16th day of Iyar

Having previously explained that G‑d showed his love for the Jewish people by taking them out of the physical servitude of Egypt, the Alter Rebbe concluded ch. 47 by describing the love G‑d shows His people by releasing them from a spiritual dimension of Egyptian bondage. This spiritual Exodus is daily manifest within all Jewish souls. It is natural, therefore, that Jews should reciprocate with love—like the water that mirrors the face of the beholder—and thereby strive to overcome all obstacles that hinder their service of G‑d.

The light and vitality that emanate from G‑d in order that He create and animate finite Worlds are in no way similar to light and vitality as they are found within created beings.

Light that emanates from a created being is not limited by the capacity of the recipient; on the other hand, the luminary has no control over its power of illumination: having been created as a luminary, it has no choice but to illumine. Divine light, however, while possessing all the positive qualities of illumination as found in created luminaries, shares none of its deficiencies: light emanates from the Luminary only when the Luminary desires that it do so. The will of created beings likewise has strengths and weaknesses. Though it chooses freely, it is by its very nature limited and restrictive. G‑d’s will, by contrast, while maintaining the positive attributes of mortal will, is encumbered by none of its limitations; His will (to illumine, for example) is unbounded, just as He Himself is without limitation.

Being infinite, G‑d’s light “cannot” give rise to created and finite beings unless it first undergoes the series of self-limiting, self-concealing contractions known as tzimtzumim, as is now stated.

Such is the case with regard to thought and speech. That which a person speaks is first found within his thought; thought is the cause, and speech is the effect. Though thought is more spiritual than speech, the two levels stand in a certain proportion to each other in that (for example) both are composed of letters that form words. And so with every cause-and-effect relationship, the effect must partake of the characteristics of its cause; it would be impossible for a “cause” to bring into existence an “effect” which is infinitely removed from it.

Since the light and vitality—the creative power—that emanates from G‑d is infinite while created beings are finite, it goes without saying that they could not possibly have come into being in a manner of cause and effect. For if this were the case,

The Rebbe notes: Although it was indicated early in ch. 39 that souls delight in G‑d and derive pleasure from and comprehend the [infinite] Ein Sof-light, this poses no difficulty:

Souls and angels, which inhabit these worlds, comprehend G‑dliness as a result of its vestiture in the ChaBaD of those worlds. Though lofty, their comprehension is nonetheless limited.

Thus, even the creatures of the highest spiritual worlds are finite beings, and in order for them to be created in a finite manner, the process of “contraction” must be invoked. Being finite, they are totally dissimilar to their source—the infinite G‑dly light that exists prior to “contraction.”

Were their life-force to be revealed within them, they would be infinite. “Contraction” ensures that the light and vitality which is their life-force remains concealed from them; all that is revealed is but a minute degree of light and vitality.

I.e., they are not quantitatively different, not even immensely different in quantity, but of a wholly different and incomparable quality.

The sum of one million is merely the sum of one million ones; subtract but one, and the million ceases to exist—a clear demonstration of the relation that subsists between one and a million.

Unlike the light that pervades all worlds (memalei kol almin), which permeates and vests itself within them (just as the soul vests itself in the body), the encompassing light remains aloof from the worlds.

Physical objects are spatial; they may be said to be found in one place or the other. Spirituality, however, is nonspatial; the terms “encompassing” and “encircling” are never to be understood in their literal, physical sense,

In order for creation to come about, there must necessarily be at least some glimmer of G‑dly illumination, albeit in an extremely limited form, for this enables creation to be finite and bounded.

By way of illustration, the Alter Rebbe will now draw an analogy from the physical earth, which is composed of the inanimate and vegetable worlds. These two categories are the least significant of the four categories—man, animal, the vegetative, and the inanimate—and the divine life-force found within them is contracted to a greater degree than the life-force found within animal and man. Nevertheless, Scripture attests that the whole world is full of G‑d’s glory, because it encompasses these two categories and does not pervade them.

G‑dliness drawn down in a concealed manner (“from the hidden world”) is on a higher plane than that which is drawn down in a revealed manner (“from the revealed world”). Emanating as it does from a higher level, this mode of divine influence is said to be “encircling from above.”

A further example is needed in order to clarify this paradox—how G‑dliness simultaneously pervades the world and yet remains aloof from it, encircling and encompassing it (as it were) from above and not being revealed within it.

Since man’s thought is limited, he cannot actually encompass the object itself; he only encompasses its image as it exists within his mind.

The Alter Rebbe now gives an example of G‑d’s thought and knowledge encompassing a specific object.

The whole earth was originally created and continues to be created ex nihilo as a result of G‑d’s knowledge of it.

Thus, the minute degree of illumination which results from the tzimtzumim enables the earth to exist in a finite manner and only in the finitude of inorganic and vegetable matter. G‑d’s knowledge, however, as shall presently be explained, encircles the earth from above. For since His knowledge is infinite while the world is finite, it is impossible for this knowledge to pervade the earth, even though this knowledge constitutes the earth’s very creation and existence.

It has been previously explained (in ch. 2) that G‑d’s knowledge and intellect are totally different from man’s. When a mortal being knows something, three distinct identities are involved: (a) the “knower”—the person in possession of the knowledge; (b) the “knowledge”—the intellectual faculty which enables him to know; and (c) the “known”—the particular item of knowledge which he knows. G‑d, however, “…is the Knowledge, the Knower, and the Known.” He that knows, and the vehicle through which He knows, and that which He knows—are all Himself. Thus, His knowledge is wholly united, wholly identified, with His essence.

