ביאור מעט על פסוק ואכלתם אכול כו׳

This is a short supplement to the preceding discourse on Joel 2:26, “And you shall eat, eating, and be satisfied,” which read the doubled “eating” as a future elevation: even today’s lofty souls, which already raise up others, will themselves be “eaten” and raised by the new souls of the Time to Come, beside which they are called “animals.” The question here is how souls called nunei yama (Aramaic for “fish of the sea”), which come from the union of Abba and Imma, the intellect of the highest world, can be counted as mere animals.

The answer starts from an explanation in Torah Ohr on Jeremiah’s prophecy that G‑d will sow Israel with “the seed of man and the seed of animal.” In gematria behemah (animal, 52) equals the Name Ban, the four-letter Name spelled out so that it totals 52, and adam (man, 45) equals the Name Mah, the Name spelled out to total 45; so “animal” stands for the souls of Beriah and “man” for the souls of Atzilus.

Atzilus is called adam because of the words “I will resemble (adameh) the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14): Atzilus resembles its Source, since it is only the revealing of what was already hidden there. The very word Atzilus comes from vayaetzel, “and He drew off” some of the spirit that was on Moshe for the elders (Numbers 11:25), where what is drawn off stays one with its source; Beriah, by contrast, is the coming into being of something new, “something from nothing.”

A cross-reference to a discourse in Torah Ohr on Megillas Esther (on “They shall bring royal apparel,” Esther 6:8), which distinguishes the encompassing divine will from the light drawn down “by way of the kav and the thread” to become the ten Sefiros. That line of light, whose beginning is Chochmah, is the first stage of revelation, and it shows what Atzilus means: hidden light becoming revealed.

Each world contains all four worlds within it, so Atzilus too has its own Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. The nefesh, ruach and neshamah of Atzilus are its lower three, “the Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah of Atzilus,” as explained in the discourse on Bilam’s words “Who has counted the dust of Jacob… the fourth part of Israel” (Numbers 23:10).

These lower three of Atzilus correspond to Binah, Z’eir Anpin and Malchus, while the two highest soul-levels, chayah and yechidah, are called “the Atzilus within Atzilus.” For this the Alter Rebbe points to his discourse on Moshe’s prayer “And now, I pray, let the power of my L‑rd be great” (Numbers 14:17), to Etz Chaim, and to the Ramaz, Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, a leading commentator on the Zohar.

The Kabbalistic work Sefer HaGilgulim, on the transmigration of souls, says that before the sin Adam had “a soul for his soul” from Atzilus. That is the Atzilus within Atzilus, above the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of Atzilus.

The Zohar (Mishpatim, 94b) describes a ladder of souls: as a person merits more, he receives nefesh, ruach and neshamah, then their counterparts in Atzilus, and finally “Havayah in its fullness,” becoming “man in the way of the Atzilus above,” called by the image of his Master. To such a person the Zohar applies the verse spoken to Adam, “And have dominion over the fish of the sea” (Genesis 1:28).

The Raaya Mehemna, a section of the Zohar printed here among the addenda at the end of its first volume, says the same of Moshe: his “Mah,” the Name Mah, is the prayer of Shabbos, of which the verse of dominion is said. Moshe, like Adam, is thus linked to the level that rules over “the fish of the sea.”

Mah is “man in the way of the Atzilus above,” as the Tikkunei Zohar says in Elijah’s prayer: “Within is the Name Mah, which is the way of Atzilus,” the channel through which emanation flows. The three levels of Atzilus that the Zohar lists first are only the Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah of Atzilus.

In that Zohar passage the nefesh of Atzilus is called “daughter” (from Malchus, the Nukva) and its ruach “son” (from Z’eir Anpin), while its neshamah comes “from the side of Abba and Imma.” That neshamah of Atzilus, born of the union of Abba and Imma, is what the maamar calls nunei yama: lofty, yet below Adam’s level of “Havayah in its fullness.”

The reading just given, that the nunei yama are the neshamah of Atzilus, is also how Eshel Avraham explains it on Parshas Chayei Sarah, and it follows from Etz Chaim’s Gate of Mayin Nukvin and Mayin Duchrin. The Ramaz and the Mikdash Melech, two classic commentaries on the Zohar, explain the passage differently, as the paragraph goes on to show.

This explains a statement in an earlier discourse on “Behold, the man has become like one of us” (Genesis 3:22): that Adam stood on an entirely different plane, higher even than Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the master of the Zohar.

Even the loftiest souls of today, the neshamah of Atzilus born of the union of Abba and Imma, stand to Adam’s soul as Beriah, a created world, stands to Atzilus. The Zohar on Terumah (167b), cited here, describes the first Adam as formed and engraved from above without a female, unlike every man after him.

The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 21:5) reads “like one of us” as “like the Only One of the world,” the One of the Shema. In Likkutei Torah (Sh’lach) the Alter Rebbe explains that Adam’s life-force came directly from the Name Havayah, without any chain of intermediaries.

