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Chapter 35
Now, for a further explanation of the word “to do it”, and also so as to understand a very small part of the purpose for which the beinonim (in-between people) were created, and of the descent of their souls into this world to be clothed in the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) that comes from the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness) and the sitra achra (the other side), since they will not be able, through all their days, to send it away and to push it from its place, from the left chamber of the heart, so that stray thoughts from it will not rise to the brain. For the essence and the very substance of the nefesh bahamit that comes from the kelipah stands, with them, in its force and in its might, as in its native condition. Only its garments are not clothed in their body, as spoken of above. If so, why did their souls descend into this world, to labor for nothing, God spare us, to fight through all their days with the yetzer (the urge), and not prevail over it?
Let this be their comfort, to comfort them doubly, unto sound counsel, and to make their heart glad in Hashem (God), who dwells with them inside their Torah and their service. And this comes by first setting down the words of the child [in the Zohar, portion Balak] on the verse (Ecclesiastes 2:14), “The wise one has his eyes in his head”: “And in what place, then, are a person’s eyes, and so on? Rather, the verse is certainly so. For we learned: a person shall not walk four cubits with his head uncovered. What is the reason? Because the Shekhinah (the divine presence) rests upon his head. And every wise person, his eyes and his words are in his head, in that which rests and stands upon his head. And when his eyes are there, he is to know that the light kindled upon his head needs oil, because the body of a person is a wick, and the light is kindled above. And King Solomon cried out and said (Ecclesiastes 9:8): ‘and let oil not be missing from your head,’ for the light on his head needs oil, and those are the good deeds. And for this reason, the wise one has his eyes in his head.” Thus far his words.
Now the explanation of this parable, in which he likened the light of the Shekhinah to the light of a lamp, which does not shine and does not take hold in the wick without oil, is as follows. So too the Shekhinah does not rest upon the body of a person, which is likened to a wick, except by means of good deeds, and by those specifically. And it is not enough for him that he has his soul, which is a portion of God from above, for that soul to be as the oil for the wick. This is plain, and understood by every person of understanding. For the soul of a person, even if he is a complete tzaddik (a righteous person), who serves Hashem with awe and with love in delights, is even so not nullified in its existence completely, so as to be nullified and included in the light of Hashem itself, and to become one, united in a complete union. He remains a thing standing on his own, one who holds Hashem in awe and who loves Him. It is otherwise with the mitzvot (commanded deeds) and good actions, for they are His will, blessed be He. And His will, blessed be He, is the source of life for all the worlds and the creatures. It comes down to them through many contractions, and through a hiding of the face of the supernal will, blessed be He, and through a descent of the levels, until they can come into being and be created as a something out of nothing, a thing separate on its own, and not be nullified in their existence, as spoken of above. It is otherwise with the mitzvot, for they are the inner side of His will, blessed be He, and there is no hiding of the face there at all. The vitality that is in them is not a thing separate on its own at all. It is united with His will, blessed be He, and included in it, and they have become one in truth, in a complete union.
Now, the matter of the resting of the Shekhinah is a revealing of His divinity, blessed be He, and of the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, within some thing. That is to say, that thing is included in the light of Hashem and is nullified toward Him in its existence completely. Then it is that Hashem, the One, rests in it and is revealed in it. But anything that is not nullified toward Him in its existence completely, the light of Hashem does not rest in it and is not revealed in it. Even a complete tzaddik, who clings to Him with a great love, still no thought grasps Him at all, in truth. For the real sense of “Hashem Elohim is truth” (Jeremiah 10:10) is His oneness and His unity, that He alone is He, and there is in truth nothing apart from Him. If so, this one who loves, who is a something and is not a nothing, has no thought of his that grasps Him at all. And the light of Hashem does not rest in him and is not revealed in him, except by way of fulfilling the mitzvot, which are His will and His wisdom, blessed be He, itself, without any hiding of the face.
[Gloss: And as I heard from my teacher, peace be upon him, an explanation and a reason for what is written in Etz Chaim, that the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, is not united even in the world of Atzilut, except by first being clothed in the sefirah of wisdom, of the sefirot (divine channels). This is because Ein Sof, blessed be He, is the true One, who alone is He, and there is none besides Him, and this is the level of wisdom, and so on.]
Now, when a person is engaged in the Torah, then his soul, which is his nefesh elokit (the soul from God), together with its two inner garments alone, which are the power of speech and the power of thought, are included in the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, and united with Him in a complete union. And that is the resting of the Shekhinah upon his nefesh elokit, as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Berakhot 6a), that even one person who sits and is engaged in the Torah has the Shekhinah with him.
But in order to draw the light and the shining of the Shekhinah upon his body as well, and upon his nefesh bahamit, which is the vitality clothed in his body itself, he must fulfill practical mitzvot, which are done by the body itself. Then the power of the body itself that is in this deed is included in the light of Hashem and in His will, and is united with Him in a complete union. And that is the third garment of the nefesh elokit. Then the power of the vital nefesh in his body itself, which comes from the kelipah of Nogah, is also turned from bad to good, and is included in holiness itself, just as the nefesh elokit itself is, since it is the very one that acts and that does the deed of the mitzvah. Without it, the nefesh elokit would not act in the body at all, for the nefesh elokit is spiritual, and the body is physical and material. The intermediary between them is the vital nefesh bahamit, clothed in the blood of the person, in his heart, and in all the body.
And although the essence and the very substance of the nefesh bahamit in his heart, which are its bad traits, have not yet been included in holiness, nevertheless, since they are subdued to holiness, and against their will they answer Amen, and they consent, and they become willing for the mitzvah to be done, through the gaining of strength of his nefesh elokit in the brain, which rules over the heart, and at this hour they are in the state of exile and of sleep, as spoken of above. Therefore this is no barrier to the resting of the Shekhinah upon the body of the person at this hour. That is, the power of the vital nefesh clothed in the doing of the mitzvah is included in the light of Hashem itself, and united with Him in a complete union. Through this he draws a shining to the whole of the vital nefesh in all the body, and also upon the physical body, in the manner of a light that surrounds from above, from his head to his feet. And this is what is said, that the Shekhinah rests upon his head, the word “upon” being exact. And so too, “upon every company of ten the Shekhinah rests” (Sanhedrin 39a).
Now, every manner of drawing down the light of the Shekhinah, which is a manner of revealing the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, is not called a change, God spare us, in Him, blessed be He, and it is not called a plurality. As it is found in Sanhedrin (there), that a certain heretic said to Rabban Gamliel: You say that upon every company of ten the Shekhinah rests. How many Shekhinahs do you have? And he answered him with a parable taken from the light of the sun, which enters through many windows, and so on. And the person of understanding will understand.
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