Concepts in Chassidus - Part 8

00:00 Speaker 1 What is called Kesser is the intermediary between the Emanator and the emanated beings. Kesser is the level that stands between the Ein Sof, the Emanator, and the emanated beings—meaning Atzilus, the sefiros of Atzilus. Kesser is the intermediary. And an intermediary has to contain both aspects. On the one hand, it has the part that receives from the Ein Sof; on the other, it has the part that influences the emanated beings. That is why Kesser has two opposite dimensions: the inner dimension of Kesser and the outer dimension of Kesser. In this context, they are called Atik Yomin and Arich Anpin. In the previous class, we discussed these names and why they are called that. And everything has a parallel within the soul. In the soul, these are pleasure and will. Pleasure is a parallel for the inner dimension of Kesser, and will is a parallel for its outer dimension. Sometimes they are called the distant encompassing level and the close encompassing level. It is the same idea, just with different names. A garment and a house are both encompassing: a garment is close, while a house is distant. So these two encompassing levels are parallels for the two dimensions of Kesser. The outer dimension of Kesser is the close encompassing level; the inner dimension is the distant encompassing level. Another term is “the root of the emanated beings.” Arich Anpin, the outer dimension of Kesser, is called the root of the emanated beings because there is already a root there, a beginning of Atzilus. In other words, the cause, source, and will for Atzilus are called the root of the emanated beings. But the inner dimension of Kesser is called the lowest dimension of the Ein Sof. That means that the lowest dimension of the Ein Sof is present there, as though it shines within the inner dimension of Kesser, making it, so to speak, part of the Ein Sof. By “Ein Sof” here, we mean the reshimu and the kav. It is called Ein Sof in relation to the order we are discussing. That is what we mean, and that is what it is called. Now there are other

02:10 Speaker 1 aspects of Kesser that are discussed. We will talk about them a little today—some further details about Kesser. We said that Kesser is divided into two aspects, but when you look more closely, you find in Chassidus that it is divided still further. Atik itself has an outer dimension and an inner dimension. We generally say “the inner dimension of Kesser,” meaning Atik, Atik Yomin. But in fact, even the inner dimension of Kesser has two levels: what is called the outer dimension of Atik and the inner dimension of Atik. The inner dimension of Atik is called in the language of Chassidus “Radla.” Have you heard of Radla? It is a level called Radla. Radla is an acronym for Reisha D’lo Ityada. Reisha D’lo Ityada. The translation of those words is “the head that is not known.” Usually, when you call something a head, “head” means the beginning of its existence. Everything begins with a head, just as a person begins with the head. So a head is the beginning of a thing. But there are different kinds of head. There is a head that is known, meaning that it is part of the whole; that is called a head that is known. And there is a head that is not known. Within that itself, there are several levels. For example, Chochmah is also called a head, Reisha D’Chochmah. Kesser too—meaning the outer dimension of Kesser—is called a head. We see this, for example, in the Targum on the verse “Bereishis.” Targum Yonasan translates “Bereishis” as “with wisdom”: “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” In Targum Yonasan it says, “With wisdom He created”—it translates “Bereishis” as “with wisdom.” In Targum Onkelos, “Bereishis” is translated as “bekadmin.” “Kadmin” refers to Kesser. So sometimes

04:30 Speaker 1 Chochmah is called a head, and sometimes Kesser is called a head. But here we say Reisha D’lo Ityada. We are speaking about a kind of head that is not only unlike Chochmah, a head that is already revealed as the beginning of existence; it is not even within the category of being known. In other words, we can speak of three things. There is a head that is fully revealed: Chochmah. There is a head that is above revelation but still within the category of revelation. It has not yet been revealed; it precedes revelation, but it has a connection to it. That describes Kesser in general, the outer dimension of Kesser. But there is a level called a head that is “not known.” This does not mean that it is knowable in itself and only we do not know it. “Not known” means that it is not within the category of being known at all. It does not know itself. As it says in Chassidus, the meaning of Reisha D’lo Ityada is that it does not even know itself. In other words, it is not within the category of knowledge. It has not yet entered the realm of knowledge and comprehension. Radla, Reisha D’lo Ityada. Generally, Reisha D’lo Ityada refers to the inner dimension of Atik. Sometimes Chassidus puts it a little differently. Sometimes it says that Reisha D’lo Ityada refers to Atik—the inner dimension of Kesser is called Reisha D’lo Ityada—while the inner dimension of Atik is called “the Ein Sof within Radla.” So even here, a distinction is made: there is Radla, and there is the Ein Sof within Radla. Radla is the inner dimension of Kesser, Atik, and the inner dimension of Atik means the Ein Sof within Radla. That is a very fine distinction. To understand it somewhat through an analogy, we can look at the soul. As is known, Chassidus speaks of the soul’s levels: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah. We said that chayah and yechidah are

