וְהִנֵּה מִדַּת הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא שֶׁלֹּא כְּמִדַּת בָּשָׂר וָדָם.

The attribute of the Holy One, blessed be He, is unlike the attribute of a human being. The obvious difference between human speech and divine speech, that human speech is composed of physical sounds and movements, whereas divine speech is not, is not the most important and meaningful difference between the two. The most significant and meaningful distinction between the two is that once expressed, human speech is no longer connected to its source: the soul and its faculties.

שֶׁהָאָדָם כְּשֶׁמְּדַבֵּר דִּבּוּר, הֲרֵי הֶבֶל הַדִּבּוּר שֶׁבְּפִיו הוּא מוּרְגָּשׁ וְנִרְאֶה דָּבָר בִּפְנֵי עַצְמוֹ מוּבְדָּל מִשָּׁרְשׁוֹ, שֶׁהֵן עֶשֶׂר בְּחִינוֹת הַנֶּפֶשׁ עַצְמָהּ.

When a person utters a word, the breath of that utterance in his mouth is tangible and is perceived as an independent entity, separate from its source, namely, the ten faculties of the soul itself. Broadly defined, speech is the ability to communicate with others. This can occur only because the speech is disconnected from one's being. Speech transfers words from the self, and once expressed, it is no longer part of the self. A word uttered cannot be recalled. A person's being and his speech are thus two separate entities. Speech has its own existence, independent of us. It no longer needs our thoughts and personality in order to exist. As the author of the Tanya will note, this reflects the essential difference between speech and thought. Speech is communication with another and therefore is independent of one's soul. Thought, on the other hand, is an inner communication within the bounds of the self. Although not identical to the soul and its faculties, it is not separate from them either.

אֲבָל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֵין דִּבּוּרוֹ מוּבְדָּל מִמֶּנּוּ יִתְבָּרַךְ חַס וְשָׁלוֹם, כִּי אֵין דָּבָר חוּץ מִמֶּנּוּ וְ״לֵית אֲתַר פָּנוּי מִינֵּיהּ״ (תיקוני זהר צא, ב), וְלָכֵן אֵין דִּבּוּרוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ כְּדִבּוּרֵינוּ חַס וְשָׁלוֹם

But the speech of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not separate from Him, God forbid, for there is nothing outside of Him and "no space is devoid of Him" (Tikkunei Zohar 91b). Consequently, God's speech is not at all similar to our speech, God forbid God's speech is not independent of Him, because nothing can conceivably be separate from Him. Since there is nothing separate from Him, divine speech too must necessarily be connected to Him. Differentiation between the self and that which is outside the self is relevant only for a human being and has no meaning when applied to God. This distinction leads to the central point of this chapter: The products of divine speech, which are the universe and everything in it, including humanity, are not independent entities but are always connected to the Divine and to the divine speech that brought them into existence. Just as divine speech is expressed anew at every moment, so is the creation's connection to the divine being, who is thinking and speaking them anew without pause, renewed at every moment.

[כְּמוֹ שֶׁאֵין מַחֲשַׁבְתּוֹ כְּמַחֲשַׁבְתֵּינוּ, כְּדִכְתִיב: "כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם״ (ישעיה נה, ח), וּכְתִיב: "כֵּן גָּבְהוּ דְּרָכַי מִדַּרְכֵיכֶם״ וגו׳ (שם פסוק ט)].

(just as His thoughts are not like our thoughts, as it is written, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, " [Isa. 55:8], and it is written, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts" [Isa. 55:9]). The author of the Tanya adds this parenthetical remark, which draws a distinction between man's thoughts and God's thoughts, not only because the notion is explicitly stated in these verses. The concept of man's thoughts and speech is discussed in these chapters for the sole purpose of enabling a more tangible understanding of God's thoughts and speech. In a sense, the analogy drawn here with regard to thoughts is more impactful than that of speech because a person's thoughts too are not distinct from him. Just as God's speech is not distinct from Him, so it is with man's thoughts. One's thoughts exist only as long as one thinks those thoughts. As soon as the thought process is over, those thoughts utterly cease to be. Understanding this enables a more profound grasp of the relationship between this world, a mere expression of God's speech, and God Himself, the one who uttered those words.

