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Likutei Amarim
Chapter 2וְנֶפֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִית בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל הִיא חֵלֶק אֱלוֹ־הַּ מִמַּעַל מַמָּשׁ,
The second soul within a Jew is literally a portion of God on high, This soul is the divine aspect of a person, comprised of divine essence that manifests within his being. The emphasis on the word "literally" indicates that this expression, "a portion of God on high," is not just a flowery phrase, but one that must be understood literally. The divine soul is literally a part of God. Not figuratively, but actually. Given its supreme virtue and loftiness, it would seem that this soul should be the first in order of rank, yet the author of the Tanya deems it the "second soul within a Jew." One explanation for this is that this soul is chronologically second. Man is born with an evil inclination and only later receives his good inclination.
כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: "וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים״ (בראשית ב, ז), "וְאַתָּה נְפַחְתָּהּ בִּי״. וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּזֹּהַר: "מַאן דְּנָפַח מִתּוֹכֵיהּ נָפַח״, פֵּירוּשׁ מִתּוֹכִיּוּתוֹ וּמִפְּנִימִיּוּתוֹ, שֶׁתּוֹכִיּוּת וּפְנִימִיּוּת הַחַיּוּת שֶׁבָּאָדָם מוֹצִיא בִּנְפִיחָתוֹ בְּכֹחַ.
as it is written, "And He blew into his nostrils the soul of life " (Gen. 2:7), and, similarly, in the morning blessings, "You blew it into me." This concept is clarified by the Zohar 's statement "One who blows, from within himself he blows," meaning from within His essence and innermost being, since by blowing forcefully, one emits the innermost essence of his life force. The life force that was manifest when God "blew into [Adam's] nostrils the soul of life" differs from the word of God, from the breath or life force that powers divine speech. God's speech created and constantly sustains the heavens, the earth, and everything in them, as will be explained in part 2, Sha'ar HaYiḥud VeHa'emuna. The exception to this rule is the human soul, about which it is written, "And He blew into his nostrils the soul of life." To understand the difference, one must explore the concepts of the breath of speech and blowing in the physical realm when employed by man. When a person speaks, he exhales only a portion of the air within him, breathing as he is speaking. Speech is only a partial expression of a person's essence and self and therefore formulates something external to the speaker. By contrast, a person who blows, blows from within himself, as the quote from the Zohar indicates.
כָּךְ עַל דֶּרֶךְ מָשָׁל, נִשְׁמוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל עָלוּ בְּמַחֲשָׁבָה,
So too this is analogous to the souls of the Jewish people that arose in divine thought, This sheds light on another facet of the words "He blew into his nostrils the soul of life." Having been created through God's word, all creative entities are bound to God in the same sense that speech is connected to the speaker: externally. The Jewish soul, conversely, "arose in [divine] thought." Compared to speech, thought is internal, one's expression to himself.
כְּדִכְתִיב: "בְּנִי בְכוֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל״ (שמות ד, כב),(דברים יד, א). פֵּירוּשׁ, כְּמוֹ שֶׁהַבֵּן נִמְשָׁךְ מִמּוֹחַ הָאָב, כָּךְ כִּבְיָכוֹל נִשְׁמַת כָּל אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל נִמְשְׁכָה מִמַּחֲשַׁבְתּוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ,
as it is written, "My firstborn son is Israel" (Ex. 4:22), and "You are children to the Lord your God" (Deut. 14:1). This means that just as a child is created by being drawn from the father's brain, so too the soul of each Jew is drawn from God's thought and wisdom, as it were, The relationship between father and child serves as yet another metaphor for the connection between the divine soul and God. This imagery, of the child being drawn from the father's mind, comes from the ancient medical theory that assumed that the drop of seed that the father contributes to the conceiving of a child originated in the father's mind as hyle, formless, almost spiritual, primal matter. According to this theory, this drop exits the mind and descends through the body, becoming increasingly solidified and physical until it finally takes shape and forms as a drop of seed that will grow and develop into the child. In that case, the connection between father and child far transcends the physical and touches on the roots of their being in spirit. Father and child are united at their essence, and only through the process of materialization does the child separate from the father to become an independent being. This imagery implies that at the child's very inception, he is part and parcel of his father's psyche. Formed by the depths of the father's self through a complicated process, the child crystallizes into a being that is outwardly distinct but on the most basic level is part of the father's spiritual self-identity. In this sense, a Jew is a child of God. The root of the divine soul within him, at its source, does not just result from a spark of divine will but rather is a constant manifestation of the Divine. This is the soul level known as yeḥida, the focal point where all souls are unified into one entity, where the soul lacks any independent existence and its reality as a "portion of God on high" emerges and all the disparate parts of the whole merge together and are subsumed within the Divine. This is the basis for the hasidic concept of deveikut, literally "cleaving" or "attachment" to God. It is the process by which a person reverts back through the stages of his own creation until he arrives at the point where he ceases to be an independent being. He then achieves what the Zohar calls "being drawn into the King's body"
"דְּאִיהוּ חַכִּים וְלָא בְּחָכְמָה יְדִיעָא״ (תיקוני זוהר יז:),
for "God is wise, yet not with known wisdom" (Tikkunei Zohar 17b), but rather, He and His wisdom are one, The soul of every Jew is drawn from God's wisdom, which the Zohar describes as wisdom that is not known.
וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתַב הָרַמְבַּ״ם: "שֶׁהוּא הַמַּדָּע וְהוּא הַיּוֹדֵעַ" כו'.
as Rambam stated, "He is the known, He is the knower …" (see Sefer HaMadda, Hilkhot Yesodei HaTorah 2:10). Rambam posits that knowledge can be divided into three categories: the knower, the object being known, and the knowledge itself. With regard to God, these three categories are one. He is not only the knower, but He is also the object being known and the knowledge itself.
הַגָּהָה: וְהוֹדוּ לוֹ חַכְמֵי הַקַּבָּלָה,
Gloss: The sages of Kabbala concur with him, There were sages who disagreed with Rambam on this point, but most kabbalists, regardless of the degree to which their world outlook diverged from Rambam's, agreed with him on two points. First, God's wisdom is essentially different in every way from every level and semblance of human wisdom, and second, God's wisdom is not separate from Him, but rather is unified with Him in absolute unity and totally removed from anything we are able to fathom.
כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּפַרְדֵּס מֵהָרַמַ״ק. וְגַם לְפִי קַבָּלַת הָאַרִ״י ז״ל יַצִּיבָא מִילְּתָא בְּסוֹד הִתְלַבְּשׁוּת אוֹר אֵין סוֹף בָּרוּךְ הוּא עַל יְדֵי צִמְצוּמִים רַבִּים בְּכֵלִים דְּחָכְמָה בִּינָה דַּעַת דַּאֲצִילוּת, אַךְ לֹא לְמַעְלָה מֵהָאֲצִילוּת.
as stated in Pardes Rimmonim (4:3) by Rabbi Moshe Kordevero. According to the kabbalistic teachings of the Arizal, of blessed memory, as well, this concept is correct specifically as it pertains to the mystery of the light of Ein Sof , blessed be He, which is clothed by means of many constrictions in the vessels of the sefirot of Ḥokhma , Bina , and Da'at of the world of Atzilut (Emanation), though not above Atzilut . According to the teachings of the Arizal, who attained loftier levels than even Rabbi Moshe Kordevero, Rambam's statement regarding the identical nature of the knower, the known, and the knowledge is only partially accurate. It is incorrect when related to the divine essence itself (substantiating the Maharal's standpoint that one cannot equate the divine essence with wisdom, just as it is impossible to equate it with any other defined thing). Rambam's assertion pertains only to the divine essence as it is manifest in the realm of Atzilut through the sefira of Ḥokhma, Wisdom. There His infinite divine essence is clothed, through numerous constrictions, within the attribute of Ḥokhma. It is only regarding that constricted divine light clothed in Ḥokhma that one might say that the Divine is unified with Ḥokhma, like one being, that it is the knowledge, the knower, and the known object itself.
וּכְמוֹ שֶׁנִּתְבָּאֵר בְּמָקוֹם אַחֵר, שֶׁאֵין סוֹף בָּרוּךְ הוּא מְרוֹמָם וּמִתְנַשֵּׂא רוֹמְמוּת אֵין קֵץ לְמַעְלָה מַעְלָה מִמַּהוּת וּבְחִינַת חָכְמָה בִּינָה דַּעַת, עַד שֶׁמַּהוּת וּבְחִינַת חָכְמָה בִּינָה דַּעַת
This conforms with what is explained elsewhere (Sha'ar HaYiḥud Veha'emuna, chap. 9), that Ein Sof , blessed be He, is infinitely exalted and lofty, above and beyond the essence and level of Ḥokhma , Bina , and Da'at to the extent that the essence and level of Ḥokhma ,
נֶחֱשֶׁבֶת כַּעֲשִׂיָּיה גּוּפָנִיִּית אֶצְלוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: "כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ״ (תהלים קד, כד).
נֶחֱשֶׁבֶת כַּעֲשִׂיָּיה גּוּפָנִיִּית אֶצְלוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: "כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ״ (תהלים קד, כד). Bina , and Da'at are considered like physical action in relation to God, as it is written, "In wisdom have You made them all" (Ps. 104:24). "He and His wisdom are one" does not reflect the relationship between God's wisdom and His essence, but rather conveys the connection between the vessel of supernal wisdom and the divine light that is constricted and manifest through it. The relationship between divine wisdom and the divine essence, between divine wisdom and Ein Sof, is incomprehensible and impossible to articulate except to say that God's wisdom relative to Him is like physical action is to us. To us, wisdom is the absolute upper limit in the highest reaches of the spectrum of our reality, while physical action is the lowest. The distance between them is the greatest span that we can possibly comprehend. Though the range between God's wisdom and His divine essence is immeasurably more immense, we utilize this example to appreciate the unfathomable scope of God. Just as one's essential being, one's core self, far transcends a physical action that one may do, God's wisdom is the lower aspect of His being, encapsulating a negligible degree of His divine essence. His essence far transcends His attributes, the sefirot, and their various manifestations. The divine essence itself cannot be equated at all with the medium through which it manifests.
