Blessing and Sanctification in Kabbalah

Sanctification means giving life, choosing to give life to something. This choice does not come from above as a ready-made faculty but must arise from below. The skull, eyes, ears, and nose belong to what is given from above, while the mouth represents something that must be formed through human participation. In Kabbalistic terms, the mouth functions as a screen that is built in partnership with the higher.

Life has already been given, and the work is to choose to return life. Blessing makes this possible, as it is the way the higher ties the lower to Himself. When we bless, we are not producing something from ourselves but drawing a connection from above, and without that connection, sanctification cannot take place. This order establishes the condition for reformation, through which sanctification becomes possible.

This order appears in Genesis, where God first blessed the Sabbath and only then sanctified it, showing that connection precedes action. The Sabbath reflects a Tzimtzum, a withdrawal that creates space within the Creator for human participation. Filling that space is sanctifying, giving life as return light.

Reformation is a process of sorting what gives life from what does not, most clearly expressed in eating. This is why eating around Yom Kippur completes the state, allowing one to move forward with awareness of what has been experienced. Most transgression begins when we trust the way we perceive reality, instead of going above our perception.