אמנם להבין ענין אומרו בצלם אלקים דיקא. ולא שם אחר. כי שם אלקים ידוע פירושו שהוא מורה שהוא ית"ש בעל הכחות כולם כמ"ש בטור א"ח סימן ה'.
However, to understand why He specifically stated “in the image of God-Elohi”m” and not some other name, it is because the meaning of the name Elohi”m is well understood, that it implies that He (blessed be His name) is the Master of All Powers, as explained in the Toor, Orakh Chayyim, siman 5.89The Toor (formally known as the Arba-ah Toorim), authored by Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher, is an early code of Jewish Law.
2
וענין מה שהוא יתברך נקרא בעל הכחות, כי לא כמדת ב"ו מדת הקב"ה. כי האדם כשבונה בנין ד"מ {דרך משל} מעץ. אין הבונה בורא וממציא אז מכחו העץ רק שלוקח עצים שכבר נבראו ומסדרם בבנין. ואחר שכבר סדרם לפי רצונו עם שכחו הוסר ונסתלק מהם עכ"ז הבנין קיים.
The matter of why He (blessed be He) is called “Master of All Powers,” is because the attributes of the Holy One (blessed be He) are not like those of flesh and blood. For man, when he builds a structure (for example: of wood), the builder doesn’t create and materialize the wood from his own powers; rather, he takes pre-existing lumber and organizes it into a structure. After he completes arranging it according to his will, if he ceases his efforts and departs, the structure still persists.
3
אבל הוא ית"ש כמו בעת בריאת העולמות כולם בראם והמציאם הוא יתברך יש מאין בכחו הב"ת {הבלתי תכלית} כן מאז כל יום וכל רגע ממש כל כח מציאותם וסדרם וקיומם, תלוי רק במה שהוא ית"ש משפיע בהם ברצונו יתברך כל רגע כח ושפעת אור חדש. ואלו היה הוא ית' מסלק מהם כח השפעתו אף רגע אחת כרגע היו כולם לאפס ותהו.
In contrast, He (blessed be His name), as during the time when all of the worlds were created,90When the author speaks of worlds, he uses the context described by Rabbi Yitzkhak Luria (who is referred to as the Ari Ha-kadosh or Ariza”l). The Ariza”l describes four accessible worlds, one above (so to speak) the other, through which God’s influence flows. This lowest physical world is referred to as the World of Action (Heb.: olahm ha-ahseeya). Above this world is the World of Formation (Heb.: olahm ha-y’tzeera). Above that is the World of Creation (Heb.: olahm ha-breeya) and above that is the World of Emanation (Heb.: olahm ha-ahtzeeloot). What is above/before the World of Emanation is generally inaccessible and is considered to be beyond discussion, except in rare and constrained circumstances. created and materialized them ex nihilo, with His infinite powers. So it continues since then, every day and truly every moment: all of the powers that make them exist, structure them and sustain them are dependent only on what He (blessed be He) impresses upon them via His will at each moment, via the power and the influence of newly created light.91Rav Chayyim, in accordance with the convention of the Ariza”l, uses the word “light” (Heb.: ore). In explanation, Rabbi Yosef Chayyim of Baghdad (also known as the Ben Ish Chai), in the second forward to his book Da-at U-t’voona states: “However, it being true that you’ll find that in the books of the Kabbalists that they assign the name ‘light’ to the activities of the Ein Sofe and the s’feerote, it is not because they are really light. Rather it’s only because of the limitation of our intellect while it is still clothed in the physicality of the body to grasp the true nature and the essence of the spiritual, and so it is impossible to describe spiritual actions as they are, so as to assign them a sufficiently descriptive name; for that reason they assigned it the name ‘light’, for it is the most precious of the perceivable.” Also, the g’matria (the sum of the number values of the letters) of the word Ore (light) is the same as Ein Sof (“Without End”, a way we refer to the One infinite source of all creation). And if He (blessed be He) removed the power of His influence for even one moment, in that moment everything would revert to nothingness and chaos.
