להבין הטעם שנשתנה יצירת גוף האדם משאר כל…

1To understand the reason why the formation of man’s body differs from all the other creatures, such as the vegetative and the animal, whose bodies were all created through G‑d’s utterance,

as it is written of the third day, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, herbs yielding seed…, fruit trees yielding fruit…, and it was so”; and likewise on the fifth day, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures….”

2And so with all of them: the earth brought forth the grasses and the trees, each one just as it is afterward, with the vegetative soul within it.

And likewise the earth also brought forth the animals just as they are, alive — the bear and the lion, etc.; and the waters too swarmed in this way with “swarms of living creatures,” which are the fish, likewise

as they are, that is, the body together with the vital soul within it, through the utterance of G‑d, who said, “Let the earth bring forth…,”

“Let the waters swarm….” He commanded and they were created as they are now, as our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “They were created in their full stature.” This is not so in the creation of man, whose body was first made by itself, of dust, without any vital soul within it.

3As it is written, “And Havayah Elokim formed the man of dust from the ground”; and as our Sages, of blessed memory, said: “In the first hour his dust was gathered…”; and at first he was an unformed mass (golem),

as it is written, “Your eyes saw my unformed mass,” until afterward “He blew into his nostrils the breath of life.” Thus his body did not come forth from the earth in the way it is now, with the vital and speaking soul within it; rather, He took dust and made a body of it.

4And afterward He blew a soul into his nostrils, etc. And this is a mark of lowliness with respect to man, for his body is lower in level than the bodies of the animals, since it came into being on the level of the inanimate, until afterward “He blew into his nostrils….”

[This,] although he is the choicest of the creatures. And this is what is written, “Behind and before….” But we must understand this: why and for what reason did it come to be so?

The explanation is that the four levels — inanimate, vegetative, animal and speaking — correspond to the four letters of the Name Havayah. The inanimate is such as dust, stones and metals, which have no growth; the vegetative are trees and grasses, etc.;

animals have all this, and in addition to it the spiritual animal soul. And in the speaking [being] there is added, beyond all of them, the intellectual soul, the speaking soul, etc.

5Now, in general, animals are made up of two things: the body within them, which is on the level of the vegetative, for it is born small and becomes large; and the soul within them, which is the animal soul of its species.

And as for the fact that both came forth together from the earth — that is, the body with the animal soul within it — through G‑d’s utterance, etc.:

this is because the levels of the vegetative and the animal, although they are two levels, one above the other, are nevertheless adjacent to each other.

6Therefore they can be joined together, that is, they can come into being at once, since the level of the vegetative is adjacent to the level of the animal, with no further level interrupting between them.

Therefore the animals came into being, their bodies and their vital souls, at once, as said above. But the speaking [being] is distant from the vegetative by a leap in rank, and therefore it could not come forth together with the body as one.

7However, the fact that his body was specifically inanimate is because it is known that man is the purpose of creation, namely, that he is to elevate the sparks that fell into the inanimate, vegetative and animal [realms]

by their being made subordinate to his needs — bread to eat and clothing to wear — while he has the understanding (daas) to serve G‑d, etc.

8By way of analogy: when one needs to lift something from the ground by means of the lifting device called a “levar” [jack], one must take hold of specifically its lowest parts,

as in raising the walls of a house, where one must begin by raising specifically the lowest beam, and then the ones above it are automatically raised as well.

But if one were to begin from the middle of the wall, he would not raise the lower ones. So too, the soul of man was vested in a body of the inanimate level, the lowest of them all, and it will raise it, and automatically the vegetative, which is above the inanimate, is also elevated, etc.

And on account of this he is called “medaber” (speaking), from the expression “He leads (yadber) peoples,” that is, he is the leader of them all, since he elevates them through his service, etc.

9Now the soul of man specifically, because it is the level of the speaking, the highest of them all, is vested specifically in the inanimate, and not in the vegetative.

For the vegetative is distant from the level of the speaking; it is adjacent only to the level of the animal, as said above, for they are the level of the Vav and the level of the upper Hei of the Name Havayah, which is adjacent to the Vav.

