ולתוספת ביאור ענין שמחת תורה דהיינו שהתורה תהיה שמחה כו׳

This is a further explanation of Simchas Torah: the name means not only that we rejoice with the Torah but that the Torah itself becomes joyful, as Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah says outright: on Shemini Atzeres “the Torah itself rejoices in this revelation” (V’Zot HaBerachah 3:21). The psalmist praises G‑d as “wrapping [Himself in] light as a garment,” and the Alter Rebbe reads that light as the Torah, a garment that links the spiritual with the physical.

¶3 What makes the Torah “joyful”? Paragraph 3 explains it through a worn garment.

The first sense of the Torah as a garment: the Torah as it stands in Asiyah, the lowest world, is what keeps every physical thing in existence. Whatever physical thing the Torah mentions, the Torah’s words about it are its life-force. The printed word here appears as hashmiyim, apparently for gashmiyim, “physical,” as the rest of the sentence shows.

Even things the Torah does not name outright draw their existence from it, through a hint or through a recombination of its letters.

A play on words. The Mishnah’s phrase “the Sages spoke ba-hoveh” ordinarily means that they described the usual case. The Alter Rebbe hears hoveh as related to his’havus, “coming into being”: whatever the Sages spoke of in the Torah comes into being because they spoke of it.

Beyond the Torah that sustains physical things there is a spiritual Torah, studied by the souls in the Higher Garden of Eden. The proof is the Talmud’s story that the Heavenly Academy disputed a law of tzaraas (whether a bright spot that appeared before the white hair makes one impure) and called up Rabbah bar Nachmani to decide it. Likkutei Torah, Tazria, a discourse that opens with this same story, explains that the Torah exists in Atzilus too, so that the souls there learn what tzitzis, tefillin and every mitzvah are above (Tazria 6:13–15).

Souls in the Heavenly Academy have no bodies and no skin disease, so their debate must concern the spiritual meaning of the law.

Here is that meaning. A baheres is a snow-white spot, and it is white because no red blood reaches it; the Torah says “the blood is the soul.” So the baheres stands for a place where the flow of the soul’s life is blocked.

The same applies to all four shades of affliction the Mishnah lists and their sub-shades. A white spot dimmer than these is a bohak, a dull white spot, which the Torah rules pure, because some blood, and so some of the soul’s life, still moves there. The wording “dimmer than this is pure” follows the style of the Mishnah on shades of blood (Niddah 2:7), as the Kehot note observes.

On the spiritual plane, the baheres is segiru dinehora, Aramaic for a “shutting-off of light”: whatever blocks G‑d’s flow of life from above. Likkutei Torah, Tazria explains that the Targum renders tzaraas as segiru, because above it is the light of Abba, Chochmah, shut off and not revealed in the levels below (Tazria 6:25–26). To study these laws in the Higher Garden of Eden is to study what blocks that flow until a soul cannot enjoy the radiance, recalling the Talmud’s picture of the righteous who enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah.

The same holds throughout the Torah: every law also has a spiritual meaning. The example is the maiden’s praise of her beloved in the Song of Songs, “as an apple tree among the trees of the forest,” explained by the apple’s colors; the text leaves the application with “etc.” In Kabbalistic teaching the apple has three colors, white, red and green. These stand for kindness, severity and the harmony that joins them, so the beloved, G‑d, is likened to an apple because He unites all these attributes. A simple image of a fruit thus carries a meaning in the divine attributes, just as the laws of tzaraas do. The conclusion is that the Torah is the garment that links world to world, the spiritual with the physical.

An analogy for the Torah as G‑d’s garment. A garment that is worn adorns its wearer and brings him advantage and elevation; a garment left lying unused in a corner rots. So it is, as it were, with the “Supernal Man,” the divine configuration that the prophet saw in human likeness.

Ezekiel saw “a likeness like the appearance of a man” upon the throne. When G‑d “wears” the Torah, that is, when the Infinite Light is drawn into it, the Torah is joyful, like a garment in use. The Torah says of itself, “And I was (va’ehyeh) [His] delight”; the text notes that ehyeh, “I will be,” is a future form although the verse speaks of the past, and leaves the point with “etc.”

¶1 This explains the Torah’s joy raised in paragraph 1.

The Alter Rebbe points to Sefer Shel Beinonim (Likkutei Amarim, the first part of Tanya), chapter 52, for why the Torah is called a garment: the worlds cannot bear the light of the Shechinah directly. The Kehot note proposes reading this whole passage on the Torah as a garment in the light of that chapter.

The covering must hide the divine light without being dissolved by it, and the only such covering is G‑d’s own will and wisdom as clothed in the Torah and mitzvos: being divine, it is not nullified, yet it screens the light; this is the “Holy of Holies” of every world. The end of the discourse “You shall keep My Shabbosos” (Likkutei Torah, Behar) reads “My Sanctuary” as the Torah, G‑d’s own Sanctuary, for “the Holy One, blessed be He, has in His world only the four cubits of halachah,” and cites this chapter of Tanya (Behar 2:29).

