אַךְ מִכָּל מָקוֹם, הוֹאִיל וְדִבְּרָה תּוֹרָה כִּלְשׁוֹן בְּנֵי אָדָם לְשַׁכֵּךְ אֶת הָאֹזֶן מַה שֶּׁהִיא יְכוֹלָה לִשְׁמוֹעַ‌,

Nevertheless, since the Torah spoke in the language of humans to attune the ear to what it is able to hear, The previous chapter addressed our intrinsic inability to apprehend God and our corresponding inability to grasp His attributes and the way in which He is bound to them. This is why, as the author of the Tanya points out, the Zohar refers to the sefirot as "the secret of faith." The Torah, on the other hand, is essentially a form of communication. Communication cannot occur if the receiver does not at least minimally comprehend the content that is being communicated. If the Torah had been transmitted in terms that more closely connected to the absolute truth, and it had been spoken in Godly terms instead, it would have been meaningless to us. Therefore, the Torah speaks "in the language of humans" and employs familiar terminology to which we can relate.

לְכָךְ נִיתַּן רְשׁוּת לְחַכְמֵי הָאֱמֶת לְדַבֵּר בִּסְפִירוֹת בְּדֶרֶךְ מָשָׁל.

therefore permission was granted to the scholars of the truth, the Kabbala, to speak of sefirot metaphorically. The Sages refer to the Torah as the "primordial metaphor." The Torah is the primal metaphor, the metaphor for everything, and the referent of this oldest, most all-encompassing metaphor is God Himself. From this perspective, at Mount Sinai God gave us His very being. Metaphor is the way in which the incomprehensible becomes graspable. The metaphor of the Torah is a gift from God, a prism through which to relate to Him. The Torah in this sense belongs to God and flows from His incomprehensible divine essence, yet when given to mankind it takes a shape and form that is designed for human comprehension. Without it, we would be equipped only with the understanding of our sheer inability to connect with the Creator. Biblical imagery and Torah teachings grant us the opportunity to actually cultivate a relationship with Ein Sof.

וְקָרְאוּ אוֹתָן ״אוֹרוֹת״, כְּדֵי שֶׁעַל יְדֵי הַמָּשָׁל הַזֶּה יוּבָן לָנוּ קְצָת עִנְיַן הַיִּחוּד שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וּמִדּוֹתָיו.

They referred to the sefirot as lights, so that through this metaphor, we would partially understand the concept of the unity of the Holy One, blessed be He, with His attributes. The unification of the sefirot in God is intrinsically unfathomable, notwithstanding our discourse on the topic. The extent to which God is qualitatively separate from the sefirot is too vast for us to comprehend because in our reality the differences between various phenomena, between higher and lower realms, are extremely limited. In the supernal universes, however, not only is every level of reality immensely expansive, but the distinction between the different supernal levels is fundamentally more significant. Therefore, attempting to grasp a dynamic (especially a unification) that transcends these gaping gulfs between God and the sefirot  – gulfs that obscure the very extent to which they are incomprehensible – completely eludes us. Nevertheless, we are privy to some knowledge of the inner workings of the Divine, as was discussed at the end of the previous chapter, through "the secret of faith" – by believing that God does, in fact, unify somehow with the sefirot by operating through them. And since permission was granted to speak about the sefirot by way of analogy, we can have some inkling, at least by way of metaphor, how and what this dynamic is.

שֶׁהוּא בְּדֶרֶךְ מָשָׁל כְּעֵין יִחוּד אוֹר הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ שֶׁבְּתוֹךְ גּוּף כַּדּוּר הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ עִם גּוּף הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ, שֶׁנִּקְרָא מָאוֹר,

This unity is expressed metaphorically as being akin to the unity of the light of the sun that is within the body of the sun with the body of the sun itself, which is referred to in the Torah as a luminary, The sunlight we see is actually rays of light emitted by the sun. Before they emerge in the form of light, the sunbeams exist concealed within the luminary. In this state, they cannot be characterized as light; even referring to them as light is meaningless.

כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: ״אֶת הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדוֹל״ וגו׳ (בראשית א, טז). וְהַזִּיו וְהַנִּיצוֹץ הַמִּתְפַּשֵּׁט וּמֵאִיר מִמֶּנּוּ נִקְרָא אוֹר, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: ״וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָאוֹר יוֹם״ (בראשית א, ה). וּכְשֶׁהָאוֹר הוּא בִּמְקוֹרוֹ בְּגוּף הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ הוּא מְיוּחָד עִמּוֹ בְּתַכְלִית הַיִּחוּד כִּי

as it is written, "The great luminary to rule the day... " (Gen. 1:16), whereas the ray and beam that radiate and shine from it are referred to as light, as it is written, "God called the light day" (Gen. 1:5). When the light is within its source, within the body of the sun, it is unified with it in the ultimate unity, because there is only one object: the body of the luminary

אֵין שָׁם רַק עֶצֶם אֶחָד שֶׁהוּא גּוּף הַמָּאוֹר הַמֵּאִיר, כִּי הַזִּיו וְהָאוֹר שָׁם עֶצֶם אֶחָד מַמָּשׁ עִם גּוּף הַמָּאוֹר הַמֵּאִיר וְאֵין לוֹ שׁוּם מְצִיאוּת כְּלָל בִּפְנֵי עַצְמוֹ.

For the ray of light there, that illuminates. within the body of the sun, is literally one and the same entity as the shining luminary itself, the sun, and it does not have any independent existence whatsoever. In the light source itself, there is, as the author of the Tanya phrases it, "only one object: the body of the luminary that illuminates." The oneness of the source is not a composite but rather a perfect, simple, singular unity. Only when the luminary is obscured from our sight, and the light takes on the appearance of being separated from its source, does it present to us as light – as a delineated, independent reality.

וְכַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה מַמָּשׁ וְיוֹתֵר מִזֶּה הֵן מִדּוֹתָיו שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וּרְצוֹנוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ בְּעוֹלַם הָאֲצִילוּת עִם מַהוּתוֹ וְעַצְמוּתוֹ כִּבְיָכוֹל הַמִּתְלַבֵּשׁ בְּתוֹכָם וּמִתְיַיחֵד עִמָּהֶם בְּתַכְלִית הַיִּחוּד, מֵאַחַר שֶׁנִּמְשְׁכוּ וְנֶאֶצְלוּ מֵאִתּוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ עַל דֶּרֶךְ מָשָׁל כְּדֶרֶךְ הִתְפַּשְּׁטוּת הָאוֹר מֵהַשֶּׁמֶשׁ.

It is exactly the same and even more so with regard to the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He, along with His will and wisdom, in the world of Atzilut : They are unified with His essence and being, as it were, which becomes clothed within them and unified with them in the ultimate unity, since they were drawn and emanated from Him analogous to the way light radiates from the sun. The sefirot emanating from God are like sunbeams shining from the sun in the sense that they exist only from the perspective of created beings, who cannot comprehend the source from which the sefirot emanate. Yet on the level of Atzilut and beyond, the sefirot do not possess any independent existence; they are unified with Him in perfect, undifferentiated unity. There they exist in a state of being that has only one reality, that of His being and essence.

אַךְ לֹא מַמָּשׁ בְּדֶרֶךְ זֶה, רַק בְּדֶרֶךְ רְחוֹקָה וְנִפְלָאָה מֵהַשָּׂגָתֵינוּ, כִּי גָּבְהוּ דְּרָכָיו מִדְּרָכֵינוּ.

Yet the unity between God and His attributes is not literally brought about in this manner but rather in a manner that is above and beyond our comprehension, for His ways are beyond our ways. Since the metaphor of sunlight becoming subsumed in the sun is taken from the reservoir of human images, it is inherently limited to the confines of the human experience. The sole purpose of such metaphors – for even the subtlest of them is a crude exaggeration – is to provide us a general illustration of these teachings, a guide to gaining some insight into them. The referent itself, however, that which the metaphor addresses, will always elude our grasp, due to the unfathomable gulf between any image, necessarily derived from within the confines of our limited scope of awareness, and the essence of what is being conveyed.

