ביאור הדברים

This is a “biur,” an explanation that follows the maamar “Go out and gaze, O daughters of Zion” and works through its ideas more closely. It opens with a map of the Sefiros: Keser, the Crown, stands above all ten as the source of delight, and so it is the light that “encompasses” the worlds rather than entering them. The light that “fills” the worlds, entering each one, and with it the ordered descent of Atzilus, begins only with Chochmah.

Chochmah is the root of Atzilus because Atzilus is essentially the World of Tikkun, the repair of the World of Tohu (Chaos), whose vessels shattered; the Zohar’s phrase “through Chochmah they were refined,” which the Alter Rebbe also quotes in Iggeres HaKodesh (epistle 28), says that the repair came through Chochmah. The shattering of Tohu means that they fell into the state of a separate “something” (yesh); the repair is to become “nothing” (ayin), self-effacing, and this is the work of Chochmah. Its name is read as koach mah, “the power of ‘what’,” the selfless stance of “What am I?”

Chochmah has its own ten Sefiros. Its levels from its Keser down to its Tiferes form the configuration called Abba (“Father”), while its Netzach and Hod form a separate configuration called Yisrael Sava, “Israel the Elder”; Pri Etz Chaim, in the chapter the text cites, likewise calls the garments of Yisrael Sava and Tevunah the mochin of the Netzach, Hod and Yesod of Abba and Imma. From this lowest part of Chochmah the root of the souls of Israel is drawn.

Netzach and Hod are the channels through which any higher level passes life to the one below it: in the words of Iggeres HaKodesh (epistle 19), “the vessels of influence and of bringing down the life-force from the higher to the lower.” Here, though, the flow is still inside Atzilus, before it becomes an actual soul; the soul as it is actually revealed is called the “Yisrael” below. The Kehot note quotes the Tzemach Tzedek’s Or HaTorah, which suggests this means Yisrael Zuta, “the lesser Israel,” namely Z’eir Anpin.

The root of the souls, while it is still in Chochmah, is Yisrael Sava, and the Alter Rebbe finds it hinted in the festival Amidah’s words “and may Israel rejoice in You” (which go on, “those who sanctify Your Name”). A long parenthesis now begins, comparing this with the soul’s mazal: the part of the soul that stays above and does not enter the body, shining on it as an encompassing light, as explained in the discourse on “My dove, in the clefts of the rock.”

Here a difficulty arises. In that discourse the soul’s mazal was identified with “Israel arose in [G‑d’s] thought,” the first intention of creation, and placed at the very top of Chochmah, where it touches Keser.

¶2 Hold this question about the soul's mazal: paragraph 2 resolves it.

The same discourse even placed it in Adam Kadmon, the “primordial thought” that precedes Atzilus, and the discourse on “Listen, O heavens” says the same; yet Yisrael Sava is the lowest part of Chochmah. How, then, can the soul’s mazal be Yisrael Sava?

To answer, the Alter Rebbe turns to the Zohar’s opening section (1:6a), where the son of the sage Rav Hamnuna Sava describes his father as a great fish of the sea, “great and precious, and Atik Yomin,” “Ancient of Days”; the Kehot note says this passage is also cited earlier, in Parshas Tzav. The Eshel Avraham, explaining the passage, reads this as a hint to Yisrael Sava, since sava (“elder”) and atika (“ancient”) mean the same thing.

So the sage’s soul came from Yisrael Sava. But why should the lowest part of Chochmah bear the name Atik Yomin, which usually names the innermost core of Keser? The answer follows a known pattern: Tevunah, the lowest part of Binah, becomes the Keser, the crown, of Z’eir Anpin; Etz Chaim (Sha’ar (Gate) 25, Derush 5) explains that this crown is made from the last third of Tevunah’s Tiferes.

Yisrael Sava is the inner life, the “soul,” of that crown, and Atik Yomin is always the inner dimension of any Keser (the print’s ע״ח here is read as ע״י, Atik Yomin); so from Z’eir Anpin’s point of view Yisrael Sava is its Atik, even though within Chochmah it is the last level. In Likkutei Torah, Tzav, the Alter Rebbe brings the same Zohar passage and the Eshel Avraham’s reading, and explains that the light of Yisrael Sava, enclothed in Binah, is Atik Yomin relative to Z’eir Anpin, because from it comes the soul of Z’eir Anpin’s crown.

It follows that the souls rooted in Yisrael Sava and Tevunah can be called the “mazal” of the souls that come from Z’eir Anpin and Nukva: their higher root, which stays above them. The Zohar (1:60a) asks why the name Noach is written twice and answers that every tzaddik has two spirits, one in this world and one in the World to Come; Zohar HaRakia, the Arizal’s commentary on the Zohar, relates the doubled name to the soul’s inner light and its encompassing light, and this somewhat implies the point.

