כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם לטהר אתכם מכל…

1“For on this day He shall atone for you, to purify you; from all your sins, before G‑d, you shall be purified.” [We need] to understand the double expression, “to purify” and “you shall be purified.”

We need to explain the matter of the Ten Days of Teshuvah: why exactly ten days were fixed, and [why] “this day,” which is the tenth day, “He shall atone for you.” Surely, whenever people do teshuvah, they ought to be forgiven at once.

But the point is that teshuvah is to turn the face back, face to face, toward Him, may He be blessed. For surely teshuvah is to return and draw close

to Him, may He be blessed. Yet seemingly this expression does not apply with regard to the Holy One, blessed be He, of whom it is written, “I fill the heavens and the earth.” So why must one return and draw close to Him, may He be blessed, and in what way did one become distant?

Rather, the point is like the analogy of two people who stand next to each other, except that they have turned the backs of their necks to each other: there is no distance greater than this, and there is no closeness except by turning back face to face.

2So too, it is written, “You shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen”: there is a level of face and [a level of] back Above.

And it is written, “May G‑d make His face shine upon you”; the meaning is that the flow [of blessing] should be on the level of the shining of the face, from the inner dimension of His will, as it is written, “And I loved Jacob,” and it is written, “For I will utterly blot out,” etc.

Therefore the flow that He grants him to give him life comes from the level of the back, that is, like one who throws [something] behind his shoulders, who gives to his enemy: he does not give it with full will, but only as one who is compelled to give, and this flow is not from the inner dimension and the essence of His will.

But to the tzaddik the flow comes from the inner dimension of His will: He gives with full will and with a shining face, in joy and with gladness of heart, with abundant strength and delight.

3In the same way the matter of teshuvah will also be understood. For it is written, “For they have turned to Me the back of the neck.” The meaning of “for they have turned to Me” is that they do turn to Him, may He be blessed, by keeping His Torah and His mitzvos.

Nevertheless, this is only on the level of the back of the neck, for it is not from the inner dimension of the will, out of love and longing, but [as] “a commandment of men learned by rote,” and he goes about it coldly.

And teshuvah is turning back face to face, so that his innermost will and desire be in the Torah of G‑d and His mitzvos, in joy and with gladness of heart, more than [from] an abundance of all things.

(And see what is written on this on the verse “Return, O Israel.” Now through teshuvah, which is turning back face to face as mentioned above, through this there is also drawn down from Above the matter of “The upright shall behold His face,” which is explained elsewhere, at the end of the discourse beginning “When you heed the voice,” on [the words] “to do what is right.”)

But how can this level become fixed in a person’s soul? We must first preface the saying of our Sages, of blessed memory, “Great is study,

for it leads to action.” By implication, action is the main thing, and study is great only in that it leads to action. And our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “One who learns not in order to do, it would have been better for him had his afterbirth been turned over,” etc.

And in the Jerusalem Talmud they said on the verse “And all things desired cannot compare to her”: even things desired by Heaven; that is, all the mitzvos are not worth even a single word of the words of Torah, for the virtue of occupying oneself with Torah exceeds the virtue of keeping the mitzvos.

And in our Gemara too (in Moed Katan, folio 9, side b), it sets the verses against each other: it is written, “And all the things you desire cannot compare to her”: the things you desire, but not things desired by Heaven.

And it is written, “And all things desired cannot compare to her”: even things desired by Heaven. And it answers: here [it speaks] of a mitzvah that cannot be done by others, and there of a mitzvah that can be fulfilled by others; for a mitzvah that can be fulfilled by others, one should leave it and occupy himself with Torah.

4Now seemingly this is not understood, for the whole Torah is nothing but the interpretation and explanation of how the mitzvah is to be done. So how should he study what is

the interpretation and explanation of the mitzvah, while the mitzvah itself is done by others? And see what is written on this in the discourse beginning “And G‑d spoke, etc., saying: I am, etc.”

[We] also [need] to understand the saying of our Sages, of blessed memory: “Whoever occupies himself with the law of the burnt-offering, it is as if he had offered a burnt-offering; and whoever occupies himself with the law of the meal-offering, it is as if he had offered a meal-offering.”

But surely the offerings depend on the Holy Temple and on the altar, and the offering up depends specifically on the kohanim. So how does Scripture account it to him as if he had offered [it], when he is a non-kohen, who is not of the sons of the kohanim,

and also there is neither Holy Temple nor altar here? (And see what is written on this also elsewhere, in the discourse beginning “When Israel put ‘we will do’ before ‘we will hear.’”)

