The first chapter of Yechezkel depicts the vision of the Chariot (the Merkavah), and in this section we arrive at the culmination of the vision: from the firmament stretched over the heads of the Chayos, through the sound of the wings and the various modes of Divine governance that stem from them, up to the Throne of Glory, the Chashmal, and the appearance of the rainbow. The central theme running throughout this explanation is that the wings serve as conduits for Divine bounty (shefa), and the changes in them (flying, walking, drooping) reflect different modes of Hashem's governance in His world.
וְתַחַת הָרָקִיעַ כַּנְפֵיהֶם יְשָׁרוֹת אִשָּׁה אֶל אֲחוֹתָהּ, לְאִישׁ שְׁתַּיִם מְכַסּוֹת לָהֵנָּה וּלְאִישׁ שְׁתַּיִם מְכַסּוֹת לָהֵנָּה אֵת גְּוִיֹּתֵיהֶם׃ (כג) - "And under the firmament their wings were straight, one toward the other; each one had two covering on this side, and each one had two covering on that side, their bodies." (23)
Here, the Malbim explains how the Chayos receive Divine bounty through the firmament from the realm above. Wings allude to avian elevation, to soaring upward, which is why the wings of the Chayos do not droop to the sides like bird wings; rather, they are spread straight upward. The Chayos abide in the World of Yetzirah, and they receive shefa from the World of Beriah, the realm of the Throne. Therefore, they spread their wings upward to receive the bounty and channel it down into their realm.
Why do the wings come in pairs? The Malbim explains: one wing indicates receiving the shefa from above, and the second indicates drawing the shefa downward. The wings are conduits for the transmission of shefa, both in receiving it and in conveying it. This is why the verse states "one toward the other" (ishah el achotah) - the wings are interconnected, with the bestower and the recipient facing one another. Just as with the two Keruvim, where their faces were toward each other when Israel performed the will of the Omnipresent, so it is here: one bestows and one receives, facing one another, as a sign that the Divine flow is drawn down properly.
"Each one had two covering on this side" - "ish" (each) is related to "yeish" (substance or entity), meaning that each of the Chayos had two wings covering its body. This covering signifies concealment, indicating that the Chayos are concealed, as it were, from our sight. The reason for this is that there were two dimensions beyond human grasp: how the Chayos receive shefa from the World of the Throne, and how they draw it down into the World of Yetzirah. Two coverings were therefore required: one wing conceals the descent of shefa from above, and one wing conceals the transmission of shefa from the Chayos downward to the recipients. Each conceals a different dynamic, which is why a pair was necessary.
וָאֶשְׁמַע אֶת קוֹל כַּנְפֵיהֶם כְּקוֹל מַיִם רַבִּים כְּקוֹל שַׁדַּי בְּלֶכְתָּם, קוֹל הֲמֻלָּה כְּקוֹל מַחֲנֶה, בְּעָמְדָם תְּרַפֶּינָה כַנְפֵיהֶן׃ (כד) - "And I heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, as they went, a sound of tumult like the sound of a camp; when they stood, they let down their wings." (24)
Radak explains "like the voice of Shaddai" - a mighty and powerful sound, as in the verses "and as destruction from the Almighty [mi-Shaddai] it shall come," and "and the Almighty [Shaddai] shall be your defense," which denote strength and power. Another possibility is the literal meaning: that it refers to the Divine Name. It is similarly stated in the third vision, "like the voice of the Almighty God when He speaks," referring to the voice with which Hashem spoke at Mount Sinai, where it is likewise described as a "great voice." In the third vision, it appears that the voice was heard as far as the outer courtyard, which constitutes the boundary of the Temple, and there it ceased and traveled no further. This was also the case at Matan Torah: it was a tremendous voice, yet it was not heard outside the camp of Israel. The voice's reach halts at a specific boundary, and only the intended recipient hears it. So too with Moshe Rabbeinu: Moshe would receive the voice from Hashem, a powerful sound, while those around him heard nothing at all. This is the defining characteristic of "the voice of Shaddai": a sound that travels up to a precise boundary and stops.
