Likkutei Torah · Parshas Shabbos Shuvah · Maamar 3
שובה ישראל עד הויה אלקיך כו׳
“Return, O Israel, unto Havayah your G‑d”
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The big idea
Teshuvah is not only repentance for sin but the return of all things to their source; from the depth of the heart it reaches G‑d’s own “face,” the Infinite Light above Chochmah and the Torah, the only place from which sin can be forgiven. Its purpose is awe, the setting aside of the self before G‑d’s kingship, and “Return unto (ad)” means returning that kingship to its source so that it rests in the soul permanently.
The maamar in brief
The maamar asks why Hosea says “return ad Havayah” rather than simply “to Havayah.” It first explains how G‑d, who fills all things, can be “near” in the Ten Days of Teshuvah and “return” to us: nearness is a matter of face and back, and every level of G‑dliness, like the soul’s thought, speech and action, has outer and inner dimensions. Shabbos, when the life-force of the worlds returns to G‑d’s thought, shows what teshuvah is: the return of things to their source, which is why even the righteous do teshuvah. Its essence is the higher teshuvah of the depth of the heart, a love beyond reason that seeks G‑d’s “face,” the Infinite Light above Chochmah. Since sin blemishes the Torah, which is Chochmah, forgiveness must come from above it, “from the depths,” evoked “as water reflects face to face.” Forgiveness is for the sake of awe, the nullification of created existence before G‑d’s kingship, drawn down through the blessings over mitzvos and the Shema. That kingship is called ad, eternity; “Return, O Israel, ad” means bringing it back to its source, so that it rests in the soul permanently.
Outline
- The question: why “ad”?Why does the verse say “return ad Havayah” rather than “to Havayah”? The word shuvah means both returning oneself and bringing something else back.¶1
- Face and backG‑d, who fills all things, is “near” or “far” as two people are when they face each other or turn away; sin draws from holiness’s “back,” and teshuvah restores the “face.” Like the soul’s thought, speech and action, G‑d’s creating, forming and making (Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah) are outflows with outer and inner layers, while He Himself does not change.¶2–5
- Shabbos and teshuvahOn Shabbos G‑d “rests” from speech and action and the worlds live from His thought, as the life-force returns to its source; so שבת shares its letters with תשב, “return.” Teshuvah is the return of things to their source, for the righteous too, and its essence is the higher teshuvah of the inner heart, a love beyond reason that raises thought, speech and action into their root above intellect.¶6–10
- “Your face, Havayah, I will seek”The higher teshuvah draws down G‑d’s “face,” the Infinite Light above Chochmah, compared with which Chochmah and the Torah are “back.” Since sin blemishes the Torah, forgiveness comes from “the depths” above it, evoked by the depth of the heart and by self-nullification, “as water reflects face to face”; then “Havayah will gather me in.”¶11–14
- “That You may be feared”Forgiveness, like creation itself, is for the sake of awe: a world created as a “something” that sets itself aside before G‑d’s kingship, for there is no king without a people. The blessings over mitzvos and the two verses of the Shema draw this nullification down, first the higher unity and then the lower, and the Ten Days of Teshuvah draw it down for the whole year.¶15–24
- Ad: the eternal kingshipAd means eternity, which belongs to Malchus, G‑d’s kingship in time, an illumination of the endless Ein Sof. “Return, O Israel, ad” means returning Malchus to its source, so that G‑d’s kingship rests in the soul permanently, “a tent that shall not be moved.”¶25–28
- “Take words with you”Sin is a fall; the remedy is the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which are above Chochmah and are evoked by teshuvah from the depth of the heart, which words only bring into the open. G‑d as “All” forgives, since no blemish reaches above Chochmah. Teshuvah surpasses the offerings, and in the Ten Days G‑d Himself, not the angels, receives our prayers, and we reach His “face.”¶29–34
Key concepts
- Higher teshuvahתשובה עילאה
- Teshuvah from the depth of the heart, above reason: not only repentance for sins but the return of the soul, and of all things, to their source. It is why the righteous also do teshuvah.
- The depth of the heartעומקא דליבא
- The innermost point of the heart, beyond understanding, like the thought of one whose life depends on a matter. From it come the higher teshuvah and the readiness to give one’s life for G‑d’s oneness.
- Face and backפנים ואחוריים
- The inner and outer dimensions of G‑dliness: where G‑d’s light is revealed in abundance is “face,” where it is contracted is “back.” Relative to the Infinite Light, even Chochmah and the Torah are “back.”
- Thought, speech and actionמחשבה דבור ומעשה
- The soul’s three outflows, and above, the worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah: “I created him, I formed him, I also made him.” On Shabbos the world lives from G‑d’s thought alone.
- “From the depths”ממעמקים
- G‑d’s hidden essence above Chochmah, the source of forgiveness, called into revelation by the depth of the human heart, “as water reflects face to face.”
- Nullification of the somethingביטול היש
- The purpose of creation: a world that seems to exist on its own but sets itself aside before G‑d’s kingship. This is the substance of awe.
- Higher and lower unityיחודא עילאה ויחודא תתאה
- The higher unity: all is as nothing before G‑d (“Havayah is One”). The lower unity: the world exists but is nullified before His kingship (“Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom”).
- Adעד
- Eternity: the name of G‑d’s kingship, Malchus, as it is revealed in time without end. “Return ad” means returning it to its source.
The question: why “ad”? ¶1
“Return, O Israel, unto (ad) Havayah your G‑d,” etc. To understand: what is [meant by] the word ad (“unto”)? It should have said, “Return to Havayah.” The explanation is this:
The maamar opens with Hosea 14:2, the first words of the haftarah read on Shabbos Shuvah, the Shabbos between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The prophet says “return ad Havayah,” using ad (“unto, as far as”) where the simpler le (“to”) would have done, and the maamar sets out to explain why.
הנה לשון שובה יש בו ב׳ פירושים. הא׳ כמשמעו שובה את3 עצמך.4 והב׳ כמו שובה ה׳ את שביתנו שהוא פועל יוצא.5
the word shuvah (“return”) has two meanings. The first is as it sounds: return yourself. The second is as in “Return (shuvah), O Havayah, our captivity,” which is a transitive verb.
The Hebrew shuvah can be intransitive, “return yourself,” or transitive, “bring back,” as in Psalms 126:4, “Return, O Havayah, our captivity,” where G‑d is asked to bring the captives back. Both senses will be used: a person returns to G‑d, and, at the end of the maamar, something is brought back to its source.
The opening question: why does the verse say “return unto (ad) Havayah” rather than “return to Havayah”? Before answering, the Alter Rebbe notes that the word shuvah has two senses, returning oneself and bringing something else back.
The Kehot note quotes the transcript of this maamar in Sefer HaMaamarim 5568, which reads the transitive sense so that “Shuvah Yisrael” is addressed to G‑d, asking Him to return to Israel. The Tzemach Tzedek, in Or HaTorah, records that the maamar was said on Shabbos Shuvah 5569 (1808) and that “ad” here is the level of Malchus, to be returned to its source in the Infinite Light, which is how the maamar ends.
Marei mekomos
- 1שובה ישראל עד · משבת שובה תקס״ט, בסה״מ תקס״ח ע׳ תכז — הנחת כ״ק אדמו״ר האמצעי (שם רק הענינים שמבוארים בסעיף א). ושם בע׳ תל ביאור על המאמר. רוב הביאור בתוס׳ הגהות נדפס ג״כ באוה״ת ש״ש ע׳ א׳תקכ. שם ע׳ א׳תקיד כתב שדרוש זה משבת שובה תקס״ט, ומבאר שכאן פי׳ ”שובה ישראל עד פי׳ להשיב בחי׳ עד הוא בחי׳ מל׳ למקורה ושרשה הוא אור א״ס ב״ה ממש” ע״ש הגהה על פי׳ עד. עוד הגהות באוה״ת כאן ע׳ א׳תקמ. וראה באוה״ת ויקרא כרך ד ע׳ א׳צה קיצורים לכאן. וראה גם ד״ה שובה ישראל תשל״ו (נדפס בסה״מ מלוקט ח״א ע׳ קסז). וד״ה שובה ישראל תש״מ (סה״מ מלוקט ח״א ע׳ שסה). וראה גם ד״ה מקושש עצים — סה״מ תרל״ג ח״ב ע׳ שלח.
- 2שובה ישראל עד ה״א · Hosea 14:2
- 3שובה ה׳ את שביתנו · Psalms 126:4
- 4שובה את עצמך · ”שהוא פועל עומד”. — סה״מ תקס״ח ע׳ תכז.
- 5שהוא פועל יוצא · (לשון מפעיל) — שפועל ההשבה באחר — ד״ה שובה תשד״מ. ”פועל יוצא שישוב ה׳ לדבר המושב שהן ישראל וגם כאן פי׳ שובה ישראל לא קאי על ישראל אלא לה׳ הוא אומר שישוב לישראל”. — סה״מ תקס״ח ע׳ תכז.
Face and back ¶2–5
2ולהבין זה צ״ל מ״ש דרשו ה׳ בהמצאו קראוהו בהיותו קרוב שדרשו רז״ל [רבותינו זכרונם לברכה] על1 עשרת ימי תשובה שאז הוא בהמצאו והיותו קרוב וכמ״ש שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם.2
To understand this, we need to understand what is written, “Seek Havayah when He may be found; call upon Him when He is near,” which our Sages, of blessed memory, expounded as referring to the Ten Days of Teshuvah, for then He “may be found” and “is near”; and as it is written, “Return to Me, and I will return to you.”
Isaiah 55:6 calls on us to seek G‑d “when He may be found” and “when He is near,” and the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 18a) applies this to the ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. Malachi 3:7 adds that when we return to G‑d, He returns to us.
ולכאורה לא שייך היותו קרוב ואשובה אליכם לגבי הקב״ה אשר מכה״כ [מלא כל הארץ כבודו] וכתיב את השמים ואת הארץ אני מלא3 ולית אתכר פנוי מיניה4 בשלמא לגבי האדם שייך שפיר לומר שובה אלי בשביל שנתרחק מקרבת אלהים לדבקה בו ית׳ ונמשך אחר ההפך.7
Now, seemingly, “being near” and “I will return to you” do not apply to the Holy One, blessed be He, of Whom [it is said], “the whole earth is full of His glory,” and it is written, “I fill the heavens and the earth,” and “there is no place empty of Him.” Granted, with regard to a person it is quite fitting to say “return to Me,” since he has distanced himself from nearness to G‑d, from cleaving to Him, may He be blessed, and has been drawn after the opposite.
The difficulty: G‑d fills all of existence, as Jeremiah 23:24 and Isaiah 6:3 say and as the Tikkunei Zohar puts it, “there is no place empty of Him.” A person can rightly be told to return, because by sin he has moved away from closeness to G‑d and followed the opposite.
אבל הקדוש ברוך הוא אשר מלא כל הארץ כבודו5 לא שייך עליו לומר שנתרחק שמכה״כ [שמלא כל הארץ כבודו] תמיד.
But of the Holy One, blessed be He, of Whose glory the whole earth is full, it is not fitting to say that He has become distant, for the whole earth is always full of His glory.
G‑d, by contrast, cannot be said to have moved away, since His glory fills the earth at every moment. So what can it mean that He is “near” at one time and “returns” at another?
אך הענין שהוא כמשל ב׳ בני אדם שעומדים בקירוב מקום סמוכים זה אצל זה הנה כשהם פונים זה לזה פנים בפנים הרי קרובים ממש אבל אם א׳ הפך פניו מחבירו הרי קרובים נעשו רחוקים.6
However, the matter is like the analogy of two people who stand close in place, near one another: when they turn to each other face to face, they are truly close; but if one turns his face away from his fellow, those who were close have become distant.
The answer begins with an analogy: two people standing side by side are close when they face each other, but if one turns his face away they become distant without either moving. Nearness here is a matter of facing, not of place.
The paragraph sets out the problem behind “I will return to you”: a person can move away from G‑d, but G‑d, who fills everything, cannot. The answer begins with the image of two people side by side, near or far according to whether they face each other.
The Talmud’s reading of “Seek Havayah when He may be found” as the Ten Days of Teshuvah is why this maamar, said on Shabbos Shuvah, is built on that verse: the closeness meant is not of place, which never changes for G‑d, but of “face,” as the next paragraphs explain.
Marei mekomos
- 1שדרשו רז״ל על עשי״ת · Rosh Hashanah 18a:11–12
- 2שובו אלי ואשובה אליכם · Malachi 3:7
- 3את השמים ואת הארץ אני מלא · Jeremiah 23:24
- 4ולית אתכר פנוי מיניה · Tikkunei Zohar 91b:6
- 5מלא כל הארץ כבודו · Isaiah 6:3
- 6דרשו ה׳ בהמצאו · Isaiah 55:6
- 7ולית אתר פנו מיני׳ · ת״ז תנ״ז.
3וכך גבי עבודת כוכבים כתיב וסרתם ועבדתם אלהים אחרים1 דהיינו בחינת אחוריים וגם בכל עבירות כן הוא ברוחניות שהעובר על איזה עבירה יונק מבחי׳ אחוריים דקדושה ואינו ממשיך השפע מבחי׳ פנימיות
So too, regarding idolatry it is written, “and you turn aside and serve other gods (elohim acherim),” that is, the level of the back (achorayim). And so it is, spiritually, with all transgressions as well: one who commits any transgression draws nourishment from the level of the back of holiness, and does not draw down the flow from the level of the inner dimension (pnimiyus).
Deuteronomy 11:16 describes idolatry as “turning aside,” turning one’s face from G‑d; the gods are called acherim (“other”), which is linked to achorayim, “the back.” Every sin works the same way spiritually: the sinner draws his life from holiness’s “back,” its external flow, and not from its inner dimension.
אבל ע״י התשובה ואשובה אליכם בבחי׳ פנים להמשיך לו השפע מבחי׳ פנימית ולהבין איך שייך לפניו ית׳ לשון פנים ואחור.
But through teshuvah (return), “I will return to you” in the manner of the face, to draw down the flow to him from the level of the inner dimension. Now, to understand how the terms “face” and “back” can apply before Him, may He be blessed:
Teshuvah turns the person to face G‑d again, and then G‑d “returns” to him face to face, giving him life from the inner dimension. This raises the question of what “face” and “back” can mean in relation to G‑d.
והרי כתיב ג״כ וראית את אחורי2 ופני לא יראו שאפילו בקדושה עצמה יש בחי׳ אחוריים3 (ועמ״ש מזה בד״ה זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק4 כו׳ בפ׳ תצוה).
for indeed it is also written, “You shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen,” [showing] that even in holiness itself there is the level of the back. (And see what is written about this in the discourse beginning “Remember what Amalek did to you,” etc., in Parshas Tetzaveh.)
That holiness itself has a face and a back is shown by G‑d’s words to Moshe in Exodus 33:23: “You shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” The text refers the reader to its discussion of this in Torah Ohr, in the discourse on “Remember what Amalek did to you,” printed with Parshas Tetzaveh.
הנה מבשרי אחזה5 שיש באדם מחשבה דיבור ומעשה שכולן הן התפשטות החיות מהנפש שבמעשה יש כח הפועל בנפעל
“From my flesh I behold”: in a person there are thought, speech and action, all of which are the spreading forth of the life-force from the soul, for in action there is the power of the doer within the thing done.
Job 19:26, “from my flesh I behold G‑d,” is the basis for learning about G‑d’s ways from the workings of the human soul. A person’s soul expresses itself in three garments, thought, speech and action, and even in action the doer’s power is present in what he does.
אך התפשטות החיות שבמעשה הוא בחי׳ חיצוניות מכח החיות שבנפש ובחי׳ הדיבור הוא פנימי יותר והמחשבה יותר פנימית ופנימית לפנימית במחשבה עצמה שיש מחשבה בעלמא שהיא בחי׳ חיצוני׳ לגבי בחי׳ המחשבה שנגעה עד הנפש
However, the spreading forth of the life-force in action is the level of the outer dimension (chitzoniyus) of the power of the life-force in the soul; speech is more inward, and thought more inward still; and there is an inward of the inward within thought itself, for there is mere thought, which is the outer dimension in relation to thought that has touched the soul,
These garments are graded: action is the most external, speech more inward, thought more inward still. Even within thought there are layers: idle, surface thought is outer compared with thought that reaches the soul itself.
כמו החושב בדבר שחייו תלויין בו שהמחשבה ההיא בעומקא דליבא ששם פנימית ותוכיות החיות ותוך תוכו.
as when one thinks about a matter on which his life depends: that thought is in the depth of the heart (umka deliba), where the inwardness and the core of the life-force are, and the core of its core.
The example is thinking about something on which one’s life depends: such thought comes from umka deliba, Aramaic for “the depth of the heart,” the innermost core of a person’s life. This phrase will be central later, as the source of the highest teshuvah.
Turning away from G‑d is “back,” and teshuvah restores the “face,” so that G‑d’s flow comes from His inner dimension rather than His back. To show what face and back mean in holiness, the Alter Rebbe begins from the soul, whose thought, speech and action are layers of outer and inner, down to the depth of the heart.
The Kehot note quotes the 5568 transcript of this maamar: “other gods” (elohim acherim) are so called from achorayim, “the back,” as the books of the Kabbalists write. The same transcript asks why the verse says “you turn aside” rather than “you go and serve,” which this paragraph answers: idolatry is first of all a turning of the face.
Marei mekomos
- 1וסרתם ועבדתם אלהים אחרים · Deuteronomy 11:16
- 2וראית את אחורי · Exodus 33:23
- 3דהיינו בחי׳ אחוריים · וע״כ נק׳ אלקים אחרים לשון אחוריי״ם כמ״ש בספרי המקובלים — סה״מ תקס״ח שם.
- 4בד״ה זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק · תו״א פד, ד.
- 5מבשרי אחזה · Job 19:26
4והנה כל הבחי׳ הללו הן בהתפשטות החיות מהנפש משא״כ הנפש עצמה שהיא למעלה מהתפשטות החיות אשר ממנה בתוך הגוף אינה מקבלת שום שינוי.
Now, all these levels are in the spreading forth of the life-force from the soul; whereas the soul itself, which is above the spreading forth of the life-force that [issues] from it into the body, undergoes no change at all.
Thought, speech and action are all outflows of the soul’s life-force into the body. The soul itself stands above them and is not changed by whether it thinks, speaks or acts.
וכך עד״מ יש בחי׳ מחשבה דבור ומעשה לפניו ית׳ הגם שנאמר1 כי לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם2 וגם בבחי׳ הדיבור הרי מדיבור האדם אינו יכול להיות שום התהוות מה שאין כן בדבר ה׳ שמים נעשו3 כי הוא אמר4 ויהי.
And so, by way of analogy, there are the levels of thought, speech and action before Him, may He be blessed, even though it is said, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts”; and also with regard to speech, from a person’s speech no coming-into-being can result, whereas “by the word of Havayah the heavens were made,” “for He spoke, and it came to be.”
By analogy, G‑d too is described as having thought, speech and action, even though Isaiah 55:8 says His thoughts are not like ours. His speech is unlike ours as well: human words create nothing, while G‑d’s word brought the heavens into being (Psalms 33:6, 9).
מ״מ דבררה תורה כלשון בני אדם מחשבה5 דבור ומעשה לגבי הקב״ה היינו מ״ש בראתיו יצרתיו אף עשיתיו.6 [עמ״ש מזה בד״ה מי מנה].7
Nevertheless, the Torah spoke in the language of people: thought, speech and action with regard to the Holy One, blessed be He, are what is written, “I created him, I formed him, I also made him.” [See what is written about this in the discourse beginning “Who has counted.”]
