The prospect of the existence of the soul after death is constantly present to them; though they can hardly be said to have the cheerful hope and resignation which animates Socrates in the Phaedo or Cephalus in the Republic.
The fifth book commences in a sort of dithyramb with another and higher preamble about the honour due to the soul, whence are deduced the duties of a man to his parents and his friends, to the suppliant and stranger.
But, on the other hand, the priority of the soul to the body, and of God to the soul, is always insisted upon as the true incentive to virtue; especially with great force and eloquence at the commencement of Book v.
The conception of justice as the union of temperance, wisdom, courage (Laws; Republic): the latent idea of dialectic implied in the notion of dividing laws after the kinds of virtue (Laws); the approval of the method of looking at one idea gathered from many things, 'than which a truer was never discovered by any man' (compare Republic): or again the description of the Laws as parents (Laws; Republic): the assumption that religion has been already settled by the oracle of Delphi (Laws; Republic), to which an appeal is also made in special cases (Laws): the notion of the battle with self, a paradox for which Plato in a manner apologizes both in the Laws and the Republic: the remark (Laws) that just men, even when they are deformed in body, may still be perfectly beautiful in respect of the excellent justice of their minds (compare Republic): the argument that ideals are none the worse because they cannot be carried out (Laws; Republic): the near approach to the idea of good in 'the principle which is common to all the four virtues,' a truth which the guardians must be compelled to recognize (Laws; compare Republic): or again the recognition by reason of the right pleasure and pain, which had previously been matter of habit (Laws; Republic): or the blasphemy of saying that the excellency of music is to give pleasure (Laws; Republic): again the story of the Sidonian Cadmus (Laws), which is a variation of the Phoenician tale of the earth-born men (Republic): the comparison of philosophy to a yelping she-dog, both in the Republic and in the Laws: the remark that no man can practise two trades (Laws; Republic): or the advantage of the middle condition (Laws; Republic): the tendency to speak of principles as moulds or forms; compare the ekmageia of song (Laws), and the tupoi of religion (Republic): or the remark (Laws) that 'the relaxation of justice makes many cities out of one,' which may be compared with the Republic: or the description of lawlessness 'creeping in little by little in the fashions of music and overturning all things,'—to us a paradox, but to Plato's mind a fixed idea, which is found in the Laws as well as in the Republic: or the figure of the parts of the human body under which the parts of the state are described (Laws; Republic): the apology for delay and diffuseness, which occurs not unfrequently in the Republic, is carried to an excess in the Laws (compare Theaet.): the remarkable thought (Laws) that the soul of the sun is better than the sun, agrees with the relation in which the idea of good stands to the sun in the Republic, and with the substitution of mind for the idea of good in the Philebus: the passage about the tragic poets (Laws) agrees generally with the treatment of them in the Republic, but is more finely conceived, and worked out in a nobler spirit.
'No; it brings the soul back to a state of childhood.' In such a state a man has the least control over himself, and is, therefore, worst.
'We should like to hear you prove that a man ought to make a beast of himself.' You are speaking of the degradation of the soul: but how about the body?
'Certainly.' Let us not forget that there are two qualities which should be cultivated in the soul—first, the greatest fearlessness, and, secondly, the greatest fear, which are both parts of reverence.
For do not love, ignorance, avarice, wealth, beauty, strength, while they stimulate courage, also madden and intoxicate the soul?
When pleasure and pain, and love and hate, are rightly implanted in the yet unconscious soul, and after the attainment of reason are discovered to be in harmony with her, this harmony of the soul is virtue, and the preparatory stage, anticipating reason, I call education.
And as the soul of a child is too young to be trained in earnest, a kind of education has been invented which tempts him with plays and songs, as the sick are tempted by pleasant meats and drinks.
Surely that of the better soul.
'Doubtless.' And did we not say that the souls of the drinkers, when subdued by wine, are made softer and more malleable at the hand of the legislator?
'Very true.' The other story implies that wine was given to punish us and make us mad; but we contend that wine is a balm and a cure; a spring of modesty in the soul, and of health and strength in the body.
Again, the work of the chorus is co-extensive with the work of education; rhythm and melody answer to the voice, and the motions of the body correspond to all three, and the sound enters in and educates the soul in virtue.
'Pray proceed: our attention will show better than compliments that we prize your words.' I maintain that ignorance is, and always has been, the ruin of states; wherefore the legislator should seek to banish it from the state; and the greatest ignorance is the love of what is known to be evil, and the hatred of what is known to be good; this is the last and greatest conflict of pleasure and reason in the soul.
I say the greatest, because affecting the greater part of the soul; for the passions are in the individual what the people are in a state.
In the days of Cyrus the Persians were freemen as well as lords of others, and their soldiers were free and equal, and the kings used and honoured all the talent which they could find, and so the nation waxed great, because there was freedom and friendship and communion of soul.
But considering these qualities with reference to the honour and dishonour which is to be assigned to them in states, would you say, on the other hand, that temperance, if existing without the other virtues in the soul, is worth anything or nothing?
Most honourable are the goods of the soul, always assuming temperance as a condition of them; secondly, those of the body; thirdly, external possessions.
And the conclusion is, that the best of all things for a good man is to pray and sacrifice to the Gods; but the bad man has a polluted soul; and therefore his service is wasted upon the Gods, while the good are accepted of them.
'Most true: and now, having a preamble, let us recommence our discourse.' Enough has been said of Gods and parents, and we may proceed to consider what relates to the citizens—their souls, bodies, properties,—their occupations and amusements; and so arrive at the nature of education.