"A sound of tumult like the sound of a camp" - Radak explains that "hamulah" (tumult) derives from "milah" (word or speech), because when many people speak together, a tumult is created, hence the term. Closely related to this is the concept of "hemyah" (stirring or clamor), the bustling sound of a multitude speaking and clamoring, as in "the sound of a commotion in the camp." It is thus akin to a combination of two words: a stirring (hemyah) of speech (milah), namely, many people speaking at once.
The Malbim explains that here the prophet describes how he hears the command of the Chayos. The Chayos receive shefa from the World of the Throne, the World of Beriah above them; standing in the World of Yetzirah, they draw it down into the realm of the Ofanim, which is the World of Asiyah. And how do they command the Ofanim - that is, how do they direct this flow downward? The Malbim states: they do not move the Ofanim through physical contact of matter with matter, nor through attractive or repulsive forces, as investigated by astronomers and natural philosophers.
Let us explain: "astronomers" (tochnim) are scholars of astronomy who study celestial bodies and attempted to understand what drives their motion. Some maintained it was through "the contact of physical matter with physical matter" - that the chayos propel the spheres through direct physical touch, the way pedals turn, or like two gear wheels turning one another. Others believed it was by means of an attractive force, gravitation, or a repulsive force, like opposing magnets. The Malbim explains that this is certainly not so; rather, the chayos move the spheres of the ofanim "solely through a voice and an intellectual and spiritual command" - by decree, through an intellectual and spiritual mandate.
In this verse, Yechezkel perceived three matters. The first is when the chayos soar with their wings. The wings symbolize supernatural providence, a mode of flight that connects directly to spirituality - a wondrous governance according to God's will, transcending the natural system. When the prophet hears the sound of the wings soaring high above the natural order, he hears a voice and a command resembling the voice of Shaddai, for then the decree emanates from Hashem Himself, overriding the systems of nature; with His voice He upends the established orders and does not operate according to the regular, familiar course of nature.
That is why this Divine Name is called Shaddai - for He said to His world, "Enough" (she-amar le'olamo dai). There is the rule of nature, and the world was expanding, and the sea was expanding, and the One Who halted it was Hashem with His command. Thus, we see a command that arrests nature itself: even though by its natural course it was meant to continue expanding, Hashem said to it, "Enough." Similarly, this resembles "the sound of mighty waters," just as it was at the time of Creation - "and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters" - when the cosmic orders did not yet exist, and only the voice of Hashem resonated over the mighty waters. Here too, it refers to direct Divine governance: the voice of Hashem alone, without any external influences and without the laws of nature, just as before all the forces of nature were formed.
"When they went, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army" - here we are dealing with another state, when the chayos are not soaring but walking. Flight represents supernatural providence, whereas walking represents an earthly governance: the chayos walk and tread upon the earth, as it were, directing the world according to the established cosmic order and the laws of nature. Therefore, the word "when they went" (be-lechtam) bears the cantillation mark of a zakef katan and stands on its own, and then: "I heard a sound of tumult like the sound of an army," which refers to the sound of speech.
And what is an "army" or "camp" (machaneh)? The Malbim explains that the expression machaneh always denotes order. A camp marches in formation, just as we find with the Jewish people arranged into camps and banners: "each man by his camp and each man by his standard." Here, the workings of the cosmic system function in an orderly, constant fashion - these are the laws of nature, reflecting not the momentary will of Hashem, but rather the constant, enduring will of the Master of the Universe, as the Chazon Ish expresses it. The tumult and speech correspond to the sound of an army - that is, in accord with what is fitting for the natural order - and thus the chayos speak and guide the ofanim through their speech.
The Malbim notes another precise detail: a "voice" (kol) is a single, simple sound, whereas "tumult" (hamulah) denotes a great deal of words and speech, as the Radak mentions. In the first state, only one sound is heard - the voice of Hashem, the sound of Divine Providence stemming directly from Him, Blessed be He. Therefore the verse states, "the sound of their wings like the sound of mighty waters, like the voice of Shaddai" - a singular voice, not multiple sounds. But in natural governance, symbolized by walking upon the earth, many voices are heard: "a sound of tumult like the sound of an army," because the systems and natural laws are manifold, and the forces operating in nature are numerous. When the Holy One, Blessed be He, acts directly by His own will, only a single voice is heard.
