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Chapter 37
Now, this final perfection of the days of the Messiah and of the revival of the dead, which is the revealing of the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, in this physical world, depends on our deeds and our service through the whole length of the exile. For the thing that brings about the reward of the mitzvah (a commanded deed) is the mitzvah itself. For by doing it, a person draws down a revealing of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, from above to below, so that it clothes itself in the physicality of this world, in a thing that was at first under the rule of the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness) of Nogah, and that received its vitality from that kelipah. These are all the things that are pure and permitted, with which a practical mitzvah is done. For example, the parchment of tefillin, of a mezuzah, and of a Torah scroll. And as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Shabbat 28a and 28b): nothing was made fit for the work of heaven except what is pure and permitted to your mouth. And likewise a citron that is not orlah (fruit forbidden in the first three years) [Gloss: for the orlah belongs to the three kelipot that are wholly impure, which never have an ascent, as is written in Etz Chaim, and so too every mitzvah that comes by way of a transgression, God spare us], and coins of charity that are not robbery, and whatever is of the same kind. And now that he fulfills with them the mitzvah of Hashem (God) and His will, the vitality that is in them rises, and is nullified, and is included in the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, which is His will, blessed be He, clothed in them, since there is there no manner of hiding of the face at all, such as would hide His light, blessed be He.
And so too the power of the vital nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) in the limbs of the body of the person who fulfills the mitzvah is also clothed in this deed, and it rises out of the kelipah, and is included in the holiness of the mitzvah, which is His will, blessed be He, and is nullified in the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He. And also in the mitzvah of Torah study, and of the reading of the Shema, and of prayer, and whatever is of the same kind, although these are not a physical deed in the full sense, under the rule of the kelipah of Nogah, nevertheless the rule stands with us that a mere thought does not count as speech, and he has not discharged his duty until he brings the words out with his lips. And the rule stands with us that the bending of his lips counts as a deed (Sanhedrin 65a). For it is impossible for the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) to pronounce words with physical lips, mouth, tongue, and teeth, except by means of the vital nefesh bahamit that is clothed in the limbs of the body itself. And the more he speaks with a greater force, the more he brings in, and clothes, further powers from the vital nefesh in these words. And this is what the verse said (Psalms 35:10): “all my bones will speak”, and the rest.
And this is what the sages of blessed memory said (Eruvin 54a): if it is ordered in all the 248 limbs, it is kept, and if not, it is not kept. For forgetting comes from the kelipah of the body and of the vital nefesh bahamit, which belong to the kelipah of Nogah, a kelipah that is sometimes included in holiness. And that happens when he weakens their power and brings all their power into the holiness of the Torah or of the prayer.
This, and yet one thing more. The power of the vital nefesh that clothes itself in the letters of speech, in Torah study or in prayer and whatever is of the same kind, or in practical mitzvot, has all its growth and all its vitality from the blood. The blood is from the kelipah of Nogah itself, that is, all the foods and drinks that he ate and drank and that became blood. They had been under its rule, and they had drawn their vitality from it. And now it is turned from bad to good, and is included in holiness, by means of the power of the vital nefesh that grew from it, which has become clothed in these letters or in this deed. Those letters and that deed are themselves the inner side of His will, blessed be He, without any hiding of the face, and their vitality is also included in the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, which is His will, blessed be He. And within their vitality, the power of the vital nefesh is also included and rises.
And through this, the whole of the kelipah of Nogah will also rise. That kelipah is the whole of the vitality of this physical and material world. This will be when the whole neshamah and the nefesh elokit in all of Israel, divided in particulars into sixty myriads, have each particular nefesh fulfill all 613 mitzvot of the Torah. The 365 “do not” commandments serve to separate the 365 sinews of the blood of the vital nefesh in the body, so that they will not draw, and will not receive, vitality through such a transgression from any one of the three kelipot that are wholly impure, from which flow the 365 “do not” commandments of the Torah and their branches, which are of rabbinic authority, and the vital nefesh will not be able to rise again to Hashem if it has been made impure by the impurity of the three impure kelipot, which have no ascent ever, except by being nullified and made to pass away completely, as it is written (Zechariah 13:2): “and the spirit of impurity I will make pass from the land”. And the 248 “do” commandments serve to draw the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, downward, to raise to Him, and to bind, and to unite with Him, the whole of the vital nefesh in the 248 limbs of the body, in a complete union, so that they become one in truth, as it arose in His will, blessed be He, that He should have a dwelling in the lower realms, and that they should be a chariot for Him, as the fathers were.
