Da'as Tevunos - Section 80

Said the Intellect - I will say further to you on this subject, that when we descend into the details of the matters of the soul and the body, we will understand well how all of them are dependent on this root of the two characteristics that we mentioned, for each one of them can be discussed in all of its matters based on its source, and this is an adequate reason for all of these matters. And not only this, but the decree from his wisdom may He be blessed, was to demonstrate the paths of these characteristics in the body and the soul which come about through them. And we find, that even though the body comes through hiding of His countenance, it and its matters, still it in properties and parts are drawn entirely from the behavior of hiding of His countenance; and the soul is also drawn entirely from the behavior of illumination of his countenance. This is a detail in our parsing of man as it says in regard to him (Genesis 1:26) "...in our image and likeness" - the the demonstrates in his form all of the arrangement of His characteristics may He be blessed:

And you will see that there is no existence of the body other than darkness, for even when it reaches the greatest merit that can be found in int, never the less it still needs to be differentiated from the soul, and it can only be differentiated through this separation - that the soul is essentially glorious illumination and comes from the illumination of His countenance may He be blessed, and the body is not like this, rather it is something that in and of itself is darkness, which comes from the hiding of His countenance, rather refining befalls it until the place where it can reach, and it is to the farthest reach where there will be a small separation between it and the soul. Never the less the soul will be soul - something that has no deficiency applicable to it at all; and the body, just the opposite - something that is deficient according to its nature, but that achieved refinement in the refinement that it achieved:

And you will see further, that the body has divisions of organs and parts, each one with its utility, for the eye sees and does not hear, and the ear hears and does not see; which is not the case with the soul, that all of the powers which are within it without any of the division into organs like the organs of the body, rather all of it is in every part, and this is certain. Now you will see how this emerges thoughtfully from the introduction which we heard, that the body is created through hiding of haShem's countenance and the soul through the illumination of His countenance. And you will see a great and fundamental introduction, have you not already heard that perfection is one, for there is no relevance to deficiency or excess in actual perfection. But when the Holy One blessed is He does not want to work through his perfection, then there are many ways for The Place to reward or to punish, each person according to their actions, as was explained earlier. And when the decree of the heavenly wisdom is to demonstrate in the creation itself that He created the path and order in which He created it, as we explained, therefore with regard to hiding of His countenance - like its ways are many so did he want to make this creation with many parts and different organs, that they should be actual parallels to all the parts of his properties may He be blessed. This is the mater that I mentioned to you, that for this was it said, "Let us make man in our form, like our image", for with all the elevated characteristics which can be discerned in His glory may He be blessed, when he acts according to the value of his creations, so shall be found divisions in the image of this man; as an example, the eye- under the eye of his interaction who supervises all of the inhabitants of the earth to judge all their actions, like the matter that is said (Genesis 18:21), "I shall descend and will see" - to teach you that a judge cannot judge other than that which his eyes see (Sanhedrin 6b). The ears of man - correspond to the way that the Holy One blessed is he sits and listens to the prayers of all of mankind and all of their praises, and so is it said (Exodus 2:24), "And the Lord heard their cry..."; and our Sages may their memory be blessed said (Avot 2:1), "Know who is above you - a watchful eye and a listening ear". The mouth of man - because the mouth of haShem speaks in visions to his prophets and the splendor of his voice is heard by his angels who possess fortitude of strength and do his will. And similarly like this, all of the other parts of the body can be explained in detail, parallel in their appearance and their matters to His characteristics may He be blessed, that he prepared to activate his creations. And the making of man is right and left, with duplication of his parts to here and there, two eyes, two ears, two hands, to lets, as His characteristics hay he be blessed are also double - whether for benevolence or for His rod, to the right for merit or to the left for obligation. Is this not the path that the heavenly will grasped after concealing his perfection which equilibrates everything towards the good. And indeed, like the parts of the body are discerned and differentiated according to their purpose, so to all of the occurrences of man in the hiding of haShem's countenance revolve and change in His strategy to activate them, like all that which we see in the passage of time, in everyday events.

But perfection, I already said, is one, to rule over all that is deficient in order to complete it, And it is not split in and of itself, rather in one equalization can complete all who need completion. And so is this matter with the soul which is created with the illumination of the countenance of His perfection may He be blessed. And you will see is this intent not - in order to strengthen the soul over the body and to refine it, in order that the Lord may He be blessed measure for it according to its action, in order that it also reveal His perfection, to rectify all falsehood and all deficiency which is in the world, and all that we will explained earlier. And the body is prepared for calamity at the time in which it rules in man, for so shall the Holy one blessed is He conceal the face of his perfection, and will leave the world and man under the judgement of the world which turns, like the law of ephemerals where time periods vary upon them in all the corners to which they turn. Therefore there is in the body all that is appropriate to be found in the order of the wheel which revolves in the world, in the concealment of complete goodness, in order to arouse with regard to it all of this, but however, to Him is the monarchy in man, with which he will rule in him. And there is in the soul that which is appropriate for completion, to complete all deficiency, in order to arouse upon it, like it, whether man will merit his manner, and the crown of kingship will be placed on his head, in order that it alone rule in its wisdom and the property of its reason, for it is good:

