לריח שמניך טובים שמן תורק שמך על כן עלמות אהבוך

The maamar opens with Song of Songs 1:3, which it will read as a description of two ways the Torah reaches a person: as “fragrance” and as “oil poured forth.” The closing phrase, “therefore the maidens love You,” is the goal: that even those not yet stirred should come to love G‑d. The Kehot note says the maamar was said on Shabbos Parshas Ki Seitzei 5563 (1803).

The parenthesis lists places in the Midrash Rabbah on this verse and on oil: Avraham at the start of Lech Lecha, Vayikra Rabbah, Nachshon’s offering “mixed with oil,” and the start of Ki Savo. The Midrash on the Song of Songs likens the words of Torah to water, wine, oil, honey and milk, and the Alter Rebbe will show that wine and oil are two different ways the Torah works on a person; the Kehot note adds that the Mitteler Rebbe explains the difference between them at length in Imrei Binah.

Wine is a revealer: it opens a closed heart and brings out what was hidden, as new wine makes the maidens “speak out” (Rashi on the verse: in song and joy). The Talmud plays on the fact that the Hebrew words for “wine” (yayin) and “secret” (sod) both have the numerical value seventy, so when wine goes in the secret comes out; here the hidden “secret” is an inner joy.

In divine service, “wine” stands for Binah, careful contemplation. One reflects on how G‑d’s kingship, the “revealed world,” constantly brings everything into being from nothing, including space and time themselves, and from this reflection comes fervent love and awe, “Your love.”

The “secret” is the G‑dliness hidden inside creation, so well hidden that the world seems to exist on its own. When contemplation produces love and awe, that secret “comes out”: a person feels, as if seeing it, that everything is as nothing before G‑d.

The Jewish people as a whole are called the “bride” of G‑d. They become a bride in this full sense when the hidden G‑dliness is revealed and shines in their souls.

This is what the Zohar (Bo, 38b) calls “when she has received the male,” for the Holy One, blessed be He, is the “bridegroom.” The Zohar there explains why the Torah writes na’ar for a maiden: until she has received the male she is called na’ar, and afterward na’arah. The parenthesis adds the Zohar HaRakia, the Arizal’s commentary on the Zohar, and Sefer Hadras Melech, Rabbi Shalom Buzaglo’s commentary on the Zohar.

A bride, in this image, has nothing of her own; all her light is given from above. The verses say so three times: her Husband is her Maker, the glory of Havayah has shone upon her, and even when she sits in darkness Havayah is her light.

The word na’arah (maiden), written with a final hei, hints at the “five Gevuros” the male gives her (hei is five); these are the “love” of the verse, which originates in the hidden world above. They reach revelation only through Nukva, the receiving feminine level.

The parenthesis points to where Pri Etz Chaim, the Arizal’s teachings on prayer as recorded by Rabbi Chaim Vital, and Mikdash Melech, Rabbi Shalom Buzaglo’s commentary on the Zohar, discuss this.

Before the bride has received that light she is called na’ar, without the hei, as the Torah writes the word in several places. In a person this is the one “whose heart is sealed,” unmoved by contemplation, and such people are the “maidens” (alamos) of the verse. In Likkutei Torah, Tzav, the Alter Rebbe brings this Zohar and refers to this maamar: “before she has received” means that G‑dliness has not yet shone within the heart, which is sealed like a maiden’s.

The remedy for the sealed heart is the second image, oil, which stands for the Torah itself. The Torah is called “oil poured forth” (shemen turak), oil poured from one vessel into another.

¶9 Why oil helps the sealed heart: paragraph 9 explains it.

In pouring, the vessel is turned upside down, so what was below comes on top. While the vessel was full, its fragrance stayed below with the oil; once it is turned over, the fragrance rises from the bottom of the first vessel.

The Torah likewise came down from G‑d’s wisdom into physical things, stories and written letters. The verse “Havayah founded the earth with wisdom” and the Zohar’s “Abba (Chochmah) founded the daughter (Malchus)” say that the highest level is lodged in the lowest, so the order is inverted.

