לריח שמניך טובים שמן תורק שמך על כן עלמות אהבוך

The maamar opens with a verse from the Song of Songs and focuses on its last words, “the maidens love you.” Reading alamos (maidens) as olamos (worlds), the Alter Rebbe takes the “maidens” to be souls not in a body, that is, souls dwelling in the higher worlds.

By contrast, the verse in Isaiah that calls G‑d the soul’s “Master” (literally “husband”) refers to souls here in this world, clothed in bodies. The Alter Rebbe points the reader to the Midrash and the Zohar where these two kinds of souls are discussed.

The soul’s coming down into a body is called a great descent. This is true not only in the time of exile, when the Temple is destroyed; simply being clothed in a physical body is already a kind of exile for the soul.

Before birth the soul enjoyed the radiance of the Shechinah, G‑d’s revealed presence. The Talmud relates a sage’s wish to pass through judgment in order to reach the World to Come, which shows that even the pain of Gehinnom (purgatory) is worth enduring for the delight of the Garden of Eden.

Even the lower Garden of Eden justifies such suffering, and to rise to the higher Garden of Eden the soul must first pass through a further purification called the River of Fire. The question is therefore sharp: if the soul already enjoyed so much above, why must it descend so far?

The answer is that the descent exists for the sake of a greater ascent. The Mishnah’s teaching that one hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world surpasses all the life of the World to Come shows that this world offers something the heavenly reward cannot.

All the rewards of the World to Come are only a “radiance” of the Shechinah, a single glimmer and not G‑d’s essence. The Talmud says the World to Come was created with the letter yud, the smallest letter, which stands for a great contraction (tzimtzum) and a single thought.

A single letter or thought is a tiny expression compared to the whole person who produces it. Using the principle of Job’s words, “from my flesh I behold G‑d” (learning about the Divine from the human being), the Alter Rebbe applies this to G‑d’s own being and essence.

For G‑d, all of creation through the end of time is like one thought or one glance. The Mishnah says the world could have been created with a single utterance, and the Talmud counts “In the beginning” as an utterance too, so all of creation stems from a contraction symbolized by the yud.

The phrase “the life of the World to Come” is read as a plural, implying many levels of reward. There are many Gardens of Eden and eras of Mashiach, each above the next, extending through fifty thousand jubilees.

The six thousand years of this world’s history count as only one Shemittah (sabbatical) cycle within that vast scheme. Each such cycle has its own lower and higher Garden of Eden and its own era of Mashiach.

The conclusion is that all these levels together are still only a glimmer of the Infinite Light, while G‑d’s own being and essence remains beyond any thought. This sets up the claim that teshuvah in this world reaches higher than all of them.

The ascent that justifies the descent is teshuvah, which lets the soul rise to be included in G‑d’s own being and essence. That is why “one hour” of teshuvah in this world is finer than the whole World to Come.

This power belongs specifically to a soul in exile in a physical body. Its teshuvah comes from the depth of the heart, as a human initiative, born of reflecting on how far it has fallen from its lofty source.

The Mishnah’s “Know from where you came” is read as pointing to the soul’s root above Chochmah, in the “nothing” (ayin) from which wisdom comes. “To where you are going” is its being clothed in this world, where, even without sin, it has become physical and utterly distant from G‑d’s essence.

A person must honestly take stock of his soul and feel compassion for its descent, with a broken heart over its spiritual life. That compassion, aroused below, draws down compassion from above, even in material matters such as children, life and livelihood, as in the prayer “Remember us for life.”

Isaiah’s promise “With great compassion I will gather you” is read as describing teshuvah from the depth of the heart. It comes as the person reflects on the next words, “for a small moment I forsook you.”

The “small moment” is G‑d’s single thought that holds all of history, every Garden of Eden, the Days of Mashiach, the Resurrection and the fifty thousand jubilees. The Alter Rebbe refers the reader to another maamar for more on this.

Because the soul’s descent is so great, the teshuvah it arouses is deep, and it calls forth abundant compassion from G‑d’s own essence. That compassion comes through the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, because it is too great to be contained in a single vessel or attribute.

The Thirteen Attributes begin with “Havayah, Havayah, G‑d, compassionate.” The Name Havayah here stands for the drawing down from G‑d’s essence, which then unfolds into thirteen attributes of mercy.

The Alter Rebbe returns to Isaiah’s “For your Master (bo’alayich) is your Maker,” which uses the language of marriage. He asks how such an expression can apply to G‑d, who has no body, in relation to spiritual souls, especially since another verse uses the same word for a young man marrying a maiden.

The Talmud teaches that a woman makes a covenant only with the one who made her a vessel. The Alter Rebbe hints at this teaching to explain in what sense G‑d is the soul’s “Master” and “Maker.”

In exile in this world the soul becomes coarse and the heart becomes closed, like stone. This happens not only through sin, G‑d forbid, but even through permitted things when a person does not sanctify himself in them.

