ביאור הדברים בענין א״ת בניך שהוא בחי׳ אהבה…

This maamar is a further explanation (biur) of the discourse on the verse “And all your children (banayich) shall be taught by Havayah,” which the Sages read “Do not read banayich, your children, but bonayich, your builders.” “Children” stands for love, which is Z’eir Anpin, built mostly of chassadim (kindnesses); “builders” stands for the building of Malchus (the Nukva), which comes from the gevuros, the powers of restraint and limitation. The reason: Malchus descends into the lower worlds and gives life even, at a distance, to kelipas nogah (the “glowing husk,” a mixture of good and evil) and to the still lower kelipos.

In holiness a being knows itself as nothing before G‑d (bittul); the realm that stands opposite holiness experiences itself as a separate, independent existence (yesh). Yet even that realm draws its life from the Malchus of holiness, and therefore, as the Talmud says, “they call Him the G‑d of gods”: they acknowledge Him as the source above their own powers.

From the standpoint of G‑d’s very essence there is no reason to favor one recipient over another, since before Him everything, holy and unholy alike, is as nothing. So the rule that the flow goes only to what is nullified cannot come from the Essence itself.

Elihu’s words in Job, “If you are righteous, what do you give Him?”, make the same point: a person’s deeds add nothing to G‑d’s essence. Proverbs says “the spider grasps with its hands, and it is in the king’s palaces”: even a lowly creature takes hold in the King’s palace, since from the Essence’s standpoint nothing is excluded; two other discourses, “And a man wrestled” (Torah Ohr, Vayishlach) and “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh sent,” develop this.

The limitation comes instead from the gevuros within Malchus, as the Sages say, “the left hand pushes away” (and the right draws near); the printed word shma’n is evidently smol, “the left,” as the Kehot note quotes it. The gevuros hold back the flow from the external forces (the kelipos), which have no bittul, so that they receive only a contracted measure; they are not cut off entirely, because they too “call Him the G‑d of gods.” The main flow goes to what is nullified before G‑d: the angels and souls of holiness.

This is why Malchus must be built from the gevuros: it descends into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, where the kelipos exist, and needs a power that limits and repels. In Atzilus, the World of Emanation, there is no evil at all (“evil does not dwell with You”), so no such guarding is needed there.

A parenthetical reference to the Torah Ohr discourse on the wedding blessings. Of the two blessings on the creation of man, the one corresponding to Chavah (Malchus) also concludes with “Blessed,” while the one corresponding to Adam (Z’eir Anpin) only opens with it; the closing blessing, the chasimah (literally “seal”), is needed for Malchus because it descends where the kelipos are. The words of that blessing, “and He prepared for him, from himself, a building,” allude to the building of Malchus, which is bonayich.

The power in Malchus to direct the flow only to the nullified comes from Chochmah. Chochmah is itself bittul, the sense of being nothing before G‑d, so from it comes the rule that the Infinite Light dwells only where there is bittul.

The Raaya Mehemna on the half-shekel reads “a stone to weigh with” as the yud, the letter of Chochmah: Chochmah is the weight that measures out the flow. That is why Chochmah, though it is a source of kindness, is also called din (judgment), as the Kabbalist Rabbi Yehudah Chayat held; measuring is a function of gevurah.

This measuring power is the kav hamiddah, the “measuring line”: the supernal Gevurah of Atik Yomin (the innermost level of Keser) enclothed in the hidden Chochmah (Chochmah Stima’ah). From there comes the principle that G‑d’s revealed light is given only in proportion to the recipient’s bittul.

So Proverbs says “The wisdom of women builds her house” and “Through wisdom a house is built”: the “house,” Malchus, is built by Chochmah. In a person this building comes through accepting the yoke of Torah and through awe. The Raaya Mehemna lists four levels, dechilu and rechimu (Aramaic for awe and love): the lower awe and love are Malchus and Z’eir Anpin, and the higher love and awe are Binah and Chochmah.

It follows that love, Z’eir Anpin, the “son” (banayich), is rooted in Binah: the lesser love (ahavah zuta) grows from the great love (ahavah rabbah). But the lower awe, Malchus, is rooted in the supernal awe, Chochmah, a bittul higher than any love; so the “builders” of Malchus draw from a higher root than the “children.”

