כי תבואו אל הארץ אשר אני נותן לכם…

1“When you come into the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest a Shabbos to Havayah. Six years,” etc. Now, the implication of the verse is that immediately, “when you come into the land,” “[the land] shall rest,” before the six years begin.

2This will be understood by first explaining the verse, “Open to Me, My sister, My beloved,” etc. The meaning is that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to the Congregation of Israel (Knesses Yisrael), “Open to Me,” so that you will be at the level of “My sister, My beloved.”

Although the Congregation of Israel is always called by this name, nevertheless this level is at times revealed and at times covered and hidden.

3Therefore He said, “Open”: to remove the covering and the concealment, so that this level will be revealed. And [we need] to understand what the essential nature of this level is when it is revealed, and what the covering and the garment are that hide this revelation.

Now, the meaning of achosi (“My sister”) is from the expression “the Alexandrian joining (ichui)” in the Gemara, which is an expression of connection: that it joins two things together so that they become one, like truly one body.

4So it is, by way of analogy, with the natural love in the souls of Israel, [which comes] from the source from which they are hewn: for they are truly “a part of G‑d above,” and are united in the ultimate union with the very Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He.

Therefore, even below, after they have been created from nothing into something and have descended lower and lower to be enclothed in a body and the vital soul, this is the trait of the righteous (tzaddikim): by virtue of the G‑dly soul within them, their desire and their yearning is to be included

in the light of G‑d and to be nullified in [their very] existence to Him, may He be blessed, with a true expiring of the soul (kelos hanefesh), from the depth of the heart. All their days they are constantly in the self-nullification mentioned above, because of the nature of their souls, which has become nature for them, and they need no contemplation or preparation at all to arouse the love.

5As it is written, “When I remember You upon my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.” And it is written, “When you sit in your house and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down and when you rise.”

This is, by way of analogy, like the love of a brother and sister: the love between them is fixed and planted of itself, by nature, from their birth, without any arousal at all. And this is the true love, from the point of truth to its very truth, which has no interruption and stands forever.

Whereas when this love is not fixed and planted in a person’s heart, but [is present] only at the time when he arouses the love at set times, at the time of the recitation of the Shema and prayer and the like, and afterwards it passes and departs from him, this love is not called by the name “love of truth to its very truth,”

that is, [a love] from the very point of truth, but rather by the name “lip of truth” (sefas emes), from the expression “a border (safah) for its opening,” which is the hem around the garment, that is, the border of the garment and its edge.

So, by way of analogy, this love that comes at a time of arousal is the lip of truth and its edge, that is, the beginning of truth, but it is not called by the name “complete truth to its very truth.”

Therefore it is said in the Zohar (at the beginning of Parshas Tisa, folio 188; and see there in the Mikdash Melech and in the Ramaz): “‘The lip of truth shall be established forever’: it is not written ‘is established forever,’ but ‘shall be established forever.’” And it is written, “Havayah is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth”: “in truth,” precisely.

That is, with the point of truth and not with the lip of truth. For since he must constantly arouse the love, then it has not yet become the nature of his very essence and being, from the very point of the heart.

6Nevertheless it is called by the name “lip of truth,” since at any rate at that time he arouses the love from the point of his heart, each one according to his own measure;

and also after prayer an impression (reshimu) remains, so that when he remembers G‑d, a generous spirit is aroused within him of its own accord toward the love of G‑d. Thus there is fulfilled in him, too, what is written, “When I remember You,” etc. [And see Sefer Shel Beinonim (Tanya), Part I, at the end of chapter 13.

7And see what is written elsewhere, in the explanation on “These are the journeys,” etc., “And Moshe wrote,” etc., on the subject of “You will give truth to Yaakov.” And see what is written elsewhere on the subject of the eight times “truth” [is said] in Emes VeYatziv.