וְלֹא נִקְרָא דִּבּוּרוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ בְּשֵׁם דִּבּוּר רַק עַל דֶּרֶךְ מָשָׁל.

God's speech is referred to as speech only in a metaphorical sense. There is a divine process that we call speech because one aspect of that process may be comparable to human speech. But in truth it is unlike our speech in all respects. It is speech only in a metaphorical sense.

כְּמוֹ שֶׁדִּבּוּר הַתַּחְתּוֹן שֶׁבָּאָדָם הוּא מְגַלֶּה לַשּׁוֹמְעִים מַה שֶּׁהָיָה צָפוּן וְנֶעֱלָם בְּמַחֲשַׁבְתּוֹ, כָּךְ

Just as the corporeal speech of man reveals to his listeners that which was hidden and concealed in his thoughts, so it is on high with respect to Ein

לְמַעְלָה בְּאֵין סוֹף בָּרוּךְ הוּא, יְצִיאַת הָאוֹר וְהַחַיּוּת מִמֶּנּוּ יִתְבָּרַךְ מֵהַהֶעְלֵם אֶל הַגִּילּוּי לִבְרוֹא עוֹלָמוֹת וּלְהַחֲיוֹתָם נִקְרָא בְּשֵׁם דִּבּוּר.

Sof , blessed be He: The emergence of the light and life force from God, from the state of concealment to that of manifestation, in order to create worlds and animate them is referred to as speech. We cannot, and may not, compare divine speech to human speech with regard to sound, words, and letters, and certainly not in terms of the mechanisms of speech. Human speech and divine speech share only the most fundamental function of the concept of speech: creating a connection in which something that was initially internal and hidden is outwardly revealed. The function of speech is to act as a means of communicating and bonding with another. In broader terms, the purpose of speech is to reveal or express that which was hitherto concealed. It is the transferal of content or information from one level to another, from a deep, incommunicable level to a more external, expressible level. In this sense, one can aptly describe the creative divine power that forms worlds and emerges from the concealment of Ein Sof, manifesting itself in the creation, as the speech of God.

וְהֵן הֵן עֲשָׂרָה מַאֲמָרוֹת שֶׁבָּהֶן נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם,

This constitutes the ten utterances through which the world was created. The Torah refers to the emergence of light and life force from the Divine in the creation of the worlds as speech. Specifically, it refers to the ten utterances with which God created the world. These are the utterances introduced by the ten occurrences of the phrase "God said" in the first chapter of Genesis.

וְכֵן שְׁאָר כָּל הַתּוֹרָה, נְבִיאִים וּכְתוּבִים, שֶׁהִשִּׂיגוּ הַנְּבִיאִים בְּמַרְאֵה נְבוּאָתָם.

Likewise, the rest of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings that the prophets apprehended in their prophetic visions are called divine speech. Another, deeper form of divine speech is the Torah. Included in this are the words of the Prophets and Writings; they are all a form of divine revelation in the world. In one form of divine expression, the world is revealed, while the words of the Torah and Prophets are revealed in the other. Obviously God's communication in the Torah and Prophets is not speech as we know it, with our words and letters. When we say that God speaks to a prophet, we mean that He reveals Himself in some manner. The concealed becomes revealed, and the hidden grows more clear, but certainly not with human words and our human mechanisms of speech.

וַהֲרֵי דִּבּוּרוֹ וּמַחֲשַׁבְתּוֹ כִּבְיָכוֹל מְיוּחָדוֹת עִמּוֹ בְּתַכְלִית הַיִּחוּד. דֶּרֶךְ מָשָׁל, כְּמוֹ דִּבּוּרוֹ וּמַחֲשַׁבְתּוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם בְּעוֹדָן בְּכֹחַ חָכְמָתוֹ וְשִׂכְלוֹ,

God's speech and thoughts, as it were, are united with Him in absolute unity, analogous to a person's speech and thought while still in his faculty of wisdom and intellect, Human speech differs from divine speech in that it is no longer connected to its speaker from the moment it is spoken but becomes a separate reality. An ancient analogy compares human speech to arrows: "A sharpened arrow is their tongue, speaking deceit" (Jer. 9:7). Just as an arrow, once shot from the bow, cannot be brought back, so too once a person has said something, he cannot retract it. Speech has a life of its own. It does not matter whether the speaker's intent was positive or negative; the words go forth and have their effect with no connection to the thoughts and intent of the person who uttered them. But divine speech is entirely different. In a sense, a better metaphor for divine speech is not human speech but human thought before it has been articulated, when it is still within consciousness, before it has been articulated through letters and words, the stage at which speech no more than trembles on the verge of coming into being.

