The Structure Of The Universe, Part 4

Restriction—Malchut’s refusal to accept the Light

Question: If the development of the world would have stopped at the first stage, would we be like animals with no independent desire to receive?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And if everything had stopped at stage four and not developed any further, then even though this desire was independent, we still could not control it?

Answer: It is still not an independent desire because even though it breaks and aims toward the pleasure on its own, it is directed toward the pleasure dictated by Keter. It wants to be fulfilled according to its nature. This desire realizes that it wants the same thing that Keter wants.

Malchut feels that she receives from Keter and chooses what she wants to receive from it. It is precisely because she herself wants to receive from Keter that she continues to develop internally and realizes that she is not free, that she is controlled by these pleasures and desires. Meaning, the plus and the minus control her completely.

Thus, the property of freedom emerges in Malchut. She does not want to submit either to the lack of fulfillment or to the desire to be filled. She wants to feel independent because it feels that this property is present in Keter; he is the first, nothing is before him.

Now, a few more states develop in Malchut: she feels as an imperfect creation, she wants to become similar to Keter, similar to her Creator.

She feels that the Creator is absolutely free and is above bestowal and reception. But she is controlled by either the lack of fulfillment or by being fulfilled. Meaning, she has no freewill, no independent “I,” and the influence of both the plus and the minus control her completely.

She begins to feel that she has no freedom, that she is fully controlled. We call this feeling the revelation of the evil of one’s own nature, which is subject to either pleasure or the lack thereof.

This feeling brings Malchut the sensation of shame from the fact that she has no freewill and that she, in principle, is fully controlled. It is the feeling of being under complete control that gives rise to the need for an independent action. This stops her so much so that she stops having any kind of contact with the Light.

This state is called Tzimtzum (restriction). The sensation of the creature that it is completely controlled and has nothing of its own, nothing independent, forces it to restrict its actions, its desire. It wants to stop completely.

The creature is ready to eradicate the previous state, when it was fully controlled, in itself, to extinguish it. Therefore, this state is called restriction. In other words, when Malchutfeels that there is no opportunity to act freely, she is ready to do anything to avoid feeling controlled.

Question: Does the shame that Malchut feels come from being completely controlled or from being opposite to the upper force that created it?

Answer: It is practically the same thing.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah” 11/27/18