The Essence

The Arizal on the Torah

Time, Chaos, and Blinding Light

(from Parashat Kedoshim in the writings of)

Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (" the Ari") of Safed

—translated and adapted from Sefer HaLikutim by Rabbi Moshe Wisnefsky

The portion of the Torah read this week opens: “Every man should fear his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths, I am G-d, your G-d” (Leviticus 19:3). Rabbi Chaim Vital will begin his exposition of the Ari zal’s teachings by explaining why the word “Sabbaths” is in the plural when we would have expected the more usual singular form.

Now, [by understanding] the eighth king [as will be explained presently,] you will understand the two Sabbaths the Torah refers to. For whenever mention is made of the Sabbath, it is mentioned twice. For example: [this verse,] “keep My Sabbaths,” and “the children of Israel will keep the Sabbath to make the Sabbath” (Exodus 31:16), etc. From this [explanation, which will be given presently,] you will also understand how those who say that our present sabbatical [cycle] is the second actually erred.

According to the sages of the Talmud, our world is destined to exist for no more than seven thousand years: six millennia of normal existence, followed by a millennium of rest (Sanhedrin 97a). This seven-millennium time period is envisioned as one, gigantic “week,” the six millennia of normal existence corresponding to the six workdays and the millennium of rest and reward corresponding to the Sabbath. In Kabala, this imagery is expanded to the sabbatical cycle of six years of field labor followed by a year when the land is to lay fallow. The six years of agricultural work correspond to the six workdays and six millennia of normal existence, and the seventh, sabbatical year to the Sabbath and the seventh millennium.

Furthermore, just as the agricultural cycle consists of seven sabbatical cycles totaling 49 years followed by an additional year of rest—the jubilee—so is the entire seven-millennium period of the world’s existence only one of seven such periods, which will be followed by a fiftieth, jubilee millenium.

Now, according to some opinions, our present seven-millennium period is the second such period since the creation of the world. This is why the Torah begins with the letter beit, the numerical value of which is 2. The Ari zal, however, contends that this opinion is incorrect.

To explain: When G-d the emanated the ten sefirot, He first emanated the first three. After this was the [first,] supernal Sabbath.

The Ari zal now begins to describe the creation of the primordial world of Tohu (“Chaos”). It is important to bear in mind that this imperfect version of creation was not a “mistake” or a miscalculation on G-d’s part, but rather a necessary stage in the unfolding of creation.

G-d did not create time, of course, until He created our physical world, but before time there was a sequential progression of spiritual steps leading to our universe. This sequence may be referred to as “proto-time”: although all these steps “occurred” simultaneously in the “instant” before the creation of the physical world, they followed a certain developmental order, which we as finite humans would experience eventually as real time.

In this context, we may speak of the process the creation of the spiritual worlds preceding ours as if it happened in the context of what we call time (since we have no other way of describing a sequential progression). We must bear in mind, however, that time, as we know it, did not yet exist.

In any case, after G-d emanated the first three sefirot (keter, chochma, and bina), the intellect, He emanated the next seven sefirot, the emotions. Whereas the emanation of the first three sefirot is described as occurring on the same “day,” the emanation of each of the seven latter sefirot is described as occurring on a different day. The last sefira, malchut, was emanated on the seventh day. This was the first “Sabbath.”

When He emanated these [first] three, He did not do so in a wholly rectified manner, and they were not fully and properly rectified. Therefore, this day is not counted.

The exact nature of this not-fully-rectified emanation will be explained later.

Afterwards He emanated a different group [of sefirot], in seven other “days.” These are the mystical correlates of the kings who ruled in the land of Edom. On the Sabbath, [the seventh day of this primordial “week,”] the eighth king, Hadar, was [also] emanated.

The emanation of the next seven sefirot is spoken of as occurring in seven “days,” one day for each sefira. But since, as we said, this all is occurring before the creation of time, what this essentially means is that each sefira is a separate entity. These seven sefirot will, when time is created, manifest themselves as the seven days of the week, each sefira dominating a particular day.

It is told in the Torah that there were eight kings who ruled the land of Edom before there was a king in the land of Israel (Genesis 36:31-39; 1 Chronicles 1:43-51). Of the first seven of these kings, the Torah states that they ruled and they died, while of the eighth, Hadar, it only records that he ruled, not mentioning his death (his death is mentioned in Chronicles but not in Genesis). Since Edom symbolizes the unrectified existence of evil, the first seven kings are understood to refer to the primordial, unrectified version of creation described here, the world of Tohu.

