וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך כי הוי׳ הוא…

The maamar opens with Moshe’s charge in Deuteronomy 4:39 to know “this day” and take to heart that Havayah is Elokim. The Alter Rebbe begins with the word “day”: in the Torah’s account of creation, the evening and the morning together make up “one day,” so a day is two opposites, light and darkness, joined as one.

The same pattern of two opposites forming one whole is found in the soul. The word for “your heart” in the verse, levavecha, has a doubled letter beis, and the maamar reads it as two hearts: the good inclination and the evil inclination. They become one when even the evil inclination “returns” (a play on vehasheivosa, “return it”) to serve G‑d, which happens when the sitra achra, the side opposed to holiness, is subdued.

The Talmud (Berakhot 54a) teaches that “with all your heart” in the Shema means with both inclinations. When the evil inclination too serves G‑d, a person comes to know that Havayah, G‑d as He transcends the world, is one with Elokim, G‑d as He is hidden within nature. The parenthesis points to Reishis Chochmah, Avodas HaKodesh and the Zohar, which read “Know this day” in this light.

To show how the analogy of day and night fits the two inclinations, the Alter Rebbe first brings a Talmudic teaching (Pesachim 22b). Shimon HaAmsoni explained every occurrence of es, the small Hebrew word that marks a direct object, as including something beyond the plain meaning; but when he reached “Es Havayah your G‑d you shall fear,” he stopped expounding.

He stopped because he could not see what the es could add to the fear of G‑d. The commentators, as cited in the Responsa of the Maharil, asked why he did not stop at “And you shall love es Havayah your G‑d,” where the same question seems to apply.

The answer begins with the nature of es: it includes something “subordinate” (tafel) to the main subject, a phrase the Talmud uses for what is secondary to the thing itself (Bava Kamma 41b). The Alter Rebbe links this to the Zohar’s teaching that “And you shall love es Havayah your G‑d” is the mystery of including the left in the right.

In Kabbalah the right is Chesed, kindness and love, and the left is Gevurah, restraint and awe. So the es in the command to love brings awe into the love: the love must contain awe and not be love alone. Awe is the “subordinate” element that the es includes.

Awe is identified with bittul, setting aside one’s own sense of self. The parenthesis sums up: because awe is hinted at in the word es, the subordinate one, the command to love carries an es that includes it.

The command to fear, however, has no es that could include love, because love cannot be subordinate to awe. This answers the commentators’ question: an inclusion is found in the verse of love, but nothing could be included in the verse of fear, so Shimon HaAmsoni stopped there.

In the language of Kabbalah, which speaks of the Sefiros in terms of giving and receiving, love is the “masculine” aspect and the right side, alluded to in “He remembered (zachar, also “male”) His kindness” (Psalms 98:3), and awe is Nukva, the “feminine” aspect, alluded to in “a woman who fears Havayah” (Proverbs 31:30). Tanya ch. 43 uses the same two verses. In this scheme the receiving aspect is subordinate to the giving one, so awe can be included in love but not love in awe.

Now the Alter Rebbe raises the opposite question: how can awe be included in love, when the two are opposites? Love is the yearning to cleave to G‑d, and yearning arises from distance, like a son far from his father’s house who longs to see his father’s face.

The verse “My soul desires You in the night” (Isaiah 26:9) describes this longing. It is “night” because the Infinite Light is hidden and concealed, and that very darkness stirs the soul’s desire.

Because G‑d’s light is hidden, the soul longs for it to be revealed. Psalm 63 expresses the same thirst: the soul and flesh long for G‑d in a dry, waterless land, and the verse continues, “so have I beheld You in the Sanctuary.”

Dryness and distance make the yearning and thirst grow stronger. This happens when a person reflects that G‑d is truly Ein Sof, “without end,” exactly as His Name says.