וּמִכָּל מָקוֹם, לְשַׁכֵּךְ הָאוֹזֶן,

Nevertheless, for the sake of familiarity, These metaphors are designed to attune the ear, so to speak, so that the ear can register that which is within its scope of comprehension and enable the receiver to glean some meaning from these truths. For this reason, the metaphors are not always precise, and occasionally may even be crude and coarse, bearing minimal correlation to the subtleties of the referent, subtleties that cannot be encapsulated in any other way.

נִשְׁמַע וְנִתְבּוֹנֵן מִמְּשַׁל אוֹר הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ הַמְּיוּחָד וּבָטֵל בִּמְקוֹרוֹ וְאֵינוֹ עוֹלֶה בְּשֵׁם כְּלָל בִּפְנֵי עַצְמוֹ רַק שֵׁם הַמָּקוֹר לְבַדּוֹ.

we can perceive and contemplate God's unity with His attributes from the metaphor of the sunlight being unified and subsumed in its source, such that it is not designated its own name whatsoever but rather bears only the name of the source. When sunlight exists within the sun, before it emerges as its own entity, it is impossible to refer to two entities, light and sun. The light is still inseparable from the sun and indefinable as independent light.

כָּךְ כָּל מִדּוֹתָיו שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וּרְצוֹנוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ אֵינָן עוֹלוֹת וְנִקְרָאוֹת בְּשֵׁמוֹת אֵלּוּ כְּלָל

In the same way, all the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He, along with His will and wisdom, are only designated and called by these names at all All of God's attributes, like sunlight in the sun, exist in the world of Atzilut: His will (Keter ), His Ḥokhma and Bina (the cognitive sefirot and the source of the emotive attributes), and His emotive attributes, Ḥesed, Gevura, Tiferet, and so on, are all unified with God to the extent that they become indistinguishable and unrecognizable by name, subsumed into one seamless existence.

אֶלָּא לְגַבֵּי הַנִּבְרָאִים, עֶלְיוֹנִים וְתַּחְתּוֹנִים, שֶׁהַוָּויָיתָם וְחַיּוּתָם וְהַנְהָגָתָם שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מְהַוֶּה וּמְחַיֶּה אוֹתָם וּמַנְהִיגָם, הוּא בִּרְצוֹנוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ וּבִינָתוֹ וְדַעְתּוֹ הַמִּתְלַבְּשׁוֹת בְּמִדּוֹתָיו הַקְּדוֹשׁוֹת.

in relation to the creations, both higher and lower, which are brought into existence, sustained, and guided by the Holy One, blessed be He, who brings into existence, sustains, and guides them with His will, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, which are clothed in His holy emotive attributes. In referring to the divine life force that operates in the universe and guides it, one can identify different aspects of God's providence in the world and attribute them to His sefirot accordingly: "This is God's Ḥokhma.... ​This is God's Ḥesed.... ​This is His Gevura.... " Yet these characterizations emerge only from the vantage point of created entities whose existence flows from these forces. Sunlight appears as such, differentiated from the sun, only to the created beings, who are nourished by its rays. Within the sun itself, however, those rays of light that are channels of sustenance do not even possess a name. They have no independent reality whatsoever.

כִּדְאִיתָא בַּמִּדְרָשׁ: ״בַּעֲשָׂרָה דְּבָרִים נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם: בְּחָכְמָה, בִּתְבוּנָה וּבְדַעַת וכו׳ (חגיגה יב, ב),

As the Midrash states (Ḥagiga 12b), "The world was created through ten attributes: through wisdom, through understanding, through knowledge... That is, the sefirot are the vessels, the instruments, through which the world was created.

דִּכְתִיב: ׳ה׳ בְּחָכְמָה יָסַד אָרֶץ כּוֹנֵן שָׁמַיִם בִּתְבוּנָה בְּדַעְתּוֹ תְּהוֹמוֹת נִבְקָעוּ׳ וגו׳ (משלי ג, יט-כ)״,

as it is written,'The Lord founded earth with wisdom, established the heavens with understanding. With His knowledge the depths were breached...' (Prov. 3:19–20)," and as Elijah states, "For you brought forth ten adornments, and we call them ten sefirot, The precise wording here indicates that while created beings refer to the sefirot by name, relative to God the sefirot are subsumed like rays of light in the body of the sun.