וְדָבָר זֶה אֵין בִּיכוֹלֶת הָאָדָם לַהֲבִינוֹ עַל בּוּרְיוֹ כו׳,
Rambam continues: "This is something that is not within the human capacity to comprehend clearly…," A person can apprehend only that which exists within him to some degree. Man lacks anything that resembles a consciousness that encompasses all and includes all, that is not external to himself, but internal, deep within, like divine knowledge. Therefore, man is incapable of understanding this concept properly.
כְּדִכְתִיב: "הַחֵקֶר אֱלוֹהַּ תִּמְצָא״ (איוב יא, ז), וּכְתִיב: "כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם״ וגו׳ (ישעיה נה, ח).
as it is written, "Can you discover the understanding of God?" (Job 11:7), and it is written, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts… and your ways are not My ways – the utterance of the Lord" (Isa. 55:8). "For My thoughts are not your thoughts" does not mean that God thinks about other, more important things but rather refers to the way in which God thinks, so to speak. In the words of the Zohar, which the author of the Tanya quoted above, "Not with known wisdom." His wisdom does not share the nature and fabric of our wisdom in any way whatsoever but is rather of a distinctly incomprehensible quality.
וְאַף שֶׁיֵּשׁ רְבָבוֹת מִינֵי חִלּוּקֵי מַדְרֵגוֹת בַּנְּשָׁמוֹת,
Granted, there are myriad types of distinct levels of souls, The second soul of every Jew is a portion of God on high, a spark of the divine essence, the light of the Divine. Although at their root all souls are seamlessly one with the divine essence in perfect unity, when they manifest corporeally they become divided into innumerable gradations and levels.
גָּבוֹהַּ מֵעַל גָּבוֹהַּ לְאֵין קֵץ,
one higher than the next, without end. As stated in the introduction, people differ from each other in their character, in their overall ability, in their capacity for understanding, and in their attitude. Here the author of the Tanya presents another distinguishing feature among people: their soul level. There are lower souls and infinitely higher souls. This distinction between levels does not stem from the Jewish soul's root, from the place where it is literally a portion of God and one with every other Jewish soul, but rather in the place where the ethereal divine soul manifests as a particular person. The level at which the soul finds itself on the vast, infinite spectrum, from its root in the Divine until its manifestation in a corporeal body, is embodied in the person's consciousness and unique personality.
כְּמוֹ גּוֹדֶל מַעֲלַת נִשְׁמוֹת הָאָבוֹת וּמֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם עַל נִשְׁמוֹת דּוֹרוֹתֵינוּ אֵלֶּה דְּעִקְבֵי מְשִׁיחָא שֶׁהֵם בְּחִינַת עֲקֵבַיִים מַמָּשׁ לְגַבֵּי הַמּוֹחַ וְהָרֹאשׁ.
For example, the souls of the forefathers and Moses, our teacher, may he rest in peace, are immensely superior to the souls of the people in our generations, which are described as the heels of the Messiah, since they are literally like heels in relation to the brain and the head. The "heels of the Messiah" is not just a figurative phrase implying that Messiah's arrival is imminent, that his footsteps can be heard in our generation. It is also a description of the nature of this era and the quality of the souls in it. Every soul is a complete structural analogue, a composite whole that corresponds to the structure of the body it wears. It has a "head" – that is, it possesses the faculties of consciousness, Hokhma, Bina, and Da'at – Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge – which are the sources of the rest of the attributes. The soul also has elements that correspond to the arms, torso, legs, and feet, with its heels being the lowest extremity of a person's character with hardly any vitality. On a broader scale, all the souls living in one generation together also constitute a complete structural analogue and as a collective form a manifestation of a single being. On a broader scale still, all the Jewish souls that ever lived and ever will live, throughout all the generations, constitute their own complete structural analogue – that of Adam, the first man. The Midrash explains that every soul existed in the soul of Adam, some in his head, others in his arm, others in his feet, and so on. One generation of souls were those rooted in Adam's head, while another generation consisted of souls from Adam's feet. As the days of the Messiah become more imminent, the souls of the generations come from an increasingly lower place, down to the heels. The souls of the most recent generations are thus deemed the "heels of the Messiah." There are therefore myriad levels and gradations between generations, between an era that sprouts giants and one that generates dwarfs. Elsewhere, the author of the Tanya discusses how the analogue of all Jewish souls as a collective resembles the limbs of the body. Just as every limb has a purpose, a function particular to it, so does every soul. The head cannot walk; a leg cannot think. So too, different things are demanded of each person, each soul, and people on different levels are not held accountable for the same things. Even in the realm of mitzva performance, in which every person, from Moses to the simplest Jew, is equally obligated, there is a vast difference in the way each person is meant to perform them. It is told that a certain tzaddik said to his wagon driver, "You merely put tefillin on your head, whereas I put tefillin in my head." Another crucial point emerges from this understanding of the interconnectedness of every soul: The difference between souls lies in their roles, not in the inherent value of the soul's essence.