Human knowledge requires getting to know something which is external to the knower himself. Not so G‑d’s knowledge: it comes from His knowing Himself,

G‑d’s true reality and existence is the source of all created beings. By knowing Himself, therefore, as mentioned just above, He knows all of creation.

The human mind cannot possibly grasp the concept of “Knowledge, Knower, and Known” all being one and the same. For whatever matter a man may desire to comprehend, he imagines how it exists within himself—bearing in mind, of course, that when the matter at hand is the knowledge of G‑dliness, it is to be conceived on a more exalted and abstract plane than that of simple human existence. Since G‑d’s manner of knowledge is totally dissimilar from man’s, it is thus impossible for him to picture it at all. It must forever remain beyond his ken.

“He is the Knowledge, the Knower…” and so on, is a quotation from Rambam (Maimonides). There are prominent sages who take issue with this view, among them Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew) of Prague.

In the introduction to his Gevurot Hashem, Maharal raises a number of objections to the thesis of Rambam. One of his most telling arguments: The descriptive term “knowledge” or “intellect” is one of limitation. By terming something as being “intellect,” we are thereby saying that it is not anything other than intellect—such as feelings, action, or whatever. Yet how can we possibly say that G‑d is limited in any way? For He is the ultimate in indivisible simplicity, not a complex amalgamation of distinct, limited attributes.

Even if we posit that G‑d’s knowledge and man’s are totally dissimilar, and that man is incapable of comprehending how G‑d is both simultaneously “Knowledge, Knower, and Known,” yet the fact still remains that knowledge is a specific attribute: we are speaking of knowledge, to the exclusion of all else. This cannot possibly serve as a description of G‑d’s essence.

Maharal goes on to point out that the Sages of the Talmud refer to G‑d as “the Holy One, blessed be He,” not as “the intellect, blessed be He.” For “holy” means separate and apart—utterly transcending anything that is within the realm of description. And it is specifically because He is above everything and beyond all description that everything derives from Him. For He is limited in no respect that might preclude the existence of anything.

Intellect, Maharal teaches, is merely one of G‑d’s creations. Seen in this light, “And G‑d knew” is no different from “And G‑d said” or “And G‑d made.” Just as G‑d’s speech and action are not His essence but faculties which He brought into being, so, too, with regard to knowledge—the attributes of knowledge and intellect are His creations.

The Alter Rebbe explains in this note that the scholars of the Kabbalah subscribed to the view of Rambam that Divine knowledge ought to be considered in terms of “Knowledge, Knower, and Known.” However, they specify, this only applies after the light of the Ein Sof contracted into the ten sefirot of Atzilut—chochmah, binah, daat (wisdom, knowledge and understanding), and so on, i.e., after the “clothing of the light in vessels.” Only after the light of chochmah clothed itself in the vessel of chochmah, the light of binah in the vessel of binah, and so forth—i.e., only after these entities already exist—is it possible to say that this knowledge and intellect is totally at one with G‑d. However, before the contraction within these sefirot, G‑d supremely transcends intellect and wisdom, even as they exist in their most abstract and rarefied form.

According to the teachings of Chasidut, following along the lines of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria’s interpretation of the doctrine of tzimtzum (“contraction”), the views of both Rambam and Maharal are correct.

G‑d’s essential existence and being, before any contraction of G‑dliness, is as described by Maharal—an existence of unqualified simplicity beyond the pale of knowledge and intellect in whatever form they may take, even so subtle a form as “Knowledge, Knower, and Known.” However, once the contraction took place and the sefirot came into being, then His vestiture in them may properly be described by saying, in the words of Rambam, that “He is the Knowledge….”

This is because the sefirot are emanations of G‑dliness rather than created beings. As such, they are wholly united with G‑d. This is expressed in the statement of Tikkunei Zohar: “He and His life-giving emanations (i.e., the orot, the “lights” of the ten sefirot of the World of Atzilut) are one; He and His causations (i.e., the kelim, the “vessels” of the ten sefirot of Atzilut) are one….” That is to say, the Ein Sof-light is one with the lights and vessels of Atzilut. This is exactly the same as saying “He is the Knowledge…,” for the knowledge of the sefirot is truly one with G‑d (and not a created being), as Maharal insists.

For the view of Maharal, too, is fraught with difficulties. Firstly, we note that Scripture does ascribe knowledge to G‑d Himself as in the verse, “…and His understanding is beyond reckoning.”5 Furthermore, it appears unreasonable to argue that G‑d’s knowledge is dependent on a created entity.

According to the explanation of Chasidut, then, all these difficulties—both those in the view of Maharal and those in the view of Rambam—are satisfactorily resolved: G‑d’s essence is indeed beyond description, yet He is still the “Knowledge, the Knower, and the Known” as He unites Himself with the sefirot of Atzilut after their having come into being through the medium of “contraction.”

In the words of the Alter Rebbe:

Unlike the knowledge of a human being, which encompasses only the image of an object and not its reality, G‑d’s knowledge embraces the object in actual reality,

Creation does not come about from the minute glimmer of G‑dliness found within the object, which sustains it only at the inanimate and vegetative level, but from the supernal knowledge that encompasses and encircles it. And although this knowledge is responsible for the object’s existence, it is still described as encompassing. For inasmuch as the knowledge is infinite while the created being is finite, this knowledge is unable to clothe itself within the created being.