Chasidut zu Tehillim 148:78

Truly, one must know and understand, that from God’s point of view, it is all one, whereas the concealment of God’s presence and separation exist only from man’s point of view. God gave man the power to serve the Divine with his power of choice in order to unify all of the attributes and connect them to their source. Once this is done, he will see that they are, in reality, not even called attributes. This is how Ben Zoma shook the entire world in asserting, “Is it not written that that the Heavens were made by the word of God? And here, after God said, let there be a firmament, it is said, and God made the firmament. Thus, in this place, there is a difference between God saying, and God doing.” The conclusion in the Talmud, after reviewing this statement, was that, “Ben Zoma is still on the outside. But what is the actual distance between the upper and lower waters? Like the space between two garments spread one over the other; or as the space two cups fitted over one another.” That is to say, there is no separation whatsoever.³⁰⁸Likewise, there is no actual separation between God saying and doing. The separation is only an appearance in order to enable man’s ability to serve the Divine. A veil must conceal the source from its effects in the world we live in, for if the source were revealed there would be no impetus from the side of man to perform Divine service. Therefore, in Tehillim 148:4, which describes how all the elements of creation give praise to God, it does not say, “Halleluiah, all of the waters which are below the heavens,” but it says specifically, “all of the waters which are above the heavens,”³⁰⁹The full verses are: “Praise Him, you highest heavens and you waters above the heavens... Praise G-d from the earth, the great sea creatures and all the depths.” The “depths” are mentioned here (תהמות) but not the waters themselves. for the depth below is no more than a vessel,³¹⁰The depth below refers to the world of concealment in which man lives and exercises his free choice. and not the waters. If the waters are praising the Creator, then, by definition, they are called, “upper waters,” for at such a time of proclaiming God’s praises the lower waters have ascended and are in a state of complete unity with the upper waters. God is constantly occupied with healing the veil of separation, as was mentioned above, in Chapter Seven, with the Midrash Kohellet on the verse, “I have wounded, and will heal.” This is also hinted at in the Zohar (Vayigash, 207a): “God established the heavens with understanding.” (Mishlei, 3:19) What does the word, “establish,” mean? Rather, God establishes each day, never ceasing. He does not fix the world once, but rather fixes the world each and every day. God established that from the creation’s point of view a separation exists, and all that descends from the source in the upper realms to enclothe itself in the lower world takes on the appearance separation. This is as it is written in the Zohar (Bereshit, 22b): All of Rabbi Shimon’s fellowship stood up and said, “Rabbi, Rabbi, is there a separation between Abba and Imma,³¹¹The supernal personae (partsufim) expressing the Divine conduct of Wisdom (represented by the partsuf of Abba-Father) and Understanding (representing the partsuf of Imma-Mother) for Abba is in the path of atzilut (the World of Emanation), and the side of Imma in the world of beriya (Creation)?” Rabbi Shimon answered, “My friends, my friends, it is not like this. The Adam³¹²Meaning the partsufim (see previous note). of atzilut is male and female, from the side of Abba and Imma.³¹³The two are cleaving together as one, equal to each other. This is as it is said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’ ‘Let there be light,’ comes from the side of Abba, ‘and there was light,’ from the side of Imma.³¹⁴This follows the principle in the kabbalah whereby Abba represents speech and Imma represents action. This is the meaning of the teaching that Adam was initially created with two faces, one male and one female.³¹⁵See Bereshit, 1:27 However, the Adam of beriya has no image (tselem) or likeness (d’mut)³¹⁶See Bereshit, 1:26, “let us make a man in our image and after our likeness.” from Abba and Imma. Rather, the supernal Imma was called by the name whose numerical equivalent is Elo-him (86). This name is, ‘light and darkness.’ As a result of the darkness existing in this name, father said that Adam of beriya would sin in the future.” It is apparent from the Zohar in parshat Kedoshim (page 83a) and in the Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 67, page 98b) that sin cannot touch atzilut whatsoever.

How would the knowledge of Ma’aseh Merkava help the Jews to survive in exile? Yehezkel saw how the furthermost garments and most external and distant realms are also concealing God’s light and are under God’s providence.⁶⁰Yehezkel was the only prophet besides Moshe to receive prophecy outside of the land of Israel. Because of the incredible suffering of the Babylonian exiles, it was crucial to reveal to them these awesome mysteries, in order for them to find meaning in their pain. This is the essence of Ma’aseh Merkava, as explained above. It is hinted to in Yehezkel’s vision of “a storm wind coming from the north, a great cloud, a burning fire, and the light of nogah surrounding it.” Though these are the kelipot, he taught us that God conducts the world through them, as wellas it says (Tehillim, 148:8), “the storm wind performs God’s word.”

"These are the developments of heaven and earth once they had been created;” the author ‎understands the word ‎תולדות‎ to mean “objective, purpose;” when the Torah continues with the ‎words; ‎ביום עשות ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים‎, “from the day the Lord G’d had completed earth and ‎heaven,” the message is that from now on the Torah is concerned primarily with what happens on ‎earth, as opposed to when what happens on earth, had been the secondary concern up until the ‎human species had been created. The practical significance of this statement is that whereas prior ‎to this point earth had been the “recipient” of celestial input, from this point on it is the task of ‎earth and what occurs on its surface to “kick back” beneficial vibrations to the celestial regions, i.e. ‎the result of man fulfilling his duty on earth. The author bases himself on psalms 148,13 ‎הודו על ארץ ‏ושמים‎, which he translates as “His majesty is above earth and heaven,” earth being mentioned ‎first. This implies that the heavens receive useful input from earth.‎

Another approach to the paragraph commencing with ‎אלה תולדות השמים והארץ‎: Originally, man as ‎G’d’s final act of creation, and therefore the most sophisticated creature in the universe, was ‎perceived as superior to the angels even by the angels themselves. However, this was before man ‎had sinned. Ever since, the angels are viewed as superior to man. When the psalmist in psalms ‎‎148,13 speaks of ‎הודו על ארץ ושמים‎, “His splendour covers earth and heaven,” in that order, he ‎draws attention to the condition of man on this earth as it will be when man has attained his true ‎stature prior to the ultimate redemption. Up until then, due to his sin and consequently residing in ‎an imperfect part of the universe after having been expelled from Gan Eden, he had not ‎yet attained the stature envisaged for him by his Creator. Hence the psalmist, quite realistically, ‎describes G’d’s glory as it is on earth before describing it as it is in the heavens. It is only after the ‎redemption, when the prophet describes the state of man with the words: ‎כי מלאה הארץ דעה את ‏ה‎' , “when the earth will be full of knowledge of the Lord,” (Isaiah 11,9) that the vision of the ‎psalmist will be realized. The word ‎תולדות‎ in the verse under discussion means the same as ‎תכלית‎, ‎objective, purpose. The purpose of the creation of the lower parts of the universe was that on the ‎day when the messiah comes, earth, where G’d wishes to make His permanent home, will rank ‎higher in the hierarchy of the universes than the celestial regions. Once Israel will attain that rank ‎they will have reached the level known as “ayin,” ‎אין‎, a level higher than that of the angels in the ‎heavenly hierarchy. [The author had explained earlier that the level of ‎אין‎, is a state that existed ‎before G’d began with creating anything that contained an element of “substance,” three-‎dimensional matter. Ed.]‎