The third state is: "When they stood, they let down their wings." The Malbim already explained above in verses 19 and 21 that when the celestial bodies move from west to east, disruptions and hindrances occur along their paths, and at times the stars seem to come to a standstill, appearing to rest from their motion, citing proofs for this from the words of Chazal. Scientists attribute this to the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies they encounter along their course, which counteracts their orbit that is driven by the gravitational pull of the sun.
Let us explain: according to the laws of nature, the larger a celestial body is, the greater its gravitational and magnetic pull. Therefore, when another star passes near it, it can divert it from its orbit. Even though that star follows a steady orbital motion, if it draws close to another star, it is pulled toward it, slowing its course so that it appears to stand still.
The prophet teaches: Know that this, too, comes about through the chayos, by the will of Hashem. It is not only supernatural providence, represented by the wings, and not only natural providence, represented by walking on foot, but even this phenomenon where "they let down their wings" - in which the wings of the chayos, which receive their vitality from the World of the Throne, slacken and weaken, and their ability to turn the spheres wanes - is likewise directed by a mandate received from Above. Since they move the ofan solely through the power received from the firmament - the World of Beriah above the head of the chayos - via their wings spread out straight, when the wings slacken and do not receive the Divine flow at full strength, they cannot transmit it below. Hence the state of "when they stood": the celestial bodies appear to halt in their tracks, as though they are not revolving at all.
וַיְהִי קוֹל מֵעַל לָרָקִיעַ אֲשֶׁר עַל רֹאשָׁם, בְּעָמְדָם תְּרַפֶּינָה כַנְפֵיהֶן׃ (כה) - "And there was a voice from above the firmament that was over their heads; when they stood, they let down their wings." (25)
Rashi cites the wording of the Targum: "And when it was the will before Him to let the voice of speech be heard by His servants, the prophets of Israel" - when it is the Creator's will to sound the voice of speech to the prophets of Israel and speak with them, "a voice was heard from above the firmament," from between the cherubim, beneath the firmament that was over their heads, "when they stood, their wings fell silent before the speech" - when they stand, their wings become silent before the speech. And this is the meaning of "they let down their wings": when the Divine speech is heard, the wings, which were previously so powerful, become as though weakened by the power of the voice of Hashem within the speech.
And the Malbim, after explaining three aspects of the Chayos governing the Ofanim, adds a fourth aspect here: when the Holy One, blessed be He, directs the world Himself, without the mediation of the Chayos. "Hashem has established His throne in the heavens," and Hashem gives voice to His word upon the heavens and the Ofanim. Everything explained previously, even though it originates from Hashem and is even on the level of the "voice of Shaddai," nonetheless descends through the chain of causality: from the World of the Throne to the Chayos, and from there to the Ofanim. Here, however, it refers to direct influence from Hashem Himself, without the flow passing through the Chayos.
And then, says the Malbim, the Chayos have no power to do anything, for the Holy One, blessed be He, acts through the Serafim in the World of the Throne, as Yeshayahu saw, and not through the world beneath it, the World of Yetzirah. And so it was at the time of the Exodus from Egypt and in the generation of the wilderness; and this is the aspect of "as it arose in His will," where it arose in His will outside the ordinary modes of providence.
And as we have mentioned several times, this is the Providence of Yichud defined by the Ramchal. There is the Providence of Mishpat (Justice) and there is the Providence of Yichud (Divine Unity). The Providence of Mishpat is the ongoing, standard providence - "A king by justice establishes the land": in order to merit and receive, a person must be worthy and deserving, and then he receives according to law and justice; there are prosecuting accusers, and Hashem takes the prosecutor into account, which may lead, Heaven forbid, to punishment and strict scrutiny. In contrast, the Providence of Yichud corresponds to "There is none else besides Him," wherein the Holy One, blessed be He, governs the world without paying any heed to the prosecuting accusers, the Sitra Achra, the kelipot, and all those forces demanding strict judgment. This mode is not constant, but it occurred on several occasions: during the Exodus from Egypt and in the generation of the wilderness. When the sea argued, "These are idolaters and those are idolaters," its argument was not heeded, for under the Providence of Yichud - where Hashem is God and there is none else besides Him - even the laws of nature and the celestial arrangements that channel influence to each according to their deserts are nullified, and the Holy One, blessed be He, grants and bestows without taking them into account at all. And so it will be in the future, in the ultimate Redemption, when the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem us as it arose in His will, through the Providence of Yichud, disregarding all the usual rules of the governance of creation.
