A MEDITATION ON LIFE-FORCE

[James and Terry Hamilton]

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A MEDITATION ON LIFE-FORCE


The main subject matter of hitbonenut (meditation) is how God continually renews creation, day by day, from nothing. If God would withdraw the power He invests in the creation, the creation would return to nothingness.

This is not like the product of a craftsmans hands that no longer requires the craftsman, but continues to exist independently of him, for the vessel was fashioned from material that already existed, whereas the creation is ex nihilo and must be recreated from moment to moment. If the flow of life-force would be withdrawn for even a moment it would be as if it never existed.

"It is written: Forever, O God, Your word stands firm in the heavens." The letters of the ten utterances with which the world was created, stand firmly forever within in the creation to give it life. If the letters would withdraw into their source, the entire creation would return to absolute nothingness, as if they had never existed at all.

So too with all created things in all of the worlds if the letters of the Ten Utterances would withdraw they would return to a state of naught and absolute nothingness.

Rosh HaShanah [the Jewish New Year] is called "the beginning of Your deeds" for it is when the life force creating souls and angels and all the worlds and their contents ex nihilo is revealed in a general way for the entire year. Subsequently, the life force is subdivided into particularized streams of energy for each week of the year. It is then subdivided even more into days of the week, hours, and into moments. Each twenty-four hour period is divided into the twelve hours of the day, corresponding to the twelve permutations of the Tetragrammaton, Yud-Hai-Vav-Hai, and twelve hours of the night, corresponding to twelve permutations of the Name Aleph-Dalet-Nun-Yud. Each hour is further subdivided into 1080 moments, each moment being a different permutation of the Tetragrammaton. Thus the permutation that creates and gives live to each moment in time returns to its source and a new permutation is produced.

This is the meaning of the verse, vehachayot ratzo vashov (Ezekiel 1:14) [In his vision of the Divine Chariot - the manifestation of Divine life-force in the world of Yetzirah - the Prophet Ezekiel describes the actions of the animals pulling the chariot: They eagerly raise themselves up to catch a glimpse of the world of Beriah above the rakia (firmament) separating Yetzirah and Beriah. Then they hastily retreat in fear back to the world of Yetzirah. He renders this as vehachayot ratzoh vashov and the animals run and return (Ezekiel 1:14). Now the word chayot (literally "wild animals") can also be read as chiyut - "life force." The force enlivening all of the worlds is in a state of constant flux, of running and returning. Life force is not static it pulsates; indeed it is evidenced in the beating of the heart and the pulse, and in the inhalation and exhalation of the breath, as mentioned on the previous page]. This is also called in Kabbalah mati vlo mati [literally, reaching out and withdrawing. This phrase describes the pulsing forth of the creative life force from above into the created worlds. Each packet of energy pulsates through the system and then returns to its source above. In general, mati vlo mati describes the emanation of the packet of energy from the Creator to the created, whereas ratzo vashov describes the response of the created recipient to the influx of energy it rises up in a state of ratzo to receive the energy from above, and returns in a state of shov to use the energy until the next packet of energy descends]. "And from my flesh I see" how a person's heart beats continuously, since it is the main seat of energy of the person, and the life fore runs and returns.

At every moment God creates ex nihilo and enlivens all of the worlds and the creations in them, and the higher and lower levels of the Garden of Eden. If His outpouring of life would be withdrawn for a moment, it would be as if nothing ever existed. But in His goodness He renews daily the works of creation, as the verse states, "Forever, O God, Your word stands firm in the heavens."