The principle that “the Torah speaks in the language of people” (Berachos 31b) allows us to use these human terms for G‑d. The three appear in Isaiah 43:7: “I created him” (thought), “I formed him” (speech), “I also made him” (action); the text refers to its fuller treatment in Likkutei Torah, Balak.
בראתיו בחי׳ מחשבה כי בריאה היא מאין ליש כך המחשבה היא מאין שלא נולדו ונתהוו בחי׳ אותיות קודם המחשבה ואותיות המחשבה הן בבחי׳ העלם.
“I created him” is the level of thought: for creation (beriah) is from nothing to something, and so thought is from nothing, for letters were not born and did not come into being before thought, and the letters of thought are in a state of concealment.
Beriah, “creation,” means something from nothing, and thought is like that: before thought there are no letters at all. Even once thought has letters, they remain hidden within the person.
וכך בחינת הבריאה היא להיות עלמין סתימין דלא אתגליין89 (כמו עד״מ אותיות המחשבה שאינן נפרדים. משא״כ אותיות הדבור שיוצא ההבל לחוץ. ועמ״ש בד״ה אז ישיר בפ׳ בשלח).
And so the level of Beriah (Creation) is to be “hidden worlds that are not revealed” (as, by way of analogy, the letters of thought, which are not separate, whereas with the letters of speech the breath goes outward. And see what is written in the discourse beginning “Then [Moshe] sang,” in Parshas Beshalach).
So the World of Beriah is called “hidden worlds that are not revealed,” a phrase from Elijah’s prayer in the introduction to the Tikkunei Zohar. Thought’s letters are not separate from the thinker, whereas speech goes out on the breath; the text refers to its discourse “Az Yashir” in Torah Ohr, Beshalach.
ויצרתיו בחינת עולם הדבור להיות שהדיבור הוא גילוי ההעלם שבמחשבה ונקרא יצרתיו מלשון צורה שמצייר החומר ההיולי שהוא בבחי׳ ההעלם והצורה הוא גילוי להחומר
“I formed him” is the level of the world of speech, since speech is the revelation of what is concealed in thought; and it is called yetzartiv (“I formed him”) from the word tzurah (“form”), which shapes the primal matter (hyle), which is in a state of concealment, and the form is the revelation of the matter.
“I formed him” (yetzartiv) is the World of Yetzirah, the level of speech, which reveals what thought holds hidden. The word comes from tzurah, “form”: form shapes the primal matter, called by its Greek philosophical name hyle, which in itself is formless and hidden, and so form is its revelation.
ואף עשיתיו הוא עולם המעשה ונקרא בלשון אף שהתלבשות המחשבה בבחי׳ המעשה אינה כהתלבשותו בבחי׳ הדבור ששם מתלבשת ממש עד שהיו לאחדים.
And “I also made him” is the world of action; and it is called by the word af (“also”) because the investment of thought in action is not like its investment in speech, where it is truly invested, until they become one.
“I also made him” is the World of Asiyah, the level of action, and the extra word af (“also”) marks a further step down. Thought enters speech so fully that they become one, but it does not enter action that way.
משא״כ המעשה הוא דבר נפרד וכל זה בהתפשטות החיות להיות גילוי העולמות שהם מבחי׳ זיו והארה בלבד.
Whereas action is a separate thing. And all this is in the spreading forth of the life-force, so that there be a revelation of the worlds, which are only from the level of a radiance and an illumination.
A deed stands apart from the one who did it. All three levels belong to G‑d’s outflowing life-force, which brings the worlds into revealed existence; and the worlds are only a radiance and glow of His light.
משא״כ בא״ס ב״ה עצמו לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה כי אני10 הוי׳ לא שניתי ונמצא שיש כמה בחי׳ אחוריים וחיצוני׳ לגבי פנימית המלובשת בתוכן ופנימית לפנימית עד רום המעלות:11
Whereas of the Infinite One (Ein Sof), blessed be He, Himself, “no thought can grasp Him,” for “I, Havayah, have not changed.” It follows that there are many levels of the back and the outer dimension in relation to the inner dimension that is vested within them, and the inner of the inner, up to the highest of heights.
G‑d’s own essence, the Infinite One, is beyond all this: no thought can grasp Him, and as Malachi 3:6 says, “I, Havayah, have not changed,” just as the soul is unchanged by its outflow. There are thus many levels of back and outer dimension, each with an inner dimension within it, and inner within inner, without end.
Just as the soul’s thought, speech and action are outflows that leave the soul itself unchanged, G‑d’s creating, forming and making (the worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah) are outflows of His light, while He Himself does not change. This gives a scale of outer and inner, back and face, rising without end.
The pairing of Isaiah 43:7’s three verbs with Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah is standard in Kabbalah; here it is mapped onto thought, speech and action in order to define “back” and “face” as degrees of revelation. The Kehot edition records variant readings in this paragraph: “even though in truth it is said” for “even though it is said,” and “people, and indeed thought” for “people: thought.”
Marei mekomos
- 1הגם שנאמר · הגם שבאמת נא׳. [כ].
- 2כי לא מחשבותי מחשבותיכם · Isaiah 55:8
- 3בדבר ה׳ שמים נעשו · Psalms 33:6
- 4כי הוא אמר ויהי · Psalms 33:9
- 5אדם מחשבה · אדם והרי מח׳. [כ].
- 6בראתיו יצרתיו אף עשיתיו · Isaiah 43:7
- 7ועמ״ש מזה בד״ה מי מנה · לעיל פ׳ בלק סז, א.
- 8עלמין סתימין דלא אתגליין · ת״ז בהקדמה (פתח אלי׳).
- 9עלמין סתימין דלא אתגליין · Tikkunei Zohar 17a:11–12
- 10כי אני הוי׳ לא שניתי · Malachi 3:6
- 11דברה תורה כל׳ בנ״א · Berakhot 31b:13–15
(Summary: an explanation of the matter of the inner dimension and the back; “I created him, I formed him, I also made him.”)
A brief summary line printed at the end of the section: it explained face and back (inner and outer) in G‑dliness, using the three verbs of Isaiah 43:7 for thought, speech and action.
The summary of the first section: the meaning of inner and back, and the three levels “I created, I formed, I also made.”
Marei mekomos
- 1
Shabbos and teshuvah ¶6–10
6ב והנה בשבת כתיב כי ששת ימים עשה1 וגו׳. וביום השביעי שבת. ולכאורה אינו מובן2 שהרי הוא ית׳ מחדש בכל יום מע״ב [מעשה בראשית]
2. Now, regarding Shabbos it is written, “For in six days He made,” etc., “and on the seventh day He rested.” Seemingly this is not understood, for He, may He be blessed, renews the work of creation every day,
The second section opens with Exodus 31:17: G‑d made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The difficulty is that G‑d never stops creating: He renews the work of creation every day, as the morning prayers say.
וגם בשבת מחדש להיות השפעת והמשכת החיות שאילו היה מסתלק כרגע ח״ו [חס ושלום] היה העולם חוזר לאין ואפס ולכן אומרים גם בשבת המחדש בטובו.3
and on Shabbos too He renews [it], so that there be the bestowal and drawing-down of life-force; for were it withdrawn for a moment, G‑d forbid, the world would revert to nothingness and nought. Therefore on Shabbos too we say, “Who renews in His goodness.”
If the creative life-force were withdrawn even for an instant, the world would cease to exist, so it must continue on Shabbos as well. That is why the Shabbos morning prayer, in the Yotzer blessing, also says that G‑d “renews in His goodness.” What, then, does “He rested” mean?
אך הענין דכתיב כי ששת ימים עשה דייקא דהיינו מה שנתפשט ונמשך החיות ע״י בחי׳ עשייה אבל בשבת שבת מבחינת התלבשות בבחי׳ עשייה וגם לא נתלבש בבחי׳ הדיבור שהם עשרה מאמרות שבהם4 נברא העולם5
However, the explanation is that it is written “For in six days He made” specifically, that is, that the life-force spread forth and was drawn down by means of the level of action (asiyah); but on Shabbos He rested from the level of being invested in the level of action, and also was not invested in the level of speech, which is the Ten Utterances by which the world was created.
The answer lies in the verse’s word “made”: during the six days the life-force came down through the level of action. On Shabbos G‑d rested from being clothed in action, and also from being clothed in speech, the Ten Utterances by which, as the Mishnah in Avos says, the world was created.
ולכן כתיב ממצוא חפצך ודבר דבר6 וארז״ל [ואמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה] שלא יהא דיבורך של שבת7 כו׳ והיינו כי להיות בצלם אלקים ברא את האדם8 לכך צריך לשבות בשבת מפני
Therefore it is written, “from pursuing your affairs and speaking words,” and our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “that your speech on Shabbos should not be [like your weekday speech],” etc. That is: since “in the image of G‑d He created man,” he must therefore rest on Shabbos, because
This is the source of a Shabbos law: Isaiah 58:13 asks us to refrain on Shabbos from “pursuing your affairs and speaking words,” and the Talmud (Shabbos 113b) derives that our speech on Shabbos should not be like our weekday speech. Since man is made in the image of G‑d (as in Genesis 9:6), his rest follows G‑d’s.
כי בו שבת9 הקב״ה והקב״ה שבת מבחינת הדיבור כי ששת ימים עשה היינו ע״י עשרה מאמרות וביום השביעי שבת מהם
on it the Holy One, blessed be He, rested; and the Holy One, blessed be He, rested from the level of speech: “For in six days He made,” that is, through the Ten Utterances, “and on the seventh day He rested” from them;
G‑d’s own rest was a rest from speech: the six days of “making” were the Ten Utterances, and on the seventh day He ceased from them. So a person, made in His image, refrains on Shabbos from weekday speech.
אלא התלבשות אור א״ס ב״ה להוות ולהחיות הברואים ולדש בטובו מאין ליש בשבת בוא בבחי׳ המחשבה לבדה שהוא עולם הבריאה1314
rather, the investment of the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, to bring the creatures into being and give them life, and to renew [them] in His goodness from nothing to something, is on Shabbos in the level of thought alone, which is the World of Beriah (Creation).
Creation does not stop on Shabbos: the Infinite Light still brings the creatures into being, gives them life and renews them from nothing. But on Shabbos it is clothed only in G‑d’s “thought,” the level of the World of Beriah, and not in speech or action.
ולכן נמשכה נשמה יתירה בשבת10 דהיינו מעולם הבריאה (עיין בזח״א [בזהר חלק א] פ׳ נח דע״ה ע״ב ע״פ שער החצר הפנימית11 ובמק״מ [ובמקדש מלך] שם בשם הפע״ח [הפרי עץ חיים] ועמ״ש בד״ה והיה מדי חדש בחדשו)
Therefore an additional soul (neshamah yeseirah) is drawn down on Shabbos, namely from the World of Beriah (see the Zohar, Part I, Parshas Noach, 75b, on [the verse] “The gate of the inner court,” and the Mikdash Melech there, in the name of the Pri Etz Chaim; and see what is written in the discourse beginning “And it shall be, from new moon to new moon”),
This explains the “additional soul” that, according to the Talmud (Beitzah 16a), a person receives on Shabbos: it comes from Beriah. The text refers to the Zohar on Ezekiel’s “gate of the inner court,” which is closed on the six weekdays and opened on Shabbos, to the Mikdash Melech’s commentary there citing the Pri Etz Chaim, and to its own discourse on Isaiah 66:23.
שהוא עולם הנשמות ומשם נמשך גם כן שפע וחיות העוה״ז הגשמי׳ [הגשמיים / הגשמיות / הגשמית] שבבחינת העשיה. ולכן ארז״ל [אמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה] דיבור אסור הרהור מותר12
which is the world of souls; and from there the flow and life-force of the physical world, which is in the level of Asiyah, are also drawn. Therefore our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Speech is forbidden; thought is permitted.”
Beriah is the world of souls, and on Shabbos even the physical world of Asiyah receives its life from there. That is why, as the Talmud (Shabbos 113b) puts it, weekday speech is forbidden on Shabbos but thinking about such matters is permitted: Shabbos is the day of thought.
אבל אין זה בדרך התלבשות אלא בחינת עשיה הוא בבחי׳ ביטול לגבי בחי׳ המחשבה הנ״ל.
But this is not by way of investment; rather, the level of action is in a state of self-nullification (bittul) in relation to the level of thought mentioned above.
The physical world still receives life on Shabbos, but not by G‑d’s thought being clothed in it as on weekdays. Rather, the level of action is in a state of bittul, nullified before the level of thought that sustains it.
G‑d’s “resting” on Shabbos cannot mean that creation stops; it means that the creative light withdraws from its garments of action and speech and sustains the world through thought alone, the level of Beriah. This explains the additional soul of Shabbos and the laws that limit speech but permit thought.
The Zohar the text cites (Part I, 75b) says that the gate of the inner court is closed on weekdays so that the profane should not use the holy, and opened on Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh, when the world is nourished from it and all the weekdays cleave to Shabbos. The Kehot notes record later discussions: Sefer HaMaamarim 5633 explains that the physical world, once brought into being through speech and action, can be sustained on Shabbos by thought, and the Rebbe’s Likkutei Sichos adds that on Shabbos the life-force comes from the inner dimension of thought.
Marei mekomos
- 1כי ששת ימים עשה ה׳ · Exodus 31:17
- 2ולכאורה אינו מובן · ראה לקמן שה״ש בד״ה שה״ש הא׳. תורת שמואל — תרכ״ז ע׳ רמ.
- 3המחדש בטובו · ברכת יוצר.
- 4עשרה מאמרות שבהם נבה״ע · ראה אבות רפ״ה.
- 5עשרה מאמרות שבהם נברא העולם · Pirkei Avot 5:1
- 6ממצוא חפצך ודבר דבר · Isaiah 58:13
- 7שלא יהא דיבורך של שבת · Shabbat 113b:1
- 8בצלם אלקים ברא את האדם · Genesis 9:6
- 9כי בו שבת · Genesis 2:3
- 10נמשכה נשמה יתירה בשבת · Beitzah 16a:11–12
- 11שער החצר הפנימית · Zohar, Noach 43:361–44:373
- 12דיבור אסור הרהור מותר · Shabbat 113b:1
- 13בשבת הוא בבחי׳ המחשבה · מובא באוה״ת ויקרא כרך ד ע׳ א׳קמ. [ובהוצאת תשנ״ג בכרך ב ע׳ תריב]. באוה״ת במדבר כרך ה ע׳ א׳תרד ובסה״מ תרל״ג ח״ב ע׳ שלט מבאר ”שאע״פ שנתבאר שאם לא הי׳ התלבשות המחשבה בדבור ומעשה לא הי׳ נתהוה גשמיות העשי׳ מ״מ מתקיימים בשבת ע״י המחשבה כיון שכבר נתהוו ע״י הדבור ועשייה בתחלה”. ע״ש. בהמשך תער״ב ח״ב ע׳ א׳עה מציין שמכאן ”נראה שהעולם אינו מקבל בשבת מהדבור כ״א ממחשבה”. וראה גם בד״ה אני לדודי תרכ״ט ע׳ שכח.
- 14בשבת הוא בבחי׳ המחשבה לבדה · ומה שצריך להתירוץ שבשבת מקבלים העולמות חיות מבחי׳ המחשבה — הוא בכדי לבאר, שבשבת ישנה גם ההשפעה בפנימיות העולמות, הנמשכת מבחי׳ המחשבה — ועל זה מתרץ, שהחיות בשבת הוא מבחי׳ פנימיות המחשבה. — לקו״ש ח״ט ע׳ 221. ראה המשך בששה״ק תער״ב ח״ב ע׳ א׳עה.
For this reason there are versions of the Yotzer blessing on Shabbos in which “How many are Your works,” etc., is not said, because on Shabbos there is no investment in the level of action.
On weekdays the Yotzer blessing before the morning Shema includes “How many are Your works, Havayah” (Psalms 104:24), and some prayer rites leave it out on Shabbos. Their reasoning follows from what was just said: on Shabbos G‑d is not clothed in action, so it would seem wrong to speak of His “works.”
אבל באמת הנוסחא העיקרית2 לומר גם בשבת מה רבו מעישך כי גם בחי׳ מחשבה הוא בחי׳ עשיה לגבי קוב״ה [קודשא בריך הוא] ואפילו בחינת חכמה
But in truth the principal version is to say “How many are Your works” on Shabbos too, for the level of thought, too, is the level of action in relation to the Holy One, blessed be He, and even the level of Chochmah (wisdom),
The Alter Rebbe rules that the principal version says it on Shabbos too. Relative to G‑d Himself, even His “thought,” and even Chochmah, the highest of the Sefiros, counts as “action,” something He made.
as it is written, “You made them all with wisdom.” Rather, “You are wise”: meaning that He is invested in the level of “wise,” and even this is “not with a known wisdom,” etc.
The proof is the same verse: “You made them all with wisdom,” so wisdom too is among the things made. G‑d is called “wise,” as in Elijah’s prayer in the Tikkunei Zohar, only in that He clothes Himself in wisdom, and even then “not with a known wisdom.”
A practical consequence: since on Shabbos G‑d is not clothed in action, some rites drop “How many are Your works” from the Shabbos prayers. The Alter Rebbe rules that it is said, because before G‑d even thought and wisdom are His “works.”
The Kehot notes record that the Rebbe Maharash quotes this ruling in Sefer HaMaamarim 5629, where it is called “the true version.”
Marei mekomos
- 1ולזה יש נוסחאות בברכת יוצר · מובא בסה״מ תרכ״ט הנ״ל.
- 2הנוסחא העיקרית · בסה״מ תרכ״ט שם: הנוסחא האמיתית.
- 3כולם בחכמה עשית · Psalms 104:24
- 4אנת הוא חכים · Tikkunei Zohar 17b:3–4
8והנה לשון שביתה שנאמר אצל הקב״ה כי בו שבת הוא עד״מ כאדם השובת ונח ממלאכתו אשר עשה שבשעת מעשה היה שכלו ומחשבתו מלובשים במעשה ההיא ואח״כ כששובת חזרו שכלו ומחשבתו למקורן.
Now, the term “resting” that is said of the Holy One, blessed be He, “for on it He rested,” is, by way of analogy, like a person who rests and ceases from the work he did: at the time of the deed his intellect and thought were invested in that deed, and afterwards, when he rests, his intellect and thought return to their source.
To explain what “resting” means for G‑d, the Alter Rebbe uses the image of a person who stops work. While working, his mind and thought were absorbed in the task; when he stops, they return to their source within him.
וגם המעשה ההיא כלולה בהם שבשכלו ומחשבתו יש ג״כ בחי׳ המעשה דהיינו בחי׳ מעשה שבשכל
And that deed, too, is included in them, for in his intellect and thought there is also the level of the deed, namely, the level of action that is within the intellect:
The finished work is not simply left behind: it remains included in his mind as “action within the intellect,” his understanding of what he did.
שהוא מתבונן בשכלו על המעשה שעשה והרי עולה החיות המתפשט ושכלו ומחשבתו שנתלבש במעשה וחוזר להתכלל במקורו הוא השכל והמחשבה.
he contemplates in his mind the deed he did; and so the life-force that spread forth, his intellect and thought that had been invested in the deed, ascends and returns to be included in its source, which is the intellect and thought.
When he reflects on what he has done, the life-force that went out into the deed rises back and is absorbed into its source, his intellect and thought.
וכך עד״ז בשבת עולה החיות שנמשך בששת ימי המעשה בע״מ [בעשרה מאמרות] שנברא העולם לבחי׳ המחשבה (דהיינו שעלמין דאתגליין מקבלים החיות ממקום שמקבלים עלמין סתימין ונקרא חצר הפנימית הפונה קדים1 ועלמין סתימין מתעלים יותר כו׳)2
In the same way, on Shabbos the life-force that was drawn down in the six days of work, through the Ten Utterances by which the world was created, ascends to the level of thought (that is, the revealed worlds receive life-force from the place from which the hidden worlds receive, and this is called “the inner court that faces east”; and the hidden worlds ascend higher still, etc.).
So too on Shabbos: the life-force that flowed into the world during the six weekdays through the Ten Utterances rises back to the level of thought. The revealed worlds then receive from the same place as the hidden worlds, which Ezekiel 46:1 calls “the inner court that faces east,” and the hidden worlds rise higher still.
Therefore שבת (Shabbos) has the letters of תשב (tashev, “return”), for the matter of Shabbos and the matter of teshuvah are all one, namely, the return of things to their source and root. For
The letters of Shabbos (שבת) can be rearranged to spell tashev (תשב), “return”: Shabbos is a return of all things to their source, which is exactly what teshuvah means. The Kehot note points to the Midrash in which Adam, on learning the power of teshuvah, sang the Psalm for the Shabbos day.
הנה תשובה אינה מעבירות שבידו דוקא אלא תשובה היא להשיב נפשו5 שירדה מטה מטה ונתלבשה בדברים גשמיים אל מקורה ושרשה לדבקה בו ית׳ לבטל רצונו מפני רצון עליון
teshuvah is not necessarily for the transgressions in his hands; rather, teshuvah is to return his soul, which descended lower and lower and was invested in physical things, to its source and root, to cleave to Him, may He be blessed, to nullify his will before the Supreme Will.
Teshuvah in its essence is not only repentance for sins. It is the return of the soul, which has descended into a body and into physical things, to its source, to cleave to G‑d and set its own will aside before His.
ולכן ניתקנו עשרת ימי תשובה ויוהכ״פ [ויום הכפורים] גם לצדיקים גמורים6 כי זה כל האדם7 ועיקר התשובה הוא
Therefore the Ten Days of Teshuvah and Yom Kippur were instituted for the completely righteous as well, “for this is the whole of man.” And the essence of teshuvah is
That is why the Ten Days of Teshuvah and Yom Kippur were instituted even for the completely righteous, who have no sins to repent of. Returning to one’s source is, in the words of Ecclesiastes 12:13, “the whole of man.”
כמו שכתוב לך אמר לבי בקשו פני8 כו׳ פי׳ פנימית הלב9 שהלב אומר בקשו פני (ועמ״ש בד״ה כי תשמע בקול10 בענין חצר הפנימית ומפתחות הפנימיות)
as it is written, “To You my heart said, ‘Seek My face,’” etc. The meaning is the inner dimension (pnimiyus) of the heart: the heart says, “Seek My face.” (And see what is written in the discourse beginning “For you shall hearken to the voice,” on the matter of the inner court and the inner keys.)
The heart of teshuvah is Psalms 27:8: “To You my heart said, ‘Seek My face.’” The “face” is read as the inner dimension of the heart, as Tanya also explains it (Iggeres HaKodesh 4); the text refers to its discourse on “For you shall hearken to the voice” (Likkutei Torah, Re’eh) for the inner court and the inner keys.
והוא בחי׳ תשובה עילאה11 מעומקא דליבא כאדם המעמיק במוחו ולבו ומחשבתו בדבר שחייו תלויין בו ונוגע עד הנפש ממש.12
This is the level of the higher teshuvah (teshuvah ila’ah), from the depth of the heart, like a person who immerses his mind, his heart and his thought deeply in a matter on which his life depends, and which touches the very soul.
This is “higher teshuvah” (teshuvah ila’ah), which comes from the depth of the heart (umka deliba), like the thought of one whose life depends on a matter, described in paragraph 3. It touches the soul itself, not only the mind.
כך ישים אל לבו אהבת ה׳ מקרב איש ולב עמוק13 כמ״ש מי לי בשמים14 ועמך לא חפצתי בארץ כלה שארי ולבבי15 וגו׳.
So should one set his heart on the love of G‑d, “from the inward part of a man and a deep heart,” as it is written, “Whom do I have in heaven? And with You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart are consumed,” etc.
A person should bring his love of G‑d into this depth, “the inward part of a man and a deep heart” (Psalms 64:7). Its expression is Psalms 73:25–26: wanting nothing in heaven or on earth but G‑d, until “my flesh and my heart are consumed” with longing.
G‑d’s “resting” is the return of the life-force from the worlds to its source in thought, as a person’s mind returns to itself after work; hence Shabbos and teshuvah share their letters and their meaning. Teshuvah is the soul’s return to its source, and its essence is the higher teshuvah of the inner heart, seeking G‑d’s “face.”
Tanya (Iggeres HaTeshuvah, end of ch. 10), which the Kehot note cites, calls Shabbos the level of higher teshuvah, because on Shabbos the worlds rise to their source. The Kehot notes also send the reader to Likkutei Torah, Achrei, where teshuvah is defined as returning the G‑dly soul to the source from which it was hewn, as it was before it descended into the body.
Marei mekomos
- 1חצר הפנימית הפונה קדים · Ezekiel 46:1
- 2ועלמין סתימין מתעלים יותר כו׳ · ראה לקו״ש חי״א ע׳ 88.
- 3שבת אותיות תשב · ראה ב״ר ספכ״ב (ביפ״ת שם). ע׳ סש״ב באגה״ת (סופ״י). [כ].
- 4שענין שבת וענין תשובה · Bereshit Rabbah 22:13
- 5אלא תשובה היא להשיב נפשו · ראה גם לעיל פ׳ אחרי כה, ג. פ׳ ראה כד, ד.
- 6גם לצדיקים גמורים · ראה לעיל בלק עד, א שהתשובה [היא בחי׳ תשובה עילאה] אין ר״ל עבירות ח״ו. ראה גם תו״א עה, א. וראה המובא בלקו״ש חי״ט ע׳ 401 הערה 13.
- 7כי זה כל האדם · Ecclesiastes 12:13
- 8לך אמר לבי בקשו פני · Psalms 27:8
- 9פי׳ פנימית הלב · ראה אגה״ק סי׳ ד.
- 10בד״ה כי תשמע בקול · לעיל פ׳ ראה כג, ב.
- 11בחי׳ תשובה עילאה · ראה לעיל תצא לו, ג. סה״מ תרס״ד ע׳ שנד ואילך.
- 12והוא בחי׳ תשובה . . עד הנפש ממש · ראה אוה״ת כי תצא ע׳ תתקכח.
- 13מקרב איש ולב עמוק · Psalms 64:7
- 14מי לי בשמים · Psalms 73:25
- 15כלה שארי ולבבי · Psalms 73:26
9והיינו אהבה רבה לי טעם ודעת כי אהבה הנלקחה מטעם ודעת המושג ומובן בהתבוננות שכלו ורוח בינתו אין בה עומק כ״כ [כל כך] להיות כלה שארי ולבבי כ׳ [כתב]
That is, “great love” (ahavah rabbah) without reason and knowledge. For love derived from reason and knowledge, grasped and understood through the contemplation of one’s intellect and the spirit of one’s understanding, does not have so much depth as to be “My flesh and my heart are consumed,” etc.;
This deep love is ahavah rabbah, “great love,” which is beyond reason. Love produced by contemplation is real, but it is limited by the understanding that produced it, and it cannot reach the point of “my flesh and my heart are consumed.”
רק היא אהבה רבה שלמעלה מטעם ודעת שאינו רוצה ליפרד מיחודו ית׳ כי חלק הוי׳ ממש עמו1 וע״כ יש בכח ל ישראל למסור נפשו2 באחד3
only the great love that is above reason and knowledge, in which one does not want to be separated from His unity, may He be blessed, for “a portion of Havayah,” truly, is “with him.” Therefore it is in the power of every Jew to give up his soul in [declaring G‑d] One.
Great love is the soul’s refusal to be parted from G‑d’s unity, because it is truly “a portion of Havayah” (Deuteronomy 32:9). For this reason every Jew is able to give up his life for G‑d’s oneness, as in the word “One” of the Shema.
והיא היא בחי׳ תשובה וחזרת הדברים למקורן כי כמו שיש מחשבה דבור ומעשה בפו״מ [בפועל ממש] כך יש כל בחי׳ הללו בשכל
And this itself is the level of teshuvah and the return of things to their source. For just as there are thought, speech and action in actual deed, so all these levels exist in the intellect
This love is itself teshuvah: the return of things to their source. To show this, the Alter Rebbe notes that thought, speech and action exist not only in actual deeds but also within the intellect.
(שבחי׳ מעשה שבשכל זהו כענין בחי׳ שכל המעשיי׳ [המעשיי] הנזכר בשמונה פרקים להרמב״ם [להרבי משה בן מימון]4 דהיינו השכל שבעשייה איך לעשות מלאכת מחשבת כו׳ שזהו בחי׳ האחרונה שבשכל ונקרא עשייה שבשכל כו׳ וכמ״ש במ״א.
(the level of action within the intellect is like the level of “practical intellect” mentioned in the Rambam’s Eight Chapters, namely the intellect that is within doing: how to do skilled work (meleches machsheves), etc.; this is the last level in the intellect and is called action within the intellect, etc., as is explained elsewhere.
In a parenthesis he identifies “action within the intellect” with what the Rambam, in the first of his Eight Chapters, calls the practical intellect: the know-how of skilled crafts. It is the lowest level of the intellect.
והנה הנמשל מזה למעלה כי הנה מחודומ״ע [מחשבה דבור ומעשה] הן בי״ע ומדומ״ע [ומדבור ומעשה] שבחכמה היינו בי״ע דאצילות כי דרך כלל אצי׳ הוא בחי׳ חכמה.5
Above, the parallel is that thought, speech and action are the worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. Since Atzilus as a whole corresponds to Chochmah, the thought, speech and action within Chochmah are the Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah of Atzilus.
אך יש באצילות עצמו ג״כ בי״ע וכמ״ש בביאור ע״פ ועתה יגדל נא6 ומודומ״ע [ומחשבה דבור ומעשה] שלמעלה מהשכל זהו מ״ש בע״ח [בעץ חיים] דא״ק [דאדם קדמון]7 נקרא אדם דבריאה כו׳ ונקרא מחשבה הקדומה8 ועיין בזח״א [בזהר חלק א] נח)
But within Atzilus itself there are also Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, as is explained in the Biur on “And now, I pray, let [the power] be great.” And the thought, speech and action that are above intellect are what is written in Etz Chaim, that Adam Kadmon is called “the Adam of Beriah,” etc., and is called “the primordial thought”; and see the Zohar, Part I, Noach)
Atzilus itself also contains its own Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, as the text’s Biur on “And now, I pray, let the power of my L‑rd be great” (Numbers 14:17) explains. There are even thought, speech and action above intellect: Etz Chaim calls Adam Kadmon, the level above Atzilus, “the Adam of Beriah” and “the primordial thought.”
(דס״ה ע״א) ועמ״ש בביאור ע״פ את שבתותי תשמרו וע״פ ראיתי והנה מנורת זהב.9 וכך כל בחי׳ הללו הן במקורן ושרשן
(65a). And see what is written in the Biur on “You shall keep My Shabbosos” and on “I saw, and behold, a menorah of gold.” And so all these levels are in their source and root,
The Zohar cited (Part I, 65a) describes the “supernal thought” reaching toward the hidden will above it, and the text refers to its Biurim on “You shall keep My Shabbosos” and on Zechariah’s golden menorah. The conclusion: all these levels exist in their source and root.
שהוא למעלה מן השכל וע״י התשובה מעומקא דליבא שלמעלה מהשכל עולה גם החיות שבמחשבה דו״מ [דבור ומעשה] ונכלל למעלה מן השכל:
which is above intellect; and through teshuvah from the depth of the heart, which is above intellect, the life-force that is in thought, speech and action also ascends and is included above intellect.
That root is above intellect. Teshuvah from the depth of the heart, which is itself above intellect, lifts the life-force of a person’s thought, speech and action into that root, just as on Shabbos the worlds rise to their source.
The deep love of the inner heart is “great love,” beyond reason, the readiness to give up one’s life for G‑d’s oneness, and it is itself teshuvah. Because thought, speech and action have their source above intellect, both in a person and above, teshuvah from the depth of the heart raises them all into that source.
The mapping of thought, speech and action onto worlds repeats at every level: Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah below Atzilus; their counterparts within Atzilus; and above it Adam Kadmon, “the primordial thought.” For “Atzilus is Chochmah” the Kehot note points to the end of Tikkun 6 of the Tikkunei Zohar and to the Mikdash Melech on the Zohar, Part II, 220b. On giving up one’s soul at “One,” it points to the Bach on the Tur, Orach Chaim 61, and to the Pri Etz Chaim, which links this to “Return, O Israel, unto (ad) Havayah your G‑d.”
Marei mekomos
- 1כי חלק הוי׳ . . עמו · Deuteronomy 32:9
- 2
- 3למסור נפשו באחד · ראה ב״ח או״ח רסס״א. פע״ח ש׳ הק״ש פי״ב.
- 4בשמונה פרקים להרמב״ם · פ״א, ואין הל׳ שם כן. [כ].
- 5אצי׳ הוא בחי׳ חכמה · ראה ת״ז סת״ו. מק״מ להזח״ב רך, ב.
- 6ועתה יגדל נא · Numbers 14:17
- 7מ״ש בע״ח דא״ק נק׳ אדם דבריאה · נשא ענף ב-ד וריש ש״ג. [כ]. ראה לעיל פ׳ מסעי צה, א. אוה״ת בלק ע׳ תתקסב ואילך.
- 8מחשבה הקדומה · Zohar, Noach 15:121–16:131
- 9ראיתי והנה מנורת זהב · Zechariah 4:2
10(קיצור ענין וביום השביעי שבת1 מבחי׳ אשר עשה ונמשך החיות מבחי׳ מחשבה שהוא חצר הפנימית ולכן שבת אותיות תשב. בקשו פני פנימית הלב):
(Summary: the matter of “And on the seventh day He rested” from the level of “which He made,” and the life-force is drawn from the level of thought, which is the inner court; and therefore שבת (Shabbos) has the letters of תשב (tashev). “Seek My face”: the inner dimension of the heart.)
A summary line closing the second section. It recalls its points: on Shabbos G‑d rested from “making,” the world then lives from His thought (the “inner court”), שבת shares its letters with תשב (“return”), and “Seek My face” means the inner dimension of the heart.
The summary of the second section: Shabbos as the return of the life-force to thought, its link to teshuvah, and teshuvah from the inner heart.
Marei mekomos
- 1
“Your face, Havayah, I will seek” ¶11–14
3. Now, through this there is drawn down [the fulfillment of] “Your face, Havayah, I will seek”: “Your face” is the level of the Supernal inner dimension (pnimiyus); “May Havayah make His face shine upon you.” And the level of
The third section: teshuvah from the inner heart draws down a response from G‑d’s own inner dimension. This is the “face” in “Your face, Havayah, I will seek” (Psalms 27:8), and the face that shines in the Priestly Blessing, “May Havayah make His face shine upon you” (Numbers 6:25).
פנים למעלה הוא אור א״ס ב״ה שלמעלה מהחכמה ונקרא פנים עד״מ כמו שבאדם עיקר החיות הוא בפניו ששם התגלות כל החושים ראיה ושמיעה ריח ודבור.
“face” above is the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, that is above Chochmah. And it is called “face” by way of analogy: just as in a person the main life-force is in his face, for there all the senses are revealed, sight and hearing, smell and speech,
“Face” above means the Infinite Light that is higher than Chochmah. The analogy is a person’s face, where his life shows most: there all the senses are revealed, sight, hearing, smell, and speech.
משא״כ העורף יש בו חיות מועט ומצומצם מאד עד שנחשב בבחי׳ דומם לגבי החיות הנמשך בפנים כך הוא למעלה מה
whereas the back of the neck has very little and very limited life-force, to the point that it is considered like the inanimate compared with the life-force drawn into the face. So it is above: that
The back of the neck, by contrast, has so little life that compared with the face it is almost like inanimate matter. The same distinction applies above.
שמתגלה בו חיות ואור א״ס ב״ה בגילוי רב נקרא בחי׳ פנים לגבי בחי׳ אחוריים ובחי׳ חיצוני׳ שאין מתגלה בהן
in which the life-force and the Infinite Light, blessed be He, are revealed with great revelation is called the level of “face,” in relation to the level of the back and the level of the outer dimension (chitzoniyus), in which there is revealed
Where G‑d’s life and light are revealed in abundance, that is called “face”; where only a little, contracted life-force is revealed, that is called “back” or the outer dimension.
אלא חיות מועט ומצומצם וחיצוני׳ עליון נעשה פנימית תחתון וכמה בחי׳ זו למעלה מזו זו פנימית מזו עד רום המעלות את פניך הוי׳ הוא גילוי אור א״ס ב״ה בעצמו ובכבודו הסוכ״ע
only a little, very limited life-force. And the outer dimension of the higher becomes the inner dimension of the lower; and there are many levels, one above the other, one more inward than the other, up to the highest of heights. “Your face, Havayah” is the revelation of the Infinite Light, blessed be He, Himself, in His very glory, the light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin),
These terms are relative: the outer dimension of a higher level becomes the inner dimension of the level below, and so on through many tiers. The “face” David sought is the revelation of the Infinite Light itself, the light that encompasses all worlds, too great to enter them.
שהוא עיקר החיות שאין ערוך אליו ית׳ כלל עכד שבחי׳ ח״ע [חכמה עילאה] נחשבת לגבי אור א״ס ב״ה עצמו הסוכ״ע בבחי׳ עשיה גשמי׳ [גשמיים / גשמיות / גשמית] ובחי׳ דומם.
which is the essence of life, there being no comparison to Him, may He be blessed, at all, to the point that the level of the higher Chochmah (Chochmah Ila’ah) is considered, in relation to the Infinite Light, blessed be He, Himself, the light that encompasses all worlds, like physical action and the level of the inanimate.
That light is the true essence of life and is beyond all comparison. Relative to it, even the higher Chochmah, the wisdom of Atzilus, counts as mere physical action, like the inanimate.
וזהו שביקש דהע״ה [דוד המלך עליו השלום] את פניך הוי׳ אבקש (עיין מזה בהרמ״ז [בהרב משה זכות] פ׳ אמור בדף צ״ג ע״ב)3
And this is what David the King, peace be upon him, requested: “Your face, Havayah, I will seek” (see on this the Ramaz, Parshas Emor, page 93b):
This is what King David asked for when he said, “Your face, Havayah, I will seek.” The text refers to the Ramaz (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto) in his commentary on the Zohar, Parshas Emor.
להיות בנפשו גילוי הארת אור א״ס ב״ה ממש יאר ה׳ פניו אליך הארת פנים מרצון העליון שלמעלה מהחכמה
that there be in his soul a revelation of the illumination of the very Infinite Light, blessed be He. “May Havayah make His face shine upon you”: the shining of the face from the Supreme Will that is above Chochmah.
David asked that the very Infinite Light be revealed in his soul. The Priestly Blessing’s “shining face” is likewise a light from the Supreme Will, which is above Chochmah.
כי חכמה היא בחי׳ יו״ד4 אשר אות יו״ד הוא נקודה שהוא בחי׳ צמצום וכל סדר ההשתלשלות שהוא התפשטות גדולת א״ס ב״ה בריבוא רבבות מדריגות ועולמות אין מספר
For Chochmah is the level of the yud, and the letter yud is a point, which is the level of tzimtzum (contraction); and the whole order of the chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus), which is the spreading forth of the greatness of the Infinite One, blessed be He, into myriads upon myriads of levels and worlds without number,
Chochmah is lower than that Will: it is represented by the letter yud, a mere point, which signifies contraction. The whole chain of worlds is the unfolding of G‑d’s greatness into countless levels and worlds.
