חכלילי עינים מיין ולבן שנים מחלב

1“Red of eyes from wine, and white of teeth from milk.” Now, concerning wine it is written, “My wine, which gladdens G‑d,” etc.

To understand: what is the level of wine “which gladdens G‑d,” and how can its power be so great as to gladden G‑d? Now, [the Sages] said, “Wine enters, a secret comes out.”

2The explanation is that in the Torah there are two levels, wine and milk, as it is written, “Come, buy and eat,” etc., “without money and without price, wine and milk.”

To explain the matter: there are two loves, ahavas olam (“love of the world”) and ahavah rabbah (“great love”). Ahavas olam is the revealed love.

3And ahavah rabbah is the hidden love. To understand why the hidden love is called by the name ahavah rabbah: now, ahavas olam is the love that is taken from the worlds, that is, from contemplating how He, blessed be He, “renews in His goodness,” etc.,

and brings into being, from nothing to something, every day, from the level of His Malchus (sovereignty), blessed be He. For it is written, “Your kingship is the kingship of all worlds”: all worlds, higher and lower, live and exist from the level of His Malchus, blessed be He — the light that fills all worlds (memalei kol almin) and the light that encompasses all worlds (sovev kol almin) — “and You give life to them all.”

4And this is not like the soul that gives life to the body, where the life-force spreads out and is enclothed in the body itself to give it life. For He, blessed be He, is holy and separate, etc. Rather, [it is] only an extension of the level of a name, that is, because His name, King, is called upon them.

5As in the saying, “May Your name be praised forever (la’ad)”: “forever” means without end, etc. And about this we say, “Amen, may His great Name be blessed forever and to all eternity (le’alam ule’almei almaya); may it be blessed.” Meaning: we pray and ask that this name be in a state of blessing and drawing down, from concealment into revelation.

That is, that for us it not be in a state of concealment and hiding of the Face, with a knowledge “of men, learned by rote” alone, which is no more than the level of acknowledgment. But the level of blessing is the level of actual revelation in one’s mind and heart, in absolute truth.

6And that this revelation be drawn “to the world and to the worlds of worlds” (le’alam ule’almei almaya), even into the lower worlds, such as this physical world; as in what is said, “Blessed is G‑d, the G‑d of Israel, from world to world.”

Along these lines [the Sages] instituted all of Pesukei deZimrah, from Baruch She’amar until the reading of the Shema: to speak at length and expansively in praise of the Omnipresent — how His Malchus is “the kingship of all worlds.”

7And [they tell] how He is holy and separate, etc., until it is fixed “within a man, and [in] a deep heart.” And through this he will come to the fulfillment of the reading of the Shema, “Hear, O Israel.”

“Hear” is a term of understanding: to contemplate that “G‑d is One.” “One” (echad) means that the seven heavens and the earth, and the four directions of the world, are nullified to the alef, which is the Master (aluf) of the world.

8And just as in physicality there are seven heavens, etc., so in spirituality there are many levels, one above the other, and all of them are nullified to Him, blessed be He — only that [there is] “Blessed be the name,” etc.

For from the level of the large dalet of “One” there is drawn the level of blessing and drawing down, to become the level of “the name of the glory of His kingdom,” etc. And through this he will reach the level of “And you shall love.”

“And you shall love” (ve’ahavta) is a term of will. That is, that your will be that Havayah be your G‑d, “with all your heart” — with both your inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination — to turn darkness [into light], etc.:

that he uproot his will from the vanities of the world, so that he has a change of will, and turn his will toward the One G‑d; as it is written, “Whom have I in heaven? And with You, I desire nothing on earth.”

9Now, all this is the level of ahavas olam, as we say, “With an everlasting love (ahavas olam) You have loved us (ahavtanu).” The meaning of “ahavtanu” is that this love is enclothed within our soul,

for the soul can be a vessel to contain and enclothe this love truly within itself, so that “its inside is inlaid with love” — with this love. But ahavah rabbah is in the root of the soul, in the source from which it was hewn, for “His people” is literally “a portion of Havayah.”

10It is written, “And I, Havayah, have not changed”: for He, blessed be He, is above the bounds of worlds, and there is no comparison to Him, blessed be He, at all — not even as in the analogy of a drop [compared to] the waters of the ocean.