Hear now, all ye who heard the laws about Gods and ancestors: Of all human possessions the soul is most divine, and most truly a man's own.
Wherefore I bid every one next after the Gods to honour his own soul, and he can only honour her by making her better.
A man does not honour his soul by flattery, or gifts, or self-indulgence, or conceit of knowledge, nor when he blames others for his own errors; nor when he indulges in pleasure or refuses to bear pain; nor when he thinks that life at any price is a good, because he fears the world below, which, far from being an evil, may be the greatest good; nor when he prefers beauty to virtue—not reflecting that the soul, which came from heaven, is more honourable than the body, which is earth-born; nor when he covets dishonest gains, of which no amount is equal in value to virtue;—in a word, when he counts that which the legislator pronounces evil to be good, he degrades his soul, which is the divinest part of him.
And the soul is that part of man which is most inclined to avoid the evil and dwell with the good.
Wherefore also the soul is second only to the Gods in honour, and in the third place the body is to be esteemed, which often has a false honour.
He who is unjust is to be pitied in any case; for no man voluntarily does evil or allows evil to exist in his soul.
And therefore we say that there is to be no silver or gold in the state, nor usury, nor the rearing of the meaner kinds of live-stock, but only agriculture, and only so much of this as will not lead men to neglect that for the sake of which money is made, first the soul and afterwards the body; neither of which are good for much without music and gymnastic.
Money is to be held in honour last or third; the highest interests being those of the soul, and in the second class are to be ranked those of the body.
For it is clear that there are great differences in the power of regions to produce good men: heat and cold, and water and food, have great effects both on body and soul; and those spots are peculiarly fortunate in which the air is holy, and the Gods are pleased to dwell.
Their bodies and souls should be in the most temperate condition; they should abstain from all that partakes of the nature of disease or vice, which will otherwise become hereditary.
And now, leaving the body, let us proceed to the soul; but we must first repeat that perpetual motion by night and by day is good for the young creature.
'Very true.' And we may say that the use of motion will inspire the souls of children with cheerfulness and therefore with courage.
Education has two branches—gymnastic, which is concerned with the body; and music, which improves the soul.
I must try, like the shipwright, who lays down the keel of a vessel, to build a secure foundation for the vessel of the soul in her voyage through life.
Even those who live in the second state have a work to do twice as great as the work of any Pythian or Olympic victor; for their labour is for the body only, but ours both for body and soul.
Much sleep is not required either for our souls or bodies.
Thus much of the dances which are appropriate to fair forms and noble souls.
He is not the enemy, but the friend of man, who releases the soul from the body, which is at least as good a work as to unite them.
This absorbs the soul of a man, and leaves him no time for any other pursuit.
Many of these latter are men of ability, and are greatly to be pitied, because their souls are hungering and thirsting all their lives long.
The one is of the body, and has no regard for the character of the beloved; but he who is under the influence of the other disregards the body, and is a looker rather than a lover, and desires only with his soul to be knit to the soul of his friend; while the intermediate sort is both of the body and of the soul.
'What are they?' Religion, honour, and the love of the higher qualities of the soul.
The will of God, the authority of the legislator, and the dignity of the soul, have taken their place in the mind of Plato.
If we ask what is that truth or principle which, towards the end of his life, seems to have absorbed him most, like the idea of good in the Republic, or of beauty in the Symposium, or of the unity of virtue in the Protagoras, we should answer—The priority of the soul to the body: his later system mainly hangs upon this.
In several respects the second state is an improvement on the first, especially in being based more distinctly on the dignity of the soul.
Plato is never weary of speaking of the honour of the soul, which can only be honoured truly by being improved.
To make the soul as good as possible, and to prepare her for communion with the Gods in another world by communion with divine virtue in this, is the end of life.
A man's soul, as he often says, is more to be esteemed than his body; and his body than external goods.
He has a sympathy with thieves and burglars, 'many of whom are men of ability and greatly to be pitied, because their souls are hungering and thirsting all their lives long;' but he has little sympathy with shopkeepers or retailers, although he makes the reflection, which sometimes occurs to ourselves, that such occupations, if they were carried on honestly by the best men and women, would be delightful and honourable.
But he maintains as earnestly as ever that 'to men living under this second polity there remains the greatest of all works, the education of the soul,' and that no bye-work should be allowed to interfere with it.
He will not feed them by an over-luxurious diet, nor allow the healthier instincts of the soul to be corrupted by music and poetry.
By injustice I mean the dominion of anger and fear, pleasure and pain, envy and desire, in the soul, whether doing harm or not: by justice I mean the rule of the opinion of the best, whether in states or individuals, extending to the whole of life; although actions done in error are often thought to be involuntary injustice.
For the body is not for the sake of wealth, but wealth for the body, as the body is for the soul.
A man may know what is for the public good, but if he have absolute power, human nature will impel him to seek pleasure instead of virtue, and so darkness will come over his soul and over the state.
These the heretics call nature, conceiving them to be prior to the soul.
They do not see that the soul is before the body, and before all other things, and the author and ruler of them all.
And if the soul is prior to the body, then the things of the soul are prior to the things of the body.
But if the soul is first, and not fire and air, then the soul above all things may be said to exist by nature.
And this can only be on the supposition that the soul is prior to the body.
'What are they?' Just the two with which our enquiry is concerned; for our enquiry relates to the soul.
'Life.' And soul too is life?
'Very true.' And what is the definition of the thing which is named 'soul'?
'True.' And if so, we shall be right in saying that the soul is prior and superior to the body, and the body by nature subject and inferior to the soul?