The whole Torah is made of G‑d’s Names, and so it is “Your Name is oil poured forth”; the Kehot note traces the teaching to the Ramban’s introduction to his commentary on the Torah, and the Zohar (II, 87a) says the whole Torah is one holy Name. The letters are called “horses” because, though they come down through many stages, they carry a person back up; their source is the “masculine world,” the level of oil.

Letters seem to be the lowest part of thought and speech, below intellect and feeling; Sefer Yetzirah calls them “stones,” like inanimate objects. Yet the source of the letters, as of the inanimate, is above intellect: as with a seal, whose image comes out reversed in the impression, what is highest ends up lowest.

The parenthesis names two maamarim of Torah Ohr that discuss letters and stones. In the one on “And Yehudah approached him,” the Alter Rebbe explains that the inanimate earth, lowest of all, is rooted highest, for “the end of the deed is first in thought”; this is why the Holy Temple was built of stone and earth.

The “fragrance of Your oils” comes from the fragrant oil, which is compared to the anointing oil of the Sanctuary, a level above ordinary oil. The parenthesis points to another place on the “pure balsam.”

¶6 “Fragrant oil” is explained further in paragraph 6.

The parenthesis continues with the anointing oil: a maamar on the dedication of the altar “on the day it was anointed,” and the Ramaz, Rabbi Moshe Zacuto’s commentary on the Zohar, which speaks of a “supernal oil.” The Kehot note says that in the Tzemach Tzedek’s manuscript that maamar is placed in Beha’aloscha, not Naso.

Iggeres HaKodesh, the fourth part of Tanya (epistle 5, on “And David made a name”), explains that the letters are rooted in the “hidden intellect” and in what precedes intellect, a level above revealed thought. This supports the claim that the lowly letters come from very high.

In Torah Ohr, in the maamar on the Chanukah lamp, the Alter Rebbe teaches that the letters of the Torah are rooted even higher than the Torah’s content; King David, he says there, drew the letters of the Torah from the Infinite Light itself. The written form is thus not a mere container for ideas.

The Torah is called “light” (or), but the letters are rooted in “air” (avir), which is or with an added yud, the source of light. Air is breath, ruach, and this leads to the next paragraph’s link between ruach and rei’ach, fragrance.

The Hebrew words for fragrance, rei’ach, and for spirit or breath, ruach, differ by a single letter, and the maamar calls the two “one matter.” The Sages (Sifrei) read the Torah’s “pleasing fragrance” of an offering as G‑d’s “gratification of spirit,” so fragrance is a matter of spirit, and it connects to the “air” in which the letters are rooted.

Because the letters are rooted so high, they can carry a person upward, which is why they are called “horses.” Every ascent is made through letters actually spoken, since mere thought, without words, does not accomplish anything.

Mevo She’arim, Rabbi Chaim Vital’s work on the Arizal’s teachings, is cited on the verse “from His mouth [comes] knowledge and understanding,” which links divine speech to knowledge. The analogy follows: a rider reaches, on horseback, places he could never reach on foot.

In the same way, a person who puts all his thought into the letters of the Torah or of prayer is lifted by them far beyond his own level; the Alter Rebbe returns to this in the maamar “To My mare” later in this volume. But the verse warns that G‑d does not delight in the horse’s strength or in a man’s legs, as the next part explains.

If a person only keeps his thought on the words without engaging his intellect (Chochmah, Binah and Daas), he is like a rider who only sits on the horse: the horse runs, and the rider himself does nothing. The verse’s “legs of a man” are read as the rider’s legs, which merely cling to the horse.

What G‑d wants, says the next verse, is “those who fear Him, those who hope for His kindness”: joining real contemplation of G‑d’s greatness, with one’s whole mind, to the attachment of thought to the letters. The parenthesis points to two maamarim in Torah Ohr, Beshalach, on the horse imagery.

Then comes practical advice for someone who finds that contemplation leaves his heart unmoved.

Such a person should humble himself completely and say that he cannot expect fervor, for his heart is sealed and he is utterly far from G‑d; this is the “maiden” of paragraph 1. The one thing in his power is to plead and long to cling to G‑d.

This longing is “those who hope for His kindness”: waiting with great desire for G‑dliness to be revealed to him.