Hence those at the level of bonayich, who build Malchus, are called talmidei chachamim, “disciples of the wise,” since a house is built specifically through Chochmah (wisdom). Proverbs says the same: “Havayah founded the earth with wisdom”; the earth stands for Malchus.

The same verse continues that He “established the heavens with understanding”: the heavens, the emotive attributes of Z’eir Anpin (banayich), come from Binah. The text adds that this is also explained on a teaching of the Zohar in Parshas Emor; the Kehot note locates that explanation in the Mitteler Rebbe’s Biurei HaZohar.

That Zohar teaching is on Avraham’s words about Sarah, “And moreover, truly she is my sister,” and there is a further explanation on Parshas Vayeira. The reader is also sent to the Torah Ohr discourse on why the formation of man was different, which links the two wedding blessings to the two stages of man’s creation.

Elsewhere it is explained that “Havayah builds Jerusalem” refers to the building of Malchus, here called Jerusalem: each of the ten Sefiros of Malchus is built from the Malchus-aspect of the corresponding Sefirah of Z’eir Anpin.

Yet the power that makes this building possible must come from a source higher than Z’eir Anpin. The Likkutei Torah discourse on the Mishnah about Rosh HaShanah falling on Shabbos is cited for this.

The text lists further Zohar passages on this building, among them the passage on “And Havayah Elokim built the rib” (the building of Chavah), and the commentary of the Ramaz, Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, on the Zohar’s passage in Pinchas.

There is also a “Jerusalem Above,” which the text identifies with the Malchus of Ein Sof, the supernal awe; the Pardes Rimonim (in the gate named “Essence and Conduct”) identifies it with Binah. Either way it is above the Jerusalem below, and this opens a further reading of “builds Jerusalem.”

On this reading, “builds Jerusalem” means drawing added light from the Jerusalem Above, the Malchus of Ein Sof, into the Jerusalem below, the Malchus of Atzilus. The Psalm calls Jerusalem “a city that is joined together”: the upper and the lower Jerusalem joined as one.

To show how such an addition is possible, the text recalls the measuring line: every flow of divine light is measured out through it, and always in proportion to the recipient’s bittul.

Since the Chochmah of Atzilus is pure bittul, the Infinite Light rests in it, and Chochmah shines through all of Atzilus; the Kehot note refers here to the Tikkunei Zohar.

In Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah there is not the true bittul of the Chochmah of Atzilus, only bittul hayesh, the self-nullification of beings who still feel that they exist. The revelation of the Infinite Light is correspondingly smaller there, so when Malchus is enclothed in these worlds it does not bring the revelation it has in Atzilus.

The measuring line fixed, at the beginning of the chain of worlds, how much revelation each world would receive according to its standing. But that original allotment is not the end of the matter.

Afterwards the deeds of those below change the measure: when people strengthen themselves through teshuvah, good deeds, Torah, prayer and charity, added light shines through all four worlds, Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah.

This is explained at the end of the discourse “See, the fragrance of my son.” Conversely, when the generations are unworthy, the light is diminished further: Pri Etz Chaim, in the Arizal’s intentions for Shabbos, says that Adam’s sin made all the worlds descend greatly (the Kehot note points to its Gate of Prayer, chapters 6 and 7, and says the exact wording was not found).

Through Adam’s teshuvah and through Shabbos that descent was repaired. Likewise, at the destruction of Jerusalem the light withdrew from Z’eir Anpin and Nukva, as the Zohar says, “the Holy One, blessed be He, ascended higher and higher”: what people do below changes how much light is revealed.

When the light withdrew at the Destruction, the opposing side was filled: the Sages say Tyre grew full only from Jerusalem’s ruin. Bonayich, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, reverses this by drawing added light into Malchus, the source of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, until the Infinite Light itself is revealed even below. Isaiah pictures that revelation: before the terror of G‑d’s majesty, those opposed to Him will hide in the caves of the rocks (tzurim, a word that echoes Tzor, Tyre).

This rebuilding comes through accepting the yoke of Torah, as explained in the discourse on “I have gathered my myrrh with my spice” (Song of Songs 5:1). It is also called yirah shalem, “complete awe,” the two words traditionally heard in the name Yerushalayim, and such awe is drawn down through the Torah. The text then refers to the discourse on “Set me as a seal” (Song of Songs 8:6).