06:25 Speaker 1 parallels for the outer and inner dimensions of Kesser. Chayah, the encompassing level of chayah, roughly corresponds to the outer dimension of Kesser. Yechidah, the encompassing level of yechidah, roughly corresponds to the inner dimension of Kesser. Now, there is something known from Chassidus that appears in some maamarim—not many, actually, but in some. Chassidus says that yechidah is also a name. “It was given five names.” To what were five names given? To the essence of the soul. That means yechidah too is a name, not the essence itself. Although we usually explain yechidah in terms of “yechidah, to make You one,” yechidah expresses that idea, but it is still a name. That implies that it is not the essence itself. There is the essence of the soul, which is above names. “It was given five names”—the essence was given those names. Similarly, in Kesser there is its outer dimension, paralleled by the encompassing level of chayah. The inner dimension of Kesser, Atik, is paralleled by the encompassing level of yechidah. But there is also the Ein Sof within Radla—or sometimes this is identified with Radla itself—the inner dimension of Atik. This is the inner dimension of the inner dimension, the very essence. There the Ein Sof is present as it is. Chassidus often discusses this idea of Radla in two contexts. The inner dimension of Atik, or Radla, is mentioned in Chassidus in connection with two subjects. One of them—I’ll tell you which discussion helps make it understandable—is Malchus. Chassidus says that the sefirah of Malchus is unlike all the other sefiros: Malchus in particular is rooted there. It usually says that Malchus is rooted in the inner dimension of Kesser, but Chassidus often uses the wording that Malchus is rooted in Radla. That appears many times in Chassidus, and apparently it is brought from there. Not that it is brought

08:28 Speaker 1 From the Zohar or from Eitz Chaim, I don’t know—from the writings of the Arizal, not from the earlier Zohar. But this is the wording brought in several places in Chassidus: the sefirah of Malchus, the root of Malchus, is above all these levels; it is rooted in Radla, Reisha D’lo Isyada—the Unknowable Head—which is not within the realm of revelation. And that is why, when it comes to revelation, Malchus has nothing of its own. As is well known in Chassidus, Malchus does not impart anything at all; on its own, it has no revelation whatsoever. All the sefiros have to assist it in the matter of Malchus; all kinds of things have to be done. With Hashem’s help, we’ll talk about that another time. It’s because Malchus is rooted in this level, in Radla, Reisha D’lo Isyada. And therefore, when it descends below, it descends in a concealed manner. In any case, that is one context in which the concept of Radla is discussed in Chassidus. Elsewhere, the subject discussed is pnimiyus Atik, the inner dimension of Atik. This wording is cited in the name of the Arizal and brought in maamarim in several places, particularly in the Rebbe’s maamarim: the Arizal wrote that all the revelations from the creation of the world until the days of Moshiach—revelations such as the Exodus from Egypt, the Exodus from Egypt, Shabbos, and the Torah, all of which were revelations. Throughout the generations there have been revelations of prophecy, miracles and wonders, and all kinds of occasions. All the revelations we know, from the creation of our world until Moshiach comes, are all within chitzoniyus Atik, the outer dimension of Atik. In other words, the furthest any of those revelations reach is chitzoniyus Atik. By contrast, the revelation of Moshiach is pnimiyus Atik. That’s the point. In the terms of Kabbalah, that is the fundamental point needed to explain what is new about the days of Moshiach. Kabbalah explains it this way: all those revelations are within chitzoniyus Atik, and when Moshiach comes, we will reach pnimiyus Atik. And the difference between chitzoniyus Atik and pnimiyus Atik—even though they sound so close, the outer and inner dimensions of Atik—the difference between them is so great

