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Chapter 18
And for a further explanation, to explain well the word “very” in the verse (Deuteronomy 30:14), “For the matter is very near to you,” and so on, one needs to know, and to hold it as sure, that even one whose knowledge is short in knowing Hashem (God), and who has no heart to understand the greatness of the Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, so as to bring forth from it awe and love even in his brain and his understanding alone, even so the matter is very near to him, to keep and to do every mitzvah (a commanded deed) of the Torah, and Torah study, which equals all of them, in his mouth, and in his very heart, from the depth of the heart, in truth and in its real truth, with awe and love. That is the concealed love in the heart of the whole of Israel, which is an inheritance to us from our fathers. Only, one must explain, and first set out clearly, the root of this love and what it is, and how it is an inheritance to us, and how awe too is included in it.
The matter is this. The fathers, they themselves are the chariot. Therefore they merited to draw down a nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), a ruach, and a neshamah for their children after them, for all time, from the ten sefirot (divine channels) of holiness in the four worlds, Atzilut (emanation), Beriah (creation), Yetzirah (formation), and Asiyah (action), for each and every one according to his level and according to his deeds. And in any case, even for the lightest of the light and for the transgressors of Israel, there is drawn, through their union, a nefesh of the nefesh of Malkhut (kingship) of Asiyah, which is the lowest level in the holiness of Asiyah. Even so, since it comes from the ten holy sefirot, it includes all of them, also from the Chokhmah (wisdom) of Asiyah, inside which is clothed the Chokhmah of Malkhut of Atzilut, inside which is the Chokhmah of Atzilut, in which the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, actually shines, as it is written (Proverbs 3:19): “Hashem founded the earth with wisdom,” and “You made all of them with wisdom” (Psalms 104:24). And so it comes out that the Ein Sof, blessed be He, is clothed in the aspect of wisdom in the nefesh of a person, whoever he may be of Israel. And the aspect of the wisdom in it, together with the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, that is clothed in it, spreads through every aspect of the whole nefesh, to give it life from the aspect of its head to the aspect of its foot, as it is written (Ecclesiastes 7:12): “Wisdom gives life to those who hold it.” [And sometimes the transgressors of Israel draw down very high neshamot that had been in the depths of the kelipot (husks that hide holiness), as it is written in the Book of Gilgulim.]
Now, wisdom is the source of the intellect and of understanding, and it is above binah, which is the understanding of the intellect and its grasp, and wisdom is above understanding and above grasp, and it is their source. And this is the sense of the word chokhmah, koach mah, the power of “what,” which is what is not yet grasped and not yet understood, and is not yet caught by apprehension. Therefore the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, clothes itself in it, for no thought grasps Him at all. Therefore all of Israel, even the women and the unlearned people of the land, believe in Hashem, for faith is above knowledge and above apprehension, as in “The naive person trusts every word, and the shrewd person understands,” and so on (Proverbs 14:15). And beside the Holy One, blessed be He, who is above the intellect and the knowledge, and no thought grasps Him at all, everyone is as a naive person before Him, blessed be He, as it is written (Psalms 73:22-23): “And I am a brute and I do not know. I was a beast with You. And I am always with You,” and so on. That is to say, in this, that I am a brute and a beast, I am always with You.
Therefore even the lightest of the light, and the transgressors of Israel, for the most part hand over their lives for the holiness of the Name, and they bear hard torments so as not to deny the one Hashem, even if they are ignorant and unlearned people of the land and do not know the greatness of Hashem. And even in the little that they know, they do not contemplate at all, and they do not hand over their lives because of any knowledge or contemplation of Hashem at all, but without any knowledge or contemplation, only as if it were a thing altogether impossible to deny the one Hashem, without any reason, any claim, or any answer at all. And this is because the one Hashem shines and gives life to the whole nefesh, by clothing Himself in the aspect of wisdom within it, which is above knowledge and above the intellect that is grasped and understood.
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