ושאבתם מים בששון ממעיני הישועה (בישעיה י״ב)

The maamar opens with Isaiah’s verse, which the Sages connected to the water-drawing ceremony of Sukkos. It starts from a halachic fact: wine was poured on the altar with offerings all year round, and the Written Torah says so openly in many places.

On Sukkos water was poured on the altar as well, every day of the festival. This water libation is a “law given to Moshe at Sinai”: an oral tradition that the Written Torah does not state openly; the Rabbis found only a hint of it in the verses (“supported it on a verse”).

The drawing of that water was the famous Simchas Beis HaShoevah, “the rejoicing of the water-drawing,” a celebration so great that the Mishnah in Sukkah describes it at length (end of chapter 4, start of chapter 5). The joy is tied to the words “with joy” in Isaiah’s verse.

This is the question the maamar sets out to answer: why is the water libation left out of the written text? The Alter Rebbe notes that the Zohar raises the matter in its addenda (Hashmatos) to Part I.

¶2 Hold this question: paragraph 2 answers it.

Before explaining the water, he explains the wine. In Jotham’s parable the vine refuses to give up its wine, which “gladdens G‑d and men” (plainly: poured on the altar and drunk by people); the maamar will read it as wine bringing G‑dliness into revelation for people. In Kabbalah, Binah, the faculty of understanding, is called “the mother of the children” (it gives birth to the emotions), and the verse in Psalms links that mother with joy.

Joy, in this system, is what happens when something hidden comes out into the open. Chochmah is an insight still in seed form; Binah develops it until it is really understood. Only at that point, when the idea is grasped clearly, does a person feel joy.

The converse: while an idea is still locked in the undeveloped flash of Chochmah and has not been worked out, it gives no delight or joy. That is why joy is rooted in Binah and not in Chochmah.

Yet Binah itself is hidden: it is called the higher Gan Eden, and the Zohar on Vayeitzei calls Binah (there, the “Jubilee”) “always the hidden world” (alma d’iskasya), while Malchus is the revealed world. So Binah must itself be brought out into the open; the next part explains who does that.

The verse’s plain sense is that the Levite “himself” (hu) does the service of the Tent of Meeting; the maamar reads hu, “He,” as the name of a hidden level that the Levites’ service draws into the open. The Zohar says “He” is Atika (the Ancient One, the innermost level of Keser, G‑d’s delight), enclothed within Binah; in Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha, the Alter Rebbe explains that Atik is revealed only through Binah, not in Chochmah. The Levites revealed it through the song they sang over the wine libations, and wine is Binah.

“Gladdens G‑d and men” is read as: wine (Binah) brings G‑dliness into revelation for human beings. Concretely, when a person contemplates and understands G‑d’s greatness, the understanding sets his soul aflame with love for G‑d.

Physical wine does the same thing on its own level: it brings joy and brings out what was hidden, as the Talmud says, “Wine enters, a secret comes out.” In Torah Ohr, Beshalach (“Then Moshe sang”), the Alter Rebbe explains that the Levites’ service rises from below and belongs to the hidden world, the level of “Hu,” which is why it took the form of song and melody; in the Lech Lecha maamar he reads “He (hu) made us” as Keser, above the order of worlds.

Wine was poured all year, and also on the festivals, especially Sukkos, “the season of our joy.” So what is the difference between the everyday wine libation and the festival’s? The answer comes in an analogy.

The difference is like a person who is moved and happy about something and keeps it inside: he is full of joy within (the phrase “his inside is inlaid” is from Song of Songs; the printed רצוך reads רצוף, “inlaid”), but nobody sees it.

When the joy is very great it cannot stay inside: it bursts out into singing, dancing and clapping. The difference is one of intensity; a big enough joy cannot be contained.

Applied to the service of G‑d: all year a person may be moved by G‑d’s greatness, both as He fills every world from within and as He surrounds them all from beyond. Still, the feeling stays inside; the “light” of joy is held within the “vessel” of the person’s ordinary composure, and the vessel keeps it within bounds.

On Sukkos the light of joy is so abundant that it breaks through the vessel and shows openly. That is the festival’s added dimension beyond the everyday wine libation.