A seal can be engraved, with its letters sunken, or embossed, with its letters raised; that discourse links the sunken seal with awe, which draws from a higher level, and the raised seal with love, which rises from below. So the Sages’ reading “not banayich but bonayich” moves from love to the complete awe that comes through Torah study.

The second section begins. Bonayich brings about “and great peace” (verav shlom), the continuation of the verse “And all your children shall be taught by Havayah, and great shall be the peace of your children,” which the text reads in two steps: out of verav, “much,” peace is made. It supports this from the cantillation: verav carries a tipcha, an accent that marks a pause and closes a phrase.

Without that pause, verav would simply describe the peace as “great peace,” a large measure of peace. The separating accent shows that verav also carries a meaning of its own.

Read on its own, rav, “much,” stands for multiplicity and division: Esav, called “the mountains of separation,” and the reshus harabim, the domain of the many and scattered, as opposed to the unity of holiness. The promise is that this very multiplicity will be refined and included in G‑d’s unity, becoming peace; so Isaiah, describing G‑d’s coming from Edom, Esav’s land, calls Him “great (rav) to save.”

The text now explains the saying that in the future even the pig, the emblem of impurity, will become pure. In the verse “The boar from the forest (miya’ar) gnaws at it,” the ayin of ya’ar is written raised above the line, and the Midrash reads it: “if you are worthy, from the river (ye’or); if not, from the forest (ya’ar).” That suspended ayin, whose value is seventy, is the seven lower Sefiros of Imma (Binah), each made up of ten, where the shattering of the vessels took place.

The shattering was in the Name Sag, the aspect of Binah, where the “seven kings of Tohu,” the attributes of the World of Chaos, broke; in Chochmah there was no shattering, as Job says, “They die, and not with wisdom.” The enlarged ayin in the first word of “Shema Yisrael” belongs to the same theme.

In Binah the letters are “large” (asvon ravrevin), so the enlarged ayin of Shema is the seven lower Sefiros of Binah once the damage of the shattering is repaired. That repair is the inclusion of the Name Ban (value 52) and the 288 sparks in those seven Sefiros of Imma.

A second reason the ayin of ya’ar is suspended: the external forces (the kelipos) receive their life only from afar, through an encompassing light that never enters them, associated here with the frankincense (levonah). That is why the incense has eleven spices, one beyond the “ten and not nine” of holiness that Sefer Yetzirah says of the Sefiros: the extra measure stands for the distant life given to what is outside holiness.

Ya’ar, “forest,” is also read as the world of the angels or the World of Asiyah. In the end of days (ketz hayamin, a phrase from Daniel), when G‑d fulfils His promise through Zechariah, “I will remove the spirit of impurity from the land,” this changes.

Zephaniah’s prophecy, “For then I will turn to the peoples a clear language, that they may all call on the Name of Havayah,” describes that change. It is the deeper meaning of “out of verav peace is made”: even the encompassing light that now gives distant life to what is outside will be included in Yaakov, the side of holiness.

This explains why verav shlom comes specifically through bonayich, the builders who work through Chochmah. The kelipos draw their nourishment from ya’ar, the seven lower Sefiros of Imma where the shattering took place, but they have no hold in Chochmah; so in Chochmah they can be sorted out, as the Kabbalistic saying goes, “through Chochmah they are refined.”

Because Chochmah is beyond the kelipos’ reach, the rectification is made through it, and ya’ar, the “forest,” becomes ir, a “city,” the same letters in a new order. The text refers to its discourse on Yaakov’s blessing to Yehudah, “Binding his foal (iroh) to the vine,” where iroh is read both as a wild donkey and as the city of G‑d.

As Israel skirted Esav’s land, G‑d told them, “You have circled this mountain long enough (rav lachem); turn northward (tzafonah).” The Midrash reads tzafonah as “hide yourselves” in Torah: if Esav threatens, flee to the Torah, for “tzafonah means only Torah.” The text uses this to show that rav, Esav’s multiplicity, is overcome through Torah.

Job’s “out of the north comes gold” joins north with gold, and gold is the level of awe, as in “Stand in awe of Havayah” and “The beginning of wisdom is the awe of Havayah.” The Torah is “more desirable than gold,” so north, gold, awe and Torah belong together; the text also points to Bereishis Rabbah, chapter 16.