לְאַנְהָגָא בְּהוֹן עָלְמִין סְתִימִין דְּלָא אִתְגַּלְּיָין וְעָלְמִין דְּאִתְגַּלְּיָין וּבְהוֹן אִתְכְּסִיאַת״ כו׳ (תיקוני זוהר יז, א).

with which to operate concealed worlds that are not revealed and worlds that are revealed, and through them You conceal Yourself... " (Tikkunei Zohar 17a). The sefirot are the garments that God dons to fuel and guide the universe. One function of a garment is to express, while another is to conceal. While the sefirot reveal God's conduct, they simultaneously mask His essence. We know Him through the sefirot, by His Ḥesed, Gevura, Tiferet, and so forth, while His nature and essence, which transcend the sefirot, elude us. Created entities, which by definition are formed and enlivened by God through the sefirot, are incapable of experiencing the Divine beyond the sefirot.

עַל דֶּרֶךְ מָשָׁל, בְּיוֹם רִאשׁוֹן מִשֵּׁשֶׁת יְמֵי בְּרֵאשִׁית נִגְלֵית מִדַּת הַחֶסֶד,

An example of creating the world through the sefirot: On the first day of the six days of Creation the attribute of Ḥesed was manifest, On every day of the six days of Creation, God was manifest and operated through one of the six attributes in sequence. The first day engendered a revelation of the attribute of Ḥesed.

כְּלוּלָה מִכָּל מִדּוֹתָיו הַקְּדוֹשׁוֹת, וּרְצוֹנוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ וּבִינָתוֹ וְדַעְתּוֹ מְלוּבָּשִׁין בָּהּ.

and it included all His holy attributes, and His will, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge were enclothed in it. The attribute that is manifest on each of the days of Creation, as well as in every process and phenomenon in existence, is not a single, narrow attribute but is rather, as designated in kabbalistic terminology, a partzuf, a "face." A partzuf is a composite, all-encompassing expression, which includes within it all the sefirot in one image. This means that the first day of Creation was primarily a manifestation of Ḥesed but also of all the other sefirot, which are encompassed within Ḥesed: the will (Keter ), Ḥokhma, Bina, and Da'at, and the rest of the attributes, all in the context of Ḥesed.

וּבָרָא בָּהּ אֶת הָאוֹר בְּמַאֲמַר: ״יְהִי אוֹר״ (בראשית א, ג), שֶׁהִיא בְּחִינַת הִתְפַּשְּׁטוּת וְהַמְשָׁכַת הָאוֹר לָעוֹלָם מִלְמַעְלָה וְהִתְפַּשְּׁטוּתוֹ בָּעוֹלָם, מִסּוֹף הָעוֹלָם עַד סוֹפוֹ, שֶׁהִיא בְּחִינַת מִדַּת חֶסֶד.

With this sefira of Ḥesed, He created the light, through the utterance "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3). This constitutes the radiation and drawing down of the light into the world from above, as well as its radiation throughout the universe from one end to the other, which is all an aspect of the attribute of Ḥesed . The attribute of Ḥesed is an expanding force of perpetually unfolding radiating light that flows through all of reality. The first day of Creation embodies the attribute of Ḥesed, and therefore the creation on that day is a manifestation of that attribute: boundless light that descends and radiates throughout the universe.

רַק מִפְּנֵי שֶׁכְּלוּלָה גַּם מִמִּדַּת גְּבוּרָה, לָכֵן לֹא הָיָה רוּחָנִי כָּאוֹר שֶׁל מַעְלָה מַמָּשׁ,

It is only because the Ḥesed was comprised also of the attribute of Gevura that the light created on the first day was thereby not as spiritual and abstract as the actual supernal light If the endowment would have been pure, undiluted Ḥesed, light would have had no limits, not even those of the outer reaches of created existence. It would have been totally abstract, transcending time and space, manifesting the attribute of divine Ḥesed itself.

וְגַם נִתְלַבֵּשׁ בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה שֶׁהוּא בִּבְחִינַת גְּבוּל וְתַכְלִית,

and was also concretized in this world, which has defined limits, The light of the first day is not only limited in terms of its essential nature but also by virtue of the fact that it necessarily interacts with this world, is encompassed by it, and penetrates its finite dimensions. Divine light alone, in its purest sense, is a manifestation of absolute Ḥesed, of limitless giving and flow. The light of the first day is a Ḥesed that creates and builds by confining itself to the limits of the world, a dynamic that is encapsulated by the verse "The world is built with Ḥesed " (Ps. 89:3).