All this will be understood by explaining the virtue of the Torah as a whole: it is a mitzvah for each and every one to learn all the laws of the Torah, even laws that are not needed by every person, such as the laws of ruling on what is forbidden and what is permitted, which are entrusted

only to those who issue rulings, and such as the civil laws between a man and his fellow, which are entrusted only to judges. Even so, the mitzvah is on every person, even one who does not wish to be a judge or one who issues rulings in Israel.

52. The point is this. It is written, “And these words … shall be, etc.,” “And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house, etc.”

For seemingly the meaning of “these words” is those said in the Shema, to which it refers; yet in truth the mitzvah of reciting the Shema is only in the morning and the evening, and not all day. So how is it said, “And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk, etc.”?

For this implies all day and all night, constantly, never to be silent, whether when you sit in your house or when you walk on the way, etc.

Rather, “And you shall speak of them” is written of words of Torah. If so, we need to understand what “these words” are, since it implies that it refers to the words said above, “One” and “You shall love,” etc.

(And see on the matter of “upon your heart” in the Midrash Rabbah on Koheles, on the verse “All the rivers flow into the sea,” and on the verse “I spoke with my heart.”)

But the meaning of the word “One” is known: that He alone is in the heavens and the earth and the four directions of the world, just as He was alone before the creation of the world.

As it is written, “I, G‑d, have not changed,” because everything before Him is considered as truly nothing, and the worlds take up no room at all, except in [the level of] “Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.” “Your kingship is a kingship over all worlds”: from the level of His Malchus came the creation of the worlds, from nothing to something,

as in the saying, “Unique One, Life of the worlds, King.” For [the statement] that everything before Him is considered as nothing means before Him specifically; whereas on the level of His Malchus, this is the Shechinah (Divine Presence) of His strength, which dwells in the lower realms,

and this is through myriads upon myriads of contractions, so that the glory of His kingship, may He be blessed, be revealed. (And see what is written on this on [the verse] “The Song of Songs,” and on “Go forth and see”: “He did not cease to cherish her,” etc.) Therefore, “You shall love Havayah your G‑d,” truly,

that is, that there be love and the yearning of the heart to be nullified to Him, may He be blessed, truly, so that his soul be included and nullified in its very existence in the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, itself, for everything before Him is considered as truly nothing.

And this is “One” [followed by] “You shall love”: from the level of “One” there is drawn [the power] for love and the yearning of the heart to be in a person’s soul, so that Havayah truly be “your G‑d.”

And this is through occupying oneself with Torah, as it is written, “He wraps Himself in light as in a garment”: the light of the Torah wraps the Holy One, blessed be He, like a garment, for the Infinite Light, blessed be He, itself is clothed in the Torah.

(And see what is written on this in the discourse beginning “They shall make for themselves tzitzis.” And see further on this in Parshas Toldos, 142b; Terumah, 164; in Parshas Pinchas, 245b.)

And of this it is said, “His garment is white as snow.” For snow first comes into being from water that has congealed and become snow, and afterward, when it thaws and melts, it returns to water. So too, the garment of the Torah comes into being from the level of water, which is the level of Supreme Chochmah: “He is wise, but not with a knowable wisdom.”

And from this there is also drawn, into the Torah in the physical [form] that is before us, a revelation of the level of His wisdom and will, may He be blessed. And this is “wisdom at the beginning and wisdom at the end.”

6Now it is written, “The hair of His head is like clean wool”: these are the drawings-down of all the particular laws in the Torah, as it is written, “His locks are curled,” etc.:

mounds upon mounds of laws, which are drawings-down from the level of hairs alone, which are the level of a radiance that is contracted and diminished, a tiny trickle, through many and various contractions. As it is written, “Your wonders and Your thoughts toward us: there is no

comparison to You; should I tell and speak of them, they are too many to be counted.” That is, for there to be a drawing-down of “Your wonders and Your thoughts toward us” in the study of the Torah that is before us, which is clothed in physicality, the contractions “are too many to be counted”: myriads upon myriads of levels, beyond number.

(And see what is written on this on [the verse] “And it came to pass at the end.”) For there is no comparison to Him, may He be blessed, at all; as the meaning of “comparison” in number is known: even one relative to thousands of thousands and myriads is called comparable,

since they are of one kind, for all falls under the category of number; whereas with regard to the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, which is as its name, having no end, etc., comparison does not apply at all.