As the Mishnah in Avos says, “If there is no wisdom, there is no awe”: awe depends on the wisdom of Torah. Gold in its fullest sense is the Oral Torah, which excels the Written Torah as gold excels silver, and the text refers to its explanation elsewhere of the Sages’ saying that “extra understanding was given to woman,” woman standing for Malchus and the Oral Torah.

The Sages also say that “the words of the Sofrim,” the teachers of the Oral Torah, are sweeter than the wine of Torah, a theme explained in the discourse “I am black but comely.” Sofer, “scribe,” stands for Chochmah, through which all things are refined and sorted.

Through this Torah comes the level of rav lachem: the rav, Esav’s multiplicity, no longer stands against Israel. As said earlier, the Torah is called “strength (oz) and sound wisdom (tushiyah)”; the Kehot note relates oz to the G‑dly soul and tushiyah to the animal soul, and cites the Zohar Chadash that Torah at first “weakens” a person as he battles his evil inclination, but once he is used to it, it brings him joy and strength.

A parenthetical list of further sources: the Zohar on “Apples of gold in settings of silver” (Proverbs 25:11), the Midrash Rabbah at the start of Vayigash, Rashi on that verse, and the opening of the Shelah. The verse’s image of gold set within silver fits the two levels of Torah just discussed.

This is the Zohar’s teaching that the Torah is “hidden and revealed,” yet all is one: its concealed depths and its revealed teaching are a single Torah. The Oral Torah is called “a land flowing with milk and honey,” as explained in the discourse “This day” in Parshas Ki Savo.

So Scripture describes David, the embodiment of kingship (Malchus), as “ruddy, with beautiful eyes.” “Ruddy,” the color red, is Gevurah, for Malchus is built from the gevuros; yet he also had “beautiful eyes.”

The “beautiful eyes” show that this Gevurah is at heart true kindness: its restraint serves good. It is like the measuring line, the Gevurah of Atik Yomin enclothed in the hidden brain (Mocha Stima’ah), which the Zohar pictures as “the dew of crystal”: white like crystal, yet showing red hues within it.

A parenthetical reference to further Zohar passages (Part III, 51a, 56a, 84a and 262b). Then the next step: bonayich, building through Torah and awe, requires that there first be banayich, the “children,” the level of love.

Banayich is Binah, expressed in prayer’s “running and returning” (ratzo vashov), the soul’s yearning upward and its return to serve below, in Ezekiel’s words about the living creatures. The words “they blessed over the Torah” recall the Sages’ saying that the Land was lost because they did not first bless over the Torah: baruch, “blessed,” is the Yesod of Abba, the channel from Chochmah that must be drawn into the Torah, the letter vav, the six attributes of Z’eir Anpin. The Kehot note quotes the Kabbalistic lexicon Meorei Or: “Baruch is the name of the Yesod of Abba, united within the Yesod of Imma.”

The third section turns to the next verse, “Through tzedakah you shall be established.” Banayich and bonayich build Malchus as inner light, light that enters and is absorbed; but to guard the “city” from the outside forces, as in “unless Havayah guards the city,” encompassing lights (makifim) are needed, and these are drawn down through charity and compassion.

An encompassing light, too great to be contained, pushes away the outside forces so that they cannot draw nourishment. The parenthesis lists places that discuss “Unless Havayah builds the house … unless Havayah guards the city”: the Talmud in Yoma, which tells that this verse was recited to keep the High Priest occupied through the night before Yom Kippur, the opening of the Midrash on Eichah, and several passages of the Zohar.

Isaiah’s “I who speak in tzedakah, great to save” is read here: “I who speak” is the Torah, G‑d’s words placed in Israel’s mouth, as Isaiah says elsewhere, “My words which I have put in your mouth.” One reaches this level through “And all your children shall be taught by Havayah,” the learning of Torah.

After Torah comes tzedakah, and with it “great to save,” the salvation that comes through verav shlom, the refining of the multiplicity described earlier. The blessing before the morning Shema praises G‑d “who sows acts of tzedakah and makes salvations sprout,” linking tzedakah with salvation; the text also refers to the Torah Ohr discourse “Who is enthroned on high” and to the Zohar.

So David says, “Havayah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” David and Jerusalem are one level, Malchus, as Scripture pairs the choice of David with the choice of Jerusalem.

In Kings, G‑d says He chose no city but chose David; in Chronicles, the same words say that He chose Jerusalem and chose David. Read together, the verses present the king and the city as one.