וְכֵן בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר יֵשׁ רָאשֵׁי אַלְפֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁנִּשְׁמוֹתֵיהֶם הֵם בְּחִינַת רֹאשׁ וּמוֹחַ לְגַבֵּי נִשְׁמוֹת הֶהָמוֹן וְעַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ.
Likewise, in each and every generation there are the heads, or leaders, of the thousands of Israel. Their souls constitute the head and brain in relation to the souls of the masses and the ignorant. Every generation in and of itself is a complete structural analogue, consisting of souls on various levels, from the heads of thousands, which function like the mind in relation to the limbs, to lower souls, which resemble heels relative to the head. The heads of the nation are not simply higher souls, but they also interact with the other souls of their time as the mind does with the body. There are therefore distinctions between souls within every generation that span an entire spectrum from one extreme to the other, from the head to the heels. Likewise, there is a commensurate scope of distinctions between different generations. When these two ranges of distinctions are combined, the intersection of the analogue of a single generation and that of all time constitute "myriad types of distinct levels of souls," as the author of the Tanya asserts above.
וְכֵן נְפָשׁוֹת לְגַבֵּי נְפָשׁוֹת, כִּי כָּל נֶפֶשׁ כְּלוּלָה מִנֶּפֶשׁ רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה.
Similarly, there are distinctions between the nefesh levels within some souls in relation to the nefesh levels within other souls, for every soul is comprised of a nefesh level, a ruaḥ level, and a neshama level. A person has three levels of soul within him: nefesh, ruaḥ, and neshama. Just as people vary with regard to their highest soul level, their neshama, so too the level of their nefesh, the lowest rung of their soul, varies greatly. How can this be so? After all, the level of nefesh represents the everyday perspective of this physical world of Asiya (Action) and of the body, and in the world of Asiya all Jews are equal. For example, every Jew is obligated to don tefillin irrespective of his soul level. Nevertheless, as the Tanya asserts, there can still be distinctions between individuals on the nefesh level, since every soul consists not only of a nefesh, but also a ruaḥ and neshama. The interconnectedness between the higher levels of ruaḥ and neshama and the nefesh level breeds the "[distinctions between the] nefesh [levels within some souls] in relation to [the] nefesh [levels within other souls]."
מִכָּל מָקוֹם, שֹׁרֶשׁ כָּל הַנֶּפֶשׁ רוּחַ נְשָׁמָה כּוּלָּם, מֵרֹאש כָּל הַמַּדְרֵיגוֹת עַד סוֹף כָּל דַּרְגִּין, הַמְּלוּבָּשׁ בְּגוּף עַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ וְקַל שֶׁבַּקַּלִּים,
Nevertheless, the root of every nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama , all of them, from the highest of all levels to the lowest of all levels that are clothed within the bodies of the ignorant and the most unworthy, The am ha'aretz, or ignorant person, refers to the most extreme ignoramus, far removed from knowledge and awareness of the Divine. Practically speaking, his soul exists on a low level, lacking the manifestation of the higher levels of his soul, his ruaḥ and neshama. "The most irreverent" refers to those who commit transgressions liberally and carelessly, mocking anything that is holy.
נִמְשָׁךְ מִמּוֹחַ הָעֶלְיוֹן שֶׁהִיא חָכְמָה עִילָּאָה כִּבְיָכוֹל,
is drawn down, as it were, from the supernal mind, which is supernal wisdom. Both the highest and the lowest of souls stem from the same source – the supernal divine wisdom – and every soul is a unique expression of that same divine wisdom.
כִּמְשַׁל הַבֵּן הַנִּמְשָׁךְ מִמּוֹחַ הָאָב,
This is analogous to the child who is drawn from the father's brain. Just as the initial inception of the child is in the mind of the father, so too every Jewish soul is drawn from God's supernal wisdom. And just as the children of the same father differ from each other, so too there are differences between souls. Though it is said of all the Jewish people that "you are children to the Lord" (Deut. 14:1), that does not mean that all Jews are equal. There are good children and rebellious children; some are smart and some are not. Yet still, beyond all the differences and levels, each one is still God's child.
שֶׁאֲפִילּוּ צִפָּרְנֵי רַגְלָיו נִתְהַוּוּ מִטִּפָּה זוֹ מַמָּשׁ עַל יְדֵי שְׁהִיָּיתָהּ תִּשְׁעָה חֳדָשִׁים בְּבֶטֶן הָאֵם וְיָרְדָה מִמַּדְרֵגָה לְמַדְרֵגָה לְהִשְׁתַּנּוֹת וּלְהִתְהַוּוֹת מִמֶּנָּה צִפָּרְנַיִם, וְעִם כָּל זֶה עוֹדֶנָּה קְשׁוּרָה וּמְיוּחֶדֶת בְּיִחוּד נִפְלָא וְעָצוּם בְּמַהוּתָהּ וְעַצְמוּתָהּ הָרִאשׁוֹן שֶׁהָיְתָה טִפַּת מוֹחַ הָאָב.