7Now it is written, “Salseleha, and she will exalt you.” The meaning of salseleha is to curl and separate the hairs, so that they are not mixed and tangled, as our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “The Rabbis did not know what salseleha means until they heard,” etc., “one who was turning over his hair,” etc.

For curling is done to hairs, to separate them so that one strand is not mixed with its fellow. So too one must separate all the laws in the Gemara, so that there is no mixing and confusion between one law and another.

As we find in several places in the Talmud, where they say, “And they raised a contradiction,” etc., and it answers, “It is no difficulty: this is Rabbi Meir,” etc.: they clarify and make clear each law by itself, so that another law does not contradict it and confuse it.

8Now of this level of curling it is written, “and she will exalt you”: through this a person’s soul is raised up to the level of “The hair of His head is like clean wool,” and this is the source of the Torah. For the Torah is

only the level of a garment, “He wraps Himself in light as in a garment,” whereas this exaltation is above the level of a garment, for it touches the very essence of the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, itself. (And see what is written elsewhere on [the verse] “He gives snow like wool,” on the matter of “His garment is like snow” and “the hair of His head,” etc.)

93. And when a person understands and contemplates in his soul how, through the curling of the laws of the Torah, his soul will be exalted to rise to the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, itself, then of itself he will exult and rejoice in the joy of G‑d, that is,

the Infinite Light, blessed be He, the Source of life, the Source of delights, more than an abundance of all things, even more than the life of the World to Come, the lower and the upper Gan Eden, for that is only a radiance, etc. And even concerning this radiance they said about Acher, “Better that he be judged,” etc.

10And all the more so, a fortiori, he will place his life in his hand, so that all his salvation and all his desire be in occupying himself with Torah, to delight in G‑d Himself, who is the Source of life and the Source of delights.

And though this delight is not seen and revealed openly, that is because the power of that delight is so great that the worlds cannot bear it,

and therefore it does not come to be revealed in the comprehension of created beings. On the contrary, all the more so, a fortiori, the joy in G‑d is greater in his soul’s contemplation

that there surely rests upon him the revelation of the Supreme Delight, blessed be He, which is not grasped or taken in by any comprehension, and “no thought can grasp Him.” And so too in occupying oneself with Torah, which is the level of “His garment is white as snow”:

it is known that a person’s thought and speech are the level of garments: thought is the inner garment, and speech the middle garment. If so, when a person’s soul is clothed in the thought and speech of the Torah,

it is clothed in the very garment of the Holy One, blessed be He, “His garment is white as snow,” and there is no closeness to G‑d greater than this, like, by way of analogy, two who are covered by one tallis.

(And see what is written at the end of the discourse beginning “And if a woman vows.”) And with this will be understood why in the second paragraph of the Shema we say, “And I will give the rain of your land,” etc., “And I will give grass in your field,” etc.,

as though he were speaking for himself, whereas in truth the Holy One, blessed be He, is the One who gives. And Moshe our teacher, peace be upon him, said this because the Shechinah speaks from within Moshe’s throat.

11This is the saying of the Shechinah in his throat, which says “And I will give.” But that we too say “And I will give” is seemingly not understood. Rather, this is through first saying, “to love G‑d your G‑d and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

And this is self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh): not in order not to deny G‑d Himself, but rather the nullification of the yesh (the sense of self) and of the haughtiness of spirit that is in a person, of which our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Whoever has haughtiness of spirit deserves to be cut down like an asherah”

(in Sotah, folio 5, side a), for he is truly in the state of an asherah, making himself into an entity (yesh) and a thing separate from His unity, may He be blessed.

One must be in a state of self-nullification (bittul) and self-sacrifice to G‑d, as is known from the saying “We acknowledge You”: the acknowledgment is to Him, may He be blessed, that everything before Him is considered as nothing, and whatever is lower down is even more as nothing, and not

as it appears from our perspective, that creation is something from nothing, and the physicality of the world appears to our eyes as an entity and a separate thing, etc., as is explained elsewhere.

12And through this self-nullification, the unity of the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, itself is drawn down and revealed in his soul, and he can say “And I will give,” for the Infinite Light, blessed be He, that is revealed

in him is itself what speaks in him, as is explained elsewhere, in Parshas Va’eschanan regarding the Shema. And this is like the matter of “And My words which I have placed in your mouth”: the word of G‑d itself is in his mouth.