The person’s plea continues: he does not want to be separated from G‑d. The word chasdo (“His kindness”) is read as chas dalet, pity on the dalet, the “poor” letter that stands for the receiver who has nothing of its own; G‑d’s kindness is revealing G‑dliness to the one who lacks it. The Talmud reads Yeshayahu’s “diadem of beauty” (tzefiras) as “those who await (metzapin) His beauty”: longing itself draws down G‑d’s kindness, until the heart is stirred.

The same applies to studying the Oral Torah, where G‑d’s will is revealed in the details of this world, what is pure and impure, permitted and forbidden. Through such study too, one who longs for G‑d can draw His kindness upon himself.

For someone who lacks even the longing, the verse says G‑d “remembered His kindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel.” The “house of Israel” is Nukva, the receiving level, and His faithfulness to her draws down faith into her as well, even where the heart is not yet stirred.

Here the maamar deepens the meaning of “oil poured forth.” It draws on a Zohar passage that calls the Mishnah the “wife” of “that youth” (the angel Metatron), an image of Oral Torah as a receiving, feminine level.

The claim is striking: in the practical laws of the Torah, the very essence of G‑d’s supernal wisdom is present. Such a revelation does not exist even in the higher spiritual worlds.

Even in the Garden of Eden the souls perceive only a radiance of the Shechinah and a glimmer of supernal Chochmah. The reason is explained in a Purim maamar in Torah Ohr from the lion of Yechezkel’s vision, whose face is on the right.

That maamar explains that the lion, highest of the faces in the Chariot, is found below only among the impure animals: because its level is so high it has no vessel except in the lowest place, while in a pure animal the vessel would be nullified by the light. So supernal Chochmah is clothed specifically in the lowest place, the laws of what is impure and what is fit.

Iggeres HaKodesh gives an analogy: speech carries only a glimmer of a person’s mind, but the seed of a child carries the essence of the parent’s soul. So too the laws of the Torah carry G‑d’s wisdom itself, not just a reflection of it; the Kehot note identifies the place as the Kuntres Acharon of Tanya, in the essay beginning “To understand what is written in Pri Etz Chaim.”

Iggeres HaKodesh, epistle 26, on the Raaya Mehemna of Parshas Naso, takes up the same theme: the laws of forbidden and permitted, impure and pure, are clarified through supernal Chochmah, clothed in Malchus, the Oral Torah. “Oil poured forth” means that the very essence of the oil, not just its scent, is poured out and reaches below.

This is the principle already stated: what is highest comes specifically to the lowest place. “Your Name” refers to the Torah, which the Sages describe as made entirely of G‑d’s Names.

Two maamarim in Torah Ohr develop this: in “And these are the names (shemos) of the children of Israel” the souls of Israel draw the supernal Names down below, and in “Moshe would speak” all the mitzvos serve “to perfect the mystery of His Name,” each mitzvah drawing down a Name. The Torah and mitzvos are thus the channel of the Name.

The Zohar reads “Your Name” as Malchus, G‑d’s kingship, into which the oil of supernal Chochmah is poured; from this oil, it says, blessings flow through the priest. In the terms of this maamar, the highest wisdom flows into the lowest divine attribute.

The Zohar also links oil and “name” through the verse “A good name is better than good oil”: the holy Name issues from the oil to be blessed and to light the holy lamps. Its saying that “the daughter inherits the father” means that Malchus (the daughter) receives directly from Chochmah (the father).

The verse says the earth, which stands for Malchus, was founded specifically “with wisdom” (Chochmah), whereas the heavens were established “with understanding” (Binah). Chochmah reaches directly into the lowest level.

The references are to a maamar in Torah Ohr, Bereishis, on why man’s body, unlike other creatures’, was formed first of inanimate dust: the earth was founded by Chochmah, which is clothed specifically in the inanimate, while the heavens were established by Binah. The Tikkunei Zohar says Malchus is the “mouth” and is called the Oral Torah, which is why the laws of the Oral Torah receive supernal Chochmah.