“My light” is inner light, revelation that is received within, the building of banayich and bonayich; “my salvation” is encompassing light, which protects from beyond. Through that encompassing light comes “great to save,” the salvation brought by tzedakah.

The Zohar in Bamidbar expounds “Havayah is my light”: one who is bound to the light above fears neither the upper nor the lower beings; and the Midrash reads “my light” as Rosh HaShanah and “my salvation” as Yom Kippur (the Kehot note says the chapter belongs to Acharei, not Emor). On Rosh HaShanah the “world of speech,” Malchus, is built anew, and the text refers to further Midrash passages.

Among them is a Midrash on “a time to gather stones” (Ecclesiastes 3:5), gathering the stones for a building. This Rosh HaShanah building is bonayich, as in “Through wisdom a house is built” and “He built the rib,” the building of Chavah, who stands for Malchus; the text then begins to explain the three words yirah, shalem and shalom.

Yirah, awe, is Rosh HaShanah. The Zohar on “And this is the offering … gold” says that gold alludes to the day of Rosh HaShanah, and Job says “out of the north comes gold”; the Kehot note shows that this Zohar is in Part II, where Terumah is found.

Gold is the level of awe, as explained above. Shalem, “complete,” is Yom Kippur, when every blemish is made whole by a drawing-down from the Source of all, whom the Tikkunei Zohar addresses, “You are the perfection of them all”; and shalom is “peace to the one who is far,” who has come near.

Coming near from afar is teshuvah, and from above G‑d too comes near: the Sages read “Call upon Him while He is near” as the Ten Days of Teshuvah between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. From this comes Sukkos, which the evening prayer calls “the sukkah of Your peace.”

The peace of Sukkos is verav shlom: the seventy bullocks offered over the festival correspond, the Talmud says, to the seventy nations, the multitude (rav) brought into peace. The text also refers to the Ramaz on Zechariah’s prophecy that the nations will come up to bow down to G‑d and keep the festival of Sukkos.

On Sukkos one also gives much charity, as explained in the discourses on “I will make your windows of kadkod” and “Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her returnees with tzedakah.” All this is so that “through tzedakah you shall be established” may be fulfilled.

The three stages, banayich, bonayich and tzedakah, correspond to Binah, Chochmah and Keser, ascending from below. Banayich is Binah: the word binah is spelled with the letters of ben (“son”) and Yah, the Name made of yud and hei.

Binah is the service of prayer, from which love is born; bonayich is Chochmah, the study of Torah; both are inner light. Tzedakah is Keser, the Crown: the 613 commandments of the Torah and the seven Rabbinic ones make 620, the “620 pillars of light” of Keser, a word whose numerical value is 620.

Keser is encompassing light: the word is related to koseres, the crown-shaped capital that sits on top of a pillar and surrounds rather than enters. All the mitzvos as a whole are called tzedakah (the Kehot note recalls that the Jerusalem Talmud calls charity simply “the mitzvah”), and the three priestly blessings, “May He bless you,” “May He shine,” “May He lift up,” correspond to the same three levels.

The text points to the Ramaz’s commentary on the Zohar’s statement that G‑d “has three worlds in which He is hidden.” These are the same three levels, and the threefold “Holy, holy, holy” corresponds to them.

This key unlocks a parable in the Midrash on “We will rejoice and be glad in you”: a matron whose husband, the king, went overseas with her sons and her sons-in-law. Told “Your sons have come,” she answered, “What does it matter to me? Let my daughters-in-law rejoice”; the next paragraphs decode the parable through the three levels.

The explanation of the parable begins with “Like a lily among the thorns, so is My beloved among the daughters.” The “daughters” are the individual souls, called “daughters of Jerusalem” or “daughters of Zion.”

So it is explained in the discourses “I am black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem” and “Go forth and see, O daughters of Zion.” “My beloved,” by contrast, is Knesses Yisrael, the Congregation of Israel as a whole, the source from which all the souls come.

The text refers to its discourse on “One is she, my dove,” and then gives the key: the Shema speaks of three loves, “with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might,” three ascending levels of love for G‑d.

These three loves are explained in other discourses: “His left hand is under my head,” “When you lift up the head of the children of Israel,” and “The heavens are My throne.”

