קול דודי הנה זה בא מדלג על ההרים…

1“The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping (medaleg) over the mountains, skipping (mekapetz) over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle, etc.” Now, we need to understand the change of wording: of the mountains it is written medaleg (“leaping”), and of the hills mekapetz (“skipping”).

Now, this verse was said about the Exodus from Egypt, when the redemption came by a leap: from four hundred years to two hundred and ten years, as is written in the Midrash on Shir HaShirim, on this verse.

2To understand all this: we say in the Haggadah, “This matzah that we eat—on account of what? On account of the fact that the dough of our fathers did not have time to become leavened before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, was revealed to them and redeemed them.”

Now, at first glance this is not a sufficient reason, for this revelation, when the King of the kings of kings was revealed to them, was after midnight, as it is written, “And it came to pass at midnight, etc.”

Yet the eating of the matzah that we eat (and so too with the Pesach in Egypt) must be specifically before midnight, according to the one who holds that the Pesach offering is eaten only until midnight; and of the Pesach offering it is said, “With matzos and bitter herbs, etc.”

To understand all this: our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Before the world was created, there were He and His Name alone.” For the life-force of all the worlds, which is drawn from Him, blessed be He, is nothing

but the level of light and radiance alone, from Him, blessed be He; as, by way of analogy, the radiance of the sun or the radiance of a candle, which does not touch the essence at all.

3The proof [of this]: even if there is an intervening screen, so that the radiance cannot spread forth, nevertheless there is no change whatsoever in the essence.

So too Above: the G‑dly power that gives life to all the worlds is called by the name “light,” for it does not touch His essence, blessed be He, at all, and effects no change in Him, as it is written, “I, G‑d, have not changed”; and “You are He before the world was created, etc.”

4It is also called the level of a “name,” as it is written, “Let them praise the Name, etc.” And as, by way of analogy, a person: when he is by himself he has no need of a name at all; [he needs it] only for others, so that they may call him by his name, and it does not touch his essence at all.

So too the level of the G‑dly power that gives life to all the worlds is only the level of a name alone, and it does not touch His essence at all.

5And it is called the level of “King.” As, for example, a king over his country: his essence and being are not caught up in and spread through the whole country; only his name alone, in that he is called king over them.

So too Above: that G‑dliness gives life to all the worlds is only the level of Malchus (sovereignty): in that He is King over them, He gives them life and brings them into being; that is, His Name, blessed be He, alone.

But His being and essence, blessed be He, is not within the bounds of drawing down and revelation, for He alone is exalted and holy, etc.: “You are He before the world was created, etc.”

6Now, in the old version it was written, “You are He before You created”; and now the version is “before [the world] was created, etc.”

And the correct [version] is this one, for this is the wording of the verse, “Let them praise the Name, etc., for He commanded and they were created, etc.”

7The difference between “You created” and “was created” is this: “You created” implies that the essence too is drawn into this level; as, by way of analogy, when a person thinks about and studies some matter, his essence too is drawn into this thought, so that he thinks of nothing else.

But with Him, blessed be He, it is not so: it does not touch His essence at all, but is only by way of a mere radiance and illumination; and so it is as though it were created of itself, for it effects no change, Heaven forbid, in His essence at all.

Therefore this version, “before [the world] was created, etc.,” is correct (and as the Shelah wrote in the Introduction, page 3b);

and as with the radiance of the sun from the sun: it is not fitting to say that the sun shines its radiance; rather, the radiance is drawn from the sun of itself.

So too Above: when it arose in His will, blessed be His Name, to create the world, He emanated and drew down from the level of His light, blessed be He, which does not touch His essence, blessed be He, at all,

but only by way of a mere radiance and illumination. And this illumination is the source of the life-force and the coming into being of all the worlds. And so it is only as though “He commanded and they were created” of themselves, for they bear no comparison or relation to Him, blessed be He, at all.