Yet just as Z’eir Anpin has, beyond the crown made from Tevunah, a “true” Keser that comes from Arich Anpin itself, so the soul’s true mazal is far higher still, in the Keser of Atzilus and the primordial thought, as the discourse on “My dove” had said. The Kehot note explains that the Etz Chaim reference follows the Shklov printing of 5560; in current editions it is Sha’ar (Gate) 23, the beginning of chapter 7.

¶1 This answers the question about the soul's mazal from paragraph 1.

A further explanation of the souls rooted in Yisrael Sava and Tevunah comes from Etz Chaim, which builds on a passage at the opening of the Zohar on Mishpatim. That passage lists the levels of soul a person receives as his merit grows, and at one stage he is called “a son of the Holy One, blessed be He.”

At a still higher stage he receives a neshamah “from the side of Abba and Imma,” that is, from Chochmah and Binah. Etz Chaim adds that such souls do come forth from the supernal union of Abba and Imma.

But these souls are not yet complete or ready to come down until Z’eir Anpin and Nukva of Atzilus unite, and only then do they emerge from that union. So they have a double root: first in Abba and Imma, and then in Z’eir Anpin and Nukva.

The text points to further Zohar passages in Mishpatim and in the Zohar’s third volume, with the Mikdash Melech’s commentary on them, on the same theme. In Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim (19c), which the Kehot note cites with Yahel Or, the Alter Rebbe brings these passages to say that even very lofty souls born of the union of Z’eir Anpin and Nukva of Atzilus are called “children of the Omnipresent,” a single drop drawn from their intellect, while the Torah is their very Chochmah, Binah and Daas.

The Mikdash Melech applies to these souls the verse “For the sake of my brothers and my friends.” Because their highest soul-levels, chayah and neshamah, come from Abba and Imma, they stand beside Z’eir Anpin and Nukva as “brothers and friends” rather than only as their children.

This is why Israel are called “those who sanctify Your Name,” the phrase that follows “may Israel rejoice in You” in the festival prayer. “Your Name” is Malchus, which has gone down into the lower worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and Israel lift her back to Atzilus by drawing down “holiness” (kodesh); the threefold “holy” corresponds to Chochmah, Binah and Daas.

Holiness is the power of Chochmah, since “through Chochmah they were refined.” In Kabbalistic terms, sanctifying the Name means drawing down the Name Mah to refine the Name Ban: these are two ways of spelling out the letters of the Name Havayah, whose numerical values are 45 (mah, also the word “what,” the self-nullification of Chochmah) and 52 (ban, linked with Malchus and the fallen sparks). The discourse on “Binding to the vine” develops this.

Israel can draw Chochmah down below because their own root is in Yisrael Sava and Tevunah. Tevunah is understanding revealed through contemplation, and from it comes the delight of Gan Eden, both the higher and the lower.

That delight of Gan Eden is a revelation of the delight hidden in Keser, the source of all delights. In Chochmah, which is called “Eden,” the delight is still concealed; it is revealed only in Tevunah, the stage of fully grasping.

A human parallel: the pleasure of understanding is felt most at the end, when an idea is finally grasped. The souls themselves are rooted in this revealed delight, just as in human procreation the seed is given at the height of pleasure; the Talmud (Sotah 9b) reads the verse about Shimshon, “and she pressed him (vate’altzehu),” as referring to the culmination of union, which is why it is cited. The Kehot note points to the Tzemach Tzedek’s Or HaTorah on Pinchas for more on the source of the souls.

Likewise the souls of Israel come from the delight above at the moment of G‑d’s giving. Above there is no delight in receiving at all, only delight in giving, as in the Sages’ image of the cow that wants to nurse even more than the calf wants to suckle.

Because the souls come from this delight of giving, they have the power to raise Malchus, the Shechinah. The Alter Rebbe plays on the betrothal formula “you are mekudeshes (betrothed) to me”: to “sanctify” Malchus is to betroth her to Z’eir Anpin, her “husband” in Atzilus, and lift her out of the lower worlds.

The root of the souls comes into being from this delight of giving, which the Sages express by saying that G‑d “took counsel with the souls of the tzaddikim” when He created His world. The text points to Etz Chaim’s discussion of the feminine and masculine waters and to the explanation of “When it arose in His will,” and closes the parenthesis with a reference to the Zohar on Vayechi.

Elsewhere the Alter Rebbe explains Sarah’s words, “Elokim has made laughter for me.” The Name Elokim brings about a world that feels itself to be a separate “something” (yesh); when that yesh is nullified before G‑d, laughter and delight arise above.