Even his toenails were literally brought into existence from this drop of semen by his gestating in the mother's womb for nine months, having descended level by level, constantly morphing, until even nails were formed. Despite this, the drop is still connected and unified in a wondrous and awesome unity with its original essence and being, namely, the drop of semen as it originated in the father's brain. That which passes from the essence of the father to enliven the child (in modern-day terms, his genetic code) informs the entirety of the child's being: his personality, his talents, his mind, and even his toenails. That very same essential life force expresses itself on all levels, and the lower the level, the more physical and concrete its form. The toenails are not only far from the control center of the body, but it has the least vitality of all body parts. Yet it is still created from the same life force that forms the more sublime aspects of a person, the same life force that gives him the ability to create music, learn philosophy, or study science. Likewise, a defect in the first cell that passes from father to child may cause a defect in the child's nails. Despite the vast distance between them, the toenail too is bound to the initial source in the father's mind. The first stimulus happens there, in the seed of the child's formation, and that nucleus includes the entirety of the child's being.
וְגַם עַכְשָׁיו, בַּבֵּן, יְנִיקַת הַצִּפָּרְנַיִם וְחַיּוּתָם נִמְשֶׁכֶת מֵהַמּוֹחַ שֶׁבָּרֹאשׁ. כִּדְאִיתָא בַּגְּמָרָא [נִדָּה שָׁם] (לא, א): "לוֹבֶן שֶׁמִּמֶּנּוּ גִּידִים וַעֲצָמוֹת וְצִפָּרְנַיִם״
Even now, in the child, the nourishment and life force that the nails receive are drawn from the brain that is in the head, as the Talmud states, "There are three partners in the creation of a person: the Holy One, blessed be He, his father, and his mother. His father emits the white seed, from which the following body parts are formed: the sinews, the bones, the nails, the brain that is in its head, and the white of the eye" ( Nidda 31a). To clarify, the nails receive nourishment from the brain in the child's head, not the father's head. This metaphor corresponds to connection between the souls of simple people in comparison to the souls of the leaders of Israel. The nefesh, ruaḥ, and neshama of simple Jews are like the toenails of God's firstborn child. They receive their vitality from the nefesh, ruaḥ, and neshama of the heads of the Jewish people in their generation, which correspond to their brain.
[וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בְּעֵץ־חַיִּים שַׁעַר הַחַשְׁמַל, בְּסוֹד לְבוּשִׁים שֶׁל אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן בְּגַן־עֵדֶן, שֶׁהָיוּ צִפָּרְנַיִם מִבְּחִינַת מוֹחַ תְּבוּנָה].
(It is likewise written in Etz Ḥayyim , Sha'ar HaḤashmal , with regard to the mystery of Adam's garments in the Garden of Eden, that they were made of nails originating from the brain's faculty of tevuna, insight.) In kabbalistic terms, the word used here for the faculty of understanding, tevuna, is the external aspect of the attribute of Bina. Bina is the understanding itself, while tevuna is the cognitive response toward reality that exists outside the mind, as opposed to objects of the intellect. Tevuna functions as a type of garment, or outward expression, for Bina, and that is why it corresponds to the nails, which were Adam's garment in the Garden of Eden, and to the nails of all humans today, which encase the fingers and toes.
וְכָכָה מַמָּשׁ כִּבְיָכוֹל
It is literally the same, as it were, Just as there is an extremely complex and obscure relationship between the initial drop of life in the father's mind and his child's toenails, the same is true of the connection between the souls of Israel and their Father in Heaven. The various limbs of the body are on differing levels, serving varying functions, yet each one stems from the same drop of seed in the father's mind. So too the souls of Israel, with all their varying levels, from the highest strata corresponding to the heads of Israel such as the forefathers and Moses to the most extreme ignoramuses, sinners, and heretics, are all, at their deepest root, a portion of God on high.
בְּשֹׁרֶשׁ כָּל הַנֶּפֶשׁ רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה שֶׁל כְּלָלוּת יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמַעְלָה בִּירִידָתוֹ מִמַּדְרֵגָה לְמַדְרֵגָה עַל יְדֵי הִשְׁתַּלְשְׁלוּת הָעוֹלָמוֹת, אֲצִילוּת בְּרִיאָה יְצִירָה עֲשִׂיָּה, מֵחָכְמָתוֹ יִתְבָּרַךְ,
with regard to the root of every nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama of the collective of Israel on high. When the soul descends level by level, by means of the unfolding progression of the worlds of Atzilut (Emanation), Beria (Creation), Yetzira (Formation), and Asiya (Action), from God's wisdom, where it originates, The essence and nature of the soul root that originates in the supernal wisdom does not shine at its full strength in every person, just as the energy of the father does not manifest at its full strength in every limb of the child. Just as the father's creative material must descend level by level and become clothed in garment after garment until it solidifies into a particular physical cell, the divine spark that is the root of every Jewish soul's nefesh, ruaḥ, and neshama undergoes a similar progression. The divine spark descends and is clothed in garment after garment until it is manifest in the physical body.
כְּדִכְתִיב: "כּוּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ״ (תהלים קד, כד),
as it is written, "In wisdom have You made them all" ( Ps. 104:24), Hokhma is the key to creation, the first sefira in the whole order of progression from conception to physical reality. It constitutes the manifestation of the divine light in the creation of the worlds.