The first four times “truth,” up to “Ezras,” are the will and the yearning of the heart to cleave to G‑d to the point of its expiry, which is called the Chamber of Will (Heichal HaRatzon); and afterwards another four times “truth,”

that is, the true truth, by which he is helped from above, so that the four [times] “truth” below are made true, to be true truth, with self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh) to the point of its expiry, etc.

And see Iggeres HaKodesh, the passage beginning “And one who sows charity [has] a reward of truth.”] And [as for] the cause that prevents the love from entering the depth of the very point of the heart:

For this love is enclothed and hidden in the power that desires physical things, [which comes] from the vital soul, whose root is the level of coarseness of spirit, “the skin of the serpent,” which covers over and hides the power and the level of this love. And in it there are

different degrees, several kinds of garments: the lesser one according to his smallness; and the greater one, according to the greatness of his stature, must remove even the level of a subtle garment from the level of coarseness of spirit. Our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “I and he cannot,” etc.

And one must open the covering, as in the analogy of a person who wants to open a hole in a dividing wall: he must cut and break the wall until a hollow space is made.

So must a person who wants this love to be implanted in his heart, entering into the inner dimension (pnimiyus) of the point of the heart and its innermost core, from the very depth of the heart, with expiring of the soul and nullification of existence

to Him, may He be blessed, have a broken heart and a broken spirit, to remove his coarseness of spirit and the power that desires physical things [and desires] to be a something (yesh), separate unto himself; rather, he should set his heart only on Him.

8Of this our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Open for Me [an opening] like the point of a needle, and I will open for you [an opening] like the entrance of the Hall,” which was before the Sanctuary in the Holy Temple.

For “one who comes to purify himself is helped” to remove from him every level and degree of coarseness of spirit, and to raise him higher and higher, to the loftiest of heights.

Through this, the light of this love will shine within the inner dimension of the very point of the heart, until the power of the soul’s being is nullified, like a flame that rises of its own accord, to be included in and to cleave to His light, may He be blessed (as is written in the Sifra DeTzniusa)

(at the beginning of chapter 1; Zohar, Part II, folio 176b): “and the earth was nullified.” And this is the level of “My sister” mentioned above; and from this one will come further to the level of “My beloved.” (And see what is written further on the subject of the level of “My sister” in the discourse beginning “You have captured My heart, My sister, bride.”)

92. The explanation of the matter of “My beloved” (rayasi) is along the lines of what our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “Israel sustain their Father in heaven”; and as it is written, “that no banished one be cast away from Him”: “from Him,” precisely, as is explained elsewhere; that is, to be absorbed into the body of the King.

To understand this: how can the soul, which is at the level of a created being, a something (yesh) and a thing unto itself, be absorbed, etc.? But the Zohar says, “Three bonds are bound together as one: the Torah with the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel with the Torah,” etc.

For because the level and stature of the Torah is higher than the level, stature and degree of the souls of Israel [as they are] at the source from which they are hewn, since “the Torah emerges from Chochmah,” etc. And this is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “Fortunate is he who comes here with his learning in his hand.”

But this needs to be understood, for the Torah, too, is enclothed in physical matters, such as the matters of tzitzis, tefillin and sukkah, and many monetary laws and claims, for example, Reuven claims thus and Shimon claims thus. What do these have to do with the higher and the lower Gan Eden?

But it is written, “Come, eat (lachamu) of My bread (belachmi).” For just as [with] bread, physical food, by which a person lives the life of his body: this is through its being absorbed into the person’s limbs.

So the Torah, which is called food and life for the spiritual soul, must be absorbed into the limbs of his soul and become truly like his flesh; and through this the soul will return to G‑d, to be absorbed into the body of the King (le’ishtaava begufa demalka), to be truly absorbed into the body of the King.

As it is written, “I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey,” etc. And this is [the meaning of] “Come, eat of My bread”: first “eat” (lachamu), that there be for you bread and food to be absorbed into the limbs of your soul, and afterwards “of My bread” (belachmi).