הנה במקום גדולתו שם אתה מוצא ענותנותו5 כי אימתי אקרי גדול כשהוא בעיר אלקינו6 כו׳ דהיינו בחי׳ צירופי אותיות כי אותיות הן המשכות מלשון אתא כו׳.
behold, “in the place of His greatness, there you find His humility”; for “when is He called great? When He is in the city of our G‑d,” etc., that is, the level of the combinations of letters; for letters (osiyos) are drawings-down, from the word asa (“came”), etc.
Yet that greatness is itself a descent: as the Talmud says (Megillah 31a), where you find G‑d’s greatness you find His humility. The Zohar says G‑d is called “great” when He is “in the city of our G‑d,” which the Alter Rebbe reads as His descent into combinations of letters, since osiyos (“letters”) is related to the Aramaic asa, “came,” a drawing down.
Teshuvah from the inner heart draws down G‑d’s “face,” the Infinite Light above Chochmah that encompasses all worlds, compared with which even Chochmah is “back” and inanimate. King David sought this face, and the Priestly Blessing asks for its shining; by contrast, the whole chain of worlds, though it is G‑d’s greatness, is a descent.
The Kehot note sends the reader to Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah, which distinguishes the Supreme Will as it is clothed in the higher Chochmah, drawn down all year through Torah and mitzvos, from a level of the Will not clothed in Chochmah at all, drawn down on Rosh Hashanah. The Zohar (Part III, 5a) explains “Great is Havayah … in the city of our G‑d” to mean that the Holy One, blessed be He, is called great when the Community of Israel is with Him.
Marei mekomos
- 1את פניך הוי׳ אבקש · Psalms 27:8
- 2יאר ה׳ פניו אליך · Numbers 6:25
- 3עיין מזה בהרמ״ז . . צ״ג ע״ב · ראה לעיל נו, ג.
- 4חכמה היא בחי׳ יו״ד · ראה קה״י ערך יו״ד בתחלתו.
- 5במקום גדולתו שם אתה מוצא ענוותנותו · Megillah 31a:12–13
- 6אימתי אקרי גדול כשהוא בעיר אלקינו · Zohar III, 5a
12וזהו וחכם באחור ישבחנה.1 שכל בחי׳ השבח של גדולתו ית׳ והתפשטותו שבבחי׳ חכמה הוא בחי׳ אחוריים לגבי בחי׳ הפנימי׳ [הפנימיות / הפנימית] שהוא רצון העליון ב״ה הסוכ״ע.
And this is [the meaning of] “and the wise man praises it from behind”: every level of praise of His greatness, may He be blessed, and of His spreading forth, which is in the level of Chochmah, is the level of the back in relation to the inner level, which is the Supreme Will, blessed be He, the light that encompasses all worlds.
Proverbs 29:11 says the wise man “stills it afterward” (be’achor yeshabchenah), and the Alter Rebbe reads it as “praises it from behind.” All praise of G‑d’s greatness as it unfolds through Chochmah is praise of His “back,” compared with the inner level, the Supreme Will that encompasses all worlds.
וזהו וראית את אחורי כי מרע״ה [משה רבינו עליו השלום] זכה לתורה ואורייתא מחכמה נפקת.2 אבל ופני לא יראו3 שגילוי אור א״ס ב״ה עצמו הסוכ״ע שלמעלה מהתורה
And this is [the meaning of] “You shall see My back”: for Moshe our teacher, peace be upon him, merited the Torah, and “the Torah issues from Chochmah.” But “My face shall not be seen”: for the revelation of the Infinite Light, blessed be He, Himself, the light that encompasses all worlds, which is above the Torah
This explains Exodus 33:23: Moshe saw G‑d’s “back” in that he received the Torah, and “the Torah issues from Chochmah,” as the Zohar says. G‑d’s “face,” the Infinite Light above the Torah, could not be seen.
והוא מקור התורה אינו מתגלה בבחי׳ ראיה והשגה כי לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה כלל4 אלא בבחינת תשובה כי עמך הסליחה.5
and is the source of the Torah, is not revealed in the manner of seeing and comprehension, for “no thought can grasp Him at all,” but only by way of teshuvah: “For with You is forgiveness.”
That light, the source of the Torah, cannot be reached by seeing or comprehension, since “no thought can grasp Him at all.” It is reached through teshuvah, as Psalms 130:4 says: “For with You is forgiveness.”
פי׳ שבחי׳ הסליחה הוא בבחי׳ עמך ממש כי משם לוקחה ונמשכה כמ״ש ממעמקים קראתיך67 הוי׳ פי׳ קראתיך כאדם הקורא
That is: the level of forgiveness is in the very level of “with You,” for from there it is taken and drawn down, as it is written, “From the depths I called You, Havayah.” That is, “I called You” like a person calling
Forgiveness comes from “with You” itself, from G‑d’s own being. Psalms 130:1, “From the depths I called You,” describes how it is drawn down: by calling, as one calls to a friend who is far away.
לחבירו ממקום למקום כך קורא וממשיך בחינת גילוי הוי׳ ממעמקים מבחינת ישת חשך סתרו8 סתימא דכל סתימין ומשם קראתיך להיות גילוי בחי׳ הוי׳
his fellow from place to place: so one calls and draws down the level of the revelation of Havayah “from the depths,” from the level of “He made darkness His hiding place,” the most hidden of all hidden; and from there “I called You,” that there be a revelation of the level of Havayah.
The penitent calls the revelation of Havayah up from “the depths,” the utterly hidden level that Psalms 18:12 calls “He made darkness His hiding place,” the most hidden of all hidden. From there he calls it into revelation.
כי בחי׳ ממעמקים עצמה א״א לבא לידי גילוי כ״א בבחי׳ הוי׳ שהוא צמצום המשכה והתפשטות כו׳
For the level of “the depths” itself cannot come to revelation except in the level of Havayah, which is contraction, drawing-down and spreading forth, etc.,
What is in “the depths” can be revealed only through the Name Havayah, whose letters stand for contraction, drawing-down and spreading forth. The hidden must be contracted and channeled in order to appear.
וכמ״ש במ״א וקריאה והמשכה זו היא מחמת כמים הפנים לפנים9 להיות בחי׳ ממעמקים עומקא דליבא באתעדל״ת [באתערותא דלתתא] ועי״ז אתערותא דלעילא ג״כ בחי׳ ממעמקים וכשם שמלמעלה למטה א״א לבא בחי׳ ממעמקים לידי גילוי אלא בבחינת צמצום והתפשטות כו׳.
as is explained elsewhere. And this calling and drawing-down comes about because “as water [reflects] face to face”: there being the level of “the depths,” the depth of the heart, in the arousal from below (isarusa dilesata), through this the arousal from above (isarusa dileila) is also the level of “the depths.” And just as from above to below the level of “the depths” cannot come to revelation except in the level of contraction and spreading forth, etc.,
Proverbs 27:19 says, “As water reflects face to face, so is the heart of man to man.” When a person’s arousal from below comes from the depth of his heart, it evokes an arousal from above from G‑d’s own “depths”; and just as revelation from above requires contraction and spreading forth, so does the response below.
כך צ״ל ב אתערותא דלתתא כמים הפנים לפנים ממטה למעלה ג״כ בחי׳ צמצום שהוא בחי׳ הסתקלות לסלק ולבטל א״ע [את עצמו] שלא יעשה בשביל עצמו
so too in the arousal from below, “as water [reflects] face to face,” from below to above, there must also be the level of contraction, which is the level of withdrawal: to remove and nullify oneself, so as not to act for one’s own sake.
The arousal from below also needs a “contraction”: the person withdraws and nullifies himself, so that he no longer acts for his own sake. This self-removal is the human counterpart of G‑d’s contraction.
ומזה יבא למדריגת ממעמקי׳ [ממעמקים] ומשם נמשך מחילת עוונות כי הפגם הוא שפוגם בתורה שהיא חכמתו ית׳ וכך חייבה חכמתו להיות זו מ״ע [מצות עשה] וזו מל״ת [מצות לא תעשה]
And from this he will come to the level of “the depths,” and from there forgiveness of sins is drawn down. For the blemish is that he blemishes the Torah, which is His wisdom, may He be blessed; and so His wisdom dictated that this be a positive commandment and that a prohibitive commandment.
Through such self-nullification a person reaches “the depths,” the source of forgiveness of sins. Sin is a blemish in the Torah, which is G‑d’s wisdom; it is that wisdom which determined which acts are positive commandments and which are prohibitions.
אבל למעלה מהחכמה שם אין פגם מגיע כי שממית בידים תתפש10 והיא בהיכלי מלך והעובר על התורה שהיא בחי׳ חכמה צריך להמשיך ממקום עליון למעלה מן החכמה היא בחי׳ ממעמקים
But above Chochmah, there no blemish reaches, for “the spider takes hold with its hands, and it is in the king’s palaces.” And one who transgresses the Torah, which is the level of Chochmah, must draw down from a higher place, above Chochmah, which is the level of “the depths,”
No blemish reaches above Chochmah. Proverbs 30:28, the spider that is “in the king’s palaces,” is cited for this: what reaches the palaces does not reach the King above them. So one who has transgressed the Torah, which is Chochmah, must draw from a higher place, “the depths” above Chochmah.
וכמו עד״מ אם נתקלקל מוצא מים צריך לחפור בעומק המעיין לתקן וכך אנת הוא ממלא כל
as, by way of analogy, if the outlet of a spring has been damaged, one must dig in the depth of the spring to repair it. And so: “You are He who fills all
The analogy: when the outlet of a spring is damaged, it is repaired by digging deeper, into the spring’s own depth. The same idea is in Elijah’s prayer in the Tikkunei Zohar: G‑d “fills all Names” and is “the completion of them all.”
שמהן11 ואנת הוא שלימו דכולהו12 פי׳ ממלא כל שמהן שהתורה כולה היא שמותיו של הקב״ה13 שכמו שע״י שם האדם אשר יקרו לו
Names, and You are the completion of them all.” The meaning of “fills all Names”: the whole Torah is the Names of the Holy One, blessed be He. For just as through a person’s name, by which they call him,
The “Names” are the Torah: the whole Torah consists of the Names of the Holy One, blessed be He, as the Zohar says and as the Kehot note shows from the Ramban’s introduction to his Torah commentary. A name is what people call a person by.
הנה ע״י קריאה זו נמשך האדם ופונה אל הקורא כך התורה היא בחי׳ שם להקב״ה להיות קוראין וממשיכין גילוי אלקותו ית׳ ע״י התורה
behold, through this calling the person is drawn and turns to the one who calls, so the Torah is the level of a name for the Holy One, blessed be He, so that through the Torah one calls and draws down the revelation of His G‑dliness, may He be blessed.
When a person is called by name, he turns toward the one calling. So too the Torah is G‑d’s “name”: by learning it and keeping it we call Him and draw His G‑dliness down.
כי רמ״ח מצות הן רמ״ח אברין דמלכא14 שבהם נמשך חיות ואור א״ס ב״ה כמו שבאברי האדם עד״מ נמשך הדם הוא הנפש15
For the 248 mitzvos are the 248 limbs of the King, through which the life-force and the Infinite Light, blessed be He, are drawn, as, by way of analogy, into a person’s limbs the blood is drawn, which is the soul.
The Tikkunei Zohar calls the 248 positive mitzvos “the 248 limbs of the King.” Through them G‑d’s life and light flow, as blood flows through a person’s limbs; “the blood is the soul” (Deuteronomy 12:23).
ולכן ע״י התורה נמשך אור א״ס ב״ה אבל מי שהעביר את הדרך ופגם בתורה הנה זאת תקונו לשוב אל ה׳ ממעמקים מעומקא דליבא.
Therefore, through the Torah the Infinite Light, blessed be He, is drawn down. But one who has strayed from the way and blemished the Torah, this is his rectification: to return to G‑d “from the depths,” from the depth of the heart.
Torah and mitzvos are therefore the normal channel of the Infinite Light. One who has strayed and blemished that channel must repair it from beyond it, by returning to G‑d “from the depths,” from the depth of the heart, which reaches the level that “fills all Names.”
Chochmah, and the Torah that issues from it, are G‑d’s “back”; His “face” cannot be seen, but forgiveness comes from there, reached by teshuvah “from the depths.” Because sin blemishes the Torah, which is Chochmah, its repair must come from above Chochmah: the penitent’s self-nullifying depth of heart evokes G‑d’s own depths, “as water reflects face to face.”
The Zohar calls the whole Torah a holy Name of G‑d (Part II, 87a; Part III, 73a), and the Kehot note adds the Ramban’s introduction to his Torah commentary and Likkutei Torah, Pinchas. This is why a blemish in the Torah needs the One who “fills all Names” and “completes them all,” the Infinite Light above the Names. The parallel between G‑d’s contraction above and the person’s self-withdrawal below is the paragraph’s application of “as water reflects face to face.”
Marei mekomos
- 1וחכם באחור ישבחנה · Proverbs 29:11
- 2ואורייתא מחכמה נפקת · Zohar II, 121a
- 3
- 4לית מחשבה תפיסא ביה כלל · Tikkunei Zohar 17a:10–12
- 5כי עמך הסליחה · Psalms 130:4
- 6וזהו חכם . . ממעמקים קראתיך ה׳ · מובא באוה״ת ואתחנן ע׳ רסה. ראה גם אוה״ת ויקרא כרך ב ע׳ תרע״ד. שה״ש כרך ב ע׳ תרסט.
- 7ממעמקים קראתיך ה׳ · Psalms 130:1
- 8ישת חשך סתרו · Psalms 18:12
- 9כמים הפנים לפנים · Proverbs 27:19
- 10שממית בידים תתפש · Proverbs 30:28
- 11אנת הוא ממלא כל שמהן · ת״ז בהקדמה (פתח אלי׳).
- 12אנת הוא ממלא כל שמהן ואנת הוא שלימו דכולהו · Tikkunei Zohar 17b:2–3
- 13שהתו׳ כולה היא שמותיו של הקב״ה · Zohar II, 87a
- 14רמ״ח מצות הן רמ״ח אברין דמלכא · ראה ת״ז ת״ל.
- 15הדם הוא הנפש · Deuteronomy 12:23
As it is written, “And they cried out to Havayah in their distress”: and then he draws down from the Supernal depth the level of the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, Himself, the light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin),
Psalms 107:6, “They cried out to Havayah in their distress,” is the cry from the depth of the heart. Through it the penitent draws down from the supernal depth the Infinite Light itself, the light that encompasses all worlds.
כי הוא הממלא כל שמהן ואיהו שלימו דכולהו ועי״ז משלים וממלא כל החסרונות והפגמים. וזהו כי אבי ואמי עזבוני3 וה׳ יאספני כי
for He is the One who “fills all Names” and “is the completion of them all,” and through this He completes and fills all the deficiencies and blemishes. And this is [the meaning of] “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but Havayah will gather me in.” For
Because that light “fills all Names and completes them all,” as quoted above, it can fill every lack and repair every blemish in the Torah. Psalms 27:10 expresses this: “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but Havayah will gather me in.”
הנה הנשמה מתחלקת לעשר בחינות ומדרגות ז׳ מדות וג׳ שכליים והן נמשכות מלמעלה מבחי׳ לך הוי׳ הגדולה והגבורה כו׳ ז׳ מדות וכן השכלים כי ה׳ יתן חכמה4 מפיו דעת ותבונה.
behold, the soul divides into ten levels and degrees: seven emotive attributes (middos) and three intellectual ones. And they are drawn from above: the seven attributes from the level of “Yours, Havayah, are the greatness and the might,” etc.; and so too the intellectual ones: “For Havayah gives wisdom; from His mouth, knowledge and understanding.”
To explain the verse, the Alter Rebbe describes the soul’s ten powers: seven emotive attributes and three intellectual faculties. They derive from G‑d’s own attributes, the emotions from those listed in I Chronicles 29:11 (“Yours, Havayah, are the greatness and the might …”), the intellect from Proverbs 2:6 (wisdom, knowledge and understanding).
Now, the emotive attributes as a whole, love and awe, are called by the names “son” and “daughter”: for of love it is said, “He remembered (zachar) His kindness,” and of awe it is said, “a woman who fears Havayah.”
Love and awe, which include all the emotions, are called “son” and “daughter.” Love is the son, as in Psalms 98:3, “He remembered (zachar) His kindness,” zachar also meaning “male”; awe is the daughter, as in Proverbs 31:30, “a woman who fears Havayah.”
(וזהו שאמרו רז״ל [רבותינו זכרונם לברכה] בת בתחלה סימן יפה לבנים7 כי ראשית והתחלת העבודה הוא להמשיך עליו בחי׳ יראה וכמ״ש בזהר ע״פ בזאת יבא אהרן8 כו׳ וכמ״ש במ״א) והשליים נק׳ בשם אב
(This is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “A daughter first is a good sign for sons”; for the beginning and start of [divine] service is to draw upon oneself the level of awe, as is explained in the Zohar on “With this shall Aharon come,” etc., and as is explained elsewhere.) And the intellectual ones are called by the names “father”
In a parenthesis, the Talmud’s saying “a daughter first is a good sign for sons” (Bava Basra 141a) is read as: divine service should begin with awe, the “daughter,” and the “sons,” love, follow; the Zohar on “With this shall Aharon come” (Leviticus 16:3) says the same. The intellectual faculties, for their part, are called “father” and “mother.”
ואם המולידים המדות כנודע שהמדות נולדו ונתהוו מן השכליים.9 והנה מי שהעביר את הדרך ופגם בתורה שהיא10 חמתו יתברך נקרא אבי ואמי עזבוני
and “mother,” who give birth to the emotive attributes, as is known that the emotive attributes are born and come into being from the intellectual ones. Now, one who has strayed from the way and blemished the Torah, which is His wisdom, may He be blessed, is called “my father and my mother have forsaken me”;
They are “father” and “mother” because the emotions are born from the intellect. One who has blemished the Torah, which is G‑d’s wisdom, has damaged the source on which his intellect and emotions depend, and so he says, “My father and my mother have forsaken me.”
אבל מ״מ וה׳ הוא גילוי א״ס ב״ה עצמו ממש יאספני דהיינו שיאסף ויקבץ כל חלקי הנפש למעלה מעלה מבחי׳ התחלקותם כי ההתחלקות הוא מחכמה ולמטה.11
but nevertheless, “and Havayah,” which is the revelation of the very Infinite One, blessed be He, Himself, “will gather me in”: that is, that He will gather and collect all the parts of the soul, far above the level of their division, for division is from Chochmah downward.
Yet “Havayah,” the Infinite One Himself, “will gather me in”: He gathers all the soul’s scattered powers together from a level far above their division. The soul’s division into separate faculties begins only from Chochmah downward.
אבל למעלה מן החכמה שם הן בבחינת התכללות12 ועיין מ״ש ע״פ וה׳ יגיה חשכי1314 והיינו ע״י כמים הפנים לפנים בהיות הנפש ג״כ בבחי׳ התכללות במס״נ [במסירות נפש] ממש
But above Chochmah, there they are in a state of inclusion. (And see what is written on “And Havayah illuminates my darkness.”) And this comes about through “as water [reflects] face to face,” when the soul too is in a state of inclusion, through actual self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh),
Above Chochmah all the powers are included in one. This gathering from above is evoked, “as water reflects face to face,” when the soul itself becomes one through actual mesirus nefesh; the text refers to its discussion of “And Havayah illuminates my darkness.”
שהוא למעלה מטעם ודעת כנ״ל ואותה אנו מבקשים אל תסתר פניך15 ממני בחי׳ פנימית הנ״ל.
which is above reason and knowledge, as mentioned above. And this is what we request: “Do not hide Your face from me,” the level of the inner dimension (pnimiyus) mentioned above.
