Previous: Part 1, Chapter 22. Book contents. Next: Part 1, Chapter 24.
Chapter 23
With all that was mentioned above, it will be understood and well explained, with added explanation, what they said in the Zohar (see Zohar, part 3, 73a), that the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one. And in the Tikkunim they explained that the 248 commandments are the 248 limbs of the King. For the mitzvot, each a mitzvah (a commanded deed), are the inwardness of the supernal will and His true wish, clothed in all the upper worlds and the lower worlds in order to give them life, because all their life and their flow depend on the doing of the mitzvot by the lower ones, as is known.
It follows that the doing of the mitzvot and their fulfillment is the inner garment for the inwardness of the supernal will, since from this deed the light and the life of the supernal will are drawn forth to be clothed in the worlds. Therefore they are called, by way of a likeness, limbs of the King, just as the limbs of a person’s body are a garment for his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), and are utterly nullified toward it, in every respect. For the moment it rises in a person’s will to stretch out his hand or his foot, they obey his will at once and immediately, without any command and without any saying to them, and without any delay at all, but in a true instant, as it rose in his will. So, by way of a likeness, the life of the doing of the mitzvot and their fulfillment is utterly nullified before the supernal will that is clothed in it, and it becomes for that will truly like a body for the soul.
So too the outer garment of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) in the person who fulfills and does the mitzvah, which is its power and the aspect of its deed, clothes itself in the life of the deed of the mitzvah, and it too becomes like a body for the soul, toward the supernal will, and is utterly nullified toward it. Therefore the limbs of the body of the person who fulfills the mitzvah, in which the power and the aspect of the deed of the nefesh elokit is clothed at the time of the doing and the fulfillment of the mitzvah, become an actual chariot for the supernal will. For example, the hand that distributes charity to the poor, or does another mitzvah, and the feet that walk for a matter of a mitzvah, and so the mouth and the tongue that speak words of Torah, and the brain that reflects on words of Torah, on awe of heaven, and on the greatness of Hashem (God), blessed be He. This is what our teachers of blessed memory (Genesis Rabbah 47:6) said: the patriarchs, they themselves are the chariot. For all their limbs, every one, were holy and set apart from the affairs of this world, and they were made a chariot only for the supernal will alone, all their days.
But the thought and the reflection on words of Torah in the brain, and the power of speech in words of Torah in the mouth, which are the inner garments of the nefesh elokit, and how much more the nefesh elokit itself that is clothed in them, are all truly united in a complete union with the supernal will, and not a chariot only. For the supernal will is itself the very matter of the ruling on which one reflects and speaks. All the rulings are particular drawings of the inwardness of the supernal will itself, for so it arose in His will, blessed be He, that this thing be allowed, or fit, or exempt, or in the right, or the reverse. So too all the combinations of the letters of the Tanakh are a drawing down of His will and His wisdom, which are united with Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, in the utmost union, for He is the knower and He is the knowledge, and so on. This is what they said (Zohar, part 3, 73a), that the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one, and not the limbs of the King only, as with the commandments.
Since the supernal will, united with Ein Sof, blessed be He, in the utmost union, is in complete disclosure, and not in a hiding of the face in any way at all, in the nefesh elokit and its inner garments, which are its thought and its speech, at that hour when the person is occupied with words of Torah, the nefesh and these garments too are then truly united with Ein Sof, blessed be He, at that hour, in the utmost union, like the union of the utterance and the thought of the Holy One, blessed be He, with His essence and His being, as mentioned above. For nothing is separate except by a hiding of the face, as mentioned above. And more than this, their union is in greater height and greater strength than the union of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, in the upper worlds, since the supernal will is in actual disclosure in the nefesh and its garments that are occupied with the Torah. For He Himself is the Torah itself, and all the upper worlds receive their life from the light and the life drawn from the Torah, which is His wisdom and His will, blessed be He, as it is written (Psalms 104:24): “All of them You fashioned through wisdom.” If so, the wisdom, which is the Torah, is above them all. And it is itself His will, blessed be He, which is called “surrounding all worlds,” that is, the aspect of what cannot clothe itself inside the worlds, but only gives life and shines from above in an aspect of encompassing. And it is this that clothes itself in the nefesh and its garments in an aspect of actual disclosure when one is occupied with words of Torah. And even though he does not see, and so on (Megillah 3a) [And for this reason he is able to bear it, because he does not see, which is not so with the upper ones].
With this it will be understood why the excellence of occupation with the Torah is very great, more than all the mitzvot, and even more than prayer, which is a union of upper worlds [And as for this, that one whose Torah is not his occupation must break off, that is because he breaks off in any case].
From this, one who understands can draw upon himself a great awe in his occupation with the Torah, when he contemplates how his nefesh, and its garments in his brain and in his mouth, are truly united in the utmost union with the supernal will and with the very light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, that is revealed in them, whereas all the worlds, upper and lower, count as nothing before it, and as nothing and emptiness, truly, so that it does not clothe itself inside them in actuality, but surrounds all worlds in an aspect of encompassing, to give them life, the core of their life. Only some ray clothes itself inside them, as much as they can bear, so that they will not be nullified in existence altogether.
This is what is written (Deuteronomy 6:24): “Hashem commanded us… all these statutes, so as to be in awe of Hashem,” and the rest [And of this great awe they said (Mishnah Avot 3:17): “If wisdom is absent, awe is absent,” and the Torah is called, in relation to it, a gate to the courtyard, as has been explained in another place]. Only, not every mind can bear this, an awe such as this. Yet even one whose mind cannot bear this awe at all, neither it nor any part of it, because of the low grade of his nefesh in its root and its source, in the lower levels of the ten sefirot (divine channels) of the world of Action, this awe does not bar him from the deed, as will be explained further on.
Previous: Part 1, Chapter 22. Book contents. Next: Part 1, Chapter 24.