Psalm 148 says that His Name alone is exalted, while only His majesty is “over earth and heaven.” The Alter Rebbe reads “earth” and “heaven” as the lower and higher Gan Eden, the spiritual worlds where souls receive their reward, so that even these receive only a radiance of G‑d, not His essence.

The Talmud (Berakhot 17a) describes the World to Come as the righteous delighting “in the radiance of the Shechinah,” which shows that even this is only a radiance. Man has descended much further, into this world, a spiritual wilderness, and that distance is what makes the soul thirst for G‑d.

Psalm 63 is titled “A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Yehudah.” The Alter Rebbe reads the title as a lesson: the spiritual wilderness of this world is what brings about “Yehudah,” the name Leah gave in thanks (“This time I will thank,” Genesis 29:35), and it intensifies the soul’s thirst.

This parenthesis gives further sources on “My soul desires You in the night”: the Torah Ohr discourse “Sing and rejoice,” which speaks of “song in the evening”; the Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 3:1), which says that the righteous have a longing and their longing is for the Holy One, blessed be He; and the Zohar (III, 67a), which asks why the verse says “desires You.”

Awe comes from the opposite feeling, closeness: from contemplating how near G‑d is as the One Who encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin), the light that transcends the worlds and is present everywhere equally.

It is true that man is very far from G‑d’s light. That light descends through the chain of worlds (hishtalshelus), level after level, before it reaches this world.

This distance, however, concerns only the light revealed within the worlds, the radiance that brings spiritual and physical heaven and earth into being. It is this radiance that diminishes step by step as it descends.

The light that encompasses all worlds is not part of this chain of descent at all, and so it is the same in every place. As the liturgical poem says, G‑d “is equal and makes equal small and great,” and as the psalm says (Psalms 113:5–6), He is enthroned on high yet looks down low: He is present below exactly as above.

The text refers to the Likkutei Torah discourse beginning “This matzah” for more on this subject. It then clarifies the term “encompassing all worlds” (sovev kol almin): it does not mean that G‑d merely surrounds the worlds from above.

Rather, the encompassing light is present below just as above, but in a hidden, surrounding way, not as an inner, revealed presence. It does not enter the worlds as their measured life-force, yet it is with every one of them equally.

When a person reflects that this transcendent G‑d actually stands over him here, just as much as in the highest worlds, the result is awe. Closeness, not distance, is what produces awe.

The words “terror and dread” are borrowed from the Song at the Sea (Exodus 15:16). At its highest this response is the awe of shame, the higher awe (yirah ila’ah) described in Tanya ch. 43; otherwise it is the lower awe (yirah tata’ah), the fear of rebelling against the King while standing in His very presence.

The summary restates the first section: love comes from feeling distant, as in “My soul desires You in the night,” and awe from feeling near. That is why at Sinai, when G‑d revealed Himself, “the people saw and trembled and stood from afar” (Exodus 20:15): they stepped back to rest a little from the overwhelming awe that His nearness brought.

The second section takes up the question raised above: how can love and awe, which are opposites, be included in each other and become one?

The answer begins with Isaiah’s blessing, “Peace, peace, to the far and to the near.” The Talmud (Berakhot 34b) reads “the far” as the penitent, one who was far and has come near; here “far” stands for love, which is born of distance, and “near” for awe, which is born of closeness.

The parenthesis explains why awe is “near.” Awe stems from Chochmah, as the verse joins wisdom and awe (Psalms 111:10), and Chochmah corresponds to the World of Atzilus, whose name the Alter Rebbe derives from etzel, “beside,” as in Proverbs 8:30. In Chochmah the Infinite Light is revealed, so awe that comes from there stands “beside” G‑d’s revelation.

Love, even the great love (ahavah rabbah), comes from Binah, which according to the Tikkunei Zohar “nests” in Beriah, the first world of separate existence. Beriah is the level of “from there it parted” (Genesis 2:10), where the river that leaves Eden divides into separate streams; love stems from this place of separation, and that is why it is “from afar.”