Since the first three sefirot were not yet fully rectified, all these kings died. Since they were not rectified above, these kings could not bear the supernal light of the Emanator. Thus, since all these kings evinced strict judgement, they all died and were nullified.

The perfection of the emotions is dependent upon the rectification of the intellect, since emotional responses are primarily the result of some idea that is understood.

The rectification these sefirot lacked was their ability to contain or absorb the “light,” i.e., creative energy, of G-d. In their fragility, they shattered as soon as the higher light attempted to shine through them. The reason why these sefirot were so fragile was because they were immature and undeveloped. In this iteration, the sefirot were simple, one-dimensional manifestations of G-d’s attributes and did not inter-include any aspect of their sister-sefirot. They were therefore incapable of accepting any content other than their own intrinsic one. This rejection of anything not consonant with one’s own world-view is the mentality of strict judgement (din).

I have already explained [elsewhere (Etz Chaim 9:7-8)] regarding the supernal rectification [process], that it consists of separating screens that enable the lower [entities] to receive light greater [than their intrinsic level] without being blinded. This is similar to how someone [is blinded] by looking at the light of the sun. Thus, the dimming of the light is [not a bad thing, but] on the contrary, the rectification.

By screening the Divine light, G-d created a new, more stable world that could withstand and transmit the light it received. The intensity of each sefira would be less, but this lack of intensity would enable each sefira to accommodate the “personality” of its sister-sefirot. The combined strengths of each sefira present in the others would enable the world comprising them to endure the Divine light shining into it.

Still, when the eighth king, Hadar, was emanated, he emerged more rectified than the others did. He manifested the sefira of yesod; this was on the [first] Sabbath.

As we have said, the principal reason why the world of Tohu shattered was because the sefirot in it wertoo “egocentric” to interrelate. The reason this was so was because the predominant aspect of these sefirot was their malchut; each sefira of Tohu was in effect nothing more than the malchut of that sefira in general. Malchut is the sefira of the ego, inasmuch as it expresses the drive to rule, to impose oneself on reality. The malchuts of the sefirot clashed, and therefore the entire structure collapsed.

The eighth “king” or emanation, in contrast, was constructed out of the yesods of the various sefirot. Yesod is the sefira of inter-connection par excellance, since it expresses the drive and ability to relate and connect with another entity.

After this, the first three sefirot were rectified, as described in the Zohar. Then, the second week emerged, i.e., the seven lower sefirot, which we call nowadays chesed, gevura, tiferet, netzach, yesod, and malchut. Malchut issued on the [seventh day, the] Sabbath.

Out of this emanation emerged a second set of seven midot (from chesed to malchut) which were more fully rectified than the first set of seven “kings.” This second set of seven constituted a second week, or Sabbath-cycle.

Thus we have two Sabbaths: the first being the first Sabbath, when Hadar was emanated, and the second Sabbath, when malchut was emanated the second time. This is the mystical meaning of the two Sabbaths that are mentioned in many places, [as we said above].

You will now understand the mystical reason why we call the seven millennia [we are presently living in] the “second” sabbatical-period. It is because they are the second [order of creation] after the “kings of the land of Edom.”

Thus, our present sabbatical-period (of seven thousand years) is not the second because it was preceded by another period of seven thousand physical years, but because it follows the spiritual “period” of Tohu, the emanation of the seven “kings” that preceded the present order, that of Tikun.

In this respect they [i.e., the earlier authorities] erred [as well]: They said that if this is the second sabbatical-period, then there must certainly be [in the end] a total of seven such periods.

Just as the agricultural jubilee-cycle consists of seven sabbatical-cycles, the macrocosmic jubilee-cycle should logically consist of seven sabbatical-cycles of seven thousand years each. In other words, after the seventh millenium of our time period, there will be (according to these opinions) another five sabbatical-periods (of seven thousand years each). The Ari zal will now explain why this is not the case.

Understand, however, that Hadar, the eighth king, is entirely [composed of] yesod, even though he precedes the chesed that we nowadays call chesed.

