Divinity is Indestructible

Fall and Breaking in the Divinity is Impossible

Everything that HaKadosh Baruch Hu created was created completely, as is said in BeReshit 1:31: “And God saw everything that He had made, and it was very good. And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day.”

The Zohar states that all the worlds are complete, which is why He made the lower man ruler over everything created in the world, because the higher man rules over everything. And therefore this verse hints at seven levels, because it contains the seven supreme levels which the higher man is called and in which he was completed, as is brought in the introduction to the Zohar (11a):

Come and see: Before the seven levels of supreme days were completed, man was not completed. Once the higher man was completed above, the lower man was completed below, and all the worlds were perfected. Therefore He made the lower man ruler of everything created in the world, because the higher man rules over everything. Therefore, “Let us make man in our image,” to give him bounty from that place which is called chesed.

And the Ramak writes (Pardes Rimmonim 2:1):

Neither exhaustion of strength nor beginning of strength can affect atzilut, because the Divinity can’t be correctly judged to have lack of strength (God forbid), because He is perfect in the utmost perfection.

There are seven kings who are said in the Torah to have died (BeReshit 36:31-39):

And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before a king reigned over the Children of Israel. Bela son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city is Dinhavah. Bela died, and Yovav son of Zerach from Botzrah reigned in his place. Yovav died, and Chusham from the land of Teimani reigned in his place. Chusham died, and Hadad son of Bedad reigned in his place, who struck Midyan in the field of Moav, and the name of his city is Avit. Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place. Samlah died, and Shaul from Rechovot HaNahar reigned in his place. Shaul died, and Ba’al Chanan son of Achbor reigned in his place. Ba’al Chanan son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his place, and the name of his city is Pau, and the name of his wife is Meheitavel daughter of Matred, daughter of Mei Zahav.

Regardings these kings, it is stated in the Zohar (BeReshit 23b) that HaKadosh Baruch Hu had in His mind all of the generations that He built, and they were destroyed before they were created. This is what it says:

He said to him: But wasn’t He building worlds and creating them before He created the world? Rather, “He tells the end from the beginning.” This means that HaKadosh Baruch Hu had in His mind all the generations that He built, and they were destroyed before they were created.

As we can see, everything happened in thought alone, and therefore there was no fall or breaking in the Divinity, God forbid.

The Ramak also explains in his books Pardes Rimmonim, Or Yakar and Eilimah Rabbati that everything that occurs in thought is an action in the secret of thought, and that all the spirituality of existence can be called building the world. Since that existence is not a persistent existence, then it can be called destruction: not that He literally destroys the worlds, but that that existence didn’t come into being, for the reason that the nuance of that thought doesn’t act below, in the persistent existence.

Just as an example we will bring some of what he writes in Pardes Rimmonim (5:4):

“And these are the kings who reigned,” i.e. the forces of judgment which occurred in thought to be emanated were not emanated or revealed because of the nuance of chochmah, and therefore it says about them “and he died,” which is disappearance. This is also what Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai explains below in the Idra. He says that the meaning isn’t that they were nullified (God forbid), but that they disappeared until the atzilut was emanated, and from there these worlds were revealed in their proper place in the manner of sefirot, because they were revealed in keter and then in chochmah and the name atzilut (emanation) was not yet established until they were properly emanated into their place and row. And the meaning of “and he died,” “and he died” is the disappearance of the world of judgment and its line, which couldn’t possibly be revealed because of its power.

It is thus clear that there is no such thing as falling, breaking or any other deficiency in the Divinity.

However, in the Arizal’s writings, the basis of his teaching is that the divine world died, that the divine vessels were broken, and that man was created in order to fix them.

This can be seen in Etz Chayyim, Sha’ar HaKelalim (chapter 1):

Now, when light went out from binah to vav ketzavot, first the da’at went out and was subsequently nullified, and this is the first king, Bela son of Beor. Afterwards chesed left, and it too was unable to withstand the light and its vessel also broke, and it went down below. And afterwards gevurah and all the seven went out. And these are the seven kings who died, and it is said about them “he died” and “he reigned” – first they reigned and then they died. And these seven vessels were nullified because they were unable to withstand the light that was spreading in them from sefirah to sefirah.
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And although we have said that the kings who died are the seven broken vessels from chesed to malchut and need to be fixed, chochmah and binah also need to be fixed, because binah used to have a small amount of light achor beachor because it couldn’t withstand panim befanim, and then it became smaller and its vessel was lessened, and this lessening fell below.

So too in Sha’ar HaMitzvot, Parashat Ekev:

Know that in the beginning of atzilut, the seven known kings were emanated. And when they died and descended below from the world that is now called atzilut, they had in them all the worlds and all the creations, and the four worlds atzilut, beriah, yetzirah and asiyyah were contained in them. Therefore, when they came back and were repaired and refined from the waste mixed within them, they were not refined one time all at once. In fact, in the beginning they were refined from everything that was part of the world of atzilut, and the choicest part of them was refined and repaired and from this became the world of atzilut, and the next inferior part of it became the world of beriah, and afterwards the next inferior part of it was refined and became yetzirah, and afterwards the next inferior part was refined and became the world of asiyyah. And the most inferior part of it, which can’t be refined, remains among the kelippot in the secret of the chayyot and their neshamah, as is known in the secret of the eleven spices in the ketoret. Now of all of these aforementioned aspects, some of their aspects remained among the kelippot which couldn’t be refined then, and they are being refined from then until now, until the mashiach comes.

And this is what is found in Sha’ar HaHakdamot concerning mayin nukvin (exposition 27):

All of our prayers and the commandments that we perform are so as to uplift the 288 sparks that remain from the seven kings who died and fell below, and now we lift them up from there above. … And when all of them finish being uplifted and repaired, then the mashiach will come, and the verse “He has swallowed death forever” will be fulfilled, as is explained in its place.

So too in Mevo Shearim (gate 2, 3:8):

Now everything that we always refine in our prayers from the day man was created until the days of the mashiach, all of it is from these aspects of the kings who are stuck among the kelippot, and there are aspects that become refined each day, even right now, pertaining to atzilut, and some of each of the worlds beriah, yetzirah and asiyyah, and some of neshamot, and similar to all these details. And when all the chayyot are perfected, along with the good and holiness which is to emerge from them, and what remains is total waste, then it is written: “He has swallowed death forever,” which are the sitra achra which is called “death,” for the reason that they are the waste of the dead kings.

Is there death in the divine world? Is the breaking of divine vessels possible? And most problematic of all, how are we, miniscule humans, able to repair the Divinity?!

Of course not, God forbid! Thus we have proven that the Arizal’s kabbalah contains a concept of falling and breaking in the Divinity.