Part V; Kuntres Acharon, Chapter 4
The whole chapterנדוּמַה שֶּׁכָּתוּב בְּעֵץ חַיִּים (וְשַׁעַר הַיִּחוּדִים) שֶׁעַל־יְדֵי הַכַּוָּונָה נַעֲשֶׂה לְבוּשׁ נְשָׁמָה, וְעַל־יְדֵי הַתּוֹרָה לְבוּשׁ רוּחַ דְּרוּחַ עַל־יְדֵי מִשְׁנָה דִיצִירָה, וְרוּחַ דִּנְשָׁמָה דִבְרִיאָה עַל־יְדֵי הַגְּמָרָא, יֵשׁ לוֹמַר דְּהַיְינוּ דַוְקָא עַל־יְדֵי תּוֹרַת הָאָדָם בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה הָעוֹלָה לְמַעְלָה. אֲבָל הַתַּלְמוּד עַצְמוֹ שֶׁנִּיתַּן בְּסִינַי הוּא בִּנְשָׁמָה, וְלָכֵן הוּא מְבָרֵר הָרוּחַ, וְכֵן בְּמִשְׁנָה דִיצִירָה.
54As to the statement in Etz Chaim (and in Shaar Hayichudim) that through kavanah (intention) there is formed a garment of neshamah and through Torah study—a garment of ruach-of-ruach of Yetzirah through Mishnah, and for ruach-of-neshamah of Beriah through Gemara. This can be understood as referring only to Torah studied by man in This World that ascends above. But Talmud itself that was given on Sinai is in neshamah. Therefore it refines ruach. So, too, with Mishnah of Yetzirah.
נהוְאַף אִם תִּמְצָא לוֹמַר, שֶׁגַּם הַנִּיתָּן מִסִּינַי הוּא בְּרוּחַ דִּבְרִיאָה־יְצִירָה, הֲרֵי נוֹדָע, שֶׁכָּל מַלְאָךְ שֶׁהוּא שָׁלִיחַ מִלְמַעְלָה, אֲזַי נִקְרָא בְּשֵׁם ה׳ מַמָּשׁ הַשּׁוֹכֵן בְּקִרְבּוֹ מַה־שֶּׁאֵין־כֵּן כְּשֶׁאֵינוֹ שָׁלִיחַ יֵשׁ לוֹ שֵׁם אַחֵר כְּפִי עֲבוֹדָתוֹ, וַאֲזַי קוֹרֵא ״קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ ה׳ כוּ׳״, כְּלוֹמַר שֶׁשֵּׁם ה׳ מוּבְדָּל מִמֶּנּוּ, וְכֵן הוּא מַמָּשׁ בִּבְחִינַת הִתְלַבְּשׁוּת הַתַּלְמוּד בִּבְחִינַת רוּחַ דִּבְרִיאָה, וְהַמִּשְׁנָה בְּרוּחַ דִיצִירָה, הֵם שְׁלוּחֵי ה׳, דְּהַיְינוּ כֵּלִים דְּנוּקְבָא דַאֲצִילוּת, הַחִיצוֹנִים בַּתַּלְמוּד, וְהָאֶמְצָעִים בַּמִּשְׁנָה.
55If it be suggested that even what was given at Sinai is in ruach of Beriah-Yetzirah, it is known that every angel, as an emissary from on High, is called by the Name of G–d74 literally, for He dwells within the angel. However, when he is not a messenger he has some other name according to his function. Then he proclaims, “Holy holy holy is G–d…,”27 meaning that the name of G–d is removed, distant from him. So it is actually in the state of investment of the Talmud, in the ruach state of Beriah, and the Mishnah in the ruach of Yetzirah—they are messengers of G–d, meaning vessels of nukva of Atzilut: the external state in Talmud, the intermediate state in Mishnah.
נואֲשֶׁר הַמִּשְׁנָה וְהַתַּלְמוּד שֶׁבָּהֶם נִמְשָׁכִים מִ״יסוֹד אַבָּא״, הַמְקַבֵּל מֵ״חָכְמָה סְתִימָאָה״ דַ״אֲרִיךְ אַנְפִּין״, שֶׁבּוֹ מְלוּבָּשׁ אוֹר־אֵין־סוֹף בָּרוּךְ־הוּא, וְנִמְצָא, שֶׁאוֹר־אֵין־סוֹף, הוּא שֵׁם ה׳, שׁוֹכֵן בְּרוּחַ דִּבְרִיאָה־יְצִירָה־עֲשִׂיָּה, בְּמִקְרָא וּמִשְׁנָה וְתַלְמוּד, וּכְשֶׁהָאָדָם לוֹמֵד, מַמְשִׁיךְ אוֹר־אֵין־סוֹף בָּרוּךְ־הוּא בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה לִהְיוֹת נִכְלָל וּבָטֵל בְּאוֹרוֹ יִתְבָּרֵךְ, ״כִּי זֶה כָּל הָאָדָם״.