This overflowing joy is called “the great noise” (the printed "בראש" apparently reads "ברעש,” as in the Kehot note and the morning prayers). In the prayers, the Ofanim, a class of angels, rise “with a great noise”; spiritual joy, like physical joy, expresses itself in song and movement, and even more so.

Summing up: that is the wine libation of the year. On Sukkos both were poured, wine in one silver bowl and water in the other; the Mishnah says the western bowl was for water. (The printed "הנשנ" and "ומטם" apparently read "השנה" and "ומים.”)

The key equation of the maamar: wine corresponds to Binah, water to Chochmah. Since Chochmah stands above Binah, the water libation is the loftier of the two.

The Zohar ties wine to the Levites and “clear, shining water” to the Kohen. (The printed "בחיד" apparently reads "בחי׳,” “the level of.”)

Water flows downward, and so does the Kohen’s role: blessing and influence come down to the High Priest first and through him to the other Kohanim. The Talmud says the High Priest takes his portion ba-rosh, “first,” literally “at the head”; the maamar reads it: as the “head,” he is the one who bestows on the others.

Wine belongs to the Levites, whose service moves upward, from below to above, and is loud: raising the voice in song, which is revelation. The Alter Rebbe plays on the Mishnah about Shabbos, where shir means an animal’s chain or collar; he reads it as “song” (also shir), the Levites’ hallmark.

Water is silent, like the Kohanim, whose service, in the Aramaic phrase quoted here, is done in silence. The Torah says the Levites “shall be joined” (yilavu, the root of the name Levi) to Aharon and serve him, showing that the Kohanim are the higher rank; so too water stands above wine.

Section 2 begins the answer to the opening question by contrasting the two Torahs. The Written Torah is defined by its letters and their combinations; the Sages say that the whole Torah is the Names of the Holy One, blessed be He. In Likkutei Torah, Pinchas, the Alter Rebbe adds that the Written Torah is called Mikra, “calling,” as one calls a person by name, for the combinations of its letters are holy Names.

That is why a Torah scroll is judged letter by letter: not one may be added or missing, each must have its correct shape, and letters that touch make the scroll unfit. Letters, he says, belong to Binah, and he refers to a discussion elsewhere on the verse about engraving the High Priest’s gold plate, and to the Ramaz (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, a Kabbalist who annotated the Zohar).

An experience anyone can check: while an idea is only a flash of insight (Chochmah), it has no words yet; once it is worked out and understood (Binah), it takes shape as words, “letters,” in the mind. So letters are the mark of Binah.

Hence the Written Torah, the Torah of letters, belongs to Binah, and the Zohar calls Binah itself “a Torah scroll.” In Likkutei Torah, Chukas, the Alter Rebbe likewise explains that the Torah’s letters come into being chiefly in Binah, which is called sefer, “book.”

He meets an objection: the Zohar says the Torah comes from Chochmah. The answer: from G‑d’s side, the Emanator’s, it is Chochmah; but as it reaches created beings it takes the form of Binah.

An illustration in brackets: the Torah was given on the fiftieth day after the Exodus, matching the “fifty gates of Binah” of which the Talmud speaks; the Zohar in Tetzaveh describes the forty-nine days and the fiftieth, on which the Torah came forth. This shows that the Written Torah is Binah.

The Oral Torah, by contrast, is Chochmah. In it what matters is the idea that the words carry, not the exact wording, and so it is not held to the letter-by-letter exactness of a Torah scroll.

The Talmud’s constant question, “What is the reason of Rabbi Meir?”, shows that the Oral Torah is about reasons (te’amim; the word also means “tastes,” and it is the name of the Torah’s cantillation notes as well). As is known, the te’amim belong to Chochmah.

Now the opening question is answered: the wine libation is written in the Torah, and the water libation is only an oral law from Sinai.

¶1 This answers the question from paragraph 1.

Wine is Binah, the same level as the Written Torah; hence the Sages’ phrase “the wine of the Torah,” which will be explained soon. What belongs to Binah can be put into letters, so the wine libation could be written.

