900.11c Multiple levels of the Divine (pps.119-121)
hard cover page 121
(classic Hester Panim), and on the other hand, resumption of the dialogue (Nesiat Panim)-there are intermediate levels indicated by the Talmud.490 Thus, depending on the level of Hester, human prayer or entreaty has commensurate possibilities of penetrating the veils of Divine consciousness (elaborated on below).
The connection between ascent in knowledge and the dynamics of freedom/potential is embedded in the Garden of Eden tale and is not a twentieth-century invention. The concept of every action having a reaction also has applicability on a cosmic level. Ascents in one realm lead to descents in other realms. Thus, when viewed from the above perspectives, one can develop a fair case for positing that ascents in knowledge, on the part of man, lead to an effective quasi-descent, or contraction, in an aspect of knowledge (here-and-now) on the part of the infinite Divine. Man is, after all, a partner with the Divine in creation.
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——————- NOTES ——————-
490 N. Lamm, in “The Religious Meaning of the Six Day War,” Tradition 10, no. 1 (Summer 1968): 7-8. “Between these two poles there are, according to the Sages of the Talmud, two intermediate states. In the lower state, there is no relationship. Nonetheless, God does preserve Israel; His ‘hand is stretched forth’ to protect us from oblivion. Other than mere survival, there is no real redemptive meaning to the vicissitudes of our history. But the second state, penultimate to nesiat panim, is that of ‘in a dream I address him.’ ”
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