One of the most basic concepts in Kabbalah and Chasidut is that there are lights and vessels that contain them. Without a vessel, a light cannot express itself properly. The state in which a light is contained in a vessel is known as tikkun. While in wisdom we spoke of refinement, in binah we speak of tikkun, or enclothement of lights in vessels. It is in the World of Creation that we find the initial revelation of vessels into which the light needs enclothe and the World of Creation corresponds to the sefirah of understanding (Binah). Thus, interpretations of Joseph as light and Judah as vessel correspond to the sefirah of understanding in our partzuf.
While the root, or Divine source of the vessels is considered higher than that of the lights, the vessel must still receive from the light, and the light must be willing to dwell within the vessel. “Judah approached him” thus symbolizes the state in which the vessel ascends to meet the light. A proper enclothement or tikkun of light in a vessel requires that the light and the vessel be balanced. One way of thinking of this is that since the vessel is ascending, the light needs to be willing to descend. If the amount of ascent exhibited by the vessel is not balanced with the amount of descent exhibited by the light, tikkun will not be achieved. The sense of balance in Hebrew is derived from the word for “ear”—in humans, this is also true anatomically—and the ear and hearing are also associated with the sefirah of understanding.
One of the best parables used to illustrate the relationship between the light and the vessel is between spouses, a topic we have addressed in length in our works on marriage. Another image that can be used is that of the relationship between the spiritual and the material. If they cannot be balanced then the material realm is left soulless, like the Torah’s description of the earth as “chaotic and void,” the Biblical source for the notion of the World of Chaos that shattered and fell. There are a number of possible distinct scenarios of chaos that are beyond our scope here. Another important relationship that captures the need for tikkun between the light and the vessel is the way in which prayer and Torah need to be integrated. Prayer, the toil of the heart is the vessel represented by Judah while the Torah in it, the intent one has—the toil of the mind—is the light that needs to be integrated and is represented by Joseph.