¶4 “The wine of the Torah” is explained in paragraph 4.

Water is Chochmah, which is above letters, so it could not be spread out into written words. Water and wine thus correspond to mochin d’Abba and mochin d’Imma, the intellect of Chochmah and of Binah.

Back to the main line: on “Your love is better than wine,” the Sages put these words in the mouth of the Congregation of Israel, speaking to G‑d: “The words of the Scribes (the Sages’ teachings, the Oral Torah) are more pleasing to me than the wine of the Torah.” The maamar asks what exactly “Scribes” and “the wine of the Torah” are. In Likkutei Torah, Matos, the Alter Rebbe reads the same saying another way: “the wine of the Torah” is its inner secrets, and the Scribes’ fences are dearer because they come from G‑d’s great love.

Sefer Yetzirah, an ancient Kabbalistic work, names three instruments of creation: sofer (writer), sefer (book) and sippur (telling). The Alter Rebbe maps them onto the soul’s faculties: the writer is Chochmah, which pours into the book, Binah, the faculty of thought.

The third term, sippur (telling), is speech. Speech draws on thought (Binah), since one cannot speak without first thinking.

That is why the world was created with these three: the worlds come into being through G‑d’s speech (“By the word of Havayah the heavens were made”), which is sippur; that speech is drawn from thought (sefer), and thought from Chochmah, called sofer (Isaiah’s “Where is the sofer?”). “Bereishis bara” is read as “with reishis He created,” for reishis stands for Chochmah; the Targum Yerushalmi the Kehot note cites renders it “with wisdom He created.”

Now the saying is decoded. “Scribes” (soferim) points to the sofer, Chochmah, the root of the Oral Torah and of the water libation. “The wine of the Torah” is the Written Torah, the sefer, which is Binah, as is the wine libation.

¶2 This explains “the wine of the Torah” promised in paragraph 2.

Then the reason: Chochmah (sofer) is far above Binah (sefer), so “the words of the Scribes” and the water libation are dearer than “the wine of the Torah.” In Torah Ohr, Shemos (“Where is the sofer?”), the Alter Rebbe explains that “Ayeh,” “Where,” the level above the worlds, is itself the sofer, and in the maamar just before it that the words of the Scribes, rooted in sofer, stand above the Written Torah and so could only be oral. He also refers to “I am black” in Likkutei Torah on Song of Songs.

A qualification: Chochmah is higher, but the Zohar calls Chochmah and Binah “two companions that never part”; above they are always together. So below, too, they must be joined, since an initiative from below (an arousal from below) calls forth the matching response from above.

This is how the verse is read: “water” is Chochmah and “with joy” is Binah (joy comes from Binah, as explained in section 1). Drawing water with joy joins the two, so that Chochmah and Binah are united below as they are above.

The conclusion: because the water libation joins Chochmah (water) with Binah (joy), the “men of deeds” sang and danced at this rite. In the Mishnah (Sukkah 5:4) their torch dance belongs to the night’s celebration; at cockcrow the water was drawn from the Shiloach and then poured on the altar with the morning offering, so the maamar speaks of the celebration and the libation as one.

Two more signs of the joining: the water was poured at the same time as the wine, as the Rambam (Maimonides) records at the end of his laws of the daily and additional offerings; and the Zohar teaches, in the name of Chanoch-Metatron, that “he brought him wine” (Yaakov bringing Yitzchak wine) means that water was cast into that wine, for without the water it could not be borne.

Section 3 turns to the verse’s last words, “from the wellsprings of salvation.” First the Psalm “I will raise the cup of salvations”: King David, the model king, spoke of his own attribute, Malchus (kingship), and Malchus of Atzilus is called the “cup” of salvations.

The Zohar explains the image: into this cup blessings flow from the “salvations” above, and it gathers them in; it calls the Congregation of Israel (Malchus) “the cup of blessing.” Malchus is the receiving vessel at the end of the Sefiros. In halachah the cup of blessing is the cup of wine over which Grace after Meals is said.

An analogy from the soul: speech is the vessel in which thought and feeling come out and take form. So Malchus, G‑d’s “speech,” is the vessel that gathers and conveys the flow of all ten Sefiros.