But the level of the speaking is the Yud and the tip of the Yud, which are far, far above the Vav; rather, it is vested in the level of the lower Hei, which is the source of the level of the inanimate, for “their beginning is wedged in their end” specifically.

10And the explanation: it is written, “With Chochmah He founded the earth; He established the heavens with Tevunah (understanding).” Heaven and earth are spirituality and physicality, which are, in general, the inanimate and the vegetative.

For the inanimate is the very last [degree of] physicality, while the vegetative has some spirituality in it. And above, this is Z’eir Anpin and Nukva: the emotive attributes are called “vegetative,” for they have smallness and greatness, but the letters are the level of the inanimate, which has no growth, etc.

11Now the heavens, although they are exalted in level, He established with Tevunah, which is below Chochmah; and with Chochmah He founded the earth, which is lower in level than the heavens. Seemingly, it should be the reverse!

But the matter is for the reason stated above; this is exactly what dictates it: the level of the emotive attributes receives from Binah, for from contemplation one is stirred, and this is the level of the animal and the vegetative; whereas Chochmah is above this category.

Yet with it He founded the earth, because “their end is wedged in their beginning,” etc. And therefore the body of man was at first specifically inanimate, and not like the other animals, whose bodies came into being on the level of the vegetative from their very beginning and were not inanimate.

Not so Adam, the first man, of whom it is written, “Your eyes saw my unformed mass” — the level of an unformed mass and of the inanimate — and afterward “He blew…,” because his soul is from the level of supernal Chochmah, and “with Chochmah He founded the earth.”

12With this we will understand what is written of the creation of man, “And Havayah Elokim formed,” with two Names: since it is the joining of his soul and his body — speaking and inanimate — which are farther apart from each other in rank than the body is from the soul in all the other animals, for, as said above, the vegetative and the animal are adjacent to each other;

whereas the inanimate and the speaking are distant from each other, from one extreme to the other. Therefore, in order that they be joined together, it is through two Names.

13To understand with further explanation the matter of “And Havayah Elokim formed the man of dust from the ground,” and afterward “He blew into his nostrils the breath of life” — that his body at first was still without a soul, and was inanimate, of physical dust,

and afterward the living, speaking soul was vested in it, etc.; whereas in all the other creatures, vegetative and animal, their bodies and souls came forth together from the earth, etc.

The matter will be understood by first stating that just as in physicality there are four levels — inanimate, vegetative, animal and speaking — so too in spirituality these four levels are found.

14By way of analogy, in the soul: the letters are the level of the inanimate, which have no growth, etc.; and the emotive attributes are the level of the vegetative, for an emotional arousal that is small at first later blazes up until it becomes a mighty flame, etc.

And their growth is from the intellect: just as the physical plant was at first hidden and buried in the ground, and afterward comes out and sprouts outward, so the emotive attributes are at first contained and concealed in the intellect that gives birth to them, and afterward they come out into revelation.

15And in the analogue above: Malchus is called “inanimate,” and Z’eir Anpin of Atzilus, which is the emotive attributes, is called “vegetative,” meaning that it grows from the supernal Imma, which is the level of the supernal intellect, called by the name “living,”

as it is written of Chavah, “for she was the mother of all life”; and Chochmah too is called “life,” as it is written, “And wisdom gives life…,” etc.

16It turns out that the vegetative and the animal are adjacent to each other, without a leap or the interruption of another, intermediate level between them, and they unite and cleave to each other by virtue of their very essence and nature.

For at first the vegetative was contained within the animal itself — this is the concealment of the emotive attributes in a state of gestation within the intellect, like a fetus hidden in the mother’s womb, which is literally “its mother’s thigh”;

and even afterward, when they come out, they still need their mother in the days of nursing: the intellect enlivens and grows the emotive attributes, and it is their very sustenance.

17Therefore in physicality too, by the utterance “Let the earth bring forth living creatures,” the bodies of the animals and their souls, which are the levels of the vegetative and the animal, came forth together from the earth, since they are adjacent and united with each other in their root as well, as said above.