10Now, in the primary categories of labor (avos melachos) of Shabbos, the Tanna followed the order of [making] bread: “one who sows,” etc. For in order to make bread that is fit for a person to eat, so that it is absorbed into his limbs and becomes like his flesh, there must first be the work of sowing, and grinding, kneading and baking.

11To understand these four labors in the service of G‑d, we must explain well, in detail, the matter and the order of sowing in the physical [world], by way of analogy: one sows a kernel of wheat

or plants the seed of a fruit in the ground and covers it with soil, and that seed rots and decays, and the power of growth in the earth brings forth wheat or fruit like the seed that was sown or planted in the ground.

For since the power of growth in the earth is a general power, one sows that seed to be like a raising of mayin nukvin (feminine waters) to the power of growth, so that it brings forth a particular power like that seed.

12That is, because that seed, too, came into being from the power of growth, and there is within it the aspect of the power of growth in concealment, only it became physical and diminished from its essence until it became a seed.

Nevertheless, it has some connection to the spiritual power of growth. Therefore, when the body of the seed rots and decays,

the power of growth enclothed in it is nullified before the general power of growth in the earth and becomes mayin nukvin to it, and it brings forth [growth] like the seed, with an increase greater than the original.

So too it brings forth all kinds of fruits, with kinds of flavors, color and fragrance like that seed: for example, if the seed was of apples, it brings forth apples, and if it was of grapes, it brings forth grapes, and the like.

Although in that seed no taste or fragrance at all is seen or sensed, [it is] only like mere wood, nevertheless it is at any rate of the essence of that fruit, and within it, in its potential, there are enclothed and hidden all the powers of the tastes, the colors and the fragrance in that fruit;

only it is very contracted, so that no taste or fragrance is sensed or seen in it. And therefore it can draw forth the power of growth to bring forth the fruits of that seed in all their aspects, in their taste and their fragrance and their appearance, without any concealment or contraction at all.

13Now, in accordance with all the details of this analogy, the discerning person should contemplate the service of G‑d and His Torah. For the Torah is His wisdom and His will, may He be blessed,

and He and His wisdom are one: “He is wise, but not with a knowable wisdom,” etc. And through the many contractions (tzimtzumim) and the chain of descent (hishtalshelus) from level to level, it descended lower and lower, until it was enclothed in physical matters and became physical.

This is like the analogy of the kernel of seed or of fruit, which is taken from the power of growth; that power is at the level of actual nothingness (ayin), from the utterance “Let [the earth] sprout” (Tadshe),

that is, esh das, “a fiery law” (so writes the Shach in the name of the Rash). And the fruit that grows from it, through its being enclothed in the earth, is at the level of something from nothing (yesh me’ayin),

but nevertheless it has spiritual life-force within it, for it is good for food and pleasant to the sight, or it has fragrance.

Whereas in the seed that is sown, the life-force within it is so contracted that not even any taste or fragrance is seen or sensed in it.

So too, by way of analogy, with the Torah, which has been enclothed in physical things and become physical: the life-force within it is very contracted. For in the higher Gan Eden, which is the World of Beriah, the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of the Infinite One (Ein Sof), blessed be He, shine, and the light of the Torah shines as delight, in intellectual apprehensions of actual G‑dliness.

14Nevertheless, that apprehension is at the level of something from nothing (yesh me’ayin) relative to the source of all, the supernal Chochmah, [of which it is said,] “He is wise, but not with a knowable wisdom.” Whereas in its descent below it became physical, until no delight or G‑dly intellect is seen or felt in it, but only laws and rulings concerning physical matters

(and see what is written elsewhere on the statement in Parshas Bereshis, folio 27b: “‘I will make him a helper,’ etc.: this is the Mishnah,” etc.; see there).