'Quite right.' And we agreed that if the soul was prior to the body, the things of the soul were prior to the things of the body?
'To be sure.' In the next place, we acknowledge that the soul is the cause of good and evil, just and unjust, if we suppose her to be the cause of all things?
'Certainly.' And the soul which orders all things must also order the heavens?
'Of course.' One soul or more?
'Most true.' The soul directs all things by her movements, which we call will, consideration, attention, deliberation, opinion true and false, joy, sorrow, courage, fear, hatred, love, and similar affections.
These are the primary movements, and they receive the secondary movements of bodies, and guide all things to increase and diminution, separation and union, and to all the qualities which accompany them—cold, hot, heavy, light, hard, soft, white, black, sweet, bitter; these and other such qualities the soul, herself a goddess, uses, when truly receiving the divine mind she leads all things rightly to their happiness; but under the impulse of folly she works out an opposite result.
For the controller of heaven and earth and the circle of the world is either the wise and good soul, or the foolish and vicious soul, working in them.
'What do you mean?' If we say that the whole course and motion of heaven and earth is in accordance with the workings and reasonings of mind, clearly the best soul must have the care of the heaven, and guide it along that better way.
'True.' But if the heavens move wildly and disorderly, then they must be under the guidance of the evil soul.
'True again.' What is the nature of the movement of the soul?
We must not suppose that we can see and know the soul with our bodily eyes, any more than we can fix them on the midday sun; it will be safer to look at an image only.
'Very true.' After what has been said, it is clear that, since the soul carries round all things, some soul which is either very good or the opposite carries round the circumference of heaven.
But that soul can be no other than the best.
Again, the soul carries round the sun, moon, and stars, and if the sun has a soul, then either the soul of the sun is within and moves the sun as the human soul moves the body; or, secondly, the sun is contained in some external air or fire, which the soul provides and through which she operates; or, thirdly, the course of the sun is guided by the soul acting in a wonderful manner without a body.
'Yes, in one of those ways the soul must guide all things.' And this soul of the sun, which is better than the sun, whether driving him in a chariot or employing any other agency, is by every man called a God?
'Yes, by every man who has any sense.' And of the seasons, stars, moon, and year, in like manner, it may be affirmed that the soul or souls from which they derive their excellence are divine; and without insisting on the manner of their working, no one can deny that all things are full of Gods.
Either he must show that the soul is not the origin of all things, or he must live for the future in the belief that there are Gods.
That your error may not increase, I will endeavour to purify your soul.' Do you, Megillus and Cleinias, make answer for the youth, and when we come to a difficulty, I will carry you over the water as I did before.
'Impossible.' And do not all human things share in soul, and is not man the most religious of animals and the possession of the Gods?
The soul undergoes many changes from her contact with bodies; and all that the player does is to put the pieces into their right places.
For when the king saw the actions of the living souls and bodies, and the virtue and vice which were in them, and the indestructibility of the soul and body (although they were not eternal), he contrived so to arrange them that virtue might conquer and vice be overcome as far as possible; giving them a seat and room adapted to them, but leaving the direction of their separate actions to men's own wills, which make our characters to be what they are.
'That is very probable.' All things which have a soul possess in themselves the principle of change, and in changing move according to fate and law; natures which have undergone lesser changes move on the surface; but those which have changed utterly for the worse, sink into Hades and the infernal world.
And in all great changes for good and evil which are produced either by the will of the soul or the influence of others, there is a change of place.
The good soul, which has intercourse with the divine nature, passes into a holier and better place; and the evil soul, as she grows worse, changes her place for the worse.
There is an immortal conflict going on, in which Gods and demigods are our allies, and we their property; for injustice and folly and wickedness make war in our souls upon justice and temperance and wisdom.
And this sin, which is termed dishonesty, is to the soul what disease is to the body, what pestilence is to the seasons, what injustice is to states.
Those who have learnt to blaspheme from mere ignorance shall be imprisoned in the House of Reformation for five years at least, and not allowed to see any one but members of the Nocturnal Council, who shall converse with them touching their souls health.
As to that class of monstrous natures who not only believe that the Gods are negligent, or may be propitiated, but pretend to practise on the souls of quick and dead, and promise to charm the Gods, and to effect the ruin of houses and states—he, I say, who is guilty of these things, shall be bound in the central prison, and shall have no intercourse with any freeman, receiving only his daily rations of food from the public slaves; and when he dies, let him be cast beyond the border; and if any freeman assist to bury him, he shall be liable to a suit for impiety.
And what admonition can be more appropriate than the assurance which we formerly gave, that the souls of the dead watch over mortal affairs?
Let men fear, in the first place, the Gods above; secondly, the souls of the departed, who naturally care for their own descendants; thirdly, the aged living, who are quick to hear of any neglect of family duties, especially in the case of orphans.
If, however, their swelling souls cannot be pacified, the wife may try and find a new husband, and the husband a new wife; probably they are not very gentle creatures, and should therefore be joined to milder natures.
The legislator will instruct the people that the body is a mere shadow or image, and that the soul, which is our true being, is gone to give an account of herself before the Gods below.
And we too want to make our laws irreversible, for the unchangeable quality in them will be the salvation of the state, and the source of health and order in the bodies and souls of our citizens.
This assembly will be an anchor to the vessel of state, and provide the means of permanence; for the constitutions of states, like all other things, have their proper saviours, which are to them what the head and soul are to the living being.
'How do you mean?' Mind in the soul, and sight and hearing in the head, or rather, the perfect union of mind and sense, may be justly called every man's salvation.
