The outer aspect of the Infinite Light revealed at Sinai, that congealed into the visible letters of the Torah is called Atika, Ancient One (as opposed to Most Ancient One). This outer layer of Atika is the earliest beginning of the emanated worlds and serves as their crown , which means that it holds the vision of their perfection and motivates them to realize that end.
Now, since many of the Torah’s enlightening teachings remain locked away inside itself, the pleasure that comes from knowing them is not available to us. Only a surrounding glow is visible and the lower-order pleasure that comes from beholding that outer layer of truth. Although only the external teachings of the Torah are actually revealed now, this is a temporary condition. Each generation daily mines new jewels from its rich quarry and eventually our tunneling will reach the bedrock core of consciousness itself. The pure ecstasy of Atika will irrupt into the world and infuse all living things with rapture, inaugurating a new era of blissful union with HaShem called, “the delight of the King in His essence, as described in the book, Emek HaMelekh.”
This phrase can be read in three ways:
· The otherworldly delight that comes when creation (who will then be called, king, having completed their perfection and assumed the role of HaShem’s royal emissary, i.e. king) reunites with its source (essence) in the Infinite Light.
· The delight of the Creator (the King of Kings) when he reunites with the lost pieces of His essence that were strewn throughout creation at the primordial cataclysm called the shattering of the vessels. These shards of light are the sparks of soul that are finally completing their 6,000-year pilgrimage back to their source.
· The “rest state” of Divinity, the “natural” vibration of His being is delight. This phrase thus refers to the delight of the King (HaShem) that pervades His essence and characterizes it. Anyone who accomplishes the feat of making contact with Divine essence is instantly electrified by that rapture called, the King’s delight.
This idea is conveyed in a verse from Proverbs,[17] which depicts the Torah as HaShem’s beloved child. The Torah reminisces, “I was by Him a nursling, and I was daily His delight. Playing always before Him; playing with the universe, His earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.”
In the end of days the inwardness of the Torah will be revealed below, its hidden, soul satisfying truths will illuminate every question, resolve every doubt, explain every suffering. These explanations of Torah have their root in the highest level of Atik , called spiritual delight, for pleasure always reduces to an expansion of awareness. As Israel absorbs the deeper and more mystical teachings of the Torah, they become enlightened, literally. Their minds illuminated with the holy radiance of Torah wisdom, they will again “see from one end of the world to the other”[18] and this itself will be their bliss.
While it is true that only the outer layers of the Infinite Light were actually revealed at Sinai, nevertheless the inwardness of the Infinite Light did come forth into the lower worlds at that time, as the Torah itself attests, “And HaShem came down upon mount Sinai.”[19] When the verse anthropomorphically describes HaShem coming down, it is teaching that the actual source of light, i.e. the Infinite Light, itself “came down” into this world. This is qualitatively different from all other revelations which are encounters with the aura surrounding the “luminary,” but not with the actual body of light itself.
Another proof that the inwardness of the Infinite Light came down at Sinai although it was not actually revealed at that time is the fact that HaShem began His revelation of the Torah with the word, Anochi (I am). The first commandment reads, “I am HaShem your G‑d who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”[20] That aspect that HaShem refers to as “I” is the level of consciousness identified with the innermost point of the sefira of crown (keter) as is known. The partzuf associated with this point is Atika d’Atikin, the Infinite Light hidden inside the Torah, the source of holy pleasure and infinitely expanded awareness.
Nevertheless, although this inner light of Atika came down into the world, it did not enter the visual field of those beholding the revelation. Instead it hovered beyond the edge of conscious perception, effectively invisible.
Lights that can be grasped and integrated are called inner and internalizable אור פנימי)), lights that are present but too “high” or “deep” or “vast” to be contained within their vessel of consciousness are described as surrounding or hovering (אור מקיף). The light of Atika de Atikin that held the inner secrets of the Torah could not integrate into the nation at that time. It literally could not “fit” into their minds, even at the Edenic level of development that they attained at Sinai.[21] Displaced, the light of Atika de Atikin formed a kind of invisible halo around the integrated lights of the revealed Torah, enclosing them as if in a sphere of radiant consciousness.
This is why the Talmud describes the relationship formed between Israel and HaShem at Sinai as betrothal, interpreting, “The day of his espousals (engagement)…” as a reference to the revelation at Sinai. In both cases (engagement and Sinai) only the more superficial layers of the couple enter into active relationship while their inner essence stays unengaged, and assumes a position of surrounding light. The vessel of their relationship is not developed enough to hold the full intensity of their inner selves. For this reason the classic symbol of betrothal is a ring, a circular ornament that surrounds the finger. And when the groom proposes, and speaks the halachic formula of engagement, “Behold you are sanctified (מקודשת) to me (i.e., betrothed) by this ring…”[22] he effects two mergers:
- The superficial layers of himself and his beloved enter into active and committed relationship.
- Their respective core levels of soul bond to the vessel of relationship as surrounding lights.
This is symbolized by the ring that he places on his fiancee’s finger.
The reason that he uses the language of sanctification (מקודשת) instead of the actual term for engagement (מאורסת)[23] is to link his action up to the supreme holiness (קדש עליון)[24] associated with the sefira of keter (crown), also a circular ornament that sits upon the head and surrounds the primary organ of consciousness, the brain.