And this is what is meant by "And there was a voice from above the firmament that was over their heads": the voice does not emanate from the Chayos, but from above, above the firmament, from the Throne or from the exalted World of Atzilus. And in such a state, "when they stood, they let down their wings" - the wings of the Chayos go slack and perform nothing, and the Divine flow does not pass through them at all. The wings are the channels to receive the flow and transmit it downward, one receiving and one transmitting; but when providence operates from the realm of the World of Beriah or Atzilus, the wings cease to operate.
וּמִמַּעַל לָרָקִיעַ אֲשֶׁר עַל רֹאשָׁם כְּמַרְאֵה אֶבֶן סַפִּיר דְּמוּת כִּסֵּא, וְעַל דְּמוּת הַכִּסֵּא דְּמוּת כְּמַרְאֵה אָדָם עָלָיו מִלְמָעְלָה׃ (כו) - "And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man upon it from above." (26)
After the prophet perceived the firmament, which is the curtain and separating screen, the parsa dividing between the World of the Throne, which is the World of Beriah, and the World of the Chayos, which is the World of Yetzirah, he now gazes at the World of the Throne above the firmament, and perceives there "the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone." This is not an actual throne, but the likeness of a throne, a resemblance of a throne as it appeared to him in his vision.
The Malbim explains: He sees the throne designated, as it were, for the King in the Providence of Mishpat, for the throne symbolizes judgment, as a king sits upon a throne of judgment. From there emerges Hashem's providence of justice, emanating through the power of the Throne. And the Throne is made of sapphire stone, which is pure and clear like a looking-glass (ispaklaria), like the mirrors of the ministering women in which images standing before them are reflected. In this manner, the Divine matters in the World of the Sefiros above were cast in reflected light upon the polished, sapphire-like surface of the Throne, and all that is above was reflected, as it were, upon the Throne.
Therefore, "upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man upon it from above": just as a person looking into a mirror sees the sun - not looking directly at the body of the sun itself, but at its reflection in the mirror - so too here, the prophet does not see the form of a man directly, but rather the reflection of a man upon the Throne.
And what is the meaning of this? As is known from Patach Eliyahu, the array of the sefirot is in the form of Man, and "in the image of God He made man" means in the image and likeness of the array of the sefirot: the head represents the mochin (intellect) - Keter, Chokhmah, and Binah; followed by Chesed (the right arm), Gevurah (the left arm), and Tiferet (the torso). "From my flesh I shall see God" - in the supernal reality as well, there is a likeness of Man. One must not visualize or depict this physically, but as a spiritual concept there is an aspect of Man, which is the array of the sefirot, and this is what he sees reflected from the Throne. This is what Chazal meant when they said that the prophets, in their great spiritual strength, compared the created form to its Creator - that the aspect of Man, which is the form, reflects the aspect of the Creator, the aspect of Man depicted Above.
The Malbim writes: "A little of this I hinted at in Kunteres HaCharash VehaMasger, printed at the end of the book Shir HaNefesh." We have already learned the Malbim's kabbalistic commentary at the end of Shir HaShirim, which is called Kunteres HaCharash VehaMasger, where he explains how Hashem arranged and structured the interconnected governance of reality, and how the "Macrocosm" (the Great Man) relates to the "Microcosm" (the Little Man). Man is called a microcosm (olam katan) because he is, as it were, a reflection of the reflection of the "Great Man" - which is the array of the sefirot structured according to the stature of Man - and the root of his soul is emanated from the cornerstone above the World of the Throne, "they dwelled there with the King for His work."
Even so, the verse is precise: "a likeness as the appearance of a man" - only an approximation. This is phrased to accommodate human understanding so that we can grasp these concepts according to our perception, but one must not think he literally saw the form of a man; rather, it was only "as the appearance of a man," such that his faculty of imagination perceived the impression of a human form. Through this, Hashem, as it were, guides the great Chariot, which is the supernal form of Man - the realm of the sefirot bestowing influence from the level of Atzilut all the way down. From this perspective, Yechezkel sees Hashem, as it were, riding through the heavens (Aravot) in a chariot, like a ruler driving a chariot, which is analogous to a person whose soul rides upon his body. The likeness of a man upon the Throne comes to hint that in man, too, the soul rides and sits upon the body, and that the body itself corresponds to the ten sefirot - Chesed the right arm, and so on. And because this refers to the supernal spiritual reality, it symbolizes all the ways reality is governed down in the physical realm.
וָאֵרֶא כְּעֵין חַשְׁמַל כְּמַרְאֵה אֵשׁ בֵּית לָהּ סָבִיב מִמַּרְאֵה מָתְנָיו וּלְמָעְלָה, וּמִמַּרְאֵה מָתְנָיו וּלְמַטָּה רָאִיתִי כְּמַרְאֵה אֵשׁ וְנֹגַהּ לוֹ סָבִיב׃ (כז) - And I saw like the color of chashmal, like the appearance of fire, a house for it all around, from the appearance of his loins and upward; and from the appearance of his loins and downward, I saw as the appearance of fire, and it had a radiance all around. (27)
Rashi states: "'And I saw like the color of chashmal' - permission was not granted to contemplate this verse." One is not permitted to delve into this, and we have already seen citations regarding those who contemplated the chashmal and the harm that befell them as a result.
The Malbim cites the Abarbanel, who explained "and I saw like the color of chashmal" to mean that he saw, as it were, Hashem Himself, Who is called the First Cause. The Malbim responds: God forbid we accept the Abarbanel's view that the chashmal refers to the First Cause! First, this contradicts Chazal, who expounded: "Chashmal - fiery angels speaking (chayyot esh memalelot)," or "chashmal - silent and speaking (chashot umemalelot)," at times silent and at times speaking; thus it refers to the Chayyot and not to the Holy One, blessed be He, in His Essence. Furthermore, this contradicts what was written earlier: "and out of its midst, like the color of the chashmal." The chashmal refers to the Chayyot that constitute the camp of the Shechinah, where there is the aspect of "a still, small voice" (kol demamah dakah), from the root chash (silent), and they receive the divine flow from Above and channel it to the Chayyot that move the Ophanim.
The Malbim notes a precision in the verse's wording: "And I saw like the color of chashmal, like the appearance of fire, a house for it all around, from the appearance of his loins and upward" - in the upper part he did not see the chashmal itself, but only "like the color" of chashmal, and what he saw was "a house for it all around" that appeared like fire. In contrast, regarding "from the appearance of his loins and downward, I saw as the appearance of fire, and it had a radiance all around," the verse does not mention "a house for it all around," implying that there he perceived the essence of the chashmal itself.
From here arises another nuance: first he perceived from the appearance of his loins and upward, and only afterward did he write of the loins and downward. On the surface, this seems reversed, for we have no grasp of higher matters, and the normal path of comprehension is from below to above - one perceives the lower level and ascends. If so, how did he comprehend here from the more concealed to the less concealed, from the upper part and only then to what is from the loins downward?
The Malbim resolves this: later, in chapter 8, we find the reverse - "And I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins and downward, fire; and from his loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, like the color of chashmal" - there it began from below to above. The difference is that in our vision here, he had not yet grasped the inner essence of the chashmal, except from the loins downward; whereas from the loins and upward he grasped only the "house for it all around" - that which surrounds it, rather than its core essence. Therefore, here the vision is ordered from above to below, because an outer garment is easier to grasp than inner essence: the upper part was relatively easier to perceive because he grasped only its external garment, whereas below he perceived the chashmal in its essence, without a garment.
This was not so in the vision of chapter 8, where he had already attained an understanding of the inner essence of the chashmal even in the upper part; therefore, the order there is from below to above, according to the natural order of comprehension. Here he was still at the beginning of his journey, whereas there he was further advanced.
The Malbim makes a further precise observation: in Chapter 8 it says that from the appearance of His loins upward was "like the appearance of radiance" (ke-mar'eh zohar), and not fire. For from His loins upward represents the flow of divine influence received from the World of the Throne above, and there, there is no consuming fire - for fire represents burning and damage, whereas above everything is pure, unmixed loving-kindness (chasadim peshutim), with no aspect of damage and no strict judgments (dinin). Therefore, he perceives radiance there rather than fire. However, from the appearance of His loins downward represents the influence descending to the lower realms. As we have discussed several times: in Binah there are no judgments - "judgments are awakened from it" (dinin mit'arin minah), but within it there are no judgments - and when it flows downward into Gevurah, it materializes as judgments. This is the concept of sweetening the severe judgments at their root (hamtakas ha-gevuros be-shorshan): returning them to their source in Binah, where the intellect (mochin) resides, where everything is pure holiness and there are no judgments at all.
Therefore, in the upper portion, Scripture does not speak of a burning fire, but of radiance. When this descends below and exerts influence downward, it becomes an aspect of burning fire, which is the perception through the attribute of judgment (Middas HaDin). Yechezkel sees the aspect of burning emerging from the Chayos to the Ofanim to burn the House of Hashem. As we explained at the beginning of the chapter, this vision occurs within the vision of the Chariot (Ma'aseh HaMerkavah): he sees the origin of that burning fire and radiance that descends below and burns the Beis HaMikdash, just as Chazal said, that he saw the cherub take the burning coals in his hands to cast upon Jerusalem.
Now this becomes clear: here, in the upper part, he did not perceive the inner essence of the divine flow descending from above, but only its outer enclothment, "an enclosure around it" (beis lah saviv) - the external aspect alone. Therefore, it appeared to him like the appearance of fire ready to burn, even though in Chapter 8, when he perceived its inner essence, he saw radiance there rather than fire, because in the higher realms there are no judgments.
And from the appearance of His loins downward, he perceives "and it had a brightness round about" (ve-nogah lo saviv). Nogah, as is well known, is a shell (kelipah) composed of good and evil, of mercy and judgment. He is being shown: even though this appears to you as an aspect of fire, know that there is nogah here. Nogah is a light that shines from afar, like that halo seen around the moon - meaning it does not burn. And although one cannot say it does not burn at all, nevertheless, know that the ultimate purpose of the burning is mercy. Even if it burns, its ultimate purpose is compassion - to illuminate and show mercy - and that is the purpose of judgment. This reflects the principle we always say, that there is no absolute evil in the world at all; rather, if something appears to us as evil and like a consuming fire, know that it is the aspect of nogah, whose ultimate purpose is to bestow good and mercy. It is known that the World of Yetzirah contains the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is why from His loins downward there is fire - judgment, evil, and burning - yet there is nogah around it, for a good purpose. In contrast, from the appearance of His loins upward, everything is radiance, the aspect of Binah, for in the upper worlds all divine influences are purely positive.
From here, says the Malbim, you can understand where the heretics and apostates went astray. Chazal relate that the heretics said, "From the waist down belongs to Hormiz" and from the waist up belongs to another authority - that is, they believed in two systems of governance and two distinct powers. Their error stemmed from the very point we have explained: the governance of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is infinite loving-kindness, and when it descends below, it arrives by way of judgments - yet these are judgments whose ultimate purpose is kindness and good. They failed to understand this, and imagined there were two separate domains.
For this reason, Chazal warned against expounding upon the chashmal, and there is an incident involving a youth who understood the chashmal, concerning which the Gemara said, "a youth not acting appropriately." For "to expound upon the chashmal" means reaching this profound point: understanding that there is a divine governance that is pure loving-kindness, from which the aspect of judgments emanates and extends, and grasping that this is one and the same governance, not two separate regimes. In this matter the gentiles erred, and consequently claimed that man was created through two divinities: the upper part, containing the heart, lungs, intellect, and thought, is lofty, whereas the lower part, containing the intestines, stomach, and excretions, is base. Thus they asserted that the upper part was created by one power and the lower part by another - one by God and the other by a demon, or whatever explanation they held. The root of their error lay in dividing the divine governance in the supernal realms.