A later maamar in this volume explains why “the words of the Scribes” are “dearer” than the Written Torah. The Scribes (soferim) are the early Sages, so called because they counted (safar) the letters of the Torah (Kiddushin 30a), and their “words” are the laws the Sages added; these stem from a level above “book” (sefer), the Written Torah. The Oral Torah, though lower in appearance, is higher in root.

Iggeres HaKodesh explains the same point with the “inverted seal,” and with Sefer Yetzirah’s phrase that the beginning is wedged in the end. The lowest level is bound to the highest.

This is the full meaning of “Your Name is oil poured forth”: the laws of the Oral Torah receive from the essence of the oil, from a very high source. The Psalm describes this oil running down from the head of Aharon onto his beard.

A maamar in Beha’aloscha explains that the hairs of the High Priest’s beard stand for the laws of the Torah, which come down in countless details, and the good oil, supernal Chochmah, comes down upon them.

The Psalm says “the beard” twice, and a maamar later in this parsha explains why. The laws of the positive commandments come from Chesed, from the “supernal beard.”

That supernal beard is described with images of whiteness, like snow and pure wool, from Daniel’s vision; the laws of the prohibitions come from the “black locks” of the Song of Songs. The Idra Rabba (Zohar III, 132a) resolves the two verses: the white is in the supernal beard, the black in the lower one.

Now “for fragrance, Your oils are good” can be understood. The oil that runs down onto the beard, that is, into the laws, has its root extremely high.

Because its root is so high, it is called “fragrant oil.” The Talmud’s “thirteen rivers of pure balsam oil,” promised to Rabbi Elazar ben Pedas for the World to Come, refer to this level, which is higher than plain oil.

¶2 This explains the “fragrant oil” from paragraph 2.

In Torah Ohr, Terumah, the Alter Rebbe explains that plain oil is Chochmah, while balsam oil, with its fragrance, alludes to the flow from Chochmah within Keser, above vessels, and the thirteen rivers to the thirteen attributes of mercy. The Zohar at the beginning of Terumah also speaks of the rivers of pure balsam from which the higher souls draw their delight.

Further Zohar passages on “for fragrance, Your oils” are listed, with the Ramaz’s commentary. In Acharei the Zohar speaks of the fine fragrance of the incense rising to join the anointing oil, and in Tzav of the myrtles whose fragrance sustains the soul.

A second reading follows the plain sense of the Midrash on the Song of Songs. There “oil poured forth” is a higher level than “for fragrance, Your oils.”

Fragrance is only the scent that reaches a person from the oil. Pouring oil into a friend’s vessel gives him the oil itself.

A maamar on “Moshe commanded us the Torah” explains that the Written Torah is the “bridegroom” and the Oral Torah the “bride.” The flow between them has two levels.

The first level is like the Midrash’s saying that the Torah is the “fallen fruit” of supernal wisdom: something that falls away from the tree, not its core. This is betrothal (erusin), an external connection, and it corresponds to “the fragrance of Your oils.” In halachah, erusin already binds the couple as husband and wife, yet she does not yet enter his home or live with him; that full union comes only with nisu’in (marriage). So erusin is a real bond that still remains outward, as against the inner union of marriage in the next stage.

The Likkutei Torah of the Arizal on Psalms (his teachings as recorded by Rabbi Chaim Vital) is cited for this, as the Kehot note explains. At this level only a glimmer of the Yesod of Abba (the channel of Chochmah) comes through, not its essence.

The second level is marriage (nisu’in), the full union of bridegroom and bride, drawn from the inner dimension of the Written Torah. This is “Your Name is oil poured forth”: the essence of supernal Chochmah comes into Malchus, the Oral Torah.

Now the verse’s conclusion, “therefore the maidens love You,” is explained. The Zohar reads alamos (maidens) as olamos (worlds): the worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, which receive from Malchus, their source.

These are the Zohar passages that read alamos as the worlds: “alamos, worlds, actual worlds,” and “do not read alamos but olamos.” They are listed for further study.

In the same way, from Malchus of Atzilus a revelation reaches every Jew. It comes through accepting the yoke of Heaven’s kingship, which is receiving Malchus.

Having accepted the yoke, a person who studies Torah receives both “fragrance” and “oil poured forth.” These are the two levels, betrothal and marriage, described in paragraph 7.

