First, you must know that when dealing with spiritual matters
that have no concern with time, space and motion, and moreover when
dealing with Godliness, we do not have the words by which to express and
contemplate. Our entire vocabulary is taken from sensations of
imaginary senses. Thus, how can they assist us where sense and
imagination do not reign?
For example, if you take the subtlest of words, namely “lights,” it
nonetheless resembles and borrows from the light of the sun, or an
emotional light of satisfaction. Thus, how can they be used to express
Godly matters? They would certainly fail to provide the reader with
anything true.
It is even truer in a place where these words should disclose the
negotiations in the wisdom in print, as is done in any research of
wisdom. If we fail with even a single inadequate word, the reader will
be instantly disoriented and will not find his hands and legs in this
whole matter.
For that reason, the sages of the Kabbalah have chosen a special
language, which we can call “the language of the branches.” There is not
an essence or a conduct of an essence in this world that does not begin
in its root in the Upper World. Moreover, the beginning of every being
in this world starts from the Upper World and then hangs down to this
world.
Thus, the sages have found an adequate language without trouble by which
they could convey their attainments to each other by word of mouth and
in writing from generation to generation. They have taken the names of
the branches in this world, where each name is self-explanatory, as
though pointing to its Upper Root in the system of the Upper Worlds.
That should appease your mind regarding the perplexing expressions we
often find in books of Kabbalah, and some that are even foreign to the
human spirit. It is because once they have chosen this language to
express themselves, namely the language of the branches, they could no
longer leave a branch unused because of its inferior degree. They could
not avoid using it to express the desired concept when our world
suggests no other branch to be taken in its place.
Just as two hairs do not feed off the same foramen, we do not have two
branches that relate to the same root. It is also impossible to
exterminate the object in the wisdom that is related to that inferior
expression. Such a loss would inflict impairment and confusion in the
entire realm of the wisdom, since there is no other wisdom in the world
where matters are so intermingled by cause and effect, reason and
consequence as in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Matters are interconnected and
tied to each other from top to bottom like one long chain.
Thus, there is no freedom of will here to switch and replace the bad
names with better ones. We must always provide the exact branch that
points to its Upper Root, and elaborate on it until the accurate
definition is provided for the scrutinizing reader.
Indeed, those whose eyes have not been opened to the sights of Heaven,
and have not acquired the proficiency in the connections of the branches
of this world with their roots in the Upper Worlds are like the blind
scraping the walls. They will not understand the true meaning of even a
single word, for each word is a name of a branch that relates to its
root.
Only if they receive an interpretation from a genuine sage who makes
himself available to explain it in the spoken language, which is
necessarily like translating from one language to another, from the
language of branches to the spoken language. Only then will he be able
to explain the spiritual term as it is.
This is what I have troubled to do in this interpretation, to explain the ten Sefirot
as the Godly sage the Ari had instructed us, in their spiritual purity,
devoid of any tangible terms. Thus, any beginner may approach the
wisdom without failing in any materialization and mistake. With the
understanding of these ten Sefirot, one will also come to examine and know how to comprehend the other issues in this wisdom.
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