Preface to the Book of Zohar
Lessons given by Rav Michael Laitman
Date: Jan-16-2005
· Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
· Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
· lowercase italics: emphasized words
· Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
We are continuing with the Preface to the Book of Zohar, item 17.
We have learned in the first boundary that when we examine reality, we examine only what we perceive in our Kelim with certainty. Those are Matter and Form clothed in Matter. The book of Zohar does not speak of the two forms, the Abstract Form, which we do not perceive with certainty, and of the Essence, which we do not perceive at all. There is not a single word about them in the Zohar.
When Kabbalists speak of their attainments, they only refer to those attainments that they attain with certainty. What they attain, but not with certainty, they do not write about. This is how responsible they are, unlike philosophers and various researchers in our world, whose research yields only trouble.
This is the first category. The second category is in item seventeen.
17. “Along with it the second category is clarified. Know that just as we have clarified the four categories in a particular item in the world Beria, so are they in the general four worlds ABYA.
“The three colors, red, green, and black, in the three worlds BYA, are considered a substance, or an object. The white color, which is considered the world Atzilut, is the form clothed in the matter, meaning in the three colors called BYA.” In other words, the white Light, which is Atzilut, clothes in the worlds Beria, or Yetzira, or Assiya, and thus renders the colors red, or green, or black.
“Ein Sof in itself is the essence.” We have Ein Sof, which is the essence, and also AK. The worlds Atzilut is white, and when it clothes in the world Beria it becomes red, when it clothes in the worlds Yetzira, green, and in the world Assiya, black.
Ein Sof is Essence; Atzilut is Abstract Form, and when the world Atzilut clothes in Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, creating three colors, these are called “clothed forms.”
“Ein Sof in itself is the essence, as we have said about the first category, that we have no perception in the essence (meaning we have no perception above the world Atzilut), which is the fourth category, concealed in all the objects, even in the objects of this world (see item 12).”
We know that in everything there is the tip of the Yod, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey. In other words, there are ten Sefirot in everything. So, we have no perception in the part that corresponds to Keter, the tip of the Yod.
“When the white color in itself—meaning Light of Wisdom—is not clothed in the three colors in BYA, meaning Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut, it is an abstract form and we do not engage in it.”
You might call it Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut, or you might say Ein Sof, AK, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya. If we are talking about Atzilut when it is not clothed in anything, this is something we do not deal with.
“Also, the Zohar does not speak of it at all, but only of the first category, the three colors BYA, which are considered substance, namely the three Sefirot Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut.
“It also speaks of the second category, which is the luminescence of Atzilut, clothed in the three colors of BYA.” This pertains to the substance of the worlds BYA themselves. When the world Atzilut is clothed in them, it is called “Clothed Form,” and we do engage in that.
“…clothed in the three colors of BYA, meaning Light of Wisdom clothed in Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut, which are in turn, a form clothed in matter. These are the two that The Book of Zohar is concerned with in all the places.” This is so simply because here, in BYA, is where we are, the souls that receive from the worlds BYA, according to our equivalence with them.
“Hence, if the reader is not prudent in defining his or her thought and understanding, to always learn the words of the Zohar strictly under the boundary of the two above-mentioned categories,” meaning if one does not limit oneself only to the Parsa pertaining to what is within the Kelim of the creatures, “the matter will be immediately and entirely confused for that person, as he will take the matters out of context.” This is because one would begin to engage in the abstract form and essence, even without noticing it. This is the second boundary of our limitation in engaging in the book of Zohar.
Q: When we talk about Matter, what matter are we talking about?
A: The Matter is the will to receive, and the Form that the will to receive adopts is the Form of bestowal. However, in the form of bestowal itself, which is the world Atzilut, in that we cannot engage. We don’t know what it is in itself; it is the attribute of the Creator, something that doesn’t belong to the Kelim, to the creature. The creature can only clothe its will to receive with the Form of bestowal, to resemble bestowal, meaning to receive and in that be a giver. It cannot just bestow because its substance is not of bestowal but of reception.
If we begin to work as if we are giving, it only confuses us because we exit the boundaries of the creature, and lose our hold of reality. It is even more so with the essence of the Creator, with the attribute of bestowal. We don’t know what is behind the attribute of bestowal, preceding the thought of creation, or with the thought of creation when it is detached from us. We don’t know that. Everything we study is only from within us, from clothed, or clothing forms.
What does the creature actually attain by getting to Atzilut?
The creature attains everything! The creature is Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey, it attains everything. The only question is how certain can I be that I can rely on what I attain with certainty, and work with it without being mistaken. Can I advance according to that and determine my next steps?
When I perceive a picture, what really is that picture? Which is the certain part in it and which is the uncertain part? I don’t know all that, how would I? I might be wearing glasses that show me that everything is nice and smooth ahead of me, when in fact, there is a chasm two steps from me, which I cannot see because of the limits of my tools? I am limited.