And indeed this matter is well explained in the Midrash of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Raya m'himna [the faithful shepard], Zohar Parshat Pinchas, page 257b), "And there is wisdom which is called wise among all types of wisdom", for in addition to that which was explained in it by those who know the truth according to the ways of the holy ones, behold from the simple meaning of the saying we learned that which I explained to you already above, that the Holy One blessed is He has many nicknames, not based on himself but according to His creations, and this is what they said (there) "...according to the name of their creator that they were going to be created in the future". And indeed they said "according to the name of their creator" is clear, for it is not said that is an innovation in Him G-d forbid, for there is no innovation or change in Him, but rather from the beginning it was in his power to do this, but these characteristics are always only those that are relevant to his creations, not that which is relevant according to Himself. And it said "like this did He create the Soul", and this is that the existence of the Soul reflects His perfection with which it was created; "Like this is the Master of the world..., but all of those are to Him like the Sefirot...and just like the Master of worlds has no known name..so to the Soul does not have [a name]... see there. And it is necessary that you be precise in regard to this matter in order to understand the existence of the body and soul in the manner of their creation and and all that is dependent upon it. Behold the singular Master may His name be blessed, according to his perfection it is impossible to ascribe any name or appellation, for we cannot grasp His perfection, and it is impossible to name that which one cannot grasp, for the name is a limitation in the owner of the name, and that which cannot be completely understood - cannot be limited. And indeed we grasp in His glory may He be blessed specific characteristics, as for example, mercy, rulership, strength, justice, compassion, anger, power, and similar to this, all of the characteristics that we can grasp in Him are from the aspect of his actions, those characteristics that the prophets grasped in Him from the early times to the late, because He may He be blessed gave them this comprehension. And according to this comprehension that they grasped in his Glory, we name Him may He be blessed with these appellations. merciful one, ruler, courageous, judge and others like that. And here, even though He may He be blessed in his perfection with without boundary or measure at all, but these are the characteristics that he wanted, he wanted them in the limit and measure that he wanted; and therefore to one characteristic we call mercy and to one - rulership, and to one characteristic - strength, and to one characteristic - love and so for all of them. And in the characteristic of mercy there is nothing other than mercy, and nothing in rulership other than rulership, and in mercy there is only the measure that He may He be blessed wanted in it, and in rulership only the measure that He wanted, and so for all of them. And do not say because of this that He may He be blessed according to his perfection has these powers in these measures, rather all of this is dependent on his will may He be blessed, and as we explained, the he is the master to change all of this; and just the opposite, in his perfection we may not measure any measure at all. Indeed since he wants to be understood through these characteristics and to act in this way, therefore we ascribe these appellations to him. And do not understand when we said that the Holy One blessed is He is merciful, to say that his essence may He be blessed according to himself is such, like we would say about a person that there is this quality in his soul to be merciful - that it is so impressed upon his temperament, that it will be grasped and its matter understood from it even from one aspect G-d forbid, for this we should not think at all, for it is impossible to know from His matters may He be blessed, that which He is to himself in truth at all. But when we call him merciful, we understand that he desires in one characteristic, which is the characteristic of mercy, a character which is not according to he Himself, but is according to the values of the creations and measured in their measurements. But since he wants this, and he wants to be understood in this way, we call him by this name - merciful. But his complete and straight essence is certainly outside of all these matters. And this is the faith that we are obligated to believe in may He be blessed with certainty, as we explained above already:

Now we will understand this matter itself in regard to the body and soul. For the body has parts and specific limbs, with specific functions with limitations; but the soul, in and of itself is it not one matter, external to the matters of the body altogether, and all of its ways are other ways, different from the ways of the body entirely, even in the matter of the senses themselves, but since it actuates all of the actions of the body when it [the soul] is in it[the body], it [the soul] hears with the ears of the body, it sees with the eyes of the body, and with all like this, therefore it is called seer, hearer, and all of the other appellations, but it is not that it has any of these ways at all. For even though it is the soul alone that sees, and not the body which is inanimate, and we find that it sees things the way that people in their completeness see in truth; this is not the way it [the soul] sees at all, for it has an entirely different way from the way of the senses of the body, and this is a way that a person while in the body is unable to appreciate. But since it is affected by the rule of the eye to see according to the rule engraved in it, therefore we say the it is the seer, and so for all of the other senses. However the rule is that the soul is one type of creation distant in its matter from all the ways of the body entirely, but it is created in its rule to do all that is rooted in the limbs of the body according to their nature. And here it grasps these rules, and does all these actions with the body, and therefore they all interact with it. And behold this is precisely like the matter of His perfection may he be blessed, regarding the specific qualities which he wanted in them, for there is not matter of these qualities in perfection but rather these are the specific qualities which he wanted, limited and measured in the measures that he wanted for them. But since He may He be blessed - the perfect in his perfection - he acts according to these qualities, therefore we refer by these names and appellations, and these actions and descriptions are ascribed to him, even though according to his perfection simply in truth in all of these matters, and he has no relationship from the aspect of Himself with any of these ways and these activities at all: