Qabala for Beginners

10. Chochma

On one level, Chochma may be the easiest sefira to grasp. If we start with the idea of Kether as the source, we can regard Chochma as the initial outpouring from that source. Scholars who take a numerological approach to the Tree of Life see Kether, sefira number 1, as a "point" (like a dot on a piece of paper, a point from which we start). Chochma, sefira number 2, represents movement; the "point" (or dot) is transformed (by moving the pencil) into a "line." The idea of movement is important to Chochma. This sefira is associated with the Pillar of Mercy; the expansive part of the Tree. It's considered a "male" sefira, in that the male energy (yang) is associated with activity, movement, assertion, or outpouring energy. So thus far, Chochma is pretty easy to grasp. We can sum it up with some simple keywords: active, expansive, etc. (It becomes even easier to grasp it when we consider that Chochma's opposite/counterpart sefira, Binah/Understanding, is deemed feminine, receptive, passive, etc.)

name
of the
sefira
But on another level, Chochma may be the most difficult sefira to grasp. We start running into this as soon as we ask why the sefira is named Chochma, which translates to English as "wisdom." What does wisdom have to do with movement, activity, etc.? Why wasn't the sefira named, say ThNVAyH, which is Hebrew for "movement," or perhaps PAyYL, which means "active," or even ZKR ("male") or AB ("father")? Why "wisdom"? But wait. It gets even harder...

What does the word "wisdom" mean? Among the definitions given by my dictionary (Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition) are "the quality of being wise," "wise discourse or teaching," and "a wise plan or course of action." I'm not sure who edited that dictionary, since it strikes me as odd to define a word in terms of itself (especially since one of its definitions for "wise" is "prompted by wisdom"). So let's scratch those definitions.

Fortunately, this dictionary offers a couple of additional suggestions: "power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action, based on knowledge, experience, understanding, etc.; good judgment; sagacity" and "learning, knowledge, erudition." Now we're getting somewhere. Or are we? What about this business about "judging rightly..."? Is this wisdom? Or is it justice? Bear in mind that this sefira is not named TzDQ ("justice"). Let's scratch that one. The others at least seem more promising; "learning, knowledge, erudition." Not bad. Actually, this is probably close to what many of you had in mind when confronted with the what-is-wisdom question. One problem: There's a so-called eleventh "invisible" sefira on the Tree of Life called Daath, which translates to -- you guessed it -- "knowledge." This Daath/Knowledge sefira arises from the interaction of Chochma/Wisdom and Binah/Understanding. If wisdom is a component of knowledge, we cannot say that wisdom and knowledge are synonymous. So let's scratch the definitions that talk in terms of knowing things.

So we've now eliminated all the definitions of wisdom suggested by this particular edition of Webster's. I suppose we could check other dictionaries and perhaps we'll ultimately come up with something that works. But more importantly, why should we? Why is this proving to be such a pain-in-the-neck? Everybody knows what wisdom is. This isn't rocket science! You all knew what wisdom was before you started reading this, and you still know what it means. You're just having trouble articulating it; pinning it down; putting it into words.

Congratulations! You've just experienced the core of the sefira of Chochma. This sefira refers to a pure state of knowing that differs from "knowledge" in that "wisdom" is unconstrained, or uncontaminated so to speak, by such things as words, tangible facts, or even understanding (we'll cover this when we discuss the sefira Binah). We're dealing with a pure sort of insight; so pure, that the constraints of the English language are proving troublesome because I want to talk about a pure state of knowing, yet I'm fully aware that wisdom and knowledge aren't the same thing. Please pardon my capitulation to the limitations of language, but we all "know" what wisdom is but we can't articulate it; our "knowledge" is too pure, or too ephemeral, to be reduced to words.

