New, improved Kabbalah Series

This and the previous parts of this chapter is understandable in the light of the analogy of a science teacher who makes a class plan, outlining what materials are to be covered on each particular day. This class plan is carefully measured according to the students’ abilities relative to the difficulty of the subject.- this measurement being analogous to the measurement of the kav/line. Then, one day the teacher comes into class and announces, to the students’ delight, that the test scheduled for the following day will be postponed and instead they will be going on a field trip to the NASA space center to see actual scientists at work. Now, not only is this trip not in the class plan or curriculum, it may also be way above the students heads and they may not truly understand and appreciate much of what they see or hear on the trip. In fact, they are not really supposed to, because the main purpose of such a trip is not so much for the scientific knowledge gained, for that the class room is better suited. Rather it is meant to sort of amaze and dazzle the students, to give them a taste of what’s really out there, so that they will more be more motivated while in the class room and also, hopefully, encouraging them to continue beyond it.

Now, the teacher did not change and neither did his essential desire - his job is to prepare the students and help them to grow in their knowledge and to help prepare them for later in life when they will require this knowledge. This trip is a way of implementing both of these goals just as much as the original class plan was. In addition, any request for such a change in the class plan must be directed to the one who makes the class plan and if he feels it will serve a constructive purpose in the students’ education, then it will be ratified, just as the original class plan was.

Conversely, were the teacher to decide that the class was not paying proper attention and extra reading was assigned for home-work. This is in the teacher’s right and again this is acting towards the same goal - that the students master the material assigned so that they will be prepared to move on to a higher level of study and for their lifetime requirements of this knowledge. In addition, if the teacher is properly mature, then there is no feeling of anger or contempt towards the students for there misbehavior. He is being strict not to hurt the students, but only to help them achieve, with only the best intentions for the good of students in mind. To an immature student it may appear that the teacher has changed - one day he was nice and liked the students, while the next he is mean and hates them, but this is really not the case at all. The same is similarly true with a parent who disciplines a child out of love and though at times to the child it may appear that the parent’s love is gone, this is not at all the case.

Another good analogy for this is like a newly-wed husband who is having a house built for himself and his bride. He personally sat down with the architect and planned out each section of the house with him so that it would meet the couple’s needs perfectly. Then one day his wife came to see how the construction was going, asking the construction crew how exactly how the house was going to be and they gladly showed her the blueprints and explained exactly where everything would be built. However, when they told her about the pool room she wasn’t so happy and ordered them to change it to a guest room. They told her that they had no such right and she would have to go and speak to their boss, the draftsman. So she went and spoke to the draftsman, but he sent her to his boss the architect, who told her that he was only commissioned by her husband and so she would best go and speak to him. Well that she did and after a brief discussion the husband told the architect to comply with her wishes and to build the room as his wife saw fit.

Now, in this case the husband’s essential desire and plan never changed, for all he really wanted was a house where he and his wife would be able to live comfortably and happily together. Therefore, if the plan he originally drew up with the architect would not please his wife then not only doesn’t he want it now - he never really wanted it in the first place.

The same is true with the hishtalshellus and G-d (by way of analogy of course), the desire of husband corresponding to the Light of the Divine Will, from the Essential Self of the Infinite Light in Yachid down to the light of Atzilus (emanation) (the worlds of Atilus are considered part of G-dlyness as will be discussed later) , the architect is like the world of Briyah (creation), the draftsman Yitzirah (formation) and the construction crew Asiyah (action). So that if any change is to be made in the hishtalshellus (chaining) it must come specifically from G-d Himself and then, by changing how His Will is revealed in the Infinite Light - automatically the entire hishtalshellus afterwards is changed accordingly. Also this change does not represent a change in G-d Himself, nor in the true Essential Self of His Light, which is completely simple, revealing Him exactly as He is, and this explanation will suffice for the understanding.

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The material in this series is copyrighted by Rabbi Yossi Markel