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Chapter 9
Now the dwelling place of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) from kelipat nogah (kelipah: a husk that hides holiness), in every person of Israel, is in the heart, in the left chamber, which is full of blood. And it is written (Deuteronomy 12:23): “For the blood is the nefesh.” Therefore all the cravings, the self-glory, the anger, and the things like them are in the heart. From the heart they spread through the whole body, and they also rise to the brain in the head, to think and to muse on them and to grow clever in them. Just so, the blood has its source in the heart, and from the heart it spreads to all the limbs, and it also rises to the brain in the head.
But the dwelling place of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) is in the brains in the head. From there it spreads to all the limbs, and also into the heart, in the right chamber, in which there is no blood. As it is written (Ecclesiastes 10:2): “The heart of a wise person is on his right.” And that is the love of Hashem (God), like the sparks of a flame, blazing in the heart of people of insight, who understand and who look deeply with their knowledge, which is in their brain, into things that stir the love. So too the joy of the heart in the beauty of Hashem and the splendor of His majesty, when the eyes of the wise man, which are in his head, in the brain of his wisdom and his understanding, look upon the glory of the King and the beauty of His greatness, until there is no searching it out, no end, and no limit, as explained in another place. So too the other holy traits in the heart come from wisdom, understanding, and knowledge in the brains.
But now, it is written (Genesis 25:23): “And one people shall grow mighty over the other people,” for the body is called (Ecclesiastes 9:14) “a small city.” As two kings fight over one city, and each one wants to conquer it and to reign over it, that is, to lead its inhabitants according to his will, so that they yield to his orders in all that he decrees upon them, so the two souls, the nefesh elokit and the vital nefesh bahamit that is from the kelipah, fight with each other over the body and all its limbs. The nefesh elokit, its wish and its will is that it alone should be the ruler over him and the one who leads him, and that all the limbs should yield to its orders, be wholly null before it, and be a chariot for it, and be a garment for its ten aspects and its three garments mentioned above, so that they all clothe themselves in the limbs of the body, and the whole body be filled with them alone, and no stranger pass inside them, God spare us. That is, the three brains in the head will be filled from the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of the nefesh elokit, which is the wisdom of Hashem and His understanding, so as to look deeply into His greatness, which reaches to where there is no searching and no end, and to bring forth from them, by means of the knowledge, awe in his brain and dread of Hashem in his heart, and love of Hashem like a burning fire in his heart, like the sparks of a flame, so that his nefesh longs and is also spent, in yearning and in desire, to cling to Him, Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, with all the heart and the nefesh and the might, from the depth of the heart that is in the right chamber, so that its inside is inlaid with love, full and heaped, until the love also spreads to the left chamber, to subdue the sitra achra (the other side), the element of the bad waters in it, which is the craving from kelipat nogah, to change it and to turn it from the pleasures of this world to the love of Hashem. As it is written (Deuteronomy 6:5): “with all your heart,” with both your yetzers (the urge) (Berakhot 54a).
That is, that he should rise and come and reach the level of a great love and a surpassing fondness, above the level of a strong love like sparks of fire. It is the love called in the verse (Song of Songs 7:7) “a love in delights,” to take delight in Hashem in a likeness of the world to come. The delight is in the brain of wisdom, and in the intellect that takes delight in understanding Hashem and in knowing Him, according to the reach of its intellect and its wisdom. This is the aspect of the water and of the seed, the light that is sown, in the holiness of the nefesh elokit, which turns to good the aspect of the water in the nefesh bahamit, from which the cravings for the pleasures of this world came at first. As it is written in Etz Chaim, Gate 50, Chapter 3, in the name of the Zohar, the evil is turned to become wholly good, like an actual good yetzer, when the filthy clothes are removed from it. These are the pleasures of this world, in which it is clothed.
And so all the other traits in the heart, which are branches of the awe and the love, will be for Hashem alone. All the power of speech in the mouth, and the thought in the brain, will be filled from the garments of thought and of speech of the nefesh elokit alone, which are the thought of Hashem and His Torah, so that his talk is the whole day, and his mouth does not stop from the words of study. The power of action in his hands and the rest of his 248 limbs will be in the doing of the mitzvot (commanded deeds) alone, which is the third garment of the nefesh elokit.
But the nefesh bahamit from the kelipah wills the exact opposite, for the good of the person, so that he will overpower it and defeat it, as in the parable of the harlot in the holy Zohar (Zohar II 163a).
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