In order to comprehend the kabbalistic system of worlds, one must be made aware of the distinction between the first and highest world of Emanation and the subsequent three lower worlds of Creation, Formation and Action. By ‘higher’ world we do not mean to suggest that it is physically positioned above the other worlds but that it is of a different qualitative order. In particular, the world of Emanation is said to maintain a constant unity. This unity so dominates the consciousness of this world that is becomes known as the ‘world of unity.’ As far as the the lower worlds are concerned, they have a diminutive status insomuch as they have lost the original unity and fragmented into varying degrees of multiplicity. For this reason, they are referred to as ‘worlds of separation.’

How does unicity verses plurality affect us? In a world or framework wherein I feel ‘at one,’ where there is no distance between me and myself, I recognize everything as me, as related to me or as familiar if not familial. As a result, the Arizal goes into extreme detail explaining how all of the properties of the world of Emanation–which all come under the heading of partzufim or ‘constellations’ of anthropomorphized sefirot (themselves configurations of different creative energies)–take on the the status of a mystical family.

For instance, ‘wisdom’ or chochmah is replaced by the constellation of all ten sefirot (dimensions of Divine revelation or powers of the soul) within wisdom (chochmah) which is called Abba (Father). Likewise, binah or ‘understanding’ also packs the full array of ten sefirot within herself in order to transform into the partzuf (persona/constellation) of Imma (Mother). Emanation begins with the conjunction of wisdom and understanding which, as the father and mother image of this world, give birth to all of the other dimensions and attributes. Taking inventory of the offspring, we can see the seven lower spheres (each with the full compliment of ten sefirot) as the legitimate children.

At times this next generation of the family is abbreviated as a minimal reproduction of the same masculine-feminine coupling of the father-mother union from the generation before. The father and mother are replaced or replicated as a son and a daughter. This son-daughter relationship reflects the constellation known as the Zeir Anpin or ‘small face’ that collects the emotions or character attributes into a single overall profile that is expressed to the outside world and is known as malchut or Nukba d’Zeir Anpin (kingdom or the feminine of the small face). This feminine level ‘receives’ the emotive expressions of the ‘small face’ and showcases them.

Thus the synopsis of the world of Emanation would be a unity of our basic family unit: father, mother, son, daughter. All other family members are variations on this essential set of four. We should note that the son-daughter unification is a marriage of two principles that feel themselves to be from a common source and are not literally a biological son and daughter. For instance, Avraham/Abraham refers to his wife Sarah as his sister even though this is clearly not true on a biological level. In kabbalistic literature it is said that this statement was true on a spiritual plane. Avraham/Abraham and Sarah did have a natural love that derives from identifying so strongly with one’s spouse that it is as though both people came from the same source. This could be likened to the idea of soul-mates being two halves of one soul that reconnect.

All of the lower worlds (Creation, Formation, Action) are related to garments of the soul. Garments cover over or conceal while simultaneously permitting a person to appear in public. They have the twin functionality of concealing and revealing at the same time. In this sense, the have to do with re/covery–a word that highlights both the extraction of some previously hidden experience while paying for this excavation by having to throw the dirt somewhere else occluding what might have previously been exposed, or by further adding to a concealed object’s concealment. A common example of this might be the recovered meaning found in my words that both presents to some degree what I was thinking but also obscures my thoughts in that they may or may not find sufficient representation in my speech. My thoughts slide in under my verbal expressions. They are present there but somewhat hidden.

Previously we had listed the highly abridged descriptions of the four worlds that dissected the worlds into the proper garments of thought, speech and action (Creation, Formation and Action) as the new media (or re/mediation) that re/presents our initial direct experience (Emanation). The ‘lowering’ of the lower worlds is a process of progressive concretization of the unexpressed unicity of pure experience in the higher world of Emanation. This lowering requires that I separate from myself and open an interval between me and my self-expressions, my presence and my re/presented self. If ‘I’ am not well re/presented in these projections within thought (thinking about myself and my experience), speech (communicating my experiences  or more specifically my thoughts about my experiences) and finally my actions (activities that reflect back on my thoughts, feelings and modes of communication which all stemmed from my experience), then descending into these worlds generates a schism within me. ‘I’ am displaced and exiled in my projections and representations of (my)self. Moreover, both myself and others becomes strange and unfamiliar. We are no longer family. The familial constellations of the world of unity (Emanation) get lost in the shuffle.

Worlds of separation becomes ‘worlds apart.’ The multiplicity turns into perceived ambiguity. I can’t tell what I am thinking anymore. Words make me uncomfortable because words can mean a lot of different things. How can I feel close to you if I can’t be sure what your words mean? Even our activities prove challenging: Am I nothing more than what I do? This has become one of the classic first questions that we spring on one another in a meet and greet: ‘So what do you do for a living?’ somehow turns into ‘so what you do is your living’ i.e. the totality of your life and the litmus test for who you are.

So if ‘I’ may be lost and found countless times in these re/presentational structures, how can we restore the happy family with the full glory of its unadulterated unity? Does this mean that we have to think less? It is possible to over think a situation–to cut and carve till there is no meat left worth consuming? Can we learn to just be together without running for the safety of words? Do we have to identify through the participation in the same activities? Can family members really be related that do not act the same way? ‘You can’t possible be part of that family, you don’t act like any of those people, you don’t speak their language and you certainly don’t think alike.’

Fleeing from re/presentation can be a very effective means of overcoming exile and restoring the lost familial unity. The world of Emanation truthfully also has a garment. The difference between this garment and the other three (thought, speech and action) is that this one is transparent. The ‘expression’ or garment of Emanation is called chashmal after the word used in the working of the Divine Chariot in the first chapter of Ezekiel. The Talmud in Tractate Chagigah (13a-b) describes it as a compound of two words chash meaning ‘silence’ and mal meaning ‘speech.’ Idiomatically we might entangle these seemingly antithetical meanings into a sublime sense of expressing the inexpressible. There is communication in this world: it is the re/presentation of the un/re/presentable, the language of the unsayable, the saying in and of silence. Silence speaks.

Sometimes a quiet moment can signal greater identification than all the talking in the world. All those who are wrapped in the warm blanket of serene silence (just simply being there present to each other without judgement, without attempts at re/mediation) triumph over the confusion of signification that is woven through the lower worlds. Happiness and joy have a tendency to break boundaries–even the boundaries of our projected self that are set at a distance. Silence is the great intimacy that reminds us of the indestructible bonds of family. Finally, Atzilut or ‘emanation’ also comes from the word atzel which means ‘proximity.’ The close contact and unwinding of distance allows us to rejoin this higher world where we say the most by saying nothing at all. In this world we ‘get’ each other without having to ‘say it’ in the immediacy of a shared experience.

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/familiar-silence-worlds-apart-part-1/

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