כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם לטהר אתכם מכל…

1“For on this day He shall make atonement for you, to purify you; from all your sins before G‑d you shall be purified.” ([Midrash] Rabbah: Toldos, section 65, concerning “two good kids of the goats”; Acharei, the end of section 20 and the end of section 21; Emor, the end of section 27;

Shelach Lecha, section 16, concerning “in the scales they go up”; Shir HaShirim Rabbah on the verse “like the tents of Kedar,” and on the verse “to the garden of nuts,” and on the verse “we have a little sister”; and in the Introduction (Pesichta) to Eichah [Rabbah], in the passage beginning “Rabbi Yitzchak opened: ‘Because you did not serve.’”)

Now, we need to understand what is written, “He shall make atonement,” without specifying [who]; it should have said, “G‑d shall make atonement,” etc. But it is known that Yom HaKippurim is the day of teshuvah (return), and the meaning of teshuvah is to return one’s G‑dly soul to the source from which it was hewn,

as it was before the chaining-down (hishtalshelus) and the descent of the levels to this world, to be enclothed in the physical human body; for then it was included in the source and root of all worlds, the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He.

2As is written in the Zohar on the verse “And He blew into his nostrils a soul of life”: “One who blows, blows from within himself.” For at first the breath was included in its source and root, that is, in his very being and essence itself,

except that after its descent and the chaining-down of the levels, it changed from one essence to another and descended to be enclothed in the human body in this world. Therefore one must return it to its source, as it was, and raise one’s soul up to G‑d, to be cleaving to the living G‑d, so that it be included in the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, as at the beginning.

3Now, to understand the purpose of the soul’s descent and chaining-down to such an extent, that it went down from a very high place to a very low place,

and many labors are needed to return it to how it was before, and would that the return prove to be a gain, for many roads are presumed to be dangerous, G‑d forbid; so why did such a thing come about from before Him, may He be blessed?

(See what is written on this in the discourse beginning “When Israel put ‘we will do’ first.”) We must understand what is written, “For G‑d your G‑d is a consuming fire.”

The meaning, by way of analogy: just as fire gives no light, and is not grasped so as to be called by the name “light” and “fire” at all, until it takes hold of a wick or of wood, for the nature of fire is to withdraw upward to its root and its element,

so too the word of G‑d, by which “the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host,” the Ten Utterances by which the world was created, “Let there be light,” etc.,

“Let there be a firmament,” etc.: “Is not My word thus, like fire?” By way of analogy, it has the nature and quality of withdrawing to the source and root of all. And “from my flesh I behold G‑d”:

just as, by way of analogy, in man, speech is from the element of fire, for it comes out from the breath of the heart by way of the windpipe, and the heart is the principal seat of the element of fire; and therefore their letter-combination is: hevel halev (the breath of the heart), lahav (flame).

4The details of the thing compared, how it is above in the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, cannot be explained sufficiently here; it is explained elsewhere, and the discerning will understand.

It follows that it is impossible for it to be called by the name “the light of G‑d,” and it is not grasped as “light” and “radiance” at all, except through many drawings-down and the chaining-down of many levels, so that the light be grasped, as in physical action; as it is written, “You made them all with wisdom.”

5Now, it is known what is written on the verse “Forever, O G‑d, Your word stands in the heavens”: that the word of G‑d by which the heavens were made stands there forever,

for it is forever bringing [them] into being from nothing to something. [And so it is in the Midrash on Psalms, on this verse; these are its words: “Which is the word that stands in the heavens?

Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: ‘On what do the heavens stand? On that word that I said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,”’ etc.;

and by that very word with which He created them, they stand forever. Therefore it is said, ‘Forever, Your word stands in the heavens.’” End of the quotation from the Midrash Shocher Tov.]

(And see further on this verse in [Midrash] Rabbah: Vayeira, section 53, concerning “And G‑d remembered Sarah”; Tetzaveh, the beginning of section 38, and within that section; Emor, the beginning of section 29; Bamidbar, section 2, concerning “And the number of the children of Israel shall be.”)