אוֹ בִּתְשׁוּקָה וְחֶמְדָּה שֶׁבְּלִבּוֹ קוֹדֶם שֶׁעָלְתָה מֵהַלֵּב לַמּוֹחַ לְהַרְהֵר בָּהּ בִּבְחִינַת אוֹתִיּוֹת,

or as they exist in a longing and desire in one's heart before they rise from the heart to the brain, where letters are employed in order to contemplate it. A thought does not have to be intellectual. It may also be an emotional yearning and desire in the heart, which then signals that it desires something or that it fears or loathes some other thing and wants to avoid it. These signals reach one's mind, which develops them into words and the symbols of thought and speech.

שֶׁאָז הָיוּ אוֹתִיּוֹת הַמַּחֲשָׁבָה וְהַדִּבּוּר הַזֶּה הַנִּמְשָׁכוֹת מֵחֶמְדָּה וּתְשׁוּקָה זוֹ בְּכֹחַ בַּלֵּב וּמְיוּחָדוֹת שָׁם בְּתַכְלִית הַיִּחוּד בְּשָׁרְשָׁן, שֶׁהֵן הַחָכְמָה וְשֵׂכֶל שֶׁבַּמּוֹחַ וְחֶמְדָּה וּתְשׁוּקָה שֶׁבַּלֵּב.

Then the letters of this thought and speech, which issue from this desire and longing, were in a potential state in the heart, where they were united in absolute unity with their source, which are the faculty of wisdom and intellect in the brain and the desire and longing in the heart. The letters and symbols of speech through which the desire later expresses itself first exist in an incipient state in the heart, in the hidden potential of the thought to emerge into speech. The desire or the idea, even before it is verbalized, already has, in potential, the words that can express it. They are already unified with the feeling itself, with the awareness that generates them. Only afterward are they articulated as letters and words, and as the desire grows or the idea takes shape, the words take on an existence of their own. Even if they are not expressed verbally, once an idea is formulated into words, a form of communication takes place. In a way, we are communicating with ourselves. There is an inner speech that is connected with our being, with our desires and ideas. As with divine speech, at a certain point our inner speech is united with our soul. The difference is that divine speech is never separated from the divine being.

וְכָכָה מַמָּשׁ, דֶּרֶךְ מָשָׁל,

So too, figuratively speaking, this is actually analogous This expression seems to be self-contradictory. Something cannot be both actual and analogous at one and the same time. To solve this paradox, we must understand the concept of analogy not as diminishing the reality but as providing a means of understanding it: to explain one reality by making reference to another. This phrase underscores two points: It emphasizes that the description of the unity of divine speech with the Divine is exact, not merely a figure of speech. Second, it emphasizes that the comparison between divine speech and human speech is inexact. It does not describe divine speech in its entirety but only by analogy.

מְיוּחָדוֹת דִּבּוּרוֹ וּמַחֲשַׁבְתּוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּתַכְלִית הַיִּחוּד בְּמַהוּתוֹ וְעַצְמוּתוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ גַּם אַחַר שֶׁיָּצָא דִּבּוּרוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ אֶל הַפּוֹעַל בִּבְרִיאוֹת הָעוֹלָמוֹת, כְּמוֹ שֶׁהָיָה מְיוּחָד עִמּוֹ קוֹדֶם בְּרִיאַת הָעוֹלָמוֹת.

to the speech and thought of the Holy One, blessed be He, which are united in absolute unity with His essence and being even after His speech emerged in actuality in the process of the creation of the worlds, just as His speech and thoughts were united with Him before the creation of the worlds. Divine speech is never independent from the Divine. It is always connected to God and united with Him, and not even creation separates it. Human speech, on the other hand, is discrete from its speaker because a human being is limited. It is not only an outward revelation of his thoughts but an entity independent of him. None of us contains everything within ourselves. There is existence beyond us, and because of his limited nature, when a person wishes to speak, he must use elements and forces outside himself, which include the body, the air he breathes, and the electrical waves he uses when thinking. In so doing, he creates realities that are detached from his own being. By contrast, no matter how lofty and distant the divine speech from its source, it is impossible for that speech to become detached from it. This inseparability is not due to a particular aspect of the divine speech itself, but rather by virtue of the infinite nature of God, the Speaker of those words. As a finite being, a person occupies a particular physical space. As such, his words by definition must extend beyond the space he occupies. With respect to God, His infinite nature precludes any concept of something being outside or beyond Him. Those concepts are absurd in relation to God. Even the infinitely gaping chasm between the quintessence of God and His speech and creations does not actually divide them in the slightest.