By experiencing this situation, you've experienced Chochma. As you dealt with the task of trying to define "wisdom," you experienced direct contact with that part of God which we perceive when we work with the filter of Chochma (see section 8, regarding filters and tools). As we move through the Tree of Life, I think it's worth digressing a moment to make an important point. Sometimes, students of qabala get so wrapped up in classes, exercises, etc., that it becomes easy to lose sight of the fact that the Tree of Life, the blueprint that underlies the entire world, is all around us and in us all the time; all the sefirot and all the paths. We never cease to experience them; if we did not actually experience all of the Tree, we could not exist. We may use various techniques to develop or focus more on a particular part of the Tree. But that's a far cry from saying we need the techniques or practices merely to experience the Tree; something we always do whether or not we are aware of it. Hopefully, this QB series will make you more aware of when and how you are experiencing various parts of the Tree as you continue to live your life on a day-to-day basis. End of digression. Back to Chochma.

To this point, we've talked about two themes for Chochma: movement, and some sort of pure, indefinable state of (for want of a better word) knowing. Let's now take a look at some of the concepts that correspond to Chochma to see how they amplify these themes.

the Ten
Command-
ments
The second of the Ten Commandments (under the counting method I'm using) is: "You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth." What's the big deal about having a sculptured image (traditional: "graven image")? Why would God have a problem with that? Think back to the discussion of the nature of God in section 3. A sculptured image represents an attempt to define in a very specific and tangible way something that is not really definable. It's not necessarily bad or immoral to make a sculptured image of God. To be more precise, it's not possible to do it even if you wanted to try. You can make a statue and call it God. But it's not God, or even a representation of God. The most you can say about it is that it's a representation of the way you see one particular aspect of God.

This is similar to the problems we had in defining Chochma/Wisdom. We know "wisdom" is not exactly synonymous with "knowledge." But I've been talking about it in terms of "knowing" and "knowledge" because it's the best approximation I can come up with given the limitations of language. Associating Chochma with an injunction against sculptured images reminds us of Chochma's true undefinability.

"depths" of
Sefer
Yetzirah
The other Chochma correspondences relate to the concept of movement. We start out with Chochma's location on most Tree of Life diagrams. It's on the right pillar, the pillar of expansion (or, as it's traditionally called, "mercy"). Among the ten directions, or depths, (from Sefer Yetzirah), Chochma is widely regarded as representing "a depth of beginning."

gematria
We also get some interesting associations when we look at gematria. The Hebrew letters that make up the word Chochma, ChKMH, add up to 73. Another word that adds to 73 is GML, which is the name of the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet. One translation of GML is camel, a traditional mode of transportation in the Middle East. But physical movement isn't the only type of movement that is possible (an idea we'll need to use later on, when we reconcile the idea of Chochma as movement with Chochma as a state of pure knowing). Besides moving physically from one location to another, something can "move" from one state to another. Indeed, another translation of GML is "to become ripe" (a change from one state to another). GML also means "to wean" (which suggests a process of growth, or maturation).

name
of God
The God name for the sefira Chochma is YH (pronounced "Yah). Here's what Zohar II:65b says about this name:
"All is included in this Name: those that are above and those that are below. In it the six hundred thirteen commandments of the Torah, which are the essence of the supernal and terrestrial mysteries, are included. The essence of the Masculine world above and the Feminine world below."

We see, here, commonalities with Kether and AyN SPh AVR in that the Chochma's God name, Yah, has this quality of all-inclusiveness. But Yah isn't just another way of suggesting a concept like "all that is." In Yah, we add a new wrinkle. The letters Y and H add to 15, which reduces to 6. So like Kether (which also has a god name that reduces to 6), Chochma is connected to the idea of doing, implementing, etc. (important aspects of the number 6, as we'll see later on). But the gematria for Chochma takes us a step beyond that: Numerologically, YH is equivalent to the word ZVB, which means "issue of." Again, we're back to the idea of movement, but not physical movement. Now, we see the idea of movement expressed along the lines of evolution, development, lineage, progress, this-leads-to-that, etc. This is similar to what comes to mind when we think of GML as in terms of ripening, or weaning. So now, this "all that is" potential is actually being developed, or evolved, in some way.