Love “with all your heart” is the soul’s pining, as in “My flesh and my heart pine away” and “My soul longs, indeed it pines, for the courts of Havayah.” That is why such souls are called kalosai, “my daughters-in-law,” from kalah, “to pine”; the discourse “And I will betroth you to Me” explains that Knesses Yisrael is called kallah, “bride,” for the same reason.

Love “with all your soul” is “To You, Havayah, I lift up my soul”: binding all of one’s powers, intellect and emotions, thought, speech and action, to Torah and mitzvos and to contemplative prayer.

That is binding oneself to G‑d’s own wisdom and will, which is what the Torah is, and so it is higher than longing for “the courts.” The Zohar calls the Torah “the supernal palace of the Holy One, blessed be He,” the royal house where the King lives permanently.

In this image the King’s house is the Infinite Light resting in supernal Chochmah, while the “courts” are places He enters only at times, as the Talmud says that at night G‑d “rides on His light cherub and floats through eighteen thousand worlds.” Torah gives a constant bond; the courts know only a passing visit.

Love “with all your might” (me’od, beyond measure) is self-sacrifice and the “will of the heart” (re’usa deliba) that is above reason. Of it the Sages said, “There is one who acquires his world in a single hour,” and the text refers to the discourse on “This day, Havayah your G‑d commands you.”

Of this love it is said, “so is My beloved among the daughters”: she is “beautiful as Tirtzah,” a word related to ratzon, will, the supernal will above Chochmah. The Midrash says G‑d “did not cease to cherish her until He called her ‘My mother,’” beyond “daughter” and “sister,” as in “the crown with which his mother crowned him,” the supernal Shechinah.

Now the parable is decoded. “Your sons have come” is the descent of the souls of Atzilus, “And all your children (banayich) shall be taught by Havayah,” a revelation rooted in the Binah of Atzilus. The matron’s reply, “Let my daughters-in-law rejoice,” names those who receive it.

The “daughters-in-law” (kalos) are the souls of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, whose love is the pining (kalsah) of “my soul pines for the courts of Havayah”; the revelation of banayich, from Binah, quenches their thirst. Binah is called “the inner court that faces east,” so it is exactly the “court” they long for.

Next comes “Your sons-in-law have come.” Since sons would seem closer than sons-in-law, what does this add? The answer: the sons-in-law (chasanim) are the masters of Torah, bonayich, for the Sages read “the day of his wedding (chasunaso)” as the Giving of the Torah.

Torah is drawn from supernal Chochmah, which is Atzilus as a whole and higher than Binah, the source of Beriah; it is “the supernal palace,” above even the inner court. Even so the matron says only “Let my daughters rejoice,” the daughters being the nefesh of Atzilus, as explained in the discourse “When you go out to war.”

That discourse explains the phrase “they give him the King’s daughter,” and the Midrash says that G‑d first called Israel “My daughter.” Since the Zohar teaches “Abba (Chochmah) founded the daughter,” it is the daughters who rejoice in the revelation of Chochmah drawn down through Torah.

Zion herself, the matron, is the supernal Shechinah, of whom the Midrash says that G‑d did not cease to cherish her until He called her “My mother.” She is “One is she, my dove,” the singular love beyond the daughters.

Her love is the will of the heart, love “with all your might,” the yechidah, the soul’s single innermost point, which receives from G‑d as the Yachid, the Singular One, above both banayich and bonayich. The early pious ones, who spent nine hours a day in prayer, are an example of such love.

So the revelation of Chochmah through Torah does not quench her thirst. The discourse “Many waters” reads “If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, they would utterly scorn it” as G‑d offering Chochmah, “the wealth of His house,” to a soul whose love is for Him alone, and that soul scorning anything less than Him.

This is the great love with all one’s might, directed to G‑d’s very essence, before which even Chochmah counts as mere Asiyah, “action.” All the more so the Torah: though its Giving is “the day of his wedding,” the Sages call Torah “the fallen fruit (novlos) of the supernal wisdom,” a lesser outgrowth of it.

What does satisfy her is “Behold, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious (tzaddik venosha)”: the King Himself, not His sons or sons-in-law. It is the level of Elkanah’s words to Chanah, “Am I not better to you than ten sons?”: a drawing-down from Anochi, “I,” G‑d as He is in Himself.

This is the very Infinite Light, far above Atzilus, revealed so that G‑d may have “a dwelling place among the lower realms.” It is far above anything the souls can reach, for they bear no comparison to it at all.

