Soul

And that is because the neshamah does not need a repair for itself through the mitzvot, only to draw down light, to repair the vital nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) and the body, by means of the letters of the speech that the nefesh speaks in the five outlets of the mouth.

The meaning is, that just as all the creatures that are in this world, that have a body and a neshamah, which are the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man, and the neshamah of everything that has a spirit of life in its nostrils, of all living beings, and Hashem (God) gives life to them all, and brings them into being from nothing into what is, constantly, by a light and a life that He flows into them.

And even so, there is no comparison and no likeness at all between the aspect of the light and the life that shines in the body, as against the aspect of the light and the life that shines in the neshamah, which is the soul of every living thing.

Only, he remembers and awakens the natural love that is hidden in his heart, and he brings it out from the concealment and the hiding of the heart into the revelation in the brain at least, so that his will that is in his brain, and the hidden places of his heart, agree and consent with a complete consent, in truth, in its real truth, to surrender his nefesh in actual deed for the unity of Hashem, in order that his nefesh elokit (the soul from God) and its garments may cling to Him, and to include them in His unity and His oneness, which is the supernal will that is clothed in the study of the Torah and in the fulfillment of the mitzvot, as mentioned above.

And so they are, by way of a parable, the natural awe and the love that are hidden in the heart of all Israel, for they are an inheritance to us from our fathers, and like a nature in our souls, as mentioned above.

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.

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.

For the whole of Israel, who are sixty myriads of particular souls, are the whole of the vitality of the whole world.

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 this is what Rav Sheshet said (Pesachim 68b): Be glad, my soul.

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.

Therefore they were nullified in their existence itself, as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Song of Songs Rabbah 6:3), that at every utterance their soul flew out, and so on, except that the Holy One, blessed be He, returned it to them in the dew with which He is destined to bring the dead to life.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Through all their days they never stopped, not even for one hour, from binding their mind and their soul to the Master of the worlds, in the nullification spoken of above, toward His oneness, blessed be He.

After them, all the prophets, each one according to the level of his soul and of his grasp.

Something of this same kind was granted to Israel at the standing at Mount Sinai, only they were not able to bear it, as in the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Exodus Rabbah 29:4; Song of Songs Rabbah 6:3), that at every utterance their soul flew out, and so on.

Because my intellect and the root of my soul are too small to contain it, too small to be a chariot and a dwelling for His oneness, blessed be He, in the truth of its very truth, since no thought of mine grasps Him or reaches Him, blessed be He, at all, with any grasp whatsoever in the world, and not even a trace of it from the grasp of the fathers and the prophets, for this reason I will make for Him a dwelling and a place for His abode.

Now, in all the particular kinds of joys of the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) spoken of above, none of them is a barrier to his being despised in his own eyes and loathsome, with a broken heart and a lowly spirit, at the very hour of the joy.

For his being despised in his own eyes, and so on, comes from the side of the body and the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body), and his being in joy comes from the side of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) and the spark of divinity clothed in it so as to give it life, as spoken of above (in chapter 31).

Further, this shall be the true joy of the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), and especially when he sees in his nefesh, at set times, that he needs to refine it and to brighten it with joy of heart.

And behold, through keeping the things mentioned above, so that his body be despised and loathsome in his eyes, and only his joy be the joy of the soul alone, this is a straight and easy way to come to the keeping of the mitzvah (a commanded deed), "And you shall love your companion as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18), for every soul of Israel, from the great to the small.

For since his body is loathsome and abhorrent to him, and as for the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) and the spirit, who knows their greatness and their worth in their root and their source in the living Elohim?

And therefore all Israel are called brothers in actual fact, from the side of the root of their soul in the one Hashem (God), only that the bodies are divided.

And therefore, as for those who make their body the main thing and their soul secondary, true love and brotherhood cannot be between them, but only the love that depends on a thing alone.

For the foundation and the root of the whole Torah is to raise and to lift the soul above the body, higher and higher, up to the principal and the root of all worlds, and also to draw the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed is He, into the assembly of Israel, as will be explained further on, that is, into the source of the souls of all Israel, so that it be one in one, specifically, and not when there is division, God spare us, in the souls.

And also those who are near to him, whom he reproved, and they did not turn back from their iniquities, whom it is a mitzvah to hate, it is a mitzvah to love them also, and both are truth: hatred from the side of the evil that is in them, and love from the side of the aspect of the good hidden in them, which is a spark of Godhood within them that gives life to their nefesh elokit (the soul from God).

But in truth, a broken heart, and bitterness of the soul over its distance from the light of the face of Hashem (God), and over its being clothed in the sitra achra, are not called by the name sadness at all in the holy tongue.