The aim is that G‑d’s light be grasped in both mind and heart, since the Torah and G‑d are one. The contemplation should enter a person’s inner depths, the “deep heart” of the Psalm.

The Sages said that the light within the Torah returns a person to the good; in Torah Ohr (Megillas Esther) the Alter Rebbe notes that they said maor, the luminary itself, not mere light. The maamar on Beha’aloscha explains that the oil comes down “according to his attributes,” reaching each person’s emotions, and the verse “the oil of his right hand calls out” speaks of its effect.

The maamar now ties the two verses together. The earlier verse, “Your love is better than wine,” describes the way of contemplation, through which one becomes a “bride” who receives G‑d’s light.

The later verse addresses a different person: the “maiden” whose heart is sealed and whom contemplation has not moved. The question is how such a person can also come to love G‑d.

The answer is Torah study, the “oil.” The Torah is the word of “I” (Anochi), G‑d’s own self, in the phrase “that I command you.”

That level is beyond all thought, as the Tikkunei Zohar says. Precisely because it is so high, it can engrave itself and form a “vessel” even in a heart that nothing else moves.

¶2 This answers the question from paragraph 2.

A maamar in Bechukosai reads bechukosai as engravings (chakikah): the animal soul’s “vessel” must be engraved from outside, through contemplation, and from within, through mitzvos rooted very high, such as the red heifer, tzitzis and tefillin. There the Alter Rebbe reads “a well that princes dug” in the same light.

A maamar on “I will betroth you to Me” makes a similar point with the verse “my heart and my flesh sing to the living G‑d.” The words that follow are taken almost word for word from that maamar (Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar).

The heart and flesh are physical and do not, by themselves, yearn for “the courts of Havayah,” the source of the soul’s life, the level that contemplation of the revealed world, “wine,” reaches. They are moved only when they sing to the living G‑d Himself.

The principle is that the higher a level is, the lower it can reach, so the very highest touches even the physical heart and flesh.

The same applies here: “fragrance” and “oil poured forth” come from a level far above wine. The physical fact that oil floats on top of wine illustrates this.

The Talmud records a dispute whether oil floating on wine counts as “joined” to it: if one who has immersed but awaits nightfall (a tevul yom) touches the oil, the Sages say only the oil is disqualified, while Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri says the two are joined. The Sages’ view, that the two are not joined, reflects that oil stays apart from and above the wine.

The reason is that oil corresponds to “the supernal Chochmah of all,” as the Zohar says, and so stands far above wine, which corresponds to Binah. In Likkutei Torah, Beha’aloscha, the Alter Rebbe quotes the same Zohar and concludes that oil therefore spreads lower, so that even physical existence is nullified.

For this reason the Torah can affect even the sealed heart and engrave itself there, so that the “maidens” too will love G‑d. It is like the Exodus, where G‑d Himself, “I and not an angel,” came down to the lowest place; the Bechukosai maamar uses the same words for the mitzvos that engrave even the animal soul.

This opens a further reading of the verse. It links “fragrance” and “oil poured forth” to the Talmud’s instruction to divide one’s study into three parts: Scripture, Mishnah and Talmud.

When one studies the laws of the mitzvos in the Mishnah and Talmud, one actually understands G‑d’s wisdom, because that wisdom has been clothed in physical matters one can grasp. Those laws are G‑d’s will and wisdom themselves.

This grasp of the essence is “oil poured forth.” The narratives of the Bible are different: the divine wisdom clothed in their words and letters cannot be understood at all.

The Zohar says that the plain story of the Torah is only its “garment”; the commandments are its “body” and its inner secrets its “soul.”

The Ramaz (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto), commenting there, gives an example: the list of the kings of Edom in Genesis records events that really happened, and the verse keeps its plain meaning. But G‑d’s real intent is not the history; hidden in it are the secrets of the World of Tohu, the “chaos” that preceded the ordered worlds.

The Zohar elaborates on this at 149b. Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s Pardes Rimonim (Sha’ar (Gate) 27, chapter 1) explains that Zohar passage at length and is quoted next.

