![[Window of the Soul - The Kabbalah of Rabbi Isaac Luria.pdf|Window of the Soul - The Kabbalah of Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572)]]

Forward

The mystics of all religions break loose from the narrow limitations of human reason and the constraints of denotative language. They search instead for an evocative language that can express their higher spiritual visions. They hope that those who have similar religious experiences will find some solace and guidance in their written testimonies. Yet only Providence can determine who will have the spiritual capacity and sensitivity to understand their teachings and the determination and commitment to make them accessible to others. (p12)

“the greater part of Isaac Luria’s cosmogony unfolds in nonmaterial realms, long before creation itself and the world as we know it.” (Dunn; p13)

“The history of humanity’s innermost worlds is far older than the present creation and its ontology.” (Dunn; p13)

the ultimate quest is not a vain intellectual pursuit of abstractions, but an intense search for self-transcendence through ethical self-scrutiny and commitment to a life of piety. (Dunn; p13)

Tsimtsum, is “not only the first creative act to form the pre-All, but it stretches to this very moment as the mystical dialectic that alternates between the transcendental
(divine) and the vulgar self.” “Tsimtsum,” Dunn tells us, “is far more than a discrete and static event whereby the Godhead contracted and withdrew itself in order to make a void in which to create. It is an eternally repeating event that connects the Godhead with every creature during the evolving progression of a divine creative moment. . . . Tsimtsum is the systolic-diastolic pulse of the Ineffable that changed and exiled Itself, disrupted the harmony of the absolute, and continues to do so at each moment as It creates into this very ontological moment.” (Dunn; p14)

“Our book has four central movements (4 chapters) that correspond to YHVH, the Tetragrammaton. It describes the dramatic progression from God into Creation, as
He picks up the pieces along the way at each level. God moves from the most subtle and most holy (tip of the Yod, Kings of Edom), progresses downwardly into Creation but vessels shatter. He continues to rebirth Himself (Hey), creates holy faces and Adam. God works within these faces and Adam. But Adam shatters the vessels again, thereby mixing souls with matter (Vav, World of Creation). The Shekhinah goes down to death and is trapped in matter. What remains are fallen worlds immersed in evil and matter. The ultimate moral imperative is for upper worlds, Ze’ir Anpin and Nukva to
work with Adam and mankind so that they might raise these sacred shattered pieces to God, thereby rejoining Shekhinah with God again. The final Hey of the Tetragrammaton acts within matter as Adam’s children save the worlds and even God Himself.“ (Dunn; p15)

Preface

Passages should be read intuitively, along a timeless base. Normative, contemporary
communications rarely apply within them. (p17)

Introduction: The Second Adam and the History of Souls

Albert Einstein looked up at the great display of a clear night sky while walking with a friend and exclaimed: “Two things inspire me to awe—the starry heavens above and the moral universe within.” (p19)

The greatest part of Isaac Luria’s cosmogony unfolds in non-material realms, long before Creation itself and the world as we know it. It moves from the absolute (en sof) to a primal space (tehiru) in God’s own experience, which contains his infinite reflections during each moment of Creation and at every level of reality of all worlds, and finally moves to the most unbalanced sanctum within this space, which comprises
the material world and its attendant attributes as we know it today (klippoth). The drama of Creation is a religio-psychic odyssey nested in God’s very self: It begins with unity and connected harmony, non-material fullness, total self-possession and inwardness and concludes with the ontological presentness of today: plurality, disunity, distraction in matter, and dispossessed selves in external worlds of exile. (p21)

God becomes as a creature in order to participate in Creation.(p28)

Malkhut has the same hidden qualities of en sof itself. It possesses nothing but yet has everything. It receives the qualities of the other nine sefirot, and from the depth of its mystery, it shares with all who live within its sovereignty. It yields and retreats, yet touches every living creature. It is the eternally effeminate, the displaced and active God in the world. Shebirath ha-kelim damaged the Shekhinah and separated
her from her counterpart, Ze’ir Anpin (creative powers). This separation symbolises the guilt and the rift between the outer and inner worlds.

Note: Perhaps it is not a rift, but as inevitable in the formation of our Malkhutian world. This separation (which could be interpreted as a rift), was necessary, and perhaps manifested as Adam & Eve being expelled from the Garden, for the dynamic of life in the material domain of Malkhut.

Malkhut is like a murky gem. It is a window pane of lapis specularis that has no brightness (ispaklarya de-lo nahara.) It is poor compared to the other sefirot because it only receives light and, unlike the other sefirot, can not retain the light’s own impression within itself.

Creation and this world have been diverted to a new channel for the moment.

Note: No, it is a necessary channel for the evolution and thus fulfilment of Creation as is required by the Divine Will. It is through the acceptance of the dynamic of Creation that we will succeed in reaching the next stage of this unfolding event. It is our very non-acceptance of our task, that is perpetuating the constant struggle we find ourselves in. It is the fact that we deny that this is G-d’s Desire and Intention, and this struggle of ours with our purpose within Creation that is causing so much of the unnecessary – what you could call psychic or spiritual – pain and suffering that we experience.

The Shekhinah represents the place of the psyche as well as God’s active presence everywhere. It is the hidden (yet disclosing) image of God. The unfolding of God is called “He” in the most hidden of his manifestations when he is about to give himself a push toward creation as it were. . . . God, who, in the total unfolding of his being, grace and love, who is attainable at the bottom of our hearts, and thus to whom we can speak, is called “You.” But God, in the most extreme of his manifestations, in those circumstances where the totality of his being is affected again in the final and most comprehensive of his attributes, is called “I.” This is the level of the real individuation in which God says “I” as a person to himself. . . . This “I” of God is [according to the Kabbalists] one of the most important and deepest teachings—the Shekhina —the present and immanent God of all of Creation.