And behold, at times one needs to arouse the aspect of the holy severities, in order to sweeten the judgments, which are the aspect of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) and the evil yetzer (the urge) when it rules, God spare us, over the person, for the judgments are sweetened only in their root.

And this is at every time that he sees in his soul that he needs this.

It is the body with the vital soul that is in it.

But nevertheless there is within me an actual portion of Hashem, which is found even in the lightest of the light, and that is the nefesh elokit (the soul from God), with an actual spark of Godhood clothed in it to give it life.

It is the joy of the soul as it goes out from the abhorrent body and returns to its father's house as in its youth, at the time of the Torah and the service.

And even though the body stands in its detestation and its abhorrence, and as it is written in the Zohar that it is called the skin of the serpent, for the essence and the very being of the nefesh bahamit has not been turned to good so as to be included in holiness, nevertheless his soul should be precious in his eyes, to rejoice in its joy more than in the despised body, so as not to mix and confuse the joy of the soul with the sorrow of the body.

Rather, because the evil that is in the souls of Israel was still in its strength in the left cavity, for their filth did not cease until the giving of the Torah.

And so that this aspect of return be with greater height and greater strength, from the depth of the heart, and also so that the joy of the soul be with added light and joy, when he sets back upon his heart knowledge and understanding, to comfort himself from his grief and his sorrow, to say as mentioned above: Indeed it is true, and so on, but I did not make myself.

If so, then, this I will do, and this shall be my aim all the days of my lifetime, that the life of my spirit and my soul be wholly in them, and as it is written (Psalms 25:1): "To You, Hashem, I raise my soul." That is, to bind my thought and my speech to His thought and His speech, blessed be He, and these are the very bodies of the laws set out before us, and likewise deed in the deed of the mitzvot.

Therefore the Torah is called "that which turns the soul back" (Psalms 19:8), meaning, to its source and its root.

For the yetzer is not alike in every soul.

And therefore every person, according to what his place and his level are in the service of Hashem, needs to weigh and to examine himself, whether he serves Hashem in the measure and the aspect of so mighty a war, and such a trial, in the aspect of "and do good." For example, in the service of prayer with intention, to pour out his soul before Hashem with all his strength, actually, to the very being of the soul, and to fight with his body and the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) that is in him, which hold back the intention, in a mighty war, and to beat them and to pound them like dust before the morning prayer and the evening prayer, day by day, and also at the time of the prayer, to weary himself with weariness of soul and weariness of flesh, as will be explained further on at length.

And even in the aspect of "turn from evil," every person of understanding can find in his soul that he does not turn wholly away from evil, in all, from all, all, in a place where a mighty war is needed, of the measure mentioned above, and even less than the measure mentioned above.

But one thing more: counsel must be set for the souls of the beinoni (the in-between person), who at times, and at many times, have a dullness of the heart, so that it becomes like a stone, and he cannot open his heart in any way for the service that is in the heart, this being prayer.

A body in which the light of the soul does not rise, they beat it, and so on.

The meaning of the light of the soul is that the light of the soul and of the intellect does not shine so much as to rule over the materiality that is in the body.

And the cause is the coarseness of the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness), which lifts itself over the light of the holiness of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God), and hides and darkens its light.

That is the sitra achra (the other side), which is itself the person himself among the beinonim, for the vital soul that enlivens the body is in its full strength, as in its native state, in his heart.

And of the nefesh elokit that is in him it is said (the blessing "My God, the soul" in the morning blessings): "The soul that You have given in me, it is pure." "That You have given in me," precisely, which implies that the person himself is not the pure soul.

In tzaddikim it is the reverse: the pure soul, which is the nefesh elokit, is the person, and their body is called the flesh of a person.

For the evil that had been in the vital soul clothed in his blood and his flesh was turned to good, and was included in the holiness of the nefesh elokit itself, in the tzaddikim.

But in the beinoni, since the essence and the very being of the vital nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) that is from the sitra achra, which is clothed in his blood and his flesh, has not been turned to good, it is itself the person himself.

And especially when he recalls the impurity of his soul through the sin of youth, and the damage that he did in the upper realms, and there it is above time, and it is as if he did damage and was defiled today, God spare us, actually.

And therefore now, at this hour, when he sees in himself that the light of the soul does not rise in him, it follows that today his return has not been accepted, and his iniquities separate.

That is, to make an accounting with his soul of all the thoughts and the words and the deeds that have passed and gone from the day he came to be until this day, whether they were all from the side of holiness or from the side of impurity, may the Merciful One save us.

Further, he should set upon his heart the great number of his dreams, which are a breath and a chasing of wind, because his soul does not go up above.

And so the sitra achra, even though there is in it much life-force, to give life to all the unclean living beings, and to the souls of the nations of the world, and also to the nefesh bahamit of Israel, as mentioned above.