8This is [the meaning of] “Your kingship is the kingship of all worlds”: for there are two levels, namely the level of “Your kingship” and the level of “the kingship of all worlds.”

The explanation: “the kingship of all worlds” is that which gives life to all worlds, and it is the level of His Malchus alone, etc. And there are several worlds, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah; for it is written, “Everyone that is called by My Name, and for My glory, I have created him, I have formed him, indeed I have made him.”

“I have created him” is the level of Beriah (Creation), namely the level of the souls, which are the level of Beriah; for Beriah is truly something from nothing,

as, for example, thought is the level of Beriah, since it is truly something from nothing: for before one thinks, the letters did not exist at all, and afterwards, in the level of thought, the letters are there.

9So too, the souls of Israel “arose in thought,” etc.; therefore they are called the level of Beriah. “I have formed him” is the world of the angels, who are the level of Yetzirah (Formation), for they are the level of speech: “By the word of G‑d the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth, etc.”

As with speech, which is drawn from thought: for what a person thinks, he speaks; and it is not the level of something from nothing, but only the level of something from something;

only, what was at first in the concealment of thought is now revealed in speech. And it is only the level of matter and form: matter is the concealment, the hylic potential, and form is the revelation;

and therefore it is called by the name Yetzirah (Formation), etc. (as is written about this elsewhere, in the discourse beginning “Who can count” in Parshas Balak, and in the discourse beginning “Return, O Israel”).

“Indeed I have made him” is the level of the World of Asiyah: the stars and the constellations, etc. And all the worlds mentioned above receive their life-force only from the level of a name alone: “Everyone that is called by My Name, etc.”

And all this is the level of “the kingship of all worlds.” But the level of “Your kingship” is as the level of Malchus is nullified within His essence;

as, by way of analogy, the radiance of the sun as it is included in the sun itself: there it is not seen at all, but is nullified within its essence, and its light and radiance are discernible and seen only on the earth, etc.

This is [the meaning of] “Before the world was created, there were He and His Name alone”: that is, His Name was included in His essence (and see what is written about this in the discourse beginning “Blow the shofar at the New Moon,” and in the discourse beginning “The Song of Songs,” and in the explanation on “I am black, yet comely”). And this is also the meaning of “the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, was revealed to them,” etc.

“King” is the level of “the kingship of all worlds,” which gives life to all worlds: the level of radiance and a name alone, etc. And the level of “King of the kings of kings” is the level of “Your kingship,” as it is included in the level of His essence: He and His Name alone.

(And see the Pardes, in Erchei HaKinuyim, the entry “Melech” (King): “And what sits better with us,” etc.; see there.) And this is what was revealed to them then: the level of “Your kingship,” which is above the chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus), the level of His being and essence, etc.

And this is why the Exodus from Egypt took place then. For Mitzrayim (Egypt) is the level of meitzar (constriction) and limit: just as the physical world is a limit, a journey of five hundred years, and even the world of the angels is the level of limit, “And the host of heaven bow down to You,” the level of yesh (a [separate] something), etc.

10And the world of the souls, too, is the level of limit, for “every tzaddik is burned by the canopy of his fellow”; consequently they are the level of limit, and there is a limit to their comprehension. And when the King of the kings of kings was revealed to them, etc.,

the level of “He and His Name alone,” which is above the chain of descent of the worlds, the level of His being and essence, then the Exodus from Egypt took place, etc.

(And see what is written on the matter of the levels of Egypt and of the Exodus from Egypt in the discourse beginning “In the third month after the Children of Israel went out of the land of Egypt,” and in the discourse beginning “I am Havayah your G‑d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,” at the end of Parshas Shelach.)

112. Now, in order that there be this level of revelation, they had to eat matzah. The matter of matzah is like what our Sages, of blessed memory, said (Berachos, folio 40, end of side a): “A child does not know how to call ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ until he tastes grain.”

