Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Introduction to the Four Phases of Direct Light

Therefore we must ask: why then, did the Kabbalists obligate each person to study the wisdom of Parables or Kabbalah? Indeed Kabbalah like the Torah contains a tremendous blessing, that is worthy of being publicized: There is a wonderful, invaluable remedy to those who engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although they do not understand what they are learning, through the yearning and the great desire to understand, what they are learning would awaken within themselves the Lights that surround their souls.

While one does not instantaneously attained perfection, these Lights that are destined to reach him are called Surrounding Lights. That means that they stand ready at all time, and wait for one to purify one’s vessels of reception through the sixth days of Creation. When one experiences the seventh day, he or she would have received the sixth bandwidth of the perfect light.

Even when one does not have their vessels purified, when one connect with the Spirit of Understanding, by mentioning and establishing faith the names of the Messiyah and the vessels related to one’s soul, they will immediately begin to receive the light of the Holy Spirit shine upon us to a certain measure. However, they shine for him without clothing the interior of his soul. The lack of the able vessels to receive these lights will depends on one’s faith. Despite that, the illumination one receives during the process, during the commitment draws upon by grace provided by faith in YAHushua; impart one with abundance of sanctity and purity, which bring one much closer to reaching perfection.

In this chapter we will look at the four phases of the creation of a human. This is one of the macro-template for everything that exists in creation: the way in which the creation came into being; the way in which a creature is created; and the way in which everything that stems from that is created in every aspect of the creation of human.

Here is what the Kabbalists teach us. First of all we need to know that there are secrets of Torah, but we are not going to speak of these secrets and they are above our ability to convey them. No Kabbalistic books will ever talks about the secrets of Torah, only about the tastes of Torah.

These secrets are called YAHVEH Essence, or Atzmuto. It is forbidden to speak about this. What forbidden means is that it is impossible? There are no words for this. We have no Kelim (vessels) for it. This can only be known by attainment.

We start with the CREATOR. The Kabbalists tell us that the initial Thought of the CREATOR, those who have attained this level, tell us that everything began with an intention, and this intention is to create a human and to bring that human to perfection. This is what is called Hebrew called Behina Shoresh. This is the root of all reality.

Now, since this process will create perfect sons and to give that “Son” human pleasure is the only purpose of Creation; immediately after initial salvation, what occurred is the will to receive this pleasure. So this intension is now what we call the “Light,” and this is the will to receive.

This is our vessel. This is the initial creature. This phase is one in which the total Light of creation fills a vessel capable of holding the entire Light, but this vessel, the human heart or soul is almost nullified against that. When it become integrated with the Light, the whole nature of the human will, will change, producing the fruit of the Spirit.  A new nature came into existence at the same time as the Light and the Torah enter the soul of humanity, as one because they depend on each other completely.

You will now have a giving force, a desire to give, that will begin to influence soul, contrary to the nature to receive. These two nature will now locked together in mortal combat, for the will to receive will not go without a struggle. They are sort of part and parcel of the same idea, but opposite. This is called the second discernment, which is Behina Aleph. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and it has the value 1, and this is the first discernment.

What happens when the Light enters this first Kli, the heart of man, the will to receive will oppose it. It is that the will to receive feels the uneasy pleasure, but the Light also imparts something about its own nature into the Kli, and something happens as a result of that feeling. This is our first day of Creation, when the Spirit of Truth is installed in the heart of humanity.

When this Light goes all the way down and reaches the total filling within the darkness of the will to receive, the vessel the heart begins to sense more and more about the nature of the Light itself. Since this is only a will to receive, it makes a movement based on its programming, and it notices that there is a Giver, so that the first discernment is “there is a Giver”; in other words, this is the first thing that is not the CREATOR. It has the sensation that there is a giving mode and there is a receiving mode. It is in existence, in relation to something. 

Let’s look at this first and second part here in terms of the Sefirot. The first discernment is called “אמת  'emeth” or “truth.” The second discernment is called “Hochma.” Hochma means wisdom. So this Light that is felt by the first creature here, this first phase of the creature, is a delight that is a response to the qualities of the CREATOR, and this Light that it feels, that enters it, is called “the Light of Truth” (in Hebrew, “Ohr emeth – light of truth”). So anytime you hear the word “truth or wisdom” in Kabbalistic texts, it is talking about this quality of this Phase of the Light.

Now something happens here, and as a result of feeling that there is a CREATOR, it also feels the pleasure of the desire to give, and it wants this pleasure because it is a will to receive. So in this desire, a new discernment appears. In order to reach this, because it felt this lack within it (first it was filled completely, then it felt a lack for what it sensed in the quality of the Light), in order to reach this, to try to attain this for itself, it realizes that it doesn’t want only to receive. What it wants is the pleasure of giving, so it makes that move to be able to experience that pleasure of giving, but since it is only built to receive, the only thing that it can do is to not receive. In other words, it rejects the Light. This phase is called “Behina Bet.” Bet is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet too, and the perception that it has is that to give is better than to receive. It is a desire to give. Act 20:35  I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the MessiYAH YAHushua, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Now here we have a very interesting thing occurring. We have two phases that have moved us (Phase 1 moving to Phase 2), has moved to its complete opposite. Phase 1 is a desire to receive and Phase 2 is a desire to give. This Sefira (Phase 2) is called “Bina.” Bina comes from the word Hitbonenut which means “to observe.” And what it really observes and what it discerns is a quality of the CREATOR, that the quality of the CREATOR is to give. So this is the quality of giving, this Sefira Bina, this Behina Bet, this Phase 2.