Mesirus nefesh is above reason and knowledge, as paragraph 9 explained. This is what we ask in Psalms 27:9: “Do not hide Your face from me,” that is, do not withhold Your inner dimension.
אל תט באף עבדך פי׳ שלא תטה את עבדך לבחי׳ אף עשיתיו שהוא התפשטות בחי׳ חיצונית החיות אלא מבחי׳ פנימית כי עמך הסליחה כו׳:1617
“Do not turn Your servant away in anger (af)”: meaning, do not turn Your servant to the level of “I also (af) made him,” which is the spreading forth of the level of the outer dimension (chitzoniyus) of the life-force, but rather from the level of the inner dimension, “for with You is forgiveness,” etc.
The verse continues, “Do not turn Your servant away in anger (af).” The Alter Rebbe reads af as the af of “I also (af) made him” (Isaiah 43:7), the outer dimension of the life-force: we ask not to be dealt with from the outer level but from the inner one, where “with You is forgiveness.”
The cry from the depth of the heart draws down the Infinite Light that “fills all Names,” which repairs what sin has blemished. Psalms 27:10 says it: the intellect (“father and mother”) may have been lost through sin, but G‑d Himself gathers the soul’s powers together from above Chochmah, in response to the soul’s own gathering through mesirus nefesh.
Elsewhere in Likkutei Torah (Shemini Atzeres) the same verse is read differently in detail: the soul’s natural love is the “father,” Z’eir Anpin and Nukva of Atzilus are the soul’s father and mother, and “Havayah will gather me in” refers to the root of the soul, its yechidah; the Rebbe, in Likkutei Sichos, notes that this is broadly like the reading here, only “in a somewhat different way.” The Tzemach Tzedek adds that because division begins in Chochmah, there is some measure of judgment in Chochmah. The Zohar cited by the Kehot note (Part II, 85a) says that the Torah is composed of Chochmah and Binah, “your father’s instruction” and “your mother’s teaching.”
Marei mekomos
- 1ויצעקו אל ה׳ בצר להם · Psalms 107:6
- 2
- 3כי אבי ואמי עזבוני · Psalms 27:10
- 4כי ה׳ יתן חכמה · Proverbs 2:6
- 5זכר חסדו · Psalms 98:3
- 6אשה יראת ה׳ · Proverbs 31:30
- 7בת תחלה סימן יפה לבנים · Bava Batra 141a:4
- 8בזאת יבא אהרן · Leviticus 16:3
- 9שהמדות . . מן השכליים · ע׳ סש״ב ח״א (פ״ג). [כ].
- 10מי שהעביר את הדרך ופגם בתורה שהיא חכמתו יתברך נקרא אבי ואמי עזבוני · וראה לקמן שמע״צ (פט, ב) שפירוש זה הוא (בכללות) כהפירוש שבלקו״ת שמע״צ פג, ב ורק שהוא ”בענין אחר קצת”. — לקו״ש ח״ז ע׳ 231.
- 11כי ההתחלקות הוא מחכמה ולמטה · ”ולכן יש בחכמה קצת דין כמ״ש החייט”. — אוה״ת פ׳ פינחס ע׳ א׳רכ.
- 12אבל למעלה מן החכמה . . התכללות · באוה״ת פ׳ משפטים ע׳ א׳קפו מציין על זה ”ואסיפה זו פי׳ בלק״ת שם [— הכוונה לכאן] בבחי׳ שאין שם התחלקות כלל דהיינו למעלה מן החכמה, וזהו ע״ד שנתבאר בתו״א בהביאור ע״פ וקבל היהודים וקבל בלשון יחיד כו׳. ע״ש”.
- 13
- 14וה׳ יגיה חשכי · II Samuel 22:29
- 15אל תסתר פניך · Psalms 27:9
- 16לך ה׳ הגדולה · I Chronicles 29:11
- 17והשכליים נק׳ בשם או״א · Zohar II, 85a
14(קיצור. ענין את פניך הוי׳ אבקש. הארת פנים שלמעלה מהחכמה וחכם באחור ישבחנה. והיא בחי׳ מ״ש ופני לא יראו ומ״מ כי עמך ממש הסליחה. כי אבי ואמי עזבוני וה׳ יאספני):
(Summary: the matter of “Your face, Havayah, I will seek”; the shining of the face that is above Chochmah, and “the wise man praises it from behind”; and this is the level of what is written, “My face shall not be seen,” and nevertheless “with You,” truly, “is forgiveness”; “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but Havayah will gather me in.”)
A summary line closing the third section: the “face” above Chochmah, which David sought and which cannot be “seen,” yet from which forgiveness comes; and G‑d gathering the soul when its “father and mother” have forsaken it.
The summary of the third section: teshuvah from the depth of the heart reaches G‑d’s “face” above Chochmah, the source of forgiveness.
“That You may be feared” ¶15–24
15ד והנה תכלית המכוון מתשובה בעומקא דליבא זו להיות בקשו פני ואת פניך הוי׳ כנ״ל הוא מ״ש
4. Now, the ultimate intent of this teshuvah in the depth of the heart, so that there be “Seek My face” and “Your face, Havayah,” as mentioned above, is what is written,
The fourth section asks what the purpose is of this teshuvah from the depth of the heart, which reaches G‑d’s own “face.”
כי עמך הסליחה למען תורא1 פי׳ שעיקר גילוי הסליחה הוא כדי להיות גילוי בחינת יראתו ית׳ ולקיים שום תשים עליך מלך.2
“For with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared.” That is: the main [purpose of] the revelation of forgiveness is so that there be a revelation of the level of awe of Him, may He be blessed, and to fulfill “You shall surely set a king over yourself.”
The answer is the end of Psalms 130:4: “For with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared.” Forgiveness is revealed so that awe of G‑d will be revealed, fulfilling “You shall surely set a king over yourself” (Deuteronomy 17:15), accepting G‑d as King.
The purpose of forgiveness, and of the teshuvah that draws it down, is awe of G‑d: the acceptance of His kingship.
Marei mekomos
- 1כי עמך הסליחה למען תורא · Psalms 130:4
- 2שום תשים עליך מלך · Deuteronomy 17:15
16וזהו תכלית המכוון במעשה בראשית. כמ״ש והאלקים עשה שייראו מלפניו1 סוף דבר הכל נשמע2 את האלקים ירא3 וגו׳ כי זה כל האדם.
And this is the ultimate intent of the work of creation, as it is written, “And G‑d has made [it so] that they fear before Him”; “The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear G‑d,” etc., “for this is the whole of man.”
Awe is also the purpose of creation itself: “G‑d has made it so that they fear before Him” (Ecclesiastes 3:14), and “The end of the matter … fear G‑d … for this is the whole of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
פי׳ שהאדם שעל דמות4 העסא כמראה אדם מלמעלה היינו בחינת התורה שהיא רמ״ח מצות רמ״ח אברין דמלכא.
That is: the “man” who is upon the likeness of the throne, “like the appearance of a man, from above,” namely, the level of the Torah, which is the 248 mitzvos, the 248 limbs of the King,
The Alter Rebbe reads “man” in “the whole of man” as the supernal “Man” that Ezekiel saw upon the likeness of the throne (Ezekiel 1:26). That “Man” is the Torah, whose 248 positive mitzvos are the 248 “limbs” of the King.
Creation, like forgiveness, exists for the sake of awe; and the supernal “Man” on the throne, the Torah with its mitzvos, is the whole of what this awe is for.
Marei mekomos
- 1והאלקים עשה שיראו מלפניו · Ecclesiastes 3:14
- 2סוף דבר הכל נשמע · קהלת יד, יג.
- 3סוף דבר הכל נשמע את האלקים ירא · Ecclesiastes 12:13
- 4שעל דמות הכסא כמראה אדם · Ezekiel 1:26
17ושס״ה ל״ת [לא תעשה] כנגד שס״ה גידין וכל בחינות הללו נמשכו למטה בשביל גילוי מדת היראה שהוא בחי׳ ביטול רצון מפני
and the 365 prohibitions, corresponding to the 365 sinews. And all these levels were drawn down below for the sake of revealing the attribute of awe, which is the level of nullifying [one’s] will before
The Torah’s 365 prohibitions correspond to the 365 sinews of the body. This whole structure was drawn down in order to reveal awe, which means setting aside one’s own will before the will of the King.
רצון המלך העליון הן בסור מרע והן בועשה טוב לעשות הכל מה שהוא נגד רצונו וטבעו של האדם ולהפוך את לבו מן הקצה אל הקצה.
the will of the Supreme King, both in “turn from evil” and in “do good”: to do everything that is against a person’s will and nature, and to turn his heart from one extreme to the other.
In both avoiding evil and doing good, a person acts against his own will and nature, turning his heart around completely.
As it is written, “And Havayah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear,” etc. (And in Koheles Rabbah on “I know that whatever G‑d does”:
Deuteronomy 6:24 says G‑d commanded the statutes “to fear Havayah our G‑d.” A parenthesis then brings Koheles Rabbah on Ecclesiastes 3:14.
א״ר [אמר רבי] יודן גדולה היא היראה ששמים וארץ לא נבראו אלא בזכות היראה הה״ד [הדא הוא דכתיב] והאלקים עשה שייראו מלפניו. א״ר [אמר רבי] ירמיה גדולה היא היראה ששני ספרים שכתב שלמה לא חתמן אלא ביראה הה״ד [הדא הוא דכתיב])
Rabbi Yudan said: Great is awe, for heaven and earth were created only in the merit of awe, as it is written, “And G‑d has made [it so] that they fear before Him.” Rabbi Yirmiyah said: Great is awe, for the two books that Shlomo wrote he sealed only with awe, as it is written)
In the Midrash, Rabbi Yudan says heaven and earth were created only in the merit of awe, and Rabbi Yirmiyah notes that King Shlomo ended both of his books with awe.
(בספר משלי סס״י [סוף סימן] ל״א) שקר החן והבל4 היופי אשה יראת5 ה׳ היא תתהלל.6 ובסיפרא הדין כתיב סוף דבר הכל נשמע את האלקים ירא.7
(in the book of Proverbs, at the end of chapter 31): “Grace is false and beauty is vain; a woman who fears Havayah, she shall be praised.” And in this book it is written, “The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear G‑d.”
Proverbs ends with “a woman who fears Havayah, she shall be praised” (31:30), and Ecclesiastes ends with “The end of the matter … fear G‑d” (12:13).
ועיין מענין יראת ה׳ היא תתהלל פ״ב [פרק ב׳] דסנהדרין (ד״כ ע״א). וברבות שמות פ׳ א׳ ע״פ ותיראן המילדות ובספר חסידים סי׳ קנ״ח.
And see on the matter of “a woman who fears Havayah, she shall be praised,” the second chapter of Sanhedrin (20a); and Shemos Rabbah, section 1, on “And the midwives feared”; and Sefer Chasidim, section 158.
The text gives further sources on Proverbs 31:30: the Talmud (Sanhedrin 20a), which applies the praise of awe to particular generations and individuals; the Midrash (Shemos Rabbah) on the midwives in Egypt who feared G‑d; and Sefer Chasidim §158, which lists eighteen verses about awe, this among them.
כי הנה תכלית בריאת העולמות8 מאין ליש הוא כדי שיהיה יש ויהיה היש בטל. והיינו בדמת מלכותו ית׳ כי אין מלך בלא עם91011 כו׳.
For the purpose of the creation of the worlds from nothing to something is so that there be a something, and that the something be nullified. That is, [for] His kingship, may He be blessed, for “there is no king without a people,” etc.
Why awe is the purpose: G‑d created the worlds from nothing so that there would be a “something,” a seemingly independent existence, which then sets itself aside before Him. This is the meaning of kingship, for “there is no king without a people”: a king needs subjects who are distinct from him and accept his rule.
All 613 mitzvos, like the body’s limbs and sinews, exist to reveal awe, the setting aside of one’s will before the King; the Midrash and the endings of Shlomo’s books confirm it. The reason is that creation’s purpose is a “something” that nullifies itself, for there is no king without a people.
The principle “there is no king without a people” is cited by the Kehot note from Rabbeinu Bachya (on Genesis 38:30 and the beginning of Balak). In the Bachya on Balak, a ruler with no people loses the title of king; in this maamar, the created world is the “people” that makes G‑d’s kingship possible.
Marei mekomos
- 1ויצונו ה׳ לעשות את כל החוקים · Deuteronomy 6:24
- 2
- 3ידעתי . . יעשה האלקים · Ecclesiastes 3:14
- 4
- 5שקר החן והבל היופי אשה יראת ה׳ היא תתהלל · Proverbs 31:30
- 6יראת ה׳ היא תתהלל · Sefer Chasidim 158:1
- 7סוף דבר הכל נשמע את האלקים ירא · Ecclesiastes 12:13
- 8כי הנה תכלית בריאת העולמות . . בא״ס ב״ה ממש · מובא אוה״ת שמות ע׳ פח.
- 9אין מלך בלא עם · בחיי וישב לח, ל. ור״פ בלק. ועוד.
- 10אין מלך בלא עם · Rabbeinu Bahya, Bereshit 38:30
- 11אין מלך בלא עם · Rabbeinu Bahya, Bamidbar 22:2
18ומלכותך מלכות כל עולמים שהעולמות וההעלם היא רק מבחינת מלכותך ואין התכלית להיות העלם אלא
“Your kingship is a kingship over all worlds (olamim)”: the worlds and the concealment (he’elem) are only from the level of Your kingship; and the purpose is not that there be concealment, but rather
Psalms 145:13 says, “Your kingship is a kingship over all worlds.” The Hebrew for “worlds,” olamim, is related to he’elem, “concealment”: both the worlds and the concealment of G‑d in them come from His kingship, Malchus, but concealment is not the goal.
כדי שיתגלה מלכותו ית׳ ובהתגלות כבוד מלכותו ית׳ הרי זה ביטול היש לבחי׳ מלכותו המיוחדת בו בא״ס ב״ה ממש וכל זה מפני שכך עלה ברצונו להיות נח״ר [נחת רוח] בביטול היש ואתכפייא דסט״א [דסטרא אחרא].1
so that His kingship, may He be blessed, be revealed. And in the revelation of the glory of His kingship, may He be blessed, there is the nullification of the something to the level of His kingship, which is united with Him, with the very Infinite One, blessed be He. And all this is because so it arose in His will: that there be gratification (nachas ruach) in the nullification of the something and the subjugation of the sitra achra (the other side).
The goal is that His kingship be revealed; when it is, the “something” is nullified before His Malchus, which is one with the Infinite One. G‑d wanted this: He has “gratification” when the something is nullified and the sitra achra, the side opposed to holiness, is subdued.
The worlds come from G‑d’s Malchus and conceal Him, but their purpose is that His kingship be revealed in them, nullifying their sense of separate existence; this is what gives G‑d gratification.
Marei mekomos
- 1מלכותך מכ״ע · Psalms 145:13
19וזהו צחוק עשה לי אלקים1 שמדת אלקים והצמצום2 להיות יש מאין הוא בשביל בחי׳ צחוק שיהיה לעתיד לבא כל השומע יצחק לי לעתיד בביטול היש ונגלה כבוד3 ה׳ כו׳
And this is [the meaning of] “Elokim has made laughter for me”: the attribute of Elokim and the tzimtzum (contraction), so that there be something from nothing, are for the sake of the level of laughter that will be in the time to come, “whoever hears will laugh with me,” in the time to come, in the nullification of the something, “and the glory of Havayah will be revealed,” etc.
Sarah’s words at Yitzchak’s birth, “Elokim has made laughter for me; whoever hears will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6), are read as a statement about creation. The Name Elokim, the power of contraction that makes something from nothing, exists for the sake of the “laughter” of the time to come, when the something will be nullified and “the glory of Havayah will be revealed” (Isaiah 40:5).
והיינו ע״י עסק תורתנו ועבודתנו כל ימי משך הגלות שעיקר כוונת המצות בסור מרע ובעשה טוב להיות בחי׳ בטל רצונך45 הנ״ל ועי״ז נעשה ביטול היש בכל יום מעט מעט.
That is, through the occupation in our Torah and our service throughout all the days of the exile: for the main intent of the mitzvos, in “turn from evil” and in “do good,” is that there be the level of “nullify your will” mentioned above; and through this, the nullification of the something comes about each day, little by little.
That future is achieved through Torah study and divine service throughout the exile. The aim of every mitzvah, positive or negative, is “nullify your will” (Avos 2:4), and so the something is nullified a little more each day.
אך בר״ה [בראש השנה] ועשי״ת [ועשרת ימי תשובה] שהם כללות השנה צריך להמשיך כללות ביטול זה להיות המשכת הביטול על כל השנה.
But on Rosh Hashanah and the Ten Days of Teshuvah, which are the general and collective expression (klalus) of the year, one must draw down this nullification in its general and collective form, so that the drawing-down of the nullification be over the whole year.
Rosh Hashanah and the Ten Days of Teshuvah contain the whole year in general form. So in them one must draw down this nullification in its general form, so that it extends over the entire year.
Creation through the Name Elokim is for the sake of the future joy, when created existence will be nullified and G‑d’s glory revealed; daily service achieves this little by little, and the Ten Days of Teshuvah draw it down for the whole year.
The Kehot note refers to the sources given at the opening of the first Shabbos Shuvah maamar in Likkutei Torah, which speaks of the attribute of Elokim and tzimtzum producing a world of separateness, and of the Name Havayah prevailing over the Name Elokim.
Marei mekomos
- 1צחוק עשה לי אלקים · Genesis 21:6
- 2שמדת אלקים והצמצום · נסמן לעיל סד, ג.
- 3ונגלה כבוד ה׳ · Isaiah 40:5
- 4בטל רצונך · אבות פ״ב, מ״ד.
- 5בטל רצונך · Pirkei Avot 2:4
20ולזאת צריך להמשיך מבחי׳ פנים העליונים את פניך הוי׳ אבקש ממעמקים קראתיך הוי׳ שהוא מאור א״ס ב״ה הסוכ״ע שלמעלה מן החכמה והתורה.
Therefore one must draw down from the level of the Supernal face: “Your face, Havayah, I will seek”; “From the depths I called You, Havayah,” which is from the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, the light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin), which is above Chochmah and the Torah.
To bring about this nullification of created existence for the whole year, one must draw from G‑d’s supernal “face,” the light sought in “Your face, Havayah, I will seek” and “From the depths I called You.” That is the Infinite Light that encompasses all worlds, above Chochmah and above the Torah.
וזהו ענין ברכת המצות שתיקנו חז״ל [חכמינו זכרונם לברכה] לומר קודם כל מצוה ברוך אתה כו׳ לפי שצ ריך להמשיך בחי׳ מלך העולם ע״י עשיית המצות בשביל
And this is the matter of the blessing over mitzvos, which our Sages, of blessed memory, instituted to say before every mitzvah: “Blessed are You,” etc. For one must draw down the level of “King of the world” through doing the mitzvos, on account of
This explains the blessing the Sages instituted before every mitzvah: “Blessed are You, Havayah our G‑d, King of the world, who has sanctified us with His commandments ….” Doing a mitzvah draws down G‑d as “King of the world.”
אשר קדשנו במצותיו ונמשך בחי׳ ביטול היש להיות התגלות כבוד מלכותו שלא יהיה העולם מעלים ומסתיר החיות שבו עד שנראה בעיני גשמי׳ [גשמיים / גשמיות / גשמית] ליש ודבר בפ״ע [בפני עצמו]
“Who has sanctified us with His commandments”; and there is drawn down the level of the nullification of the something (bittul hayesh), so that there be a revelation of the glory of His kingship: that the world not conceal and hide the life-force within it, to the point that it appears to physical eyes as a something and a thing in its own right,
Because G‑d “has sanctified us with His commandments,” each mitzvah draws down the nullification of created existence, so that His kingship is revealed. The world will then no longer hide the divine life-force within it, which now makes it look to physical eyes like an independent thing.