It comes through the supreme Keser, the Malchus of Ein Sof, the level that links the Infinite Light itself to the emanated Sefiros. This is what the verse means by “Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

Anochi is G‑d’s hidden essence, “the most hidden of all the hidden”; a drawing-down from it is better than all that comes from Chochmah and Binah through banayich and bonayich, the “ten sons.” The Midrash makes the same point from the wording: Scripture says Anochi, not ani.

The Midrash continues, “as it says, Anochi Havayah your G‑d,” the word with which G‑d revealed Himself at Sinai, telling Chanah, in effect, that her Creator would be her portion. The text gives parallel sources and refers to its discourse on “It is better to take refuge in Havayah than to trust in man.”

When told that the king himself has come, the matron says, “This is complete joy”: G‑d’s own presence, a dwelling place among the lower realms. Isaiah’s “I will greatly rejoice in Havayah” expresses this joy in G‑d Himself.

This revelation comes through “through tzedakah you shall be established”: charity draws down the level of “righteous and victorious,” the King Himself. The text refers again to the discourse “Many waters” and to another discourse.

That discourse, “And behold, a menorah of gold,” explains how the mitzvos in their root are higher than the Torah, which is why tzedakah, the mitzvos as a whole, reaches beyond Torah study. The discourse “And Havayah went before them by day” says the same and applies to it the verse “There we will rejoice in Him.”

“In Him” (bo) means in G‑d Himself, not only in what comes from Him: the joy the matron calls complete. The text adds sources on “righteous and victorious” and on “He donned tzedakah as a coat of mail, and a helmet of salvation on His head,” where charity and salvation are joined.

The text now reads “Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my Beloved among the sons.” The “forest” is explained through “I have eaten my ya’ri with my honey”: ya’ri, which shares its letters with ya’ar, “forest,” stands for the blessing Yotzer Or before the Shema, which describes the angels, “all of them standing in the heights of the world,” while “my honey” is the Shema itself.

The love and awe of the souls of Israel are called “honey” because they come from the inner dimension and are sweet, in contrast to the angels of Yotzer Or. The text refers to several discourses, among them “As an eagle stirs up its nest,” on how the angels are raised through the souls of Israel “to be absorbed in the body of the King.”

So the apple tree among the forest trees is the souls’ service among the angels. The apple’s three colors, says the Zohar, are the three attributes, love, awe and compassion, the paths of the three Patriarchs, and also the three lines on which, the Mishnah says, the world stands: Torah, divine service and acts of kindness.

Through this the “forest” itself is repaired, as was explained above with the large ayin of Shema. And as the apple tree stands taller than the forest trees and is recognizable among them, so this revelation stands out.

The text cites a teaching that tapuach, “apple,” has the numerical value of Tzevaos, “hosts,” the Name in the angels’ “Holy, holy, holy is Havayah of hosts.” The Sages read Havayah Tzevaos as “He is a sign (os) among His host”: G‑d stands out among His angels as the apple tree stands out in the forest.

That “sign” is the radiance of Atzilus revealed in Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, which towers over all their hosts. This is the apple tree among the trees of the forest.

So too, and infinitely more, is “my Beloved among the sons.” The “sons” are banayich and bonayich, the drawing-down from the Chochmah and Binah of Atzilus.

But “my Beloved” is a drawing-down from far above the whole chain of worlds. The Song of Songs says, “The voice of my Beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains, skipping over the hills”: He does not descend step by step but leaps.

That leap, explained in the Likkutei Torah discourse on “The voice of my Beloved,” is the radiance of the Emanator Himself, the Infinite One, drawn into Atzilus without passing through the order of the levels.

Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah bear no comparison to Atzilus, and Atzilus bears infinitely less comparison to the Infinite One. So when the Infinite One’s own radiance is revealed, it towers over all of Atzilus as Atzilus towers over the lower worlds, and infinitely more.

The Sages read “And He came from the myriads of holiness” as “He is a sign among His myriad,” explained at the end of the discourse on that verse. The Zohar on Haazinu applies the same to the apple tree: so G‑d “is a sign among all the hosts above.”

Yet the verse says “my Beloved among the sons”: the Beloved comes only where the sons are already present. The order is first “And all your children shall be taught by Havayah,” then “not banayich but bonayich,” and then “through tzedakah you shall be established,” which brings “The voice of my Beloved … leaping.”