The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, drawn down from above, have the power to open such a sealed heart, much as a maiden’s closed state is opened in marriage. We see this in human terms: even a cruel person’s heart opens when compassion is stirred in him.

The Alter Rebbe now explains “your Master is your Maker” through the teshuvah just described. The verse goes on to say “G‑d of Hosts is His Name,” and he reads this as a subject for contemplation: all the life of the World to Come is contained in “G‑d of Hosts.”

All of that is only G‑d’s “Name,” His glory shining over heaven and earth, a mere radiance of the Shechinah, just as a name is only an outer expression of a person. By contrast, the soul’s source is very lofty, so its descent into this world is very great.

This contemplation arouses the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in abundance, which open the person’s closed heart. The opened heart becomes a vessel and a “foundation for Your dwelling,” a place where G‑d can rest.

When G‑d “makes His face shine” on a person, the person, like a reflection in water, turns his own face back to G‑d in teshuvah. The Ten Days of Teshuvah (from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur) are this return to a face-to-face relationship.

During the rest of the year, even one who serves G‑d does so as if with the back of the neck turned toward Him. The Alter Rebbe borrows Jeremiah’s rebuke, “they turned to Me the back of the neck and not the face,” to describe service without inner involvement.

The face is where a person’s life and senses are concentrated, while the back of the neck is only bone. The image shows the difference between service with one’s full inner vitality and service that is merely external.

Turning the face to G‑d means directing the innermost point of the heart, the will, and all thought, speech and action to Him alone. As the Psalmist says, “Whom have I in heaven,” one seeks not even the Gardens of Eden but G‑d Himself.

The Gardens of Eden are only a glimmer, so the goal is G‑d’s essence. Elul, the month before Rosh Hashanah, arouses the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, preparing for the Ten Days of Teshuvah to be face to face, with the soul included and nullified in G‑d’s being and essence.

Everything so far concerns souls in bodies, whose ascent comes through teshuvah. The Talmud teaches that “in the place where a baal teshuvah (a returnee) stands,” even perfect tzaddikim cannot stand, showing how high this ascent reaches.

This raises a question about souls already in the Garden of Eden, perfect tzaddikim who enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah. A broken heart does not apply to them, so how do they rise to be included in G‑d’s essence?

The answer is found in the opening verse: “the fragrance of your goodly oils” is why “the maidens,” the souls above, love G‑d. Their ascent comes through the Torah they studied while in bodies, since the Torah itself was clothed in physical matters.

“Your name is oil poured forth” refers to the Torah, which is entirely G‑d’s Name. It was “poured” from one level to the next until it was clothed in physical matters in this world.

The analogy is from real oil: the more it is poured from vessel to vessel, the more its fragrance spreads. So too the Torah’s “fragrance” is strongest in its lowest, most physical form.

Since “the end is wedged in the beginning,” the lowest level of Torah is bound to its highest source, as the final deed is what was first in thought. For this reason the Torah the souls learned below lifts them to be included in G‑d.

“The maidens love you” means that the souls above attain the great love (ahavah rabbah), linked to “abundant in kindness.” The Talmud’s teaching that the light of Torah revives those who use it shows that their Torah study gives them life and elevation.

“Goodly” is read as a term for light, as in “G‑d saw the light, that it was good,” so the “goodly oils” are the light of Torah. A soul still in this world can also reach this great love through deep teshuvah.

The preceding verse, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,” continues “for your love is better than wine.” The Talmud reads this as “The words of the Scribes are dearer than the wine of Torah,” and the Alter Rebbe applies it to the hundred blessings said daily, a rabbinic institution.

Each blessing, “Blessed are You, G‑d, our G‑d,” draws G‑d’s revelation down from the higher world to the lower one. “Our G‑d” means that He should be ours, not remote above, and not known only through intellect and contemplation.

Beyond understanding, the innermost point of the heart must be revealed, a single will for G‑d alone. Every Jew has such a love for G‑d, though it may be hidden.

This hidden love surfaces in prayer, in each person according to his measure; some pray as if “their heart cried out.” This can happen even when a person sees himself as coarse and bound up in physical desires.

That coarseness is not the person’s true self; it belongs to “the world of falsehood,” this material world. The hidden love for G‑d is the truth of the soul.

The Midrash compares Israel to a nut, which has an edible kernel hidden inside a hard shell. So too, while the soul is in a body its love for G‑d is concealed within an outer shell, which is the “secret” of the hidden love.

The hidden love comes into full revelation when a higher “secret” is aroused. This higher secret is G‑d’s own concealed level, described in the verse “He made darkness His hiding place.”

When the higher hidden level is revealed, it brings out the lower secret, the soul’s hidden love. The Alter Rebbe refers to another maamar where this is explained at length.

The Talmud’s saying “When wine enters, the secret comes out” (wine and secret both equal seventy in gematria) is applied to teshuvah, which brings out both the higher and the lower secret. The Talmud’s “Who revealed this secret to My children” refers to Israel’s saying “we will do” before “we will hear”, a love and commitment from beyond understanding.