And this is [the meaning of] “Those who sow in tears will reap in joyous song”: for at the time of his learning he has no delight, and nevertheless “in joyous song they will reap,”

for because of the learning the light of the Torah becomes sown in the higher earth. For [it is] the level of “the word of G‑d, this is halachah,” and it is nullified before the power of growth, the level of Chochmah, etc.

Through this “the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah” grows forth in the higher Gan Eden, where “the righteous sit and delight in the radiance of the Shechinah” and take delight in their apprehension, the apprehension of G‑dliness; for that apprehension is at the level of something from nothing, and a radiance and glow from the light above, in the power of growth.

That is, the radiance of their very Torah and service, which is, for example, like the power of growth that brings forth [growth] like the seed, etc. And the physical bodies of the laws are at the level of a raising of mayin nukvin to His wisdom and will, may He be blessed, which are enclothed in “the word of G‑d, this is halachah.”

15Now, just as in physical sowing [the seed] does not grow until the seed rots and decays and changes from its nature and is truly absorbed into the earth, and they become truly one;

so must a person’s soul be nullified from its own being through self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh) in Torah and mitzvos, and be absorbed and united in the higher earth, which is His Malchus and “the Shechinah of His might,” through this self-sacrifice, as a raising of mayin nukvin, as it is written, “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit,” etc.

Through this, the Torah that he learned in this world is also absorbed and united in the higher earth, like the union of the power of growth in the seed with the power of growth in the physical earth.

16From this the discerning person should reflect [how] his learning is to be in this manner: that it be at the level of mayin nukvin, and that he not make the secondary into the essential; that is, that he not direct all his aim to the Torah only as it is in its physical garments.

For “one who says, ‘I have only Torah,’ does not have even Torah.” Rather, he should set his heart on the inner G‑dliness enclothed in it, from its source and root above, the level of supernal Chochmah, and [he should] discuss and deliberate in the word of the Omnipresent;

for this halachah is the word of G‑d, and His wisdom and will are enclothed in it. Then his learning is at the level of mayin nukvin and nullified before His wisdom, may He be blessed, and they become truly one.

173. And in order that [the Torah] also be united with his G‑dly soul: prayer is called “soul,” as it is written, “And I poured out my soul,” etc.

He must arouse the love in prayer from the depth of the heart, with a true expiring of the soul, with self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh), with nullification of existence to Him, may He be blessed:

the level of “My sister” mentioned above; so that this self-sacrifice and self-nullification mentioned above become fixed in his mind and heart at the time of prayer, which is the level of supernal Chochmah

(as it is written, “Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister’”; and this is [the meaning of] what is written, “She is my sister, the daughter of my father,” etc.: “at the time when she receives from the house of Abba,” as is written in the holy Zohar, Parshas Emor, folio 100b).

Therefore, when he learns afterwards in the manner mentioned above, so that his learning is nullified before the supernal Chochmah enclothed in his Torah, then the light of his Torah and the light of his G‑dly soul are united together.

For this reason the time fixed for learning should be immediately after prayer. And this is [the meaning of] “Fortunate is he who comes here with his learning in his hand”: that is, that his G‑dly soul comes here through the self-sacrifice and self-nullification mentioned above, and his learning, too, is in his hand, in the manner mentioned above.

18The labor of grinding in the service of G‑d is the level of “a broken and crushed heart.” The meaning of “crushed” (nidkeh) is from the expression “he pounded it in a mortar” (dachu bamedochah). So too the matter of grinding: one grinds and crumbles the wheat until it is fine as flour; and as it is written, “And you shall grind some of it very fine.”

And regarding the learning of Torah, too, it is written, “My soul is crushed (garsah),” and the Gemara’s expression garsinan (“we learn”) is also from the expression “a mill for grits (gerosos).”

19Afterwards [comes] the level of kneading: one puts water into the flour to join them, to make one body and one dough.

So one must arouse the love, to cleave to Him, may He be blessed, and to be drawn after Him like water, so that there be no separation, G‑d forbid. And the level of baking is like what is written, “And when you bring a meal offering baked in an oven.”

