classes ::: General Principles of Kabbalah, Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, chapter, Kabbalah,
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object:2.05 - The Line of Light and The Impression
book class:General Principles of Kabbalah
author class:Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
class:chapter
subject class:Kabbalah


The Impression of Light is the power which remained
when the Infinite Light was withdrawn as a source for
the world and the Sefirot from the middle point. When
compared to what has been withdrawn, it is but a faint
impression of Light. If not for the contraction (zim-
zum) mentioned earlier, the world would have been
created in accordance with the undiminished Light.
This Impression of Light is the source of the lower beings
who appear in their incomplete (fallible) state. It is
the root of everything pertaining to good and evil, which
issue in a state of balanced power, and denote a condi
tion contrary to total perfection.

The Line of Light is the perfection which the
Creator, blessed be He, returns to the Impression. It
comprises in its supervision the bounty that completes
that which is lacking in all existing beings. This com
pletion however only relates to the capacities of created
beings, and not to the absolute perfection of the Creator
Himself. For He hovers above all as the Infinite En
circling Light.

This perfection of the created being brought by the
Line of Light merely fulfills the potential inherent in all


137



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DETAILED OUTLINE OF THE KABBALAH


that partakes of the nature of the Impression. It was
the Creators desire to fashion two distinct creations:
one of deficiency and another of perfection, so that the
cycle of deficiency shall have sole away at times. But
His final intention is to perfect that which is imperfect.
Hence the supervision of good and evil operates openly,
while the supervision of perfection operates in a con
cealed manner: the hidden governing power of com
pleteness underlies those processes which operate se
cretly towards the goal of perfecting all things, freeing
them from evil, and bringing them to a condition of
total goodness.

The Impression is designated as "primordial atmos
phere (awir kadinon) since it comprises all that pertains
to the government of good and evil in a collective form.
That is, there is as yet no subdivision into parts; and attri
butes each according to its appointed function. Every
thing is but in a tenuous root form.

However, when the Line of Light entered the Im
pression it took charge of everything pertaining to it and
arranged that very substance into attri butes. It arranged
collective attri butes and individual ones, each suited to
a particular need of the government, and became identi
fied with the collectively, in its extremely tenuous form,
of all that pertains to the supervision.

The attri butes, or all the Sefirot and the vessels, are
those very things which were inherent in the Impression.
But now (because of the entry of the Line of Light)
they subdivide, issue, and assume sway over creation. At
this point, each attri bute becomes a single vessel. This
process was executed by the Line of Light, since all acts



LINE OF LIGHT AND IMPRESSION


139


are rooted in and related to it, just as the actions of a
body are related to the soul, which motivates the move
ments of the body. But the soul only executes those
actions of which the vessels of the body are capable, and
she operates, by means of each member of the body,
according to its inherent capacity.

Similarly, every action that pertains to the Impression
is brought into effect by the power of the Line of Light.
In the human body, the soul has authority to perform
still another function, namely, the purification of the
corporeal matter of the body. This corresponds to a
second function of the Line of Light, which operates in
the Impression to the end that perfection shall triumph
over imperfection and thus bring the whole process of
government to completion.

From the beginning, the substance of the emend
ations, corresponding to the flaw which they were to
correct, formed a root in the Impression. But the build
ing of the vessels themselves only effected through the
Line of Light, just as in the case of the body, where all
that pertains to it, including its own functioning, de
pends on the soul. Therefore the beginning of the em
endation concerns the Impression; or the body itself;
and the final stage of the emendation will occur when
the soul will actually encircle it.

The Line of Light which descends from the Infinite
into the vacuum is like a tenuous tube through which the
Light from the Emanator descends to the emanated
being, and it is by means of this Line of Light that Em
anator and emanated being are united. All actions
executed by the Creator are in accord with His per-



140


DETAILED OUTLINE OF THE KABBALAH


fection; he decrees th measure by means of which His
acts shall affect us, but the procedure remains impercep
tible to man. His acts reach us through the very bound
aries which He appointed for that purpose, and we find
that the Creator in His exalted perfection does everything.
The "Small Path in which the Light is modified into a
single limited Line of Light, becomes the place where
Creator (God) and His created beings can meet.

By assuming this fixed limitation, the Creator con
verts the act into the governing power that represents
unityreferred to above as the rule of good alone. It
is this limited act itself that administers the laws per
taining to the Impression. Should the deeds come down
to us just as the Creator Himself executes them, every
thing would be different; of course it is impossible for
us even to picture such actions. But since His acts them
selves reach us only after having been modified by these
limited boundaries which He prepared for us, therefore,
nothing is produced by these actions but that: is within
the bounds of the Impression and the Line of Light.

However the unity between the Emanator and the
first emanated being is so great that even it .s emanated
Sefirot are related to the Infinite, Who acts in them ac
cording to His own perfection. When His act comes
into the "small path it infuses the Sefirot with enough
of His exaltedness to empower them with the supervision
of the worlds that leads to the ultimate unity of all.






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2.05_-_The_Line_of_Light_and_The_Impression

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