But the inanimate is very far from the animal, for the level of the vegetative interrupts between them. By way of analogy: the letters have no connection at all to the intellect, for they are not like the emotive attributes, which are of a kind and category close to the intellect.

And it is fitting that the emotional arousal come into being from the intellect, as it is written, “A man is praised according to his intellect.” Therefore they are adjacent to each other, as said above.

But the letters are of another essence and category, for they are actually physical and have no connection at all to the essence of the intellect (and see what is written above in the discourse beginning “On the twenty-fifth of Kislev,” regarding the lamps and the incense).

Therefore man’s body, which was inanimate and an unformed mass, came into being as it is, without the vital soul, for the animal soul could not join with it at all.

However, afterward the soul of man was vested in it, though it is the level of the speaking, which is above in rank even the animal.

But the matter is that this is exactly what dictates it: into the very lowest level, none can descend and lower himself there except one who is highest in rank.

Therefore into the body of the inanimate level, the lowest in rank, the speaking soul, the highest of them all, was vested; whereas into the vegetative only the animal soul was vested.

Only, that soul came forth together with the body; but with the inanimate it is not so, for the speaking soul did not come forth together with it; rather, afterward it was vested in it, etc.

18The explanation of all this will be understood through the difference between angels and souls. For the angels are called by the names of beasts and animals, as it is written, “The face of a lion on the right, and the face of an ox on the left…,” etc.

And they too are composed of a body and a soul, called matter and form, as with human beings; only, the difference between them and human beings is that their body is more spiritual.

19As the Ramban writes on the verse “He makes His angels winds, His ministers a flaming fire”: the bodies of the angels are made from the spirituality of these two elements, fire and air; some have bodies of the level of air, such as the camp of Michael, and some of the level of fire, such as the camp of Gavriel, etc.

Whereas the bodies of human beings are of the physicality of the four elements: fire, air, water and earth. But the reason for this — why they were given bodies more spiritual than Israel —

is that the purpose of the descent in the chain of the worlds is only as it is written, “And for My glory I created him…,” namely, that there be the nullification of the “something.”

And this is the essential point of the World of Tikkun (rectification): the union and inclusion of lights and vessels, which are, in general, the levels of “nothing” and “something.”

For the lights are the level of the illuminations and emanations of the Infinite One, blessed be He, and they are in a state of self-nullification; and the vessels are the level of “something”: Chochmah and Binah, Chesed and Gevurah.

20Now in the World of Tohu (chaos) the vessels could not contain the lights; that is, the “something” was not included and nullified into

the “nothing.” And the essential point of Tikkun is that there be the inclusion of the lights with the vessels, and likewise the inclusion of Chesed and Gevurah, left and right, etc., which is the nullification of the “something” to the “nothing.”

21The angels too have this service: to nullify the “something,” their body, through their soul, which is of the level of “nothing” and was taken from the outer dimension of the vessels.

And so too Israel must nullify the “something,” which is their physical body, through their G‑dly soul, which in itself needs no rectification, since it is in a state of “nothing,” etc., and was taken from the inner dimension of the vessels, higher than the quarry from which the souls of the angels were hewn.

22Therefore it can transform and subdue even a physical body; whereas the angels, had they a physical body, could not transform it at all and bring it to the nullification of the “something”; rather, they would fall from their level entirely.

Only the souls of man specifically, by virtue of the loftiness of their soul — they “arose in [G‑d’s] thought,” etc. — can transform even a physical body.

23It is like the analogy of a large bonfire, which shines farther than a small one, etc. It is understood, in any case, that the body and soul of the angels are close in rank to each other and came into being truly as one from their source, which is the level of Malchus of Atzilus,

which is “the mother of all life” of [the worlds of] Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. Of this it is said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures”: meaning, the supernal earth, which is Malchus, shall bring forth the soul of every living being — these are the angels, who are called “beasts” — and their bodies came forth together with their souls,

for the body, which is the level of the vegetative, is beside and adjacent to the level of the animal, as said above, that the vegetative was contained in the animal in a state of gestation, etc.