4
וכמו שיסדו אנשי כנה"ג המחדש* בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית היינו תמיד ממש כל עת ורגע וראייתם מפורשת כאמור לעושה אורים גדולים שלא אמר עשה אלא עושה:
And as the Notables of the Great Assembly92Heb.: ahn-shei k’nesset ha-g’doe-la canonized in the blessing of “forms the light”:93Heb.: yotzeir ore “He constantly renews the act of Creation.” [*] The specific term used is “constantly,”94Heb.: ta-meed to denote every instant and moment, and the proof is explained in what is written (Tehillim 136:7): “to the One who actualizes the great luminaries.” It wasn’t written as “actualized” but rather as “actualizes.”
5
הגהה: ואף שאין חידוש ניכר לעין. אמנם הד' יסודין עלאין דאינון השרשין קדמאין ואבהן דכולא כנזכר בזוהר וארא כ"ג ע"ב. שהם שרש כל מע"ב ופנימיות כולם. והם ד' אותיות הוי"ה ב"ה. התמזגותם והרכבת' כל עת ורגע בשרש שרשם אינו מושג כלל והוא ית"ש מחדשם כל רגע לפי רצונו.
Annotation: Even if the renewal is not apparent to the eye. Truly, the four supernal elements, they who are the ancient roots, the precursors of all—as is written in the Zohar (Va-eira 23b) that they are the root of all the events associated with creation and their inner aspect—and they are the four letters of the YHV”H (blessed be He). Their combining and assembling at every moment and instant in their root of roots is not perceived at all, and He (blessed be His name) renews them in every instant according to His will.
6
וענין התמזגותם כל רגע הם התתר"ף צרופי השם ב"ה על פי השתנות נקודותיהם תתר"ף רגעי השעה וכן משתנים עוד כל שעה לצרופים אחרים וגם אין מדת יום שוה למדת לילה לא כל יום דומה לחבירו שלפניו ואחריו כלל. ז"ש המחדש כו' מעשה בראשית דיקא:
And the matter of their combining in every instant, they are the one-thousand and eighty permutations of the Name (blessed be He), according to the variation in their punctuation95Heb.: n’koo-doe-tei-hem. Hebrew words have four parts: the letters themselves (o-tee-yote), their punctuation (n’koo-dote), their trup (ta-ahmim), and the crowns upon select letters (tahgim). In the Torah scroll, only the letters and crowns are included in the written text; the punctuation and trup are not.during the one-thousand and eighty divisions of the hour.96For halakhic purposes, the hour is split into 1080 parts called cha-la-kim.And they vary even more so each hour to still other permutations, and also that the quality of the day is not equivalent to the quality of the night, no day resembles the one before or after it in any way. That is why it is specifically written “who actualizes… the event of creation.”
7
וזהו שנקרא הוא ית"ש האלקים בעל הכחות כולם. שכל כח פרטי הנמצא בכל העולמות. הכל הוא ית"ש הבעל כח שלהם שמשפיע בהם הכח וגבורה כל רגע ותלוים בידו תמיד לשנותם ולסדרם כרצונו ית':
And this is why He (blessed be His name) is called “the God-Elohi”m”, Master of all powers [*]. All powers found in any of the worlds—every one of them—He (blessed be His name) is Master over their power. He impresses within them the power and constrained strength during every moment, and they are constantly dependent upon Him to change and organize them according to His (blessed be He) will.
8
הגהה: ואף שהוא שם משותף לכל בעל כח שנמצא בעולם. וכל שרי מעלה ומטה נקראים אלקי'. כמ"ש אלהי העמים. כי כל העמים ילכו איש בשם אלהיו. ועי' זוהר ויקרא ח' ע"א ובפ' בלק ר"ח א' בענין ויבא אלקים דכתיב באבימלך ולבן ובלעם פי' השר שלו. כי הם ממונים עליהם להנהיגם. וכן דייני מטה נקראים אלקים ובסבא צ"ו א' ושמא חד מכל שאר שמהן וכו' ע"ש.
Annotation: Even so, it is a name that is shared with all those who wield power in the world, and all the ministers of the upper and lower worlds are called “elohim”, as is written in T’hillim 96:5, “elohei ha-ah-mim”,97Those wielding power among the nations“for all the nations shall go each in the name of their elohim” (Mee-kha 4:5). And also refer to the Zohar (Vayikra 8a and in the section for Ba-lahk 208b), in the context of “va-ya-vo elohim” as is written in the context of Avi-mehlekh and La-vahn and Bil-ahm, where it means “his minister”. For they are appointed over them to supervise them, and the same is true with judges in this world who are called “elohim”, and in Savvah98Part of the Zohar(96:1): “and the name is one of their alternative names”. Refer there [to the Zohar, for more detail].