The same idea is in the verse about the Leviathan, “which You formed to sport with”: G‑d’s “play” with His creation. The discourse on “Command the children of Israel … My offering, My bread” develops the theme.

Further discussions of this delight are in the discourse on “I am Havayah your G‑d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,” and in the discourse on “Havayah is with me among my helpers,” which explains the festival called “the season of our rejoicing” through the verse “Havayah will rejoice in His works.”

A discourse for Shemini Atzeres gives a parable of two kinds of delight before a king: one in the fulfilment of his commands, and one when he sees his son returning from a distant land, an image of teshuvah. The discourse on “I will greatly rejoice” explains that Knesses Yisrael, the community of Israel, brings about joy in Havayah.

Section 2 begins with the verse “And wine gladdens the heart of man” and the Sages’ saying “wine enters, the secret comes out” (yayin, “wine,” and sod, “secret,” both have the numerical value 70). The “secret” is the hidden delight within the souls of Israel, and wine brings it out as the joy of a mitzvah; that delight is the delight of “Asher Ehe-yeh,” from the Name “Ehe-yeh asher Ehe-yeh” (“I will be what I will be”), associated with Keser.

This joy is revealed through the Mishnah’s teaching “Make His will as your will, so that He will make your will as His will”: our will, which is below understanding, is given over to G‑d’s will, which is beyond understanding. This is “the crown with which his mother crowned him.”

The crown is not Imma, Binah, herself: it is made by Imma yet stands apart from her, like a physical crown, a separate object placed on the head. Its essence is the light of Abba, Chochmah, shining through it.

Wine must gladden the heart only inwardly and in measure. A little wine cheers the heart, while too much confuses the mind.

Hence the wine libations on the altar were measured: half a hin for a bull, a third of a hin for a ram. The altar stands for Malchus and the wine for the influence of Binah, which must be measured because, in the Zohar’s words, from Binah judgments (dinim) are aroused.

Unmeasured wine leads to sin. In Bereshis Rabbah (15:7; 15:8 in Kehot’s numbering) Rabbi Yehudah bar Il’ai holds that the tree of knowledge was grapes, whose “clusters brought bitterness to the world,” and elsewhere (19:5) the Midrash says that grapes were squeezed for Adam; and Noach became drunk and uncovered himself, which led to Cham’s sin.

So wine must be taken in measure, to gladden the heart inwardly. Its purpose is to arouse Keser, the “crown,” the supernal delight that the joy of a mitzvah awakens.

Once Keser is aroused, the main task is to draw down Abba, Chochmah, symbolized by oil: “to make the face shine with oil.” Oil, unlike wine, works in silence, like the wings of the holy creatures in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 1:24–25), which roar like great waters as they move and fall slack when the creatures stand still.

The creatures’ “wings,” their flying, express their fiery longing to rise; when they stand and let their wings down, that excitement becomes self-nullification (bittul).

The light of Abba then breaks through the lights of Imma in order to descend, as in “And Havayah passed before him.” This descent of Chochmah means lights entering vessels: the light of the Torah clothing itself in physical matters such as the priestly gifts (terumos) and tithes (maasros). The text refers to Pri Etz Chaim for this.

The word adam, “man,” is spelled alef followed by dam, “blood.” The blood of the heart carries excitement and joy, as wine does, while the alef stands for Chochmah, which sweetens the severities (gevuros) of that fiery joy.

The verse rebuking those who “did not serve with joy” shows that joy is required, but joy is only the beginning: it is ratzo, the soul’s running toward G‑d. The goal is shov, returning “to the One,” which the next part identifies with drawing down the light of Abba.

Shov means drawing down and revealing the light of Abba, Chochmah, itself. The lights of Imma, Binah, serve only to bring joy.

The last blessing of the Amidah, “Grant peace,” corresponds to the supernal union (zivug), and its words “by the light of Your countenance You have given us a Torah of life” speak of the revealed light of Abba. That light is the “oil” that makes the face shine.

This “oil,” the self-nullification that follows the joy of wine, is still at its source above, in the mochin, the intellect. But when Abba descends into Netzach and Hod it is called bread, as the same verse continues: “and bread sustains the heart of man.”

“Sustains” means the strength the Torah gives to the soul’s weakness, as explained in the Torah Ohr discourse on “In the third month” (the giving of the Torah), where the going out of Egypt (Mitzrayim, from metzar, “constraint”) is the soul’s rising above the limits that the body and the animal soul place on it. “The heart of man” is Malchus, which has descended into the lower worlds, of which it is said, “her feet go down to death.” For this the text cites Me’orei Or, an alphabetical lexicon of Kabbalistic terms, whose entry, the Kehot note says, is copied in Or HaTorah.