נִתְהַוּוּ מִמֶּנּוּ נֶפֶשׁ רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה שֶׁל עַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ וּפְחוּתֵי הָעֶרֶךְ, וְעִם כָּל זֶה עוֹדֶינָּה קְשׁוּרוֹת וּמְיוּחָדוֹת בְּיִחוּד נִפְלָא וְעָצוּם בְּמַהוּתָן וְעַצְמוּתָן הָרִאשׁוֹן שֶׁהִיא הַמְשָׁכַת חָכְמָה עִילָּאָה,
the nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama of the ignorant and those who are inferior come into existence through it, the soul's descent. Nonetheless, their nefesh, ruaḥ, and neshama are still connected and unified in a wondrous and awesome unity with their original essence and being, which is drawn from supernal wisdom, Even one who has fallen lower than the inferior and ignorant among Israel, until there is nowhere else to fall, even the heretic who says that he has no Father in Heaven, has a nefesh, ruaḥ, and neshama that are bound and unified to their primary source, which is drawn from the supernal wisdom. Whether a person admits or denies the reality of his father does not change the essential bond between them. It just offers insight into the type of person he is. It does not change the fact that his father is his father.
כִּי יְנִיקַת וְחַיּוּת נֶפֶשׁ רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה שֶׁל עַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ הוּא מִנֶּפֶשׁ רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה שֶׁל הַצַּדִּיקִים וְהַחֲכָמִים רָאשֵׁי בְְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁבְּדוֹרָם.
because the nourishment and life force of the nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama of the ignorant are drawn from the nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama of the righteous and the sages, who serve as the heads of Israel in their generation. The Jewish people of a given generation are, as explained above, a complete structural analogue comparable to the human body. It is composed of a head – the leaders of the generation – as well as those who correspond to the feet and toenails of the nation. Every limb is connected on two levels: It works in conjunction with the mind (and the rest of the limbs) as a component of the entire bodily structure, and it is also directly bound to the primary creative force that originates in the father. In light of this, the father's life force exists equally in every limb, yet it is manifest in the head more than in the feet. The feet, the arms, and the rest of the limbs are subjugated to the mind from which they receive their vitality. While all Jewish souls are "children of God," a complex interrelationship operates among them. The "heads of Israel" sense and channel the divine life force to every Jewish soul, each according to its capacity and function. Like the dynamic between the head and the body, the connection between a leader and a Jewish soul is not one way. Just as the head feels the pain of the feet, so too a "head" of Israel empathizes with every person, even those who are like the feet of the nation. It is related about a famous tzaddik that if a woman was birthing three hundred miles away, he would not be able to sleep because he felt her pain. If a Jewish leader does not feel the pain of every part of his "body," he is clearly not a true "head." This pathway of connection does not just flow to and from the head, but in a certain sense courses between all the organs. As long as a limb is connected to the body, it interacts with all the other organs. The suffering of one limb necessarily must affect every other organ in some way given the reciprocal flow between them. Yet the degree to which each limb senses the pain and pleasure of all the others is not the same as that of the head. The connection between the organs is not a conscious one, while the head is acutely aware of this bond, and it is that awareness that makes it worthy of being a head.
וּבָזֶה יוּבָן מַאֲמַר רַבּוֹתֵינוּ ז״ל (כתובות קיא, ב) עַל פָּסוּק "וּלְדָבְקָה בוֹ״ (דברים ל, כ): "שֶׁכָּל הַדָּבֵק בְּתַלְמִידֵי חֲכָמִים מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִלּוּ נִדְבַּק בַּשְּׁכִינָה מַמָּשׁ״, כִּי עַל יְדֵי דְּבִיקָה בְּתַלְמִידֵי חֲכָמִים קְשׁוּרוֹת נֶפֶשׁ רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה שֶׁל עַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ וּמְיוּחָדוֹת בְּמַהוּתָן הָרִאשׁוֹן וְשָׁרְשָׁם שֶׁבְּחָכְמָה עִילָּאָה, שֶׁהוּא יִתְבָּרַךְ וְחָכְמָתוֹ אֶחָד, וְהוּא הַמַּדָּע כו׳.
With this we can understand our Rabbis' statement regarding the verse "To love the Lord your God, to heed His voice, and to cleave to Him" (Deut. 30:20): "But is it possible to cleave to the Divine Presence?... Rather, anyone who cleaves to Torah scholars, the verse ascribes him credit as though he is literally cleaving to the Divine Presence" (Ketubot 111b). By cleaving to Torah scholars, the nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama of the ignorant are connected and unified with their original essence and root in supernal wisdom, and thereby with God Himself, since God and His wisdom are one, and He is the known, He is the knower, and He is the knowledge itself (as cited above from Rambam, Sefer HaMadda, Hilkhot Yesodei HaTorah 2:10). Even when a person who is utterly ignorant cleaves to the leaders of his generation, he receives the life force that flows through them directly from the primary source, that portion of God on high, which originates in God's supernal wisdom. Yet though this is true of those who are ignorant and even inferior, the same cannot be said of sinners and rebels.