The Malbim explains: this was also the reason why Acher "cut down the saplings" (fell into heresy). Chazal say that he saw Metat seated on a throne in the World of Yetzirah, and he went astray. Metat is an angel, and we do not pronounce his full name, as we do not utter the names of angels. Now, the two letters tes and tes [in his name] allude to the good within the Tree of Knowledge. For it is known that the first appearance of a letter opening a word in the Torah expresses that letter's intrinsic meaning, and the first place the letter tes appears in the Torah is in the word tov (good). Thus, the letter tes represents good, and Metat has two teses - the best of the good. And if you remove the two teses from his name, you are left with the letters forming the word rimon (pomegranate), which represents the shell and the aspect of evil.
Now we can understand how Rabbi Meir went and learned Torah from Acher: "Rabbi Meir found a pomegranate (rimon); he ate its interior and threw away its peel." Rabbi Meir received the aspect of good and did not stumble into the error of Acher, who believed there were two regimes and saw, as it were, an additional governing power seated upon a throne. He discarded the rimon, and what remained for him? The two teses, the aspect of good. This is also why Chazal said that in the Torah scroll of Rabbi Meir, it was found written "garments of light" (or with an aleph) rather than "skin" (or with an ayin) - for skin is a covering, a shell, an outer layer. He removed the shell and consumed only its interior and essence, the good within it. For this reason, he was also privileged to rectify his master and elevate him from his grave; by eating its interior, he rectified that very aspect and brought him to rectification - though not a complete rectification, and he did not bring him into Gan Eden, but at any rate it was the beginning of the process.
כְּמַרְאֵה הַקֶּשֶׁת אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה בֶעָנָן בְּיוֹם הַגֶּשֶׁם כֵּן מַרְאֵה הַנֹּגַהּ סָבִיב, הוּא מַרְאֵה דְּמוּת כְּבוֹד ה', וָאֶרְאֶה וָאֶפֹּל עַל פָּנַי וָאֶשְׁמַע קוֹל מְדַבֵּר׃ (כח) - Like the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness round about; that was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Hashem. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice speaking. (28)
"And I heard a voice speaking" - as he fell on his face, he heard a voice speaking to him, and this was the angel who spoke with him.
Our Sages say that at the Giving of the Torah, Israel saw the Chariot that Yechezkel saw, to the extent that they said even the simplest woman was like Yechezkel ben Buzi. That is, the very same perception that Yechezkel attained here in the vision of the Chariot was witnessed then by the simplest woman, for the Holy One, Blessed be He, opened seven heavens above for them and seven chambers below, showing them that there is none besides Him.
From here also comes the explanation of why they made the Golden Calf: because they saw the face of the ox on the left, as the Ramban mentions there. And since the face of the ox represents the aspect of strict judgments (Dinim) and is on the left, and they were in the wilderness, which is a place of judgments, they believed that this was the source from which they needed to draw their guidance. Thus they made a calf for themselves in order to draw down those powers and channel influence from the face of the ox in the holy Chariot.
Chazal further say that the four faces of the Chariot corresponded to the four divisional banners. The banner of Yehudah corresponded to the face of the lion, parallel to the face of the lion in the Chariot: "Yehudah is a lion's whelp." The banner of Reuven corresponded to the face of man, for of Reuven it is said, "and he found mandrakes in the field," and it is well known that the root of the mandrake has the form of a human. The banner of Ephraim corresponded to the face of the ox - and interestingly, in Ephraim and Menasheh they also made calves, which likewise stemmed from the face of the ox - and concerning him it is said, "His firstborn bull is his glory." And the banner of Dan corresponded to the face of the eagle: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way," and it is said, "the viper and the flying fiery serpent," indicating that there are flying serpents, which represents the aspect of flight. We see, then, that this very same concept underlay the division of the tribes into camps and banners.
The Malbim explains: this verse concludes the prophecy of the Account of the Chariot. Know that the radiance he saw was an aspect of reflected light from the hidden, supernal light spreading over the Chariot, appearing like the rainbow in the cloud on a rainy day. Just as in a rainbow the single light of the sun is refracted into many hues, so too the supernal light, as it breaks through to direct the lower realms, divides into seven colors. And what are these seven colors? The lower seven Sefirot: Chessed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. This is the spreading of the supernal light divided into seven. And why not into ten? As we have already explained, because the governance of the lower world is conducted only through the lower seven Sefirot and not from the Mochin, which are Keter, Chochmah, and Binah. Therefore, this matter is specifically connected to the cloud, in which there are seven kinds of light channeling influence downward.