The Zohar applies “And have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens and every living thing” to the man who has reached “Havayah in its fullness.” The Ramaz, following his general approach, takes these creatures to be the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the lower worlds, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah.

The Alter Rebbe proposes instead that they are the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of Atzilus itself: the “fish of the sea” are the nunei yama, the neshamah of Atzilus, and the “bird” is the ruach of Atzilus. This fits the Zohar’s own ladder, in which these levels of Atzilus come just before “Havayah in its fullness.”

Although these are levels of Atzilus, they are only its Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. So Adam, rooted in the Atzilus within Atzilus, could be told to have dominion even over them.

The Alter Rebbe reads u-redu, “have dominion,” as if from yarad, “go down”: Adam’s task was to bring down and draw life-force into the lower levels of Atzilus and into the lower worlds themselves. He could do this because he was truly adam, the one who “resembles the Most High,” rooted in Atzilus.

The Raaya Mehemna’s words to Moshe, “Your Mah [is] the prayer of Shabbos,” are explained the same way as Adam’s level. Moshe attained the chayah, the soul-level above the neshamah of Atzilus.

The chayah, too, belongs to the Atzilus within Atzilus. The Ramaz writes that Moshe’s chayah came from the inner dimension of Arich Anpin, a configuration of Keser above the intellect, as it flows into Abba, the configuration of Chochmah.

This is what the Raaya Mehemna means by “the Mah of Moshe.” As explained in the discourse on “My dove” in Likkutei Torah on Shir HaShirim, the Tikkunei Zohar’s “Name Mah, which is the way of Atzilus” belongs to Keser, the Crown above intellect.

That is why the verse of dominion over the fish of the sea is said of Moshe’s Mah. Alternatively, the “fish of the sea” here may be the angels of Atzilus, which are also called nunei yama.

This second reading solves a difficulty in the Zohar (1:71a) on the blessing to Noach and his sons, “and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given” (Genesis 9:2). The Zohar adds, “and even the nunei yama,” but why “even”?

Dagei hayam (Hebrew) and nunei yama (Aramaic) both simply mean “fish of the sea,” so the word “even” must add something higher. It means the supernal nunei yama, the angels, which are also given into man’s hand.

Moshe’s Mah is linked with the prayer of Shabbos because mah means “what,” the word of self-effacement, as Moshe and Aharon said, “and what are we?” The prayer of Shabbos rises to the level of Atzilus, the world of bittul.

The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse on “You shall keep My Shabbosos,” which speaks of a lower and a higher Shabbos. The higher Shabbos is that of “for on it He rested from all His work which He created” (Genesis 2:3), a rising even beyond “Beriah,” which here means the Beriah within Atzilus, that is, Chochmah.

In the discourse on “My dove,” on the words “and go to yourself” (Song of Songs 2:10), the Alter Rebbe explains that the source and root of the souls of Israel lies in the “primordial thought,” in Chochmah and the Supreme Keser.

That root does not enter the body; it stays above as an encompassing light (makif), called the soul’s mazal, a Talmudic term for a person’s source above. Through prayer the soul fulfils “Arise to yourself,” rising to its root, and this ascent happens chiefly on Shabbos.

The Shabbos ascent of the soul to its root is the “additional soul” (neshamah yeseirah) that the Talmud (Beitzah 16a) says G‑d gives a person on Shabbos eve, and this is why Moshe’s Mah, the level of dominion, is “the prayer of Shabbos.” As explained in the discourse on “My dove,” from this root Israel is called “holy… the first of His produce” (Jeremiah 2:3), for the souls are the source and foundation even of the Torah.

This explains a passage in the Zohar (Bo, 34a) on “Come to Pharaoh” (Exodus 10:1): G‑d brought Moshe, chamber after chamber, to “a certain mighty dragon,” and Moshe was afraid of it. The reason for his fear is given next.

Holiness and its opposite are made as counterparts (“G‑d has made the one opposite the other,” Ecclesiastes 7:14): as there are a Leviathan and nunei yama in holiness, so there are on the side of impurity. Isaiah’s “Leviathan the fleeing serpent” (Isaiah 27:1) refers to that unholy counterpart, as the Zohar there and Rabbi Moshe Cordovero’s Pardes Rimonim explain.

But the counterparts are true opposites. The Leviathan and nunei yama of holiness are wholly nullified (bittul) in their source, the Infinite One, whereas the Leviathan of kelipah is Pharaoh, whom Ezekiel calls “the great dragon” (Ezekiel 29:3).

The dragon boasts, “My river is my own, and I have made it for myself”: far from being nullified, it feels itself a separate, independent existence (yesh). The Alter Rebbe also points to the Ramaz on Parshas Yisro, on “the priest of Midian.”

Moshe was named for being drawn “from the water” (Exodus 2:10), and he was of the house of Levi, which the Zohar (Shemos, 11b) connects with the Leviathan (livyasan): he belonged to the Leviathan of holiness, a creature of the sea. The Alter Rebbe also refers to his discourse elsewhere on “And Lavan had two daughters” (Genesis 29:16).