The reason is that courage is concerned with fear, and is found both in children and in brutes; for the soul may be courageous without reason, but no soul was, or ever will be, wise without reason.
And there are two great evidences of religion—the priority of the soul and the order of the heavens.
No man can now truly worship the Gods who does not believe that the soul is eternal, and prior to the body, and the ruler of all bodies, and does not perceive also that there is mind in the stars; or who has not heard the connexion of these things with music, and has not harmonized them with manners and laws, giving a reason of things which are matters of reason.
Sir Thomas More, in his Utopia, is in favour of tolerating all except the intolerant, though he would not promote to high offices those who disbelieved in the immortality of the soul.
Yet this future state of rewards and punishments is in Plato's view not any addition of happiness or suffering imposed from without, but the permanence of good and evil in the soul: here he is in advance of many modern theologians.
His answer to the unbelievers is twofold: first, that the soul is prior to the body; secondly, that the ruler of the universe being perfect has made all things with a view to their perfection.
Yet in the Timaeus he had himself allowed that God made the world out of pre-existing materials: in the Statesman he says that there were seeds of evil in the world arising out of the remains of a former chaos which could not be got rid of; and even in the Tenth Book of the Laws he has admitted that there are two souls, a good and evil.
From meditating on the priority of the human soul to the body, he has learnt the nature of soul absolutely.
For just as the attributes in the soul of a person, when they come to be revealed in deed, come clothed in the letters of thought, for example, the attribute of kindness and mercy in the soul, it is impossible for it to come to revelation in actual deed except by his thinking in his mind and pondering the deed of charity and kindness, so as to do it in actual deed, for it is impossible to act without thought.
Hidden worlds that are not revealed: they are the ones that come into being and live and endure from concealed powers and drawings down, like the letters of thought in the soul of a person, by way of a parable.
For by the utterance and the letters "Let us make a human in our image," and so on (Genesis 1:26), the human was created, possessing wisdom and intellect, or even by the upper breath alone, as it is written, "And He breathed into his nostrils a soul of life" (Genesis 2:7).
If so, the speech and the upper breath are the source of the wisdom and the intellect in the soul of the first human, which includes all the souls of the righteous, who are greater than the ministering angels.
And they are the very 22 letters fixed in the mouth and the tongue, as it is set down in the Book of Formation [and their form in writing indicates the shape of the drawing down, as will be explained further on], for the letters of speech and of thought in the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) of a person are also drawings down from the intellect and the attributes that are in the nefesh, from their essence and their very self, as has been explained in another place.
Now, after the light of Ein Sof has been clothed in the aspect of the vessels of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, then it is applicable to say what Maimonides wrote, "He is the knower, and He is the knowledge, and He is the known, and by knowledge of His very self," and so on, because the aspect of the vessels of Emanation become a soul and a life force for Creation, Formation, and Action, and for all that is in them.
For from wisdom are drawn understanding and knowledge, and from them are drawn all the attributes in the intellectual nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), such as love and kindness and mercy, and the like.
And also when a person does some thing by himself, behold, the power of the nefesh and its life force that is clothed in this action is as truly nothing beside the power of the nefesh and its life force that is clothed in a person's speech, and as the relation and the likeness of the body to the soul.
And His knowledge is not something added to His essence and His being, as it is in the soul of a person, whose knowledge is something added to its essence and is compounded in it.
For when a person studies and comes to know some matter, his thinking soul was already in him before he studied and knew, and after he studied and knew, this knowledge was added in his soul.
And also in the lower realms, even though He fills all worlds, He is not like the soul of a person inside his body, which is caught inside the body until it is affected and receives changes from the changes of the body and its pain, from blows, or cold, or the heat of fire, and the like.
And this is the soul of the inanimate, which gives it life and brings it into being from nothing into something at every moment, as was explained above.
And therefore the earth too, and what is beneath the earth, are nothing and naught, actually, beside the Holy One, blessed be He, and they are not called by a name at all, even by the name "else," which is a term for what is secondary, as the saying of our rabbis, of blessed memory (Kiddushin 6a): "Judah, and else, to recite?" And like the body, which is secondary to the soul and the life force that is within it.
I will sing to my Elohim while I still am." For the life is drawn from the name Havayah, and the "else" of "while I still am," which is the secondary body, is from the name Elohim.] For the soul does not bring the body into being from nothing into something.
And therefore the verse needed to warn (Deuteronomy 4:39): "And you shall know today, and you shall set it back upon your heart," and the rest, so that it not rise in your mind that the heavens and all their host, and the earth and its fullness, are a separate thing in their own right, and that the Holy One, blessed be He, fills the whole world in the manner of the clothing of the soul in the body, and bestows the power of growth upon the earth and the power of motion upon the spheres, and moves them and leads them according to His will, as the soul moves the body and leads it according to its will.
For the soul and the body are in truth separate from one another in their root, for the coming into being of the root of the body and of its essence is not from its soul, but from the drops of its father and its mother, and also afterward its growth is not from its soul alone, but by the eating and the drinking of its mother through all the nine months, and after that by its own eating and its drinking.
Only, the gift of the reward of the tzaddikim in the Garden of Eden is the grasp of the spreading of the life force and the light that is drawn from these two attributes, kindness and might, and that is the food of the souls of the tzaddikim who occupied themselves in the Torah for its own sake in this world.
For from the spreading of these two attributes an expanse is stretched over the souls that are in the Garden of Eden, and this expanse is called the secret of the Torah, and in it is the secret of the 22 letters of the Torah that was given from these two attributes, as it is written (Deuteronomy 33:2): "From His right hand, a fire of law for them." And from this expanse dew drips, for the food of the souls, that is, the knowledge of the secret of the 22 letters of the Torah.