The Pardes says that one who studies the Torah should intend that he is learning divine words, whose depths are hidden from him.

Even if he understands only the plain story, and even if he understands nothing at all, he has a good reward. Reading the Torah’s words is itself of value.

This is why the letters and plain stories of the Torah are called “the fragrance of Your oils.”

The wisdom hidden in the stories and letters is not understood at all, unlike the laws, whose plain sense the Zohar calls the “bodies” of the Torah and not merely its garment. Even so, the letters and stories are themselves “the fragrance of Your oils.”

Through reading them a person draws a scent and glimmer from the “oil of holy anointing”: the high source reaches him, though not in understood form.

The analogy is smell: one can enjoy a fragrance without tasting it, and even from a distance. So too a reader of Scripture receives something from the divine wisdom without grasping it.

On the contrary, the fragrance comes from a higher place than plain oil, which is supernal Chochmah. It comes from the “fragrant oil,” a level above it.

Because it is so high, it cannot be revealed close up, as “taste,” the way the laws are grasped in “oil poured forth”; it reaches a person only as fragrance. The maamar on “These are the journeys” (Likkutei Torah, Masei) reads Yericho (Jericho) as rei’ach, fragrance: a slight glimmer of a thing’s essence, as an apple’s scent is not the apple itself.

The Zohar says that each word of a Torah story comes not only to tell its own event but to point to a larger principle, as in the rule of the thirteen principles: what goes out of the general rule comes to teach about the whole. The narrative is a sign of something higher than itself.

Still, “oil poured forth,” the laws, has its own great advantage: it brings down the essence of supernal Chochmah, not just a scent of it.

Each level has its advantage, and in Koheles’s words, “both alike are good.”

Now a question: under which third does studying the Zohar and the Arizal’s writings fall? The Alter Rebbe says it belongs to “a third in Scripture,” as explained in his treatment of the Zohar passage cited in paragraph 5.

In brief, the Zohar, like Midrash Rabbah and other Midrashim, is a commentary on Scripture. Rashi notes that Midrash is close to Scripture. He says this where the Talmud discusses which kinds of study need the blessing over the Torah: Midrash, such as the Mechilta, Sifra and Sifri, expounds the verses and so is grouped with Scripture. The maamar extends this to the Zohar and the other Midrashim, which are likewise commentary on the verses.

The Alter Rebbe’s own Laws of Torah Study count halachic Midrash, like the Sifra and Sifrei, under “Mishnah.” That is because they explain the laws, like the Mishnah itself.

The secrets of the Zohar are different: even the greatest sages can know only that the levels of the chain of worlds exist, not what they are in essence. This is similar to reading Scripture.

A reader of Scripture reads the Names of G‑d without grasping the essence hidden in them. The study of the Zohar and Etz Chaim is similar.

So Kabbalah is counted under “Scripture.” This also answers the question of the Ran (Rabbeinu Nissim of Gerona, a fourteenth-century Talmud commentator): if Mishnah is weightier, why give a full third of the day to Scripture? Since “Scripture” includes the study of the Zohar and the Arizal’s teachings, a full third is fitting for it.

Knowing that the higher levels exist, without grasping their essence, is like a mere fragrance. That is why this study, too, is called “for fragrance, Your oils.”

The Kuntres Acharon of Tanya (which the text calls “Iggeres HaKodesh near its end”) makes a similar point: knowing the order of the worlds is not in itself better than studying the laws, where one grasps the essence. Its value is that such knowledge is itself a great mitzvah.

That knowledge even surpasses all the other mitzvos, as in “And you shall know this day” and “Know the G‑d of your father,” and it leads to serving G‑d “with a whole heart.”

Moreover, even this knowledge of existence is a glimmer of the Torah’s inner dimension. The Zohar speaks of three levels bound together, the Holy One, the Torah and Israel, each both hidden and revealed; the maamar on “For the thing is near to you” (Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim) explains that the revealed aspect fills the worlds and can be grasped, while the hidden one surrounds them.

Therefore both levels are needed, fragrance and poured oil, Scripture and Kabbalah as well as Mishnah and Talmud. From both together comes “therefore the maidens love You”: even sealed hearts come to love G‑d.