[וְהַפּוֹשְׁעִים וּמוֹרְדִים בְּתַלְמִידֵי חֲכָמִים, יְנִיקַת נֶפֶשׁ רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה שֶׁלָּהֶם מִבְּחִינַת אֲחוֹרַיִים שֶׁל נֶפֶשׁ רוּחַ וְנִשְׁמַת תַּלְמִידֵי חֲכָמִים.]
(However, those who sin deliberately and those who rebel against Torah scholars, and consequently dissociate themselves from the generation's leaders, the nourishment of their nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama comes from the back side of the nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama of Torah scholars.) Those who sin intentionally and rebel against the generation's leaders cannot receive their spiritual nourishment directly from the souls of those leaders. Granted, no creation is completely cut off from holiness. This is certainly true of the Jewish soul. Every Jewish soul is bound at his primal root to the heads of Israel. The difference between people lies in the nature of the connection. A person who is aware of his connection to the leader of his generation has a face-to-face relationship with him, as it were, drawing his vitality directly from the leader in a conscious way. Someone who is unaware of his connection to the leader of the generation receives his vitality in an indirect, "backward" way. Along the same lines, the author of the Tanya explains the nature of repentance elsewhere through the following analogy: Two people are standing close together. When they face each other, they are as close as can be. When they turn away from each other and stand back to back, they are as far as could be from each other, even though they are literally right next to each other. Repentance is as simple as a change in direction: One need only turn and face God. Someone who transgresses and rebels against the leaders of his generation cannot disconnect from them, even if he does not wish to accept their leadership. He is still a Jew and is bound to them, receiving vitality from them, just as the limbs receive vitality from the brain. But the rebel does not want that connection; he turns his back on them. Since it cannot be that he will not receive vitality from them, he receives it from the back side.
וּמַה שֶּׁכָּתוּב בַּזֹּהַר וּבְזֹהַר חָדָשׁ שֶׁהָעִיקָּר תָּלוּי שֶׁיְּקַדֵּשׁ עַצְמוֹ בִּשְׁעַת תַּשְׁמִישׁ דַּוְוקָא, מַה שֶּׁאֵין כֵּן בְּנֵי עַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ כו׳,
As for what is written in the Zohar and Zohar Ḥadash , that the primary spiritual makeup of the child is specifically contingent on whether one sanctifies himself during intercourse, whereas this is not the case with regard to children of the ignorant, who do not sanctify themselves, Ostensibly, one can infer from the Zohar that the makeup of the child depends mainly on one factor: his parents. That is, who they are and whether their intentions at the decisive moment of cohabitation were holy or not (according to their level). In view of this, a person's essence is determined solely by inheritance. It seems that a holy person can be born only to parents who themselves are on that level. However, this seems to contradict the theme of this chapter, that all Jews have divine souls that share a common source in the supernal wisdom. How, then, can the Zohar state that a person's spiritual makeup is dependent on his father and mother?
הַיְינוּ מִשּׁוּם שֶׁאֵין לְךָ נֶפֶשׁ רוּחַ וּנְשָׁמָה שֶׁאֵין לָהּ לְבוּשׁ מִנֶּפֶשׁ דְּעַצְמוּת אָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ.
this is because there is no nefesh , ruaḥ , and neshama that does not have a garment that stems from the essence of one's father and mother. To understand this, we must differentiate between the essential soul and its garments. The essential soul is a portion of God on high, totally independent of one's parents, education, and environment. The garment of the soul, meaning the way in which the soul appears and manifests, depends on one's parents and, later, on the way in which a person was raised. As the Mishna states, "The father transmits to the child beauty, strength, wealth, wisdom, and years" (Eduyyot 2:9). While parents pass their own characteristics down to their children, they do not transmit their children's souls. The "portion of God on high" is not inherited from one's father or mother. Yet the garments that parents give the soul are highly significant and encompass both physical as well as emotional characteristics, spiritual faculties, and the capacity to achieve that which it is capable of accomplishing. All these qualities combine to give the child his personality through which he lives and functions. Yet we need to remember that the garment, as significant as it is, is not the soul itself and does not control the soul itself. Its importance lies in the way it affects the manner in which the soul operates.
וְכָל הַמִּצְוֹת שֶׁעוֹשֶׂה הַכֹּל עַל יְדֵי אוֹתוֹ הַלְּבוּשׁ כו׳,
All the mitzvot that the soul performs are all performed through that garment and so forth. The soul does not perform mitzvot by itself. Mitzvot are not performed in a vacuum, but rather through that with which the soul has no direct point of contact. The soul needs the intermediaries of physical and spiritual instruments through which it can operate in the world. These instruments are the garments of the soul and include intellectual ability, basic axiomatic beliefs, modes of interpersonal interaction, and ways of interacting with phenomena and understanding them. These garments are influenced by a person's parents, mostly through inheritance and partially through education and training.
וַאֲפִילּוּ הַשֶּׁפַע שׁנּוֹתְנִים לוֹ מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם הַכֹּל עַל יְדֵי לְבוּשׁ זֶה.
