it, it reminds me of the parts of the Zohar where it’s talking about “painting colors” and the “fountain.” Are those talking about the same thing? It’s just basically Light splattering on the screen, and it doesn’t just disappear if it’s not received into the vessel?
I hope that’s not a dumb question. I’m not trying to create a mental picture. I’m just trying to figure out which metaphors are correlated with each other in the different books and articles, because I know they are just trying every which way to describe the same thing.
I recently finished all the beginner courses (for the second time; I had studied here a long time ago, gone out into the world thinking I had all I needed, and then returned when I realized THIS is actually the whole point.)
I know that the group is more important than understanding the technicalities, but it seems like often when I am reading something technical it actually answers seemingly unrelated questions about myself, other people, how relationships work, why the world is the way it is, and what the Creator is asking for. My hope is for that to continue happening here. Also, I am grateful to Julian for recommending this, because your “Kabbalah Explained Simply” episodes tend to help me clear puzzles and blocks always exactly when I need it. Thanks!
