Continuing our analysis in the same work of R’ Chaim Vital we find that he latter constructs a state of affairs wherein the seferiotic systems multiply in complexity ad infinitum. The following is a liberal translation with a number of commentary insertions for ease of reading:

One cannot find in the top-down expression of lights [which may be likened to experiences (my insertion)] any sefirah [dimension or channel of Divine revelation] that does not contain within itself the full array of the ten sefirot [dimensions or channels…]. Each and every sefirah may be subdivided into thousands or even tens of thousands of sub-categories of sefirot. The concept of expressing the lights (of consciousness) follows a process of externalizing the internal level after level.

For instance, the most interior level–the [superconscious] crown [keter]–is immediately followed by wisdom [chochmah] which would be a relative externalization [like a flash of intuition or insight from out of our superconscious mind that is directed into our conscious mind (my insertion)]. Likewise, understanding (binah) represents a further externalization of wisdom (the spark of intuition has been grasped and comprehended). So too, the emotional spheres (which subjectively situate a person [literally: the six directions of tiferet or beauty]) can be seen as a further externalization of one’s inner thought processes (understanding). Finally, the most external level is called kingdom [one’s domain of influence–the ability to act upon or effect external reality or express one’s emotions, thoughts etc. to the outside]. Consequently, for every one of these levels we may discover myriads of detailed sub-sets or subdivisions which multiply into the thousands or tens of thousands. (4)

ונמצא כי כמו שבדרך התפשטות האורות מלמעלה למטה אין לך ספירה שאינה כלולה מכל העשר ספירות וכל ספירה וספירה מתחלקת לאלפים ולרבבות ספירות, כן הענין בהתפשטות האורות מבפנים ולחוץ יהיה על דרך זה, כי הפנימי שבכולם נקרא כתר, והחיצון שעליו חכמה, והחיצון שעליו בינה, והחיצון שעליו שש קצוות התפארת, והחיצון שבכולם מלכות וכן כל בחינה ובחינה היא נחלקת בדרך זה לאלפים ורבבות פרטי פרטים

If we were abstract the kernel features of this opening up of a sefirah or dimension to reveal a hundred and then a thousand and then hundreds of thousands of  seferiotic  sub-categories [channels of Divine revelation], we would have to conclude that this is either a “nested” order (sometimes referred to as hitlabshut [התלבשות] where higher levels are enclothed and invested in lower levels of reality) or, alternatively, an example of holographic “interinclusion” or hitkallalut [התכללות].

In the case of interinclusion, the whole is imbedded within the detail. Taken to the extreme, the whole is within every detail which is within every detail and so on. On the grandest scale of cosmological proportions, we run into the psychology of the universe, where the human condition extends to fill, that is, personalize, all worlds, in a striking display of panpsychism from R’ Chaim Vital’s own pen:

All of the worlds collectively (as well as each world individually) were created with anthropomorphic characteristics [literally in the image of man below]. (5)

והרי כי כל העולמות יחד וכן כל פרט מהם בפני עצמו נברא כדמות אדם התחתון, וזהו סוד נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו

Assuming that the Divine image with which the human condition was forged is identical to the seferiotic array [dimensions of Divine revelation]  with all of its interinclusion, this statement implies a continuum between the external reality of the cosmos and the inner psychic realm of the human. Common to both, on a macrocosmic and microcosmic scale, are the mapping to seferiotic properties, the genetic mapping of the whole onto the individual detail in a way that cannot be enumerated.

Compared with a work like Sha’arei Kedusha, Etz Chaim (the most famous work of the entire Lurianic system) displays even greater and more consistent complexity. It is on the pages of this massive volume that R’ Chaim Vital records layer upon layer of structural models that piled up one on top of the other, stacking or being superimposed as on a Riemann surface. They are then shuffled, subject to a recursive function and reconceived with pregnancy after pregnancy of ideas mutating the original structure and magnifying it from every angle.