אלא יהיה מלך העולם שהתגלות העולם יהיה בבחי׳ מלך ויבין כל היצור כי העולם הוא בחי׳ מלך בלבד ומלך ועולם הם דבר א׳ ממש וכמ״ש בע״ח [בעץ חיים]1
but rather that it be “King of the world”: that the revelation of the world be in the level of “King,” and every creature understand that the world is only the level of “King,” and that King and world are truly one thing. As is written in Etz Chaim
Instead the world should be “King of the world”: every creature should understand that the world is nothing but an expression of G‑d’s kingship, so that King and world are truly one. The Alter Rebbe brings support from Etz Chaim.
שהארץ הלזו החומריות הוא מלכות דמלכות דעשיה2 פי׳ שהתהוותה מאין ליש תמיד בכל רגע הוא ע״י הארה והשפעת מל׳ דמל׳ דעשי׳ [דעשיה]. ולזאת בטלה היא במציאות בהשגה וידיעה שמלמעלה למטה וכמ״ש באריכות בסש״ב [בספר של בינונים] שער היחוד והאמונה.3
that this material earth is Malchus of Malchus of Asiyah, meaning that its coming into being from nothing to something, constantly, at every moment, is through the illumination and influence of Malchus of Malchus of Asiyah. And therefore it is nullified in its existence, in the comprehension and knowledge that is from above looking down, as is explained at length in Sefer Shel Beinonim, Sha’ar HaYichud VehaEmunah.
Etz Chaim calls our material earth “Malchus of Malchus of Asiyah,” the lowest level of the lowest world, which is brought into being from nothing at every moment by that level’s light. Seen from above, it therefore has no existence of its own, as Tanya’s Sha’ar HaYichud VehaEmunah explains at length.
The nullification of the world’s sense of independent existence must be drawn from the highest level, G‑d’s “face” above the Torah. This is what the blessing over every mitzvah does: it draws down “King of the world,” revealing that the world, constantly created from nothing, is one with its King.
The source in Etz Chaim (Sha’ar 43, ch. 1, according to the Kehot note) speaks of the lowest earth as Malchus of Malchus of Asiyah and as the outermost vessels of all the worlds. Tanya’s Sha’ar HaYichud VehaEmunah explains that a creation renewed from nothing at every moment is, from G‑d’s perspective, nullified in its very existence.
Marei mekomos
- 1וכמ״ש בע״ח · שמ״ג ציור עולמות אבי״ע (פ״א). [כ].
- 2שהארץ הלזו החומריות הוא מלכות דמלכות דעשיה · Sefer Etz Chaim 43:1
- 3בסש״ב שער היחוד והאמונה · במפתח המקומות שהובא בהם ס׳ התניא — נדפס בס׳ המפתחות לספרי דא״ח דאדה״ז, ע׳ 327 בסופו, מציין ע״ז: ”פ׳ ג׳-ו׳ ?”.
21והנה התהוות העולם הוא רק בשביל אין מלך בלא עם כו׳. ואי לזאת מקדימים ואומרים ברוך אתה.
Now, the coming into being of the world is only for the sake of “there is no king without a people,” etc. And therefore we say first, “Blessed are You,”
The world exists only because “there is no king without a people”: G‑d’s kingship needs a world that is distinct from Him and accepts His rule. That is why the blessing over a mitzvah begins “Blessed are You.”
כלומר שיהא ברוך ונמשך ממקור הברכות מאור א״ס ב״ה הסוכ״ע ביטול זה וכנודע שביטול היש הגשמי היותר תחתון במדרגה הוא ע״י הארה והמשכה היותר עליונה
that is to say, that this nullification be “blessed,” drawn down from the source of blessings, from the Infinite Light, blessed be He, the light that encompasses all worlds. As is known, the nullification of the physical something, which is the lowest in rank, comes through the highest illumination and drawing-down
“Blessed” (baruch) is read as “drawn down”: we ask that this nullification be drawn down from the source of all blessings, the Infinite Light that encompasses all worlds. For the lowest thing, physical existence, can be nullified only by the very highest light.
(ועמ״ש בפ׳ בראשית בד״ה להבין הטעם1 כו׳ ובד״ה ולהבין בתוספת ביאור2 ענין וייצר כו ע״ש ועמ״ש בפ׳ תצוה סד״ה ועשית בגדי קדש ותכלית וסוף הברכה כו׳ ועמ״ש במק״מ [במקדש מלך] פ׳ צו)
(and see what is written in Parshas Bereishis in the discourse beginning “To understand the reason,” etc., and in the discourse beginning “And to understand, in further explanation of the matter of ‘And He formed,’” etc.; see there. And see what is written in Parshas Tetzaveh, at the end of the discourse beginning “And you shall make holy garments”: and the purpose and end of the blessing, etc. And see what is written in the Mikdash Melech, Parshas Tzav)
The parenthesis lists where this is explained: two discourses in Torah Ohr, Bereishis, on why man’s body was formed differently from the other creatures and on “And Havayah Elokim formed man”; the end of the Torah Ohr discourse “And you shall make holy garments” (Tetzaveh), on the purpose and end of blessing; and the Mikdash Melech’s commentary on the Zohar, Tzav.
(בדף כ״ו ע״ב)3 שהוא בא ממקום גבוה כו׳ שה״ס [שהר סיני] בשכמל״ו [ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד] כו׳ ע״ש ולכן כדי לבא לבחי׳ זו שיהיה גילוי מלכותו
(on page 26b), that it comes from a high place, etc., which is the mystery of “Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever,” etc.; see there. And therefore, in order to come to this level, that there be a revelation of His kingship,
The Mikdash Melech there explains that this comes from a very high place, the mystical meaning of “Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.” So a revelation of G‑d’s kingship in the physical world requires a preparation.
ית׳ בבחי׳ ביטול היש הגשמי צריך להקדים בחינת תשובה עילאה את פניך הוי׳ אבקש וממעמקים קראתיך הוי׳ כמים הפנים ע״י עומק הלב למסור נפשו באחד.
may He be blessed, in the level of the nullification of the physical something, one must first have the level of the higher teshuvah: “Your face, Havayah, I will seek,” and “From the depths I called You, Havayah,” “as water [reflects] face to face,” through the depth of the heart, to give up one’s soul in [declaring G‑d] One.
To reveal G‑d’s kingship in the physical world, one must first have the higher teshuvah: seeking G‑d’s face from the depth of the heart, “as water reflects face to face,” to the point of being ready to give up one’s life at the “One” of the Shema.
Because the lowest, physical existence can be nullified only by the highest light, the blessing over a mitzvah begins “Blessed are You,” drawing that light down; and to receive it one must first reach the higher teshuvah of the depth of the heart.
The principle that the lowest level is reached only by the highest recurs throughout Chassidus. Here it explains why the Ten Days of Teshuvah, with their teshuvah from the depth of the heart, are the time to draw down the nullification of the physical world for the whole year.
Marei mekomos
- 1בד״ה להבין הטעם · תו״א ג, ד.
- 2ובד״ה ולהבין בתוספות ביאור · תו״א ד, א.
- 3ועמ״ש במק״מ פ׳ צו (בדף כ״ו ע״ב) · ראה גם לעיל פ׳ שלח מ, א.
22וזהו ענין יחודא עילאה תחלה בק״ש [בקריאת שמע] הוי׳ אלקינו הוי׳ אחד אחד ממש דכולא קמי׳ [קמיה] כלא1 וכאין ממש ואח״כ יחודא תתאה בשכמל״ו [ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד] שנראה ונתגלה בחי׳ יש אך היש בטל לאין בשביל התגלות כבוד מלכותו ית׳.2
And this is the matter of the higher unity (yichuda ila’ah) first, in the Shema: “Havayah is our G‑d, Havayah is One,” truly One, for all before Him is as nothing, truly as naught; and afterwards the lower unity (yichuda tata’ah), in “Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever,” in which the level of something is seen and revealed, but the something is nullified to nothing for the sake of the revelation of the glory of His kingship, may He be blessed.
The same order is in the Shema. First comes the higher unity (yichuda ila’ah): “Havayah is our G‑d, Havayah is One,” truly one, for before Him everything is as nothing. Then comes the lower unity (yichuda tata’ah), “Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever”: created existence is seen, but it is nullified for the sake of revealing His kingship.
The two verses of the Shema express the two unities: the higher, in which nothing exists apart from G‑d, and the lower, in which the world exists but is nullified before His kingship; the higher must come first.
The Zohar the Kehot note cites (Part I, 11b) says that true awe is to fear G‑d because He is the root of all worlds and “all before Him is accounted as nothing.” The higher unity of the Shema’s first verse is the source of the lower unity of “Blessed be the Name.”
Marei mekomos
- 1דכולא קמי׳ כלא · Zohar I, 11b
- 2הוי׳ אלקינו הוי׳ אחד · Deuteronomy 6:4
23וכן בברכת המצות ברוך אתה אומרים תחלה הוי׳ אלקינו כלומר שיהיה אלקינו ואנחנו נהי׳ [נהיה] בטלים אליו ית׳ כביטול הרגל לגבי הראש.
So too in the blessing over mitzvos, “Blessed are You,” we first say “Havayah our G‑d”: that is to say, that He be our G‑d and we be nullified to Him, may He be blessed, as the foot is nullified in relation to the head.
The blessing over a mitzvah follows the same order: before “King of the world” we say “Havayah our G‑d,” asking that He be our G‑d and that we be nullified to Him. That nullification is like that of a foot to the head: the foot has no will of its own and simply follows the head.
וכך ישראל לי ראש1 וברא כרעא דאבוה2 דהביטול הזה הוא בבחינת אחדות ממש שמתאחד ומתכלל באור א״ס ב״ה ומוסר נפשו להעלותה למעלה כמו שהיתה טרם ירידתה שהיתה כלולה במאצילה ב״ה ביחוד גמור.
And so: “Israel is for Me a head,” and “a son is the leg of his father”: for this nullification is in the level of true oneness, in that one becomes one and is included in the Infinite Light, blessed be He, and gives over one’s soul to raise it on high as it was before its descent, when it was included in its Emanator, blessed be He, in complete unity.
Two sayings express this: “Israel is a head for Me” and “a son is his father’s leg.” This is nullification as union: the soul becomes one with the Infinite Light and gives itself over, rising to how it was before its descent, when it was wholly included in its Source.
ומזה נמשך אח״כ להיות מלך העולם ביטול היש כעבד לפני מלך כי לי בני3 ישראל עבדים עבדי הם לי דייקא שגם בחינת עבד הוא בבחינת לי ועבדי ועיין מ״ש ע״פ ועתה יגדל נא בפ׳ שלח:
And from this there is drawn down afterwards “King of the world,” the nullification of the something, like a servant before a king. For “the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants,” “to Me” specifically, for the level of servant, too, is in the level of “to Me.” And see what is written on “And now, I pray, let [the power] be great,” in Parshas Shelach.
From that union comes “King of the world,” the nullification of the created self like a servant before a king. Leviticus 25:55 says the children of Israel are servants “to Me,” and the Alter Rebbe stresses “to Me”: even as servants they remain G‑d’s own; the text refers to its discourse on Numbers 14:17 in Parshas Shelach.
The blessing over a mitzvah first expresses the higher unity, “Havayah our G‑d,” the soul’s union with G‑d like a limb with the head, and from it draws the lower unity, “King of the world,” the nullification of a servant before his king.
Marei mekomos
- 1ישראל לי ראש · ע״ל שלח (מח, ב). וש״נ. [כ].
- 2וברא כרעא דאבוה · ע״ל (יב, ג). [כ]. וש״נ.
- 3כי לי בנ״י עבדים · Leviticus 25:55
24(קיצור ופי׳ כי עמך הסליחה למען תורא שתכלית המכוון מהמשכות העליונות הנ״ל הוא למען תורא והאלקים עשה שייראו מלפיו והוא ביטול היש. וזהו ענין ברכות המצות):
(Summary and explanation of “For with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared”: the ultimate intent of the supernal drawings-down mentioned above is “that You may be feared,” and “G‑d has made [it so] that they fear before Him,” and this is the nullification of the something. And this is the matter of the blessings over the mitzvos.)
A summary line closing the fourth section: the purpose of forgiveness and of the drawings-down from above is awe, which is the nullification of created existence, and this is what the blessings over mitzvos express.
The summary of the fourth section: forgiveness is “that You may be feared,” and awe is the nullification of the self, drawn down through the blessings over mitzvos.
Ad: the eternal kingship ¶25–28
25ה והנה בחי׳ זו שהיא התגלות כבוד מלכותו להיות יש מאין שיהא היש בטל לאין נק׳ בשם עד
5. Now, this level, which is the revelation of the glory of His kingship, that there be something from nothing such that the something be nullified to nothing, is called by the name ad,
The fifth section returns to the opening question about the word ad. The level just described, G‑d’s kingship revealed in a world created from nothing whose existence is nullified before Him, is called ad.
for ad is a term of eternity, as in “You shall not be ashamed nor disgraced, to all eternity (ad olmei ad)”; “Forever and ever (le’adei ad) He shall reign.”
Ad denotes eternity, as in Isaiah 45:17, “to all eternity” (ad olmei ad), and in the hymn Melech Elyon, “forever and ever He shall reign.”
והנה בדבר שהוא תחת הזמן ממש אין נמשך בבחי׳ נצחיות ובדבר שהוא למעלה מהזמן בבחי׳ א״ס שם לא שייך לשון נצחיות ועולמות שלשון זה אינו נופל כ״א בבחי׳ וגדר זמן שיומשך זמן רב כ״כ [כל כך]
Now, in a thing that is truly under time, there is no drawing-forth in the manner of eternity; and in a thing that is above time, in the level of the Infinite, there the terms “eternity” and “worlds” do not apply, for these terms apply only in the level and bounds of time, that it continue for so long a time;
Eternity is a paradoxical category. What is wholly within time is not eternal, and what is wholly above time, the Infinite, is not called eternal either, because eternity means lasting through a great length of time.
אבל מה שאינו בבחי׳ וגדר הזמן שם לא שייך המשך הזמן כלל אלא היה הוה ויהיה הכל א׳ ולא שייך בחי׳ זו ולשון זה עולמיות ונצחיות
but what is not in the level and bounds of time, there the extension of time does not apply at all; rather, “was,” “is” and “will be” are all one. And this level and this term, everlastingness and eternity, do not apply
For what is beyond time, past, present and future are one, so “lasting” does not apply to it at all.
אלא בבחי׳ מלכותו יתברך שהוא בבחינת וגדר הזמן מלך מלך וימלוך כמ״ש בסש״ב [בספר של בינונים] ח״ב [חלק ב׳] פ״ז [פרק ז׳].
except in the level of His kingship, may He be blessed, which is in the level and bounds of time: “He is King, He was King, and He will reign,” as is explained in Sefer Shel Beinonim, Part II, chapter 7.
Eternity applies only to Malchus, G‑d’s kingship, which relates to time, as the prayer says, “Havayah is King, Havayah was King, Havayah will reign.” Tanya (Part II, ch. 7) explains that time and space themselves come from G‑d’s Malchus.
Ad, “eternity,” is the name of G‑d’s kingship as revealed in creation: eternity belongs neither to what is merely in time nor to what is beyond time, but to Malchus, which relates to time yet lasts without end.
The Kehot note records that an explanation of this maamar, on ad as a term of eternity, is found in a manuscript volume known as “Buch Fertel,” and points to the Rebbe’s maamar “Shuvah” of 5744.
Marei mekomos
- 1עד הוא לשון נצחית · ביאור על ד״ה שובה ישראל עד ל׳ נצחי ע׳ בוך פערטעל שתח״י (כג, א). [כ]. ראה ד״ה שובה — תשד״מ.
- 2לא תבשו ולא תכלמו עד עולמי עד · Isaiah 45:17
- 3לעדי עד ימלוך · פיוט מלך עליון.
26ואעפ״כ [ואף על פי כן] הרי היא הארת א״ס ב״ה שכשמו כן הוא אין לו סוף1 כו׳ וכך בעבודת האדם בגילוי אור
And even so, it is an illumination of the Infinite One (Ein Sof), blessed be He, who, as His Name is, so is He: He has no end, etc. And so in the service of man, through the revelation of the Light
Yet Malchus is an illumination of the Infinite One, and “as His Name is, so is He”: Ein Sof means “without end.” That is why the kingship that relates to time lasts without end.
א״ס ב״ה על נפשו תכון מלכותו יתברך לעד הקרב האדם להיות גילוי כבוד מלכותו בבחי׳ בטל רצונך לנצח כל ימיו בל תמוט:
of the Infinite One, blessed be He, upon his soul, His kingship, may He be blessed, “shall be established” forever (la’ad) within the person, that there be a revelation of the glory of His kingship in the level of “nullify your will,” for eternity, all his days, “that shall not be moved.”
The same holds in a person’s service. When the Infinite Light is revealed to his soul, G‑d’s kingship is established within him “forever” (la’ad): a constant “nullify your will” for all his days, which nothing can shake.
Because Malchus is a ray of the endless Ein Sof, its rule is eternal; and when the Infinite Light is revealed in a person’s soul, G‑d’s kingship is established within him permanently.
Marei mekomos
- 1שכשמו כן הוא אין לו סוף · ראה אוה״ת ענינים ע׳ קמב שמציין לכאן. ראה שם בהערה בשולי הגליון.
27וזהו שובה ישראל עד.1 פי׳ להשיב בחי׳ עד היא בחי׳ התגלות כבוד מלכותו למקורה ושרשה הוא אור א״ס ב״ה ממש
And this is [the meaning of] “Return, O Israel, unto (ad)”: that is, to return the level of ad, which is the level of the revelation of the glory of His kingship, to its source and root, which is the very Infinite Light, blessed be He.
Now the opening verse is explained. “Return, O Israel, ad” uses shuvah in its transitive sense: bring back the level of ad, G‑d’s kingship as revealed in the world, to its source, the Infinite Light itself.
כי הארת אור א״ס בבחי׳ התגלות מלכותו ית׳ שמאיר ומתגלה בבחי׳ מלך העולם שלא יהא העולם מעלים כו׳ תלוי בעבודת האדם בגילוי אור א״ס ב״ה על נפשו וכמארז״ל [וכמאמר רבותינו זכרונם לברכה] גלו לאדום שכינה עמהם.23
For the illumination of the Infinite Light in the level of the revelation of His kingship, may He be blessed, which shines and is revealed in the level of “King of the world,” so that the world should not conceal, etc., depends on the service of man, in the revelation of the Infinite Light, blessed be He, upon his soul; and as our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “They were exiled to Edom; the Shechinah is with them.”
Whether the world conceals or reveals G‑d’s kingship depends on human service, on the Infinite Light being revealed in a person’s soul. As the Sages say (Sifrei), wherever Israel was exiled, even to Edom, the Shechinah went with them: G‑d’s presence in the world follows the state of His people.
This answers the opening question: “Return, O Israel, ad Havayah” means returning ad, G‑d’s kingship in the world, to its source in the Infinite Light. That return depends on the service of each Jew, for the Shechinah shares Israel’s exile.
The Kehot note also points to the second maamar of Ki Teitzei in Likkutei Torah for the saying about the Shechinah in exile. The opening note of the maamar records that the Tzemach Tzedek singled out this reading of “ad” as Malchus returned to its source.
Marei mekomos
- 1שובה ישראל עד · Hosea 14:2
- 2גלו לאדום שכינה עמהם · ספרי במדבר לה, לד. ע״ל כי תצא הב׳ (לה, סע״ד). [כ].