Peace is what joins two opposites. The Sages explain “He makes peace in His heights” (Job 25:2) as peace between Michael, the angel of water, and Gavriel, the angel of fire, who stand side by side without harming each other.

Opposites are joined when a higher light is drawn down and both are nullified to it. Before that light the difference between a thing and its opposite is no longer felt at all.

Before this higher light, “far” and “near” are equal. It is drawn down through the words of the Amidah, “and the awesome, G‑d Most High”: the word “awesome” carries a connecting vav (“and”), which “the great” and “the mighty” before it do not.

The extra vav signifies a drawing down: through it the quality of “awesome” is revealed, a bittul in which the two opposites are included in each other, and it comes from the level of “G‑d Most High.” “Most High” means above the entire chain of worlds, whose levels are only a radiance of G‑d’s light.

G‑d Most High is described by the verse “He made darkness His hiding place” (Psalms 18:12): “darkness” here means utter concealment, a level beyond all comprehension. The Tikkunei Zohar’s phrases “no thought can grasp Him at all” and “the most hidden of all hidden” describe it.

Malki-Tzedek blessed Avram “of G‑d Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:19). The Alter Rebbe reads this to mean that before G‑d Most High, heaven and earth, the spiritual and the physical, are equally nullified.

This parenthesis brings views on what “G‑d Most High” refers to. Pri Etz Chaim, on the Amidah’s words “G‑d Most High, Who bestows good kindnesses,” identifies it with Keser, far above even the higher Chochmah; the discourse “You are standing” in Likkutei Torah discusses this further.

The Zohar (I, 87a), on “And he was a priest of G‑d Most High” (Genesis 14:18), reads “priest” as the right side and “G‑d Most High” as “the higher world,” which is Binah. This seems to place G‑d Most High lower, at Binah rather than Keser.

The Alter Rebbe reconciles the two views: Atik, the innermost level of Keser, is revealed in Binah, and therefore Binah too is called “His great Name.” He refers to the Torah Ohr explanation of why the mezuzah is placed on the right of the doorway and the Chanukah lamp on the left.

The parenthesis adds a further Zohar passage (II, 67b), on “the mystery of the Holy of Holies” beneath which “there is a priest,” together with the Ramaz’s commentary there, as more material on these levels.

The text now explains why everything is equal before G‑d Most High. He “is equal and makes equal small and great,” as the liturgical poem says, and before Him “darkness and light are alike” (Psalms 139:12): revelation and concealment are the same to Him.

This is because “all before Him is considered as nothing” (Zohar I, 11b). The difference between revelation and concealment exists only from the standpoint of the created worlds, which either perceive G‑d’s light or do not.

From G‑d’s own standpoint “even darkness does not darken for You” (Psalms 139:12). From this level, beyond the difference between light and darkness, comes the illumination signified by the added vav of “and the awesome.”

The revelation of “awesome” is a revelation of bittul, and in that bittul love and awe are included in each other. A parenthesis adds that this awe drawn from above is higher than the higher awe a person reaches by himself, even though that awe too comes from nearness, and it refers to the Siddur’s note on Tikkun Chatzos, the midnight lament.

That note says that awe coming from above surpasses the higher awe, the awe of shame within the soul, as light surpasses darkness. The same distinction applies here: the awe revealed through “and the awesome” is beyond what the soul’s own awe can reach.

This parenthesis points to three related discourses. The last concerns Rabbi Akiva, who “entered in peace and left in peace,” as the Sages say of his ascent into the mystical realms; according to the Kehot note, he was of the level of Tikkun, the middle line that unites the two opposing lines.

The binding of Yitzchak (Genesis 22:9) shows this inter-inclusion: Yitzchak’s attribute, awe and restraint, was included in Avraham’s attribute, love and kindness. Yitzchak was placed “above the wood (etzim),” and etzim also means “trees”: the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.