Cordovero:
Tomer
Devorah
Teaching is a form of movement. The teacher causes knowledge or wisdom to move beyond himself/herself and out toward his/her students. Hence Tomer Devorah teaches us that a person can emulate the sefira Chochma by spreading whatever wisdom he/she possesses.
"His wisdom should be found everywhere, ready to give beneficial teachings to all men, to each one according to his ability to understand. Whatever of Wisdom he can impart to another, let him do so, and let no cause whatsoever deter him from so doing."
Chochma isn't just the act of teaching (a process); it's also the spread of wisdom (a result). The teaching aspect of Chochma is reinforced by gematria. The two methods by which the Torah communicates, through laws (HLKH) and stories (AGDH) add up to 73, which is the number for Chochma.

However much teaching activity you engage in, you have not emulated Chochma unless you have succeeded in moving your wisdom outside yourself to others. Hence Jewish qabala does not necessarily agree with a view put forth by others that Chochma is pure out-rushing energy that needs to be contained by something else (e.g., Binah). If you are going to truly emulate Chochma, you will need to have some internal braking mechanism, so you know when it's time to restrain your efforts. We see this in the following portion of Tomer Devorah:
"Just as the divine quality of Hokhma (Wisdom) bestows upon each sphere below it according to its measurements and requirements, so must man bestow of his wisdom upon all in accordance with their intelligence, and extent of understanding, and in accordance with what he judges to be beneficial to the recipient. He should guard against teaching more than the intelligence of his pupil can grasp, so as not to cause him damage thereby."

Does the last example sound familiar? It should. It's like one of the examples I used in section 4 to illustrate "Tzimtzum," the doctrine wherein God voluntarily restrains part of himself to make room for his creations to grow. I used the example of a teacher who restrains himself from conveying all of his knowledge to his student, lest the student be overwhelmed and unable to develop his own capabilities. Hence it would be an oversimplification to think of Chochma merely as an aggressive, out-rushing energy. Chochma doesn't just pour out indiscriminately; it looks and gauges to see what others can absorb and pours out that which it judges is necessary to enable others to receive what it wishes to give.

This may be a much more humble view of Chochma than is suggested in some other writings. Indeed, Tomer Devorah reminds us that besides teaching, one who wishes to emulate Chochma must periodically become a passive recipient for whatever Kether wishes to transmit to him/her. Note, too, section 9, where we saw how Cordovero's Tomer Devorah presented a more humble view of Kether than some might have seen elsewhere.

Before finishing our discussion of Chochma, we'll have to reconcile the two seemingly separate concepts we started with: movement and pure knowing. Hopefully, though, some of the gematria and the material from Tomer Devorah can serve as a nice head start and ultimately, make the task easier than it might have seemed earlier on.

In putting Chochma together, we start with the core idea of God itself; Ayn SPh AVR, the infinite light that contains within it all that was, all that is, all that will be, and all that might possibly be. Recalling back to our discussion in section 3, we know that God isn't a thing but a process; an expression of a process of creation that will take place. Kether is the place where we see the will to bring some of this potential into actual manifestation. The vehicle through which potential becomes actual is intention, beliefs, thoughts, imaginings (gematria: Kether is equivalent to ShAyRYM, see section 9).

"sayings"
of
creation
At the stage of Kether, all these beliefs, thoughts, imaginings, etc. are still in place. No potential outcome has been eliminated, or rendered less probable than any other. That is also true in Ayn SPh AVR, limitless light. The only thing that changed when we moved from Ayn SPh AVR to Kether is that we've come upon a will to actualize some of the unlimited potential. Chochma takes us one step beyond Kether. In Chochma, we see the first "movement" toward actualization. The saying of creation I associate with Chochma (the Movement which brings some of the unlimited light into manifestation) is "Let there be light." Remember, too, that movement isn't necessarily a physical shift from one locale to another. Movement is also a shift from one state to another; i.e., a state of unlimited potential to a state of actual manifestation. And the process of creation is still centered around imaginings, or beliefs.

When we experience wisdom, when we experience that state of pure knowing, we are, indeed, one step removed from Kether. If we know something, then by implication, there are other things we don't know. We can't yet express or explain exactly what it is that we know (that will come with the third sefira, Binah/Understanding). But we do sense that we know something. In Ayn SPh AVR, all probabilities were equally probable. In Kether, we had the will to make one probability more probable than the others. In Chochma, we do that. In Chochma, we no longer know everything; now we know something.