- 3גלו לאדום שכינה עמהם · Sifrei Bamidbar 161:5
28וכך כשנמשך אחר גופו ונפשו הבהמית שמקליפת וסט״א [וסטרא אחרא] שניצוץ אלקות שבו הוא בגלות הגוף כו׳.
And so too when he is drawn after his body and his animal soul, which is from kelipah and the sitra achra (the other side), the spark of G‑dliness within him is in the exile of the body, etc.
Just as the Shechinah goes into exile with Israel, a person who follows his body and his animal soul, which come from kelipah and the sitra achra, sends the spark of G‑dliness within him into “exile” in the body.
והעיקר להשיבה1 בבחינת עד דהיינו שתהי׳ [שתהיה] הארה זו בה לנצח ולעולם ועד בל תמוט ולא שיהיה לפרקים ועתים מזומנים בלבד
And the main thing is to return it in the manner of ad: that is, that this illumination be in it for eternity, forever and ever, never to be moved, and not that it be only at intervals and set times;
The main thing is to bring it back “in the manner of ad”: that G‑d’s light stay in him permanently, never to be shaken, and not only at certain times. The Kehot note quotes the Tzemach Tzedek that what is returned here is the level of Malchus.
רק תהיה יראת ה׳ על פניו בגילוי כבוד מלכותו ית׳ תמיד כי הארה שהיא לפרקים נק׳ בשם דודים רק להיות יחודא תתאה
rather, the fear of G‑d should be upon his face, in the revelation of the glory of His kingship, may He be blessed, always. For an illumination that comes at intervals is called by the name dodim (“lovers”); rather, [the aim is] that the lower unity (yichuda tata’ah) be
The fear of G‑d should rest on his face constantly, with G‑d’s kingship always revealed to him. An illumination that comes and goes is called dodim, “lovers,” who long for each other but are not always together.
כמו יחודא עילאה בחי׳ תרין ריעין דלא מתפרשין2 (וזהו כמ״ש אהל בל יצען ובל יסע יתדותיו לנצח)3 (בישעיה סי׳ ל״ג כ׳ [כתב]) והיינו
like the higher unity (yichuda ila’ah), the level of “two companions who never part” (and this is as it is written, “a tent that shall not be moved, and whose pegs shall never be pulled up”) (Isaiah, chapter 33, [verse] 20). And this is
The aim is that the lower unity become like the higher unity, which the Zohar calls “two companions who never part.” Isaiah 33:20 describes such permanence: “a tent that shall not be moved, whose pegs shall never be pulled up.”
כמו שכתוב בלק״ת [בלקוטי תורה (להאריז״ל)] בזכריה4 ע״פ ביום ההוא יהיה5 שבחי׳ ו״ה יהיו במדרגת י״ה כו׳ וממילא יהיה אהל בל יצען.
as is written in the Likkutei Torah of the Arizal on Zechariah, on “On that day [Havayah] shall be [One],” that the level of vav-hei will be at the rank of yud-hei, etc.; and as a matter of course there will be “a tent that shall not be moved,”
The Arizal’s Likkutei Torah on Zechariah 14:9, “On that day Havayah shall be One,” says that in the future the last two letters of the Name, vav-hei, will stand at the level of the first two, yud-hei. Then Malchus will be a “tent” that never moves.
כמ״ש בעמה״מ [בעמק המלך] שער הששי ס״פ מ״ז וע׳ מזה בזח״א [בזהר חלק א] בראשית (נ״ג א׳). ויחי (דרל״ט א׳). וס״פ תשא (קצ״ד א׳).
as is written in Emek HaMelech, Gate Six, at the end of chapter 47. And see on this the Zohar, Part I, Bereishis (53a), Vayechi (239a), and the end of Tisa (194a).
The same teaching appears in Emek HaMelech, a Kabbalistic work, and the text lists three places in the Zohar that discuss it.
והיינו כי עכשיו יש בבחי׳ מל׳ עליות וירידות ולכן נק׳ אהל מועד לשון זמן קצוב שמקדש ראשון עמד ת״י שנה כו׳ משא״כ לע״ל [לעתיד לבוא]6 לא יהיה שינויים כ״א בל יצען.
That is: now there are ascents and descents in the level of Malchus, and therefore it is called “the Tent of Meeting (ohel mo’ed),” a term for a fixed time, for the First Temple stood 410 years, etc.; whereas in the time to come there will be no changes, but rather “it shall not be moved.”
At present Malchus rises and falls, which is why it is called Ohel Mo’ed, the “Tent of Meeting,” mo’ed meaning an appointed time: like the First Temple, which stood for 410 years and then fell. In the time to come there will be no such changes.
And this will come through the revelation of the level of the light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin), as is explained on this at the end of the discourse beginning “Know this day and take to heart,” on the matter of “and the earth shall be filled with knowledge,” etc.
That permanence will come from the revelation of the light that encompasses all worlds, which does not change. The text refers to its discourse on “Know this day” (Deuteronomy 4:39) and “the earth shall be filled with knowledge” (Isaiah 11:9).
וזהו נאוה שאנן אהל בל יצען. כי נוה שאנן זהו ההמשכה מבחי׳ אני ה׳ לא שניתי9 כמ״ש באד״ר [באדרא רבא] (דקל״ז סע״א [סוף עמוד א])10 נוה שאנן לעתיק יומין אתמר.11
And this is [the meaning of] “a tranquil habitation, a tent that shall not be moved.” For “tranquil habitation” (naveh sha’anan) is the drawing-down from the level of “I, Havayah, have not changed,” as is written in the Idra Rabba (end of 137a): “‘Tranquil habitation’ is said of Atik Yomin.”
Isaiah 33:20 calls Jerusalem “a tranquil habitation.” The Idra Rabba in the Zohar says this phrase refers to Atik Yomin, the level of “I, Havayah, have not changed” (Malachi 3:6), which is utterly beyond change.
ומבחי׳ זו יומשך שיהיה אהל בל יצען כו׳ בל יסע יתדותיו. יתד הוא המקשר ומחבר האהל עם הארץ (כמ״ש רש״י [רבי שלמה יצחקי] בחומש ס״פ תרומה)12
And from this level it will be drawn down that there be “a tent that shall not be moved,” etc., “whose pegs shall never be pulled up.” A peg is what binds and joins the tent to the ground (as Rashi writes in the Chumash at the end of Terumah);
From that changeless level comes the tent that will never move. Rashi explains, at the end of Terumah, that the pegs bind the tent to the ground.
וזהו ענין כי כל בשמים ובארץ13 דאחיד בשמיא וארעא ועמ״ש סד״ה כי ההרים ימושו1415 גבי וברית שלומי לא תמוט.
and this is the matter of “for all that is in heaven and on earth,” “that holds fast to heaven and earth.” And see what is written at the end of the discourse beginning “For the mountains shall depart,” regarding “and My covenant of peace shall not be moved.”
The peg is thus like what I Chronicles 29:11 calls “all that is in heaven and on earth,” read as “that which holds heaven and earth together.” The text refers to its discourse on Isaiah 54:10, “For the mountains shall depart … but My covenant of peace shall not be moved.”
וזהו כי כה אמר רם ונשא שוכן עד.16 וכמ״ש ה׳ ימלוך לעולם ועד.17 וזהו ענין יהא שמיה רבא מברך לעלם ולעלמי עלמיא.
And this is [the meaning of] “For thus says the High and Exalted One, who dwells forever (shochen ad).” And as it is written, “Havayah shall reign forever and ever (le’olam va’ed).” And this is the matter of “May His great Name be blessed forever and to all eternity.”
Several verses speak of this eternal kingship, ad: G‑d “who dwells forever (ad)” (Isaiah 57:15), “Havayah shall reign forever and ever” (Exodus 15:18), and the Kaddish, “May His great Name be blessed forever and to all eternity.”
דפירוש שמיה רבא היינו שמו הגדול שהוא בחי׳ אור א״ס ממש ולכן עי״ז יהיה הברכה וההמשכה לעלם ולעלמי עלמיא בבחי׳ בל יצען כו׳.
For the meaning of shmei rabba is “His great Name,” which is the level of the very Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof); and therefore, through this, the blessing and drawing-down will be “forever and to all eternity,” in the manner of “it shall not be moved,” etc.
“His great Name” in the Kaddish is the Infinite Light itself. A blessing drawn from that light lasts “forever and to all eternity,” like the tent that will not be moved.
And all this is by the power of teshuvah; and this is [the meaning of] “Return, O Israel, unto (ad).” And see on the matter of “Return, O Israel” in the Midrash Rabbah, Vayeshev, section 84.
All this is achieved through teshuvah, and that is the meaning of “Return, O Israel, unto (ad).” The Midrash cited (Bereshit Rabbah 84:19) says that because Reuven was the first to repent, his descendant Hoshea would open with “Return, O Israel.”
Returning “ad” means making G‑d’s kingship in the soul permanent rather than intermittent: the lower unity becoming like the higher, Malchus like Binah, a tent that will never be moved. That permanence comes from the unchanging light above all worlds, and it is reached through teshuvah.
The Zohar (Part III, 4a) distinguishes “companions” (re’im), who are always together, the higher pair, from “lovers” (dodim), who long for each other but are not always together, the lower pair. The Tzemach Tzedek, quoted in the Kehot note, sums up this passage: the level of Malchus will be like the level of Binah, for Abba and Imma are “two companions,” as the Arizal’s Likkutei Torah on Zechariah says. Elsewhere in Likkutei Torah (Tzav) the same idea is linked to “the light of the moon shall be like the light of the sun,” a light without changes.
Marei mekomos
- 1והעיקר להשיבה · אוה״ת בראשית תקנו, א: (ר״ל בחי׳ מל׳).
- 2בחי׳ תרין ריעין דלא מתפרשין · Zohar II, 56a
- 3אהל בל יצען ובל יסע יתדותיו לנצח · Isaiah 33:20
- 4בלק״ת בזכריה · ראה לקו״ת פ׳ ואתחנן ע׳ פח. וראה שם ע׳ פט שמציין לכאן. אוה״ת פ׳ תצוה ע׳ א׳תקפג וז״ל ”ומבואר מזה בביאור ע״פ שובה ישראל עד שיהיה מדריגת המל׳ כמו מדריגת הבינה. שאו״א הם תרין ריעין וכמ״ש בלקו״ת בזכריה ע״פ ביום ההוא יהי׳”. ע״ש. לקו״ת זה נזכר לעיל פ׳ צו יא, ג. פ׳ במדבר יט, ג. פ׳ תבוא מג, ג. ר״ה נט, ד.
- 5ביום ההוא יהיה · Zechariah 14:9
- 6שמקדש ראשון עמד ת״י שנה כו׳ משא״כ לע״ל · ראה ביאוה״ז לאדה״א קא, ב. ובאוה״ת פ׳ ואתחנן ע׳ פח.
- 7וידעת היום והשבות · Deuteronomy 4:39
- 8ומלאה הארץ דעה · Isaiah 11:9
- 9אני ה׳ לא שניתי · Malachi 3:6
- 10כמ״ש באד״ר (דקל״ז סע״א) · ”מבואר באד״ר דקל״ז סע״א שהוא ע״י המשכת מו״ס דעתיקא, ובאדר״ז דרצ״ג סע״ב, ומזה יומשך שיהי׳ אהל בל יצען”. — אוה״ת פ׳ תצוה ע׳ א׳תקפג. ונזכר גם באוה״ת פ׳ ואתחנן ע׳ פט. וביהל אור ע׳ רלז.
- 11נוה שאנן לעתיק יומין אתמר · Zohar, Idra Rabba 29:209–220
- 12יתד הוא המקשר ומחבר . . ס״פ תרומה · נתבאר באוה״ת פ׳ תצוה ע׳ א׳תקפב ואילך.
- 13כי כל בשמים ובארץ · I Chronicles 29:11
- 14סד״ה כי ההרים ימושו · לעיל תצא מא, ב.
- 15כי ההרים ימושו · Isaiah 54:10
- 16כי כה אמר רם ונשא שוכן עד · Isaiah 57:15
- 17ה׳ ימלוך לעולם ועד · Exodus 15:18
- 18שובה ישראל · Bereshit Rabbah 84:19
- 19להיות יחוד״ת כמו יחו״ע . . אהל בל יצען · ראה באוה״ת פ׳ שלח ע׳ תקיח, דשם מפרש באופן אחר, ומוסיף ומ״מ אמת ג״כ כמש״ל. ע״ש.
“Take words with you” ¶29–34
“For you have stumbled in your iniquity”: through sin he stumbles, like a person who trips on his foot and falls headfirst. So: “They were exiled to Edom; the Shechinah is with them.”
Hosea 14:2 continues, “for you have stumbled in your iniquity.” Sin is a stumble in which a person trips and falls head first, the highest part ending up lowest; so too, when Israel sinned, the Shechinah went with them into exile in Edom.
והעצה היעוצה היא קחו עמכם דברים3 היינו התעוררות י״ג מדה״ר [מדות הרחמים] בעשי״ת [בעשרת ימי תשובה] שהם רחמים עליונים רחמים פשוטים מבחי׳ ויעבור הוי׳ על פניו4 והיא היא בחי׳ תשובה עילאה מעומקא דליבא ויצעקו אל ה׳ בצר להם עד
And the counsel given is: “Take words with you,” that is, the arousal of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in the Ten Days of Teshuvah, which are supernal mercies, simple mercies, from the level of “And Havayah passed before his face (al panav).” And this itself is the level of the higher teshuvah, from the depth of the heart: “And they cried out to Havayah in their distress,” to the point
The prophet’s advice (Hosea 14:3) is “Take words with you,” which the Alter Rebbe identifies with the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, aroused during the Ten Days of Teshuvah. These are supernal, “simple” mercies from “And Havayah passed before his face” (Exodus 34:6), and they are evoked by the higher teshuvah of the cry from the depth of the heart.
כי נוגע עד הנפש ממש וחייו תלויין בו ממש שהיא ההארה שלמעלה מטעם ודעת המושג ומובן בהתבוננות שכלו.
that it touches the very soul and his very life depends on it; which is the illumination that is above reason and knowledge that are grasped and understood through the contemplation of one’s intellect.
That teshuvah reaches the very soul, as when one’s life depends on something. It is an illumination above the reason and knowledge that a person grasps by contemplation.
Sin is a fall in which the highest becomes lowest and the Shechinah goes into exile; the remedy is “Take words with you,” the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy of the Ten Days of Teshuvah, evoked by teshuvah from the depth of the heart.
The Kehot note points to the Rebbe’s maamar “Shuvah Yisrael” of 5736 on the image of the stumble.
Marei mekomos
- 1כי כשלת בעונך · Hosea 14:2
- 2שע״י עון נכשל כאדם הכושל רגלו · ראה ד״ה שובה ישראל תשל״ו (נדפס בסה״מ מלוקט ח״א).
- 3קחו עמכם דברים · Hosea 14:3
- 4ויעבור הוי׳ על פניו · Exodus 34:6
30וכן היג״מ [הי״ג מדות] הן למעלה מבחי׳ חכמה ודעת המושג ומובן. כי שאלו לחכמה1 הנפש החוטאת במה תתכפר2 ואמרה הנפש החוטאת היא תמות.
And likewise the Thirteen Attributes are above the level of Chochmah and of knowledge (daas) that is grasped and understood. For they asked Wisdom, “The soul that sins, how is it to be atoned?” and it said, “The soul that sins, it shall die.”
The Thirteen Attributes are above Chochmah and Daas. The Jerusalem Talmud (Makkos 2:6) tells that Wisdom was asked what becomes of the sinner; in the version quoted here, Wisdom answers, “The soul that sins, it shall die.”
כי החכמה מחייבת להיות זו מ״ע [מצות עשה] וזו מל״ת [מצות לא תעשה] ומי שעובר ע״ז ועושה נגד מה שהחכמה מחייבת ראוי לעונש כך וכך ככל העונשין הכתובים בתורה דאורייתא מחכמה נפקת.
For Wisdom dictates that this be a positive commandment and that a prohibitive commandment, and one who transgresses this and acts against what Wisdom dictates deserves such-and-such a punishment, like all the punishments written in the Torah, for “the Torah issues from Chochmah.”
Wisdom determines which acts are commanded and which forbidden, and so whoever transgresses deserves the punishment the Torah sets out. This follows from the Torah’s coming from Chochmah.
אבל י״ג מדה״ר [מדות הרחמים] שהם לרחם ולחון אע״פ [אף על פי] שאינו3 ראוי הגון וראוי מצד החכמה ונסלח לו הרי הן למעלה מבחי׳ חכמה ודעת.
But the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which are to have mercy and to be gracious even though he is not deserving, fitting and worthy from the standpoint of Chochmah, and he is forgiven, are above the level of Chochmah and knowledge.
The Thirteen Attributes, by contrast, show mercy and grace even to one who is unworthy by the measure of wisdom, and forgive him. The Kehot note cites the Midrash (Shemos Rabbah, end of ch. 45) on “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious”: grace given freely to one who has nothing.
Wisdom, the source of the Torah, can only judge the sinner by what he deserves; the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy forgive even the undeserving, and so they must come from above Chochmah.
In the Jerusalem Talmud, Wisdom answers “Evil pursues sinners,” Prophecy answers “The soul that sins, it shall die,” and the Holy One, blessed be He, answers, “Let him do teshuvah and be atoned.” The Kehot note discusses the version quoted here, which gives the second answer to Wisdom, and lists other places where it appears, including works of the Alter Rebbe and the Rebbe Maharash and the Rebbe’s Likkutei Sichos.
Marei mekomos
- 1שאלו לחכמה · Jerusalem Talmud Makkot 2:6
- 2שאלו לחכמה הנפש החוטאת במה תתכפר · ראה ירוש׳ מכות פ״ב, ה״ו. יל״ש תהלים רמז תשב. וראה אודות גירסא זו בלקו״ש ח״ד ע׳ 1358 מווי העמודים לבן השל״ה פכ״א. ובסה״מ תרל״ו ח״ב ע׳ שצב (גירסא זו הובאה גם בסה״מ תקס״ב ח״ב ע׳ תקלא. תקס״ג ע׳ כ. תקס״ח ח״ב ע׳ תשיג. ס׳ מאמרי אדה״ז על פרשיות ח״ב ע׳ תרסט. וראה סה״מ תרל״ו שם ע׳ שי וע׳ שמו. לקו״ש ח״ח ע׳ 158. ועוד).
- 3לרחם ולחון אע״פ שאינו הגון · שמו״ר ספמ״ה.
31ולכן נאמר קחו עמכם דברים שהדברים הם עמכם כי עיקר התשובה בלב מקרב איש ולב עמוק עומקא דליבא שלמעלה מעלה מהשכל וההתבוננות.
Therefore it is said, “Take words with you”: the words are with you, for the essence of teshuvah is in the heart, “the inward part of a man and a deep heart,” the depth of the heart, which is far above intellect and contemplation.
So “Take words with you” means that the words are already “with you,” within you. The essence of teshuvah is in the heart, “the inward part of a man and a deep heart” (Psalms 64:7), far above intellect and contemplation.
ואין התשובה באה מחמת התבוננות הדברים האלה אשר ישים אל לבו. כענין שתים ברכות שלפני ק״ש [קריאת שמע] שתיקנו כדי לקיים הק״ש [הקריאת שמע] אחד ואהבת והיינו ע״י התבוננות איך המלאכים מקדישים ואיך אהבת עולם אהבתנו
And teshuvah does not come about because of contemplating these words that one sets to one’s heart, as [happens] with the two blessings before the Shema, which were instituted in order to fulfill [in] the Shema “One” and “And you shall love,” namely through contemplating how the angels sanctify and how “With an everlasting love You have loved us”
Teshuvah is not produced by contemplating ideas. That is how love is produced in the two blessings before the Shema: one contemplates how the angels sanctify G‑d and how He loves Israel with “an everlasting love,” so as to fulfill the Shema’s “One” and “You shall love.”
