Similarly, by way of analogy, the True and Essential Infinite Light of Hashem, is called ‘White,’ since it has no “colors” at all, since “no thought can grasp it at all,” and it is written (Malachi 3:6) “I, Hashem, have not changed,” i.e., Hashem is eternal and unchanging, and so is His Light unchanging, indivisible, and undefinable.
Therefore, it is written (Bereishis 31:7-8): “And he [Lavan] switched around my [Yaakov’s] wages ten times [ten=100 times] ...if he would say that he would give me white-speckled goats, [then he would change his mind to give me a different colored goat]...,”
After Yaakov worked as a shepherd for Lavan for 14 years in exchange for marrying his daughters, he still had no possessions of his own. He made up with Lavan to continue working for him as his shepherd on condition that he will get to keep any future newborn goats that are white-speckled or white-blotched and sheep that are solid brown or black. He told Lavan to separate all the current white-speckled or white-blotched goats and brown or black sheep from the flock so that they cannot produce similar offspring in Yaakov’s flock.
Lavan at first agreed to this condition. However, after Yaakov’s flock miraculously started producing white-speckled and white-blotched goats and brown and black sheep, Lavan changed his mind about the condition, He said he would give goats that were speckled but not blotched, or only those that had white rings around their ankles, or only those with white bands surrounding them, and only sheep that had different color marking than solid black or brown. When he saw the sheep were producing according to the new condition, he would change the terms of the condition again.
Even though he kept changing the condition, Hashem miraculously caused the sheep to produce whatever the new condition was, so that Yaakov ended up owning a large flock of sheep and goats, despite Lavan’s attempt to cheat him out of keeping anything.
The Alter Rebbe explains a mystical meaning behind this story:
The final three different conditions that Lavan wanted to apply to the goats, “עֲקֻדִּּים-white-ankle-ringed, נְקֻדִּּים-white-speckled, and בְרֻדִּּים-white-belted,” represent three levels spiritual levels of Hishtalshelus: Two levels the precede Atzilus, known as Akudim and Nekudim, and the world of Atzilus, known as Berudim.
To continue the flow of the maamar, the explanation of these three levels and their names will be presented in the Hosafa-Addendum to this translation.
Just as Lavan switched around the condition of which colored goat and sheep Yaakov would receive, the spiritual idea of Lavan, the Loven HaElyon-Whiteness Above, is able to change around the revelation in all the spiritual levels of Hishtalshelus. This is because it is the Infinite Light of Hashem as it exists on simple and indivisible state, beyond all forms and “colors” of the specific levels that derive from it.
Since, all these levels, Akudim, Nekudim, and Berudim, come into existence and are derived from this Loven HaElyon-Whiteness Above simple and essential Infinite Light of Hashem.
It is only as these levels descend and are derived from it (the Loven HaElyon) that are called Akudim, Nekudim, and Berudim.
Which is not the case in their original source (in Hashem’s Infinite Light), they are included in their source in manner that they have no independent existence, and therefore they have no separate name at all.
Therefore, at that level, He can change from the level of Akudim to the level of Nekudim, and from Nekudim to Akudim, and from Hashem’s perspective this is not considered a true change at all, since there they have no independent existence, and have no separate name at all, therefore it is not considered a change at all.
(Similarly, since “unholiness is opposite to holiness,” the idea of Lavan as it exists in unholiness, i.e., the physical Lavan the cheater, tried to switch around his (Yaakov’s) actual (physical) wages with deceit.)
Meaning, Loven HaElyon is a high level of holiness, that transcends all understanding. Corresponding to this in unholiness was Lavan the cheater, who acted in a way that doesn’t make sense and is lower than understanding.