Now, the beginning of the creation of the worlds was by His will, may He be blessed, of Himself and of His own accord, “for He desires kindness.” But that they be alive and enduring forever, from nothing to something, is through the deeds of the lower beings specifically,

as it is written, “Everyone that is called by My Name, and for My glory, I have created him, I have formed him, indeed I have made him”; and “glory” means nothing but Torah, which in general consists of the 248 positive commandments and the 365 prohibitions,

which are themselves the aspect of vessels for the resting of the light of G‑d, and “a fixed place for His dwelling,” that He have a dwelling place among the lower realms; and they are themselves like the wick and the wood, in which the light takes hold so that it not withdraw upward, G‑d forbid.

(See Sefer Shel Beinonim [Tanya], chapter 52, “And what is the garment,” etc.; see there.) For it is not the way of a king to speak of commoners’ matters.

That is: trifling matters, which are beneath his station. Now, all the worlds, upper and lower, are all “commoners’ matters” in relation to the Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory and His very Self, who is high and exalted above them by myriads of levels, without end or limit, and “all is truly considered as nothing before Him,”

just as, for example, a king of flesh and blood who has a thousand thousands and ten thousand myriads of gold and silver, and talks at length about dust and potsherds, “potsherds among the potsherds of the earth,” which are certainly commoners’ matters to him.

6So too, and more than this without end or limit, is it considered, in relation to the Holy One, blessed be He, to speak the word of G‑d in the Ten Utterances, “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” etc.,

for they are commoners’ matters, more so than dust and potsherds in relation to silver and gold; for these too are physical things, of the level of the inanimate, like the dust and the potsherds, and they are taken from the dust,

only through the refining of the silver and the testing of the gold they have become very precious and far removed from the dust, until the dust bears no comparison with them.

But the worlds, in relation to the Holy One, blessed be He, even the upper worlds and the higher Gan Eden, bear no comparison to Him at all; “no thought can grasp Him” at all, and “they are accounted by Him as nothing and void.”

(And see on the subject of hedyot [commoner] in Me’orei Or, the letter hei, section 30, and in the Zohar, Part III, Teitzei, 276a.) Rather, all that the Holy One, blessed be He, created, He created only for His glory.

And therefore the angels say, “Holy,” etc., “the whole earth is full of His glory”: because to them He is truly holy and separate without end or limit, “high and exalted from the days of the world”; for “You are He before the world was created, and You are He,” etc.

7And it is written, “I, G‑d, have not changed.” Rather, “the whole earth,” the lower one specifically, “is full of His glory”: that is, His garment, for Rabbi Yochanan called his clothes “my honorers”; for there He is enclothed in the performance of the mitzvos and the fulfillment of the Torah. And the Torah too is His wisdom and His will, may He be blessed, which is His glory.

That is, “splendor, the mantle of His garment,” fills the whole earth. And kavod (glory) has the numerical value of the thirty-two paths of wisdom, which are the courses and the chaining-down (hishtalshelus) of the supernal Chochmah (wisdom) in the chaining-down of the worlds, lower and lower, until

it was enclothed in the Oral Torah and in this world. There are many paths that are enclothed in the Order of Zeraim, and many in the Order of Moed, and so on. (And see what is written at the end of the discourse beginning “I will make your windows of kadkod,” on “and all your borders.”)

82. Now, the whole of the Torah and the mitzvos, taken as a whole, is three levels, which are Torah, prayer and charity; as we learned in the Mishnah: “On three things the world stands: on the Torah,

on the service, and on acts of kindness.” For prayer is in place of the service of the sacrifices, and acts of kindness are charity.

9And corresponding to these three things it is written, “I have created him, I have formed him, indeed I have made him,” which are thought, speech and action. “I have created him” is the level of thought, which is the level of creation (beriah), something from nothing; and it corresponds to prayer, which is “the service of the heart”: this is the intention in thought, with the desire of the heart.

As our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Prayer without intention is like a body without a soul”; and the speech of prayer is only so that the voice should arouse the intention. Therefore it is in place of the sacrifices, and the service of the sacrifices depended on the Kohen, with the deed and with the desire of the heart, as is mentioned in the Zohar.

10That is, that one’s intention and thought cleave to G‑d, to be a chariot for Him, may He be blessed, and to give over one’s soul and will to G‑d, may He be blessed, so as to have

only one will and one heart for one’s Father in heaven, so as not to be separated from His unity and oneness, may He be blessed, through “turn away from evil and do good”; that is, when the sitra achra (the other side) is subdued, then the light of G‑d will shine upon him, upon his soul.

11Along these lines they instituted the morning blessings: “Blessed are You, G‑d (Havayah), our G‑d, King of the world.” For we ask that the level of Havayah be drawn down to bring the worlds into being, that their life-force and existence not be cut off

and that it not withdraw upward, as is the nature of fire, G‑d forbid; and that there be the level of “our G‑d,” that we be nullified to Him, the level of a chariot for Him, may He be blessed, until His Name is called upon us,

that He is “our G‑d,” as it says, “the G‑d of Avraham,” because he was the level of a chariot; and not to be an existent thing, separate by itself. Only “King of the world”: that is, the fact

that He brings the worlds into being and gives them life as existent and separate by themselves is because He is King, “His Name is called King”; and there is no king without a people (am), from the term omemos, things that are foreign and separate. For if

a man has many sons, he is not called a king over them, as is explained elsewhere. Israel, however, are called children of the Omnipresent; “a son is the leg of his father,” for the leg is nullified to the head, as is explained elsewhere.

12Now, all the life-force and existence of the worlds, and their constant coming into being from nothing to something, depends on our drawing His G‑dliness, may He be blessed, upon ourselves, to be nullified to Him; for the souls are the inner dimension (pnimiyus) of the worlds.

As our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Just as the world cannot be without winds, so the world cannot be without Israel”; for Israel are the existence and the mainstay of all the worlds.

(See what is written on this in the discourse beginning “And Moshe said, ‘Eat it today.’”) It is like the life of the body, which depends on the inner dimension of the vital soul: if anything happens to one’s vital soul, his whole body too becomes ill.

Therefore we say, “Blessed are You, G‑d (Havayah), our G‑d, King of the world”: that is, that the Name Havayah be blessed and drawn down to bring all beings into existence, through His being for us in the level of “our G‑d”;

and then He will be “King of the world.” And they instituted saying this every morning, because “in His goodness He renews each day, constantly, the work of creation,” and brings them into being as something from absolute nothingness.

But there is no analogy like it, or example of it, below at all, to show it to the senses, except the barest edge of it: that every day it becomes light out of the darkness of the night, like the creation of the world, “first darkness and then light.”

13And this is like something from nothing. Therefore on Rosh Hashanah we say, “This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day.”

For on Rosh Hashanah the world was created, and always, every year, the matter returns to its original state. “I have formed him” is the level of speech, which gives form to the letters of thought; and the letters of speech are not something from nothing, like the letters of thought,

for those same letters were already within the thought, and they are only the form and revelation of the letters of thought, which is a kind of matter for this form. And it corresponds to the Torah, whose mitzvah is chiefly in speech.

14As it is written, “And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall speak of them”; and it is written, “And you shall meditate on it day and night”; and we hold [as law] that thinking is not like speaking, and one does not fulfill one’s obligation with thinking alone.

And although the virtue of the Torah rises far, far above the virtue of prayer, as our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “And the study of Torah is equal to them all,”

on the contrary: precisely because its virtue in its source is at the height of all levels, in the Supernal Will, blessed be He, which is called “the most hidden of all hidden things,” it is impossible to receive its light in a revealed way until

it descends below and is enclothed in the physicality of this world, “the voice is the voice of Yaakov,” in the breath of their mouths, in which the light of G‑d hidden in His Torah is enclothed, and it shines in a revealed way to give life to all the worlds, upper and lower.

