Beyond the Natural Screen
after Rabbi Yehoshua withstood the trial—that the Holy One, blessed be He, smiled and said: “My children have defeated Me, My children have defeated Me”?
Why was this not said in the wake of their many lofty prayers and deep Torah study? Why was it said only after they had stood up to this trial posed by Rabbi Eliezer?
Before we answer this matter, we will preface with another subject...
Beyond the Natural Screen
The planet Earth upon which we reside is referred to by our Sages as “Olam Hazeh”—‘this World.’ The reason why it is called so is that concealment (he’elem) of the divine vitality utterly prevails within it.
The people living in it perceive and feel only one dimension—the natural dimension. This causes them to pursue the pleasures and longings of Olam Hazeh, the “here-and-now” world.8
But the Holy One, blessed be He—our merciful Father—took pity on His children and revealed to them that what we call “nature” is only a thin outer layer covering the deeper, primary reality within it: the Divine dimension.
It is this Divine dimension that guides, sustains, and gives life to the natural world. Within it lies a person’s true happiness and success.
For generations, this knowledge was passed on orally from teacher to student—until G-d, in His mercy, sent the soul of the Arizal into the world. He was the first to set these teachings down in a clear, organized way (through his disciple Rabbi Chaim Vital).
Among all these writings, the most central work is unquestionably Etz Chaim (“Tree of Life”).
In this book, the entire structure of the Divine dimension is arranged with remarkable depth and precision.
And there it is written:
Before our world was created, countless spiritual worlds came into being. They unfolded in a descending chain, each world flowing from the one above it in a gradual, orderly progression. This sequence is known as Seder Hishtalshelut—“the chain of development.”
The Arizal, of blessed memory, revealed that this chain was not the first stage of creation. Before it came a state known as “the breaking of the vessels.”9
Prior to the orderly worlds, there existed a sublime, purely spiritual realm called the World of Tohu—“Chaos.” It was a world whose vessels could not contain the powerful Divine light that filled it, and so it shattered.
Let us explain this more clearly.10
Kabbalistic texts teach that in the Divine powers—the sefirot—invested within each world to give it life, there are two components: “lights” and “vessels.”
Lights are the actual Divine energy and illumination revealed in the world.
Vessels are the spiritual structures that shape, define, and limit that light, making it possible for the light to be expressed.11
In the World of Tohu, the lights were overwhelmingly great and the vessels were extremely limited. In other words, there was “abundant light and meager vessels.” Because the vessels in that realm could not contain such intense revelation, they shattered.
Their fragments fell and scattered throughout reality, and the Jewish people were tasked with repairing, sifting, and elevating those dispersed sparks.
We will elaborate further:
Wellsprings of Wisdom
8. Rabbi Chizkiyahu Yosef Karlenstein told the following story (Doresh Tov, Bereshit I, p. 240):
During a fundraising trip to America, the Ponovezher Rav found all his regular supporters absent—they were attending a public debate between the Orthodox community and a Reform “Temple.” He went to the hall and arrived just as the Reform rabbi was questioning the Orthodox community president:
“Do you keep Shabbat?”
The man blushed, trying to explain the hardship—American jobs demanded Saturday work—and he finally admitted, embarrassed, “No.”
The Reform rabbi struck the podium: “If even the Orthodox president doesn’t keep Shabbat, then clearly Shabbat isn’t important!” The Reform side had won.
The Ponovezher Rav suddenly asked to speak. He called on the Reform rabbi to stand.
“Do you keep Shabbat?”
The man laughed loudly. “Of course not! Even your Orthodox president doesn’t!”
“Thank you,” said the Rav.
He turned to the crowd: “These two answers were not the same. The Reform Rabbi said ‘no’ with pride. The Orthodox president said ‘no’ with shame. I cannot excuse anyone who doesn’t keep Shabbat—but the man who blushes knows he has failed his test, and he will one day return. But one who boasts of not keeping it—there is not even an expression of regret.”
The Rav concluded:
“This is the meaning of ‘If your sins are like scarlet, they shall become white as snow.’ When a sinner’s face turns red with shame, there is hope he will become pure once again.”
9. On this stage it is said: “And the earth was chaotic and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep...” (Genesis 1:2).
10. Excerpted from Chassidut Mevu’eret – Shabbat (p. 114).
11. For example: the faculty of intellect and the physical brain. The “faculty of intellect”—is one of the spiritual faculties of the soul, by which we understand and grasp intellectual matters. It is the light. The physical brain—in which the faculty of intellect is vested (and through which the intellect operates)—is the vessel.