9
אמנם כולם אין הכח שלהם מעצמם רק ממה שקבע בהם הוא ית' כח וגבורה להיות מושלים וכו' לכן נקרא הוא ית"ש: אלקי האלקים וכן כתיב כי גדול ה' מכל האלהים. השתחוו לו כל אלהים. וגם העובדי כוכבים קוראים אותו יתברך אלהא דאלהין
Truly, none of them have intrinsic power, only what was made permanent within them by Him (blessed be He), so that they should have the power and the constrained strength99Heb.: ko-akh u’g’voorato be rulers… . Therefore He (blessed be His name) is called “Eloh”ei ha-elohim”100Lit: the Elohi”m of the elohim(Tehillim 136:2), and so it also written (Sh’mote 18:11): “For God-YHV”H is greater than all the elohim”, “bow before Him all the elohim” (Tehillim 97:7), and the pagans too call Him (blessed be He) the “Elohi”m of the elohim” (Daniel 2:47).
10
ולכן נקראים אלהים אחרים ר"ל שאין הכח שלהם מעצמם רק מכח הגבוה ממנו והגבוה ממנו מושך ג"כ כחו מהכח שעליו עד הבעל כח האמיתי של כולם הוא ית"ש
Therefore they are called “other elohim”,101Heb.: eh-lo-him ah-khei-rimas if to say that they have no intrinsic power on their own, only the power from the one who is above him. And the one who is above him also draws his power from the power above him, until the Master of the true power for them all, He (blessed be His name).
11
ולכן נאמר (ירמיה י"א) וה' אלקים אמת. שהוא הבעל כח האמיתי של כולם שכולם מקבלים כחם ממנו ית"ש ז"ש ויפלו על פניהם ויאמרו ה' הוא האלהים:
And therefore it says (Yirmiya 10:10) “and God-YHV”H is the true Elohi”m”, that He is the true Master of all their power, that all of them receive their power from Him (blessed be His name), as is written (M’la-khim Alef 18:39) “And they prostrated themselves on their faces and declared YHV”H is the Elohi”m”.
אמנם להבין ענין אומרו בצלם אלקים דיקא. ולא שם אחר. כי שם אלקים ידוע פירושו שהוא מורה שהוא ית"ש בעל הכחות כולם כמ"ש בטור א"ח סימן ה'.
However, to understand why He specifically stated “in the image of God-Elohi”m” and not some other name, it is because the meaning of the name Elohi”m is well understood, that it implies that He (blessed be His name) is the Master of All Powers, as explained in the Toor, Orakh Chayyim, siman 5.89The Toor (formally known as the Arba-ah Toorim), authored by Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher, is an early code of Jewish Law.
וענין מה שהוא יתברך נקרא בעל הכחות, כי לא כמדת ב"ו מדת הקב"ה. כי האדם כשבונה בנין ד"מ {דרך משל} מעץ. אין הבונה בורא וממציא אז מכחו העץ רק שלוקח עצים שכבר נבראו ומסדרם בבנין. ואחר שכבר סדרם לפי רצונו עם שכחו הוסר ונסתלק מהם עכ"ז הבנין קיים.
The matter of why He (blessed be He) is called “Master of All Powers,” is because the attributes of the Holy One (blessed be He) are not like those of flesh and blood. For man, when he builds a structure (for example: of wood), the builder doesn’t create and materialize the wood from his own powers; rather, he takes pre-existing lumber and organizes it into a structure. After he completes arranging it according to his will, if he ceases his efforts and departs, the structure still persists.
אבל הוא ית"ש כמו בעת בריאת העולמות כולם בראם והמציאם הוא יתברך יש מאין בכחו הב"ת {הבלתי תכלית} כן מאז כל יום וכל רגע ממש כל כח מציאותם וסדרם וקיומם, תלוי רק במה שהוא ית"ש משפיע בהם ברצונו יתברך כל רגע כח ושפעת אור חדש. ואלו היה הוא ית' מסלק מהם כח השפעתו אף רגע אחת כרגע היו כולם לאפס ותהו.