Because Chochma is often seen as a "male" sefira, it is tempting to see it as something developing from nothing. Indeed, there are Jewish qabalistic writings to this effect. But I'd like to propose a different way of looking at it. How can we develop something from nothing if Ayn SPh AVR, the infinite light, truly is infinite? If this light (God) really is infinite, it already incorporates everything. So instead of seeing manifestation as a journey from nothing to something, why not see it as a journey from everything to something? This meshes well with the idea of Tzimtzum (section 4), which describes the primal act of creation, the "big bang," as a restriction wherein God constricts some of his infinite light to carve out a space where something else could develop.

Under this view, we can think of Chochma as, perhaps, a camera aperture, or the retina of an eye. When the aperture is fully open, the maximum amount of light moves through the lens. This is like the state of Ayn SPh AVR, where all potential possibilities exist and can shine through. Kether is the will to narrow the aperture. In Chochma, we actually do narrow the aperture. As the opening shrinks, some of the light (i.e., some of the potential imaginings) is screened out. Eventually, the aperture narrows to a point at which the opening is so narrow, only a small portion of the infinite light can shine through; put another way, only one of the infinite pool of imaginings can shine through. This view of Chochma is compatible with what we saw in Tomer Devorah. In spreading and transmitting wisdom, we must take care not to pass on more than others can receive. Chochma, viewed as a narrowing aperture, does just this; it prevents us from being overwhelmed by too many possibilities and instead, narrows things down to a single probability that we can cope with.

summary
At this point, we can now offer the following key word/phrases to summarize Chochma:
The aspect of God that is perceived through this filter - Perception; pure, non-verbal awareness of a selected probable outcome.
The tool of creation - The process of screening out all unselected probabilities so the selected one can be transmitted without overwhelming those who receive it.