Now, there is in grain a power through which the child can recognize his father and mother. So too, through matzah they recognized G‑dliness, the level of His being and essence: “Know the G‑d of your father,” a term of recognition and feeling, etc.

12Now, there are two levels of matzah. The first was before midnight, and this one requires guarding: “And you shall guard the matzos,” etc.

And the second is the level of “before … was revealed,” etc.; there it is said, “The dough of our fathers did not have time,” etc., for it does not come to leavening at all.

13We need to understand the matter of chametz and matzah. Chametz is the level of elevation and self-exaltation, and it has taste. Matzah is the level that has no height or self-exaltation at all, and it has no taste at all,

as our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “If one swallowed matzah, he has fulfilled [his obligation].” So too in divine service, the matter of matzah is the level of self-nullification (bittul): “Nullify your will,” etc. And this was the level of the first matzah, which they ate before midnight, namely an arousal from below, the level of “Nullify your will,” etc.;

the level of subduing (iskafya), etc. (and see what is written about this in Parshas Vayakhel, in the discourse beginning “Take from among you an offering”), so as not to be the level of the coarseness of kelipah: “Though you soar as high as the eagle, etc.”

And, as is known, the level of coarseness is called “the father of all fathers of impurity,” for it is the source of all the desires, etc. Therefore, in the level of “Nullify your will” there is of itself the level of subduing, as it is written, “And you shall eradicate the evil,” etc.

14And this is through the level of matzah, also in the sense of matzah u-merivah (“strife and contention”), for it is a great war to nullify the yesh (the sense of self), etc. And in this level of matzah there was also the level of maror (bitter herbs): “With matzos and bitter herbs they shall eat it,”

for this level of matzah, the level of “Nullify your will,” they could not reach except through the level of maror, the level of bitterness, etc.

For according to the arrangement of the [seder] plate, the maror is in the middle, the level of the middle line. Yet at first glance the maror should have been on the left line,

for it is the level of Gevuros (restraints), etc. (as is explained in Sefer Shel Beinonim, chapter 31, and as is also written) (below) in Parshas Bamidbar, in the discourse beginning “And He spoke,” etc., on the matter of the three Levites.

Merari is the level of bitterness (merirus), etc.; see there. And so it is in Likkutei Torah of the Arizal, Parshas Naso, and it is from the level of Gevuros, etc. And see what is written on the matter of Merari in the explanation on “Take a census of the sons of Gershon.”

However, it is in the middle line for this reason: because the level of bitterness arouses the drawing down of abundant compassion. For compassion applies only to one who is at the lower level and is not well off;

but for one who is at the higher level and lacks nothing at all, compassion does not apply to him at all. And for this reason the level of compassion is the level of the middle line.

15To arouse abundant compassion is through the level of bitterness: when one contemplates with his intellect how the life-force of all the worlds is only the level of radiance and a name alone,

but His being and essence, blessed be He: “I, G‑d, have not changed”; “You are He before the world was created,” etc.,

the level of “He and His Name alone,” and they effect no change in Him, for He has no beginning and no end, etc.

Then he will pour out [his heart] in the bitterness of his soul, and he will come to great bitterness over how far he is from G‑dliness; and through this he arouses abundant compassion, etc.

And as we say every day in [the blessing] Yotzer Or, “The King who alone is exalted,” etc.: that is, as mentioned above, “How manifold are Your works, G‑d; in wisdom You have made them all,” etc., is only from the level of “the King,” the level of Malchus, a name alone.

But “who alone is exalted,” etc., means: as He is alone, the level of “He and His Name alone,” He is exalted, for He has no comparison and no change at all: “There is none to compare to You,” etc.,

“who is elevated since days of old.” If so, there is great cause for compassion on us; and therefore we say, “In Your abundant compassion, have compassion on us,” etc.

(And see what is written about this in the explanation on “And behold, a candelabrum of gold.” And this is what is said of Channah, “And she was bitter of soul,” and through this, “And she prayed to (al) G‑d”; see what is written in the discourse beginning “None shall miscarry.”