וְאֵין שׁוּם שִׁינּוּי כְּלָל לְפָנָיו יִתְבָּרַךְ, אֶלָּא אֶל הַבְּרוּאִים הַמְקַבְּלִים חַיּוּתָם מִבְּחִינַת דִּבּוּרוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ,

There is no change whatsoever with respect to God. Rather, the change exists only in relation to the created beings who receive their life force from God's speech For God, there is no difference between the reality that preceded divine speech and the reality created by that speech. There is one stream flowing through all levels of being. The entire range of existence, from one extreme to the other, is merely one aspect of reality. In His eyes, there is no separation between before and after. But for humans, there is a difference, and that difference defines our limits. Divine speech may be God's lowest level of divine revelation, but that speech comprises the highest level of reality that we human beings can perceive. It is the roof of our world, beyond which lies nothingness. From our standpoint, that which is before is beyond comprehension, whereas that which is after can be comprehended. This one-sided and never-ending relationship between the Creator and creation maintains the stasis of the universe throughout the entirety of its existence. God is independent of us, but we depend on Him; He sees us, but we cannot see Him. Any comprehension that we do achieve is called the revelation of the Divine Presence, which is identical with the attribute of Malkhut, or Kingship, also synonymous with the word of God. When a person gains an awareness of the Divine Presence in the world, when he feels how God's glory permeates all of reality, he is cognizant of the divine speech speaking within the world, enlivening it and maintaining its existence. This is the sense that God is King of the world, which is the peak of our human experience. We can reach only up to this point, to the understanding of divine speech, since the divine essence infinitely transcends it. Yet despite the vast divide between God and His speech, His speech is still connected to His being. When it comes to such subjects, every analogy is necessarily imperfect and so must be understood only in a limited sense. When an adult talks to a child, the relationship is one-sided. The child can relate only to the words, not to what lies beyond it, which he cannot experience. The adult, on the other hand, is aware of how his words were connected to his mind and the thoughts that generated them. There can be speech that from one aspect is connected to the speaker, yet from another is completely independent of him.

בִּבְחִינַת יְצִיאָתוֹ כְּבָר אֶל הַפּוֹעַל בִּבְרִיאַת הָעוֹלָמוֹת,

through its actualization in the creation of the worlds, The divine speech that has been actualized with the creation of the worlds is precisely that which animates the creation. That creation perceives itself as an independent entity of the Creator as a result of the change in reality upon the creation of the world. As mentioned in the previous chapter, there exists a distinction between man's speech when it is actualized and speech still in potentiality in his mind, and even more so deep within his soul. The deeper the speech is nestled within the person, the more it is united and one with him. When it comes to one's thoughts, and certainly the faculties of his soul, the thinker is prominently present, with no possibility of disconnecting him from the particular thoughts or feelings. This is in stark contrast to speech that has been expressed and heard by another. The speaker is no longer attached to the words he uttered. Unless one thinks of him and seeks him, he is likely to disappear and lose connection to his words. The same is true of divine speech. Upon becoming actualized by creating the worlds and becoming clothed within them, the infinite divine Speaker disappears, as it were, leaving the creation with a sense of independence and separateness.

שֶׁמִּתְלַבֵּשׁ בָּהֶם לְהַחֲיוֹתָם עַל יְדֵי הִשְׁתַּלְשְׁלוּת מֵעִלָּה לְעָלוּל

when it becomes clothed within them to animate them through a process of cause and effect The divine light does not descend in a direct fashion, but rather gradually, in a process of cause and effect, like the interconnected links in a chain.