E-mail Marc H. Gerstein

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Copyright © Marc H. Gerstein 1998. Posted on July 5th, 1998.
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	On one level, Chochma may be the easiest sefira to grasp. If we start with the idea of Kether as the source, we can regard Chochma as the initial outpouring from that source. Scholars who take a numerological approach to the Tree of Life see Kether, sefira number 1, as a "point" (like a dot on a piece of paper, a point from which we start). Chochma, sefira number 2, represents movement; the "point" (or dot) is transformed (by moving the pencil) into a "line." The idea of movement is important to Chochma. This sefira is associated with the Pillar of Mercy; the expansive part of the Tree. It's considered a "male" sefira, in that the male energy (yang) is associated with activity, movement, assertion, or outpouring energy. So thus far, Chochma is pretty easy to grasp. We can sum it up with some simple keywords: active, expansive, etc. (It becomes even easier to grasp it when we consider that Chochma's opposite/counterpart sefira, Binah/Understanding, is deemed feminine, receptive, passive, etc.)
name of the sefira	But on another level, Chochma may be the most difficult sefira to grasp. We start running into this as soon as we ask why the sefira is named Chochma, which translates to English as "wisdom." What does wisdom have to do with movement, activity, etc.? Why wasn't the sefira named, say ThNVAyH, which is Hebrew for "movement," or perhaps PAyYL, which means "active," or even ZKR ("male") or AB ("father")? Why "wisdom"? But wait. It gets even harder...
	What does the word "wisdom" mean? Among the definitions given by my dictionary (Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition) are "the quality of being wise," "wise discourse or teaching," and "a wise plan or course of action." I'm not sure who edited that dictionary, since it strikes me as odd to define a word in terms of itself (especially since one of its definitions for "wise" is "prompted by wisdom"). So let's scratch those definitions.
	Fortunately, this dictionary offers a couple of additional suggestions: "power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action, based on knowledge, experience, understanding, etc.; good judgment; sagacity" and "learning, knowledge, erudition." Now we're getting somewhere. Or are we? What about this business about "judging rightly..."? Is this wisdom? Or is it justice? Bear in mind that this sefira is not named TzDQ ("justice"). Let's scratch that one. The others at least seem more promising; "learning, knowledge, erudition." Not bad. Actually, this is probably close to what many of you had in mind when confronted with the what-is-wisdom question. One problem: There's a so-called eleventh "invisible" sefira on the Tree of Life called Daath, which translates to -- you guessed it -- "knowledge." This Daath/Knowledge sefira arises from the interaction of Chochma/Wisdom and Binah/Understanding. If wisdom is a component of knowledge, we cannot say that wisdom and knowledge are synonymous. So let's scratch the definitions that talk in terms of knowing things.
	So we've now eliminated all the definitions of wisdom suggested by this particular edition of Webster's. I suppose we could check other dictionaries and perhaps we'll ultimately come up with something that works. But more importantly, why should we? Why is this proving to be such a pain-in-the-neck? Everybody knows what wisdom is. This isn't rocket science! You all knew what wisdom was before you started reading this, and you still know what it means. You're just having trouble articulating it; pinning it down; putting it into words.
	Congratulations! You've just experienced the core of the sefira of Chochma. This sefira refers to a pure state of knowing that differs from "knowledge" in that "wisdom" is unconstrained, or uncontaminated so to speak, by such things as words, tangible facts, or even understanding (we'll cover this when we discuss the sefira Binah). We're dealing with a pure sort of insight; so pure, that the constraints of the English language are proving troublesome because I want to talk about a pure state of knowing, yet I'm fully aware that wisdom and knowledge aren't the same thing. Please pardon my capitulation to the limitations of language, but we all "know" what wisdom is but we can't articulate it; our "knowledge" is too pure, or too ephemeral, to be reduced to words.
	By experiencing this situation, you've experienced Chochma. As you dealt with the task of trying to define "wisdom," you experienced direct contact with that part of God which we perceive when we work with the filter of Chochma (see section 8, regarding filters and tools). As we move through the Tree of Life, I think it's worth digressing a moment to make an important point. Sometimes, students of qabala get so wrapped up in classes, exercises, etc., that it becomes easy to lose sight of the fact that the Tree of Life, the blueprint that underlies the entire world, is all around us and in us all the time; all the sefirot and all the paths. We never cease to experience them; if we did not actually experience all of the Tree, we could not exist. We may use various techniques to develop or focus more on a particular part of the Tree. But that's a far cry from saying we need the techniques or practices merely to experience the Tree; something we always do whether or not we are aware of it. Hopefully, this QB series will make you more aware of when and how you are experiencing various parts of the Tree as you continue to live your life on a day-to-day basis. End of digression. Back to Chochma.
