בגין דישתמודעין ליהRungs to Know Him By

bi-gin de-yishtemode'in leihIn Gamatria ↗

Each rung below Him measures how far above He is.

Yehoyada gives three more reasons. First, knowledge. No creature grasps God's essence; we infer Him from His works. Had He made only this world, we would place Him just above it, as a cause above its effect, and picture Him as an intellect, as Aristotle did. Israel received a ladder: above the mind, the angels; above them the Throne; above that the ten sefirot, garments of Adam Kadmon, whose Keter is a throne for Ein Sof. Whoever knows He surpasses all of these knows His height far better. The Zohar says He emanated them so that He would be known. Second, governance: judgment, mercy and anger run the world but cannot be in the simple Infinite, so the sefirot carry them. Third, prayer: change comes through them, not in Him. These causes were received from Sinai, not invented.

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