For this expanse is the secret of knowledge, and the Torah is the food of the souls in the Garden of Eden, and the mitzvot (a mitzvah is a commanded deed) are garments, as all this is explained [in the Zohar, the portion Vayakhel, folio 209 and folio 210, and in the Tree of Life, gate 44, chapter 3].
And this is what the Ari, of blessed memory, wrote: that even in the inanimate, actually, such as stones and dust and water, there is an aspect of nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) and a spiritual life force.
The one is the expiry of the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), in its own nature, toward its Creator.
When the intellectual soul grows strong over the material, and brings it low and subdues it beneath itself, then it blazes and flames with a flame that rises of itself, and it exults and rejoices in Hashem its Maker, and it delights in Hashem with a wondrous delight.
And those who attain this high level of great love are the ones called tzaddikim (a tzaddik is a righteous person), as it is written (Psalms 92:12): "Be glad, you tzaddikim, in Hashem." But not every person attains this, for this requires a very great refining of the material, and also much Torah and many good deeds, so as to merit a higher soul, above the level of ruach (spirit) and nefesh, as is written in The Beginning of Wisdom, the Gate of Love.
In a general way, it is that He is our very life, and as a person loves his own soul and his life, so he will love Hashem, when he contemplates and sets it upon his heart that Hashem is his true soul and his very life, as it is written in the Zohar on the verse (Isaiah 26:9), "My soul, I desired You," and so on.
And in a particular way, it is that when he understands and discerns the greatness of the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, in detail, as much as his mind can bear, and what is above his mind, and afterward contemplates the great and wondrous love of Hashem toward us, that He went down to Egypt, the nakedness of the land, to bring our souls out of the iron furnace, which is the sitra achra (the other side), God spare us, to bring us near to Him and to join us to His very name, and He and His name are one.
Then, as water, face to face, love will awaken in the heart of everyone who discerns and contemplates this matter in the depth of the heart, to love Hashem with a strong love and to cleave to Him with heart and with soul, as will be explained in its place at length.
Now, Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, wished to plant the matter of this love in the heart of all Israel, in the portion (Deuteronomy 10:12) "And now, Israel," and so on, in the verse "Behold, to Hashem your Elohim belong the heavens," and so on (there, 14), "Only in your fathers did He set His desire," and so on (there, 15), "And you shall circumcise," and so on (there, 16), "With seventy souls," and so on (Deuteronomy 10:22), "And you shall love," and so on (Deuteronomy 11:1).
And those good deeds are the 613 mitzvot drawn from His wisdom, blessed be He, so as to take hold of the light of the Shekhinah in the wick, which is the vital soul in the body, called a wick by way of analogy.
For just as in a physical lamp the light shines by the wasting and the burning of the wick, which turns into fire, so the light of the Shekhinah rests upon the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) by the wasting of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) and its turning from darkness to light and from bitter to sweet, in the tzaddikim (a tzaddik is a righteous person), or at least by the wasting of its garments, which are thought, speech, and deed, and their turning from the darkness of the kelipot (a kelipah is a husk that hides holiness) to the light of Hashem, Ein Sof, blessed be He, clothed and united in the thought, speech, and deed of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, in the beinonim (a beinoni is the in-between person).
And as with the soul of a person, the chief revelation of the whole of the life is in the brains, and all the limbs receive light and power only, which shines to them from the source of the revelation of the life that is in the brains, so, exactly, by way of analogy, the chief revelation of the whole of the drawing of the life, to give life to the worlds and to the creatures in them, is clothed and included in His will, His wisdom, His understanding, and His knowledge, blessed be He, which are called by the name brains.
And therefore it is called, by way of analogy, the mother of the children, and the Assembly of Israel, because from this source the souls of Atzilut (emanation) were emanated, and the souls of Beriah (creation) were created, and so on.
And by their being clothed in malchut of Beriah, the souls and the angels that are in Beriah were created, and from there also the Talmud that is before us is drawn.
And as we wrote above in the name of the Tikkunim, in the world of Beriah the wisdom, the understanding, and the knowledge of Ein Sof, blessed be He, shine and flow forth there in an aspect of a mighty contraction, so that the souls and the angels, which are limited and finite, should be able to receive influence from this aspect of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.
Now, from the Shekhinah that is clothed in the palace of the Holy of Holies of each and every world, general or particular, light and life are drawn and spread from it to that whole world and to the creatures in it, souls and angels and so on, for all of them were created by the ten sayings in the work of the Beginning, which are the word of Hashem, called by the name Shekhinah:
But the matter is as it is written (Job 19:26): "And from my flesh I behold God." For just as the soul of a person fills all 248 limbs of the body, from his head to his foot, still the chief place of its dwelling and its resting is in his brain, and from the brain it spreads to all the limbs, and each limb receives from it the life and the power that fit it, according to its temperament and its nature: the eye to see, the ear to hear, the mouth to speak, and the feet to walk.
Now, the difference in how the limbs of the body receive the powers and the life from the soul is not from the side of the soul itself and its essence, as if its essence and its being were divided into 248 different parts, clothed in 248 places according to the shape of the parts of the places of the limbs of the body.
Only, 613 kinds of powers and life are included in it, in its essence and its being, to come out into act and into revelation from concealment, so as to give life to the 248 limbs and the 365 sinews of the body, by their being clothed in the vital soul, which likewise has these 248 and 365 powers and vital forces.
