Nefesh HaChayim, Gate III

And the matter is, as is known in the Zohar, that He (blessed be He) and His utterance are one. And every utterance and statement from the Holy One (blessed be He) in the Creation Event, that He pronounced and it came into existence, He is the soul-Neffesh and source of vitality of that thing that was created therewith and all of the myriad species included in it, including:• the guiding powers appointed over them,• and the angels appointed over those guiding powers,• and their sources and the source of their sources, higher and higher, that are in each world.

And from that moment onward, for the duration of eternity, His utterance is positioned within them to radiate upon them and to sustain them in each instant, during all the details of their involvements and their individual interactions, and in structuring their situations.

Therefore, for all of the ten utterances, no name is mentioned other than God-Elohi”m, because that statement is the “Master of Powers” for that object, and all the species within it that were created using it853With that name, that it is their soul-Neffesh that permeates the interior of the pieces of its components. It is only that in this moment “our eyes are weakened, prevented from perceiving”854Heb.: takh ei-nei-noo mir’ote (Yeshayahu 44:18) with physical eyes how and in what manner His utterance (blessed be He) extends/unfolds within them.

And regarding the future it is written (Yeshayahu 40:5): “And all flesh together will see that the mouth of God-YHV”H has spoken”, namely that our perception will be refined to the point that we’ll merit to perceive and also see with physical eyes the matter of how His (blessed be He) utterance permeates everything in the universe, similar to how a perception of this kind already occurred at the time of the giving of the Torah. For it is written (Shemot 20:18): “and the entire nation sees the sounds”[*]. And this is also in the realm of their (OBM) statements at the end of the chapter Eiloo Ovrim: “The world-to-come is not like this world. In this world it is written as God-Y”H and pronounced as God-ADN”Y, but in the world-to-come, it’s written as God-Y”H and pronounced as Y”H”, and understand this.

Annotation: And we could say, according to this statement of theirs (OBM) on this text (M’khilta on RaSh”Y’s interpretation in the Chumash), that they were hearing the visible and seeing the audible, intending to convey that the powers of the physical were nullified to such an extent, and their perceptions were refined so much, until the total experience of the matters associated with the physical senses that at first they experienced as a visual perception, at that moment no longer existed for them—not seeing with the visual sense nor contemplating it in any way—to the extent that, for example, if someone wanted to understand a matter that would normally be perceived with the physical senses, they would have had to have it explained to them verbally, to tell them about what in fact exists; and the spiritual matters that, at first, they would have had to be explained verbally, at that moment they would see them with their physical visual sense and their perception would be wondrous.

This is the context of the text (Yeshayahu 30:20): “Your Teacher will no longer be hidden behind His garment, and your eyes will behold your Teacher”. And refer to Zohar Chaddash Yitro (34, end of first folio): “wings are coverings to hide their names…”, pay attention well to the whole context there.

Therefore He (blessed be His name) began the ten utterances first with “I am God-YHV”H your God-Elohi”m”, for this is the entire essential foundation of the faith, that each person of Israel should fix in his heart/mind that only He (blessed be His name) is the true “Master of Power”, and its soul-Neshama, and its vitalizing force, and its essential source, and [so too] for all the created beings and powers and all the worlds. This is the context and definition of the name God-Elohi”m: Master of All Powers.

But even so, according to the definition and the context of this name, it appears that there are, in absolute fact, also worlds and powers that are constantly renewed via His (blessed be He) simple will; that He constrained his glory and left a place (so to speak) for the existence of powers and worlds. But He (blessed be He), He is their soul-Neshama and the source of the root of their vitalizing power that they receive from His (blessed be He) presence855Heb.: mei-ee-toe, that permeates and is concealed within them (so to speak), like the matter of how the soul-Neshama permeates a person’s body, that even though it permeates every part and distinct point within it, even so we couldn’t say that the body becomes nullified in relation to it, as though it doesn’t exist at all. So it is with every supernal power and world that permeates the entire essence of the power and the world below it, that even so, the lower power and the world remain in existence. And this is based on our perspective, in the context of our perceptions, as we discussed previously.