שֶׁהוּא מַהֲלַךְ ת״ק שָׁנָה מֵהָאָרֶץ לָרָקִיעַ‌, וּמִמִּזְרָח לְמַעֲרָב.

as we find that it is a five-hundred-year walk from the earth to the firmament and the same distance from east to west. Although a five-hundred-year walk, be it physical or metaphysical, is a massive distance, it is nonetheless measurable. This unit of measure represents the finiteness of the distance between the spiritual and the material, the scope between the two outer extremities of reality, and conveys the fact that all of existence falls into one definable and limited realm. Therefore, the light that is manifest in creation, even if it spans the entire expanse of reality, is limited.

וְכֵן בְּיוֹם שֵׁנִי נִגְלֵית מִדַּת גְּבוּרָה,

Similarly, on the second day of Creation, the attribute of Gevura was manifest, According to the order of the sefirot, the second day of Creation corresponds to the second attribute, Gevura.

כְּלוּלָה מִשְּׁאָר מִדּוֹת וּרְצוֹנוֹ כו׳,

which also includes the other emotive attributes and His will and so on, The attribute of Gevura that was manifest on the second day similarly was manifest not as a pure, homogenous force but rather as a complex, synthesized structure composed of Ḥesed and the rest of the sefirot.

וּבָרָא בָּהּ הָרָקִיעַ‌, בְּמַאֲמַר: ״יְהִי רָקִיעַ בְּתוֹךְ הַמָּיִם וִיהִי מַבְדִּיל בֵּין מַיִם לָמָיִם״ (בראשית א, ו), שֶׁהִיא בְּחִינַת צִמְצוּם וּגְבוּרוֹת לְהַעֲלִים מַיִם הָעֶלְיוֹנִים הָרוּחָנִיִּים מִמַּיִם הַתַּחְתּוֹנִים.

and He created through it the firmament, with the utterance "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it divide between water and water" (Gen. 1:6). For Gevura is the quality of constriction and restraint, which was used to hide the supernal spiritual waters from the lower waters. The creation of the firmament on the second day is not just a demarcation of the radius separating between the waters of this world and the waters of the upper atmosphere located above in the clouds. The creation of the firmament is rather a cosmic line delineating between upper and lower reality and their respective creations, represented by the upper and lower waters. The "lower waters" embodied the initial raw material from which all created entities, down to every minutiae, would emerge on the earth below. Opposite these lower waters were the "upper waters" above the firmament, which constituted the concentrated source of all spiritual phenomena on every level. The creation of the firmament is therefore the initial separation between the spiritual realm above and the physical realm below.

וְעַל יְדֵי זֶה נִתְגַּשְּׁמוּ הַתַּחְתּוֹנִים בְּהִבָּדְלָם מֵהָעֶלְיוֹנִים.

Through this separation, the lower realms became physical, as they were separated from the supernal realm. The function of this division, far beyond that of simple categorization, influenced the essential nature of all phenomena by positioning the spiritual separate from the physical. It refined the spiritual and solidified the material. When the physical world became distilled and concretized into a complete, structured system in an entirely physical environment, it became even more materially firm than it was previously. The opposite occurred to the spiritual: It became more ethereal. The introduction of definition to all entities to limit them within specific dimensions expressed the essential nature of the sefira of Gevura.

וּמִדַּת חֶסֶד כְּלוּלָה בָּהּ,

Yet the attribute of Ḥesed is also encompassed within Gevura, Yet Gevura does not manifest as pure, absolute restriction. When the attribute of Gevura operates in the universe, it incorporates a measure of Ḥesed.

