HIS GREATNESS IS UNFATHOMABLE · Sukkat Shalom B'nei Noach

Rabbi Nachman teaches,

The true wisdom of the Kabalah begins where philosophy and science end. Philosophers and scientists can speculate only within the limits of the physical world. Their knowledge may reach as far as the stars and galaxies, but beyond that they know absolutely nothing. Even their theories about the physical world end in great confusion, as they themselves admit.

The wisdom of the Kabalah begins where their wisdom ends – beyond the physical world. The Kabalah includes the entire physical world as part of the World of Action ( Asiyah ), the lowest world. But the Kabalah then goes beyond the World of Action to the Worlds of Formation ( Yetzirah ), Creation ( Beriyah ) and Emanation ( Atzilut ).

Even the World of Action has its own interior spiritual level, of which the scientists and philosophers have no knowledge at all. The Kabalah is concerned with the spiritual root of the World of Action and beyond. Thus the Kabalah begins where scientific knowledge ends.

The philosophers and scientists think that all knowledge ends with the stars, but the entire system of the Kabalah deals with worlds and levels that are beyond the stars.

Yet even one who gains some understanding of the Kabalah, the true wisdom, must recognize that in the transcendental worlds there are likewise levels beyond levels, high above high, without end or limit, for “His greatness is unfathomable” (Psalms 145:3) .

Sichot Haran #225

With permission taken over from: Daily Dose Of Rabbi Nachman