Now, of the drawing down of all the 613 kinds of powers and life from the concealment of the soul into the body, to give it life, of this they said that the chief dwelling and resting of this drawing down, and of this revelation, is entirely in the brains of the head.
The whole of all the drawings of life to the other limbs is also included and clothed in the brains of the head, and there is the core and the root of this drawing, in an aspect of the revelation of the light and the life of the whole soul in its entirety.
And all the powers spread from the brain, as is known, for there is the chief dwelling of the whole soul, in an aspect of revelation, since the whole of the life that spreads from it is revealed there.
And in every world there are creatures without end and without limit, myriads of myriads of kinds of levels, angels and souls, and so on.
Now, the essence and the being of Ein Sof, blessed be He, are the same in the upper ones and in the lower ones, as in the analogy of the soul mentioned above.
That is, through contemplation of the greatness of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, before whom all is reckoned as actually nothing, the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) catches fire and blazes for the precious splendor of His greatness, and to gaze upon the glory of the King, like the sparks of fire, a strong flame that rises upward and separates from the wick and the wood to which it clings.
And this comes about through the growing strong of the element of divine fire that is in the nefesh elokit (the soul from God).
And from this it comes to thirst, as it is written: "My soul thirsted for You" (Psalms 63:2).
And afterward it comes to the soul actually expiring, as it is written: "My soul, too, is spent" (Psalms 84:3).
Only every wise hearted and discerning man, who looks into a matter and goes deep, to bind his mind and his understanding to Hashem (God), will find good, and the light hidden in his understanding soul, each one according to his measure, [there is one who is moved, and so on, and there is one who is moved, and so on], after fear of sin has come first, so that he turn from evil to the utmost, so that "your iniquities" not "separate," and so on (Isaiah 59:2), God spare us.
Now, the order of the service, in the occupation with the Torah and the mitzvot (commanded deeds) that is drawn from this aspect of strong love, is in the aspect of returning alone, as is explained in the Book of Formation (Sefer Yetzirah, chapter 1, Mishnah 8): "And if your heart runs, return to One." The meaning of "And if your heart runs" is the yearning of the nefesh that is in the heart, in the right cavity, when it grows strong and blazes and flames exceedingly, exceedingly, until the soul actually expires, to pour itself out into the bosom of its Father, the Life of life, blessed be He, and to go out of its prison in the corporeal and material body, to cleave to Him, blessed be He.
And in order to create the world of Beriah, which is souls and upper angels, whose service of Hashem (God) is in the manner of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge that clothe themselves in them, and they grasp these and receive from them, there was first a mighty contraction, as above.
And the aim of all the contractions is to create the material body of man, and to subdue the sitra achra (the other side), and that there be an advantage of the light over the darkness, when man raises his nefesh elokit (the soul from God) and his vital soul, and its garments, and all the powers of the body, all of them, to Hashem alone, as above at length, for this is the aim of the downward chain of the worlds.
Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, set aside and moved to one side, by way of parable, His great light that has no end, and stored it and hid it in three different kinds of contractions, and all for the sake of love of the lower man, to raise him to Hashem, for love presses the flesh: how much more, in doubles of doubles without end, it is fitting for a man also to set aside and to leave all that is his, from the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) to the flesh, and to let all of it go, in order to cleave to Him, blessed be He, in clinging, longing, and desire, and that there be no hindrance from within or from without, not body and not nefesh and not money and not wife and children.
And "your soul" and "your might," as they sound, life and livelihood, to let all of it go for the sake of the love of Hashem.
And even so, he has not fulfilled his duty by meditation and study alone, until he brings it out with his lips, so as to draw the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, downward, as far as the vital soul that dwells in the blood of the man who comes to be from the inanimate, the growing, and the living, so as to raise them all to Hashem, with the whole of the world, and to include them in His union and His light, blessed be He, which will shine to the earth and to those who dwell upon it in a manner of revelation, "And the glory of Hashem shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see," and so on (Isaiah 40:5).
Even the world to come and the upper Garden of Eden, the dwelling of the souls of the great tzaddikim, a tzaddik (a righteous person), would not have been created in that manner.
And the souls themselves, and it is needless to say the angels, are in the manner of limit and end, for there is a limit to their grasp of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, that shines upon them clothed in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and so on.
And this is the going out of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) from the prison of the body, the skin of the serpent, to be included in the union of the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, by occupation in the Torah and the mitzvot, a mitzvah (a commanded deed), in general, and in particular in the acceptance of the kingship of heaven at the reading of the Shema, in which he accepts and draws upon himself His union, blessed be He, in plain words, when he says, "Hashem (God) our Elohim, Hashem is one." And as was explained above, "our Elohim" is like "the Elohim of Abraham," and so on, because he was null and included in the union of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He.
And for this, nothing holds us back from the cleaving of the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) to His union and His light, blessed be He, except the will: if the man does not wish at all, God spare us, to cleave to Him, and so on.
And there is a straight path before a man, the same for every nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), and the thing is very, very near: to arouse and to make shine the light of the love fixed and hidden in his heart, so that it shine with the force of its light like a burning fire, in the revelation of his heart and his mind, to surrender his nefesh to Hashem (God), and his body and his might, with all the heart and with all the nefesh and might, from the depth of the heart, in truth of its very truth, and especially at the time of the reading of the Shema and its blessings, as will be explained.
And this is what we say, "who has made us holy with His mitzvot," like a man who betroths a woman, that she be joined with him in a complete union, as it is written (Genesis 2:24): "And he shall cling to his wife, and they shall be one flesh." Exactly so, and beyond this without end, is the union of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) that occupies itself in the Torah and the mitzvot, and of the vital soul and their garments mentioned above, with the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He.