But the essential name God-YHV”H (blessed be He) informs us about the aspect and context as it is from His (blessed be He) perspective, that was explained above. (And this is so even though the name God-YHV”H is applied from the perspective of His (blessed be He) relationship per His Will to the worlds, for [relative to] the essence of the Sole Master, Ein Sofe (blessed be He), being bare of the worlds, there’s no hint to any name whatsoever. Even so, the worlds are [emphatic] actually completely null and nullified relative to Him (blessed be He). From the perspective of this honored name, this resembles the situation according to how it is from His (blessed be He) perspective.) And for that reason the essential name is called the “Unique Name” (blessed be He).856This paragraph was unusually difficult to translate. It can be understood as saying that: (1) the name YHV”H is from God’s perspective, as previously explained, and (2) although this name is from God’s perspective, it is also from that perspective relative to the worlds that He created—it is not from Ein Sofe’s perspective, which has no name and relative to which everything is absolutely nullified, and (3) that this name therefore is unique and special because it serves to point to God’s relationship to the worlds from a Godly perspective in which, somehow, the worlds are not rendered null. The nature of this unique perspective represented by this special name is not discussed here.

And this is what is stated in the text (D’varim 4:39): “For God-YHV”H is the God-Elohi”m…”, wishing to convey that even if from the perspective of our perception He is called by the name God-Elohi”m”, and from His (blessed be He) perspective He is called by the aspect of God-YHV”H (blessed be He), in truth all is one, and God-YHV”H is God-Elohi”m…, as we learned previously in chapter 7, in the context of the Constraint and the Channel, that they are all one.

And this is also included in the matter of the unification of the first verse of the Sh’ma: “…God-YHV”H is our God-Elohi”m God-YHV”H is one”, [*] desiring to convey that we should intend that He (blessed be He) is our God-Elohi”m, Master of the Powers, and the source of the root of our souls-Neshama and our vitalizing force, and for all the creations and worlds. And though He created and brought into reality the existence of powers and worlds and creations, even so from His (blessed be He) perspective:1. He is in the aspect of God-YHV”H and is one,2. All of the creations are not a barrier (heaven forefend) relative to His (blessed be He) simple oneness that permeates everything, and3. He is called, now too, God-YHV”H and One.

Annotation: And based on this will be understood their (OBM) statements (P’sakhim 56a) in the context of the praise “Blessed be the glorious name of His sovereignty forever and ever” in the unification of Sh’ma, in that they decreed that it be said in a covert manner, likening it to a king’s daughter who smelled the aroma of spicy stew..., her servants began bringing it to her covertly.” On the face of it we are surprised about their (OBM) metaphor, for isn’t it great praise?

And according to a plain explanation we can say that, in truth it is not praise at all. It’s similar to this: would we consider it praise of a human king to say that he rules over a myriad of ants and gnats, and that they willingly accept the yoke of his sovereignty? All the more so, it’s a simple deduction that this is not a worthy comparison for He (blessed be He) who has no limit to His holiness and the awesomeness of His simple unity, and for whom the entire universe taken together is insignificant in comparison. It’s certain that truthfully it is not praise in any way that we praise Him (blessed be He) that He is blessed and magnificent in the glory of His sovereignty over the created worlds, for all of them are lowly and are not considered as anything significant in comparison. But it’s only that He (blessed be He), “Where you find His greatness, you find His humility”, that His Will decreed that He should accept our praise. For this reason they (OBM) likened it to a spicy stew, and regulated that even so, we should only say it covertly857Very quietly.

And according to that opinion, we can explain the inner aspect of their (OBM) intentions, namely, that after we have designated Him one858Heb.: yee-khahd-noo-hoo, with the verse Sh’ma—that He is unequivocally One, a simple unity and there is absolutely none other than Him—how, after that, could we praise Him that he is blessed via the glory of His sovereignty over worlds, that the worlds too exist and that He (blessed be He) is sovereign over them? It can’t be considered praise relative to the awesome unification of the Sh’ma verse. Rather, His (blessed be He) will decreed that even so we should praise Him with this praise, for the reason that it is correct from the perspective of our perception and behavior, according to the foundations and precepts of our holy Torah, all of which were based on this aspect, as I wrote previously. For that reason we say it covertly.

(And on the face of it, we may find it difficult to understand what Rabbee Yirmiya said to Rabbee Cheeya bar Abba (Berakhot 13b): “that he would greatly stretch out the pronunciation of the word ‘one’. And he said to him, ‘once you’ve acknowledged Him as King above and below and towards the four directions of the heavens, you needn’t do that again’.” And according to our opinion it’s a little difficult to learn that we acknowledge Him as King with the word “one”. However this too is explained, as is known to those who are knowledgeable in the Ariza”l’s (OBM) writings, that the entirety of the initiation of the start of His (OBM) conception in the matter of creation was according to the secret of the Malkhoot of the Ein Sofe, and understand.)