24And so too it will be understood even higher, regarding the supernal beasts, which are the Patriarchs — “they are the Chariot” — that is, on the level of Atzilus: they too were at first contained in the womb of the supernal Imma, in a state of gestation, and afterward came out into revelation.

And then they are in the state of nursing, etc. And this is the matter of the vegetative and the animal, which are adjacent to each other, being drawn from one another by way of a chain of cause and effect, etc.

But the level of the inanimate, which is the level of Malchus, is separated in rank from them and is not drawn by way of a chain of cause and effect, in the way the emotive attributes are drawn from the intellect.

For from Chochmah downward it is a chain of cause and effect: Chochmah, and afterward Binah, and afterward Daas, until afterward the emotive attributes are drawn, etc.,

down to the level of Malchus, but not including it. For as to the coming into being of Malchus, which is the level of the letters of the word of G‑d — they are not of the kind and rank of the level above it, that it could be said that it is

drawn by way of cause and effect. It is like the analogy of the physical letters, which are not of the rank of the emotive attributes and the intellect, etc.; rather, their coming into being is from higher up, namely, from the very essence of the soul, in which these twenty-two letters are fixed.

For although the letters Alef, Ches, Hei, Ayin are from the throat, etc., this means that they come and are vested in these points of articulation; but their root is in the soul, as is known and explained in Iggeres HaKodesh on the verse “And David made a name,” see there.

25Therefore the same letters can express two opposite concepts, merely through a change in their combinations, by placing one letter before or after another,

although they are the very same letters, and there will be a great change in the concept, from one extreme to its opposite, as from fire to water — this is Chesed and this is Gevurah, etc.

26The reason is that in truth the body and substance of the letters have no connection at all to the essence of the intellect, such that one could say that these letters belong specifically to this concept, and that for the opposite concept other letters would be needed, as is the case

with the emotive attributes, where there is a concept that inclines toward Chesed and does not incline toward Gevurah, and there is a concept that inclines toward Gevurah, etc., because they are drawn by way of a chain of cause and effect, etc.

27So too above, the coming into being of the letters is not by way of a chain of cause and effect, [as] the emotive attributes are drawn from Binah, for they are not of this rank, etc.

But nevertheless, for this very reason, they have an added superiority: their coming into being is from a higher place, for only from there can there be this lowering — the coming into being of the attribute of Malchus.

28And this is what is written, “With Chochmah He founded the earth; He established the heavens with Tevunah”: the level of “earth” is drawn specifically from Chochmah, which is above the comprehended intellect called Tevunah, with which He established the heavens, which are the emotive attributes.

Although the emotive attributes too are drawn from Chochmah, this means that their source is there; but the main part of their coming into being, to be differentiated as they are now, is from Tevunah.

For Chochmah is called Yud, which is still above differentiation, like a point, which is indivisible, as is known; and the flow of the emotive attributes from there is also in an all-inclusive form. It is like the analogy of the son’s share: from the father only a single drop is drawn, yet it includes his whole body;

but the main part of his building, in the growth of his limbs into the form of a human figure with differentiated limbs, is from the mother, through gestation in the mother’s womb.

29And so He, blessed be He, “established the heavens” — that the emotive attributes be well established as they should be, in the form of a complete configuration (partzuf) — specifically “with Tevunah.”

And this is the matter of the gestation of the emotive attributes in Binah, and afterward there are the days of nursing and [of] intellect, etc., which is the matter of the vegetative and the animal, which are adjacent to each other, as said above.

But Malchus is founded specifically with Chochmah itself, as it is said in the Zohar, “Abba founded the daughter”; that is, just as Chochmah is drawn from nothing to something, not by way of a chain of descent,

so too Malchus, which is the level of the letters, has this quality, in that it too is drawn from the level of “nothing”; for according to the chain of descent it would not be fitting for the letters to come into being from the intellect or from the emotive attributes, etc.