And as is known to those who know chen [the hidden wisdom], everything very high comes to the revelation of its light only below, at the end of action, as mentioned above. “Indeed I have made him” corresponds to the deed of charity.

15Now, through these three things we draw the light of G‑d upon ourselves, so that the light takes hold, as, by way of analogy, in a wick or in wood.

And as we see, the light that takes hold in wood becomes a very, very great light, but it is coarse and thick;

16and that which takes hold in a wick is a small light, but it is fine. So too the taking hold of the light of G‑d in thought is a small light, whose effect in giving life to the worlds is not as revealed

as the effect of action, and of speech in the study of Torah, for the moving of one’s lips counts as an action; and as Scripture says, “Today, to do them,” is what is written.

“For this is the whole of man,” and the purpose of his soul’s descent to this world: to draw down the light of G‑d in a revealed way from the height of the levels to the end of action.

But the resting of the light of G‑d in thought is a spirituality finer than the spirituality that is drawn down and spreads out below, in the realm of action. [Along these lines, one searches for the chametz, the sense of self and the coarseness, by the light of a candle specifically, for the refinement is in thought; and see what is written on the verse “And when she came,” etc.,

“he said with the letter,” etc.] Only, in the realm of action and speech, the spreading of the light is great and its effects are noticeable; as we see in the spiritual side of a person, in the vital soul: the activity of thought, which is in the head, is not as much

as the activity of the legs, which move the whole body and carry it from place to place; nevertheless, the head is the main seat of its life-force, on which all the life-force of a person’s soul depends; only, the two need each other. So it is with Torah, prayer and charity: they all need each other.

173. Now, to explain further the verse “For G‑d your G‑d is a consuming fire,” we must mention that just as fire does not catch and take hold well in a wick or in wood, to give light upon the earth, except when it is a consuming fire,

that is, when it consumes what is made to hold it, so that the wick or the wood are yielding and fit to be consumed and spent in it, so too the light of G‑d does not take hold well and rest in the soul

of a person through any one of these three things, except with the self-nullification (bittul) of the will and the soul’s expiring [in longing] for Him, may He be blessed; for “spirit brings spirit and draws down spirit.”

18Therefore the drawing down of the light of G‑d through the Torah and the mitzvos depends on Israel, as it is written, “He established a testimony in Yaakov and placed a Torah in Israel”;

for Yaakov and Yisrael are the levels of iskafya (subduing) and is’hapcha (transforming), on which the drawing down of the light of G‑d through the Torah and the mitzvos depends; whereas without self-nullification of the will there is no ability to draw it down. And see what is written on the verse “In days to come, Yaakov shall take root.”

19Now, through these three things, by which we draw down the light of G‑d although it is enclothed in physical things, [in] human intellect: of this it is said, “I am like a fresh cypress (berosh).” That is, a berosh is a slender cedar whose top can be bent down to its base, and afterwards, when it returns to its former state,

it raises the thing that was placed on it while it was bent, up to its height, very high [as in the account found in the books, of the episode of Yoav at Rabbas Bnei Ammon]. So the Holy One, blessed be He, said: I am the one

who is enclothed in the deeds of the lower beings, “like a fresh cypress,” through the bending of His stature, as it were [and see what is written above, at the end of the discourse beginning “The voice of my Beloved,” on the subject of “My Beloved is like a gazelle,” and in the discourse beginning “Israel is holy,” on the explanation of “And I taught Ephraim to walk”],

so that through this a person’s soul is raised, ascent after ascent, to be illumined with the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, “and his soul shall be bound up in the bond of life with G‑d” itself. And see what is written on this regarding “a Sabbath of complete rest.”