56Thus Mishnah and Talmud contain issue of yesod abba which receives from chochmah stimaah of the Major Visage, in which is clothed the Light of the En Sof, blessed is He. The result is that the the Light of the En Sof, namely the Name of G–d, dwells in ruach of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah in Scripture, Mishnah, and Talmud. When man studies he draws forth the Light of the En Sof, blessed be He, into This World, that it be included and nullified in His Light, blessed be He. For this is all of man.75
נזוְזֹאת הָיְתָה עֲבוֹדַת רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר יוֹחָאִי וְכָל הַתַּנָּאִים וְאַמוֹרָאִים בַּנִּגְלֶה, לְהַמְשִׁיךְ אוֹרוֹ יִתְבָּרֵךְ, וּלְבָרֵר בֵּירוּרֵי נוֹגַהּ כָּל מֶשֶׁךְ זְמַן הַגָּלוּת דְּשָׁלְטָא אִילָנָא דְּטוֹב וָרַע, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: ״עֵת אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַט הָאָדָם בְּאָדָם כוּ׳״, כִּי זֶהוּ תַּכְלִית הַהִשְׁתַּלְשְׁלוּת שֶׁיֵּרֵד הָעֶלְיוֹן לְמַטָּה וְיִהְיֶה לוֹ דִּירָה בַּתַּחְתּוֹנִים, כְּדֵי לְהַעֲלוֹתָן ״לְמֶהֱוֵי אֶחָד בְּאֶחָד״.
57This was the service of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and all the Tannaim and Amoraim in the revealed Torah76—to call forth His Light, blessed be He, and to make these refinements of nogah77 all through the period of the exile. Exile is the time of dominion of the Tree of Good and Evil,78 as we find, “The time that man dominates man….”79 For this is the purpose of the descent, that the Higher descend below, and there be an “abode for Him among the lowly,”80 in order to elevate them to become one in one.81
נחמַה־שֶּׁאֵין־כֵּן עֲבוֹדַת הַמַּלְאָכִים, דְּחִילוּ וּרְחִימוּ שִׂכְלִיִּים, אֵינָהּ בִּבְחִינַת הַמְשָׁכָה כְּלָל וּכְלָל, רַק הִסְתַּלְּקוּת כוּ׳. וּבָזֶה יוּבַן מַה שֶּׁנִּבְרָאִים מַלְאָכִים מֵאַיִן לְיֵשׁ עַל־יְדֵי עֵסֶק הַתּוֹרָה אֲפִילוּ שֶׁלֹּא בְכַוָּונָה, שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת רוּחַ בִּלְבַד – שֶׁאֵינָהּ אֱלֹקוּת כְּלָל, אֶלָּא לְפִי שֶׁאַף־עַל־פִּי־כֵן שֵׁם ה׳ שׁוֹכֵן וְכוּ׳, וְדַי לַמֵּבִין:
58In contrast, the service of the angels with intellectual fear and love does not call forth at all; rather there is departure58 alone…. Thus we may understand how angels are created ex nihilo through study of Torah, even without kavanah, which is a state of ruach alone, which is not G–dliness at all. Still, nevertheless, the name of G–d does dwell…. This will suffice for the knowing.
591 See Addendum, Glossary to Likkutei Amarim, Part I, Birur.
602 See Addendum, Glossary, Or; Essay 1 and notes 3 and 9.
613 Netzach-hod-yesod are the penultimate attributes. On the ten sefirot see Addendum, Glossary. On Minor Visage see Essay 3, note 8.
624 See references in Essay 1, note 3.
635 “Garbs” indicate concealment, adaptation. See note 70.
646 See Essay 2, note 1. The the Light of the En Sof does not penetrate to the finite worlds spontaneously.
657 Meodecha (Deuteronomy 6:5) refers to absolute devotion, unrestrained and without reservation. It is the state of infinity in mortal terms and can thus arouse the true Infinite.
668 Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 46, note 29. Each Name denotes another aspect of G–d.
679 See Addendum, Glossary, nitzotzot.
6810 Shabbat 10a.
6911 See Essay 3, note 7.
70See ibid., note 8.