כִּי ״עוֹלָם חֶסֶד יִבָּנֶה״ (תהלים פט, ג), שֶׁהַכֹּל כְּדֵי שֶׁתֵּרָאֶה הַיַּבָּשָׁה וְאָדָם עָלֶיהָ לַעֲבוֹד ה׳.

for "the world is built with kindness" (Ps. 89:3). It was all done so that the dry land could appear and man could be created upon it to serve God. The separation between the upper and lower realities was a necessary stage in the process of the formation of this world that is earthly and material yet also fertile and abundant. It is a place from which mankind was formed, a world whose precise conditions facilitate both his existence and the fulfillment of the ultimate purpose of creation. The Gevura of the second day is imbued with Ḥesed and all the other sefirot because Gevura is not purely limitation but rather limitation as it serves the creation of the world, which was made through Ḥesed, as the verse quoted here by the author of the Tanya states. Still, there is a clear difference between the first day, the day of giving, and the second day, which introduces limitation and the restriction of that giving. Through Gevura every entity attained its specific unique place, the physical with the physical, the spiritual with the spirit. The formation of a separation between upper and lower reality makes crossing over from one to the other nearly impossible.

וְכֵן כּוּלָּן.

And so it is with regard to all the other emotive attributes that were manifest on subsequent days of the Creation. The third day of Creation was marked by the attribute of Tiferet, the attribute that synthesizes the two previous attributes, Ḥesed and Gevura. Therefore, the third day of Creation merits a second, additional accolade of ki tov, it was good, signifying its double measure of good due to the delineation of sea and dry land and the revelation of the harmony of creation in all realms relating to vegetation and growth.

וְזֶה שֶׁאָמַר אֵלִיָּהוּ בְּתִיקּוּנִים שָׁם: ״לְאַחֲזָאָה אֵיךְ אִתְנַהֵיג עָלְמָא בְּצֶדֶק וּמִשְׁפָּט כו׳,

This is the meaning of Elijah's statement there in the Tikkunei Zohar (17a): "The purpose of the manifestation of the sefirot was to show how the world is conducted through justice and judgment.... The attributes constitute the templates through which God creates and conducts the universe.

צֶדֶק אִיהוּ דִּין,

Justice is a mode of strict law, Tzedek, justice, engenders the establishment of rigid terms and undeviating boundaries. The attribute of absolute justice operates according to the talmudic expression "Let the judgment pierce the mountain" (Sanhedrin 6b).

מִשְׁפָּט אִיהוּ רַחֲמֵי, כו׳

and judgment denotes compassion.... Mishpat, judgment, differs from the limitless giving of Ḥesed, which constitutes giving without regard for the recipient's worthiness or any sensitivity to the deficiencies and limitations of the receiver. Nor does mishpat parallel din, law. A perspective of absolute justice, which is synonymous with din, does not consider the mitigating factors that cause a person to sin or the personal weaknesses of the wrongdoer. According to the strict letter of the law, the wrongdoer has no way to repair what he has damaged. Mishpat is the attribute that weighs between justice and limitless giving, between din and ḥesed. It distinguishes between good and bad, clarifies the complex reality, and makes a judgment based on all aspects of a given circumstance. The result is a judgment that includes the considerations of compassion.

כּוֹלָּא לְאַחֲזָאָה אֵיךְ אִתְנַהֵיג עָלְמָא.

The entire purpose is to show how the world is conducted. The entire revelation of the sefirot is aimed for the created universe to illustrate the divine, behind-the-scenes truth that all affairs of the world are conducted by God through the various sefirot.

אֲבָל לָאו דְּאִית לָךְ צֶדֶק יְדִיעָא דְּאִיהוּ דִּין וְלָא מִשְׁפָּט יְדִיעָא דְּאִיהוּ רַחֲמֵי וְלָאו מִכָּל אִינּוּן מִדּוֹת כְּלָל״.

However, it is not that You have the attribute of justice known to us, which is law, or the judgment known to us, which is compassion. His essence and being are not comprised of any of these attributes whatsoever." Even though God operates through justice and judgment, which correspond to law and compassion respectively, He Himself cannot be grasped through these attributes at all. The attributes do not define His essence but rather serve as the instruments through which He operates in His created world. The word middot, attributes, is based on the word for measure, moded. But God's attributes do not "measure" Him or determine His characteristics. They are, rather, the avenues through which He "measures" His creations by sustaining their existence, guiding their activity, and assessing every circumstance within their reality. Though God is infinitely exalted and totally separate from our faculties of comprehension, He nevertheless reveals Himself to us, not because we actually apprehend Him, but rather because He chooses to manifest His essence. At the beginning of the chapter, the author of the