ShaarNun Productions / CONNECTINGbs d THE DOTS

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1 ShaarNun Productions / shaarnun@me.com Issue #162: Holy Sparks, Part 1 CONNECTINGbs d THE DOTS an essay on current events and issues by Rabbi Pinchas Winston 05 October 2011 / 07 Tishrei 5772 edited by Ashirah Yosefa A major part of the Geulah b Rachamim Seminar material is about Nitzotzei Kedushah Holy Sparks. They come into the discussion because in explaining the basis of anti- Semitism, it is im- portant to first establish the role Holy Sparks play in Jewish and world history; however, that can be like trying to give an overview of Quan- tum Mechanics to people who barely have a working knowledge of basic physics. There is a difference, though. Rarely is it crucial for the average individual to understand Quantum Mechanics to get by in life and to avoid danger. Such knowledge is fascinating and can certainly enhance one s knowledge of how the world works, but it is rarely essential for the average person. Not so with knowledge about Nitzotzei Ke- dushah. The very fact that the Jewish people suffer from anti- Semitism, and have been perse- cuted so often and with little recourse, is proof enough that knowledge of Nitzotzei Kedushah is not only important, it is essential for survival, especially in exile. When bridging intellectual gaps, it is always crucial to begin with analogies to which we can relate. Since the physical world was hard- wired to reflect the spiritual world, there is usually an example readily available in everyday life, and indeed, there is one in this case as well: the hu- man body. The human body is a very sophisticated, well- running system that basically accomplishes the same thing on all levels: birrur. Birrur means separation, which is what the human body is constantly doing, separating good from bad. Whether it is the air that we breathe or the food that we eat, the body is set up to take it in, ana- lyze it, separate the good parts from the bad parts, use the good part to keep the body alive and functioning, and eject the bad parts from the body, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We even do the same thing intellectually. As we receive new information and the brain tries to make sense of what it is hearing, it automati- cally begins to sift through the information, 162 /

2 keeping that which it deems useful and rejecting what it calls useless. As with the lower parts of the body, what the brain intakes, it digests. Kabbalah explains that this separation process is not incidental to Creation; rather, it was the basis of Creation. It is what history is all about, especially with respect to the Jewish people. It is the reason for exile, and the lack of it is the cause of anti- Semitism and all that goes wrong in history, but to appreciate this, we have to go back in time, way back. Ohr Ain Sof In the beginning, there was only Ohr Ain Sof, the Light Without End: Know that in the beginning all of existence was a simple light called Ain Sof. (Aitz Chaim, Sha ar 1, Anaf 2) balah, but this discussion will only focus on the main points that are relevant here. Tzimtzum Tzimtzum means constriction, and it is the Kabbalistic term for what the Infinite did to His light to allow for the creation of a finite world: There was no empty space (Challal), or empty air; everything was just Ohr Ain Sof. However, when it was His will to emanate beings for the known reason, that is, to be called merciful and gracious and forbearing, etc. for if there isn t something in the world to receive mercy, how can He be called merciful, and likewise, with the rest of the Names He constricted Himself in the middle of His light, and the central point of His light. (Aitz Chaim, Sha ar 1, Anaf 2) Though we may speak of the concept of infinity, we have no idea what it actually means, since there is nothing comparable in human ex- perience to help us relate to it. The best we can do is know that something that is infinite, of which, by definition, there can only be one, is not finite like us and the world in which we live. Therein lays the greatest dilemma of all time. The fact that we exist, and with such di- versity, contradicts the very idea of infinity be- cause infinity implies, by definition, that every- thing is endlessly equal. Yet apparently, this is not a contradiction, but merely a paradox. This is the way it is, understand it or not, which implies that the problem exists only in our minds due to our inability to resolve it. The best we can do is to understand the method by which the Infinite gave rise to the finite. This, in itself, is another thing we would be unable to do had the information not been given to us. The solutions we seek can be found in the foundations and fundamentals of Kab- Again, how this could happen is beyond us. All we are told is that the result of doing so was the Challal, a massive spherical area void of Di- vine light, or at least enough of it to eventually make possible physical creation, human beings and free- will, which happen to be the entire purpose of all of it: God s purpose in Creation was to bestow of His good to another Since God desired to bestow good, a partial good would not be sufficient. The good that He bestows would have to be the ultimate good that His handiwork could accept. God alone, how- ever, is the only true good, and therefore His beneficent desire would not be satisfied unless it could bestow that very good, namely the true perfect good that exists in His intrinsic nature His wisdom therefore decreed that the nature of His true benefac- tion be His giving created things the oppor- tunity to attach themselves to Him to the 2 CONNECTING THE DOTS