In contrast, He (blessed be His name), as during the time when all of the worlds were created,90When the author speaks of worlds, he uses the context described by Rabbi Yitzkhak Luria (who is referred to as the Ari Ha-kadosh or Ariza”l). The Ariza”l describes four accessible worlds, one above (so to speak) the other, through which God’s influence flows. This lowest physical world is referred to as the World of Action (Heb.: olahm ha-ahseeya). Above this world is the World of Formation (Heb.: olahm ha-y’tzeera). Above that is the World of Creation (Heb.: olahm ha-breeya) and above that is the World of Emanation (Heb.: olahm ha-ahtzeeloot). What is above/before the World of Emanation is generally inaccessible and is considered to be beyond discussion, except in rare and constrained circumstances. created and materialized them ex nihilo, with His infinite powers. So it continues since then, every day and truly every moment: all of the powers that make them exist, structure them and sustain them are dependent only on what He (blessed be He) impresses upon them via His will at each moment, via the power and the influence of newly created light.91Rav Chayyim, in accordance with the convention of the Ariza”l, uses the word “light” (Heb.: ore). In explanation, Rabbi Yosef Chayyim of Baghdad (also known as the Ben Ish Chai), in the second forward to his book Da-at U-t’voona states: “However, it being true that you’ll find that in the books of the Kabbalists that they assign the name ‘light’ to the activities of the Ein Sofe and the s’feerote, it is not because they are really light. Rather it’s only because of the limitation of our intellect while it is still clothed in the physicality of the body to grasp the true nature and the essence of the spiritual, and so it is impossible to describe spiritual actions as they are, so as to assign them a sufficiently descriptive name; for that reason they assigned it the name ‘light’, for it is the most precious of the perceivable.” Also, the g’matria (the sum of the number values of the letters) of the word Ore (light) is the same as Ein Sof (“Without End”, a way we refer to the One infinite source of all creation). And if He (blessed be He) removed the power of His influence for even one moment, in that moment everything would revert to nothingness and chaos.
וכמו שיסדו אנשי כנה"ג המחדש* בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית היינו תמיד ממש כל עת ורגע וראייתם מפורשת כאמור לעושה אורים גדולים שלא אמר עשה אלא עושה:
And as the Notables of the Great Assembly92Heb.: ahn-shei k’nesset ha-g’doe-la canonized in the blessing of “forms the light”:93Heb.: yotzeir ore “He constantly renews the act of Creation.” [*] The specific term used is “constantly,”94Heb.: ta-meed to denote every instant and moment, and the proof is explained in what is written (Tehillim 136:7): “to the One who actualizes the great luminaries.” It wasn’t written as “actualized” but rather as “actualizes.”
הגהה: ואף שאין חידוש ניכר לעין. אמנם הד' יסודין עלאין דאינון השרשין קדמאין ואבהן דכולא כנזכר בזוהר וארא כ"ג ע"ב. שהם שרש כל מע"ב ופנימיות כולם. והם ד' אותיות הוי"ה ב"ה. התמזגותם והרכבת' כל עת ורגע בשרש שרשם אינו מושג כלל והוא ית"ש מחדשם כל רגע לפי רצונו.
Annotation: Even if the renewal is not apparent to the eye. Truly, the four supernal elements, they who are the ancient roots, the precursors of all—as is written in the Zohar (Va-eira 23b) that they are the root of all the events associated with creation and their inner aspect—and they are the four letters of the YHV”H (blessed be He). Their combining and assembling at every moment and instant in their root of roots is not perceived at all, and He (blessed be His name) renews them in every instant according to His will.
וענין התמזגותם כל רגע הם התתר"ף צרופי השם ב"ה על פי השתנות נקודותיהם תתר"ף רגעי השעה וכן משתנים עוד כל שעה לצרופים אחרים וגם אין מדת יום שוה למדת לילה לא כל יום דומה לחבירו שלפניו ואחריו כלל. ז"ש המחדש כו' מעשה בראשית דיקא:
And the matter of their combining in every instant, they are the one-thousand and eighty permutations of the Name (blessed be He), according to the variation in their punctuation95Heb.: n’koo-doe-tei-hem. Hebrew words have four parts: the letters themselves (o-tee-yote), their punctuation (n’koo-dote), their trup (ta-ahmim), and the crowns upon select letters (tahgim). In the Torah scroll, only the letters and crowns are included in the written text; the punctuation and trup are not. during the one-thousand and eighty divisions of the hour.96For halakhic purposes, the hour is split into 1080 parts called cha-la-kim. And they vary even more so each hour to still other permutations, and also that the quality of the day is not equivalent to the quality of the night, no day resembles the one before or after it in any way. That is why it is specifically written “who actualizes… the event of creation.”