And along these lines you will find in the saying of our Sages, of blessed memory, “These and these are the words of the living G‑d”: what Beis Shammai say and what Beis Hillel say, and likewise the words of Abaye and Rava, are not truly their own words,

but the word of G‑d that is in their mouths. And as the Maggid said to the Beis Yosef, “I am the Mishnah that speaks in your mouth.” And this is the matter of Torah. But the mitzvos consist specifically in keeping the command of the King.

13Now from the level of His Malchus, may He be blessed, comes the life-force of all the worlds, which are bounded in space and in time: “Your kingship is a kingship over all worlds, and Your dominion is in every generation.” “All worlds” is the dimension of space; “every generation” is the dimension of time. And the dimension of space and time applies

only to the level of His Malchus, may He be blessed: “He is King, He was King, and He will be King.” But to the Infinite One (Ein Sof), blessed be He, Himself, the dimension of time and space does not apply at all. (As is explained in Sefer Shel Beinonim, Part II, chapter 7.)

Now occupying oneself with Torah is called “in Our image,” since it is on the level above time, whereas the mitzvos, which are on the level of Malchus, are called “after Our likeness,” and the language of time applies to them.

Therefore the keeping of the mitzvos depends on time, and the offerings depend on the time of the Holy Temple, whereas occupying oneself with Torah does not depend on the Holy Temple, a kohen or the priestly garments at all.

And though the Torah is the explanation of the mitzvos, nevertheless, [being] in thought and speech, it is still on the level of spirituality, whereas the mitzvos are in the action of the body, in actual deed.

144. Now, “G‑d has made the one opposite the other”: just as the G‑dly soul is divided into ten powers, three intellectual [powers] and seven emotive attributes (middos) of holiness, so too there are [such] also in kelipah (the husk):

just as there is the Chochmah of holiness, opposite it there is a Chochmah of kelipah, the magicians of Egypt, and likewise, “They are wise to do evil” (in Jeremiah, chapter 4), and similarly with the other powers of the soul.

And this is a general rule: on the side of holiness everything is in a state of self-nullification (bittul) to Him, may He be blessed, [as] Chochmah is koach mah, whereas the Chochmah of kelipah is a state of yesh. As is explained on [the verse] “the lords of the high places of Arnon.”

And this is the saying of our Sages, of blessed memory, “Jews outside the Land,” etc. For the Land of Israel is called the land of Canaan, an expression of submission (hachna’ah) and self-nullification (see what is written at the end of the discourse beginning “And it came to pass when Pharaoh sent”), whereas when one is in a state of haughtiness of spirit and yesh, he is

“like idol worshippers in purity.” For the matter of worshippers of stars and constellations is as it is written, “And you see the sun and the moon,” etc., “and you bow down to them,” etc.

Now it is written, “with the bounty of the crops of the sun”: the sun bestows [influence] on the crops of the earth, and likewise all the host of heaven, which are the constellations: “There is no blade of grass below that does not have a constellation above,” etc.

Only, bowing down to them is forbidden, because they regard them as an entity and a thing, as being the ones that bestow, whereas in truth their bestowing is not of themselves;

rather, they are the instruments of the bestowal, in which and through which the bestowal passes. And so too all idolatry makes itself into an entity and a thing, except that they call Him “the G‑d of gods.”

Whereas the side of holiness is in a state of self-nullification, [knowing] that “there is nothing else besides Him.” If so, one who is drawn after his haughtiness of spirit, to consider himself an entity, is like an idol worshipper in purity.

That is, one who is drawn after garments of honor, to glorify himself before people. For “the wise shall inherit honor” is written; [and] “And you shall make

holy garments for Aaron your brother, for honor and for glory”: the honor that is drawn to the level of Chochmah, koach mah, is in a state of self-nullification, whereas any other honor of this world, which is yesh, is from the side of kelipah.

15And with this will be understood what our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “This is the way of the Torah: bread with salt,” etc., “if you do so, happy are you in this world,” etc.

Seemingly it is not understood what “this world” there is in this. But the point is that when he takes to heart the submission and self-nullification to Him, may He be blessed, through which the Supreme Delight rests upon him, as mentioned above, there is no “this world” greater than this.

