Recent scientific effort has corroborated the notion of metaphysical thinkers that cabalistic principles can be inferred at an atomic level. 

This pleasantly surprising event makes one wonder: perhaps scientific investigation can be enhanced through integrating ancient knowledge and numbers into their query? Cabala is more about the story of creation than the cold fact of science, but between these two disparities is the inherent metaphor mirrored in the elemental symmetry of life as put forth by science - measurements of disintegration; interpreted through the eyes of the Cabala- the science of the creative process -the cold facts take on new meaning.
 
Acknowledging the metaphor, particularly at a nuclear level, is the real beginning to unraveling the mystery of life shrouded in the enigma of the atom. In seeking to understand the metaphor of life, it is the anomaly that gets our attention. Through the metaphor we see the symmetry as background to the anomaly that nature presents.

The phenomenon known as the Weak Force is a good example of how scientists insist on logic from creation, when at an essential level - that which cannot be measured, only theorized - there is a sudden shift that breaks the law of measurable entities the scientists blame the Weak Force: a force so subtle that it can not be detected and yet it is the most prevalent and essential of destabilizing factors within the atom whose process produces neutrinos. 

Neutrinos have no electric charge; they participate only in weak interaction or gravitational processes. They have zero mass and thus are very difficult to detect. We observe them only by the effects they have on other particles with which they interact. Neutrinos and gravitation are diametrically opposed: gravitation is expressed in the lowest, meaning the slowest moving/changing element of existence - the graviton; while the neutrino has neither substance nor form lacking both mass and electric charge. These two concepts, neutrino and gravitation, represent the confines of creation - the immutable and the indeterminate.

In Cabala these two concepts are called by the names: Filling Light and Surrounding Like. The slow moving graviton is likened to light that fills through the flow of incremental time while the neutrino is likened to the Surrounding Light that has no bounds and is unlimited. It is through the neutrino that the symmetry of the atom is altered.   

As is often the situation, that which is the hardest question is actually the simple answer.

One of the most profound anomalies in the symmetry of nature lies within the nucleus of every atom. Between the scale of an atom and its nucleus are four orders of magnitude - a factor of 10,000. This region is void of any physical phenomena - a vacuum. Yet between the nucleus and the scale where we need current quarks to understand the structure of matter is only a factor of 100.

“"As if to make up for lost time, nature packs four different levels of nature: nucleus, nucleons, constituent quarks, and the current quarks, with current quarks being the right description down to zero."”Timothy Paul Smith; Hidden Worlds; Princeton University Press 2003.

In this intermediate emptiness between the essence and the particle of the atom are four empty spaces separating four levels of nucleus on the right and four levels to the left where physicality occurs as the externalization of the atom in its three dimensions swirling around time.

One would think that this strange vacuum of proportion has something to do with the concept of containment that disallows entry into the primal workings of the nucleus, and perhaps that is true. Nonetheless, what we see at a sub-atomic level should somehow be reflected in what we see with our common senses, for example the four elements which contain and hide the essence of life.

Although modern day science scoffs at the idea of such a primitive way of envisioning our surroundings, it is undeniably what we see and experience: the immutable, the aquatic, the gas and the fire. Could these four perceptions be somehow related to the four spaces within the atom? To answer this question we turn to the Cabala.

The Cabala, like the String Theory is based on 10 - the power of ten, and 26; ten are the components of the Cabalistic atom called the Ten Sefirot and 26 are the Four Letter Name YHVH converted into number. It is because of the YHVH that there are four spirit worlds - we are the physical manifestation of the fourth. In this physical world is reflected the spiritual reality in what is known as the four elements in four directions supporting the four types of life: mineral, vegetable, animal and human - and now we find a space of four within every atom.

In the Talmud it says that an empty vessel is a strong vessel, meaning the more empty the container the more it is a vessel; a full vessel, continues the Talmud, is a weak vessel, meaning it is no longer a vessel now that it is full. It is the filling of the vessel that creates the weak force. This emptiness of four between the essence of the atom and its physical manifestation could be the place of our intentions - the source of freedom of choice.
 

There is no question that our intentions produce an emotional, visceral, molecular response, but the idea of an atomic reaction to the thoughts of the macrocosm is unique. Perhaps this is what the anomaly in nature indicates: freedom of choice - ephemeral as the neutrino.

Perhaps the intention of our actions defines the connection between the essence and the subsequent manifestation of the atom where the four forces: electric-magnetic; gravity; the Strong Force and the Weak Force combine producing substance? Could it be that freedom of choice is established on four levels in the four empty spaces between the internal workings of each atom and its external expression?

There is a general rule in the Cabala: the essence can never be seen. That is the definition of the essence - if you see it, it is not the essence. The revelation of the essence is not the smallest, but rather the later part of spirit. The essence and the ultimate manifestation of physical form are both separated from the revelation often times called spiritual light. We see four elements because there are four spirit worlds exemplified by the four spaces in the center of the atom; each element epitomizes one of the spirit worlds.
 

It is in the place between force and matter, between essence and particle that the free choice of the human being is exposed and exerts influence connecting spirit to physicality through the power of our intention. It is this intention which ultimately determines, on four levels of life within the body: bone, fluid, meat and flesh, the direction of our thought, speech and action moment by moment in the three dimensions where we dwell.

When we have no intention, the Weak Force is replaced by the Strong Force and our body simply functions towards preservation in both the spirit and the corporeal realm. Our seemingly capricious movements are not a sub-conscious choice dictated by our mind, but rather the intricate weaving together on a sub-atomic level determining the placement of each electron in its orbit for the next moment of action according to our intentions or lack of.

Intention is the fulcrum of freedom and its place is between the particle and the ray - how convenient. It is our intention that drives us by bridging the two opposite components of light, ray and particle. Intention provides a way to meld one world with another producing self-initiated animation on a physical plane.

Freedom of choice - the intention of our thoughts, speech and action - is implicit to the human being; it is what makes us culpable for our deeds on every level of life down to the essence of the Cabalistic atom.