7113 “Severities” are limitations, withholding; “Kindnesses” are beneficence, granting. In their source, before they are translated into tangible forms of human kindness or sternness, they are quite abstract, removed from human context. Revelation proceeds by the stages of intellect, emotion, etc. Verbalization of the abstract thought is a limitation on the thought. The “Five Severities” are the five articulations (Likkutei Amarim, Part II, ch. 4) that clothe the disembodied thought in “letters.” This is a limitation, placing bounds on the idea. In turn, only through verbalization can the recipient, the lower plane, absorb the idea. For the inferior, then, the limitation is beneficence, or the “Five Kindnesses.” Translator’s Notes to On Learning Chassidus; Iggeret Hateshuvah, ch. 4, note 16.
7214 The “whiteness” refers to the source of mitzvot in the Divine will, where there is as yet no “coloration” or inclination toward any particular deed. The emotive attributes (love, fear. etc.), intense and powerful as they may be, are defined, hence limited. Even intellect at its most abstract already has some definition. The soul proper transcends all its powers and is relatively “boundless.” Will, particularly in its state of “whiteness,” is indivisible from the soul. Since the soul and its powers are analogous to G–d and the sefirot, the Divine will (origin of mitzvot) is a state of unity with Him.
7315 Iggeret Hateshuvah, ch. 1.
7416 See Essay 1, note 3.
7517 According to Biblical Law, some agricultural laws (tithes. Sabbatical year, etc.) are operative only in Eretz Yisrael, for example.
7618 See Translator’s Explanatory Notes to On Learning Chassidus; Essay 3, note 8.
7719 Moed Kattan 9a.
7820 Ezekiel 1.
7921 See note 16. In prayer one arouses the appropriate emotion, following the preparation of study and contemplation.
8022 Deuteronomy 11:22 and Rashi; Nedarim 65a.
8123 On the Teachings of Chassidus, p. 21, note 6, defining knowledge of “existence” and knowledge of “essence” or “character.”
8224 Genesis 18:27. See Iggeret Hakodesh, Epistle 15, for an explanation of the verse.
8325 The term “radiance” and similar expressions indicate that it is not G–d’s essence but only an emanation from Him, comparable to the body of the sun and its light (radiance) or “extension.”
84The angels, whose intellectual comprehension far exceeds the mortal’s. On the Teachings of Chassidus, p. 23; Iggeret Hateshuvah, ch. 4, note 14.
8527 Isaiah 6:3.
8628 Orderly progression involves the process of cause and effect, with a measurable relationship between them. The “cause” contains the “effect” in potential; the “effect” bears the impress of the “cause.” Intellect and emotion (see note 18) are examples. Creation ex nihilo is not an “orderly” process. The created is a “thing,” while its antecedent is “nothing.” The gap is absolute. The final three of the Four Worlds are “creatures,” while Atzilut is “emanation,” united with the Emanator, G–d.
8729 Exodus 33:23. See note 33.
8830 A play on Exodus 32:16, referring to the Tablets of the Ten Commandments. The Decalogue embodies all 613 precepts. See Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 36; Rashi on Exodus 24:12.
89Leviticus 23:40.
9032 The “palpability,” to use a grossly inappropriate term, of G–d’s presence in the object of a performed mitzvah (etrog or tefillin, say) is far superior to the awareness of G–d that is possible through the greatest of man’s intellectual and emotional resources. The key word in this paragraph is “essence,” and in the following contrasting paragraph the opposing term is “existence.”
9133 Moses has just been mentioned as one of these. Souls share a common source (see On Learning Chassidus) in the Creator, but they descend through the Worlds until they enter the body. The Atzilut soul retains its Atzilut character and is impervious to the “environment” of the lower Worlds. It continues its state of unity. The “Beriah soul” acquires the characteristics of that World and is immune to influence in the lower, and so on. See note 70.
9234 The four names of the soul parallel the Four Worlds. Nefesh is Asiyah, deed; ruach is Yetzirah, emotion, speech; neshamah is Beriah, intellect, thought; chaya is Atzilut. A fifth, highest aspect of the soul, is yechidah. The lowest three are abbreviated as naran. See Essay 1, note 16; Iggeret Hateshuvah, ch. 1, note 3.
9335 Except for Moses, all the Prophets were granted visions or dreams; theirs was not a conscious revelation—simultaneous revelation and continued awareness by the Prophet of his body and environment. The “trance” was a “divestment of the physical.”
94Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 3.
9537 The vessels of Atzilut “contain” the Light of the En Sof, a stage in its descent into finiteness. The lower stage of the superior plane becomes the higher stage (soul) of the lower plane, roughly in the manner of a chain of links. The “thirty” vessels invest the three inferior finite worlds—the ten (analogous to the ten sefirot) internal vessels in Beriah, the ten intermediate in Yetzirah, the ten externals in Asiyah.
9638 Avot 5:1; Iggeret Hateshuvah, ch. 4, note 16.
9739 In his Comments and Corrections to Tanya, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, suggests that the parenthesis ends here.