And this is “And they embittered him,” etc., and through this, “But his bow abode in strength (eisan)”; see what is written on the matter of eisan in the discourse beginning “See, I set before you.” And “with my sword and with my bow” means “with my prayer and with my supplication.”) And this is the matter of maror [as] the middle line, etc.

And through this one can come to the level of matzah mentioned above, the level of “Nullify your will,” etc., the level of subduing (iskafya), without taste and without any self-exaltation or elevation. And it requires guarding, “And you shall guard the matzos,” so that it does not come to leavening, Heaven forbid, [that is,] elevation and self-exaltation

(and see the Pardes, in Erchei HaKinuyim, the entry “And one guarding”; and see the Zohar, Part II) (131a), on the matter of “a night of guarding” (leil shimurim) (and 38b);

and at the beginning of Parshas Bereshit, concerning “as a lily among the thorns”: “to encircle her, the Community of Israel, and to guard her,” etc. And see what is written in the discourse beginning “Command the Children of Israel: My offering,” etc., “you shall guard to offer to Me.”

For our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “‘Guard’ refers to Mishnah,” etc.; and that is because in the Oral Torah there is the revelation of the supernal will, etc.; see there.

And see further in the Pardes, the entry “Matzah”; his words will be understood according to what is written in the discourse beginning “‘Remember’ and ‘Guard’ were said in a single utterance.” And see the Midrash Rabbah, at the beginning of Parshas Eikev (folio 292b), on the verse “And G‑d will guard for you,” etc.,

“And you shall guard the matzos,” etc. And see what is written at the end of the discourse beginning “My Sabbaths you shall keep,” and what is written elsewhere on “to work it and to guard it.”

And all this was the level of the first matzah, the level of an arousal from below, which Israel performed; and through this there came afterwards, after midnight, the level of the second matzah, the level of self-nullification, through the King of the kings of kings being revealed to them, etc.

16And the level of this matzah is “the dough did not have time,” etc.: it needs no guarding at all, for it does not come to leavening at all, because [the King] was revealed to them, etc.

And it is the level of true self-nullification, which cannot come to the level of elevation and self-exaltation at all. And this level was revealed to them so that the Exodus from Egypt could take place;

for since Israel were then at a very low level, sunk among the kelipos, as is known, they could not go out from this level until [the King] was revealed to them, etc.;

and through the revelation of so great an illumination they were able to go out, etc. And there was no maror in it at all, for it was a revelation from above to below, a great illumination, as mentioned above, and it could not come to leavening.

But [with] the first matzah, their service was from below to above (and see what is written further on the matter of the two levels of matzah mentioned above, on “Six days you shall eat matzos”); therefore they needed maror, etc., to arouse abundant compassion.

And this is what we say: “This maror that we eat—on account of what? On account of the fact that the Egyptians embittered the lives of our fathers

in Egypt.” “Our fathers” are the emotive attributes (middos), as is known, and “the lives of our fathers” are the intellect (mochin) within the middos; and the level of Egypt embitters the middos, etc. (And see what is written about this in Parshas Shemos, in the discourse beginning “The voice of my beloved.”)

173. Now the explanation of the verse “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping over the mountains,” etc., will be understood; for it refers to the Exodus from Egypt, etc.

The explanation: kol (“voice”) is the level of drawing down, in the language of the verse. And it is not necessarily a physical voice, that is, the level of speech; on the contrary, that is called the “small voice” (kol zuta), which is drawn from the middos into speech, [through] the five articulations of the mouth, etc.

And there is “a great voice that did not cease,” which is the level of the inner voice that is not heard (kala penima’ah delo ishtema). For the level of the “small voice” mentioned above is called “the voice that is heard,” and the level of the “great voice” mentioned above is “the voice that is not heard.”

(See on the matter of the “great voice” in the Midrash Rabbah on Yisro, at the end of section 28 and at the end of section 29; Bamidbar Rabbah, at the end of Balak) (end of folio 279).

And in the Zohar, Part I, Bereshit (folio 50b; folio 210a); Part II (137a); Part III (261a). And see what is written on the matter of kol at the end of the discourse beginning “Those who come, he shall cause to take root,” and in the discourse beginning “And all the people saw.”

And in the discourse beginning “The voice is the voice of Yaakov,” and in the discourse beginning “And there was a voice from above the firmament,” and in the discourse beginning “Moshe would speak,” and on the matter of “Soon may there be heard,” etc., “the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride,” etc.

And this is the level of drawing down from concealment into revelation: that is, from the intellect to the middos, or to the intellect from above the intellect. Whatever is drawn from concealment into revelation is called kol (“voice”), the level of drawing down. So too here: that the King, etc., was revealed to them,

a great illumination that is above the chain of descent, His being and essence, etc., is also called the level of “voice,” a drawing down from concealment into revelation. (And for the explanation of “Behold, this one (zeh) comes,” see what is written below on the matter of “And you shall tell your son,” etc., “because of this (zeh),” etc.)

18“Leaping over the mountains,” etc.: the level of the great illumination for this revelation came upon them by way of a leap, and not in the order of the chain of descent (hishtalshelus), which is by way of cause and effect, where there is a proportion and relation of one to the other;

as, by way of analogy, “From my flesh I behold”: speech is drawn from thought, and thought from the middos, and the middos from the intellect; all this is called the level of hishtalshelus, etc.

But this level of revelation, which took place at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, when the King, etc., was revealed to them, [was] from the level of “He and His Name alone,” which is above hishtalshelus; and such an illumination cannot come by way of hishtalshelus, but only by way of a leap;

as, by way of analogy, one who leaps from one mountain to another mountain far from it: he cannot walk there, and only by way of a leap can he leap over to it, etc.

So too here: such a level and so great an illumination was revealed to them from above to below, not in proportion to them, by way of a leap. And this is “and with great awe”: this is the revelation of the Shechinah;

that is, the level of King, the level of “He and His Name alone,” was revealed to them, and was revealed to them so openly that great awe and fear of G‑d fell upon them, as it is written, “Or has G‑d ventured to come and take for Himself a nation from the midst of a nation,” etc.

“Leaping over the mountains”: in the merit of the mountains, that is, the Patriarchs, as is written in the Gemara (first chapter of Rosh Hashanah, folio 11a) and in the Midrash (Shemos Rabbah, section 15);

that is, through the Pesach offering, the matzah and the maror that they ate, which are the level of the three lines, they aroused Above the level of the supernal lights, which are Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, the middos of Atzilus; and through them came the level of the leap, the level of “and He was revealed, leaping,” etc.

Now, in Shir HaShirim it is said in terms of leaping, and in the Torah it is called by the term pesach (“passing over”), as it is written, “And G‑d will pass over the doorway”; and this too is leaping and skipping.

And the matter is that the Torah says to which place the leap was: “over the doorway,” that is, the level of Malchus: “This is the gate to G‑d,” etc.;

“The beginning of wisdom is the fear of G‑d,” etc. This is the level of Malchus, which is called “the kingship of all worlds,” which descends to give life to all worlds; and the level of King, etc., was revealed,

the great illumination mentioned above, in the level of Malchus, that is, in revelation, which is called “doorway,” etc., so that there could be “and with great awe,” that there be fear and awe of G‑d; for this is what is called “This is the gate,” etc.:

this is the beginning of the service of G‑d, the level of awe, etc. Only, at that time there was revealed to them in this level an illumination from the level of King, “He and His Name,” etc.

And this is “and with great awe,” etc. And this is “And G‑d will pass over the doorway,” etc.: that He was revealed to them in the level of “doorway” (and see in Parshas Emor, folio 95a, on the explanation of “Open to me”).

And Shir HaShirim does not say to which place the leap was; rather, it specifies in what manner the leap was, namely “over the mountains,” etc. And there are two explanations of this:

the first, “over the mountains”: in their merit, as mentioned above; and the second, “over the mountains”: above the mountains, which are the middos of Atzilus, for the illumination mentioned above was above them, namely the level of King, etc.

194. “Skipping over the hills”: our Sages, of blessed memory, said that the hills are the Matriarchs. To understand this: the difference between leaping (dilug) and skipping (kefitzah) is

that leaping is with one foot and skipping with two feet, as is explained in the Mishnah, chapter 8 of Ohalos: “one who leaps from place to place, and one who skips from place to place”

(see there in the commentary of Rabbeinu Ovadiah of Bartenura and in the Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishnah; and also in the Jerusalem Talmud, chapter 5 of Beitzah: “Skipping: one lifts both his feet at once,” etc.).

To understand this: every level of leaping and great illumination that comes from Above can be revealed only in the level of “feet.”

For this is the rule in every level of revelation: it is revealed only in the level of “feet,” etc., as it is written, “And His feet shall stand on that day,” etc.,

and “the earth is My footstool” (and see what is written in the discourse beginning “How does one dance before the bride,” etc., and in the discourse beginning “For the conductor, on the Sheminis”; and see Likkutei Torah, at the end of Parshas Mishpatim, in the discourse beginning “The mitzvah of appearing,” etc.).

And there are two levels of “feet,” that is, two levels in the revelation and illumination mentioned above: the level of the right line and the left line, the level of love and awe, etc.

Now, through the mountains, the Patriarchs mentioned above, the illumination mentioned above was revealed to them only in the level of love: “and his right hand embraces me.”

20And this is “leaping” with one foot “over the mountains,” the Patriarchs, and “skipping over the hills” with two feet: that is, this revelation was in the level of awe, “and with great awe,” etc.

“Over the hills”: these are the Matriarchs. Now, the level of love can come into revelation more easily than the level of awe, as is seen

by experience: every person can be stirred to love in a moment, but to awe not so much, because the level of supernal awe (yirah ila’ah) is higher in rank than the level of love, etc.

(And see in Parshas Miketz, in the explanation on the verse “For You are my lamp,” that great love (ahavah rabbah) is the level of the upper hei, and supernal awe is the level of the yud, etc. And even higher: for

there are “mountains of light” (turei nehora) and “mountains of darkness” (turei chashocha). The explanation: the “mountains of light” are the middos that are drawn from the intellect, Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes of Z’eir Anpin; and the “mountains of darkness” are the middos that are above the intellect, great love, Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes of Arich Anpin.

And this is the meaning of “leaping over the mountains”: that it is drawn from the level of the “mountains of darkness,” Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes of Arich Anpin, into Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes of Z’eir Anpin. And this is the meaning of “The mountains danced like rams”: the ascents of Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes of Z’eir Anpin and their inclusion in the revelation of the light of Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes of Arich Anpin; as is written elsewhere, in the discourse beginning “The sea saw,” etc., “The mountains danced,” etc.

However, supernal awe has its root in Mocha Stima’ah (the hidden brain), which is from the Gevurah of Atik, as is written on “For You are my lamp,” mentioned above, and as the Ramaz wrote on Parshas Vayeshev, folio 179b. And it is higher than the level of Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes of Arich Anpin; and from there is drawn the level of this revelation, “with great awe,” etc.,

which is the revelation of this supernal awe in the level of lower awe (yirah tata’ah), which is drawn from the level of “the kingship of all worlds.” And of this it is said, “And G‑d will pass over the doorway,” etc. And this is the meaning of “skipping over the hills”: the level of the right line and the left line, etc.

And it is written, “With wisdom He founded the earth; He established the heavens with understanding,” etc. And heaven and earth are the level of the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs, etc. Therefore supernal awe is drawn specifically in the merit of the Matriarchs. And see what is written on “Set me as a seal,” on the matter of “When a woman conceives and bears a male.”)

Now, to understand why through the Patriarchs the revelation was only in the level of love, the level of one foot, while through the Matriarchs the revelation was also in the level of awe, with two feet, etc.:

at first glance, the Patriarchs are of a greater rank than the Matriarchs, for they are the level of givers, the male level, while the Matriarchs are the level of recipients, the female level.

But the truth is this: it is certainly so that they are the level of recipients; but in one level they are higher than the Patriarchs, and they are the givers.

For of Sarah it is said, “Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her voice,” for Avraham had to receive from her; and as our Sages, of blessed memory, said, Avraham was secondary to Sarah in prophecy. And of Rivkah it is said, “very fair to look upon,” without limit; “and she went down to the spring, and filled her pitcher, and came up”; “and she said, ‘Drink,

and your camels too,’” etc.: for she too was the level of a giver. And “she went down to the spring”: for the level of Chochmah, the twenty-four books, is the level of a descent in relation to her (and see what is written about this in Parshas Toldos).

To understand this: our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Three the Holy One, blessed be He, gave a taste in this world of the World to Come: Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, for of them it is said ‘with everything,’ ‘from everything,’ ‘everything,’” etc.

Now, of the future it is written, “A female shall encompass a male”: that is, the level of the recipient will be elevated and will be above the level of the male, the giver: “A woman of valor is the crown of her husband,” etc.,

because “last in deed, first in thought,” etc. (the Name Ban has its root above the Name Mah, etc.). And because the Patriarchs were given a taste of the World to Come,

therefore they too had this level, that they received from the Matriarchs, etc.; even though the Matriarchs were certainly the level of Nukva, the level of recipients. Only, there are two levels:

from above to below, the Patriarchs were givers and the Matriarchs recipients; but from below to above, in the level of returning light, the Matriarchs were higher in rank: “last in deed,” etc.

(and see what is written below, in the explanation on the verse “For over all the glory,” and on the verse “Let me see your appearance,” and in the explanation on the verse “Spring up, O well”);

for so it is with all the attributes of holiness: “their end is embedded in their beginning,” and the beginning in the end, for in the end there is [something] of the level of the beginning: “last in deed,” etc.,

while in the order of hishtalshelus it is last in rank, etc. (as is written on “The heavens are My throne and the earth is My footstool,” etc.). And this is Above, the levels of Patriarchs and Matriarchs; and below too there are the two levels,

namely Torah and mitzvos. In one respect Torah is greater, as our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Study is great, for it leads to action”: that is, through the wisdom of the Torah one knows how to perform the mitzvos, as is known;

and if one does not do so, but in another way, it is not a mitzvah. And in the second respect the mitzvah is greater: “Study is great, for it leads to action”;

it follows that the action is greater, and “not study is the main thing, but action,” etc. And that is because the root of the mitzvos is in the level of Keser, “620 pillars of light,” as is known: the 613 mitzvos of the Torah and the 7 of the Rabbis are 620, whose root is in the level of Keser. And as it is written, “and wisdom gives life to its owners (be’aleha),”

that is, in the level of from above to below, wisdom gives life to the mitzvos, namely that through the wisdom of the Torah one knows how to perform the mitzvah;

but nevertheless the mitzvos are the owners of the wisdom, for the root of the mitzvos is higher in rank than the level of Chochmah, etc. (and see what is written about this in the discourse beginning “I have seen, and behold, a candelabrum of gold”).

And this is “leaping over the mountains”: in the merit of the Torah, for the Torah too is called a mountain: “The mountains shall bear peace.” And the Torah is called peace: “G‑d will give strength to His people;

G‑d will bless His people with peace”; “Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; peace he shall make with Me,” etc. And the mitzvos too are called peace: “And the work of righteousness shall be peace,” etc.

For there are two levels of peace, from above to below and from below to above. And through the Torah the level of the illumination mentioned above was revealed in the level of love,

which is the level of one foot. “Skipping over the hills” is in the merit of the mitzvos, for the mitzvos are called hills, as it is written, “and the hills, through righteousness,” etc.