	To this point, we've talked about two themes for Chochma: movement, and some sort of pure, indefinable state of (for want of a better word) knowing. Let's now take a look at some of the concepts that correspond to Chochma to see how they amplify these themes.
the Ten Command- ments	The second of the Ten Commandments (under the counting method I'm using) is: "You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth." What's the big deal about having a sculptured image (traditional: "graven image")? Why would God have a problem with that? Think back to the discussion of the nature of God in section 3. A sculptured image represents an attempt to define in a very specific and tangible way something that is not really definable. It's not necessarily bad or immoral to make a sculptured image of God. To be more precise, it's not possible to do it even if you wanted to try. You can make a statue and call it God. But it's not God, or even a representation of God. The most you can say about it is that it's a representation of the way you see one particular aspect of God.
	This is similar to the problems we had in defining Chochma/Wisdom. We know "wisdom" is not exactly synonymous with "knowledge." But I've been talking about it in terms of "knowing" and "knowledge" because it's the best approximation I can come up with given the limitations of language. Associating Chochma with an injunction against sculptured images reminds us of Chochma's true undefinability.
"depths" of Sefer Yetzirah	The other Chochma correspondences relate to the concept of movement. We start out with Chochma's location on most Tree of Life diagrams. It's on the right pillar, the pillar of expansion (or, as it's traditionally called, "mercy"). Among the ten directions, or depths, (from Sefer Yetzirah), Chochma is widely regarded as representing "a depth of beginning."
gematria	We also get some interesting associations when we look at gematria. The Hebrew letters that make up the word Chochma, ChKMH, add up to 73. Another word that adds to 73 is GML, which is the name of the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet. One translation of GML is camel, a traditional mode of transportation in the Middle East. But physical movement isn't the only type of movement that is possible (an idea we'll need to use later on, when we reconcile the idea of Chochma as movement with Chochma as a state of pure knowing). Besides moving physically from one location to another, something can "move" from one state to another. Indeed, another translation of GML is "to become ripe" (a change from one state to another). GML also means "to wean" (which suggests a process of growth, or maturation).
name of God	The God name for the sefira Chochma is YH (pronounced "Yah). Here's what Zohar II:65b says about this name: "All is included in this Name: those that are above and those that are below. In it the six hundred thirteen commandments of the Torah, which are the essence of the supernal and terrestrial mysteries, are included. The essence of the Masculine world above and the Feminine world below."
	We see, here, commonalities with Kether and AyN SPh AVR in that the Chochma's God name, Yah, has this quality of all-inclusiveness. But Yah isn't just another way of suggesting a concept like "all that is." In Yah, we add a new wrinkle. The letters Y and H add to 15, which reduces to 6. So like Kether (which also has a god name that reduces to 6), Chochma is connected to the idea of doing, implementing, etc. (important aspects of the number 6, as we'll see later on). But the gematria for Chochma takes us a step beyond that: Numerologically, YH is equivalent to the word ZVB, which means "issue of." Again, we're back to the idea of movement, but not physical movement. Now, we see the idea of movement expressed along the lines of evolution, development, lineage, progress, this-leads-to-that, etc. This is similar to what comes to mind when we think of GML as in terms of ripening, or weaning. So now, this "all that is" potential is actually being developed, or evolved, in some way.
Cordovero: Tomer Devorah	Teaching is a form of movement. The teacher causes knowledge or wisdom to move beyond himself/herself and out toward his/her students. Hence Tomer Devorah teaches us that a person can emulate the sefira Chochma by spreading whatever wisdom he/she possesses. "His wisdom should be found everywhere, ready to give beneficial teachings to all men, to each one according to his ability to understand. Whatever of Wisdom he can impart to another, let him do so, and let no cause whatsoever deter him from so doing." Chochma isn't just the act of teaching (a process); it's also the spread of wisdom (a result). The teaching aspect of Chochma is reinforced by gematria. The two methods by which the Torah communicates, through laws (HLKH) and stories (AGDH) add up to 73, which is the number for Chochma.
	However much teaching activity you engage in, you have not emulated Chochma unless you have succeeded in moving your wisdom outside yourself to others. Hence Jewish qabala does not necessarily agree with a view put forth by others that Chochma is pure out-rushing energy that needs to be contained by something else (e.g., Binah). If you are going to truly emulate Chochma, you will need to have some internal braking mechanism, so you know when it's time to restrain your efforts. We see this in the following portion of Tomer Devorah: "Just as the divine quality of Hokhma (Wisdom) bestows upon each sphere below it according to its measurements and requirements, so must man bestow of his wisdom upon all in accordance with their intelligence, and extent of understanding, and in accordance with what he judges to be beneficial to the recipient. He should guard against teaching more than the intelligence of his pupil can grasp, so as not to cause him damage thereby."