9840 See Iggeret Hakodesh, Epistle 20.
9941 Sod, the esoteric or mystic interpretation of Torah, including Kabbalah. The initiated may be conversant and knowledgeable with the terms and concepts, but he cannot in this manner penetrate beyond “existence” in “essence.”
10042 Here speech and thought are the fulfillment of the mitzvah of learning. This is not comparable to kavanah of a mitzvah without the mitzvah.
101In studying the law one can fully comprehend the theoretical, legal aspects, and the practical aspects, the nature of the subject he studies. See On Learning Chassidus, p. 37 ff.
10244 Leviticus 7:37; Menachot 110a.
10345 Deuteronomy 4:39.
10446 I Chronicles 28:9.
10547 Ibid.
106See On Learning Chassidus.
107Genesis 36:31. “Before” (not in time but on a preceding plane) the Condensation (Tzimtzum, see Translator’s Explanatory Notes to On Learning Chassidus), the Light of the En Sof shone forth “abundantly,” in greater measure than the absorptive capacities of the vessels. The “shattering of the vessels” took place, and the “sparks” scattered. This intolerable and unviable situation is called tohu (after Genesis 1:2) and refers to the period in the verse, “before a king ruled.” Tikkun took the place of tohu, a sharp diminution of Light and an increase in vessels, the process of downward progression with all the Worlds involved, culminating in our world. The mission of man is to call forth increased Divine light into the world, the “vessels.” Man is to elevate the fallen sparks by utilizing the material world for Divine purpose (performance of mitzvot, etc.), rather than indulgence, and by rejecting what G–d has forbidden him.
10850 Exodus 33:23. The Hebrew word panai (my face) implies pnimiyut (inwardness).
10951 See Essay 6, notes 13-14.
11052 In the innate shortcoming of speech and thought. The contrast is with the seminal “drop” that has the generative power, the offspring similar to the parent. The “drop” is drawn from the brain, the seat of intellect (see Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 2). If the extension of the “brain” (supreme wisdom) is merely thought or speech, then the generative power is lacking.
11153 Original, creative thinking, the intellectual activity closest to the source, the intellect.
11254 Every thought is of necessity a limitation of the power of intellect. The intellectual powers and the specific idea may be compared to the body of the sun and its rays. Intellect in turn is not the essence of soul, but a mere manifestation of soul. Thus the idea is several removes from the essence of the thinker.
11355 Likkutei Amarim, Part I, chs. 45 and 46.
11456 Chochmah-binah-daat, the “intellectual” attributes of G–d or powers of the human soul.
115Iggeret Hateshuvah, ch. 1, note 26.
11658 The author will shortly contrast two elevations, of vessels and of lights, the former alone being desirable. He will cite examples of light-vessel relationships, like soul and body, or emotion and deed. The soul must invest the body to give it life; emotion must inspire the deed. When the vessel “rises” to receive the light, the purpose is fulfilled. When the light “rises,” it removes itself from the vessel or instrument. Then soul does not vivify body, and emotion does not engender deed. In terms of the Divine light, the ascent of the vessel is its receptive ability fulfilled; ascent of light is the obscuring of G–d.
11759 Of the inferior, the vessel or instrument, the recipient.
11860 Drawing the light, the superior, downward.
119Deuteronomy 3:23 and Daat Zekenim.
12062 These, too, are considered vessels.
12163 See Essay 6, note 7.
12264 Genesis 1:11.
123See note 49.
12466 See On Learning Chassidus, p. 15 ff.
12567 Tefillin and etrog, the examples cited here.
12668 Leviticus 7:18. See below, Essay 5.
12769 Psalms 104:24. “All” includes the highest stage to the lowest. Chochmah, the Divine wisdom, invests even the lowliest; even the most exalted is considered as trivial as the lowliest (Asiyah, deed) before Him.
12870 In descent from plane to plane, there may be adaptation, acquisition of the traits of the lower. The subject manifests itself through its newly acquired “garments” in which it is now clothed. Another sort of descent involves no adaptation. It is merely a “passage” through the lower plane, without adopting “garments.” See note 33.
12971 Bava Metzia 100a.
13072 The law.
13173 The four compass points, above and below.
13274 Cf. Sanhedrin 38b.
13375 Ecclesiastes 12:13.
13476 See On the Teachings of Chassidus, p. 17.
13577 See Addendum, Glossary, Kelipat Nogah; Iggeret Hateshuvah, ch. 6, note 3.
13678 ibid. note 8.
13779 Ecclesiastes 8:89.
13880 See On the Teachings of Chassidus, note 13.
13981 Zohar II:135a.
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