(And as for what was said above, that Chochmah too is called “living,” as it is written, “And wisdom gives life”: this is because in Chochmah there are two levels: the level of supernal Abba, which is the Yud of the Name Havayah, supernal Chochmah; but the second level is called Yisrael Saba, and is alluded to in the letter Hei, as written in Mishnas Chassidim, Tractate Abba and Imma.

Now the level of Hei is the source of the level of the animal, as explained above that the four letters of the Name Havayah are the source of the levels of inanimate, vegetative, animal and speaking; therefore this second level of Chochmah is also called “living,” and this is “And wisdom gives life”; but the first level is called “speaking.”)

Therefore Adam, the first man, had a body that was truly inanimate. For there are two kinds of “Adam”: one is the level of the Name Mah, which is called “Adam,”

as it is written, “Like the beauty of a man, to dwell in the house”: the level of Tiferes, which is the general and collective expression of Z’eir Anpin, called the Name Mah, is called “Adam.”

30However, the level of Adam, the first man, is the level of supernal Chochmah, which is the very beginning of Atzilus, and it is the level of the Name Av. Therefore it was specifically he whose body was inanimate.

For specifically “with Chochmah He founded the earth”: it is from Chochmah that the inanimate can come into being; on the contrary, Chochmah is vested specifically in the inanimate — not so in the vegetative, for “He established the heavens” only “with Tevunah.”

Whereas the animal soul could not be vested in a body of the inanimate level, since from Binah there can be only a chain of cause and effect,

which is the level of the vegetative, and not the coming into being of the level of Malchus, called “inanimate,” which is only from supernal Chochmah specifically, etc.

And this is why it is written specifically in the creation of man, “And Havayah Elokim formed,” with two Names: for in them and through them is the joining of Chochmah with Malchus, etc.

31It turns out that from all this we understand, at any rate, with good reason and understanding, why the animal soul has a body specifically of the vegetative level, while the speaking soul, which is higher, has a body of the inanimate level.

For, on the contrary, this is exactly what dictates it: it is a high soul that can be vested specifically in a low body, etc.

And this is so both above and below; that is, both in the higher worlds, where there are inanimate, vegetative, animal and speaking — these being the angels, who are called by the names of beasts and birds, as mentioned above,

as it is written, “The face of a lion and the face of an ox and the face of an eagle…,” etc. — and there is the level of the speaking there. And the soul of Adam, the first man, includes all the souls of Israel, etc. And they are all born from the “earth,” which is Malchus of Atzilus.

32Now, by the utterance “Let the earth bring forth living creatures… and let birds fly…,” which is the coming into being of the animal soul, its body came forth together with the soul; that is, the body was of the vegetative level and came forth together with the soul.

This is because the soul too was taken from the outer dimension of the vessels of Malchus; therefore its body too is spiritual, and it is the level of the vegetative, etc.

But the speaking soul of man did not come into being together with the body; rather, afterward it is vested specifically in an inanimate body, the lowest.

For since it is in itself exceedingly high, it could therefore bear even a physical body, etc. (As is also written elsewhere, that this is the difference between the “union of kisses,” from which the angels came into being, which is exceedingly spiritual —

nevertheless, it is only an external influence, and therefore they cannot be vested in a physical body; but the physical union, from which the souls [come], although it is a physical influence, has its root specifically in the inner dimension, and therefore they are vested in bodies, etc.)

And [so it is] below, that is, in the coming into being of the physical inanimate, vegetative, animal and speaking from this earth: the animal soul came forth from the earth itself, that is, the matter and form of the animal —

which is its vital soul and its body — both came forth from the earth, just as the vegetative came forth in its matter and form; and both came forth together, being adjacent and close in rank, as said above.

But with the speaking it is not so, as said above: the body came into being from the earth on the level of the inanimate, and afterward a soul from above was vested in it — this is the speaking soul, which could not dwell in the vegetative level, but only in the physical inanimate, etc.

And this is because even far above, on the level of Atzilus, it is likewise so: the animal is vested in the vegetative, and they are adjacent as one. And this is what is written, “He established the heavens with Tevunah,” and the earth — “its foundation is in the holy mountains,” [that is,] supernal Chochmah, etc.