And once the whole of the vital nefesh in the whole of Israel is a holy chariot for Hashem, then the whole of the vitality of this world as well, which is now the kelipah of Nogah, will go out from its impurity and its filth, and will rise to holiness, to be a chariot for Hashem when His glory is revealed. And all flesh will see together, and He will shine upon them in the splendor of the majesty of His might, and the glory of Hashem will fill the whole earth, and Israel will see eye to eye, as at the giving of the Torah, as it is written (Deuteronomy 4:35): “You were shown, so that you would know that Hashem is Elohim. There is nothing else besides Him.” And through this, all three impure kelipot will be swallowed up and nullified completely, for their drawing of nourishment and their vitality from holiness is, at present, by way of the kelipah of Nogah, the intermediary between them.
And so it follows that the whole purpose of the days of the Messiah and of the revival of the dead, which is the revealing of His glory and of His divinity, blessed be He, and the making of the spirit of impurity pass from the land, depends on drawing His divinity and the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, into the vital nefesh of the whole of Israel, in all its 248 limbs, through its fulfilling all 248 “do” commandments, and on making the spirit of impurity pass from it by its keeping all 365 “do not” commandments, so that its 365 sinews will not draw from it. For the whole of Israel, who are sixty myriads of particular souls, are the whole of the vitality of the whole world. For the world was created for their sake, and each particular one of them takes in, and there belongs to him, the vitality of one part out of sixty myriads of the whole world, the part that depends on his vital nefesh, so that he may raise it to Hashem in its rising. That is, in whatever he uses from this world for the need of his body and of his vital nefesh, for the service of Hashem, such as eating and drinking and what is like them, and a dwelling, and all the vessels of his use.
Only, these sixty myriads of particular souls are roots, and each root divides into sixty myriads of sparks, and each spark is one soul. And so it is in nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) and in ruach, in each world of the four worlds, Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. And each spark did not descend to this world, though the descent is a great one and is truly a state of exile, for even if a person will be a complete tzaddik (a righteous person), serving Hashem with awe and with a great love, in delights, he will not reach the degrees of his cleaving to Hashem in awe and in love as they were before his descent into this material world, neither that cleaving nor any part of it, and there is no proportion and no likeness between them at all. As is known to every person of understanding, the body is not able to bear it, and so on. Rather, its descent into this world, to be clothed in a body and in a vital nefesh, is only in order to repair them, and to separate them from the evil of the three impure kelipot, by keeping the 365 “do not” commandments and their branches, and to raise his vital nefesh together with the part of the whole of this world that belongs to it, and to bind them and unite them in the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, which he will draw into them, by his fulfilling all 248 “do” commandments with his vital nefesh. For that vital nefesh is the very one that fulfills all the practical mitzvot, as spoken of above. And as is written [in Etz Chaim, Gate 26], the neshamah itself needs no repair at all, and so on, and it had no need to be clothed in this world, and so on, except to draw light in order to repair them, and so on. And this is precisely the secret of the exile of the Shekhinah (the divine presence), to sort out the sparks, and so on.
And with this one can understand how far the sages of blessed memory went, very far indeed, in praise of charity, and that they said (Bava Batra 9a) that it weighs equal to all the mitzvot. And in the whole of the Jerusalem Talmud it is called by the plain name “mitzvah”. For such was the habit of speech, to call charity by the plain name “mitzvah”, because it is the chief of the practical mitzvot and it rises above all of them. For all of them serve only to raise the vital nefesh to Hashem. That vital nefesh is the very one that fulfills them and clothes itself in them, so as to be included in the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, which is clothed in them. And you have no mitzvah in which the vital nefesh clothes itself so fully as in the mitzvah of charity. For in all the other mitzvot, nothing clothes itself in them except one power of the vital nefesh, and only at the hour of the deed of the mitzvah. But in charity, where a person gives from the toil of his hands, the whole power of his vital nefesh is clothed in the doing of his work, or in some other business in which these coins were earned. And when he gives them to charity, his whole vital nefesh rises to Hashem. Even one who does not live from his own toil, nevertheless, since with these coins he could have bought the life of his vital nefesh, he is giving the life of his nefesh to Hashem. Therefore the sages of blessed memory said (Bava Batra 10a) that it brings the redemption near. For with one gift of charity he raises a great deal from the vital nefesh, so many powers and so many aspects as he would not have been able to raise from it through many other practical mitzvot.
And as for what the sages of blessed memory said (Mishnah Peah 1:1), that Torah study stands equal to all of them, that is because Torah study is in speech and in thought, which are the inner garments of the vital nefesh. And the essence and the very substance of the aspect of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, from the kelipah of Nogah in the vital nefesh, are also included in holiness itself, when he engages in the Torah with close study and with intellect. And although the essence and the very substance of the traits, kindness, might, and beauty, and so on, could not be turned to holiness by the beinonim (in-between people), that is because the evil is stronger in the traits than it is in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, on account of their drawing more nourishment there from holiness, as is known to those who know the hidden wisdom.
This, and yet one thing more, and it is the thing that rises above all of them, in the excellence of engaging in Torah study over all the mitzvot, according to what we wrote above in the name of the Tikkunim, that the 248 commandments are the 248 limbs of the King. And as with the human being here below, by way of a parable, there is no proportion and no likeness at all between the vitality in his 248 limbs and the vitality in the brains, which is the intellect divided into three aspects, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Exactly so, by way of a parable, and keeping a separation of myriads of separations without end, it is with the shining of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, that clothes itself in the practical mitzvot, when set beside the shining of the light of Ein Sof in the aspect of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge within the wisdom of the Torah, for each person according to his intellect and his grasp. And although he grasps only in a physical way, the Torah is likened to water, which comes down from a high place, and so on, as we wrote above.
And even so, the sages of blessed memory said (Mishnah Avot 1:17): the exposition is not the main thing, the deed is. And “today, to do them” (Deuteronomy 7:11) is what is written (Eruvin 22a). And Torah study is set aside for the fulfillment of a practical mitzvah, when it cannot be done by others (Moed Katan 9b). Because this is the whole of a person, and the purpose of his creation and of his descent into this world: that there should be, for Him, blessed be He, a dwelling in the lower realms specifically, to turn darkness into light, and that “the glory of Hashem will fill the whole earth” (Numbers 14:21), the physical earth, exactly, and all flesh will see together, as spoken of above. It is otherwise when the mitzvah can be done by others. Then Torah study is not set aside, although the whole Torah is only an explanation of the practical mitzvot. And that is because the Torah is the aspect of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of Ein Sof, blessed be He, and by engaging in it he draws upon himself the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, with a greater height and a shining great without end, beyond the shining and the drawing down that come by way of the commandments, which are the limbs of the King. And this is what Rav Sheshet said (Pesachim 68b): Be glad, my soul. For you I have read Scripture. For you I have learned the teaching. As is explained in another place, at length.
Now this drawing down and this shining, which a person draws and makes shine from the shining of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, upon his own nefesh and upon the souls of all Israel, is the Shekhinah, the Assembly of Israel, the source of all the souls of Israel, as will be explained further on. By engagement in the Torah, it is called by the word “calling”, “one who calls in the Torah”. The meaning is that by engagement in the Torah he calls the Holy One, blessed be He, to come to him, as it were, like a person who calls his fellow to come to him, and like a small child who calls his father to come to him, to be with him in one company, and not to be parted from him and left alone, God spare us. And this is what is written (Psalms 145:18): “Hashem is near to all who call Him, to all who call Him in truth.” And there is no truth except the Torah. That is, he calls the Holy One, blessed be He, by means of the Torah specifically. This sets aside one who calls Him not by engagement in the Torah, but only cries out, “Father, Father.” And as the prophet laments over him (Isaiah 64:6): “and there is no one who calls by Your name”, and so on, and as is explained in another place. And from this the person of understanding will reflect, so as to draw upon himself a great awe at the time of engagement in the Torah, as was explained above (chapter 23).
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