And from this every person can learn, when doubts about faith fall into his thought, that they are words of the spirit of the sitra achra alone, which lifts itself over his soul.

Rather, on the contrary, let him take hold of more strength, and add firmness with all his power, in the concentration of the prayer, with mirth and with added joy, in that he sets it upon his heart that the fall of the alien thought is from the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness) that is in the left cavity, which wages war in the beinoni (the in-between person) with the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) that is in him.

And the truth would have been according to their words, if there were one single soul, and she were the one who prays, and she were the one who thinks and muses the alien thoughts.

But in the truth itself, they are two souls, at war with one another in a person's brain.

And all matters of the world are from the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body), only that the nefesh elokit is clothed in her.

And if it is hard for him to remove them from his mind, because they trouble his mind very much, with force, then let him lower his soul before Hashem (God), and let him plead with Him, blessed be He, in his thought, to have mercy on him in His abundant mercies, as a father has mercy on children who are drawn from his brain.

And thus Hashem will have mercy on his soul, which is drawn from Him, blessed be He, to save it from the insolent waters, and for His own sake He will act, for the portion of Hashem is actually His people.

One is of foods that are pleasant and sweet, and the second is of things that are sharp or sour, only they are seasoned and well prepared, until they become dainties to restore the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul).

And that is the true joy in Hashem (God) his Elohim, which comes after the true sadness, at appointed times, over his wrongs, in bitterness of his soul and a broken heart.

But sadness that comes from heavenly matters, one must set counsel in his soul so as to be rid of it.

And this is because of the light of Hashem that is clothed in their soul, as stated above, which is not in the mode of time and hour at all, but above time, and it rules and governs over it, as is known.

And it holds in the mode of "And do good," to prevail like a lion, with might and with firmness of heart, against the yetzer, which makes his body heavy and casts laziness upon it, from the mode of the element of dust in the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body), a laziness away from burdening his body with quickness in every kind of exertion and of load-bearing labor, in the service of Hashem in which there is exertion and toil.

And the like of these, among the wars of the yetzer and its stratagems, to cool a person's soul so that he will not abandon his money and the health of his body.

And therefore his nefesh elokit (the soul from God) and his vital soul, and their garments, will all of them be united in the utmost union with the exalted will and with the light of Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He, as stated above.

And so too the three garments of the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) from the kelipah of nogah in Israel, which are thought, speech, and deed, clothed in the 365 prohibitions of the Torah and of the rabbis.

For even a woman who commits adultery, whose mind is light, would have ruled over the spirit of her appetite, were it not for a spirit of folly in her that covers, hides, and conceals the hidden love in her nefesh elokit (the soul from God), to cling to faith in Hashem and to His union and His oneness, and not to be parted, God spare us, from His oneness, even if they take her nefesh from her, to serve foreign worship, God spare us, and even by bowing alone, with no belief in the heart at all.

And so too, those liable to death and to cutting off do not all cause damage equally.] then his vital nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body), clothed in his body, and likewise his body, return and rise from sitra achra to the holiness of the nefesh elokit clothed in them, which believes in Hashem, one.

And there is for you no exile greater than this, from a high roof, and so on, and as explained above, that the root and the source of the souls of the whole house of Israel is from supernal wisdom, and He, blessed be He, and His wisdom are one, and so on.

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.

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.

By way of a likeness, it is as with the nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) of a person when he speaks one utterance.

So it is with the neshamah of the person, and likewise the aspects of ruach and nefesh (the lowest level of the soul).

And this is the exact opposite of the aspect of the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness) and the sitra achra (the other side), from which come the souls of the nations of the world, who act for themselves and say "Give, give" and "Stuff me," so as to be a something and a thing on its own, as mentioned above, the opposite of the aspect of wisdom.

For the aspect of wisdom in the nefesh elokit (the soul from God), together with a spark of divinity from the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, that is clothed in it, are in a state of exile in their body, inside the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) on the side of the kelipah in the left cavity of the heart, which reigns and rules in their body, in the mystery of the exile of the Shekhinah (the divine presence), as mentioned above.

Therefore they merited to draw down a nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), a ruach, and a neshamah for their children after them, for all time, from the ten sefirot (divine channels) of holiness in the four worlds, Atzilut (emanation), Beriah (creation), Yetzirah (formation), and Asiyah (action), for each and every one according to his level and according to his deeds.

For in truth it is impossible for the reshaim to begin to serve Hashem unless they first make a return for the past, to break the kelipot (husks that hide holiness), which are a dividing screen and a wall of iron that separates between them and their Father in heaven, by the breaking of his heart and the bitterness of his soul over his sins, as it is written in the Zohar on the verse (Psalms 51:19), "The offerings of Elohim are a broken spirit, a broken heart," and so on, that by a broken heart the impure spirit of the sitra achra (the other side) is broken [see there, the portion Pinchas, page 240, and the portion Vayikra, page 8 and page 5a, and in the commentary of the Ramaz there].