20Takriv, “you bring,” is written without a yud, and the written form has authority (yesh em lamasores); that is, when the soul wants to bring itself near to G‑d, then it will be at the level of “baked in an oven,” as it is written, “And ten women shall bake your bread in one oven.”

That is, he should arouse in his heart the fiery flashes (rishpei esh) of love because of the level of “one,” that is, from the greatness of the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who fills and encompasses all worlds (memalei vesovev kol almin), and before whom all is truly considered as nothing; so that therefore

his soul will blaze and flame up “to gaze upon the glory of the King,” and the power of the soul will be nullified from its being and essence, in a love that is fierce and exceeds the love of G‑d that is to cleave to Him alone, to quench his thirsting soul, which is the level of water mentioned above.

For just as physical water and fire are two opposites in their nature: water is by nature joining and combining, and fire is by nature crumbling and separating the elements, as is known, that in fire all the elements separate: the element of water goes out in smoke, and the element of earth becomes scattered ash, etc.;

so the love that is the level of fiery flashes is a level opposite to the love that is the level of water, which is to cleave to Him, that is, that the essence and being of the soul should remain cleaving to Him, may He be blessed.

Whereas the level of fiery flashes is the love that separates the powers of the soul from their being and essence, and the soul pours itself out into the bosom of its Father, the very Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He.

21Furthermore, this is the level of baking, as it is written, “And Yosef hurried, for his compassion was stirred toward his brother,” etc. The meaning of “his compassion was stirred” (nichmeru rachamav) is from the expression “warming meat” (mechamar bisra), which is an expression of warmth;

for compassion comes from warmth, since his heart grows warm within him (as is explained elsewhere on the Zohar, Bamidbar, folio 118a).

For Israel are called by the name of Yosef, as it is written, “who leads Yosef like a flock”; and one must arouse compassion on the level of Binyamin, who is called Ben-Oni (“son of my sorrow”); that is, to be

among “the masters of reckoning,” to take account with his soul of how it has descended lower and lower, each one according to what a person knows in his own soul, and to have compassion on the spark of G‑dliness within him.

22“And he entered the chamber and wept there,” as it is written, “In secret places my soul shall weep,” that is, in the chambers of his heart. Nevertheless, “he restrained himself and said, ‘Set out bread’”: this is the Torah;

for there must be both: “joy is lodged in my heart on this side,” etc. And this is [the meaning of] “And he entered the chamber and wept there”: “there,” precisely.

23Through this the Torah becomes the level of truly baked bread, which is absorbed into the limbs of the King, the level of nullification in the very Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, etc., through its being absorbed into the limbs of his G‑dly soul, etc.

And this is [the meaning of] “Fortunate is he who comes here with his learning in his hand”: that is, that his learning has become united with his soul and they have become one. Whereas without the level of baking mentioned above, it could not be absorbed into the limbs of his soul and could not be life and food for the soul;

for it is specifically by baked bread that “man lives,” since it is absorbed into his limbs; whereas if it is not baked, the stomach does not digest it, and the bread lies by itself in the stomach and is not absorbed into the limbs.

Exactly so, by way of analogy: without the level of baking mentioned above, the Torah that he learns is a thing by itself and his soul is a thing by itself, and they are not united together, and it is not called “with his learning in his hand”

(and see what is written in Parshas Mishpatim on the verse “And under His feet was like the work of the sapphire brick,” and below in Parshas Bechukosai on the verse “And ten women shall bake,” etc.).

244. But before he learns, there must also be the level of “comes here,” that is, to arouse the love in prayer with self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh) and nullification of existence to Him, may He be blessed,

so that he can learn afterwards in the manner mentioned above; and for this reason the time fixed for learning should be immediately after prayer, etc.