3 greatest degree possible. For the intended purpose to be successfully achieved, means must exist through which this creature can earn perfection. Man was therefore created with both a yetzer tov good inclina- tion and a yetzer hara bad inclination. He has the power to incline himself in which- ever direction he desires [Therefore,] the Highest Wisdom decreed that man should consist of two opposites. These are his pure spiritual soul and his unenlightened physical body. Each one is drawn toward its nature, so that the body inclines toward the mate- rial, while the soul leans toward the spiri- tual. The two are then in a constant state of battle. (Derech Hashem 1:2:1-1:3:2) Thus, the verse says, Egypt imposed itself strongly upon the people to hasten to send them out of the land, for they said, We are all dying. (Shemos 12:33): they had to leave quickly in order that evil could still exist, so that free- will could still function and justify Creation. (Drushei Olam HaTohu, Chelek 2, Drush 5, Anaf 2 Siman 5) Creating the Challal was like creating a mas- sive hole in the ground in order to build a huge skyscraper, except that anything that would ever be built would exist inside the Challal, not beyond it. In the same way that filling in the hole with the same dirt that had been removed from it would undo all that had been accomplished, allowing the Ohr Ain Sof to once again fill the Challal, as it had previously, would have reversed the tzimtzum and returned everything to its original state. Yet, on the other hand, the lack of sufficient Ohr Ain Sof in the Challal meant nothing could be created, including man and the world that he was destined to inhabit. Hence, another step was necessary in the Creation process, some- thing Kabbalah calls the Kav Ohr Ain Sof; literally, the Line of Light Without End, or Kav, for short. As the name implies, the Kav is a finite ver- sion of the Infinite Light, inasmuch as the Kav controlled how much Ohr Ain Sof re- entered the Challal and where. It functioned as a spiritual pipeline of sorts between the Ohr Ain Sof out- side the Challal and the void inside of it. With the creation of the Kav, there existed a way to bring enough Ohr Ain Sof into the Challal to make everything that would ever exist. At the same time, the Kav controlled the flow of Divine light so it did not overwhelm physical creation and destroy it. More importantly, the flow of light could be so precisely regulated through the Kav as to create the impression of the absence of the Presence of God, making possible the existence of evil, and with it, free- will. New Worlds The next step was to create an infrastruc- ture that would eventually result in a world that could support the existence of man and free- will no small task. It is absolutely awesome how much detail, how many systems and sub- systems were necessary to result in the world with which we are familiar. There were many issues to be resolved, some known to man, oth- ers beyond our grasp, but God, of course, re- solved them all in the optimum way possible, whether it appears that way to us or not. For just as it seems logistically impossible for the finite to exist in an infinite world, it is just as illogical for evil to exist within a God Who is completely and absolutely good. But, as they say in Hebrew: kachah that s just the way it is. Part of the resolution was a pre- Creation event called Sheviras HaKeilim, or the Breaking of the Vessels. This is the subject of much discus- sion in the realm of Kabbalah; however, it is complicated, lengthy, and not absolutely neces- sary for the sake of this discussion. All that mat- 162 /

4 ters is that it resulted in something called shivrei keilim broken vessels and nitzotzei ke- dushah holy sparks, the spiritual building blocks of physical creation. Nitzotzei Kedushah In everyday life, a spark is an independent burst of light. For example, when a craftsman sharpens a tool on a grinder, sparks usually shoot out, quite physical and visible to the eye. Nitzotzei Kedushah, or holy sparks, are also independent lights, but they are not at all physi- cal. Rather, they are sparks of the Ohr Ain Sof to which tzimtzum has been applied, and to such an extent that it resulted in independent pack- ets of light and countless independent realiti- es like all the souls that have ever existed. It is the existence of Nitzotzei Kedushah that makes our lives meaningful, as it says: In the words of the Arizal in Ta amei HaMitz- vos, Parashas Behar, that the sod of all mela- chah is the sparks that fell in the World of Tohu and became immersed in the Klipos and evil. (Drushei Olam HaTohu, Chelek 2, Drush 4, Anaf 12, Siman 10) The word melachah, with respect to Shab- bos, usually means creative activity; specifically, the 39 creative activities associated with the construction of the Mishkan, which are there- fore forbidden on Shabbos. Generally speaking, however, melachah is any work that man per- forms in this world, easy or difficult, simple or complex. Tohu means void, the subject of the second verse of the Torah: The land was null tohu and void vohu and darkness was upon the face of the deep. (Bereishis 1:2) However, as the Zohar points out, the chaos of tohu was a spiritual, pre- Creation state of ex- istence, an eventual result of Sheviras HaKeilim, making the second verse the first verse, chrono- logically speaking (Zohar, Bereishis 16a). In other words, Creation, as we know it, emerged from the tohu; it didn t precede it. The word klipah in simple Hebrew means peel, and it refers to something that intercedes between one reality and another. Hence, Kab- balistically, klipah, or the Klipos in plural form, is a term used to describe the spiritual repository of that which causes evil within Creation. Stand- ing between man and God, the Klipos are crucial for the existence of free- will. Since the Klipos result in the blockage of Divine light, they are naturally associated with tohu and spiritual chaos. The extent that something, anything, is de- void of holiness is the extent to which it is en- cased in Klipos. If two stores were located side- by- side in a single mall, one selling Torah objects and the other selling things that reduce one s level of holiness, the Klipos will gravitate to the latter while being pushed away from the former. Indeed, when a person is engaged in a holy activity, he has pushes away the Klipos; how- ever, should the same person then go and en- gage in an unholy activity, he will become a magnet for the Klipos. Even if he does not intend to engage in an unholy activity, but ventures into an area in Creation in which the Klipos have free reign, he will more than likely suffer a spiri- tual downfall. The Klipos exist at the so- called bottom of Creation, where they have existed since Crea- tion itself; however, they manifest themselves throughout Creation and in everyday life. They are what create spiritual challenge for man, making free- will a real possibility, and their ulti- mate manifestation is the Satan (pronounced, Sutton), which means obstruction, a.k.a. the 4 CONNECTING THE DOTS

5 Sitra Achra other side. The second verse of the Torah refers to this reality which preceded Ma aseh Bereishis. When the main lights of the pre- Creation vessels ascended to their source above, causing the vessels to die and break into countless pieces and fall below, sparks of their lights, Nit- zotzei Kedushah, also fell. These Nitzotzei Ke- dushah all fell into the reality of the Klipos, creat- ing the very first mixture of good and evil. The stage was set for the creation of the world. 162 /