Yet Moshe was raised higher, to the rank of “man in the way of the Atzilus above,” the level to which the Zohar applies “And have dominion over the fish of the sea.”

But Moshe, “humble beyond all men” (Numbers 12:3), saw himself only at his own essential rank, the one drawn “from the water,” the Leviathan of holiness. Since the dragon of kelipah stands exactly opposite that rank, meeting Pharaoh would be a war between counterparts, and so he was afraid.

G‑d therefore told him, “Come to Pharaoh,” for of Moshe it is said, “And have dominion over the fish of the sea”: from his higher level he could master the dragon. The Alter Rebbe also refers to the beginning of Tikkun 70 in the Tikkunei Zohar.

The same idea explains the feast of the Leviathan and the wild ox (shor habar) in the Time to Come, of which the Talmud (Bava Basra 75a) and the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 13:3) speak. The previous discourse taught that today’s souls will descend into these creatures and be eaten, that is, elevated, by the righteous.

Even on the Ramaz’s reading, by which “dominion over the fish of the sea” concerns the lower worlds (or, on the alternative given above, the angels of Atzilus), there is a further level to consider. It is the new souls that will be revealed in the Time to Come from sovev kol almin, the light that encompasses all worlds.

In relation to those new souls, “have dominion over the fish of the sea” can be read as referring to the lofty souls of Atzilus called nunei yama, which will need to be raised by the new souls. This is the inner meaning of the feast of the Leviathan: today’s “fish of the sea” will be “eaten,” that is, elevated, by the souls of the future.

An objection: Sha’arei Kedushah, by Rabbi Chaim Vital, says that even today’s souls are rooted in Adam Kadmon, the primordial level above Atzilus, at least in their yechidah. If so, today’s souls would seem to be rooted above Atzilus as well.

The answer: Etz Chaim teaches that, in the scheme of all the worlds together, Adam Kadmon is called the “Adam of Beriah,” the world of Akudim the “Adam of Yetzirah,” and all of Atzilus the “Adam of Asiyah.” This is hinted in “You have made (asisa) them all with wisdom” (Psalms 104:24): measured against what is above it, even Atzilus counts as “made.”

If Adam Kadmon is only “Beriah,” the true “Atzilus” of the whole scheme can be nothing but the Infinite Light itself, revealed from concealment (see the explanation on “their goings forth according to their journeys,” Numbers 33:2). In the Time to Come the Infinite Light that encompasses all worlds will be revealed, and that is this “supernal Atzilus.”

Today’s loftiest souls, the nunei yama, are rooted in the “supernal Beriah,” Adam Kadmon, which the Tikkunei Zohar calls “sea,” the sea in which these “fish” live. So they will be elevated by the new souls that come from the supernal Atzilus, and the paragraph ends with the prayer that this come speedily in our days.

On the new souls the reader is referred to Sefer HaGilgulim, chapter 7. Their revelation from sovev kol almin will also be understood from the end of the discourse on Yaakov’s vow, “And I will return in peace to my father’s house, and Havayah will be my Elokim” (Genesis 28:21).

The root of all souls is drawn from the Name Havayah, which speaks of G‑d as transcending time and bringing all into being, as explained in the discourses on “See, I set before you” (Deuteronomy 11:26) and “But Havayah your G‑d would not listen to Bilam” (Deuteronomy 23:6). The latter explains that in every Jewish soul there is a radiance of the Name Havayah itself.

Only afterwards are the souls drawn down through the Name Elokim, G‑d as concealed and limiting, to descend and be clothed in a body. The Alter Rebbe refers to the beginning of the Zohar on Bamidbar and to his discourse on “How goodly are your tents, O Yaakov” (Numbers 24:5).

Yaakov’s words “and Havayah will be my Elokim” are read as a prophecy: in the Time to Come the Name Havayah itself will be only a covering, like Elokim, in relation to the essence of the Infinite Light that will then be revealed. Elokim is likened to a shield and sheath (“For a sun and a shield is Havayah Elokim,” Psalms 84:12): it covers the light of Havayah, yet it is through it that Havayah is drawn down.

The words “For Havayah is Elokim” are read the same way: as Elokim now conceals and transmits Havayah, so in the Time to Come Havayah will be the “Elokim,” the covering and channel, for the revelation from the very essence of the Infinite Light.

This is the source of the new souls: they will be drawn from the Infinite Light that encompasses all worlds, through the “Elokim of the Time to Come,” which is the Name Havayah. Today’s souls are rooted in Havayah and come through Elokim; the new souls will come from the essence of the Infinite Light through Havayah.

The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse on “I am G‑d your G‑d” (Numbers 15:41), the close of the Shema’s passage on tzitzis, which discusses why Yaakov was told twice that his name would be Israel. The first time was through the angel who wrestled with him (Genesis 32:29).

The second time it was G‑d Himself, in His glory (Genesis 35:10). The Alter Rebbe suggests that these two namings correspond to the two kinds of souls discussed here, those of the present and those of the Time to Come.