Recap and opening — from which power does creation come?
Welcome to the thirteenth lesson on the maamar Basi LeGani 5711. We stand at the very heart of the maamar, so let us take things slowly.
Recall where we stood. In chapter 4 we reached the great answer: 'the Holy One desired to have a dwelling in the lower realms.' The purpose of all creation is for the Holy One to have a home — specifically here below, in this physical world. And we learned that 'dwelling' does not mean a palace to visit, but a place where one is present in his full self.
But really, we have only pushed the question one step back — and now it is sharper than ever. Fine, the Holy One wants a home. But when one builds a home, who chooses the cellar? Given the choice between the upper worlds — pure, luminous, spiritual — and this world, coarse, dark, where G-dliness is barely seen — why would He choose specifically here?
And in truth, the deeper we look the stronger the question grows. For seemingly it is not merely 'strange' — it looks contrary to logic. Everything we learned about the order of hishtalshelus says that the further down you go, the more the light diminishes. So how can it be that the lowest place is specifically the highest goal?
To answer, the Alter Rebbe does not give a small excuse. He takes us to the deepest foundation of all reality, and asks a question almost never asked: what is 'creation' at all? And from what power, really, was the world created? When we understand this — we will understand why specifically below.
Not for the upper worlds — because for them it is a descent
The Alter Rebbe opens specifically with a negation — he first tells us what is not the purpose. In his words: 'the purpose of the chaining-down of the worlds and their descent is not for the sake of the upper worlds.' This entire great order, that ladder of worlds we descended throughout the chapter — from Ohr Ein Sof, through the tzimtzum, the kav, Atzilus, and down — all this descent is not for the sake of the upper worlds.
Let us hear the maamar, phrase by phrase. 'And behold the Alter Rebbe explains in this (Tanya chapter 36) that the purpose of the chaining-down of the worlds and their descent is not for the sake of the upper worlds' — all the descent is not for their sake. 'Since for them it is a descent from the light of His Countenance' — for the very being of a world is a descent from the revealed closeness. 'And one cannot say that the intent is for the sake of the descent' — there is no logic to say the whole purpose is to reach a state of descent.
And why not? Here comes a simple yet deep reason: 'since for them it is a descent from the light of His Countenance.' Let us understand. Take an upper world — say the world of angels. What was it 'before' it was created? Open divine light, near the Source, with no partition. The moment it becomes a 'world' — a separate, defined entity, somewhat removed from the Source — that is, for it, a descent. It descended from the open closeness of 'the light of G-d's Countenance' to a state of separateness.
And now the logic: 'one cannot say that the intent is for the sake of the descent.' Think about it. If something, by its very emergence, is in a lesser state than before — one cannot say that the whole purpose of the great enterprise is to arrive at that lesser state. No entrepreneur builds a vast factory so that the product should come out less than the raw material.
Picture a king who loves his son and sends him far from the palace, to a boarding school at the edge of the kingdom. Would you say the entire purpose of the mission is the distancing itself? Surely not. The distancing serves some greater goal — but it itself is never the goal. So exactly with the upper worlds: their very being a 'descent' testifies that they are on the way to something, not the destination itself.
So if not the upper worlds — then what? Here the Alter Rebbe pauses that question for a moment, and takes us to investigate something else entirely, something fundamental: what is creation at all, and from what power does it come. And from there, as if by itself, the answer will fall into place.
Two kinds of making — ‘yesh mi’yesh’ and ‘yesh me’ayin’
The Alter Rebbe brings a foundation: 'creation is only by the power of the Etzem.' Creation — the very coming-into-being of a thing — can come only from the Etzem (essence) of the Holy One, and only it is capable of this. But to feel how deep this is, we must first understand what 'creation' really means. There is a distinction here worth dwelling on.
And in the words of the maamar: 'for behold it is known that creation is only by the power of the Etzem, as it is written in Igeres HaKodesh, the discourse beginning Ihu v'Chayohi, that His Essence and Being — whose existence is from His own self, with no prior cause, G-d forbid — He alone, by His power and ability, can create yesh from ayin and from absolute nothingness. That is, the coming-into-being is not from the revelations but from the Etzem.'
There are two kinds of making in the world. The first is called 'yesh mi-yesh' — to make a thing from a thing. The carpenter makes a chair from wood. The baker makes bread from flour and water. The sculptor reveals a form within a block of marble. In all these the maker is impressive — but note: he created nothing truly new. He received material that already existed and merely changed its form. The wood was; the flour was; the marble was. All is 'yesh mi-yesh.'
