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Chapter 51
Now, for a further explanation of the wording of the child above, one must first explain, so as to understand a little the matter of the resting of the Shekhinah (the divine presence), which rested in the Holy of Holies, and likewise what the meaning is of every place where the Shekhinah rests. Is not the whole earth full of His glory, and there is no place empty of Him?
But the matter is as it is written (Job 19:26): “And from my flesh I behold God.” For just as the soul of a person fills all 248 limbs of the body, from his head to his foot, still the chief place of its dwelling and its resting is in his brain, and from the brain it spreads to all the limbs, and each limb receives from it the life and the power that fit it, according to its temperament and its nature: the eye to see, the ear to hear, the mouth to speak, and the feet to walk. This is plain to the senses, for in the brain one feels all that is done in the 248 limbs, and all that befalls them. Now, the difference in how the limbs of the body receive the powers and the life from the soul is not from the side of the soul itself and its essence, as if its essence and its being were divided into 248 different parts, clothed in 248 places according to the shape of the parts of the places of the limbs of the body. For according to that, its being and its essence would be found shaped in a physical shape, and a likeness and a figure like the figure of the body, God spare us. Rather, the whole of it is one spiritual essence, simple, and removed from every physical shape, and from any aspect and definition of place, measure, and physical limit, from the side of its essence and its being. And it does not belong to its essence and its being to say that it is in the brains of the head more than in the feet, since its essence and its being are not in the definition and the aspect of place and physical limit. Only, 613 kinds of powers and life are included in it, in its essence and its being, to come out into act and into revelation from concealment, so as to give life to the 248 limbs and the 365 sinews of the body, by their being clothed in the vital soul, which likewise has these 248 and 365 powers and vital forces.
Now, of the drawing down of all the 613 kinds of powers and life from the concealment of the soul into the body, to give it life, of this they said that the chief dwelling and resting of this drawing down, and of this revelation, is entirely in the brains of the head. And therefore they first receive the power and the life that fit them, according to their temperament and their nature, namely wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and the power of thought, and all that belongs to the brains. And not this alone. The whole of all the drawings of life to the other limbs is also included and clothed in the brains of the head, and there is the core and the root of this drawing, in an aspect of the revelation of the light and the life of the whole soul in its entirety. And from there a ray spreads to all the other limbs, and each one receives the power and the life that fit it, according to its temperament and its nature. The power of sight is revealed in the eye, and the power of hearing in the ear, and so on. And all the powers spread from the brain, as is known, for there is the chief dwelling of the whole soul, in an aspect of revelation, since the whole of the life that spreads from it is revealed there. Only the powers of that whole of the life shine and spread from there to all the limbs of the body, like the light that spreads and shines from the sun into inner room after inner room. [And even the heart receives from the brain, and therefore the brain rules over it by its own nature, as above.]
And in just this way, by way of analogy, Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, fills all the worlds, to give them life. And in every world there are creatures without end and without limit, myriads of myriads of kinds of levels, angels and souls, and so on. And likewise the multitude of the worlds has no end and no boundary, height above height, and so on.
Now, the essence and the being of Ein Sof, blessed be He, are the same in the upper ones and in the lower ones, as in the analogy of the soul mentioned above. And as they wrote in the Tikkunim, that He is the hiddenness of all that is hidden. The meaning is that even in the hidden worlds above, He is hidden and concealed within them, as He is hidden and concealed in the lower ones, for no thought grasps Him at all, even in the upper worlds. And so, as He is present there, so He is present in the lower ones, actually. And the difference between the upper worlds and the lower worlds is from the side of the drawing of the life, which Ein Sof, blessed be He, draws and shines, in an aspect of revelation out of concealment, [for this is one of the reasons that the influence and the drawing of the life is called by the name light, by way of analogy], to give life to the worlds and to the creatures in them. For the upper worlds receive, in an aspect of revelation, somewhat more than the lower ones, and all the creatures in them receive, each one according to its power and its nature, and that nature is the character and the aspect of the particular drawing which Ein Sof, blessed be He, draws and shines to it. And the lower ones, even the spiritual ones, do not receive in an aspect of revelation to such a degree, but only within many garments, in which Ein Sof, blessed be He, clothes the life and the light which He draws and shines to them, to give them life.
And the garments grew so thick and so strong, the garments in which Ein Sof, blessed be He, clothes and hides the light and the life, that with this He created this world, truly material and physical, and He brings it into being and gives it life by life and by light, a light which He draws and shines to it, clothed and covered and hidden inside the many and mighty garments that conceal and hide the light and the life, until no light and no life is seen or revealed, only material and physical things, and they appear dead. But within them there is light and life that brings them into being from nothing to something, constantly, so that they do not turn back to being nothing and naught, as they were. And this light is from Ein Sof, blessed be He, only it is clothed in many garments. And as it is written in the Tree of Life, that the light and the life of the material globe of the earth, which is seen by eyes of flesh, are from malchut (kingship) of malchut of Asiyah (making), and within it malchut of Yetzirah (formation) (in earlier printings it was written “malchut of malchut of Asiyah,” and it seems to me that it should be “malchut of Yetzirah,” and so it is in the Holy Epistle, section 25, which begins “to understand words of understanding,” and so on, of which the original of his holy handwriting is before us), and so on, until within all of them are the ten sefirot (divine channels) of Atzilut (emanation), which are united with their Emanator, Ein Sof, blessed be He.
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