There are two types of potentialities. The first is called a “Heyulie” – “ability”, and the second is called a “Ko’ach” – “potential”. The example usually given to explain the difference between these two potentialities is the difference between how fire exists in a coal as opposed to how it exists in a flint. There is potential fire in a coal. This potential energy is measurable. One can calculate, by the size and density of the coal, exactly how much energy may be extracted from it, how long it will burn, how much heat it will produce etc. The energy in the coal is limited. As soon as it is burned up, it no longer contains any energy. In contrast, the fire in the flint cannot be measured. It is unlimited. As many times as one hits the flint, that is as many times as it will bring out fire, and yet, there is no potential fire in the flint. The coal is an example of a Ko’ach – a potential. The flint is an example of a Heyulie – an ability.
Another example of these two types of potentiality is a rubber-band. When a rubber-band is stretched taut, there is potential energy in it. One can actually calculate and measure the potential energy in it and determine exactly how far it will fly when released. The potential energy is limited. Depending on how taut the rubber-band is, that is as far as it will fly and no farther. This is the ko’ach – the potential, in the rubber-band. Now, included in the rubber-band is also a heyulie power. This heyulie is the ability of the rubber-band to spring back. This ability is immeasurable, for as many times as it is stretched taut and released, that is how many times it will spring back. It does not have a potential for only one thousand springing motions, for instance, which become used up and reduced each time it is released, until all its power to spring is used up. No matter how many times it springs back, its ability to spring is not reduced. Furthermore, the rubber band possesses this heyulie to spring back, at all times, even when it is not stretched taut. Even when it is simply resting in the cabinet drawer, it still possesses the ability to spring back, and yet, there is no spring in the rubber-band, even in the form of potential energy.
This is similar to the power of speech, which is also a Heyulie ability. As much as a person may speak, it does not at all reduce his ability to speak. It is not that a person is born with the potential for five million words and that, as he speaks, he depletes his power of speech, until he runs out of words and becomes mute. Rather, his ability to speak is infinite, and the only factor which limits it, is his limited life span. Furthermore, even when he is sleeping, and his power of speech is “resting”, he still possesses the ability to speak. This is so, even though during sleep he is unconscious, and has no intention to speak.