This parenthesis gives further references on “trees”: the Likkutei Torah discourse on “gathering wood” in Parshas Shelach, which discusses “he shall be like a tree … spreading its roots by the stream” (Jeremiah 17:8), and the Zohar (III, 158b) on the spies’ question, “Is there a tree in it or not?” (Numbers 13:20).

To be “above the two trees” is to reach the level of “He made darkness His hiding place,” beyond the levels of the worlds. From there the revelation of “and the awesome” is drawn down, and with it Yitzchak’s awe is included in Avraham’s love.

The reverse inclusion, love within awe, also takes place. The words of the Nishmas prayer express it: “All hearts shall stand in awe of You, and all innermost parts and kidneys shall sing to Your Name.”

“Hearts” stand for awe and “innermost parts and kidneys” for love. The text explains why love’s song is placed in the innermost parts: song (rinah) that comes from openly felt love and yearning is normally voiced aloud, with the mouth.

When the heart is filled with awe and bittul, that song cannot burst out openly, because revealed love and awe are opposites. Instead the love sings inwardly, in the “innermost parts and kidneys”: outwardly there is awe, while inside there is the singing and joy of love.

The parenthesis refers to the Torah Ohr discourse “Sing and rejoice,” which speaks of “song in the evening” and of “they shall sing of Your righteousness” (Psalms 145:7). That outward song comes from “night,” the concealment of G‑d’s light, like the longing of “My soul desires You in the night” described earlier.

But when “and the awesome, G‑d Most High” is revealed, the inner song of “all innermost parts and kidneys shall sing” is drawn down, a song within the inner dimension of the heart. The Zohar at the beginning of Parshas Vayetzei is cited as a parallel.

The Zohar (I, 148b) asks why the verse says “Your pious ones shall sing” rather than “Your Levites,” since singing was the Levites’ task, and answers that the pious ones are more esteemed. The Levites’ song was outward, a song of the mouth that raised the voice.

The “pious ones” are the Kohanim, and their song is in “the desire of the heart.” The Zohar (III, 39a) describes the Kohen’s service as performed in silence.

The Kohanim’s song is therefore inward and silent, like “all innermost parts and kidneys shall sing.” It is the song of love held within awe.

The Likkutei Torah discourse on “A psalm, a song at the dedication of the House” draws a similar distinction between mizmor, music played on an instrument, and shir, song sung by the mouth. The text now gives the reason the inner heart can hold both attributes.

The inner dimension of the heart can be a vessel for love and awe together, once the revelation of “and the awesome” shines within it. It is also united with the mind in the manner of “two companions that never part,” the phrase used for Chochmah and Binah.

The outer dimension of the heart cannot hold both at once; there love and awe remain opposites. That is why the prayer places awe in the “hearts” and the singing in the “innermost parts and kidneys,” the inner heart. The text then refers to the discourse on “I will greatly rejoice” (Isaiah 61:10).

That discourse distinguishes simchah, joy that shows outwardly, from gilah, exultation that stays within: “exult with trembling” means that trembling covers the joy on the outside while “its inside is inlaid with love” (Song of Songs 3:10). The same is explained in the discourse for Shemini Atzeres on “Let the children of Zion exult in their King” (Psalms 149:2).

A further reference is to the discourse on “When Pharaoh sent out the people.” The joy described here is joy in G‑d as the Infinite Light that encompasses all worlds and truly dwells with a person, present below as above.

This joy does not rest on understanding, since the encompassing light cannot be grasped. It rests on faith, which is above understanding: “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

The summary restates the second section: love and awe are joined through the peace of “Peace, peace, to the far and to the near.” That peace comes from a drawing down from the level of “and the awesome,” the bittul in which opposites become one.

The binding of Yitzchak “above the wood” expresses the same inclusion, and so do the words of the prayer “All hearts shall stand in awe of You, and all innermost parts and kidneys shall sing to Your Name”: awe in the heart, and love singing within.