There is yet a straight path before a man, to occupy himself in the Torah and the mitzvot, a mitzvah (a commanded deed), for their own sake, by the trait of Jacob our father, peace be upon him, which is the trait of mercy: to arouse in his thought, first, great mercies before Hashem (God) upon the spark of divinity that gives life to his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), which came down from its source, the life of all life, Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, who fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds, and all is counted as nothing before Him, and it clothed itself in the skin of the serpent, distant from the light of the King's face to the utmost distance.
And this is what the verse said (Genesis 29:11): "And Jacob kissed Rachel, and he lifted up his voice and wept." For Rachel is the Community of Israel, the source of all the souls.
"And he wept," to arouse and to draw from there great mercies upon all the souls and upon the source, the Community of Israel, to raise them from their exile and to join them in the upper union of the light of Ein Sof, blessed be He, in the manner of kisses, which is the cleaving of spirit to spirit, as it is written (Song of Songs 1:1): "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." That is, the binding of a man's speech with the word of Hashem, this being the halakhah.
Yet there is one love that takes in every aspect and degree of great love and of love of the world, and it is the same for every nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) of Israel, an inheritance to us from our fathers.
This is what the Zohar wrote (Zohar, part 3, 68a) on the verse (Isaiah 26:9) "My soul longed for You in the night," and so on: that a man loves the Holy One, blessed be He, with the love of the nefesh and the spirit, as these cleave within the body and the body loves them, and so on.
And this is what is written, "My soul longed for You." That is to say, because You, Hashem, are my soul and my true life, therefore "I longed for You." The meaning is that I desire and thirst for You as a man desires the life of his soul, and when he is weak and afflicted he desires and thirsts that his soul return to him.
So too, when he goes to sleep, he desires and wishes that his soul return to him when he wakes from his sleep.
Only, this ray is in a manner of great hiding and concealment in the souls of the whole house of Israel.
Now, for the aspect of "My soul longed for You," mentioned above, as well, the thing is very near: to bring it out from concealment into revelation by constant habit, his mouth and his heart alike.
Now these two aspects of love, though they are an inheritance to us from our fathers and like a nature in our souls, and so too the fear included in them, which is to fear being separated, God spare us, from the source of our life and our true Father, blessed be He, even so they are called natural fear and love only when they are in his mind and his thought alone, and in the hidden places of his heart.
For his body too, and his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), and his spirit, and his neshamah, are nullified in existence in the word of Hashem, and His speech, blessed be He, is united with His thought, and so on, and as above [chapters 20 and 21] at length, by way of a parable from the soul of a person, that one utterance of his speech and of his thought is as actually nothing, and so on.
But a love of the world is the love that comes from understanding and knowledge of the greatness of Hashem, Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed is He, who fills all worlds and surrounds all worlds, and all is counted before Him as actually nothing, and like the nullification of one utterance in the intellectual soul while it is still in its thought, or in the longing of the heart, as above.
By this contemplation, of itself, the attribute of love in the soul will strip itself of its garments.
And also one in whom the attribute of love in his soul is not clothed at all in any bodily or spiritual delight can set his soul ablaze, like sparks of fire and a strong flame and a flame that goes up to heaven, by the contemplation mentioned above, as will be explained further on.
But the order of the fixed service, which depends on the choice of the person, needs one to put first the fulfillment of the Torah and the commandments by means of the lower fear, in an aspect of smallness at least, in turning from evil and doing good, so as to light up his nefesh elokit (the soul from God) with the light of the Torah and its commandments, and after that the light of love will shine upon it.
For in every single nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) of the house of Israel there is something of the aspect of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him.
For he is one of the seven shepherds who draw down vitality and divinity to the whole of the souls of Israel, and therefore they are called by the name "shepherds".
That is, he draws down the aspect of knowledge to the whole of Israel, to know Hashem, each one according to the grasp of his soul and its root above, and its drawing of nourishment from the root of the soul of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, which is rooted in the supernal knowledge of the ten sefirot (divine channels) of Atzilut (emanation), which are united with their Emanator, blessed is He.
And this too, still more: in every generation, sparks come down from the soul of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, and clothe themselves in the body and the soul of the sages of the generation, the eyes of the congregation, to teach knowledge to the people, and to know the greatness of Hashem, and to serve Him with heart and soul.
For the service that is in the heart is according to the knowledge, as it is written: "Know the Elohim of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing soul" (1 Chronicles 28:9).
And this power, and this trait, to bind his knowledge to Hashem, is in every soul of the house of Israel, by its nourishment from the soul of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him.
Only, since the soul has been clothed in the body, it needs a great and mighty toil, double and redoubled.
The first is the toil of the flesh, to beat the body and to subdue it, so that it not darken the light of the soul, as we wrote above in the name of the Zohar, that a body in which the light of the soul does not enter, they beat it.
And the second is the toil of the soul, that the labor of wearying its thought, to go deep and to contemplate the greatness of Hashem for a long unbroken hour, not be heavy upon it.
For the measure of this hour is not the same in every soul.
There is a soul pure in its nature, to which, immediately when it contemplates the greatness of Hashem, the fear and the dread of Hashem arrive, as is written in the Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim, section 1: When a person contemplates that the great King, the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, whose glory fills the whole earth, stands over him and sees his deeds, immediately the fear will arrive to him, and so on.
And there is a soul lowly in its nature and in its offspring, from the source from which it was hewn, from the lower levels of the ten sefirot of Asiyah (making), and it cannot find the divinity in its thought except with difficulty and with force.