Therefore, through the level of “comes here with his learning in his hand,” he is at the level of “fortunate” (ashrei). (And see what is written in the explanation on the verse “Show me your appearance”; and from what is written there, the expression “Fortunate is he who comes” will be understood. For ashrei is from the expression “In my good fortune (be’oshri),

for they have called me fortunate,” and it is the level of the revelation of delight, Keser, etc.; and this is specifically through the learning that follows prayer, etc. And this is what is said in the Zohar, Parshas Behar, folio 108a: “As it is written, ‘When you come,’ etc., ‘the land shall rest’: rest, certainly.” Here, however, “shall rest” is explained in another way.)

And this is [the meaning of] “When you come into the land”: that is, immediately “when you come” (which is the level of “comes here”) and arouse the love at the level of prayer, the level of “soul,” as it is written, “And I poured out my soul,” which is the level of the higher earth.

“That I am giving you”: for the true love is the one that comes from above, only it requires the person’s arousal, and “through an arousal from below [comes] an arousal from above.”

25And then “the land shall rest,” that is, as is written in the Sifra DeTzniusa, “and the earth was nullified”: that is, that there be the level of nullification of the existence of the powers of the soul, at the level of “My sister” mentioned above.

“A Shabbos to Havayah”: nullification after nullification; that is, first “the land shall rest,” at the level of “turn away from evil,” and afterwards “a Shabbos to Havayah,” at the level of “and do good,” which must also be at the level of the nullification mentioned above. And afterwards, “Six years you shall sow your field”: these are the six orders of the Mishnah.

“You shall sow” in the higher earth, which is called a “field”: “the field of holy apples,” the level of “the word of G‑d”; so that it be like the analogy of sowing mentioned above.

“And six years you shall prune” is the level of Talmud, which is the reasons of the Mishnah and its reasoning. (Now it is well understood why it is written “[the land] shall rest,” etc., before “Six years you shall sow,” etc.

That is, before the level of “six years you shall sow” and “prune,” which is engaging in Torah, there must be the level of self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh) in prayer, which is the level of “the land shall rest,” “the earth was nullified,” in order to be at the level of “comes here with his learning in his hand,” as mentioned above.)

Now, in the work of the vineyard one must prune, that is, cut away the thorns that destroy the vineyard; and this, too, is part of the work of sowing and planting,

for one who prunes is liable on account of planting, because he does it to make fruit grow. So it is, by way of analogy, with the study of Talmud, which is the clarification of the halachah: it clarifies what the initial supposition (salka da’atach) in the Gemara was,

and all the difficulties that arise according to the initial supposition in the Gemara, or even the questioner’s initial supposition and his difficulty: [all of it is] in order to clarify a clear halachah.

Therefore the words of the Talmud are compared to wine that gladdens, because of the clarification of the halachah. Whereas the Mishnah is called by the name “bread,” and it is written, “bread that sustains the heart of man.”

26Now, it is written, “And wine that gladdens the heart of man,” and it is written regarding wine, “which gladdens G‑d and men.” But there is wine and there is wine, etc. For when he understands the Talmud

as it is clothed in physical garments, and he cannot strip it of its garments, so that the Torah of his G‑d be within him as actual G‑dly understanding, it is called “wine that gladdens the heart of man.”

But when he delights in G‑d through his understanding of the spirituality of the Torah, the apprehension of G‑dliness, it is called “wine that gladdens G‑d,” with the joy of Elokim and the gladness of Havayah.

Now, it is written, “For the vineyard of Havayah Tzevaos is the house of Israel” (and see the Zohar, Part I, folio 96), and each and every one must do the work of the vineyard in his own soul, to cut away the thorns,

that is, the emotive attributes (middos) of the soul in a person that come from his vital soul, namely envy, hatred, desire and the like, in order to refine out the good. And then, after the refinement, “there shall be a Shabbos of complete rest for the land, a Shabbos to Havayah”:

these are three kinds of Shabbos, corresponding to the three kinds of worlds, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, from which the good has been refined for G‑d. And this suffices for one who understands.