וִירִידַת הַמַּדְרֵגוֹת בְּצִמְצוּמִים רַבִּים וְשׁוֹנִים,

and a descent level by level through numerous and varied constrictions, At each stage in this process of descent, the divine light is contracted and constricted. Despite the gradual diminution in light, there exists a continual link between the cause and effect, yet that bond is minimal, a shadow of its original intensity.

עַד שֶׁיּוּכְלוּ הַבְּרוּאִים לְקַבֵּל חַיּוּתָם וְהִתְהַוּוּתָם מִמֶּנּוּ וְלֹא יִתְבַּטְּלוּ בִּמְצִיאוּת.

until the created beings can receive their life force and existence from Him and at the same time not become subsumed in the divine reality. This unique state, wherein the created being, the "effect," can receive its life force from God, the "cause," yet simultaneously not become subsumed, losing its independent existence, requires a powerful constriction, one that occurs only after myriad other constrictions, through a chain of causes and effects, have occurred.

וְכָל הַצִּמְצוּמִים הֵם בְּחִינַת הֶסְתֵּר פָּנִים לְהַסְתִּיר וּלְהַעְלִים הָאוֹר וְהַחַיּוּת הַנִּמְשָׁךְ מִדִּבּוּרוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ שֶׁלֹּא יִתְגַּלֶּה בִּבְחִינַת גִּילּוּי רַב שֶׁלֹּא יוּכְלוּ הַתַּחְתּוֹנִים לְקַבֵּל.

All these constrictions constitute a concealed countenance, which is meant to conceal and hide the light and life force that issue forth from God's speech, so that they will not be manifest through such an intense revelation that the lower worlds would be unable to receive it. If the light within divine speech were to be revealed in its full force, it would be too powerful for created beings to receive their vitality from it. The life force that is given to every finite creation cannot exceed that entity's ability to assimilate it, just as a person cannot absorb knowledge beyond his mental capacity, just as an electric cable cannot carry more than a certain voltage, and just as a water hose will burst if too much water passes through it. All these constrictions and concealments are needed to limit the amount of power that is transmitted so that every created being will receive exactly what it is able to sustain and no more. The mechanism of constriction and concealment is as integral a part of divine speech as divine revelation. Without that mechanism, divine speech would destroy reality rather than construct it. In order for divine speech to be manifest, in order that it may communicate, it must be concealed, bound, and constricted. In this way, it maintains the ongoing existence of the world.

וְלָכֵן גַּם כֵּן נִדְמֶה לָהֶם אוֹר וְחַיּוּת הַדִּבּוּר שֶׁל מָקוֹם בָּרוּךְ הוּא הַמְּלוּבָּשׁ בָּהֶם – כְּאִלּוּ הוּא דָּבָר מוּבְדָּל מִמַּהוּתוֹ וְעַצְמוּתוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ, רַק שֶׁנִּמְשָׁךְ מִמֶּנּוּ יִתְבָּרַךְ כְּמוֹ דִּבּוּר שֶׁל אָדָם מִנַּפְשׁוֹ.

Therefore, the light and life force of the speech of God, blessed be He, that is clothed within them also appears to them as if it were an entity distinct from God's essence and being, that it only issues forth from God just as man's speech issues forth from his soul. As the author of the Tanya stated above, divine speech differs from human speech because it is not disconnected from God, the Speaker. Since there is no divide between the Speaker and the speech, between the Revealer and the reality that is being revealed, there must be a system of concealment in order to constrict the light in the divine speech and to conceal the Speaker in the speech. In this way, the world can receive the speech as though it were separate from the Speaker and the life force without perceiving its Source. The creation appears to be external, to have emerged from the essence of the Creator and to exist separately from Him. Not everyone believes this, but it is a direct inference based on the evidence of our senses. This perception does not stem from the truth of reality, but because the world is unable to fully receive the divine revelation.

אַךְ לְגַבֵּי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֵין שׁוּם צִמְצוּם וְהֶסְתֵּר וְהֶעְלֵם מַסְתִּיר וּמַעְלִים לְפָנָיו, וְכַחֲשֵׁכָה כָּאוֹרָה, כְּדִכְתִיב: "גַּם חֹשֶׁךְ לֹא יַחְשִׁיךְ מִמֶּךָּ״ וגו׳ (תהלים קלט, יב).