Hillel’s saying at the water-drawing celebration, “If I am here, all is here,” is read by the Zohar as spoken by the Shechinah, which is called “I” (Malchus): where the Shechinah dwells, everything is present, since Malchus gathers all the Sefiros.

What are the “salvations” that fill the cup? The Zohar says they are “the right,” that is, Chesed, as in “His right hand saved for Him”; its wording is close to Psalms 98:1, one of the verses the Kehot note gives.

The Zohar’s opening passage speaks of five strong leaves surrounding the rose (the Congregation of Israel, Malchus), and these are called salvations; they are the five Gevuros (powers of restraint). The Zohar HaRakia (a commentary on the Zohar) explains that they are Gevuros “sweetened” by the five Chasadim, restraint softened by kindness, so both readings meet.

Why does Malchus need “salvation”? Because it goes down to give life to the lower worlds, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and as Proverbs says, “her feet go down to death.” Down there the external forces could draw nourishment from it, so it needs protection.

¶10 Keep this in mind: paragraph 10 shows how Sukkos keeps the external forces away.

“I will raise the cup” means raising Malchus back up into Atzilus, where no evil can reach. The Ramaz adds that raising the cup draws into Malchus from the five Gevuros of Atik Yomin, the innermost level of Keser. ("להמשישך" apparently reads "להמשיך.”)

So “the wellsprings of salvation” is the spring from which the salvations flow into the cup of blessing. He compares the word “nevarech” (“let us bless”) of the zimmun, the invitation before Grace after Meals, as explained elsewhere.

The Raaya Mehemna (a section of the Zohar), on Parshas Bo, describes a chain of water: the source, the spring that flows from it, and a dug-out pool (berechah) that collects the spring’s water. Berechah, pool, shares its letters with berachah, blessing.

“Nevarech” is read as drawing that “pool” (berechah) down, so that the cup of blessing can be filled from it. (The printed "הריכה" apparently reads "בריכה,” “pool.”)

The “wellsprings of salvation” are the Yesodos (channels of transmission) of Abba and Imma, Chochmah and Binah. The Zohar at the end of Balak says so explicitly, and adds that all of it comes from “deep flowing springs.”

He refers to his explanation of “There are sixty queens,” which discusses Joel’s prophecy that in the future a spring will flow from the House of Havayah and water the land.

At present the flow comes through “the river that goes forth from Eden,” Binah, and as it descends “it separates,” becoming the separate, self-aware existence (yesh) of created things. Binah’s flow can lead to a sense of separateness.

In the future the flow will come from the “wellspring,” Chochmah, which Job calls “from nothingness” (ayin). Then even the lowest place, “the Valley of Shittim,” will be watered: self-nullification (bittul) before G‑d will be revealed even below. ("והכחמה" apparently reads "והחכמה.”)

This adds to the reason the water libation is higher: it comes from the “wellspring,” Chochmah, while wine comes from the “river,” Binah. He refers again to the Zohar on the Kohanim and Levites cited in section 1. ("ל״ג" apparently reads "ח״ג,” Part III.)

Two further readings. The “deep springs” may be two of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, called mazalos, “He preserves [kindness]” and “He cleanses,” from which Abba and Imma draw. And by the Ramaz’s reading of “the cup of salvations,” the salvations come from the Yesod of Atik Yomin enclothed in Arich Anpin, so the wellsprings would be those two levels of Keser.

The Zohar in Balak also says the wellsprings are Netzach and Hod, and the Pardes (Pardes Rimonim of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero) asked what these have to do with “wellsprings of salvation.” He answers briefly: the explanation elsewhere of the Talmud’s “Netzach is Jerusalem” resolves it.

He recalls the main answer: the water libation could not be written in the Written Torah because it comes from sofer (Chochmah), which is above sefer (Binah).

The same principle explains a further step: the hakafos, the circuits with the Torah scrolls on Shemini Atzeres (in the Diaspora, Simchas Torah), are not recorded even in the Oral Torah; they are only a custom.