The power to lift Malchus back into Atzilus comes from the light of Abba descending into the Netzach and Hod of Z’eir Anpin, which are associated with letters.

Wheat stands for this level: chitah, “wheat” (chet 8, tes 9, hei 5), has the numerical value 22, the number of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; the Kehot note gives the Tikkunei Zohar as the source.

Wheat is also linked with Chochmah: the Talmud says that a child cannot say “Abba” (Father) until he has tasted grain, and the Alter Rebbe reads Abba as Chochmah. But this is Chochmah in its smallest state (katnus). The discourse on counting the Omer in Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar, explains it further, contrasting barley, revealed on Pesach as each soul’s own grasp of G‑dliness, with wheat, revealed on Shavuos.

These are the “letters” within Chochmah, found in Z’eir Anpin’s Netzach and Hod and below, where the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil is found. There Chochmah clothes itself and descends as “bread,” to be strength.

Bread is strength rather than joy, for it has no sweetness, unlike wine; and it is the level of Malchus. The verse “not by bread alone does man live” points to this, and the text cites the Zohar on Vayechi.

Still, bread must come first, just as one should not drink wine on an empty stomach. In the verse “Come, eat (lachamu) of my bread (lachmi),” lachamu is the plural command “eat!” and lachmi means “my bread”; the Alter Rebbe hears in them two forms of lechem, bread, and reads them as the two loaves offered on Shavuos, which correspond to Netzach and Hod, in the Kabbalistic phrase “He in Netzach and she in Hod.”

¶9 Lachamu and lachmi, the two loaves, are explained from paragraph 9.

Hod’s vowel is melopum, which the Kehot note explains is the Sephardic name for shuruk; lachamu ends in that vowel, so it corresponds to Hod. Its plural form alludes to Malchus rising up from the “public domain,” the realm of multiplicity called “the mountains of separation.” (The printed Hebrew’s חלמו is a transposition of לחמו, lachamu, and its היניו a misprint for היינו, “that is.”)

Lachmi ends in chirik, the vowel of Netzach (“He in Netzach”). After this “bread” can come the gladdening wine and the oil that makes the face shine, culminating in “the crown with which his mother crowned him.”

Yet this crown must be seen by “going out” of Atzilus, where everything is encompassing light and “He and His life-forces are one”: there nothing stands apart to perceive it.

¶19 “Go out and gaze” into Beriah is taken up again in paragraph 19.

So it is not seen or revealed there, but only in the “chambers” (heichalos) of Beriah, the first world of separate existence, where the glory of revealed delight can be felt. Section 5 returns to ask how this is possible.

Section 3 asks why bread, of all foods, “sustains the heart of man” more than wine, and why its root should be in Abba, Chochmah, which is higher than wine, Imma, Binah. “The heart of man” was identified above with Malchus.

¶7 Why bread sustains more than wine: paragraph 7 gives the answer.

The answer starts from the opening of Iggeres HaKodesh, on the verse “She girds her loins with strength,” where “strength” means the Torah: the Torah gives strength to the “loins,” which, the epistle explains, hold up the whole body with the head and carry it where it is going.

In the Kabbalistic image of the body, the loins correspond to Netzach and Hod, the “two thighs.” Inside, at the loins, are the kidneys, traditionally called “the counseling kidneys,” so Netzach and Hod are also the faculty of counsel.

Etz Chaim teaches that Z’eir Anpin receives a “new” Netzach, Hod and Yesod, and that these come from Keser. The text quotes Pri Etz Chaim on the first blessing of the Amidah: Arich Anpin, which is Keser, is “Kel Elyon” who “bestows kindnesses,” and these kindnesses are the new Netzach, Hod and Yesod given to Z’eir Anpin as an addition. In Likkutei Torah, Masei, the Alter Rebbe quotes the same passage and concludes that Netzach and Hod are rooted in Keser, above Abba and Imma, just as the legs carry the whole body and the head.

The Ramaz, in his commentary on the Zohar, cites a further teaching on the new Netzach, Hod and Yesod from Sefer HaLikkutim, in connection with the verse “[good understanding] to all who practice them.”

So “She girds her loins with strength” means that the Torah, whose root is in Keser, gives power to Netzach and Hod. The highest gives strength to the lowest.

The analogy: some people understand an idea well enough for themselves but cannot teach it to anyone else.

Such a person’s grasp is not great enough to do more than satisfy his own understanding.

He lacks the ability to “take counsel” about how to convey the idea. Iggeres HaKodesh, in the epistle “To understand a parable,” explains that teaching requires planning how to present an idea so that the student can receive it.

If the teacher says the idea as it stands in his own mind, a young son will not understand it. He must rework it into another order and form.

