Revelation..
and the secret life of G-d
Last night, as we counted the forty ninth day of the omer, we began to pick up on a distinct Shavuot vibe.
The “lighting” of Shavuot is A soft glow, streaming out from Malchut of Malchut, flowing from the highest channels of divine consciousness, down to us, recycled through all the possible combinations of the seven emotional Sefirot.
It is important to remember that these anthropomorphic sefirah symbolisms, were never meant to be understood literally, the Kabbalists borrowed human terms, that helped convey aspects of the divine, and the different formats, i.e. degrees of intensity that G-d, vibrates throughout our existence.
In the “mind” of g-d, we only exist in the abstract as an idea of existence; the “emotional” side of g-d, on the other hand, is suggestive of a divine entanglement, with a created other.
This encounter exists in every realm - from the higher worlds where the “emotions” are still within g-d, down to the lowest worlds, where the ultimate “other” — of finite created existence, is “freed” to feel itself existing independantly from G-d.
Malchut is the filter, a celestial launching pad from which there can start to be an outer manifestation, and realizing of G-ds “emotional needs” — that ultimately, takes on the form of a finite world.
Just as in our human interactions, the emotional connectedness that we might feel toward another person, is meaningless to that person, unless they are told about it, a revelatory sharing, that is the basis for all human interconnectedness: so too, conceptually speaking, with regard to our connectness with G-d, that starts at the precise moment that G-d begins to “talk.”
Malchut is also called Dibbur in kabbalistic terminology.
Speech.
In the creation theology of Kabbalah, it’s only in Malchut, when G-d actually begins to “speak”, that there is the possibility of an “outside” world where he can be “heard”.
The first g-dly “conversation” is the creation narrative in genesis, where through the “ten utterances” of creation, “let there be light.. etc” the inner g-dly desire for a world, actually becomes a world — the very act of g-d speaking itself, is creation, physical existence is the outer space, the emptiness that can now be filled, the void, in which the voice, (if we listen carefully), can now be heard.
G-d’s need to be heard, does not rely on existence, rather it constitutes existence itself.
The second g-dly conversation was in the second book, in Exodus, where we read about the revelation at Sinai.
That was the moment that intimacy truly began, when g-d starts to share on a much deeper level, no more small talk!
When G-d shares his deepest truth, he feels “safe” enough with us, not only telling us what he wants, but also, more importantly, why he wants it.
He does that, by finally confessing his secret “identity.”
On Shavuot g-d come s clean, and confesses, that the secret identity of the ten utterances is really the Ten Commandments!
In The language of the Kabbalist this means, that during creation what filtered down to us through Malchut of the lowest world of assiyah, can only be traced as high as the lofty infinite world of atzilut.
Even there its only an expression of G-ds Outer will.
On Shavuot, however- we are in the energy of revelation, and what filters down to us through Malchut, is rooted even higher in machshava hakeduma de-ak, the level of keter, or g-ds crown.
We have moved beyond Genesis, and the casual “creation conversation” -this new conversation, is all about meaning and purpose- its the intense and deep way that g-d whispers his secrets into our ears, The place of Keter, The “crown of the king” that is even higher than the king himself.