A careful reading of the following passage from Etz Chaim (Seventh Chamber Sha’ar Alef, Perek Alef) takes us on a journey through many of ideas of antiquity and modernity. Yet, for our purposes here, the attention must be given more to the system (if there is one) than the contents of that system. The layering of structural models forces us to consider the possibility that the genesis of an mystical idea taken in detail paves the way to unmanageable infinities—a system that losses itself in its own regeneration—spilling over itself creating an escape and transcendence. It is an open system. We are led back to the Ayin Sof, to the endlessness or absence of an end that is pursued from the arbitrary beginning.

Consider the following amalgam of entangled frameworks and passageways with their comparative scale and complexity as R’ Chaim Vital assembled them:

There is a source of emanation and there is emanation itself. The source of emanation relates to the four elements: fire, air, water and earth [really refers to: active combustion, gases, liquids and solids] which in turn correspond to the four letters of the  Divine name (the Tetragrammaton) or yud-hei-vav-hei. These four levels also relate to wisdom, understanding, emotion and kingdom [self-expression] as well as to cantillation marks, vowels, decorative crowns on letters and the letters themselves. Additionally, they may also be related to the four worlds of Emanation, Creation, Formation and Action.

In the realm of a human being we also find these four levels: 1) the inner person (complete with four levels of the soul called chayah, neshama, ruach and nefesh) 2) the body 3) the clothing worn on the body and 4) the house where a person dwells [clearly a progression of externalizations]. These four levels of the inner person, the body, clothing and housing each contain all of the four levels mentioned above [a clear example of layering models one upon the other to build complexity].

[Here is the breakdown into 16 levels or 4 within 4]:

The four levels within the inner person are the soul of the soul [the transcendent over-soul or neshama of the neshama], the neshma (seat of the intellect), the ruach (seat of emotion), and the nefesh (the vital soul).

The fourfold division of the body consists of 1) the bones (with bone marrow within them) 2) the connecting tissue (tendons, sinews) 3) flesh (muscle) and 4) skin.

The four types of clothing, represented by the clothing of the priests (regular Cohanim) are as follows 1) the undershirt 2) pants 3) sash belt and 4) turban….

The fold levels of dwelling related to the house and dwelling are 1) the house 2) the courtyard (adjoining the house) 3) the field and 4) the wilderness (desert).

הנה יש מאציל ונאצל והנאצל יש בו ד’ יסודות אש רוח מים עפר וה ד’ אותיות הוי”ה והם חו”ב תו”מ והנה הם טנת”א והם הם אבי”ע שהם הם ד’ בחי’ שבאדם א’ אדם הפנימי שהוא הרוחניות הנקרא נרנ”ח ב’ הוא הגוף. ג’ הוא המלבושים שע”ג הגוף. ד’ הוא הבית שיושב בתוכו האדם וגופו ומלבושו וכל בחינות אלו כלולות מד’ בחינות ואלו הם בחי’ א’ של הרוחינות הם נשמה לנשמה ונר”ן. בחי’ הב’ שהוא הגוף הוא העצמות שבהם המוח מבפנים והגידין והבשר ועור וכמש”ה עור ובשר תלבישני ועצמות וגידין תסוככני

בחי’ ג’ שהם הלבושים הנה הם נודעים שהם לבושים המוכרחי’ אל כהן הדיוט כתונת ומכנסים מצנפת ואבנט. בחי’ הד’ והוא הבית יש בית וחצר ושדה ומדבר

Here we see that even after there is a demarcating of grades, the gradation interposes intermediate categories in attempt to present relatively smooth continuity. The interlacing of diverse thematic material spans from the extraordinary to the ordinary, from the Divine to the mundane, all captured in a silent underlying unity by virtue of the structures involved.

R’ Chaim Vital has fashioned a nexus by which one might meditate on the consilience of all knowledge, of Divinity, of Souls (psychology), and Worlds (cosmology). Here religious thought observes no break with scientific inquiry or everyday human experience as both are assimilated into a mystical framework. Traces of an evolutionary theory (or perhaps it is really a de-evolution theory) can be detected. It remains to be seen where these interlocking links will take us.

In part three we will look at a number precedents for these complex Lurianic models.

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