10:26 Speaker 1 that it is an utterly fundamental difference. They are at opposite extremes. It really is—as it says in one of the Rebbe’s maamarim—the greatest distance anywhere in seder hishtalshelus, the order of spiritual descent, is the distance between chitzoniyus Atik and pnimiyus Atik. Yes. In other words, even the distance between Malchus of Asiyah and chitzoniyus Atik is not as great as the distance between chitzoniyus Atik and pnimiyus Atik. Nothing is more beyond comparison than chitzoniyus Atik and pnimiyus Atik. Why? Very simply: every level from chitzoniyus Atik downward belongs to the realm of things that exist. They are all entities—things that have come into existence. An existing reality that has been revealed; revelations. Pnimiyus Atik, by contrast, is the Ein Sof. As we said, it is the Ein Sof within Radla. Since it is the Ein Sof, it is not something that came into existence. It is something that always was, a reality that cannot be grasped. So that is the essential distinction between them. They said that all the revelations until the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu are revelations. The revelation of Moshiach, by contrast, is the essence itself—the Ein Sof within Radla, which is pnimiyus Atik. May we merit this soon, with Moshiach Tzidkeinu, and then we will comprehend it. It says, for example, that the Torah of Moshiach will be Torah that comes from pnimiyus Atik. Similarly, the new souls that will arise are sparks of souls from pnimiyus Atik, and so on. Good, that’s one subject. Now there is another subject within Kesser, another concept we’ll discuss today. As it says in Chassidus, within Kesser there is something called the three heads—the heads. It doesn’t appear often in Chassidus; it appears in some maamarim, but it is there. Presumably some of you have seen it in one of them. There is a concept called the three “heads of heads.” Have you ever heard that term, “three heads of heads”? Hm?

12:29 Speaker 1 The three heads of heads are mentioned, for example—I’ll tell you where, in what context or in what place they are discussed. It’s very interesting. It’s in a collection from the early authorities, the earliest of the early authorities. There is such a book, the responsa of Rav Hai Gaon. Rav Hai Gaon was one of the Geonim, before the Tosafists and Rashi, one of the later Geonim. That was about a thousand years ago. There is a responsum of Rav Hai Gaon—he was the student of [unclear]—and in his responsum it says this: Rav Hai Gaon’s students asked him, “We know of ten sefiros; we do not know of thirteen. What is the purpose of thirteen—why are thirteen needed? Why thirteen?” They knew there were ten; ten is a complete number, and there is a significance to ten. But why are there thirteen? Rav Hai Gaon answered them: “Corresponding to the ten sefiros, there are three heads of heads.” So we have come to this matter of the heads of heads. What are these heads of heads? Kabbalah says they are called or tzach, or metzuchtzach, and or kadmon. If I had a pen, I’d write that down. But I don’t have a pen today, so remember it yourselves, all right? What are the three heads of heads? They are called or tzach, or metzuchtzach, and or kadmon. All right? Keep that in mind. Those are the three heads of heads. What are they? What is this about? According to what is explained in the maamarim of Chassidus, these three are also within Kesser. The ten sefiros are, after all, in Atzilus. The heads of heads—the sefiros are called “heads” because the sefiros are the heads of all of Atzilus. We understand that the ten sefiros are, in fact, the heads of the entire seder hishtalshelus. The heads of heads are Kesser, and Kesser can, in fact, be divided into three levels. What are those three levels? Not what we discussed

14:47 Speaker 1 about Atik. This is something else. What are the three levels within Kesser? Or tzach, or metzuchtzach, and or kadmon. What does that mean? Or tzach is white light. Tzach means clear, bright light. A light with an inherent brightness is called tzach. Metzuchtzach means a light that is not so bright, but a light that has to be polished. In other words, its brightness comes through a process of refinement; it is not inherently bright. Something like that—something like reflected light. That is called metzuchtzach. Sometimes it explains why it is called metzuchtzach: it is like polishing sand. It’s as though metzuchtzach is something mixed, not completely clear light, like light with a bit of concealment mixed into it. In any case, metzuchtzach is a light that is not so bright—a brightness that comes through breaking and through reflected light. Light that shows a little, a light that is not so bright. In any case, kadmon means primordial: you cannot yet define it. You cannot define it as either tzach or metzuchtzach, so you describe it as kadmon. It is, as it were, an undefined light, not defined by any category. In any event, what is meant here is the three lines: right, left, and center. We know that one way of diagramming the sefiros of Atzilus is as the right line, the left line, and the middle line. Yes? The right line is Chochmah, Chessed, Netzach. The left line is Binah, Gevurah, Hod, and the middle line is Daas, Tiferes, and Yesod. That is one way the sefiros are diagrammed. Some sefiros belong to the right side, some belong to the left side, and the sefiros of the middle line bring the two together. Now, in their root in Kesser—we said that Kesser is the root of all these different configurations, the root of the ten sefiros.