For although [the drop] is a tiny part, [one] of a thousand thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads, nevertheless some comparison and relation applies, by virtue of its essence, which resembles [the ocean]: for the essence of the drop, too, is water, exactly like the great sea.

That is not so with Him, blessed be He: the chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus) bears no comparison [to Him] at all. Therefore, the love that is taken from this level is not truly enclothed within the soul, and the soul cannot contain it;

rather, it is in a hidden state, and it comes to revelation at the level of “with all your might” (bechol me’odecha), etc. (See Tanya, end of chapter 43; and see also chapter 19.)

11Now, the difference between ahavas olam and ahavah rabbah is this: ahavas olam, which comes from contemplation and the depth of one’s thought, is subject to interruption; for if his heart turns to other things and his thought is occupied with worldly affairs, then it passes and departs from him, etc.

This is not so with the ahavah rabbah that is in the root of his soul, from the source from which it was hewn: it has no interruption. For even if his heart turns to other things, in this there is no “one opposite the other,” [nothing] to stand opposite this love, to disturb it and interrupt it.

12Therefore this love remains in the form of a reshimu (impression), so that its memory is fixed in the heart, “never to be moved, forever and ever.”

But how will this ahavah rabbah come into revelation, so that it rises and reaches the level of “with all your might”? About this they said, “Wine enters, a secret comes out”: [the wine] is the Torah, which is called by the name “wine.”

13As our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “The words of the Scribes are more pleasing to me than the wine of Torah.” For about love it is said, “And G‑d saw the light, that it was good”; and our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “that it was good” — to hide away in the Torah.

And when the wine of Torah enters, the secret — which is the hidden light of love — comes out from concealment into revelation, so that there is in him a revelation of the ahavah rabbah rooted in the root of his soul, in the source from which it was hewn, at the level of “with all your might.” And about this it is said, “You open Your hand (yadecha).”

“Yudecha” (“Your yuds”): these are the levels of the contractions (tzimtzumim), many and mighty, from the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, so that there be the chain of descent (hishtalshelus) of the levels, from cause to effect, etc.

14And the source of the coming into being of the worlds from nothing to something is from the Supernal Will, blessed be He. And through the Torah, which is His wisdom and His will, blessed be He, [He] opens the yuds and the contractions, so that there is a revelation of the Supernal Will, blessed be He.

“And satisfies every living thing”: that is, in all the life-force and light that spreads through the worlds, from the head of all levels, etc., there should be the level of will — that the level of the Supernal Will, blessed be He, rest and be revealed in them. And it is drawn to the soul of man as well, so that the Supernal Will within his soul is revealed in him,

that is, the ahavah rabbah rooted in the root of his soul, beyond what the soul can bear; since the Supernal Will has come to revelation in him below, in the garments of the soul, speech and action — through speech in Torah study and the action of the mitzvos. Therefore our Sages, of blessed memory, said that a person is asked, “Did you set fixed times for Torah?”

For through this he will arouse the love from above in the root of his soul, which is not enclothed in any vessel that conceals and hides; there is nothing like it, nor any likeness of it, in the “one opposite the other” mentioned above; and it has no interruption, so that even while he is occupied with other matters, this love will be fixed in his heart.

And from this he will come to “and you shall speak of them,” etc. (See Iggeres HaKodesh, the section beginning “It is stated at the beginning of the fourth chapter of Megillah: ‘And one who makes use of the crown,’ etc.” — of one who studies halachos, etc.; see there.)

15With this the verse “Red of eyes from wine” will be understood. “Eyes” is [as] in what is written, “My eyes are always toward G‑d”; “Behold, the eye of G‑d is toward those who fear Him.”

This is the level of “gazing upon the glory of the King,” that is, that the light of love for G‑d shine in his heart in the manner of sight, which is the level of love in delights — a level that surpasses all of them, above ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam.

(This needs examination in light of Tanya, chapter 43, which implies that ahavah rabbah is love in delights. One must say that there are two levels of ahavah rabbah. The first is the love mentioned in Tanya, chapter 19, when it comes to revelation, when it is not at the level of revealed delight.

Greater than it is ahavah rabbah in delights. See elsewhere, on “My sister, My beloved, My dove,” etc.; there it is explained that “My sister” is from the side of natural love, and “My dove” is love in delights.) As in what is written, “Your eyes are doves”: like a pair of doves that constantly gaze at one another and delight, etc.