For the soul of a person, even the intellectual one and the nefesh elokit (the soul from God), is affected by the events of the body and its pain, because it is actually clothed in the vital soul, which is actually clothed in the body.
And as regards Moses, that is, as regards the aspect of the knowledge in every divine soul of Israel, it is a small matter, as above, [for the knowledge is what binds the hidden places of the understanding of the heart to the aspect of revelation in actual thought, as is known to those who know the hidden wisdom].
And in particular, with the tefillin: to nullify and to include the aspect of his wisdom and his understanding in his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), the nefesh elokit (the soul from God), in the aspect of the wisdom and the understanding of Ein Sof, blessed is He, which are clothed in a particular way in the passages "Sanctify" and "And it shall be, when He brings you".
That is, not to use his wisdom and his understanding that are in his soul, except for Hashem alone.
And likewise, to nullify and to include the aspect of the knowledge in his soul, which includes kindness and severity, which are fear and love in his heart, in the aspect of the supernal knowledge, which includes kindness and severity, clothed in the passages "Hear" and "And it shall be, if you listen".
And this acceptance is true, without any doubt, for it is the nature of the souls of all Israel not to rebel against the holy King, blessed be He.
And behold, even one who, also in his mind and in his thought, feels no fear and no shame at all, because of the low value of his soul, from the source from which it was hewn, from the lower levels of the ten sefirot (divine channels) of Asiyah (making), even so, since he intends in his service to serve the King, this is a complete service.
And this shall be his intention in the occupation with the Torah or with this mitzvah, that his nefesh elokit and his vital soul, and their garments, cleave to Him, as mentioned above.
Therefore he shall intend to unite, and to cleave to Him, blessed be He, the source of his nefesh elokit and the source of the souls of all Israel, which is the breath of His mouth, blessed be He, called by the name Shekhinah (the divine presence), because it dwells and clothes itself within all worlds, to give them life and to sustain them.
And he shall intend to draw His light, blessed be He, upon the source of his soul and the souls of all Israel, to unite them.
And even though, for this intention to be true in his heart, so that his heart truly desire this supernal union, there needs to be in his heart a great love for Hashem alone, to make satisfaction of spirit before Him alone, and not to quench his soul that thirsts for Hashem, but like a son who exerts himself after his father and his mother, who loves them more than his own body and his own soul, and so on [as was explained above in the name of the Ra'aya Mehemna].
But the union of his soul, and its inclusion in the light of Hashem so as to become one: this, every person of Israel desires in its full truth, completely, with all the heart and with all the soul, from the natural love hidden in the heart of every Israelite, to cleave to Hashem, and not to be separated, and not to be cut off and divided, God spare us, from His union and His oneness, blessed be He, in any way, even by an actual giving over of the soul.
And occupation with the Torah and the commandments and with prayer is also a matter of an actual giving over of the soul, as when it goes out from the body at the completion of seventy years.
For this is the whole occupation of the souls in the Garden of Eden, as is stated in the Gemara and in the Zohar, only that there they delight in their grasp and in their inclusion in the light of Hashem.
And this is what they established at the beginning of the morning blessings, before the prayer: "My Elohim, the soul", and so on, "and You breathed it", and so on, "and You are destined to take it from me", and so on.
And as it is written (Psalms 25:1): "To You, Hashem, I lift up my soul".
And behold, with this preparation, of the giving over of his soul to Hashem, he shall begin the morning blessings: "Blessed are You", and so on.
And behold, all his intention in the giving over of his soul to Hashem, by means of the Torah and the prayer, to raise the spark of divinity within it to its source, shall be only in order to make satisfaction of spirit before Him, blessed be He, like the parable of the joy of the king when his only son comes to him, on coming out of captivity and the prison, as mentioned above.
And behold, this intention is true, in its full truth, completely, in every soul of Israel, at every time and every hour, from the natural love that is a heritage to us from our fathers.
And this too is in many garments and screens, until it has clothed itself in kelipat nogah, to give life to all the clean things that are in this world, and included among them is the speaking vital nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) that is in the person.
For the dwelling of the souls of the tzaddikim is in the world of Beriah (the world of creation), and the dwelling of the angels is in the world of Yetzirah (the world of formation).
And therefore it is the dwelling of the souls of the tzaddikim, who serve Hashem (God) with fear and love drawn from the understanding and the knowledge of the greatness of Ein Sof, blessed be He, for this love is called the will of the heart, as mentioned above.
But that is precisely actual souls, which are the aspect of minds of the greatness of Ein Sof, blessed be He.
But the aspect of the ruach of the tzaddikim, and likewise all the rest of the souls of Israel, who served Hashem with the fear and the love that are hidden in the heart of the whole of Israel, do not rise there, except on the Sabbath and the new moon alone, by way of the pillar that goes from the lower Garden of Eden to the upper Garden of Eden, which is the world of Beriah, called the upper Garden of Eden, to take delight in Hashem and to enjoy the radiance of the Shekhinah (the divine presence).
And that which these souls merit, to rise above the angels, even though they served in natural fear and love alone, is because by means of their fear and their love the sitra achra (the other side) that is clothed in their body is subdued, both in the aspect of turning from what is bad, to conquer the cravings and to break them, and in the aspect of and do what is good, as mentioned above.
And behold, all this is in the dwelling of the souls and the place where they stand.
It is not so with the souls.
And behold, this contraction is the cause of the illumination, that there shine there wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of Ein Sof, blessed be He, for these souls in the world of Beriah.