The hakafos draw down the makifim (encompassing lights) of Abba, a level that surrounds Chochmah from above. The Oral Torah is the inner light of Chochmah, so even it cannot contain what is above it; the practice remained a custom.

A parallel: the evening prayer is “optional” (reshus). In the Talmud (Berakhot 27b) Rabbi Yehoshua calls it optional and Rabban Gamliel obligatory, and Rava rules that it is optional; the Rambam (Laws of Prayer 1:6) adds that all Israel have since accepted it as an obligation. Elsewhere this “optional” is explained as coming from so high a place that the arousal from below cannot fully reach it, and so it could not be made a strict obligation; the Zohar in Chayei Sarah asks why the evening prayer of Yaakov is optional. In Likkutei Torah on Song of Songs the Alter Rebbe explains that Yaakov’s level is one the arousal from below does not reach, though it is drawn down only after the morning and afternoon prayers.

More verses that tie Chochmah to distance: Miriam, Moshe’s sister, stood “from afar,” and Proverbs calls Chochmah “my sister.” He also refers to the Mikdash Melech (a commentary on the Zohar) on “From afar Havayah appeared to me.”

Binah, by contrast, comes close, like a mother who comforts her child. That is why joy, which is revelation, belongs to Binah, “the mother of the children.”

That is why wine, Binah, is the one that “gladdens.” On Sukkos, however, the Jewish people are empowered to bring Chochmah itself close and revealed, just like Binah, so that Chochmah too gives joy.

Proverbs says “a wise son gladdens a father,” and the stress is on “wise”: Chochmah, wisdom, itself becomes a source of joy, and “the father” is Abba. The Simchas Beis HaShoevah is this: the “living water,” supernal Chochmah, is revealed and brought close, and so it brings joy the way Binah does.

On Sukkos mochin d’Abba (the intellect of Chochmah) become as revealed as mochin d’Imma (the intellect of Binah) usually are. The power for this comes from the teshuvah (return to G‑d) of Yom Kippur, of which the Torah says “before Havayah you shall be purified.”

The mechanism: teshuvah reaches Keser, G‑d’s will, which is above Chochmah. When Keser shines into Chochmah, Chochmah itself comes out into revelation.

He refers to his maamar on “I have gathered my myrrh” and gives an analogy: a thinker flooded with many new ideas at once must let some of them out, because he cannot bear so much light.

Other discussions make the same point: on “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,” and on the Psalm “I will exalt You, Havayah, for You have drawn me up,” where this matter is explained.

A further reference: the end of the maamar “Who gave man a mouth?” in Torah Ohr, Shemos. This is also the Zohar’s point at the start of Vayeitzei on “Your pious ones (chassidim) shall sing for joy”: the verse names Kohanim and chassidim as the ones who bring the King joy, though the Levites are usually the King’s singers.

A second way teshuvah does this: teshuvah itself turns “the far one” into “the near one,” so it draws from above the same effect, making Chochmah, normally “far from me,” shine truly close. He refers to his explanation of “And I pleaded” (Va’eschanan).

A third explanation, drawing on his maamar “And you shall tell your son”: the Torah speaks of joy on the festivals because a festival reflects mochin d’Imma, understanding that can be grasped.

Shabbos reflects mochin d’Abba, which is beyond grasp, so its mode is self-nullification (bittul) rather than joy. The same is true of the “clear water” of supernal Chochmah: on its own it produces bittul, not joy.

Yom Kippur is called “a Shabbos of complete rest,” a level higher than Shabbos and higher than Chochmah. Drawing from there, Sukkos makes Chochmah shine close and graspable, and so the water libation could be joyful.

The joy of the water drawing is a joy of bittul, not a self-satisfied joy. He refers to the end of the maamar on “When Pharaoh sent the people,” on G‑d not leading them by way of the land of the Philistines, and the matter of the land of Canaan.

This closes the circle with the verse’s last words, “the wellsprings of salvation”: salvation means that the external forces draw no nourishment (as in section 3). Chochmah, whose nature is bittul, repels them, and so does a joy rooted in bittul.

¶5 This completes the idea of salvation from the external forces, paragraph 5.