A heading: what follows is a condensed version (kitzur) of a discourse on the verse “On the eighth day there shall be an assembly for you,” the Torah’s command for Shemini Atzeres. Its numbered points (1)–(5) trace the themes of Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur and Shemini Atzeres.

Point (1). The Rosh HaShanah prayers say, “This day is the beginning of Your works, a remembrance of the first day,” words the Talmud records (Rosh HaShanah 27a). The worlds descend from one another not in one leap but through many intermediate levels, each one bridging the level above it and the level below.

The lower Garden of Eden is the bridge between the spiritual worlds and ours. So “the beginning of Your works (ma’asecha)” is read as the beginning of the World of Asiyah, the “world of making.”

“The first day” is read as what precedes the whole chain of worlds: Keser, the Crown, which bridges the flow of the Emanator, the Infinite One, to the emanated Sefiros. In the discourse “Eliyahu opened” (Torah Ohr, Vayeira) the Alter Rebbe explains that Keser is not counted among the ten Sefiros, since Chochmah comes from it as something from nothing, and that in every world a Keser is the intermediary (Torah Ohr, Vayera 1:11). The Siddur’s explanation of “You have set all the borders of the earth” is also cited.

Point (2). Souls descend into this world for the sake of a higher ascent. The verse “I am Havayah, that is My Name” is read to mean that Havayah, however exalted, is only a “name,” an expression of G‑d and not His essence. The elucidation of “Return, O Israel” (Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah) explains that all of Atzilus, the level of Havayah, is only a “name” beside the Infinite One’s essence, as a person’s name is not his essence (Shabbat Shuvah 2:4).

The ascent is to “delight upon Havayah”: al, “upon,” is read as “above,” a delight higher than the level of the Name Havayah. In the discourse “None shall miscarry” (Torah Ohr, Mishpatim) the Alter Rebbe reads Chanah’s prayer “upon Havayah” the same way: she bound herself far above the Name Havayah, which brings the worlds into being, to be nullified in His unity (Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 7:13).

Teshuvah is the way to that delight. Teshuvah preceded the world (the Talmud counts it among the things created before the world, Pesachim 54a), and the world is drawn from the Name Havayah, so teshuvah reaches above Havayah. This is Yom Kippur, when we are purified “before Havayah,” read as “from before,” from a level higher than Havayah.

Point (3) begins: the power of this teshuvah is drawn down on Shemini Atzeres and becomes Simchas Torah, read as gladdening the Torah by joining the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The Written Torah stems from Chochmah, of which Koheles says, “I will become wise, but it is far from me”: wisdom at its source is beyond grasp.

The Written Torah, from Chochmah, is called “the instruction of your father,” for Chochmah is Abba, the “father.” Chochmah is also the level of “what are we,” self-effacement, and of wisdom that comes “from ayin (nothing)”: it is so close to its source that it is hidden; the aim is for it to shine openly, like the Oral Torah, “the teaching of your mother,” from Binah, Imma, where ideas become explicit. The abbreviation “the Ramash” (on the beginning of Pinchas) is not certain; it may be a misprint for the Ramaz, Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, whose notes on the Zohar the Alter Rebbe often cites.

Joy is revelation, so to gladden the Torah is to reveal it. “From Havayah this came to be” is read: from Havayah, which is Chochmah, comes zos, “this,” the Oral Torah. This happens by the power of teshuvah, the purification “before Havayah” of Yom Kippur.

The text refers to the discourse “This matzah” (Likkutei Torah, Tzav), which contrasts Shabbos and Yom Tov. Shabbos is called simply “holy” and reveals Chochmah, the intellect (mochin) of Abba; Yom Tov is called “a holy convocation” and receives only a glimmer of that holiness within the intellect of Imma, Binah (Tzav 6:11). That is why festivals are times of joy: they reveal Binah, “the mother of the children,” who is “joyful” (Tzav 6:1).

Two more discourses are cited. Yom Kippur, the day of teshuvah, is called “a Shabbos of Shabbosos” because it is the Shabbos of all the year’s Shabbosos, each of which receives only a glimmer of it (Likkutei Torah, Ha’azinu 1:14). The discourse on “It is a Shabbos of Shabbosos” explains it as the Holy of Holies, which the High Priest entered on that day, far above even the supernal “holy,” Chochmah, which issues from a place called the Holy of Holies (Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 2:14).

This explains how the power of teshuvah can bring about Simchas Torah: coming from above Chochmah, it can make Chochmah, the intellect of Abba, which is ordinarily hidden, shine openly and so be joyful, as Binah, “the mother of the children,” is on the festivals. The end of the second discourse “You shall draw water with joy” says the same of Sukkos: on Shabbos, the intellect of Abba, there is self-nullification rather than joy, but through the Shabbos Shabbason of Yom Kippur, Chochmah shines near and graspable, and so there was joy at the water libation (Likkutei Torah, Sukkot 2:9).

Point (4). Isaiah’s promise in G‑d’s name, “As a man whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you,” is read with “mother” as the Oral Torah: in the time to come the inner dimension of the Torah, the level called Eden (Supernal Chochmah, as Iggeres HaKodesh 5 calls it), will be revealed as openly as the Oral Torah is now. Joel’s “a spring shall go forth from the House of Havayah” describes the same flow; the second discourse “You shall draw water with joy” explains that this spring is Chochmah, which will water even the lowest places, and that joy is revelation, drawn from Binah, “as a man whom his mother comforts” (Likkutei Torah, Sukkot 2:5–6).

The Biur, the explanatory discourse, on “And I pleaded” (Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan) explains that Moshe asked to “cross over and see” so as to draw Supernal Chochmah inwardly into the “land,” the community of Israel; he was granted only to see it from afar, so that the land received it only as a surrounding light (Likkutei Torah, Vaetchanan 3:4). The theme is “the far one who has become near,” from “Peace, peace to the far and to the near.” The Zohar on Toldos reads “and he brought him wine” as wine brought near to Yitzchak from a distant place, from the side of Eisav; the Mikdash Melech is a commentary on the Zohar.

Teshuvah itself is “the far one who has become near,” one who was distant and returned, so it has the power to draw this distant light close.

Point (5) reads “This is the day Havayah made” as “This day made Havayah.” “This day” is the “today” of “Today, if you will listen to His voice,” and the “first day” of the Rosh HaShanah prayer, the level before the chain of worlds; it is drawn into this world specifically through teshuvah, just as “the beginning of Your works,” the lowest, is bound to “the first day,” the highest, for, as Sefer Yetzirah says, “their end is wedged in their beginning.” In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a), Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asks Mashiach when he will come and is told “Today.” When the day passes without his coming, Eliyahu explains that he meant “Today, if you will listen to His voice.” So this “today” is the future revelation, which can arrive now on the condition that we return to G‑d; that is why the maamar says it is drawn into this world through teshuvah.

Hence “I have this day begotten you”: the begetting comes from “this day,” the highest level, and from it the Name Havayah itself is “made,” drawn down and revealed. Iggeres HaKodesh 5, which opens with “And David made a name,” quotes the Zohar, “Who makes the Holy Name every day? One who gives charity to the poor,” and explains how the letters of the Name Havayah are drawn down from Supernal Chochmah.

The summary returns to the discourse’s opening verse: the Torah is “Wrapping [Himself in] light as a garment,” a garment that joins the Infinite One to the worlds.

The reason: the Torah is rooted in the Supernal Chochmah, and Chochmah, too, is an intermediary that links the Infinite Light with the worlds. The discourse “For Avraham has not known us” (Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther) explains that between the Emanator and the created there must be an intermediary, and that Chochmah of Atzilus, “the beginning of revelation,” holds something of the Emanator and is a vessel for the Infinite Light (Torah Ohr, Megillat Esther 5:1–3).

Teshuvah draws the Infinite Light down to be clothed in the Torah, the way King David would bind the Torah above with the Holy One, blessed be He: the Zohar says that a chassid is one who acts kindly toward his Maker, like David, who “would join the Torah above with the Holy One, blessed be He” (Zohar III, 222b). The discourse “My dove, in the clefts of the rock” explains that the Torah is the “food” through which the Infinite Light, clothed in Supernal Chochmah, reaches the soul when it binds itself to its root (Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 15:8). When the Infinite Light is clothed in the Torah, the Torah rejoices, like a garment that is worn; that is Simchas Torah, the Torah’s own joy.

The joy in turn reveals the Torah, the far brought near. So atzeres, “assembly,” is read as a gathering of everything into its root, the Supernal Chochmah and Binah, “the instruction of your father” and “the teaching of your mother.” The discourse “On the eighth day” (Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 2) opens the same way, with Onkelos’s rendering of atzeres as kenishin, “gatherings,” a gathering and coming together into one place (Shemini Atzeret 2:1).

In this light, “the beginning of Your works,” the intermediary between the spiritual worlds and physical Asiyah, is also drawn down through “the first day,” Keser, the highest intermediary.

Shemini Atzeres completes the drawing down of “Wrapping [Himself in] light as a garment”: the Torah, the intermediary that carries the revealed Infinite Light into all worlds, upper and lower. The summary closes where the discourse began.

A list of places where the verse “Wrapping [Himself in] light” is expounded, starting with the Midrash Rabbah on Bereishis and on Shemos (Bo). The Midrash on Bereishis finds in this verse the explanation of “Let there be light,” and tells that light was created when the Holy One, blessed be He, wrapped Himself in it like a garment and its radiance shone from one end of the world to the other; the Midrash on Bo says that after creating light He created the heavens.

The list continues with the Midrash on Vayakhel and passages in the first volume of the Zohar; according to the Kehot notes, the Zohar on Lech Lecha says that G‑d looked into the primordial light, wrapped Himself in it and created the heavens with it. Sefer Hadras Melech and the Mikdash Melech are both commentaries on the Zohar by R. Shalom Buzaglo.

Passages in the second volume of the Zohar follow, and a reference on the word salmah, “garment,” in Me’orei Or, a lexicon of Kabbalistic terms, under the letter Shin, section 45. On Sefaria, Zohar II, 245b (Pekudei) does not hold the verse; it is expounded in Zohar III, Pinchas (245b–246a), where the Zohar’s own gloss on Terumah 164b points.