However, in relation to the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no constriction, concealment, or hiddenness that conceals or hides anything from Him. To God, darkness is light, as it is written, "Even darkness does not darken for You. The night, as if day, gives forth light. Darkness and light are the same" (Ps. 139:12). Elsewhere, the author of the Tanya comments that the expression "darkness and light are the same" indicates a total correspondence between the two: Not only is the dark like the light, but the light is like the dark. For God, not only is that which is concealed completely revealed, but the entire concept of concealment and revelation does not even exist. God exists, as it were, beyond both the realms of light and darkness, in a place that is "not day and not night" (Zech. 14:7). This can be compared to a one-way mirror. One surface is opaque to some degree, yet the other side is completely transparent. A person who stands on the opaque side sees nothing besides his own image and perhaps vague indications of what lies behind the mirror. But for the person who stands on the transparent side, there is no barrier. He sees clearly that "darkness and light are the same." Another, more precise analogy appears in the works of the early sages. When a person poses a riddle, all the complexities of the riddle are clear to him because he knows the solution. For him, the question and the solution are one. But the person to whom he poses the riddle is in a different place. This person experiences concealment, a thick curtain separating the riddle from its solution. Both people are engaged in the same question, but to one it is completely opaque. To the other, it is completely transparent.

מִשּׁוּם שֶׁאֵין הַצִּמְצוּמִים וְהַלְּבוּשִׁים דָּבָר נִפְרָד מִמֶּנּוּ יִתְבָּרַךְ חַס וְשָׁלוֹם, אֶלָּא "כְּהָדֵין קַמְצָא דִּלְבוּשֵׁיהּ מִינֵּיהּ וּבֵיהּ״ (בראשית רבה כא, ה),

This is because the constrictions and garments are not distinct from Him, God forbid. Rather, they are akin to "the snail whose garment, its shell, is of it and in it" (Bereshit Rabba 21:5), A person's clothing is not a part of him. He can put it on or take it off as he wishes. But the snail's "garment," its shell, is an inseparable part of it and is integral to its essential nature. In this sense, the garments of divine light are also a part of the divine being. Concealment and constriction are as much a revelation of God as what we usually understand as revelation and manifestation: "Darkness is the same as light." Without constriction, there would be no space in this world for the revelation of the Divine.

כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: "כִּי ה׳ הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים״ (דברים ד, לה), וּכְמוֹ שֶׁנִּתְבָּאֵר בְּמָקוֹם אַחֵר.

as it is written, "The Lord [Havaya ], He is the God [Elokim ]" (Deut. 4:35), as explained elsewhere (Sha'ar HaYiḥud VeHa'emuna, chap. 6). The four-letter name of Havaya and the name Elokim each represent different aspects of the same being. The name of Havaya indicates God as the one who reveals and emanates from beyond the boundaries of this world, whereas Elokim indicates divinity as it is manifest within the world, within nature. In light of this, "The Lord, He is the God" means that "the Lord" manifests Himself within the concealment of nature, that His compassion, represented by the name of Havaya, mitigates the strict justice embodied by the name Elokim. But it also means more than that. This phrase tells us that in essence there is no difference between the divinity that reveals itself and the divinity that conceals itself, between its immanent essence and its transcendent essence.

וְלָכֵן קַמֵּיהּ כּוֹלָא כְּלָא חָשִׁיב מַמָּשׁ.

Therefore, everything before Him is literally considered as nothingness. Before God, everything is literally as nothing. The entirety of existence, which perceives itself as a separate entity, is of no consequence whatsoever and has no special, independent existence. Everything is merely an expression of the divine being. This chapter examined the difference between divine and human speech. Both are a means of communication, a transfer of words from one being to another, from within to the outside, from concealment to revelation. But at their essence, there is a great difference between them. Human speech is separate from the speaker. Once the words have been spoken or written down, they are no longer connected to him. Speaker and spoken are independent entities. Divine speech, on the other hand, is not separate from the Divine. Nothing separates the Speaker, the speech, and the reality to which He speaks. To Him, there exists no barrier and nothing outside Himself. Nevertheless, the world is created as a result of the constrictions and concealments that hide the divine light that is embodied in His speech, preventing the divine force within it from being perceived, so that the speech appears separate from Him. This concealment is experienced only by the created beings of the lower worlds. To God, there are no concepts of concealment and revelation. "Darkness is the same as light," because "the Lord, He is the God." Notes