Moreover, even the life-giving sustenance that one is granted from Heaven is entirely by means of this garment. The soul does not act only through these garments; it receives through them as well. When a person receives the life-giving sustenance from above, that influx must be clothed in these garments – in the person's way of thinking, his ideas, how he relates to himself and others – in order to be drawn down.
וְאִם יְקַדֵּשׁ אֶת עַצְמוֹ יַמְשִׁיךְ לְבוּשׁ קָדוֹשׁ לְנִשְׁמַת בְּנוֹ, וַאֲפִילּוּ הִיא נְשָׁמָה גְּדוֹלָה צְרִיכָה לְקִידּוּשׁ אָבִיו כו׳.
Therefore, if one sanctifies himself during intercourse, he wi ll draw down a holy garment for his child's divine soul. Even if the child's divine soul is great, it requires the sanctification of the father and so forth. The garments of the soul that parents draw down to their child are not just physical qualities but the entirety of his personality. It is not only the father's particular abilities that are important to his child but also his level of holiness throughout his life. Even a great soul needs holy garments that stem from the level of sanctification engendered by the parent. It is related that Rabbi Uri of Strelisk, famously known as the Saraf, who came from a simple family, said that if his father had immersed in a mikveh (a ritual bath designed for ritual purification) even once in his life, it is inestimable how much easier it would have been for him to grow in his divine service. The Zidichover Rebbe's mother would wake up her five children every night to recite Tikkun Ḥatzot, yet one of her children said that if his mother had not eaten cooked cabbage from the non-Jewish neighbor when she was pregnant, he would have had significantly fewer obstacles in his divine service. A person cannot separate himself from his inherited soul-garb. Even a great soul, a tzaddik by nature, is incapable of disconnecting entirely from the garments of his soul. If his garb is of a low quality, it will hinder him. Alternatively, a person who merits holy garments from his parents, even if he has a low-level soul, will find it easier to accomplish great things in the realm of holiness.
אֲבָל הַנְּשָׁמָה עַצְמָהּ, הִנֵּה לִפְעָמִים נִשְׁמַת אָדָם גָּבוֹהַּ לְאֵין קֵץ בָּא לִהְיוֹת בְּנוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם נִבְזֶה וְשָׁפֵל כו׳, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתַב הָאֲרִ״י ז״ל כָּל זֶה בְּלִיקּוּטֵי תוֹרָה פָּרָשַׁת וַיֵּרָא וּבְטַעֲמֵי מִצְוֹת פָּרָשַׁת בְּרֵאשִׁית.
But with regard to the soul itself, there are times when the soul of a person of infinitely lofty stature comes to be the child of a despicable and lowly person and so forth. The Arizal states all this in Likkutei Torah , Parashat Vayera , and in Ta'amei HaMitzvot , Parashat Bereshit . Jewish history offers many examples of great souls with dubious lineage. The tanna Rabbi Meir apparently descended from a family of Roman caesars, which is certainly a wretched lineage in terms of holiness. A soul like his, which came from Esau, could not come to our world in any other way than through a convert. Rabbi Akiva too came from a family of converts. They say about him that a soul of his caliber, which in several respects was commensurate with that of Moses, had to have been born particularly of such lineage. That is the only way to extract such a soul from its origin in the realm of kelippa. Even the lineage of Moses himself includes a subtle blemish, not entirely from the realm of holiness. Yet the most blatant example of dubious ancestry is that of the soul of the Messiah. From the beginning, there were problems: Judah and Tamar, Boaz and Ruth, David and Batsheva, Solomon and Na'ama the Amonitess. The soul of King David, deemed the fourth leg of the chariot from Ezekiel's vision, and the soul of his offspring, the Messiah, are the most lofty of souls. Yet these souls were in captivity in the kelippa. To escape, they needed to traverse the border between holiness and impurity, which was enabled by the less than pristine relationships of their progenitors. These souls are like pearls found only in refuse. The great leaders of Israel do not rummage around in the garbage, even if to extract a pearl; it is not their way. The people who are drawn to those dirtier places, who generally take things from the trash heap, usually find only trash. Yet when a pearl has been lost there, they end up taking possession of it as well. In short, parents do not create the soul, only its garb. As the Talmud states, "There are three partners in the creation of a person: the Holy One, blessed be He, his father, and his mother. His father emits the white seed…his mother emits red seed…and the Holy One, blessed be He, inserts into him a spirit, a soul…." God endows the child with a soul and does not always consult with His partners on which type they prefer. As in the common analogy of a duck hatching goose eggs, some parents may be disappointed with a holy child while others are dissatisfied with a child who is anything less. Yet at the end of the day, it does not depend on them. This chapter explains how every Jew, even the most unworthy and insignificant, is a portion of God on high. Every Jew is a child of God. Yet each person is distinguished by the soul garments with which his parents endow him and the way in which his soul manifests and expresses itself. Like siblings in the same family, there is the successful child and the less successful one, the wise one and the foolish one, yet beyond these differences there is a plane where all are equal, all are children. This immutable fact is not affected by a person's actions or even by the greatness or lowliness of his soul. Notes