Sheviras HaKeilim (שבירת הכלים) — the Shattering of the Vessels

Core definition

Sheviras HaKeilim — "the shattering of the vessels" — is the primordial cosmic catastrophe in which the vessels of the world of Tohu (chaos), unable to contain the great light that flowed into them, broke and fell. "For the root of the matter of sheviras ha'keilim is: that from the multiplication of the light the keilim broke" [57652/maamar_021 :: §183]. The corpus's standard parable: it is like intellect enclothed in letters — as in the word "baruch," whose letters are the vessels and whose meaning (haskalah) is the light. When the letters are joined, the light shines in them; when they are separated, "the light of the haskalah ascended and was removed from them — only what remains in the letters is some reshimah" (impression), with a residual power in the letters themselves [57652/maamar_021 :: §183–197]. So with Tohu: "the letters were separated, and the light of the haskalah ascended and was removed from them" [57652/maamar_021 :: §195].

How the Rebbeim develop it

What broke and why. The shattering was in "the aspect of Sag of Tohu, which is the aspect of Ban" — the world of Tohu belongs to the Divine Name Ban (the Name of yesh, "somethingness," as opposed to Mah, the Name of ayin, "nothingness"). But "the light too fell in the shevirah — these being the 288 sparks": because the lights of Tohu were themselves "strong lights in the aspect of yesh" — "strong and mighty," aroused "with commotion and great flame," in the aspect of kingship ("and he reigned... I shall reign") — the breaking reached the lights as well [31678/maamar_001 :: §1397–1463].

The purpose: Ban's yesh becoming ayin. The corpus insists the shevirah was not an accident but an act of Divine intention: "The matter of the shevirah of Tohu: the intent in it was so that the yesh of Ban be in the aspect of bitul and in the aspect of ayin, like the aspect of the essence of Mah" [31678/maamar_001 :: §1370]. "Had there not been the aspect of the shevirah first in the Ban of Tohu, it would not have been refined at all by the aspect of the Mah of Tikkun" [31678/maamar_001 :: §1522]. In Tohu "as it was before the shevirah," the yeshus was in perfection — so "the tikkun of the Name Mah could not come to be in the aspect of ayin"; "there had to be the shevirah — the matter of the breaking of the yeshus" [31678/maamar_001 :: §2543–2546].

The shevirah as an act of chesed — counted within tikkun. The shattering is itself an act of Divine kindness: "the shevirah was from the illumination of the aspect of the supernal light of chesed, as it is written, 'to Him Who smote great kings, for His kindness is forever' (Tehillim 136:17)" [31678/maamar_001 :: §2570]. "Accordingly it is understood that the aspect of the shevirah was only for the sake of the tikkun — so the shevirah too is counted within tikkun" [31678/maamar_001 :: §2564–2567].

Tohu's precedence over Tikkun. Because "their root is from the world of Tohu, which preceded the world of Tikun — only they fell in the shevirah," the fallen sparks carry a root-precedence over the rectified world: this is why "klipah preceded the pri" — the husk precedes the fruit both in time and in root [57652/maamar_021 :: §135–137]. And because the fallen lights are "from a very high level and madregah — above the level of Tikun," "the hashpa'ah drawn from the level of Tohu is in greater abundance than from the level of Tikun — where the lights are few and contracted" [57652/maamar_021 :: §121]. The ten generations from Adam to matan Torah were sustained from this fallen level: "from what fell in the shevirah from the world of Tohu" — drawn only as achorayim (posterior) and chitzoniyus (exterior), yet in great abundance [57652/maamar_021 :: §179, §271].

The soul-parallel. The cosmic pattern is mirrored in the soul: "the root of tzaddikim is the Name Mah (= adam, 45) — essential ayin; the root of ba'alei teshuvah is the Name Ban (= behemah, 52) — letters and keilim, yesh — which fell in the shevirah and ascends as ohr chozer (reflected light) through teshuvah" [31678/maamar_001 :: §1251, §1305]. Likewise the Divine soul (Mah/Adam) descends to refine the animal soul (Ban/behemah), "which needs the bitul of the yesh first — the broken heart breaking the animal soul's coarseness" [31678/maamar_001 :: Summary (עמוד טו)].

Key distinctions

Tohu vs. Tikkun. Tohu: strong, "felt" lights, each sefirah reigning alone ("and he reigned"), broken; Tikkun: few, contracted, tempered lights, able to hold. The worlds of Tikkun "were built from the choicest of Tohu's broken vessels," with the choicest made Atzilus and the rest Beriah-Yetzirah-Asiyah [58835/maamar_049 :: §109–134].

Vessels vs. lights. Both fell, but differently: the letters lost the light (only a reshimah remains), while the 288 sparks — the lights of Tohu — fell to be refined and restored into the vessels of Tikkun [57652/maamar_021 :: §195; 31678/maamar_001 :: §1397].

Shevirah in the cosmic vs. the personal sense. The same word denotes the breaking of the body and matter (sheviras ha'guf v'ha'chomer — the cause of hachna'ah) and of the spirit (sheviras ha'ruach — the cause of shiflus) in avodah — a separate, Yiddish-language exposition in the corpus — which must not be confused with the primordial shattering of Tohu's vessels [31682/maamar_021 :: §39, §170–200].

Related concepts

Tohu (the world of chaos); Tikkun (the world of rectification); Mah and Ban (the two Divine Names); the 288 sparks; Kelipah (whose root is in fallen Tohu); Tzimtzum (the contraction by which Tikun's revelation comes); Teshuvah (which raises Ban as ohr chozer).

Sources