Bilvavi Part 8 - 00 Preface

בלבבי חלק ח'. הקדמה

Author’s Introduction

Everything in Creation has in it “opposites”. There is positive and negative, man and woman, mitzvos and aveiros, etc. They do not seem to be one thing – that is how it appears, through the lens of this physical world. If we only use our intellect, that is what we understand – opposites cannot ever go together.

But there is a world higher than our intellect; it is called Ayin (nothingness). From the viewpoint of Ayin, opposites are unified on a constant basis.

When a person is still at the level of intellectual comprehension alone (or lower than that) then he looks at “Ayin” with his intellectual understanding, and he mistakenly thinks that “Ayin” cannot be simply “nothing”; he tries to give some substance to it in his understanding. He thinks that “nothingness” has to be “something”. But the truth is that matters that have to do with Ayin isn’t a regular kind of comprehension; it is a non-thinking state. There is no right or left there. Something which seems to have no value on this physical world takes on value when we gain the viewpoint of Ayin.

If someone’s soul isn’t rooted in Ayin, then his understanding of Ayin is in the same way he understands something materialistic. But if someone’s soul is rooted in Ayin, he knows that Ayin is more than a hidden kind of wisdom -- its very concept is hidden altogether, and it is not possible to have a give-and-take discussion on it. It is a world that is above thought, because Ayin by very definition is something you can’t think about. This why Keser (Crown)is the highest of the Ten Sefiros, and not Chochmah\Wisdom. Wisdom is not the end; Keser, which is Ayin, is above all wisdom, and it cannot be reached through thinking about it.

After the sin of Adam, Creation was altered, and now Chochmah\wisdom is considered the highest power there is (that is, when that is all you know of). But there were some souls who were unaffected by the sin, and these souls are able to view things from Ayin, which is above the regular Chochmah of people.

This sefer has come to explain and clarify the world of Ayin, and how to gain the viewpoint of Ayin. When this light is revealed from our souls, Moshiach can come; the sefarim hakedoshim state that the light of Ayin is essentially the “light of Moshiach”.

From the view of Ayin, something that seems to have no value indeed has value. For example, the fact that we have to break evil on this world is looked at as something “negative” we do and nothing more. But from the viewpoint of Ayin, even a “negative” concept is not really negative; it is only negative from our point of view, which receives the information about something. This helps us understand a concept mentioned by the Maharal and the Ramchal, who both write that all of our understanding is only from our point of view, and since we are merely receiving the information, our comprehension is limited.

For example, let’s say we are discussing the concept of tzimtum, which is a fundamental concept in the works of Kaballah, that Hashem “contracted” Himself from Creation in order to make a space to create the universe. It’s all a question of how much we feel this concept in our soul, but even if we don’t feel it, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. If we can feel the endlessness of Hashem, that is called the light of the Ein Sof as we know it. There is a discussion about what this tzimtzum was, but it’s all from the viewpoint of our feelings and our senses; beyond what we can feel, there is no place to wonder how the tzimtzum happened or not (within the chalal,”space”, or not). Any explanations of the concept is only so that our soul can understand it, so of any our understanding of it comes from our feelings. But there is more to it than what we feel about it.

Another example is the concept of “Yichud” (Unity). Yichud is a concept which we can only understand based on a feeling for it, so when we are learning about how we “unify” with something, it is only how we “unify” using our feelings. We cannot comprehend beyond what we feel.

To illustrate more what we mean, the concept of “Yichud” is that the Jewish people are intertwined with Hashem. When someone understands this simply, he becomes greatly confused, wondering: “How do you become “one” with Hashem, if only Hashem is “One?!” But as we will explain in this sefer, the concept of “Yichud” is to feel Hashem, and it is not simply to “unify” with Hashem and combine ourselves with Him.

This is a fundamental concept: all the explanations we have available in our sefarim hakedoshim are only from our viewpoint, the receivers of the information. Bearing this in mind, all contradictions are answered. Just like in the physical world one thing doesn’t taste the same for all people, so too in the spiritual world, concepts are understood differently depending on the viewpoint. Really, there is no such thing as a contradiction. This is the very secret of the concept of Ayin.

The light of the Redemption is the light of Ayin, which is also called the light of the Keser. It shows us that there is no place for contradictions or questions. It is the end to all kelipos (spiritual “husks” that trap holiness) – questions are evil kelipos, as the Arizal writes.

Upon grasping this concept, a person knows that just because he doesn’t understand something doesn’t mean it’s a question. Without this understanding, a person searches for answers to his contradictions, and he attempts to use his human mind to answer his questions. But upon revealing Ayin, the mind isn’t needed to answer questions – instead, Temimus (wholesomeness) and Emunah (faith) are revealed.

Since Ayin\Keser is the intermediary path that borders the point between limits and the Ein Sof (as is written in Kaballah), the later generations, whose job is to reveal the light of the Ein Sof, are able to learn about what the Ein Sof is.

However, there is a danger to this. When a person is only at the level of Chochmah – human comprehension – and he attempts to understand matters about the Ein Sof using his Chochmah, he is attempting to “clarify” what the Ein Sof is, and this is a terrible mistake, because the Ein Sof is above comprehension. One cannot clarify what the “unlimited” is. You cannot use your regular intellect to know about the Ein Sof – the only way to perceive it is through Ayin\Emunah\Temimus. Anyone who tries to understand the Ein Sof on an intellectual level is sorely mistaken. But if one clings to Emunah and Temimus, he will succeed.

Many people have failed because of this mistake. People think that you can try to understand the Ein Sof intellectually and internalize it in your heart. But the Ein Sof is not something you can “know” about with your regular thinking. It is only after the sin of Adam that we must seek to “know” and “internalize”, but the Ein Sof is a point that was unaffected by sin, and thus we cannot “know” about it. You can’t use the “post-sin” tools to understand the “pre-sin” state.

In every soul, there exists a very deep point in us that was unaffected by the sin of Adam. This is the point in us that can understand matters that have to do with the Ein Sof – it is the power of Emunah, also known as Temimus. Only through this power can we have any comprehension of these matters. (There is an exception to this rule, and that is if a person has Mesirus Hanefesh\self-sacrifice, which enables one to jump levels). One has to be careful not to try to understand these matters intellectually, but instead to use his simple Emunah and Temimus.