Nonetheless know that the five lights of Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah from the world of Assiyah is only a Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah of Nephesh-Light, and hasn’t anything of Ruach-Light or beyond.
That’s to say, we’re merely addressing the lowest level of Nephesh-, Ruach-, Neshama-, Chaya-, and Yechidah-lights, no matter how high and exalted they are from our perspective.
For Ruach-Light …
…the next highest one…
… only exists in the world of Yetzirah, while Neshama-Light only exists in the world of Briah, Chaya-Light only exists in the world of Atzilut, and Yechidah-Light only exists in the world of Adam Kadmon.
Still and all, as we’d indicated before, everything that exists on a comprehensive level exists on a particular level as well, and even in its remotest detail.
Ashlag alluded to a core aspect of this principle (enunciated in the expression, “the beginning is lodged in the end, and the end is lodged in the beginning”, Sefer Yetzirah 1:7) in Ch’s 9 and 15. He spoke directly of the idea above in broad terms in Ch. 42, in terms of all the worlds being “inter-woven”, and said outright in Ch. 43 that “everything found in existence in general can also be found in each and every world, as well as in each and every one of each world’s tiniest fragments”.
His point is that we needn’t be overly concerned for the fact that the five lights spoken of above are an aspect of Nephesh-Light alone, for all the worlds are interwoven; hence what’s true of one is likewise true of them all. It’s nonetheless ironically true as well that…
All five levels of Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah exist in the world of Assiyah as well, as we explained. It’s just that they’re only a Nephesh-level of (the whole cluster of) Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah (for all practical purposes).
Along the very same lines there’s also a Ruach-level Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah (cluster) in the world of Yetzirah; a Neshama-level Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah of Neshama in Briah; a Chaya-level Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah of Chaya in Atzilut; and a Yechidah-level Nephesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechidah in Adam Kadmon. The discrepancies between them is the same as the ones we’d indicated between the Nephesh-, Ruach-, Neshama-, Chaya-, and Yechidah-levels of Assiyah.
(c) 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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