He must give it as “a word fitly spoken,” little by little, and this faculty of counsel is Netzach and Hod, the “counseling kidneys.” Netzach and Hod are also called Shechakim, a name of one of the heavens that is related to shachak, “to grind,” and the Talmud says that in the heaven called Shechakim millstones grind manna for the righteous.

As a mill grinds wheat into fine flour, a father must reduce his idea and break it into many small portions, teaching his son bit by bit. All this, the Alter Rebbe notes, is in Iggeres HaKodesh.

The analogy concludes: only someone of great intellect can “take counsel” about how to impart; others understand for themselves but cannot pass it on.

A great intellect, by its breadth and depth, can find a way to convey an idea even to a small child.

So the counsel of Netzach and Hod is rooted in a greatness of intellect beyond the idea being taught. That is why understanding an idea is not enough to be able to teach it.

The same applies above: the new Netzach, Hod and Yesod of Z’eir Anpin are drawn from Keser, which is beyond intellect. The text points to the explanation on “These are the journeys” in Parshas Masei, which the Kehot note identifies as the second biur there, section 3.

The lower worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah are finite and bear no comparison to Atzilus, where the Infinite Light is enclothed. Something is needed to bridge that gap.

Netzach and Hod bridge it: they are the “scales of righteousness” (moznei tzedek, Leviticus 19:36) that weigh how much influence may pass from the Malchus of Atzilus, called Tzedek, “righteousness,” to the lower worlds. This weighing is the “counsel” of the kidneys.

This is why even Moshe’s prophecy came from Netzach and Hod. The Kehot note quotes the Arizal’s Sha’ar HaNevuah: Moshe, master of all the prophets, prophesied from the first two joints of Z’eir Anpin’s Netzach and Hod, from their inner side, where no other prophet could; and Iggeres HaKodesh, in “He wraps Himself in light,” says that above Netzach and Hod a prophet has no apprehension at all.

Since Netzach and Hod are the “counsel” that adapts divine light for the source of the lower worlds, their new form must come from Keser, the highest level.

The verse “Who is enthroned on high, who lowers [Himself] to look upon heaven and earth” illustrates this. Because G‑d is so exalted, heaven and earth, high and low, are equal before Him.

Therefore He can look down upon the earth as readily as upon heaven: only what is beyond both relates to the lowest as to the highest, and so only Keser can give rise to the counsel that adapts light for the lowest.

The Zohar on Balak (3:193b) expounds Yeshayahu’s song of thanks, “for You have done wonders, counsels from afar,” and explains “counsels from afar” as the “two willow branches,” Netzach and Hod, from which all the counsel of the prophets comes.

The Alter Rebbe adds that they are “from afar” because they draw their power from far above, from Chochmah and Keser, of which King Shlomo said, “I said, ‘I will become wise,’ but it is far from me.”

“You have done wonders” alludes to the “wonders of wisdom,” which are beyond the intellect that can be grasped. The phrase “Wondrous Counselor” (pele yo’etz) joins the two: counsel rooted in wonder.

This is why “She girds her loins with strength” stresses the loins: the Torah’s strength reaches Netzach and Hod. The “bread” of the Torah, which is in Netzach and Hod, therefore has a high rank.

The Zohar on Pinchas (3:217b), expounding this very verse, “and bread sustains the heart of man,” speaks of the bread that the Shechakim go and grind as manna for the righteous, from which many hosts, called “the heart of man,” are sustained.

As in the analogy of the miller, who crushes wheat into fine flour, the letters of the Torah were “ground” and brought down until every person can receive them, and so too the laws of the Oral Torah were divided into many particulars.

So bread is lower than wine and has no sweetness, just as Netzach and Hod are called “willow branches,” which have no taste; yet their root is higher, in Chochmah and Keser. That is the meaning of “counsels from afar.”

King Shlomo’s words “but it is far from me” refer to this distant root: an intellect hidden beyond all thought, which is called pele, “wonder.”

From that hidden height it descends into Netzach and Hod and becomes “bread of wheat,” ground fine as explained above. The verse about the woman of valor, “From afar she brings her bread,” says exactly this; the Zohar on Tzav, explaining “counsels from afar,” brings this verse together with “From afar Havayah appeared to me.”

Bread is rooted in a level far beyond the chain of descending worlds. That is why this bread, rather than wine, “sustains the heart of man.”

¶4 This answers the question about bread from paragraph 4.

The same principle explains the Tablets of the Covenant. A discourse on “If you walk in My statutes” explains that the letters were “engraved” in the stone itself, not written on it, and links this with the Zohar’s “He engraved an engraving in the supernal luster,” the level of Keser.