Let’s take an example from our world: if we hadn’t built radiation detectors, we could get in to danger zones and be contaminated by radiation. Because I have a detector, I can find it. In this case, I know that it is dangerous and that I should not go further from a certain line forward.
In spirituality, however, I do not build tools the way I do in this world. In spirituality, I perceive everything. But in some of my Kelim (tools) I am certain of my perception, because the Creator clothes in them in a manner that is clear to me, because the Form that these Kelim have adopted is the same form, or manner, as the Creator. These are vessels of bestowal that have inverted their intention to bestowal. The result is that whatever happens in them, I can be certain that it happens correctly.
The substance of reception is my substance. I feel it; it is everything I taste; everything in it is clear to me. The form in which this matter works is clear to me because it sits within my flesh; it is something that I perform with my own will. So when my vessels of reception acquire the form of bestowal, I operate with certainty. There, I cannot go wrong. This is called “the Kelim of the creature,” “the worlds BYA,” or “the vessels of reception,” “the AHP.”
However, in the vessels of bestowal, the Galgalta ve Eynaim, in the Kelim of Atzilut, in those I do not perceive the various forms with certainty. That is, I do notice them, but I cannot say how correct it is and what, or how much more there is inside. There unfamiliarity, because it is not my Matter, it is hidden from me.
This is why Kabbalists in general, and the authors of the Zohar in particular, advise us to engage where we are certain of what we possess, where we attain the full depth of the Kli in both its makeup and its functionality. Where either the form or the matter is hidden and you are in abstract form, which is not clothed in matter, this is no longer a will to receive that has adopted the form of bestowal, only the form of bestowal that you perceive without clothing in the will to receive.
In other words, you do perceive it, but not in your own flesh; it is not you who acquires this form, and it is as though it is in front of you, prior to clothing within you. This is what you should not engage in. It is not you and doesn’t belong to you. If it is hidden from you, “do not engage in what is hidden you.” How can you engage in it if it is not in your Kelim?
It is even more so with the essence. We have no idea what it is. We say that there is the thought of creation “to do good to His creations.” How can I understand it if it is hidden from me? I can understand it to the extent that I change and take on its form as it clothes in me. But I understand through the change in me. I understand what the Creator is and what He wants and thinks through adopting the form of doing good to His creations. But I attain it within me, and so I can talk about it. Thus, even when I do speak, I speak of myself.
Yesterday we saw the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? There are eight scientists there from several countries, and they give as an example, the story of how when Columbus’ armada arrived at the shores of America, the Indians could not see the ships. The reason they could not see them was that they didn’t have that model in their minds, a model of a big house floating on the waves. In other words, they couldn’t see them because they didn’t have a tool to detect something like that. First there has to be a tool, and only then can I discover the form that can fit into that Kli.
But after they hear about it, and build all kinds of shapes and patterns in their minds, they slowly begin to see the ships. After that they tell the other Indians about it, and even though the rest don’t see it, they tell them that they do. They tell them to imagine it like a big house with many stories, a mountain at sea approaching us. They use their imagination to build tools in their minds, and when they have the tools, they see the ships.
Actually, the scientists are wrong, because even the ships don’t exist; they exist only in their imagination. After all, this whole world doesn’t exist, it is all imagination, but this is a phase they still have to reach.
Still, this is a good example in that it demonstrates that if you don’t have the Kelim, you cannot detect anything on the outside. This is why Kabbalists insist on staying with Matter and Form clothed in Matter, because these are the only certainties. The abstract forms are not, because you don’t actually know whether or not they exist.
The abstract form comes to us by having it clothed in Matter, and then “stripping” it from the matter in our imagination, then stating that it exists regardless of the Matter. But do we really know that it exits regardless of the Matter? Has anyone ever seen it? We cannot see a ship before it clothes in matter; so how can we state that it seemingly exists? We mustn’t do that, and this is what Kabbalists tell us. Nevertheless, what the scientists discovered is a great thing; it brings them somewhat closer to Kabbalah and to be able to understand our terminology.
Q: If I can’t perceive the picture before it is in my Kelim, how then do I measure it?
A: I cannot see a picture before I build a Kli in me. So how do I come to see the picture? Moreover, how do I build a Kli within me, if I don’t know what happens outside of me? Someone has to tell me about it; there is just no other way.
This is why Kabbalists write books. Through these books you begin to imagine what exists outside of you, and you gradually build patterns from these imaginations, all kinds of forms in your mind. Of course they are incorrect; but by craving it, you gradually draw Light that builds patterns that are closer and closer to the Light itself, until you actually see. It is the Light that builds the Kelim for you. Otherwise, how would you know anything?
Right now, there are worlds around us that you can’t even imagine; you have no idea what is going on around you, angels, demons, ghosts… By around you I mean that you do not perceive them in your sensations. How will you catch them, by the tail? They are all forces. If you have no equivalence of form with these forces, you simply cannot feel them.