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Dear Chaverim,
As I will discuss in my later comments on this third lesson of R.Azriel's explanation of the Ten Sefirot, we see in it the foundations of R. Isaac Luria's doctrine (some three hundred years later) of TzimTzum, on which the entire process of Tikkun, and Nathan of Gaza's messianic, Sabbateo-centric theosopy were based a century following Luria's monumental discoveries. This lecture will be divided into two posts: Lecture 4.1 in which I introduce and reproduce R. Azriel's Third Lesson, and Lecture 4.2 in which I offer my commentary and analysis of that lesson itself.
By way of an introduction, however, let me say that what R. Azriel discusses in his Third Lesson -- about the absolute perfection of Eyn Sof and its consequent inability to bring forth imperfection -- is totally consistent with Luria's later doctrine of Shevirit ha-Kelim (Shattering of the Sefirotic Vessels) from which the Holy Sparks and their Kelippot are said to have been created.
That is, the cataclysmic event of Shevirit HaKelim was NOT an accident
proceeding from any weakness in the composition of the initial Ten Sefirot,
but an intentional design element built into Adam Kadmon when God
first created him "in his own image" and out of the primordial
vessels. (Genesis 1:26)
In other words, the wholeness of God -- by including all that has, does
and will ever exist -- must perforce include the condition of imperfection
as well as that of perfection, which is to say "evil" as
well as "good." For this reason, the Baal Shem Tov states, ". . . when
God built and destroyed the worlds" (see below) -- thus demonstrating
a divine intentionality behind the Shattering of the
Vessels. 
note
And for what purpose did Eyn-Sof intentionally "build and destroy" these worlds by which destruction the Holy Sparks were created? In order, the Baal Shem Tov goes on to say, that mankind "shall raise and purify [the holy sparks] upward from stone to plant, from plant to animal, from animal to speaking being." Thus, God made happen the cataclysm of Shevirit HaKelim in order to grant His beloved creation, mankind, an unmerited opportunity to raise themselves to partnership with Him by virtue of His unlimited grace.
Finally, I want to call attention to the exquisite, mathematical logic
by which R. Azriel constructs his arguments. It is a small lesson in itself
in what differentiates useless "personal opinion" from sublime
"reasoned truth." Were it only possible that all of us could do the
same.
Raising up the Holy Sparks together,
"The holy sparks that fell when God built and destroyed the worlds, man shall raise and purify upward from stone to plant, from plant to animal, from animal to speaking being -- purify the holy sparks that are imprisoned in the world of shells." -- The Baal Shem Tov
3. If the questioner persists: By what necessity do
you arrive at the assertion that the sefirot exist? I rather say that they
do not exist and there is only Eyn-Sof!
ANSWER: Eyn-Sof is perfection without any imperfection. If you propose that He has unlimited power and does not have finite power, then you ascribe imperfection to his perfection. And if you claim that the first limited being that is brought into existence from Him is this world -- lacking in perfection -- then you ascribe imperfection to the force which stems from Him.
Since we should never ascribe imperfection to His perfection, we are compelled to say that He has a finite power which is unlimited. The limitation first existentiated from Him is the sefirot, for they are both a perfect power and an imperfect power. When they partake of the abundant flow stemming from His perfection they are perfected power, and when the abundant flow is withdrawn they posses imperfect power. Thus, they are able to function in both perfection and imperfection, and perfection and imperfection differentiate one thing from another.
Now if you were to claim that He alone willed the creation
of the world without recourse to the sefirot, the response to this assumption
is that the intention indicates an imperfection in the intender. Alternatively,
if you claim He did not intend His creation -- if such were the case --
then creation was a random accident. All things which are the outcome of
a random accident have no order. Yet we witness that creation is ordered,
with the sun during the day and the moon and stars at night.
They exist by an order and by order they are generated
and pass away. This order by which they exist and pass away is called
the sefirot, for they are the forces behind every existent being in the
realm of plurality. Since the existentiation of created beings is brought
about by means of the sefirot, each one differs one from the other: some
are elevated, some are lowly, while others intermediate. This is the case
despite the fact that they are all derived from one principle. Every being
is from Eyn-Sof, and nothing exists outside of Him.
Subject:
[DONMEH] R. Azriel of Gerona
on the Ten Sefirot: Part 4.2/12
Date:
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 09:20:13
-0600 (MDT)
From:
Yakov.Leib.haKohain@salmon.esosoft.net
To:
Azriel Colloquium <donmeh@List-Server.net>
Dear Chaverim,
In Lecture 4.1 of this series I reproduced R. Azriel's Third Lesson
on
the Ten Sefirot, and discussed its general significance for the doctrine
of TzimTzum as propounded several centuries later by R. Isaac Luria.
Here,I would like to explore that relationship, as well as others,
in a
little more detail. (For the full text of R. Azriel's Lesson 3, which
I
disect below, see my Lecture 4.1 in this series.)
>Since we should never ascribe imperfection to His perfection, we are
>compelled to say that He has a finite power which is unlimited.