So shall the bond of love be, in wondrous and mighty cleaving, until his eyes and his heart are all the days only “to gaze upon the glory of the King.” As is written in the Zohar on “Turn away your eyes,” etc.: “that set Him ablaze with flames of love.”

That is, that the love blaze and flame in a person’s heart, to delight in G‑d more than all [else], until there is no power in his soul to contain the love in the heart, except as sight from outside. (See elsewhere, on “Your eyes are doves,” and on “Let me see your appearance.”)

16This is the meaning of “red of eyes”: the redness of the eyes, for the redness of the eyes comes from the intensity of the “fiery sparks” that “set Him ablaze with flames,” etc.

And this is the level of the special quality and rank of Shabbos: “Then you will delight,” etc., “and you shall call the Shabbos a delight.” But “one who toiled on the eve of Shabbos,” etc.

Therefore, all the weekdays one must toil with his soul to arouse ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam; and through this he will reach the level of love in delights that is revealed on Shabbos.

17Now, all this comes from the level and rank of wine: the wine of Torah. And this is “chachlili”: “every palate (chech) that tastes says, ‘For me, for me’ (li li).”

For the level of the palate that tastes the wine will be revealed, that is, the level of Chochmah and the reasons (taamim, “tastes”) of the mitzvos, which are the level of the supernal delight.

And through this he is elevated, ascent after ascent, “for me, for me,” to the highest heights. (The meaning: “the palate that tastes” is the level of love in delights revealed on Shabbos, which is the level of the Name AB (72) of Chochmah;

and then it says “for me, for me” twice, that is, the two loves mentioned above, ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam, are included in it. These are MaH (45) and BaN (52), for MaH refines BaN; and through the union of MaH and BaN there is revealed on Shabbos the level higher than both of them, the level of the Name AB: love in delights.)

18“And white of teeth from milk.” The meaning: the teeth are what grind the food so that it is digested in his innards, through which it becomes nourishment for the body;

whereas when he does not chew and grind the food with his teeth, it will not be digested at all, and it will not be food and satisfaction for him.

19So too, by way of analogy: in order that there be food for “the 248 limbs of the King,” so that his soul be a chariot for them and that it be truly united with the soul, there must be the level of teeth that grind and crush,

that is, to crush and sift all his deeds, words and thoughts, and to scrutinize and examine them, and to be one of the “masters of accounting,” to weigh all his ways and to measure out his paths.

20In the language of the Gemara this is called “meticulous in his deeds.” Through this there will be a kind of digestion in the soul: the good it will take in as food and satisfaction, and the waste mixed in — a foreign admixture and refuse — it will push outside.

So too in the matter of refining the emotive attributes (middos), love and awe: “each one according to what he measures in his heart,” he weighs in the scales of his intellect what true love for G‑d is.

21And [he weighs] what the level of “turning darkness [into light],” etc., is in absolute truth — to weary himself with toil of the soul to come to this level, so that it is fixed in his heart in absolute truth, without imaginings, etc.

And there are many ways like this, known to “those who seek G‑d,” who “will understand everything” on their own: that one must scrutinize and examine, etc., and weary oneself, etc.

But afterward he will reach the level and rank of milk. Just as milk, by way of analogy, makes the infant grow, so that his limbs grow,

so the level of the milk of Torah makes his emotive attributes (middos), love and awe, etc., grow, so that he has the greatest love and awe, in the maturity of the intellect (gadlus hamochin).

(For the limbs are the emotive attributes, chiefly Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod and Yesod, and the level of Chochmah, Binah and Daas within them, which sustain them; and each one of these three kinds of levels comprises all of the above, making 81. And each level divides into three levels, head, middle and end, making 243. And their root is the five Chasadim (kindnesses) that bring growth, making 248.)

This is “washed with milk,” etc.: the milk washes the emotive attributes, and they are transformed from one essence to another, so that his heart is transformed and he becomes like an entirely different person, with all his attributes changed, equally, for the good.

And from this will follow “white of teeth”: there will be in them the quality of whiteness and brightness in the refinement of the attributes, ascent after ascent, to the highest heights, in the manner of sensory sight — not through toil, the toil of the soul and the toil of the flesh; rather, it will reach him at once, etc.

And this is “red,” etc., “from wine,” etc., “from milk,” etc.: the levels of wine and milk all become the level of chachlili — “for me, for me” — to the highest heights.