Fascinating Paradoxes !

The Infinite One exists beyond distinctions;

  Uniform, undifferentiated and seamless. 

He faces creation and presents Himself,

  As a vastly illuminating Infinite Light;

Which is as Infinite, as vastly Alive,

  As Light/Life could ever possibly be.

Thus, Infinite Light presents similarly as,

  Uniform, undifferentiated and seamless. 

There, surface and depth merge in sameness,

  Effect becomes cause, cause becomes effect.

And as life source of all that's created,

  No creation is or can be more highly Alive!

--------------------------------------------------

The Teaching

The other day, I reflected back on a Torah teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe I learned about 1998 or 1999 on a Shabbat morning with Rabbi Yossi Marlow (see Sefer Hama’amarim MeLukat, vol. v, p. 281). The teaching is designed to provide an answer to one of the most enduring questions of Lurianic Kabbalah, “The Infinite Light is seamlessly undifferentiated. Accordingly, it has no gradations or distinctions. If so, how do the Ten Sefirot stored within the Infinite Light exist?”

The gist of the teaching is as follows:

Largely, it comments on the verse, “As waters reflect face to face, so does the heart of one man to another”. (Proverbs 27:19)

The Rebbe explains that the reason why a body of water can reflect images like a mirror is because its surface has an undifferentiated quality of uniform simplicity. In Hebrew, this quality is called פְּשִׁיטוּת . Just like a body of water, the Infinite Light has this quality too. That’s why it reflects images back to us. Our earthly deeds set off spiritual vibes which ascend up the spiritual levels into the higher realms. There, the vibes of all human deeds coalesce to become part of the configuration of the “Supreme Man” (which is a Sefirotic template of humanity, existing in the highest reaches of the spiritual realms). Then, like a beam of light the image of “Supreme Man”, it’s Ten Sefirot, projects upward upon the Infinite Light. And then the image reflects back down infusing all the realms with light and blessing, until reaching our earthly realm. It’s like a person’s image cast upon a smoothly still body of water, which instantly reflects it back. What’s reflected back from the Infinite Light, is called, the Ten Sefirot stored within the Infinite Light. In the original Hebrew that’s, עשר ספירות הגנוזות באור אין סוף.

Like a surface which mirrors, what’s reflected back is ultimately a result of our own behavior.

In the days following this teaching, I strolled along various trails hugging the gladed banks of the Oleta River in Greynolds Park in North Miami Beach, Florida. There, I contemplated this teaching while entranced by the reflection of the sky, trees and birds upon the slow moving, nearly still, water. Part of the Rebbe’s teaching is that though the Infinite Light has these Ten Sefirot, the Infinite Light remains unchanged; just like the water is unchanged by the reflection it bears. Gazing upon the water, I tried to identify with how the water simultaneously bears all these picturesque images and yet remains utterly unchanged.

A Paradox of Space - עולם

However, I had a problem. It’s true that the reflected images did not change the Oleta River. However, that’s because the particles/waves of light bounced off the surface of the water. That’s what a reflection is. Thus, the reflected light could hardly be said to be part of the water. Yet, the Ten Sefirot are part of the Infinite Light. Then I thought to myself, “Yes, but something of the light definitely penetrates further in. After all, with this light aquatic creatures see and water plants carry on photosynthesis.”

Then my inner truth seeker came back, “Fine. Light mixes into the water. However, the Rabbe’s parable is only referring to the light which is reflected back; as that is what’s image producing.”

Truthfully, I lived with this question for years. No amount of further meditation along the banks of the Oleta River seemed to provoke a satisfying answer.

One day, it dawned on me that the term the Ten Sefirot stored within the Infinite Light includes the words "stored within", which connotes a "depth". Storage usually occurs in the depth of a structure; particularly, if what's stored is at least, a bit valuable.  

Taken together in the literal sense, the terms "reflection" and "stored" would seem to indicate that the Infinite Light has both a "surface" and a "depth". However, both of these are terms which relate to space. In space, to say that something is at once “on the surface” and “in the depth” of the same structure is a blatant contradiction. Yet, that is what’s communicated when the Rebbe’s reflection parable is applied to the Ten Sefirot stored within the Infinite Light. These Ten Sefirot are portrayed as having equal presence on the surface and depth of the Infinite Light.

However, to apply terms appropriate for space to the Infinite Light is laughable. Space is something which the Infinite Light is clearly beyond. Accordingly, the Infinite Light's total grasp of everything, spiritual and physical, exists neither in a state of "surface" nor of "depth". If so, how can there be Ten Sefirot which are referred to as either stored in or reflected from the Infinite Light?

Perhaps, that's exactly the point. The Infinite Light is beyond space. Accordingly, any depth (of storage) is simultaneously a surface (of reflection) and vice versa. Where there's no space, surface is depth and depth is surface. Such distinctions do not even begin to take form.

  

A Paradox of Time - שנה

While gazing at the banks of the Oleta River, I was mystified by the fact that the standard texts of the Lurianic schools of Kabbalah discuss the Ten Sefirot latent within the Infinite Light as the very first cause of all creations and not as an effect later produced by the creations themselves. The only way I was able to think myself out of this problem was to say that since the Infinite Light is beyond time, sequence does not yet exist and an “effect” can be “cause”. In that reality, the “effect” is already present prior to being activated by its earthly “cause”. Thus, it’s available to serve as a “cause” of its own “cause”. What a fascinating paradox! It’s really a loop. Our original cause of being is the cumulative effect of our own deeds. Every positive deed we do is retroactively part of the very cause of our existence; thus, blurring the distinction between cause and effect.

I’ve read in Tal Orot that Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch (1704 - 1772) advanced the following reason for why God created the world: God saw the deeds of the saintly and was aroused with desire to create the world. In other words, the deeds of the saintly already existed beyond time. This inspired their creation, as well as the creation of the world to serve as their home. Years earlier, in his own style of expression, Rabbi Dov Ber encapsulated the above teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; which is that the pre-existing deeds caused the creation.

If this logic seems circular, that’s fine. In Kabbalah, the circular came before the linear. Plus, even in physical nature we observe many processes which are circularly logical.

A Paradox of Life - נפש

Unless the reflection parable is thought through it can be confusing. Why? In our world a reflection is never more alive than what it reflects. This is because both reside in the same realm. However, going up and down realms also means changes in levels of life; drastic ones. The higher the realm's level, the more alive. The lower the level, the less alive. 

To explain, for the sake of simplicity, the Infinite Light can be seen as a Being of Infinite Life - Infinitely alive! He then shares a mere droplet of His life with a vertical chain of lower realms or worlds. Those closer to Him (to the top) get more of this droplet of life, both in quality and quantity. Those further away (lower down), get less of it. 

Since the image of the "Supreme Man" is beamed upward, his reflection resides on a vastly higher level of life than he does. Hence, it's more alive than he is. Residing higher up, the reflection can now serve as a template source for all lower reality; including the "Supreme Man" himself. Paradoxically, the reflection is more alive than the reflected.

-----------------------O---------------------