For this reason the Ten Commandments have 620 letters, the numerical value of keser, “crown” (kaf 20, tav 400, reish 200); the maamar “Go out and gaze” explains that the Torah is rooted in the supernal will, Keser, the “620 pillars of light.” But the Kabbalists (Pardes, Otzros Chaim and Etz Chaim) say that the Tablets are Netzach and Hod, which seems to contradict this.

The difficulty is resolved by what was said above: Netzach and Hod are drawn from Keser, so the Tablets can be both. Pri Etz Chaim reads the Amidah’s “Kel Elyon” as Keser and “who bestows good kindnesses” as the Netzach and Hod of Abba, joining the two.

On the letters of the Torah the text refers to the Torah Ohr discourse on the Chanukah lamp, where the mezuzah on the right is an ascent from below and the Chanukah lamp on the left draws down the light of the Torah, and it identifies the letters with “bread.” The discourse on counting the Omer links wheat (22 in numerical value) with the 22 letters of the Torah, rooted in the “engraved letters” of the level of Keser.

Section 4 explains “lachamu belachmi”: the two loaves offered on Shavuos are the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The two forms of the word for bread correspond to the two Torahs.

¶3 This explains lachamu belachmi, first mentioned in paragraph 3.

Lachamu is a plural form and stands for the Oral Torah; lachmi (“my bread”) is singular and stands for the Written Torah. In the verse lachamu is the command “eat!” addressed to many, and the Alter Rebbe reads it as bread in the plural.

The reason is that the Oral Torah is essentially comprehension: studying it means understanding the law, and the Magen Avraham rules that reciting halachah without understanding it does not count as study. Since it depends on comprehension, each person grasps it according to his own level.

That is why it is called by a plural word: each person has his own portion according to his understanding, and so it is the “public domain,” reshus harabim, literally “the domain of the many.”

The Written Torah is singular because its essence is the written text itself, the form of the letters, and each form alludes to something above.

Human comprehension has no part in the letters as such, for they are above intellect, like G‑d, of whom the Tikkunei Zohar says, “You are wise, but not with a knowable wisdom.”

So the Written Torah does not depend on understanding: even an unlearned person who says a verse without understanding it is engaged in Torah. That is why everyone says the blessings over the Torah each morning before the verses, and when called up to the Torah scroll. In Likkutei Torah, Vayikra, the Alter Rebbe adds that the Written Torah draws from a source above Chochmah through its letters, so even one who does not understand the words draws it down.

This is why the Talmud rules that “matters that are written you may not say by heart”: the Written Torah cannot truly be brought into human intellect and understanding.

Likewise “matters that are oral you may not say in writing,” because the Oral Torah is understanding itself, while the written text is above understanding. So the Written Torah is “singular”: one cannot speak of it as divided into levels, each according to his grasp.

Even the plain meaning we grasp is only “the garment of the Torah,” compared with the inner dimension hidden in its letters. The text refers to the discourse on “Torah tzivah” in Parshas Berachah.

A second reason the Oral Torah is called by a plural word comes from Iggeres HaKodesh, in the epistle “And the wise will shine.”

There the Alter Rebbe writes that when Malchus of Atzilus clothes itself in kelipas nogah, the realm of mixed good and evil, to refine the fallen sparks, it is called “the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.” Z’eir Anpin, which does not descend there, is called “the Tree of Life.”

The realm of plurality, called “the public domain” and “the mountains of separation,” is principally in the shattering of the vessels. Malchus, which is the Oral Torah, enters that realm to refine its sparks, and so it too is called by a plural term, just as it is called “the Tree of Knowledge.”

This is hinted in “great (rav) to save,” for rav, “great,” shares its root with rabbim, “many,” and in the saying that every “Rav” is from Bavel, Babylonia, the land of exile, where, as Iggeres HaKodesh explains, the main work of Torah is to refine the sparks. The Written Torah, Z’eir Anpin, does not descend there and remains “singular.” The saying itself concerns rabbinic titles: the sages of Babylonia were called “Rav,” while those ordained in the Land of Israel were called “Rabbi.” The maamar reads it as showing that the Oral Torah’s labor, carried out by those called rav, “many,” belongs to the land of exile.

With these explanations a new question arises: why are the two Torahs called “the two loaves” in particular? The reason for the plural and singular forms, lachamu and lachmi, has already been given.

But the Torah is called by several names, bread, wine and oil, as the Kehot note shows from the introduction to the Tikkunei Zohar. Why is the difference between the Written and the Oral Torah hinted specifically in bread?

¶13 Why “bread” specifically? Paragraph 13 answers it.

A simple answer: bread is the revealed part of the Torah, and only there does the distinction between plural and singular, lachamu and lachmi, apply.

