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Chapter 48
Now, when the understanding man contemplates the greatness of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, for as His name is, so is He, there is no end and no limit and no finish at all to the light and the life-force that spread from Him, blessed be He, in His simple will, united with His essence and His very being, blessed be He, in the utmost union. And if the downward chain of the worlds from the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, had been without contractions, only in the order of the degrees, from degree to degree, by way of cause and effect, this world would not have been created at all as it is now, in the manner of limit and end, from the earth to the firmament a journey of five hundred years, and so between every firmament and firmament, and so the thickness of every firmament and firmament. Even the world to come and the upper Garden of Eden, the dwelling of the souls of the great tzaddikim, a tzaddik (a righteous person), would not have been created in that manner. And the souls themselves, and it is needless to say the angels, are in the manner of limit and end, for there is a limit to their grasp of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, that shines upon them clothed in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and so on. And therefore there is a limit to their enjoyment, for they enjoy the radiance of the Shekhinah (the divine presence) and take delight in the light of Hashem (God). For they cannot receive enjoyment and delight in the manner of actual Ein Sof, lest they be nullified from their existence and return to their source.
Now the particulars of the contractions, the how and the what, have no place of explanation here. But in a general way they are the manner of hiding and concealment of the drawing down of the light and the life-force, so that it not shine and be drawn to the lower ones in a manner of revelation, to clothe itself and to flow into them and to give them life, that they be something from nothing, but only a very little light and life-force, so that they be in the manner of limit and end. That is a very slight ray, and it is counted as actually nothing beside the manner of a ray without limit and end, and there is no proportion and no relation between them at all. As is known, the meaning of the word “proportion” in numbers is that one, in number, has a proportion to the number of a thousand thousands, for it is one part out of a thousand thousands. But beside a thing that is in the manner of no limit and no number at all, no proportion in numbers stands over against it, for even a thousand thousand thousands and a myriad of myriads are not even as the proportion of the number one to a thousand thousand thousands and a myriad of myriads, but are counted as actually nothing.
And exactly so is this slight ray that clothes itself in the upper worlds and the lower worlds, to flow into them and give them life, beside the worth of the hidden and concealed light, which is in the manner of Ein Sof, and does not clothe itself and flow into the worlds in a manner of revelation to give them life, but surrounds them from above, and is called surrounding all worlds. And the meaning is not that it surrounds and encompasses from above in a manner of place, God spare us, for the manner of place does not apply at all in the spiritual. Rather, the meaning is that it surrounds and encompasses from above with regard to the manner of the revelation of influence. For the influence that is in a manner of revelation in the worlds is called by the name of clothing, that it clothes itself in the worlds, for they clothe and grasp the influence that they receive. It is otherwise with the influence that is not in a manner of revelation, but in hiding and concealment, and that the worlds do not grasp. It is not called clothed, but encompassing and surrounding. Therefore, since the worlds are in the manner of limit and end, the influence of the light of Ein Sof does not clothe itself and become revealed in them in a manner of revelation, but only a very little, a very, very contracted slight ray. And it is only so as to give them life in the manner of limit and end. But the principal light, without so much contraction, is called encompassing and surrounding, since its influence is not revealed within them, since they are in the manner of limit and end.
And the parable in this: this physical earth, though the whole earth is full of His glory, and that is the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, as it is written (Jeremiah 23:24): “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth, says Hashem.” Even so, it does not clothe itself within it in the manner of a revealed influence, but only a very small life-force, the manner of the inanimate and the growing alone. And the whole light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, is called surrounding upon it, though it is actually within it, since its influence is not revealed in it any further, but it influences it in a manner of hiding and concealment. And every influence that is in a manner of hiding is called encompassing from above, for the concealed world is higher in degree than the revealed world.
And to bring it nearer to the intellect, it is by way of a parable, like a man who pictures in his mind some thing that he saw or that he sees. Now, though the whole body, the substance of that thing, and its outside and its inside and its innermost inside, is all pictured in his mind and his thought, because he saw all of it or sees it, his mind is called encompassing that whole thing, and that thing is encompassed in his mind and his thought. Only, it is not encompassed in actual fact, but only in the image of the man’s thought and his mind. But the Holy One, blessed be He, of whom it is written (Isaiah 55:8), “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,” and so on: His thought and His mind, by which He knows all created beings, encompass every created being from its top to its bottom, and its inside and its innermost inside, all in actual fact. For example, this globe of the earth: His knowledge, blessed be He, encompasses the whole thickness of the globe of the earth and all that is inside it and in its innermost inside, down to its bottom, all in actual fact. For this knowledge is the life-force of the whole thickness of the entire globe of the earth, and its coming to be from nothing to something. Only, it would not have come to be as it is now, a possessor of limit and end and a very slight life-force, enough for the manner of the inanimate and the growing, were it not by many and mighty contractions, which contracted the light and the life-force that clothed itself in the globe of the earth, to give it life and to keep it in the manner of limit and end, and in the manner of the inanimate and the growing alone.
But His knowledge, blessed be He, which is united with His essence and His very being, for He is the knowledge and He is the knower and He is the known, and by knowledge of Himself, as it were, He knows all created beings, and not by a knowledge outside of Him, as the knowledge of a man is, for all of them exist from His truth, blessed be He. And this matter is not in the power of a man to grasp as it truly is, and so on. [Gloss: as the Rambam of blessed memory wrote, and the sages of the Kabbalah agreed with him, as is written in the Pardes of the Ramak of blessed memory. And so it is according to the tradition of the Ari of blessed memory, in the mystery of the contraction and the clothing of the lights in the vessels, as was explained above, Chapter 2.] So this knowledge, since it is in the manner of Ein Sof, is not called by the name of clothing itself in the globe of the earth, which is a possessor of limit and end, but encompassing and surrounding. Even though this knowledge includes all its thickness and its inside in actual fact, and by this brings it into being from nothing to something, and as has been explained in another place.
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