This is one of the exquisite paradoxes of R. Azriel's arguments: that
is, how can anything perfect (i.e., "good") also be imperfect (i.e.,
"evil")? Yet, since Ayn-Sof contains *all things*, it must perforce
contain "imperfection" as well as "perfection" in order to fulfill
its
omnipotency. Thus, when addressing God in the "Lord's Prayer," Yeshua
HaNotzri could say, "And lead us not into temptation" (Matthew 6:13)
--
which clearly implies God's capacity for evil -- and the Baal Shem
Tov
could state, "The indwelling Glory embraces all worlds, all creatures,
good and evil. And it is a true unity. How can it then bear in itself
the opposites of good and evil? But in truth there is no opposite,
for
the evil is the throne of the good." ("Instructions in Intercourse
with
God," In _Hasidism and Modern Man, Martin Buber, Horizon Press, 1958,
page 208)
>The limitation first existentiated from Him is the sefirot,
>for they are both a perfect power and an imperfect power.
>When they partake of the abundant flow stemming from His
>perfection they are perfected power, and when the abundant
>flow is withdrawn they posses imperfect power.
This appears to be the proposition on which Luria would later base his
notion of "Histaluth and Hishpatuth" in the doctrine of TzimTzum; that
is, the "extension" and "withdrawl" of the Pefect Light of creation
into
and away from the primordial space He has created within Himself for
the
creation of Adam Kadmon, or the primordial Ten Sefiroth (Genesis 1:3).
This is the divine "Light of the Righteous" which God, according to
the
Kabbalah, "put away" for the coming of the Messiah (Pirke de Rabbi
Eliezar 4A.i.) -- and on the basis of which Yehoshua HaNotzri could
say
of himself, "I am the light of the world [i.e., by which it was
created]" (John 9:5), and other Messianic avatars, such as Moses and
Sabbatai Zevi (and even Jung), were accompanied by extraordinary light
phenomena. (With regard to SZ, for example, see Scholem's _Mystical
Messiah_, page 451 and f.n. 286; also, see my previous posts in the
Jung
Seminar Lectures about the light from Jung's face which my mentor,
James
Kirsch, witnessed first-hand and related to me.)
>Since the existentiation of created beings is brought about
>by means of the sefirot, each one differs one from the other:
>some are elevated, some are lowly, while others intermediate.
This referes, of course, to the "lightning-bolt order" in which we
typically see the "Tree" of the Ten Sefirot represented. (See the
interactive diagram of the Ten Sefirot constructed by our chaver Alan
Kazlev at http://www.kheper.auz.com/topics/Kabbalah/sefirot.htm.)
>This is the case despite the fact that they are all derived from
>one principle. Every being is from Eyn-Sof, and nothing exists
>outside of Him.
Similarly, Jung states that the archetypes are "contaminated with each
other" -- which is to say that they, like the pseudopodia of an amoeba,
are all merely extensions of a single, transexistent entity, namely
the
Self, or God. Similarly, in the Ten Sefirot each Sefirah "contains"
all
the remaining nine others, being only a "specialization" of the whole
totality. This is, of course, very much like the "fractal" images
created in chaos-theory physics, in which each separate "piece" of
the
image contains the whole.
>All things which are the outcome of a random accident have no
>order. Yet we witness that creation is ordered, with the sun
>during the day and the moon and stars at night.
This proposition is echoed in Stephen Hawking's "string theory" of
astrophysics which proposes that God is "proven" by the extreme
precision with which the universe is held together. ( See, for example,
his book, _A Brief History of Time_.)
>If you claim He [Ayn-Sof] did not intend His creation . . . then >creation
was a random accident. This order by which they exist
>and pass away is called the sefirot, for they are the forces
>behind every existent being in the realm of plurality.
>They exist by an order and by order they are generated and pass away.
Modern "chaos theory" in physics proposes that under the apparent
randomness of matter (which is to say the Ten Sefirot) is a "strange
order," which can be taken, by those of us who care to, as God.
Raising up the Holy Sparks together,
Yakov Leib haKohain, Ph.D.
Personal Webpage http://www.kheper.auz.com/topics/Kabbalah/Yakov.htm
Donmeh Webpage http://www.kheper.auz.com/topics/Kabbalah/Donmeh.htm
Donmeh Index http://members.xoom.com/donmeh/
"There are Ten Intangible Sefirot whose end is fixed in their beginning,
as the flame is bound to the coal." -- Sefir Yetzirah 1:7
(Scene of mahapralaya in the vision)
Swami Vivekananda: "The Centre you have seen in the vision was the
real thing, and around it was a glittering light. Around the circle, there
were particles disturbed. They all lost their condition when the
world came into existence. You observed all of them in the rear circle,
i.e., the second one. And the innermost circle was nothing but a dot.
The glittering light was the first push. There are three circles which
become one in the end. How strange it is that a little fistful of power
created such a big universe."
(Spoken to Sri Ram Chandra of Shajahanpur from Vivekananda in the Spirit
World)
From Volume Three of "Complete Works of Ram Chandra" 1997 (available
at www.srcm.org) 14 July 1948:
Peter Nordquist
Rabbi
Azriel and the school of Gerona
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