17:06 Speaker 1 So that is Kesser. These three levels, at their root, already provide a root within Kesser for the three lines. Or tzach is the level within Kesser that is the source of Chessed, and so it is called tzach—brightness. Or metzuchtzach is the root of all the sefiros belonging to the left line. That is why it is called metzuchtzach: it is not inherently bright; something has to be done there to make it bright, as it were. And or kadmon—kadmon means that it precedes them, that it is higher. It is above tzach and metzuchtzach. In other words, it is the simplicity of the light, which is defined as neither tzach nor metzuchtzach. Or kadmon is, as it were, the essence of the light before it takes on a configuration of right and left, of tzach and metzuchtzach. That is the root of the middle line, yes? And from there descend Daas, Tiferes, and all these other levels. In other words, at its root, or kadmon is actually higher still, because it is the light that is above the realities of tzach, metzuchtzach, and kadmon. So those are the three levels, the three heads of heads, called or tzach, or metzuchtzach, and or kadmon, from which all the—all the—all the sefiros descend, all three lines of the sefiros.

18:24 Speaker 2 The source.

18:25 Speaker 1 What?

18:26 Speaker 2 The source of which three lines? The source of the three lines.

18:30 Speaker 1 They are the sources of the three lines. That is why they are called the three “heads of heads.” Actually, all of these are concepts connected with Kesser. Okay. A few more points: since we are already discussing Kesser, let’s expand on one more detail. Kesser is also called gulgalta in the language of Chassidus. In Chassidus, when we use the human being as an analogy for the Supernal Man, the Divine Man, a person has ten sefiros—the ten powers of the soul. What corresponds to Kesser in a person? In terms of spiritual powers, we said it is will and pleasure. But there is a physical analogy for Kesser too: the skull. What is the skull? It surrounds the brain, where the intellect is located. On the one hand, the skull protects the brain; it surrounds it. So it is above the brain, surrounds it and protects it. The skull thus also alludes to the encompassing dimension—to Kesser, which surrounds and protects the head. Gulgalta.

20:16 Speaker 1 Okay, there is another aspect to the analogy of the skull.

20:20 Speaker 2 How is it that there is a covering around the head?

20:22 Speaker 1 Huh?

20:23 Speaker 2 Surrounding the head.

20:24 Speaker 1 The skull surrounds the brain. That is the idea of Kesser: it surrounds the mochin, the intellectual faculties—it surrounds Chochmah.

20:32 Speaker 2 Yes.

20:33 Speaker 1 The encompassing light protects the inner light and elevates it. It protects it. In other words, it enables the inner light to endure, because the inner light is limited in itself. For it to endure, it needs an unlimited light to protect it. That is the encompassing light, Kesser, which protects the inner light, Chochmah. That is the skull. There is something else between the skull and the brain. Physically, between the skull and the brain there is something called air. Apparently there has to be some space between them, an empty space, which is called air. In the language of Kabbalah it is called avira, spelled with an alef. Avira is the level between the skull and the brain. What is avira? The Chassidic texts seem to indicate that avira is the level we mentioned earlier, primordial light. We spoke of pure, polished and primordial light; the primordial light is the vitality, the root of the kav hayosher, the straight line. Here in Chassidus, avira is that level. What does the Arizal call this level of avira? He calls it Daas deAtik. What is Daas deAtik? It is what we said earlier: the level of the kav hayosher as it exists within Kesser. As we said, there is pure light, polished light and primordial light. The primordial light is the essence above, which we approach; it is the root of the kav hayosher. This is called Daas deAtik. And Daas deAtik is the avira between the skull and the brain. Although at its source it is higher, that is where it appears in the image of the body. I don’t remember the exact explanation right now for why it appears there in the image of the body.