	Does the last example sound familiar? It should. It's like one of the examples I used in section 4 to illustrate "Tzimtzum," the doctrine wherein God voluntarily restrains part of himself to make room for his creations to grow. I used the example of a teacher who restrains himself from conveying all of his knowledge to his student, lest the student be overwhelmed and unable to develop his own capabilities. Hence it would be an oversimplification to think of Chochma merely as an aggressive, out-rushing energy. Chochma doesn't just pour out indiscriminately; it looks and gauges to see what others can absorb and pours out that which it judges is necessary to enable others to receive what it wishes to give.
	This may be a much more humble view of Chochma than is suggested in some other writings. Indeed, Tomer Devorah reminds us that besides teaching, one who wishes to emulate Chochma must periodically become a passive recipient for whatever Kether wishes to transmit to him/her. Note, too, section 9, where we saw how Cordovero's Tomer Devorah presented a more humble view of Kether than some might have seen elsewhere.
	Before finishing our discussion of Chochma, we'll have to reconcile the two seemingly separate concepts we started with: movement and pure knowing. Hopefully, though, some of the gematria and the material from Tomer Devorah can serve as a nice head start and ultimately, make the task easier than it might have seemed earlier on.
	In putting Chochma together, we start with the core idea of God itself; Ayn SPh AVR, the infinite light that contains within it all that was, all that is, all that will be, and all that might possibly be. Recalling back to our discussion in section 3, we know that God isn't a thing but a process; an expression of a process of creation that will take place. Kether is the place where we see the will to bring some of this potential into actual manifestation. The vehicle through which potential becomes actual is intention, beliefs, thoughts, imaginings (gematria: Kether is equivalent to ShAyRYM, see section 9).
"sayings" of creation	At the stage of Kether, all these beliefs, thoughts, imaginings, etc. are still in place. No potential outcome has been eliminated, or rendered less probable than any other. That is also true in Ayn SPh AVR, limitless light. The only thing that changed when we moved from Ayn SPh AVR to Kether is that we've come upon a will to actualize some of the unlimited potential. Chochma takes us one step beyond Kether. In Chochma, we see the first "movement" toward actualization. The saying of creation I associate with Chochma (the Movement which brings some of the unlimited light into manifestation) is "Let there be light." Remember, too, that movement isn't necessarily a physical shift from one locale to another. Movement is also a shift from one state to another; i.e., a state of unlimited potential to a state of actual manifestation. And the process of creation is still centered around imaginings, or beliefs.
	When we experience wisdom, when we experience that state of pure knowing, we are, indeed, one step removed from Kether. If we know something, then by implication, there are other things we don't know. We can't yet express or explain exactly what it is that we know (that will come with the third sefira, Binah/Understanding). But we do sense that we know something. In Ayn SPh AVR, all probabilities were equally probable. In Kether, we had the will to make one probability more probable than the others. In Chochma, we do that. In Chochma, we no longer know everything; now we know something.
	Because Chochma is often seen as a "male" sefira, it is tempting to see it as something developing from nothing. Indeed, there are Jewish qabalistic writings to this effect. But I'd like to propose a different way of looking at it. How can we develop something from nothing if Ayn SPh AVR, the infinite light, truly is infinite? If this light (God) really is infinite, it already incorporates everything. So instead of seeing manifestation as a journey from nothing to something, why not see it as a journey from everything to something? This meshes well with the idea of Tzimtzum (section 4), which describes the primal act of creation, the "big bang," as a restriction wherein God constricts some of his infinite light to carve out a space where something else could develop.
	Under this view, we can think of Chochma as, perhaps, a camera aperture, or the retina of an eye. When the aperture is fully open, the maximum amount of light moves through the lens. This is like the state of Ayn SPh AVR, where all potential possibilities exist and can shine through. Kether is the will to narrow the aperture. In Chochma, we actually do narrow the aperture. As the opening shrinks, some of the light (i.e., some of the potential imaginings) is screened out. Eventually, the aperture narrows to a point at which the opening is so narrow, only a small portion of the infinite light can shine through; put another way, only one of the infinite pool of imaginings can shine through. This view of Chochma is compatible with what we saw in Tomer Devorah. In spreading and transmitting wisdom, we must take care not to pass on more than others can receive. Chochma, viewed as a narrowing aperture, does just this; it prevents us from being overwhelmed by too many possibilities and instead, narrows things down to a single probability that we can cope with.
summary	At this point, we can now offer the following key word/phrases to summarize Chochma: The aspect of God that is perceived through this filter - Perception; pure, non-verbal awareness of a selected probable outcome. The tool of creation - The process of screening out all unselected probabilities so the selected one can be transmitted without overwhelming those who receive it.