ביאור הדברים בענין בחי׳ בע״ת דמשכין ליה בחילא יתיר

The maamar sets out to explain the Zohar’s teaching that baalei teshuvah, those who return to G‑d after having strayed, “draw Him down with greater strength.” It begins with what the commandments themselves draw down: the 248 positive commandments, called the “248 limbs of the King,” belong to Z’eir Anpin, the emotive attributes of Atzilus. From that level on, divine light is held in vessels, that is, revealed in defined and measured forms.

Since the commandments belong to Z’eir Anpin, the tzaddikim who keep them draw divine light into Z’eir Anpin’s vessels, into ordered and measured channels. These channels are arranged in three lines, the right line being Chochmah, Chesed and Netzach, with the left and middle lines beside it, and the three lines correspond to the three pillars of Torah, divine service and acts of kindness. The verse “You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing” describes this ordered flow of blessing, as the next part explains.

Yesod is called “living” because it is the channel that binds one level to the next and passes the divine flow downward, from Z’eir Anpin to the source of the souls of Israel. “Every living thing” therefore means all the Yesodos together: the fifteen “good degrees” for which the Passover Haggadah thanks G‑d correspond, as Mishnas Chassidim writes, to fifteen Yesodos in the five partzufim (configurations) of Atzilus.

Through these channels G‑d’s will is revealed to us, but in an orderly way: it passes down level by level, from world to world, through each of the fifteen Yesodos. The word “will” echoes the end of the verse, which says that G‑d satisfies every living thing with “favor” (ratzon, literally “will”).

Baalei teshuvah reach higher: their return arouses “great compassion,” which flows from the thirteen tikkunim of the beard of Arich Anpin, a level within Keser (the Crown) whose lights stand above vessels. Light from there does not descend step by step through the chain of worlds, because at that level “above” and “below” are equal, so it can reach the lowest place as fully as the highest.

The Alter Rebbe reads Isaiah’s verse as a map of these levels. The “mountains” and “hills,” which can move, are the six emotive attributes of Atzilus, the measured channels described above; “My kindness” and “My covenant of peace,” which never move, are the Chesed and the Yesod of Atik, the innermost level of Keser. The Yesod of Atik joins the Infinite One directly to the emanated levels, so even if the ordered channels “depart” and “are shaken,” the kindness drawn from there stands firm.

Because this revelation comes from the Infinite One, from beyond the chain of worlds, it is not diminished as it descends: it reaches all the way down into Asiyah, the lowest world. So the “household below,” those in this world, becomes equal to the “household above,” the heavenly beings. In support the Alter Rebbe refers the reader to the Ramaz, Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, in his commentary on the Zohar, Parshas Bechukosai.

In the verse “And you shall do them” (Leviticus 26:3), the word for “them” is written so that it can also be read atem, “you.” From this word the Ramaz learns that although you are below, in this world, you can merit the levels of Atzilus, even Yechidah, the innermost core of the soul: the equality of below and above described in the previous part.

The parenthesis restates the contrast: light that comes in order, through the channels of “every living thing,” does not raise the lowest level to equal the highest. The verse closes “says Havayah, who has compassion on you,” and the Alter Rebbe ties this compassion to Isaiah’s call to the sinner, “let him return to Havayah, and He will have compassion on him”: it is teshuvah that draws down this higher compassion.