And just as the light of the rainbow has no physical substance within the cloud itself, but is merely an impression upon the cloud - where the sunlight catches the clouds, is reflected back, and appears as the multicolored vision of a rainbow, yet no person can grasp the rainbow or slide down it; photograph it perhaps, but it has no tangible reality - so too, know that the supernal light spreads over the Chayot. In relation to the supernal light, the Chayot are like a thick cloud, for the supernal light is pure and lucid, while a cloud represents a screen, density, and obstruction. The lower world is certainly a dense world that blocks the flow of light from the higher realms. As the light cascades downward to exert its influence, it materializes, like light passing through clouds: the sun no longer shines with its full intensity, and at times darkness may fall in the middle of the day depending on the thickness of the cloud. In this way, the light of Hashem flows through the world of the Chayot as though through a thick cloud, so that the light does not shine with the full intensity of its source.
The Malbim adds: and just as the vision of the rainbow would not exist at all if the light passed through without obstruction - for there is no rainbow unless there is a cloud - so it is with the divine word of Hashem: were we not somewhat physical, we would not be able to receive it. We can receive it only because of that cloud-like aspect that forms a partition. To what can this be compared? If one attempts to gaze at the sun, he cannot; but if he takes a special lens, such as a welder's glass, he can look directly at the sun without being harmed. It emerges that the cloud and the screen are what make it possible to receive the sunlight, whereas directly, one could not receive it. So it is with the prophet: the element of density and corporeal concealment is what allows him to receive the word of Hashem, without which he would be unable to absorb it. And just as with a cloud: were it not for the cloud, nothing of the sun's internal composition would be perceived, and it is precisely because of the cloud that the light spreads into seven colors.
This is the definition of radiance (nogah): not the essential light itself, but rather like the glow surrounding the moon, which is reflected light. "The appearance of the radiance round about was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Hashem" - not the vision itself in its essence, but only the appearance of a likeness, for this is how the faculty of imagination depicts it. Through this, Yechezkel saw and fell upon his face: his senses and physical faculties were suspended, leaving the imaginative faculty isolated to envision and act upon the intellect, through which the prophets beheld visions and metaphors, as the Rambam writes in the Guide for the Perplexed. And then, "and I heard a voice speaking" - the prophetic speech reached him.
In this section we learned that the wings of the Chayot are conduits of divine influx - one to receive from the World of Beriah and one to bestow influence downward - spread straight and joined one to another as a sign that the flow is orderly. The sound of the wings reveals three modes of providence: flight - a single voice, the voice of the Almighty, representing supernatural providence; walking - a tumultuous noise like the noise of a camp, many voices representing the multiplicity of natural forces in an orderly and fixed system of providence; and the dropping of the wings - the halting of the celestial bodies, which is also by decree from Above. There is also a fourth mode of providence: "And there was a voice above the firmament," where the Holy One, Blessed be He, governs directly through the World of the Throne, bypassing the World of Yetzirah; this is the providence of absolute Divine Unity that occurred during the Exodus from Egypt and in the generation of the wilderness, and will return in the future Redemption. Afterwards, he saw the likeness of a throne of sapphire stone like a clear lens, and upon it a likeness with the appearance of a man, an allusion to the order of the Sefirot, corresponding to man who is a microcosm; and he perceived the Chashmal from top to bottom, since above he perceived only the outer garment while below he perceived the inner essence. From this comes a profound lesson: above is pure radiance and absolute chesed, while below is fire and judgment - yet there is radiance round about, showing that the ultimate purpose of judgment is mercy. In this the heretics and Acher erred, whereas Rabbi Meir ate the inside and threw away the peel. And finally, like the appearance of the rainbow in the cloud: the single light spreads into seven hues through density, and it is precisely the screen that enables the lower realms to receive the word of Hashem, until the prophet fell on his face and heard a voice speaking.