(ונק׳ בחי׳ התבוננות זו דברים ע״ד ותן בלבנו בינה להבין1 כו׳ היינו להבין דבר מתוך דבר.2 תוך דבר היינו ממכ״ע [ממלא כל עלמין] וצ״ל מזה בחי׳ סוכ״ע כו׳ כמ״ש בד״ה השמים כסאי)3
(and this level of contemplation is called “words,” in the manner of “And put into our hearts understanding, to understand,” etc., that is, to understand one thing from within another; “within a thing” is the light that fills all worlds (memalei kol almin), and from it one must [come to] the level of the light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin), etc., as is explained in the discourse beginning “The heavens are My throne”).
That contemplation is called “words,” as in the morning blessing’s “put into our hearts understanding, to understand,” and as in the Talmud’s definition of understanding (Chagigah 14a): grasping one thing from within another. One begins from the light that fills all worlds and arrives at the light that encompasses them; the text refers to its discourse on Isaiah 66:1.
אבל בתשובה שהיא מעומקא דליבא אין הדברים מעוררים דהיינו ההבנה וההשגה כי תשובה זו היא למעלה מהשגה והבנה. אלא הדברים הם רק כדי להיות עומקא דליבא זו יוצאת מהעלם אל הגילוי:
But in teshuvah, which is from the depth of the heart, the words do not arouse, that is, the understanding and comprehension, for this teshuvah is above comprehension and understanding. Rather, the words are only so that this depth of the heart come out from concealment into revelation.
But teshuvah from the depth of the heart is not aroused by understanding, because it is above understanding. The “words” serve only to bring this hidden depth of the heart out into the open.
The “words” of teshuvah are already within the person: unlike the love produced by contemplation before the Shema, teshuvah from the depth of the heart is above understanding, and words only help to reveal it.
The Kehot note identifies “put into our hearts understanding” as the morning blessing before the Shema, and adds Sanhedrin 93b alongside Chagigah 14a for “understanding one thing from within another.”
Marei mekomos
- 1ותן בלבנו בינה להבין · ברכת ק״ש של שחרית.
- 2היינו להבין דבר מתוך דבר · Chagigah 14a:12
- 3השמים כסאי · Isaiah 66:1
“Say to Him: Forgive all iniquity (kol tisa avon)”: because You are “all” (kol), and the general and collective expression (klalus) of everything, that is, the level of the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, the light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin), which is above Chochmah.
The verse continues, “Say to Him: kol tisa avon,” usually read “forgive all iniquity.” The Alter Rebbe reads it “You who are All (kol), forgive iniquity”: G‑d as that which encompasses everything, the Infinite Light above Chochmah.
כי מחכמה ולמטה יש התחלקות לפרטות חכמה ומדות אבל למעלה מן החכמה אין שום התחלקות.
For from Chochmah downward there is division into particulars, wisdom and emotive attributes (middos); but above Chochmah there is no division at all.
From Chochmah downward there is division into particulars, separate ideas and emotions. Above Chochmah there is no division at all.
ולכן תשא עון כי אין פגם העון מגיע עד שם שלא פגם אלא בבחי׳ חכמה כנ״ל:
Therefore “forgive iniquity”: for the blemish of iniquity does not reach there, since it blemished only in the level of Chochmah, as mentioned above.
That is why He can forgive: the blemish of sin never reaches the level above Chochmah, because sin damages only the level of Chochmah, as paragraph 12 explained.
“Forgive iniquity” is addressed to G‑d as the undivided whole above Chochmah, where the blemish of sin cannot reach; that is why forgiveness is possible.
Marei mekomos
- 1אמרו אליו כל תשא עון · Hosea 14:3
33ונשלמה פרים שפתינו.1 כי גדולה תשובה יותר מכל הקרבנות לפי שבקרבן נאמר קרבן להוי׳ אשה ריח ניחוח להוי׳23
“And we will render [for] bullocks [the offering of] our lips”: for teshuvah is greater than all the offerings. For of an offering it is said, “an offering to Havayah,” “a fire-offering, a pleasing fragrance to Havayah,”
The verse ends, “we will render bullocks with our lips”: words in place of offerings. Teshuvah is greater than all offerings, for of an offering it is said that it is “to Havayah” (Leviticus 1:2, 1:9), the very phrasing the maamar’s opening question set against the ad of teshuvah.
והיינו לפי שהקרבן הוא שמקריבים הבהמה ע״ג [על גבי] המזבח תמורת נפש הבהמית של האדם נפש תחת נפש ועכשיו שאין לנו קרבנות התפלה הוא במקום קרבן.4
that is, because an offering means that the animal is offered upon the altar in place of the person’s animal soul, a soul for a soul; and now that we have no offerings, prayer is in place of an offering.
An animal offering stands in place of the person’s animal soul, “a soul for a soul.” Since the Temple’s destruction, prayer takes the place of the offerings, as the Talmud says (Berachos 26b).
ומיכאל עומד ומקריב נשמותיהן5 של ישראל.6 מיכאל כהנא רבא78 היא בחי׳ אהבה רבה הבאה מלמעל׳ [מלמעלה] למסור נפשו באחד.
And Michael stands and offers the souls of Israel. “Michael the High Priest” is the level of “great love” (ahavah rabbah) that comes from above, to give up one’s soul in [declaring G‑d] One.
Tradition says the angel Michael offers the souls of Israel on the heavenly altar (Menachos 110a, with Tosafos there), and the Zohar calls Michael “the High Priest.” The Alter Rebbe identifies him with “great love” (ahavah rabbah) from above, which brings the soul to give itself up at the “One” of the Shema.
Teshuvah is greater than the offerings, which reach only “to Havayah”; today prayer stands in their place, and the heavenly offering of souls by Michael is the great love that brings a person to give up his soul for G‑d’s oneness.
The Zohar (Part III, 33a), cited in the Kehot note, describes Michael, the High Priest, as the “lion that consumes the offerings,” offering the souls of those who return in teshuvah before their death; this image returns in the next paragraph.
Marei mekomos
- 1ונשלמה פרים שפתינו · Hosea 14:3
- 2קרבן לה׳, אשה ריח ניחוח לה׳ · Leviticus 1:2
- 3אשה ריח ניחוח להוי׳ · Leviticus 1:9
- 4התפלה היא במקום קרבן · Berakhot 26b:7
- 5ומיכאל עומד ומקריב נשמותיהן · Menachot 110a:9–11
- 6ומיכאל עומד ומקריב נשמותיהן של ישראל · Tosafot on Menachot 110a
- 7מיכאל כהנא רבא · Zohar II, 231a
- 8מיכאל כהנא רבא · Zohar, Tzav 20:135–145
34והנה כל השנה המשכה זו היא דרך השתלשלות על ידי המלאכים מיכאל כהנא רבא. אבל בעשי״ת [בעשרת ימי תשובה] דרשו את1 ה׳ בהמצאו כתיב שהיא המשכת אור א״ס ב״ה בעצמו שלא בדרך השתלשלות.
Now, all year this drawing-down is by way of the chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus), through the angels, “Michael the High Priest.” But of the Ten Days of Teshuvah it is written, “Seek Havayah when He may be found,” which is the drawing-down of the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, Himself, not by way of hishtalshelus.
All year, G‑d’s response to prayer and service comes down through the chain of worlds and through angels, such as Michael, “the High Priest.” But of the Ten Days of Teshuvah it says, “Seek Havayah when He may be found” (Isaiah 55:6): in these days the Infinite Light itself is drawn down directly, without intermediaries.
ועמ״ש בד״ה אני לדודי בענין הרועה בשושנים2 רק ע״י בחי׳ תשובה עילאה שהוא מעומק הלב כנ״ל
And see what is written in the discourse beginning “I am my Beloved’s,” on the matter of “who grazes among the lilies.” [This comes] only through the level of the higher teshuvah, which is from the depth of the heart, as mentioned above;
The text refers to its discourse on “I am my Beloved’s … who grazes among the lilies” (Song of Songs 6:3). This direct drawing-down comes only through the higher teshuvah from the depth of the heart.
לכן ענין הקרבנות נעשה על ידינו עצחמן (וזהו שיוהכ״פ [שיום הכפורים] אסור בנעילת הסנדל345 וכמ״ש בשל״ה [בשני לוחות הברית]6 כי המנעל והסנדל מורה על המלאכים מט״ט [מטטרון] וסנדל שנק׳ נעל דשכינתא וביום הכפורים הוא למעלה מבחי׳ זו כו׳
therefore the matter of the offerings is done by ourselves. (And this is why on Yom Kippur wearing a sandal is forbidden, as the Shelah writes: that the shoe and the sandal allude to the angels Metatron and Sandal[fon], who are called “the shoe of the Shechinah,” and Yom Kippur is above this level, etc.;
So in these days we bring the “offering” ourselves, without the angels. This is why wearing shoes is forbidden on Yom Kippur (Mishnah Yoma 8:1): the Shelah writes that shoe and sandal allude to the angels Metatron and Sandalfon, called “the shoe of the Shechinah,” and Yom Kippur is above that level.
ע״ש והיינו כי מט״ט [מטטרון] וסנדל קושר7 קשרים לקונו מתפלותיהן של ישראל8 שהן מעלים התפלות כמ״ש במ״א ע״פ מה יפו פעמיך בנעלים9 כו׳ וזהו ע״ד שבקרבנות היה אריה דאכיל קרבנין1011 כו׳.
see there. That is: Metatron and Sandal[fon] tie bonds for their Maker from the prayers of Israel, for they raise up the prayers, as is explained elsewhere on “How beautiful are your steps in shoes,” etc.; and this is like what there was with the offerings, “a lion that consumes the offerings,” etc.
These angels carry Israel’s prayers upward. Our text reads that they “tie bonds” (kesharim); the Talmud’s wording is that Sandalfon “ties crowns for his Maker” (Chagigah 13b), and Tosafos explains that he makes crowns from the prayers of the righteous. The text compares this to “the lion that consumes the offerings,” the fire in the form of a lion that the Zohar describes on the altar.
אמנם ביוהכ״פ [ביום הכפורים] אין צריך שיעלו התפלות ע״י המלאכים כ״א הקב״ה בעצמו מקבלן ועמ״ש במ״א בד״ה כנשר יעיר12 ובד״ה ואריה כבקר יאכלתבן כו׳) ונעשית עליה יתירה בעילוי אחר עילוי בבחי׳ ממעמקים.
However, on Yom Kippur there is no need for the prayers to be raised by the angels; rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself receives them. And see what is written elsewhere, in the discourse beginning “As an eagle stirs up” and in the discourse beginning “And the lion, like the ox, shall eat straw,” etc.) And there is brought about an additional ascent, elevation upon elevation, in the level of “the depths.”
On Yom Kippur the prayers need no angels to carry them, for G‑d Himself receives them; the text refers to its discourses on “As an eagle stirs up its nest” (Deuteronomy 32:11) and “the lion, like the ox, shall eat straw.” These days therefore bring an additional ascent, ever higher, from “the depths.”
ופי׳ בעשרת ימי תשובה עד יוהכ״פ [יום הכפורים] שאז לפני הוי׳ תטהרו שמגיע לבחי׳ פני הוי׳ בחי׳ פנים הנ״ל. הגם דכתיב ופני לא יראו היינו שהפנים בעצמן אין באים לידי גילוי.13
And the explanation: in the Ten Days of Teshuvah, until Yom Kippur, when “before (lifnei) Havayah you shall be purified,” one reaches the level of the face (pnei) of Havayah, the level of “face” mentioned above. Although it is written, “My face shall not be seen,” that means that the face itself does not come to revelation;
In the Ten Days up to Yom Kippur, of which it is said, “before (lifnei) Havayah you shall be purified” (Leviticus 16:30), a person reaches the “face” (pnei) of Havayah. The verse “My face shall not be seen” means only that the face itself does not come into revelation.
אבל הגילוי נמשך משם ממעמקים קראתיך להיות גילוי בחי׳ הוי׳ וגם ופני לא יראו בבחינת המשכה למטה אבל בבחינת העלאה את פניך הוי׳ אבקש:1415
but the revelation is drawn from there: “From the depths I called You,” that there be a revelation of the level of Havayah. And also, “My face shall not be seen” is in the manner of drawing down below; but in the manner of ascent, “Your face, Havayah, I will seek.”
Its light is still drawn from there, “From the depths I called You,” and revealed through the Name Havayah. Moreover, “My face shall not be seen” refers to drawing down from above; in ascending from below, through teshuvah, one can say, “Your face, Havayah, I will seek.”
The maamar closes on what is unique to the Ten Days of Teshuvah: all year G‑d’s light comes through angels and the chain of worlds, but in these days, through teshuvah from the depth of the heart, the Infinite Light itself is drawn down and a person brings his own “offering.” The “face” that cannot be revealed from above can be reached from below, by ascent.
The Kehot note records a manuscript in which the maamar ends with further lines: references to the Zohar’s explanation of “blessed forever and ever (va’ed)” (Part II, 135b) and to the Zohar at the beginning of Va’eira on ad and “A woman of valor is the crown of her husband,” linked to saying “Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom” aloud (in some manuscripts, at Ne’ilah of Yom Kippur) through “Shuvah ad.” This would tie the maamar’s end back to the word ad with which it began.
Marei mekomos
- 1דרשו את ה׳ בהמצאו · Isaiah 55:6
- 2אני לדודי בענין הרועה בשושנים · Song of Songs 6:3
- 3שיוהכ״פ אסור בנעילת הסנדל · יומא רפ״ח. הובא באו״ח סתרי״ד, ב. וראה גם ד״ה לה״ע שאין יוצאים במנעלים ביוה״כ במאמרי אדה״ז הקצרים ע׳ שלז. אוה״ת חנוכה ע׳ 606. ש״ש כרך ה׳ ע׳ ב׳קכב.
- 4יוהכ״פ אסור בנעילת הסנדל · Mishnah Yoma 8:1
- 5יוהכ״פ אסור בנעילת הסנדל · Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 614:2
- 6וכמ״ש בשל״ה · במס׳ יומא פ׳ רע״א [רלז, ב] בשם הרמ״ק ז״ל. [כ].
- 7מט״ט וסנדל קושר כתרים לקונו · Chagigah 13b:4
- 8קושר קשרים לקונו מתפלותיהן של ישראל · Tosafot on Chagigah 15a:1–17a:1
- 9מה יפו פעמיך בנעלים · Song of Songs 7:2
- 10ארי׳ דאכיל קרבנין · Zohar I, 6b
- 11אריה דאכיל קרבנין · Zohar, Vayikra 40:278–41:285
- 12כנשר יעיר · Deuteronomy 32:11
- 13שהפנים בעצמן אין באים לידי גילוי · ראה ד״ה באתי לגני תשכ״ט סעי׳ ה (נדפס בקונטרס יו״ד שבט תשמ״ט).
- 14אבקש · Zohar II, 135b
- 15לפני ה׳ תטהרו · Leviticus 16:30
Finished the maamar?
Mark it as learned; it counts toward the week and the year’s siyum.
In one’s avodah
In the Ten Days of Teshuvah, seek G‑d from the depth of the heart, as one thinks about a matter on which one’s life depends, beyond any reasoning, and set aside your own will so as not to act for your own sake. Teshuvah is not only for sins: it is the soul’s return to its source, and it belongs to the righteous as well. Through it, draw down a nullification of self before G‑d’s kingship for the whole year, renewed in every blessing over a mitzvah, so that the fear of G‑d rests on you always and not only at intervals.
Questions for discussion
- If G‑d fills all things, in what sense is He “near” during the Ten Days of Teshuvah, and how does the image of two people facing or turning away from each other answer this?
- Why does the maamar say that Shabbos and teshuvah are “all one,” and why does this mean that even the completely righteous do teshuvah?
- Why can a blemish in the Torah be repaired only from above Chochmah, and how does a person’s self-nullification reach that level “as water reflects face to face”?
- How do the blessing over a mitzvah and the two verses of the Shema express the higher and the lower unity?
- Why does eternity (ad) belong to Malchus rather than to what is above time, and what would it mean for G‑d’s kingship in your soul to be “ad” rather than “at intervals”?
Key terms in this maamar
- The Name Havayahהוי׳
- The Tetragrammaton: G‑d as transcending time and bringing all into being.
- Teshuvah (return)תשובה
- Returning to G‑d; not only repentance. ×22
- The Holy One, blessed be Heקב״ה
- The inner dimension (pnimiyus)פנימיות
- The innermost core of a level. ×3
- Life-forceחיות
- The divine vitality that sustains every creation. ×24
- The outer dimension (chitzoniyus)חיצוניות
- The external, expressive aspect. ×1
- The World of Beriah (Creation)בריאה
- The first world of separate existence. ×5
- The Infinite One (Ein Sof)אין סוף
- G‑d's own boundless essence.
- The World of Asiyah (Action)עשיה
- The lowest world, including our physical one. ×6
- The Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof)אור אין סוף
- G‑d's light as it is, beyond all limits, before any contraction.
- Self-nullification (bittul)ביטול
- Setting aside one's own sense of self before G‑d. ×16
- Chochmah (wisdom)חכמה
- The first flash of insight. ×30
- Willרצון
- Desire; in G‑d, the level above intellect. ×5
- The World of Atzilus (Emanation)אצילות
- The highest world, still one with G‑d. ×2
- The World of Yetzirah (Formation)יצירה
- The world of the angels and emotions.
- The light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin)סובב כל עלמין
- Divine light too great to enter the worlds; it 'surrounds' them and affects them from beyond.
- Tzimtzum (contraction)צמצום
- The self-concealment of the Infinite Light that makes room for finite worlds. ×5
- The chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus)השתלשלות
- The step-by-step descent of divine light from the highest level down to this world. ×3
- An arousal from belowאתערותא דלתתא
- Human initiative that draws down a divine response. ×1
- An arousal from aboveאתערותא דלעילא
- Divine initiative, unprompted by us. ×1
- The emotive attributes (middos)מדות
- Love, awe, compassion and the rest. ×6
- Love and aweאהבה ויראה
- The two 'wings' of divine service. ×1
- Self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh)מסירות נפש
- Giving oneself over entirely to G‑d.
- Malchus (sovereignty)מלכות
- Kingship: the level through which G‑d's word creates and rules the worlds. ×3
- The sitra achra (the other side)סטרא אחרא
- The realm opposed to holiness.
- The Name Elokimאלקים
- G‑d as concealed within nature, measuring and limiting. ×9
- The general and collective expression (klalus)כללות
- That which encompasses the particulars as one: their general and collective expression (the klal, as against the prat). Never “sum”, “sum total”, “totality” or “general principle”, as if the particulars were added up (וכללותן היא מצות הצדקה is “their general and collective expression is the mitzvah of charity”). Render by sense: “their general and collective expression”, “that which encompasses them all”, “X in general”, “X as a whole”. Keep התכללות as “inclusion” / “inter-inclusion”. ×4
- The higher unity (yichuda ila'ah)יחודא עילאה
- The world is nothing next to G‑d. ×2
- The lower unity (yichuda tata'ah)יחודא תתאה
- G‑d is present within the world's existence. ×2
- The Shechinah (Divine Presence)שכינה
- G‑d's presence as it dwells in the world. ×2
- The animal soulנפש הבהמית
- The soul that animates the body and its drives. ×1
- Kelipah (the husk)קליפה
- The forces of concealment that oppose holiness.
- Daas (knowledge)דעת
- Deep connection to an idea, bridging intellect and emotion. ×8
- The light that fills all worlds (memalei kol almin)ממלא כל עלמין
- Divine light that enters each world and gives it life according to its measure.
- Netzach (victory)נצח
- Perseverance, the drive to overcome. ×3