When we refer to chesed we mean (unless we specify otherwise) the rectified sefira of chesed in the world of Tikun. In the normal order of sefirot, yesod is the sixth emotion and chesed is the first, so chesed precedes yesod. When we consider the initial emanation of the sefirot of Tikun, however, and note that they all emerged from Hadar, who was constructed wholly out of the yesods of the primordial sefirot, yesod precedes chesed (and all the other sefirot as well).

After the [second set] of seven sefirot were emanated, those other “kings” came back to be rectified, and they were all absorbed into the [second set of] seven sefirot.

When the first set of seven sefirot, those of Tohu, collapsed, they didn’t just disappear. These sefirot were much more intense and powerful than those of the subsequent world of Tikun, as we have mentioned. Their shattered fragments were therefore “particles” of great energy and potential. The challenge of the world of Tikun is to assimilate and integrate these supercharged energy particles as far as possible. In fact, this is the whole reason why G-d created the world of Tohu in the first place and did not just create the world of Tikun from the beginning. Despite its name, Tikun is not the ultimate fulfillment and highest vision of creation. The goal is to integrate these two worlds and produce from them a third order of existence much greater than either of them in and of themselves.

After the element of strict judgement had been removed from them and they had been purified of it, like waste matter, the remaining [elements of these sefirot] were absorbed and sweetened in the [second set of] seven sefirot, each one in accordance with its nature.

The shattering of the vessels effectively neutralized the egocentricity of the sefirot of Tohu. Thus rid of their negative, judgmental aspects, they were able to be absorbed into the sefirot of the world of Tikun. This process is called “sweetening,” inasmuch as it evokes the imagery of some sour, poisonous substance being distilled and purified of its odious elements.

[This was possible] because those “kings” were themselves these [second] seven sefirot.

The sefirot of Tohu and Tikun, though radically different in their orientation, possessed the same “identities.” Chesed of Tohu was chesed, just as chesed of Tikun; the difference lay only in the way chesed was expressed. In this sense, the sefirot of Tohu may be considered simply immature, undeveloped versions of the sefirot of Tikun.

It follows that the statement in the Zohar (3:135b) that “some of them rectified and some of them were not” does not mean that only some of the “kings” were rectified and others not, for all eight of the “kings” were rectified. Rather, it means that in each of them, part of it was not rectified and part of it was.

As has been explained in our discussion of the 288 sparks, sparks of each [sefirah] fell [from Tohu into the subsequent, lower worlds of Tikun]. The lights remained in Atzilut, and then what fell from Beria was rectified in Yetzira, as is known.

The death of the seven “kings” of Tohu is alluded to in the Torah’s account of creation in the verse: “and the spirit of G-d was hovering over the water” (Genesis 1:2). The word for “was hovering” (merachefet) may be split into two sets of letters: mem-taf and reish-pei-chet. The first set (mem-taf) spells the word for “died” (meit), and the numerical value of the second set is 288. This word may thus be read: “the 288 died.” This alludes, according to Kabala, to the 288 sparks of the world of Tohu that fell after the collapse of that world and the shattering of its sefirot.

Every sefira, as we have mentioned previously, is composed of its “light” and its “vessel.” The “light” is the Divine creative energy that determines the nature and identity of the sefira, while the “vessel” is the means through which this energy is expressed, the interface between the light and the rest of reality. When the sefirot of Tohu shattered, it was the vessels that broke.

The first world of Tikun created after the shattering of the vessels was the world of Atzilut. The consciousness of this world is one of total immersion in the awareness of G-d, and thus the lights were able to remain in this world.

With regard to the broken vessels, however, only the more sublime aspects were able to remain and be assimilated into this world; the lower, more self-aware aspects were rejected and fell further, into the world of Beria. There, the same process was repeated: the more sublime aspects were assimilated and the grosser aspects were rejected. This process continued in the worlds of Yetzira and Asiya, and finally, the coarsest aspects of Tohu became absorbed and embedded in our physical world.

This process set the stage for the process of “elevating the sparks,” or liberating the raw, great power of Tohu from the physical context into which it has become entrenched. The conclusion of this process is what will precipitate the cosmic Redemption of all reality and the coming of Mashiach.

Thus, after the redemption there will be no additional, physical sabbatical-periods akin to our present world, since physicality will already have been rectified. What will occur after the coming of Mashiach will be infinite ascents of tnew physical-spiritual order of creation into higher and higher levels of Divinity and consciousness of G-d.

Biography of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria