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Chapter 11
Now, the ten utterances, they too, are likewise called by the name of utterances in relation to the created beings alone. For just as the attributes in the soul of a person, when they come to be revealed in deed, come clothed in the letters of thought, for example, the attribute of kindness and mercy in the soul, it is impossible for it to come to revelation in actual deed except by his thinking in his mind and pondering the deed of charity and kindness, so as to do it in actual deed, for it is impossible to act without thought. And if he commands others to do it, like the king, then the attribute of kindness, and the letters of thought as well, becomes clothed in the letters of speech [and likewise when he speaks words of kindness and mercy to his fellow].
So, by way of a parable, the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He, when they come to the aspect of the revelation of their action in the lower ones, this revelation and the drawing down of this action is called by the name of an utterance and a combination of letters. For it is impossible that any action should be drawn from His holy attributes without combinations that are called by the name of letters. For example, for the creation of the light from the attribute of kindness, there is drawn from it a drawing down of action and a power, to act and to create the light with it, and the drawing down of this power and this life force is called by the name of an utterance and the letters “Let light be” (Genesis 1:3). For although they are not like the letters of our thought, God spare us, even so they are a matter that indicates the coming into being of the light from nothing to something. Therefore the light was created from the drawing down of this power, and other things were not created from it, things that were also created from the attribute of kindness, such as water and the like, because powers were clothed in them in the aspect of other combinations, which indicate the coming into being of the water and the like. And so it follows that all life force and powers that are drawn from His holy attributes to the lower ones, to create them from nothing to something and to give them life and to sustain them, are called by the name of the holy letters, which are the aspect of the drawing down of the life force from His will and His wisdom and His attributes, for worlds to come into being and to give them life.
And they are two kinds of worlds. Hidden worlds that are not revealed: they are the ones that come into being and live and endure from concealed powers and drawings down, like the letters of thought in the soul of a person, by way of a parable. And worlds that are revealed were created and live from revelation, in that the concealed powers and drawings down, which are called by the name of letters of thought, were revealed. And when they are in the aspect of revelation, so as to give life to worlds that are revealed, they are called by the name of utterances, and the word of Hashem (God), and the breath of His mouth, like the letters of speech in a person, by way of a parable, which reveal to those who hear what was hidden and sealed in his heart.
But in truth, the aspect of the letters of speech from above is high above the levels and the essence of the wisdom and the intellect of the created beings. For by the utterance and the letters “Let us make a human in our image,” and so on (Genesis 1:26), the human was created, possessing wisdom and intellect, or even by the upper breath alone, as it is written, “And He breathed into his nostrils a soul of life” (Genesis 2:7). If so, the speech and the upper breath are the source of the wisdom and the intellect in the soul of the first human, which includes all the souls of the righteous, who are greater than the ministering angels. And this is because the letters of His speech, blessed be He, are the aspect of drawings down of powers and life force from His attributes, blessed be He, which are united with His essence and His very self in the utmost unity, which is high above, without end, beyond the level of wisdom in the created beings. And they are not called by the name of letters in relation to the created beings, but in relation to His attributes, blessed be He, in their glory and in themselves.
Now they are 22 kinds of drawings down of life force and of powers, different one from another, by which all the worlds, upper and lower, were created, and all the creatures that are within them. For so it arose in His will and His wisdom, blessed be He, to create the world in 22 kinds of different drawings down, specifically, no fewer and no more. And they are the very 22 letters fixed in the mouth and the tongue, as it is set down in the Book of Formation [and their form in writing indicates the shape of the drawing down, as will be explained further on], for the letters of speech and of thought in the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) of a person are also drawings down from the intellect and the attributes that are in the nefesh, from their essence and their very self, as has been explained in another place.
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