Part Two
The Sefirot
Chapter One
The Definition
of the Concept of Sefirot
THE RATZON OF THE CREATOR WAS REVEALED WITH THE CREATION OF THE WORLDS
As
we mentioned earlier,1 we can distinguish between
what the Creator, Blessed
be He, is “able” to do and what He has actually done, The first dimension
refers to
the infinite, unlimited Divine ratzon. Kabbalists term this the En Sof
. The latter dimension refers to the Creator’s limiting of His ratzon for the purpose of Creation and, thereby, acting according to His limited
ability. Kabbalists refer to this aspect as the sefirot.
The
limited ratzon — sefirot — was a hidden, secret part of the Creator’s
essence before the worlds came into being which became revealed with the onset
of creation. Just as man’s ratzon is part of his essence, hidden within him and only revealed when
it goes from potential to actual, so too is the Creator’s.2
The
Creator was able to create worlds in a different style, but He willed to create
worlds as He did in order to attain a purpose He set for Himself.
REVELATION OF THE CREATOR’S RATZON THROUGH THE
SEFIROT
The
Creator, Blessed be He, wanted His limited ratzon
(will) to be revealed through the sefirot, that is,
through the ten characteristics of keter, chochma, bina,
chesed, gevura,
tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod and malchut. The sefirot
are revelations of
the Creator’s ratzon. For instance, when the Creator, Blessed be He, wishes to reveal
His characteristic of lovingkindness, He works through the sefira of chesed; when He wishes to reveal His characteristic of strength or might, He
acts through the sefira of gevura. The very existence of lovingkindness
and strength indicates that the Creator desired this reality, revealing them
through the
sefirot. The
explanation of the above is that for each action connected to the characteristic
of lovingkindness there is an individual spiritual root in the upper worlds,
and the same is true for actions connected with the other characteristics. These
roots are illuminations, the diffusion of the Divine ratzon whose source is
in the En Sof, while
sefirot are vessels through which the light of the En
Sof spreads. In other words, the sefirot are vessels of
revelation of the Divine ratzon. Indeed, when the light of the En
Sof — the ratzon of the Creator, Blessed be He —
diffuses through the sefira of chesed, the
root emerging from this sefira is the spiritual force which brings into being and maintains
those acts of lovingkindness which we witness in this world. Since each action is connected with one
of the ten sefirot, the sefirot are vessels for the revelation of the Divine will,
the will to bring into being and vitalize all reality in all its details.
The sefirot emanated from the Creator for the purpose of creating the world. This may be
compared to an executive who delegates his authority to his assistant in order
to set up a new department. The aide’s authority is part and parcel of the executive’s
own authority, but the executive wishes to delegate it in a limited way,
in order to achieve a specific goal that he himself has set. The assistant does not work alone, but draws his power constantly
from the director, who, when he wants to end the activity
of his aide, may stop granting him power. At that moment the authority of the
assistant disappears.
In the analogy, the Creator, Blessed be He, emanated the sefirot in order to
create the world, and these are part of Him. Kabbalists refer to the sefirot
as “emanated light (or ne’etzal)”.3
THE SEFIROT
ARE THE CREATOR’S RATZON AND ACTIONS
We
have already written that we cannot distinguish between the Creator’s ratzon
and His actions, since His ratzon is His action, and He is the essence of reality.
Since the sefirot are revelations of the Creator’s ratzon, they are also
revelations of the essence of all reality. As a result, kabbalists describe
all of reality in terms of sefirot, the essence of things. The field of Kabbalah
does not deal with material reality, but with the essence of things and their
spiritual roots. These roots are the ten sefirot.
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