The third section shows where this joy is revealed in practice: in the joy of a mitzvah. The Torah rebukes those who did not serve G‑d “with joy … out of an abundance of everything” (Deuteronomy 28:47), and the Alter Rebbe reads “out of” as “more than”: the joy of a mitzvah must exceed every other joy, because the mitzvos sanctify us with a holiness from above.

Every blessing over a mitzvah opens with “Blessed are You, Havayah.” The Alter Rebbe reads baruch, “blessed,” as a request that G‑d’s light be drawn down from far above the chain of worlds.

The Zohar (I, 87a) reads Malki-Tzedek’s blessing as the pattern of our blessings: “Blessed be Avram” corresponds to “Blessed are You,” and “of G‑d Most High” to “Havayah our G‑d.” The Alter Rebbe adds that he does not follow the reading of the Mikdash Melech, a commentary on the Zohar, which according to the Kehot note assigns these words to particular Sefiros.

Ordinarily G‑d’s light descends through the chain of worlds, from cause to effect, until He is “King of the world” and His kingship rules over all worlds (Psalms 145:13). This is how the worlds are created and kept alive: through His Malchus, His sovereignty.

Malchus is like a name: not the King Himself, but His name and rule, which are “called upon” the worlds and keep them in existence. It is only a radiance and illumination of G‑d.

The mitzvos, however, sanctify us with a holiness that is above the chain of worlds, from the level of the light that encompasses all worlds. Even the angels cannot grasp it; in the words of the Kedushah prayer they ask, “Where is the place of His glory?”

Their answer is “The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3), meaning this lowly, physical earth. The Torah and the mitzvos, though clothed in physical things, are rooted “in the holy mountains” on high (Psalms 87:1), far above the chain of worlds.

Therefore the mitzvos become an actual throne and dwelling for G‑d as He encompasses all worlds. No thought can grasp Him, except as He is grasped through Torah and mitzvos.

The command “And you shall love es” is now read in light of the first section. Since es stands for the subordinate element, awe and bittul, the verse commands a person to draw his love and joy into awe and self-nullification, so that the joy is held within awe.

“Havayah your G‑d” means that G‑d is “yours,” facing you, present below as above. This love and joy must come out in actual deeds, by fulfilling “these words which I (Anochi) command you this day” (Deuteronomy 6:6); and because “this day” is the time “to do them” (Deuteronomy 7:11), action in this world draws down the revelation of Anochi, G‑d’s own “I.”

The mitzvos convey not a radiance or a mere “name” but “I Myself” commanding you. The word metzavecha, “command you,” is read as tzavta, “companionship”: the mitzvos join a person with G‑d’s essence, which according to the Kabbalah (Pardes Rimonim 8:3) is expressed in 620 pillars of light, matching the 613 commandments of the Torah and the 7 of the Rabbis.

The next words of the Shema, “And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house” (Deuteronomy 6:7), lead to the Torah’s power to transform this world. Isaiah’s “A voice calls in the wilderness: clear the way of Havayah” is read as the voice of Torah, “the voice of Yaakov,” calling into the spiritual wilderness of this world and opening in it a path for G‑d’s light.

This drawing down is the vav of “and the awesome,” which comes from G‑d Most High, above the chain of worlds. That is why the Mishnah (Avos 4:17) says that one hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come.

The World to Come is a reward of comprehension and delight for created minds, and such comprehension can take in only a radiance of G‑d. That radiance is the radiance of the souls’ own Torah study and service.

In the actual practice of Torah and mitzvos in this world, by contrast, G‑d’s own “I” (Anochi), His very Self, is drawn down. This is a level that no created being can enjoy through comprehension.

The Talmud (Makkos 24a) says that “I am” and “You shall have no other gods,” the first two of the Ten Commandments, were heard “from the mouth of the Gevurah,” an epithet for the Almighty that also means “restraint.” The Alter Rebbe reads it as a hint: many restraints and contractions are needed so that the “I” (Anochi), which is above the chain of worlds and is “darkness,” utter concealment, can be revealed in Torah and mitzvos.