20Now, “G‑d made the one opposite the other”: a strange fire opposite the consuming fire; and it too is enclothed in thought, speech and action “that are not G‑d’s,” the level of disgrace (kalon) opposite glory (kavod),

as it is written, “The wise shall inherit glory, but fools carry off disgrace.” And just as for the good one’s soul is raised very high, “with greater exaltation” than the soul is able to bear according to its comprehension, to be “bound up in the bond of life with G‑d” itself,

so, opposite this, of the evil it is said, “And the soul of your enemies He shall sling out, as from the hollow of a sling”; that is, being slung to a place very, very far from the light of G‑d’s countenance, as it is written, “And I will surely hide My face on that day, for all the evil,” etc.

21And see what is written on the subject of “the hollow of the sling” in the discourse beginning “Command the children of Israel... My offering, My bread.” And the counsel given for this is to do teshuvah (return), and especially in the Ten Days of Teshuvah, for then is the season, “and a time for every desire,” to settle them back in their source;

and then his soul will pour itself out in bitterness over its distance from the light of G‑d’s countenance, “and he will return to G‑d, and He will have mercy on him,” as it is written, “And they cried out to G‑d in their distress.” And the essence of teshuvah is as it is written, “To You, G‑d, I lift up my soul”: to nullify one’s will to Him, may He be blessed, so as to have one will for one’s Father

in heaven, with longing and the very expiring of the soul, and to ask of Him, may He be blessed, that the light of G‑d and His will rest upon him, so that he have the self-nullification of the will. Along these lines they instituted the request “Forgive us, pardon us,” which is not meant literally, for “if you have sinned, what do you do to Him?” and what would pardon mean?

Rather, the point is to ask for pardon and the revelation of the will: that His will return to rest upon us, so that we do His will, may He be blessed, with a whole heart and a willing soul. And we say, “Who is like You, merciful Father, who remembers...,” etc.

That is: the entire coming into being of the upper and lower worlds, from beginning to end, is before Him, may He be blessed, a single remembrance; as is written in the Zohar, that with a single thought He created the worlds, because

He, may He be blessed, looks and sees to the end of all the generations, and “calls the generations from the beginning.” If so, as soon as all the worlds arose in thought to be created, their creation was already finished and complete before Him, may He be blessed. [And see what is written on this in the discourse beginning “Blow the shofar on the new moon.”]

22Now, one sees plainly the greatness of the tzimtzum (contraction) by which the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, was contracted into a single thought, which is not in keeping with His worth and essence at all; and all this is because He is the merciful Father.

That is, He brings into being and draws down the attribute of compassion, to have compassion on the worlds, to bring them into being and to sustain them constantly, through the contraction of a single thought. And from this

a person should reflect, so as to arouse great compassion on his soul, how it has fallen very, very low, when he looks at its root: “Know from where (me’ayin) you came,” that is, from the level of Ayin (nothingness), which is the level of the merciful Father.

23If so, the descent by which he has come down from the light of His countenance, may He be blessed, is very great, “from a high roof,” etc. And through this his soul will be very bitter, and it will touch the very point of the heart, so that his soul and heart will expire, and he will return to G‑d.

And through teshuvah out of such great love, the willful sins become like merits. That is, just as through merits his soul is raised in the light of G‑d, so his soul is raised through this great bitterness on account of the willful sins; and “in the place where baalei teshuvah [stand],” etc.

244. For of Moshe our teacher it is written, “And I will place you in the cleft of the rock,” when he wished to bring down the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. That is, from the level of the Supernal Rock, the source and root of all the roots of coming-into-being, as it is written, “Look to the rock from which you were hewn.” And it is called “rock”

as, for example, the flint rock, which one strikes to bring out fire, for the element of fire in it is potential and hidden, and not actual.

