(1) With this in mind, you will understand the true basis for delineating the distinction between spirituality and corporeality: Anything that contains a fully formed will to receive, with all its aspects, which constitutes the fourth level, is considered corporeal. This level exists in all facets of the reality that is visible to us in this world. Anything beyond this ultimate measure of will to receive can be categorized as spirituality. This constitutes the worlds of Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Actualization) – they and all of reality that they contain – which are loftier than this world.

(2) With this understanding, you can grasp that all the ascents and descents mentioned with regard to the higher worlds do not refer to an imaginary place, God forbid, but rather to the concept of the four levels of will to receive. Anything that is distant from the fourth level is described as being in a higher place, while anything that is closer to the fourth level is described as being in a lower place.

(1) However, one must understand that since the central element of a created being, and of all of creation in general, is solely the will to receive, anything beyond this is not actually in the category of a creation but rather emanates from the Creator’s essence yesh miyesh; that is, it constitutes the light of vitality found within the creation. If that is the case, why do we describe this desire to receive with negative appellations such as opacity (ovyut) and murkiness, and why is it that we are commanded to purify it by means of Torah study and commandments to the extent that without this purification we would not achieve the lofty goal of the Creator’s intent for the Creation?

(1) The explanation is that just as corporeal beings are separated from one another by spatial distance, so too spiritual beings are separated from one another by their difference of form. You can find comparable cases in this world as well. For example, two people who are similar to one another in their perspectives love each other, and physical distance does not cause them to grow apart. By contrast, when they are far apart from one another in their perspectives, they hate each other and physical proximity will not bring them one iota closer. The difference in the form of two people’s perspectives distances them from one another, while the similarity of form in their perspectives draws them closer to each other. If, for example, the nature of one of them is the opposite, in all aspects, from the nature of the other, they will be as far apart from each other as east is from west.

(2) In the same way, you can understand this concept in the realm of spirituality. All the dynamics of distancing and drawing close, or fusion and unification, that are applied to it, are just measures of changes of form. They are separated from one another commensurate with the extent of the difference of form, and they are attached to one another commensurate with the equating of form.

(3) With this in mind, you will understand that although the will to receive is an indispensable quality in a created being, since the will to receive defines an entity as a created being and is the appropriate vessel for receiving the purpose of the Creator’s intent in the creation of the world, nevertheless this quality separates the created being completely from the Emanator. This is because there is a change of form that leads to opposing states between the created being and the Emanator. The Emanator is entirely about giving and lacks even a trace of receiving, God forbid. By contrast, the created being is entirely about receiving and lacks even a trace of giving. There is no difference of form more opposite and distant than this, and therefore this difference of form necessarily separates the created being from the Emanator.

(1) In order to save the created beings from the enormity of this distant separation, the mystical first constriction (tzimtzum) was implemented, separating the aforementioned fourth level from all the holy partzufim in such a manner that the ultimate capacity for receiving was left as an empty space, devoid of any light. For all the holy partzufim emerged with a partition placed upon their respective vessels of Malkhut so that they would not receive light in their fourth level.

(2) Thus, when the supernal light is drawn down and expands toward the emanated being, this partition rebuffs the light backward, and there is a kind of collision between the supernal light and the partition. This collision gives rise to the returning light, which returns the light from below to above and enclothes the ten sefirot of the supernal light. That part of the light that is rebuffed upward is called the returning light. When it enclothes the supernal light, it becomes a vessel that serves as a receptacle for the supernal light instead of the fourth level. Subsequently the vessel of Malkhut expands commensurate with the amount of returning light that was rebuffed by the partition, which is the rebuffed light that ascended and enclothed the supernal light from below to above, which then expanded from above to below. In this manner, the lights are enclothed in the vessels, meaning in that returning light.

(3) This is the mystical meaning of head and body in each level, since the fusion through the collision of the supernal light against the partition gives rise to the returning light from below to above and enclothes the ten sefirot of the supernal light in the form of the ten sefirot of the head, which refers to the roots of the vessels, as there, in the head, there cannot yet be actual enclothing in order to form complete vessels. Subsequently, when the Malkhut expands with the returning light from above to below, the returning light ceases to exist as light and now acts as vessels for the supernal light. Then the supernal light is enclothed in the vessels, and it is called the body of that level, meaning it becomes complete vessels.