The parenthesis refers to the discourse “You shall draw water with gladness,” on the water libation of Sukkos. The water stands for the higher Chochmah and bittul, while “gladness” stands for Binah; since Chochmah and Binah are “two companions” that never part, bittul and awe can be joined with joy.

This joining comes after the Ten Days of Teshuvah and Yom Kippur, when a person is purified “before Havayah” and the peace of “to the far and to the near” is drawn down. On Sukkos, however, the joy is what shows, while its inside is “inlaid” with bittul and awe.

The summary of the third section: the inner joy of “all innermost parts and kidneys shall sing” is the joy of a mitzvah. It is what the blessing over mitzvos expresses, and what the verses “And you shall love es” and “And you shall speak of them” describe.

The fourth section asks what brings this revelation out of the hidden “darkness” and through all the contractions. The answer is the Zohar’s principle that it “depends on an arousal from below”: a person must love G‑d “with all your heart,” with both inclinations (Berakhot 54a), so that the evil inclination too serves Him.

The evil inclination is brought to serve G‑d by subjugation (iskafya), overpowering it, and by transformation (is’hapcha), turning its darkness into light. A person overcomes his nature both in “turning from evil” and in “doing good” (Psalms 34:15), following the Mishnah’s “Nullify your will” (Avos 2:4) by setting his own will and self aside.

Measure for measure, G‑d then sets aside His own essence: the essential Infinite Light withdraws, so that it does not shine in its endlessness. This is necessary because the worlds could not bear that light as it is.

Because the essential light is withdrawn, the source of the revelation is called “darkness,” not light. Revelation comes only as that light contracts itself through many contractions and descending levels, so that light emerges out of the darkness, and for G‑d this is a descent.

The Sages teach (Megillah 31a) that wherever one finds G‑d’s greatness one also finds His humility. Here this means that G‑d set aside the essence of His Infinite Light and made His Shechinah dwell in a contracted form, so that revelation and light could come out of the supernal darkness.

The parenthesis adds a second reason: when a person below turns darkness into light, he arouses above a revelation from the level of “He made darkness His hiding place,” which is higher than light itself. This is the meaning of “the advantage of light that comes from darkness” (Ecclesiastes 2:13).

For this theme the text refers to the Zohar on Tazria and on Beshalach, and to the Likkutei Torah explanation of “I am black but comely” (Song of Songs 1:5), which shows how keeping the prohibitive commandments reveals a very high light.

Through this arousal from below the revelation reaches the human heart too, making it a vessel and dwelling in which love and awe are held together. This happens through the drawing down of peace, the quality that includes and joins opposites.

The Alter Rebbe reads Proverbs 21:23, “He who guards his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles (tzaros),” as a play on tzar, “narrow”: guarding one’s mouth keeps the soul from being too narrow to contain both love and awe at once.

Instead the soul becomes spacious, as in “Enlarge the place of your tent” (Isaiah 54:2). This comes from guarding one’s mouth and tongue, a way of subduing the sitra achra in the sense of “turning away from evil.”

The parenthesis cites the Shelah, who connects “He who guards his mouth and his tongue” with the closed mem in the word lemarbeh in Isaiah 9:6, a final-form mem written in the middle of the word. The same verse speaks of “peace without end,” which ties guarding the mouth to the theme of peace discussed above.

Through guarding the mouth, this love that is included in awe is drawn into the innermost core of the heart, so that the heart becomes its vessel and dwelling.

Such love is fixed and lasting, never departing, and it shapes thought, speech and action alike. This is what the Shema describes: “And you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the way” (Deuteronomy 6:7).

The Shema continues, “And you shall bind them for a sign” (Deuteronomy 6:8), the mitzvah of tefillin, and the Talmud (Kiddushin 35a) says that the whole Torah is likened to tefillin. Tefillin are made of physical parchment, yet the light that encompasses all worlds rests on them through the passages written inside.