16And of this they said, “Better is one hour,” etc. But when one is drawn after the pleasures of this world, he draws the side of kelipah upon himself and clothes himself in filthy garments. And when he takes to

heart that the kelipos have surrounded him, he will have no pleasure from this world at all; whereas when “you eat bread with salt,” etc., his heart will rejoice and exult, for he has no garment from the side of kelipah or from the filthy garments.

But one who has blemished and strayed from the way by drawing his heart after the yesh and the haughtiness, the counsel given is to cry out to G‑d in his distress, “their heart cried out”: that the heart cry out within him, from “the inward

part of man and the deep heart”: how did he not set before his eyes the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, which encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin), before whom darkness is as light, and spirituality and physicality are equal? And he will be filled with shame and disgrace, as it is said, “And we shall not be ashamed forever and ever.”

17It is like the analogy of one who walks about naked, without being aware that there are people watching him; afterward, when he sees that people are watching him, he will be filled with shame.

So too, and even more so, one should be ashamed before the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, which encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin), of which it is written, “I fill the heavens and the earth.”

(And see what is written on this in the discourse beginning “A menorah of gold.”) And of this it is said, “For no man shall see Me and live”: in his lifetime he does not see,

but at the time of his death he sees. That is, so that he be filled with shame and disgrace on seeing G‑d standing over him and seeing his deeds, and through this he will return in complete teshuvah before Him: “Your face, G‑d, I will seek,”

that is, to seek the inner dimension of G‑d, the revelation of the Infinite Light, blessed be He, itself, which is to turn back face to face, as mentioned above. And [corresponding to] “As water, face to face,” it is written, “And I will sprinkle pure water upon you”: the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy,

which are the level of the inner dimension and are the source of the Torah; and therefore they fill all the blemishes that he made in the Torah. As it is said, “You are He who fills all the Names, and You are the completion of them all.” And through this, “and you shall be purified.”

18Now, for the turning back face to face, all the Ten Days of Teshuvah were instituted, corresponding to the ten powers of the soul, so that on each day one power is rectified. On the first day the level of Chochmah is rectified,

that is, [the fault] that he clothed his soul in the Chochmah of kelipah, which is the level of yesh, in the manner of what is written, “I have seen a man wise in his own eyes; There is more hope for a fool than for him”: [so that] he come to the level of

self-nullification, koach mah. [And so on,] until on the tenth day, which is Yom Kippur, the level of self-exaltation is rectified. And for the reason mentioned above it is called the ascent of Malchus, which is what is written, “Yours, G‑d, is the kingdom,” in a state of self-nullification.

Therefore on Yom Kippur eating, drinking and wearing shoes are forbidden, for all of these are the level of clothing the yesh; and [this is] in order to be in a state of true self-nullification to Him, may He be blessed. In the same way are all the bowings and prostrations of Yom Kippur, when they fall on their faces: to be in a state of self-nullification.

19Now there are two kinds of haughtiness of spirit. [One is] on the outer level (chitzoniyus): he knows within himself his lowly worth, and nevertheless regards himself as an entity and a thing in the eyes of people. And there is [one] on the inner level (pnimiyus), which is the very essence of haughtiness: his way is right in his own eyes, and he is truly important in his own eyes as well.

20Now of the first kind it is said, “For on this day He shall atone for you (aleichem), to purify you”: aleichem, “upon you,” precisely, that is, what is upon you, on the outside.

And of the second kind it says, “from all your sins,” that is, your inner sin: “before G‑d you shall be purified.” The meaning of “before G‑d” is: prior to the level of Havayah.

For the Torah is the Names of the Holy One, blessed be He; the yud is Chochmah, [and] “the Torah comes forth from Chochmah.” But through teshuvah from the depth of the heart, “From the depths I call You, G‑d,” which draws down the level of Havayah.

21And then “you shall be purified” from the side of kelipah, so that there be no concealment and hiding of the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, which encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin). And this is why the second Tablets were given on Yom Kippur: the revelation of “I am G‑d your G‑d,”

the very “I.” And through this, “You shall have no other gods before My face”: that is, this is a promise that no other gods will conceal and hide the level of the inner dimension, for “your iniquities separate,” etc.

But on Yom Kippur it is in concealment, for the second Tablets were given privately; the revelation is on Simchas Torah, the rejoicing of the Torah, that is, the revelation of the source of the Torah, and this is the revelation of the Supreme Delight, blessed be He.