22:56 Speaker 1 Why, exactly—but in any case, the point is that the air is neither here nor there: it is neither the skull nor Chochmah Stimaah. That level belongs to Daas deAtik. What is Daas deAtik? Chassidus sometimes gives analogies, examples and images for such lofty matters, using very simple things. Chassidus explains what Daas deAtik means. It may even be in one of the Rebbe’s maamarim for Shavuos, I think. I don’t remember right now. What is Daas deAtik? The Rebbe says this: daas means connection. That is what it says in Tanya, right? Daas denotes connection. But there are different kinds of connection. There is a connection in the middos, in the emotions—[unclear]. Connection is what links the giver with the recipient. There is a connection in the intellect: a person grasps an idea and connects with it. But there is another kind of connection, the Rebbe says—something remarkable. Sometimes a person has no attraction to something at all. Sometimes a person has no desire to learn. He wants to learn Torah, but he has no inclination to do so. Not on the level of the emotions in his heart: he has no love for learning Torah. Not on the level of his intellect: the reason to learn Torah has not settled in his mind; he does not understand it. Not on the level of his soul’s will: he has no desire either, no longing, no power drawing him toward learning Torah. So how does a person get himself to start learning? There is a connection that comes from the essence. This means that a person forces himself to connect with something even though he has no longing for it, no will, no intellectual interest and no emotional pull. He pushes himself, as it were, by force, to make a connection with

24:55 Speaker 1 the thing even though he feels no connection to it. He forcibly connects himself. This is a connection of the essence, above all revealed powers. He does it by force, through compulsion, and once he connects himself in that way, longing, will, intellect and emotion will all follow from it. Anyone who wants to can try it and see that it works. It says in the text that this is practical advice. If someone feels no connection to Torah at all, he should do something: he should compel himself to engage with it. Why compel himself? Why are you so sure it will work? Because we know that, in his essence, a Jew wants to learn. In his essence he belongs to it. It is just that right now it feels foreign to him; he does not feel that connection. But it is his own essence. So if he compels himself, from his essence, to do it, eventually all the faculties through which that connection becomes revealed will emerge too. The text says that this is the meaning of Daas deAtik. Daas deAtik means that Atik—and we said earlier that Atik refers to the essence—connects itself to seder hishtalshelus, the order of spiritual descent. That is called Daas deAtik. In itself, Atik is beyond comparison and beyond any connection, but Daas deAtik means that Atik, as it were, compelled itself to form a connection with seder hishtalshelus. That is where the whole process of seder hishtalshelus began. That is Daas deAtik. The Rebbe once said at a farbrengen that if someone thinks there is an example of Daas deAtik in our world, in a spacecraft, it is good that he thinks so. This was around the time the first cosmonaut went up in a spacecraft. The Rebbe spoke about the spacecraft and used it as an analogy for various matters in serving Hashem. And the Rebbe said that it was not only in serving Hashem; one can see other concepts in it too.

26:37 Speaker 1 One can understand. The Baal Shem Tov taught us that a Jew must find a lesson in serving Hashem in everything, and see how it helps him recognize Hashem. So the Rebbe said that a spacecraft provides an analogy for Daas deAtik. What do we see with a spacecraft? What is the difference between a spacecraft and an airplane? For an airplane to fly, how does it do so according to nature? There is air pushing against it, and that makes it rise. Simply put, how do you get an airplane to fly? The air it pushes out goes against the surrounding air, and that opposing force propels it forward. That is what pushes it according to nature, just like a bird. It pushes against the air and flies. Or when a person is in water, he pushes against the water and can move forward. You always need something to push against. But what happens in space? Once you go out into space, there is no such medium. There is no atmosphere there—how do you say it, outside the atmosphere? There is no gravity there. So what does the spacecraft do? It generates its own opposing force. It has no air to push against, so it generates the force it needs in order to move. That is how it works. I don’t understand the science of spacecraft, but the Rebbe mentioned an opposing force. It works because the spacecraft itself generates what propels it. That, the Rebbe said, is the idea of daas: even though nothing is pushing you toward the matter—none of your revealed powers are pushing you—the essence pushes itself, and then all the revealed powers follow. That is the idea of daas: although nothing draws the essence toward it, the essence pushes itself.

28:34 Speaker 1 [unclear] with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the covenant [unclear], and that is what formed the connection between our essence and [unclear] Moshiach will come, and then we will see all these matters revealed [unclear]. So I’ll continue.