The second kind is called 'yesh me-ayin' — to bring existence out of absolute nothing. And here we must be precise, for it is easy to miss how radical it is. 'Ayin' does not mean an empty room. Not a void. Not dust or thin energy or even 'potential.' 'Ayin' means absolute nothing — 'absolute nothingness itself,' in the maamar's words. A nothing of which there is nothing. To bring out of this nothing a real existence, a yesh — that is something no created being can do, nor even begin to imagine.
For consider: every maker in the world needs raw material. Give the most brilliant carpenter a workshop full of tools — but no shred of wood or metal — and he will sit idle. He has nothing to make from. Only the Holy One creates with no raw material at all; and not only that, but He creates the raw material itself, yesh me-ayin. He does not paint on a canvas — He invents the canvas itself out of nothing.
And this is the abysmal difference to hold: all the 'making' we know is only a reshaping of what already exists. True 'creation' — the emergence of existence itself out of ayin — is something else entirely, of an utterly different order. And now the question: why specifically the Etzem, and only it, can do this?
Only ‘He whose existence is from His Essence’ can create yesh me’ayin
The Alter Rebbe quotes Igeres HaKodesh, the discourse beginning 'Ihu v'Chayohi.' There it says: 'His Essence and Being — whose existence is from His own self, with no prior cause, G-d forbid — He alone, by His power and ability, can create yesh from ayin.' Let us break this down slowly, word by word.
'Whose existence is from His own self' — His being comes from Himself. 'With no prior cause' — there is nothing before Him that caused Him to be. Pause on this. Every thing in the world, without exception, its existence depends on another. The child exists because of his parents; the parents because they too had parents; the plant because of the seed, the soil, the sun. Pull the thread back — everything rests on a cause that preceded it, and that on its own predecessor, and so on. Only the Holy One depends on nothing. He simply 'is' — of Himself, from always, with no cause.
And now the logic, and it is beautiful: to give — you must have. A person without a penny cannot give charity. And to give not an object, but existence itself — the 'yesh' itself — one must not merely 'possess existence,' but be existence itself, a true, essential, independent existence. Only one whose existence is of Himself 'holds' true existence in hand, the kind that can be granted into the nothing. All the rest — their existence is borrowed, on loan from another; they have no essential 'yesh' to give.
And from here it is also understood why a revelation — a light, an illumination — cannot create. Picture a candle. Its light fills the room, illuminating and warming — but the light cannot create a second candle. Why? Because the light is a result, a derivative, a 'yesh mi-yesh' of the candle; it is not a source standing on its own. So every divine revelation: it can illuminate, shape, draw down — but to invent existence out of ayin, only the Etzem, the true Source, can do.
And so the Alter Rebbe concludes: 'the coming-into-being is not from the revelations, but from the Etzem.' Every created thing — even a simple stone, even a grain of sand — its very existence comes not from some divine illumination, but directly from the Etzem of the Holy One, from the very deepest power there is. And this is a conclusion that completely shatters what we would have expected.
Summary and preview — if creation is from the Essence, where is the destination?
So what have we built today?
First, that the upper worlds are not the purpose of creation — for their very being a 'world' is a descent from the light of His Countenance, and one cannot say the goal is the descent. Second, we distinguished two kinds of making: 'yesh mi-yesh,' the shaping of existing material, which any creature can do; versus 'yesh me-ayin,' the emergence of existence out of absolute nothing, which none but the Creator can do. And third, we understood why only the Etzem creates yesh me-ayin: because only it is 'existence of its own self,' true existence with no prior cause — and only one who is existence itself can grant existence into the nothing. Therefore 'the coming-into-being is not from the revelations, but from the Etzem.'
And now feel the tension that arises. If the power that truly creates the world is not some illumination, but the Etzem itself — the deepest and most sublime power there is — then it follows that the destination, the purpose, should be at the place this power reaches. And where does it reach? Here awaits the great surprise. We were sure the answer is 'the highest world, Atzilus.' The Alter Rebbe is about to say exactly the opposite.
For specifically this world, the low and physical, that seems farthest from G-dliness — it is specifically the place the Etzem touches. How can this be, and what is the connection between this world's sense of 'yesh' and the Etzem of the Holy One — with that we will open the next lesson, completing the answer to 'why specifically below.' Thank you for learning with us — and we will meet in the next lesson.