Wisdom of the Zohar

(Zohar II, 239a)

The whole offering, which symbolises the Shekhina, ascends to Binah, which, in the world of the sefirot is the Holy of Holies. The attachment of the human will to God is determined by the concentrated intention of the person bringing the offering.

All attachment, unification and completion is secreted in that secret which cannot be perceived or known, and which contains the will of all wills, En-Sof. En-Sof cannot be known, and does not produce end or beginning like the primal Ayin (nothing), which does bring forth beginning and end.^[1]

What is beginning? The supernal point, Ḥokmah, the beginning of revelation. Ḥokmah is the beginning of all, concealed and resting with thought. It can be dimly perceived by thought, for it is divine Thought, the source of thought in the lower worlds. And it produces end, Malkut, which marks the final stage of the sefirotic world, and is called “The end of the matter” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). But there are no end, no wills, no lights, no luminaries in En-Sof. It’s nature is uniformly one, from every point of view for there is no differentiation within En-Sof. All the luminaries and lights depend on it for their existence. The sefirot, which are the lights of the Godhead, are maintained by the influence that descends from En-Sof. Yet they are not in a position to perceive En-Sof, which is concealed even from the perception of the sefirot. That which knows, but does not know, is none but the Supernal Will, the secret of all secrets, Ayin. Only Keter, the supernal will, has knowledge, albeit a faint knowledge, of the nature of En-Sof. And when the supernal point and the world to come, Binah, ascend they know only the scent, like someone who inhales the scent, and is perfumed by it.

Footnotes