וזהו שנקרא הוא ית"ש האלקים בעל הכחות כולם. שכל כח פרטי הנמצא בכל העולמות. הכל הוא ית"ש הבעל כח שלהם שמשפיע בהם הכח וגבורה כל רגע ותלוים בידו תמיד לשנותם ולסדרם כרצונו ית':
And this is why He (blessed be His name) is called “the God-Elohi”m”, Master of all powers [*]. All powers found in any of the worlds—every one of them—He (blessed be His name) is Master over their power. He impresses within them the power and constrained strength during every moment, and they are constantly dependent upon Him to change and organize them according to His (blessed be He) will.
הגהה: ואף שהוא שם משותף לכל בעל כח שנמצא בעולם. וכל שרי מעלה ומטה נקראים אלקי'. כמ"ש אלהי העמים. כי כל העמים ילכו איש בשם אלהיו. ועי' זוהר ויקרא ח' ע"א ובפ' בלק ר"ח א' בענין ויבא אלקים דכתיב באבימלך ולבן ובלעם פי' השר שלו. כי הם ממונים עליהם להנהיגם. וכן דייני מטה נקראים אלקים ובסבא צ"ו א' ושמא חד מכל שאר שמהן וכו' ע"ש.
Annotation: Even so, it is a name that is shared with all those who wield power in the world, and all the ministers of the upper and lower worlds are called “elohim”, as is written in T’hillim 96:5, “elohei ha-ah-mim”,97Those wielding power among the nations “for all the nations shall go each in the name of their elohim” (Mee-kha 4:5). And also refer to the Zohar (Vayikra 8a and in the section for Ba-lahk 208b), in the context of “va-ya-vo elohim” as is written in the context of Avi-mehlekh and La-vahn and Bil-ahm, where it means “his minister”. For they are appointed over them to supervise them, and the same is true with judges in this world who are called “elohim”, and in Savvah98Part of the Zohar (96:1): “and the name is one of their alternative names”. Refer there [to the Zohar, for more detail].
אמנם כולם אין הכח שלהם מעצמם רק ממה שקבע בהם הוא ית' כח וגבורה להיות מושלים וכו' לכן נקרא הוא ית"ש: אלקי האלקים וכן כתיב כי גדול ה' מכל האלהים. השתחוו לו כל אלהים. וגם העובדי כוכבים קוראים אותו יתברך אלהא דאלהין
Truly, none of them have intrinsic power, only what was made permanent within them by Him (blessed be He), so that they should have the power and the constrained strength99Heb.: ko-akh u’g’voora to be rulers… . Therefore He (blessed be His name) is called “Eloh”ei ha-elohim”100Lit: the Elohi”m of the elohim (Tehillim 136:2), and so it also written (Sh’mote 18:11): “For God-YHV”H is greater than all the elohim”, “bow before Him all the elohim” (Tehillim 97:7), and the pagans too call Him (blessed be He) the “Elohi”m of the elohim” (Daniel 2:47).
ולכן נקראים אלהים אחרים ר"ל שאין הכח שלהם מעצמם רק מכח הגבוה ממנו והגבוה ממנו מושך ג"כ כחו מהכח שעליו עד הבעל כח האמיתי של כולם הוא ית"ש
Therefore they are called “other elohim”,101Heb.: eh-lo-him ah-khei-rim as if to say that they have no intrinsic power on their own, only the power from the one who is above him. And the one who is above him also draws his power from the power above him, until the Master of the true power for them all, He (blessed be His name).
ולכן נאמר (ירמיה י"א) וה' אלקים אמת. שהוא הבעל כח האמיתי של כולם שכולם מקבלים כחם ממנו ית"ש ז"ש ויפלו על פניהם ויאמרו ה' הוא האלהים:
And therefore it says (Yirmiya 10:10) “and God-YHV”H is the true Elohi”m”, that He is the true Master of all their power, that all of them receive their power from Him (blessed be His name), as is written (M’la-khim Alef 18:39) “And they prostrated themselves on their faces and declared YHV”H is the Elohi”m”.