So, as it were, He is called “Rock,” “the Rock of our life,” for He is the root and source of all the roots of havayah (coming into being), and the root of coming-into-being is in Him hidden, in potential and not in actuality; [the coming-into-being] that is from the level of the Name Havayah, to bring all beings into existence from nothing to something,

which is the level of the “consuming fire” mentioned above. But the level of the Rock is that from which the level of the “consuming fire” mentioned above is drawn forth and comes into being. [See Pardes, Sha’ar 11, chapter 3; and see what is written at the end of the discourse beginning “And the number of the children of Israel shall be.”]

25Now, great is the power of baalei teshuvah, for they reach as high as the level of the Rock mentioned above; as, for example, if the light of the fire has gone out, one brings fire out of the flint rock.

So it is with a baal teshuvah, in whom the light of the consuming fire has gone out, because they lack the wick and the wood for the light to take hold of, which are Torah and good deeds:

through the great bitterness in the point of the heart, which is above time, so that he has no desire for time and space at all, for he despises the life of his soul, as in the case of Rabbi Eliezer

ben Durdaya, who wept until his soul departed, because of this he reaches the level of the Rock, far, far above the level of the coming into being of existences and the drawing forth of time and space [as it is written there, “Behold, there is a place with Me”].

26Therefore a heavenly voice went forth [saying] that he is destined for the life of the World to Come, like the deeds of the righteous, who enjoy the radiance of their Torah and their service, even though he had no Torah and mitzvos, because he was cleaving to the source and root of all. But not every person merits this.

27Therefore we pray, “Bring us back to You, G‑d, and we shall return”: that there first be an arousal from above, so that afterwards there can be an arousal from below, “and we shall return” afterwards. And even

though the arousal from above always depends on the arousal from below, nevertheless, “renew our days as of old”: that is, as it was at the beginning of the creation of the worlds, from His good will, “for He desires kindness.”

28And the meaning of “renew our days”: the days are called the drawing down of the light of G‑d, as it is written, “The sun shall no longer be your light by day,” etc.,

“and G‑d shall be for you an everlasting light.” And for this we ask: that a new light shine upon us from the level of the Rock mentioned above, even though the first light, from the level of “He is a consuming fire,” has been cut off from us, and we are as in darkness. And this is [the meaning of]

“For on this day,” which is Yom Kippur, the day of teshuvah, when the level of “He desires kindness” is aroused and revealed below through the five prayers: therefore [it says] “He shall make atonement for you” unspecified, [meaning] the One who has no known name, who is not grasped by any name and is not alluded to by any letter, or the tip of a letter, at all;

for the Names of havayah (coming into being) indicate the drawing forth from nothing to something, from concealment to revelation, to be the light that fills all worlds (memalei kol almin) and the light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin).

But of the Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory and His very Self, it does not apply to say either the level of “filling all worlds” or the level of “encompassing all worlds,”

for He is not within the bounds of worlds at all. And there is the source of forgiveness and atonement, “who bears iniquity and passes over transgression”; for before Him,

may He be blessed, in relation to His very essence, as it were, no blemish, iniquity or transgression applies at all, but only in the drawings-down that descend from the light of His countenance, may He be blessed, through many contractions (tzimtzumim) and screens and many garments.

29And this is [the meaning of] “from all your sins, before G‑d (Havayah), you shall be purified”: before Havayah specifically, that is, before the level of the drawing forth of the existences, to bring all beings into being, was emanated;

and then “you shall be purified,” when you rise and reach that level, that is, the level of the Rock mentioned above. [And see the Ramaz, at the end of Parshas Acharei: tit’haru (“you shall be purified”) has the numerical value of keser (crown), for

the 613 mitzvos, together with the 7 of the Sages, draw down 620 pillars of light; but if one has sinned against the soul, and has left lacking and blemished these drawings-down,

the repair for this is through teshuvah, whose power is great to fill all the blemishes and deficiencies; and this is the meaning of tit’haru having the numerical value 620, etc. And see what is written in the discourse beginning “For this commandment which I command you,” etc.]