So it is with every mitzvah: though it is a physical act, the Infinite Light rests and is clothed within it. Therefore all of a person’s deeds, words and thoughts in Torah and mitzvos are permeated by this love and this bittul.

Love that comes from thirst is different. Even if it brings the feeling of “His right hand embraces me” (Song of Songs 2:6), it is an embrace from outside, and so it fades when prayer is over.

Making the heart a lasting vessel for this love requires the quality of the mechokek, the “lawgiver,” a word whose root also means “to engrave.” Like a craftsman who engraves a hollow in a vessel so that it can hold something, it carves out in the heart a space to receive.

The text refers to the discourses on “with the lawgiver, with their staffs” (Numbers 21:18) and on “Arm from among yourselves.” The lawgiver is Moshe, of whom it says “for there the portion of the lawgiver is hidden” (Deuteronomy 33:21), and his quality is Daas, the source of the Torah.

This is the meaning of “And this is the Torah which Moshe set before (lifnei) the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 4:44). A parallel explanation is given elsewhere on “And these are the ordinances which you shall set before them” (Exodus 21:1).

Lifnei, “before,” is read as related to penim, “inside”: Moshe set the Torah into the inner dimension of the Jewish people. Through him the light from “He made darkness His hiding place” is revealed, until the love included in awe shines within a person’s inner self.

Through this the heart becomes a true receptacle, its innermost core “inlaid” with this love, which then never wavers.

With all this explained, the Alter Rebbe returns to the opening verse, “Know this day.” As shown at the start, a day includes the night: “there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

The world was created in this order, “first darkness and then light” (Shabbos 77b), so that light came out of darkness. So too G‑d’s revelation: first the supernal darkness of “He made darkness His hiding place” and G‑d Most High, and afterwards light and revelation drawn out of it.

This bringing of light out of darkness happens through Daas, alluded to in “Know (veyadata) this day.” Through it one comes to know that “Havayah is Elokim”: the Name Havayah, G‑d as He transcends the world, is joined with the Name Elokim, G‑d as He is hidden within it, through the vav of “and the awesome” from G‑d Most High, which unites opposites.

This drawing down from far above the chain of worlds, from the level of “He made darkness His hiding place,” comes through restraints and contractions, and like all such revelation it “depends on an arousal from below.” The text now names that arousal.

The arousal is “return it to your heart”: making the two hearts one, so that the evil inclination too serves G‑d through subjugation and through “Nullify your will.” An arousal from below brings an arousal from above, and G‑d’s greatness then appears together with His humility, His contracting Himself in order to be revealed.

The summary of the fourth section: the revelation depends on an arousal from below, on subduing darkness and transforming it into light, which draws revelation and light out of the supernal darkness. Guarding one’s mouth and tongue (Proverbs 21:23) is part of this.

This happens through the quality of the “lawgiver,” which is Daas, and that is “Know this day”; from it comes the knowledge “that Havayah is Elokim.” All of this is through “return it to your heart,” making the two inclinations one.

The same idea explains the Talmud’s account of Betzalel (in our editions, Berakhot 55a): when he understood how G‑d wanted the Mishkan built, Moshe said to him, “You must have been in the shadow of G‑d (betzel Kel), and you knew,” a play on his name. The Zohar (II, 152a) identifies this “Kel” as G‑d Most High.

From the level of G‑d Most High, “in the shadow of G‑d,” comes “and you knew,” that is, “Know this day”: first darkness and then light. Only afterwards comes “return it to your heart,” the inner work.

This is why Betzalel said to make the Mishkan first: to draw down the supernal encompassing light (makif) from the level of “He made darkness His hiding place.” Only afterwards came the ark and the vessels, so that the inter-inclusion would also take place inwardly.

The maamar closes with Zohar passages on “that Havayah is Elokim” and a reference to the Likkutei Torah discourse “Return, O Israel.” According to the Kehot notes, the Zohar there speaks of including the Name Elokim in the Name Havayah, and of “Know this day” as knowing G‑d in detail.