21And through the mitzvos the level of the illumination mentioned above, the level of “He and His Name alone,” etc., was revealed in the level of two feet,

that is, in the level of awe as well, because the mitzvos in their root are higher in rank than the level of the Torah, etc.; therefore through them it can be revealed in the level of awe as well.

And all this is in the level of the Exodus from Egypt. And it is written, “Behold, he comes,” a term of the present and also of the future: for then too there will be the level of this revelation and great illumination which is above the level of hishtalshelus, the level of a leap, as it is written, “As in the days of your going out of the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders”;

that is, in this level there will be revealed wonders that were in the level of the wondrous, hidden and covered, as it was in the level of the Exodus from Egypt, etc., when there was revealed to them then, from the level of King, etc., “the most hidden of all hidden” (sesimu dechol sesimin), so that it was in revelation, “and with great awe,” etc.

So it will be in the future too: “I will show him wonders,” etc. And see what is written elsewhere on the explanation of “who has dealt wondrously with you.” And that is: through the Torah and mitzvos that we perform now, we draw down this level;

only, now it is not in revelation, and in the future this level will be in revelation: “And all flesh shall see,” etc. (And see what is written on “For the mountains shall depart,” etc., “but My kindness shall not depart from you,” etc.)

225. “My beloved is like a gazelle,” etc. Now, our Sages, of blessed memory, said that He is compared to a gazelle: just as a gazelle turns its head backward, etc.

And the matter of this analogy is that Above too He “turns His head backward”: that is, the level of “wise, but not with a known wisdom,” and even above the level of Chochmah,

namely “the skull of the tefillin,” “the Skull (Gulgalta) that covers the brain,” descended and came down by stages into the level of the back, that is, the level of the mitzvos, which are all in physical things, such as tzitzis and tefillin, in the level of the back, etc. And their root is from the level of Keser, [which is] 620, etc.;

that is, His simple will, which is above the level of Chochmah, even above the level of “wise, but not with a known wisdom,” etc., was drawn down and enclothed in physical things below, specifically,

such as all the mitzvos, etc. (and see what is written about this, too, in the discourse beginning “And the king extended to Esther,” etc.). And all this was on Pesach, the level of the Exodus from Egypt, the level of a leap, etc.,

for Israel were not worthy of this, since in Egypt they were in the utmost lowliness, and there was no arousal from below at all; rather, it was revealed, as it were, of itself, in the level of a leap, etc.

But afterwards it is said, “Arise” (kumi lach), that is, the level of the Counting, “Today is the first day of the Omer,” etc. For Israel would count all the days of the Counting, forty-nine days, and that is to purify all the middos; for, as is known, there are seven middos,

23and each one is comprised of seven, and that is forty-nine. And this was their preparing themselves to be the level of a vessel to receive the level of G‑dly revelation that would come afterwards on Shavuos, at the Giving of the Torah, when there was also revealed the level of revelation that is above hishtalshelus, the level of Keser, etc.;

only, then G‑d was revealed “face to face,” etc., for then Israel too were in the level of “face,” the level of a vessel to receive G‑dly revelation, through their service and through the Counting, etc.

And that is through an arousal from below. But it was not as it was on Pesach, the level of matzah, etc., “the dough did not have time,” etc.

And on the contrary, on Shavuos they would bring leavened bread (and that is because the middos had been refined, etc., and then self-exaltation is only in the level of holiness, “who is elevated since days of old,” etc.; and as is written about this concerning Shavuos, in the discourse beginning “And G‑d spoke,” etc.; see there).

And this is “Arise”: the level of rising from below to above, which refers to the level of the Counting after Pesach, so that there be the level of “face to face.” And in the future there will also be the level of this revelation which is above hishtalshelus, “the most hidden,” etc.: “I will show him wonders,” etc.