In this state of emptiness there is another discernment that comes to the vessel. Now I want you to notice that what is being spoken about in each one of these Behinot, in each one of these discernments, is not about the action of the Light. The action of the Light is always the same. It always only uses this primary directive, the will to create a human and to fulfill that human with its attribites. That is the only thing the Light does. What we are speaking about are discernment changes within the Kli, within the desire, within the creature. So here inside the Behina Bet, in the area that still lack of Light, there is a discernment that is happens, that its nature is actually being change, and it feel that it can’t exist without the Light of Wisdom.

This rejection of the Light, this passing back of the Light, is called “the Light of Mercy” (in Hebrew, “Ohr Hassadim”), so it knows that it can’t exist like this, it must receive more light. But it doesn’t want only to be a receiver, so it has to find a way in which its reception is actually a form of giving; and this brings about the next discernment.

This is Behina Gimel, the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This discernment here brings about a dual phase. That is, this phase incorporates these two opposites, both the reception of Ohr Hochma, and it also includes,Ohr Hochma and Ohr  בּינה  bı̂ynâh bee-naw', Wisdom and Understanding. So these two opposite like our right and left hand are desires that begins to be developed. Why? What is going on here? In this mode of reception, Behina Gimel has found a way to turn its reception into a way of giving.

The only thing that exists in Creation is the creature and the CREATOR, the Light and the vessel. Even if the creature feels that it is doing an act of giving just within itself, really, the only one that there is to give to from the point of view of the creature is the CREATOR. Behina Gimel makes the decision that it will copy the act of the CREATOR, that it understands that the CREATOR wants it to be filled with pleasure, that it must receive this pleasure, and that part of the Thought of Creation is to create a Human and to give to the Human unlimited pleasure.

Well the only kind of Human that it can really create is someone who desire to have the Light within. So it makes the decision that it will receive a portion of the Light, say 20% of the Light, under the condition that it only does it in order to fulfill the Thought of Creation, this desire of the CREATOR to create a Human and fill it with delight, the MessiYAH. So it will receive it with the intention that by its reception it fulfills this Thought. And this is the only mode in which reception can be giving. But giving is an intention. It doesn’t matter what the act is; it is an intention.

This 80% of Ohr Hassadim (Returning Light) it is still pleasure, it is still Light coming into it, but he pays no attention to it here. This phase, in Sefirot is called Zeir Anpin, and it really consists of a number of Sefirot: of Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. It is a mixed phase that allows for reception in order to bestow.

In this simulation of the act of bestowal that Behina Gimel does, a new discernment is born. He feels another quality of the Light developing, because of their action and that quality is actually the Thought of Creation itself. He comes to the conclusion that it is not just to give, and it is not just that she receives a certain portion in order to fulfill the desire of the CREATOR to give to another, but that the Thought of Creation is to fill every human completely with unbounded delight and he then realizes that he must accept all the Light in order to fulfill the Thought of Creation.

So when, the Light enters and fills the entire vessel. This is Behina Dalet, 4, but this is very different than Behina Aleph. Even though it looks the same, something very different has occurred here, because here, in Behina Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, and Gimel, all of these actions were not independent actions. These were all actions done by the CREATOR. The Force of the Light, the response to and the desire created by each segment of the Light are all actions done by the CREATOR. In Behina Dalet something entirely new happens. This is an independent desire to be and do precisely what the CREATOR had placed in the heart of every human. Here, in the intention to receive all of this Light, there is the possibility of the equivalence of form with the very Thought of Creation itself.

At this point, everything changes in the Human heart. There is a restriction, a change in the nature of his desire. Instead of receiving, as he or she did, the Direct Light, and trying to achieve this for themselves, they feels within themselves the fruit of the Spirit, because of this last discernment that he had, he feels the stature of the CREATOR. Now, he no longer wants the doing part of creation, the Direct Light, what he wants is the mind of the CREATOR, the thinking part of the creation. He wants to reach equivalence of form with the CREATOR, which is, in fact, the intention of the CREATOR in the first place. So here we have the beginning of everything else in creation. We have an independent human.

Hence, this fourth phase in Sefirot is called “Malchut.” Malchut comes from the word “king” or “kingdom.” It means that everything is ruled here by desire. Now here, this new intention not to receive for herself alone, because he feels the stature of the CREATOR, he feels ashamed at the manner of reception, and this is called a restriction, the First Tzimtzum, and from now on he pursues the Thought behind Creation, and not the actions of Creation.

So here we have this Malchut, the beginning of creation. This vessel, this number four Behina, is called “Olam Ein Sof,” that is, “World Without End,” and all the Worlds and souls extend from here.

Every part of creation uses exactly this form. This process, this macro-template, is also the four-letter name of  יהוה YAHVEH. You have seen it. There is the tip of the Yod, Yod, Key, the Vav, and the lower Hey—the YaHVaH. When we see this name, it represents these series of forces, or the four rivers that flow from the Garden of Eden.

All words and names in Kabbalah are like formulas in physics. They talk about the relationships of the Light to the heart,

 The Kli. So, here you see that the Kabbalists have given us a map from Above downward, on how we came into being. But it is not only that. It also describes the states that a person must attain on their ascent upward. It gives us the purpose, it gives us the root, and it gives us the milestone, the places along the way. That is what the creature does once it makes this restriction. It starts to build a system of worlds so that it can attain the Thought of Creation, but as an independent desire, and become equal to the CREATOR.

2Co 12:2  I knew a man in MessiYAH above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: YAHVEH knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3  And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: YAHVEH knoweth;)

This is a quote from Rav Laitman: “Man includes everything inside of him. If man does corrections, it means that accordingly the entire creation approaches the CREATOR. Therefore, man has to correct only himself. Man who elevates, brings up with him all of the worlds. That is why it is said that all worlds were created for man.”