¶12 This answers the question from paragraph 12.

A deeper answer comes from the Torah Ohr discourse on Beshalach about the double portion of bread (lechem mishneh) on Shabbos, which corresponds to two kinds of bread: bread from the earth and the manna, bread from heaven.

These two kinds of bread correspond to the first two blessings of the Grace after Meals: “Who feeds” and the blessing for the Land.

“Earth” is the Name Ban, associated with Malchus; bread from the earth is the refining of the sparks of Tohu, accomplished as Malchus descends to refine them.

The manna fell in Moshe’s merit, as the Talmud says, and Moshe, who said with Aharon “and what (mah) are we?” (Exodus 16:7), is the Name Mah, associated with self-nullification. So the blessing “Who feeds,” which the Talmud says Moshe instituted, corresponds to bread from heaven.

The blessing for the Land, “We thank You,” corresponds to bread from the earth. Blessing and thanksgiving correspond to the higher unity and the lower unity, as the Beshalach discourse explains at length.

The Written Torah and the Oral Torah are also called “heaven” and “earth.” In the Torah Ohr discourse on “The heavens are My throne,” shamayim, “heaven,” is read as sham mayim, “there is water,” the Written Torah, which comes from Chochmah, and eretz, “earth,” is related to ratzon, “will”: the Oral Torah grasps the purpose of the divine will, from below to above.

So they are also the two kinds of bread. The Oral Torah is Malchus, which clothes itself in kelipas nogah to refine the sparks that fell in the shattering of the vessels; it is “earth,” and so it is bread from the earth.

Bread from the earth is the plural lachamu. The Written Torah, from Z’eir Anpin, which does not descend into kelipah, is “heaven”: bread from heaven, the singular lachmi.

A Torah Ohr discourse on Mishpatim, on “the sapphire brick” and “the essence of the heavens,” adds to this: the letters of the Written Torah are called “stones,” which are created by Heaven. There the Alter Rebbe contrasts natural stones with bricks, which are made by man and fired in the kiln until they become like stone.

The letters of the Oral Torah are called a “brick,” which a person makes from the earth’s clay; yet once fired, bricks too become like stone. The Oral Torah, shaped by human understanding, attains the firmness of the Written Torah.

This is why the two loaves are Netzach and Hod. The blessing over bread from the earth is “We thank You” (nodeh lecha), an expression of thanksgiving (hoda’ah), and Hod is related to hoda’ah; so the Oral Torah is “she in Hod.”

The blessing over the bread from heaven, “Who feeds,” was instituted by Moshe, and the Written Torah is “He in Netzach.” Netzach’s vowel is chirik, a single dot, the shape of self-nullification; Netzach is a branch of Chochmah, and Moshe himself is the Netzach of Abba.

“Come, eat of my bread” is an invitation to make the plural bread like the singular: to study the Oral Torah for its own sake (lishmah), so that it becomes one with the Written Torah, “one in one,” in the Zohar’s phrase. This is what “all your children shall be taught of Havayah” means.

A Torah Ohr discourse in Bereishis explains the first two wedding blessings, “Who forms man” and “Who formed man,” as the Written and the Oral Torah, and why the second, longer blessing closes with “Blessed are You.”

Now the waving of the two loaves on Shavuos can be explained. The Written and the Oral Torah are also called groom and bride.

Before groom and bride can unite there must be the marriage itself, the chuppah, a canopy that encompasses both of them.

That encompassing canopy is “the crown with which his mother crowned him,” Keser, which stands above the two loaves, Netzach and Hod, “He in Netzach and she in Hod.”

Waving the loaves lifts them to their root, the encompassing level of the crown, Keser.

Through this lifting the two Torahs unite and the Written Torah flows into the Oral Torah, as explained in the discourse “Torah tzivah” in Parshas Berachah, mentioned above.

Likewise, the two loaves of the double bread of Shabbos rise to a level above both of them.

Section 5 returns to the crown, which must be seen by “going out” from Atzilus into the “chambers” of Beriah.

¶3 This takes up again “Go out and gaze” from paragraph 3.

At first sight this makes no sense: how can what cannot be seen in Atzilus be seen in Beriah, which bears no comparison to it? It was already suggested that this is like the verse “From afar Havayah appeared to me”: some things can be seen only from a distance.

¶20 How can Beriah see what Atzilus cannot? Paragraph 20 answers it.

A parallel is in Pri Etz Chaim on the kavanah of the Shema: we cannot arouse Abba and Imma while we are in Atzilus (during the Amidah), but only while we are in Beriah (during the Shema), so the lower position has a power the higher one lacks. In Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar, the Alter Rebbe uses this to explain why the two loaves are brought “from your dwellings”: the Shema is said sitting, in Beriah, where the higher unity of Abba and Imma takes place.

