Da'as Tevunos - Section 116

Said the Intellect - Indeed it is necessary for you to know one great introduction, and it is, even though in His rule may He be blessed it was certainly preordained to do all of the actions, for nothing shall change in Him at any time, even so it shall not be called out that these things occurred through power, that need to emerge through action, for this is one of the mistakes that early believers of the world stumbled upon. Indeed the generality is, that all that are in the matters of the Master may He be blessed that predate the creation of the world - it is impossible to grasp them at all, and there is no relevance there to any of the boundaries which are mentioned now, and not to mention power or action, which would obligate from this the presentation of the relationship that exists between the power and the action. Indeed at the time that He wanted to create the world, He Himself innovated the existence of power and action, and He Himself made the world and all of its creations first through power an then through action, to innovate this existence of power and action. For with his first utterance to create the world the world was [extant] in power, and afterwards emerged through action and this was hinted to by our Rabbis may their memory be for a blessing (Rosh HaShanah 32a) "...Breishit was also an utterance...", and was different from the other utterances to be inclusive of the world in power, before it emerged to action. And indeed when He innovated nature in power, then all the these matters which we mentioned in regard to G-dly emanation were made and afterwards all emerged into action as they were prepared in power, like we explained:

And I will tell you another deep matter in this item, and it is the generality of the existence of the world in all its time periods. For the root of all is that the Master may He be blessed desired and wanted to provide G-dly emanation from his goodness to the extant beings which he wanted to exist, and he innovated therefore the existence of illumination and G-dly emanation from Him may He be blessed, appropriate for the value of the existent beings that He wanted to exist. Indeed that which the Master may He be blessed wanted with the G-dly emanation, was that the G-dly emanation be of holiness specifically from him, for He is the essence of holiness and its source, and the derivatives of this G-dly emanation are only matters of holiness, like it is now with the angels, that do to have any matter other than matters of complete holiness; because the intended purpose of the innovation of this G-dly emanation is not other than that it emanate from His holiness, may He be blessed, towards the extant beings, in order that they benefit from the radiance of His holiness, and not apart from that:

But since he willed the existence of this lowly world, he therefore also decreed that his G-dly emanation should be lowered in its level, to bear these things that are lowly and physical, for it is certainly reduction for it, for not for this purpose was it innovated. And it emerges, that that which we see that He now provides G-dly emanation for lowly and physical things, we know that this is a diminution and lowering for the G-dly emanation itself, that it needs to dress itself in these ways that are reductions with regard to it, for it to be the G-dly emanation of the Lord may He be blessed, the source of perfection and holiness. But thus did it arise in thought before Him may He be blessed - to dress the G-dly emanation in these dark ways, until the proper time when it will be disrobed from all of these garments, and will remain in its clarity and essence of its nature, that the creation and all its matters not be other than holy unto HaShem:

And behold that all of the period of the service man the G-dly emanation is clothed in these garments, and at the end of the period of service - it will also be disrobed from these garments. And indeed great happenings and revolutions were placed by the Master may He be blessed to this for it to reach its purpose. And it emerges, that the root of the changing periods of the world is the manner of His G-dly emanation may He be blessed, for He progresses and changes His G-dly emanation from elevation to elevation, until it reaches the essence of its matter, that all that is innovated in that which exists will only be the Holy of Holies, as we explained:

The general rule is, the Master blessed is he innovated the G-dly emanation towards the existent such that the internality of the matter is not other than an extension of holiness from Him may He be blessed towards the existent; and he also innovated paths for G-dly emanation, that are lowly and lesser relative to the elevation of its holiness; and innovated in the G-dly emanation itself the nullification and damages to the organization that I mentioned. And all of this is dependent on the matter of the revelation of the singularity that we mentioned above, that from the aspect of the hiding of His countenance are innovated all of these things through the rule of his G-dly emanation, and from the aspect of the revelation afterwards all of these coverings are removed from it. And we will speak regarding all this within with the help of heaven:

What we need in this place is to know that in the G-dly emanation itself innovated things were innovated by the heavenly decree, and these are fundamental to that which is subsequently extant in the world, for only after all these preparations was this lowly world made, built according to all of these matters, and composed of all of these things, to proceed from matter to matter according that which the heavenly will decreed upon it: