THERE IS NO REALITY NOT ROOTED IN THE THOUGHT OF CREATION₄

    In contrast to human ratzon and action, the Creator’s action is not limited to one plane but encompasses all reality. In order to understand this we will use an example. When a carpenter constructs a table, his concerns include obtaining appropriate tools and wood, cutting the wood to size, and assembling the sections according to the customer’s order. The carpenter does not have to involve himself with how the wood came into being or with the continued existence of the table. On the other hand, when the Creator brought the worlds into being, they were perfect, the formation of a perfect reality. This reality included not only creations — inanimate, plant, animal and human — but also law and order, i.e., a framework of natural laws ensuring the continued existence of all these creations. Moreover, since these creations were created to fulfill a certain purpose, the Creator fashioned the conditions which would allow them to achieve it. For this purpose He created a framework of governance and providence. Similarly, methods were established to link creatures and Creator. This is achieved through the angels, the Creator’s messengers, and other creations on higher spiritual levels.
    This all-encompassing reality, in its most minute details, including the allotted time to achieve the goal of creation, i.e., six thousand years, was included in the “thought of creation.”
    The thought of creation (machshevet ha-briya) can be compared to an architect’s plan. Whatever the architect draws in his plans will appear in the building, from the foundations to the smallest window. So, too, only that which was included in the thought of creation can exist and be a reality. In the thought of creation the roots of all the details of reality were laid down, and for each detail in the universal reality there is a separate root. This root is an individual spiritual force particular to that specific reality. Each such root is the ratzon of the Creator, Blessed be He, to bring that specific reality into being and to vitalize it. In other words, any reality, whether inanimate, plant, animal or human, receives its existence and vitality from the ratzon of the Creator, which is specific to it. The sum total of these wills, or roots, which maintain all reality are included in the ten sefirot. And the ten sefirot are the source and root of all reality in its most minute detail.

THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION ALSO HAS A ROOT IN THE SEFIROT

    As odd as it may sound, not only does the material dimension receive its vitality and existence from the sefirot, but the spiritual dimension does too. Patterns of thought, the way people determine their priorities, human spiritual states, and ordered decision making processes are all rooted in the ten sefirot.
    We may sum up this subject as follows: There is no material or spiritual reality, on the sensual, intellectual or emotional plane, which does not have a root in the thought of creation. In the thought of creation, all patterns were arranged and all laws determined. All roots of all details of reality are in the thought of creation. In the structure of the sefirot and in their hishtalshalut (unfolding) was laid the foundation of the entire pattern of law and order, according to which we act, consciously and subconsciously. The sefirot are the essence of all reality. They are, in fact, the absolute and true reality, while all that we witness around us is no more than the actualization of the thought of creation.

THE DIVINE WILL IS PERFECT UNITY₅

    Although we speak of the limited Divine ratzon, the ten sefirot, one should not conclude, God forbid, that the Divine ratzon can be divided into parts. On the contrary, the Divine ratzon, which is the essence of all reality, is perfect unity. We cannot understand the concept “perfect essence”; therefore, to make it comprehensible, we use terms like “limited ratzon.” Furthermore, because of our meager intelligence and our limitations, stemming from the fact that our soul is captive in a corporeal body, we cannot understand or grasp abstract spiritual concepts. Therefore, we can only relate to the Creator’s actions which we have the capacity to describe. For example, the sun is one unit. We understand (or appreciate) the sun using the senses of touch (for its warmth) and sight. We obviously cannot conclude from this that the sun is actually two units. We do not conclude that a distance of 100 meters is actually 100 units merely because a man can only sprint this distance in a hundred steps. We can be compared to a child learning to read who pauses at each letter in a word, joins them together, and, only then, realizes that it is a word. In the child’s eyes a book is composed of thousands of units. On the other hand, an experienced reader reads the book with great speed. An excellent reader who also happens to know the book well can survey it in one sweep, and considers the book as a single unit.
    In the essence of the Divine will, then, there is neither division nor limit. All reality is united in total perfect absolute unity with the Creator, Blessed be He.

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