A further explanation comes from the Talmud’s account of King Menasheh’s trial of the prophet Yeshayahu: Rava says that Menasheh put him on trial before he killed him.

Menasheh charged that Yeshayahu contradicted Moshe: Moshe said, “Man shall not see Me and live,” yet Yeshayahu said, “I saw Ado-nai.” The Talmud answers that the other prophets saw through a speculum that does not shine, while Moshe saw through a speculum that shines.

The Torah Ohr discourse on the Chanukah lamp explains the terms: the shining speculum is like clear glass, through which one sees even from afar, by direct light, and sees the thing itself.

The speculum that does not shine is a mirror (shpigel): glass with a thin coating on it.

So one does not see through it the thing itself, only its likeness and form; that is why it is called the speculum that does not shine, whereas through clear glass one sees the thing itself.

Yet a mirror can show what clear glass never can: one’s own face, and what is behind one.

It shows only an image, not the essence; but clear glass cannot show oneself or what is behind at all. The text points to the Zohar on Va’eira for the two kinds of speculum, and the Kehot note quotes the Tzemach Tzedek’s Or HaTorah citing it: Moshe merited “the shining speculum that stands above the one that does not shine.”

Further Kabbalistic sources on the two kinds of speculum: the Tikkunei Zohar, Sha’ar HaYichudim, Sefer Hadras Melech, Pardes and Me’orei Or. As the Kehot notes quote them from Or HaTorah, Me’orei Or calls the shining speculum Z’eir Anpin, which shines of itself, and the one that does not shine Malchus, which has nothing of its own; and the Tikkunei Zohar says that Malchus is the shining speculum from the side of Havayah, and the one that does not shine when she is Ado-nai without her husband.

Moshe saw through the shining speculum, the essence itself, and of that level it is said, “Man shall not see Me and live.” The other prophets saw only through the speculum that does not shine.

As Rashi says, the prophets prophesied with “Thus (koh) says Havayah,” while Moshe surpassed them with “This (zeh) is the word.” Koh is the level of kidmuseinu, “in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26): a vision of likeness, as in “through the prophets I am imaged.”

But precisely through the speculum that does not shine one can see higher levels, which never come down to be revealed through the shining speculum, just as a mirror shows what clear glass cannot. So Yeshayahu could truly say “I saw Ado-nai,” for his was a vision through the speculum that does not shine.

The same idea explains “Go out and gaze”: the crown, Keser, cannot be seen at all through the speculum that shines. It can be seen only by “going out” to the speculum that does not shine, and through it one “gazes at the crown.”

It is known that Moshe saw into Atzilus through Beriah as through an open passage, while the other prophets saw Atzilus only as it was fully clothed in Beriah. The text cites Sha’arei Kedushah, by Rabbi Chaim Vital, and the Ramaz on the Zohar in Va’eira, on the Patriarchs and Moshe.

It follows that the direct revelation of Atzilus is the speculum that shines, and Atzilus seen through its full enclothing in Beriah is the speculum that does not shine.

So the earlier explanation stands: “go out” of Atzilus into the chambers of Beriah, and “gaze” there, through the speculum that does not shine.

¶19 This answers the question from paragraph 19.

The same idea explains a teaching of Pri Etz Chaim on the Shema, quoted above: that we can arouse Abba and Imma only while we are in Beriah.

In a mirror, sight comes back as “returning light” (or chozer), because the thin coating stops it from passing through; in divine service this is the love “with all your might” (me’odecha), for the concealment of the animal soul makes love break out “beyond measure” (me’od), and precisely this arouses more above. In the Torah Ohr discourse on the Chanukah lamp the Alter Rebbe makes the same comparison: the animal soul is the mirror’s coating, which, once subdued and transformed, adds a new returning light. The earlier explanation of “Show me your appearance” calls the soul a “mirror” (mareh), which descends into the body only in order to return upward, like sunlight that strikes the earth and rises back.

This level belongs to our being in Beriah. As the explanation of “I am black but comely” says, Malchus becomes a “bride” (kallah) only by descending into Beriah, with the longing of “my soul pines (kalsah).”

The discourse on “And I was with Him as a nursling” explains “From your dwellings (moshvoseichem) you shall bring” the two loaves as the Shema, which is said sitting (meyushav): in Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar, the Shema is the heart of prayer, self-sacrifice, and the loaves are brought “from your dwellings,” from Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, because an offering from below, like a rare gift brought to a king who lacks nothing, is what arouses him. From there the two loaves are raised to the crown, for the reason given here: the lower vantage of Beriah has the power to reach the highest.