And this is the aspect of the lower return, to raise the lower hei and to set her up from her fall, for she fell among the outer ones, which is the mystery of the exile of the Shekhinah (the divine presence), as the sages of blessed memory said (Mekhilta on Exodus 12:40): "They were exiled to Edom, the Shekhinah is with them." That is, when a person does a deed of Edom, he brings down and draws there an aspect and a spark of divinity that gives life to his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), ruach, and neshamah, which are clothed in him in the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) from the kelipah in his heart, in the left cavity, which reigns in him while he is still a rasha and rules his small city, and his nefesh, his ruach, and his neshamah are subdued in exile beside her.

The main thing is to govern and to rule the nature in the left cavity, by the light of Hashem that shines for the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) in the brain, and to rule the heart, when he contemplates in his brain the greatness of the Ein Sof (the Endless), blessed be He.

Even if the power of his intellect and the spirit of his understanding do not reach so as to bring forth love of Hashem in the revelation of his heart, so that his heart would burn like flames of fire, and so that he would want, with desire and longing and a yearning felt in the heart, to cling to Him, but the love is only concealed in his brain and in the hidden places of his heart, [Gloss: The reason for this is that his intellects, and his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), ruach, and neshamah, are of the aspect of gestation and concealment within the understanding, and not of the aspect of birth and revelation, as is known to those who know the hidden wisdom.] That is, the heart understands, through the spirit of wisdom and understanding in his brain, the greatness of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, for everything before Him counts as absolutely nothing.

Only, he makes no war at all with the yetzer, to conquer it by the light of Hashem that shines upon the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) in the brain, which rules the heart, as mentioned above.

For in order to change the nature of the habit, he must arouse the love for Hashem, by contemplating in his brain the greatness of Hashem, so as to rule the nature in the left cavity, which is full of the blood of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body) that comes from the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness), from which the nature comes.

Only, I want to cling to Him, my nefesh (the lowest level of the soul), my ruach, and my neshamah, by their clothing themselves in His three garments, blessed be He, which are deed, speech, and thought in Hashem and His Torah and His mitzvot, each a mitzvah (a commanded deed), out of the concealed love in my heart for Hashem, as in the heart of the whole of Israel, who are called "lovers of Your name" (Psalms 5:12).

And as it is found in the Tikkunim (Tikkunei Zohar 1b), that in the souls of Israel there are several kinds of levels and aspects: pious ones, mighty ones who overpower their yetzer (the urge), masters of Torah, prophets, and so on, tzaddikim, and so on.

And with this, the wording of the saying of the sages of blessed memory (Berakhot 61b) will be understood: beinonim (the in-between person), this one and that one judge him [Meaning: the good yetzer (the urge) and the bad yetzer], as it is written (Psalms 109:31): "For He will stand at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the judges of his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul)." And they did not say, this one and that one rule, God spare us.

So the bad yetzer states his opinion in the left chamber of the heart, and from the heart it rises to the brain to muse on it, and at once the second judge disagrees with him, and that is the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) in the brain, which spreads into the right chamber of the heart, the dwelling place of the good yetzer.

Rather, it can be that its essence and its core is in its force and in its might in its place, in the left chamber, only that its garments, which are thought, speech, and deed of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body), do not clothe themselves in the brain and the mouth and the hands and the rest of the limbs of the body, because of Hashem, who gave rule and dominion to the brain over the heart.

That is, the three garments of the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body), which are thought, speech, and deed from the side of the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness), do not gain strength in him over the nefesh elokit (the soul from God), to clothe themselves in the body, in the brain and in the mouth and in the rest of the 248 limbs, to make them sin and to defile them, God spare us.

That is, the good that is in his nefesh elokit (the soul from God), in his brain and in the right chamber of his heart, is bent and null before the evil from the kelipah (a husk that hides holiness) in the left chamber.

For by any one of all these, and whatever is like them, he is called a rasha at that time, because the evil in his nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) gains strength in him and clothes itself in his body, and makes him sin and defiles him.

Now, when a person strengthens his nefesh elokit (the soul from God) and fights so much with the nefesh bahamit (the life-soul of the body), until he drives out and purges the evil that is in it from the left chamber, as it is written (Deuteronomy 13:6, and elsewhere): "and you shall purge the evil from your midst", and the evil is not turned into actual good, he is called a tzaddik (a righteous person) who is not complete, and a tzaddik and it is bad for him.

And they are also called sons of ascent, because their service too, in the aspect of "and do what is good", in fulfilling the Torah and each mitzvah (a commanded deed) of it, is for the need of the One above, and higher and higher, up to the peak of the ranks, and not so as to cling to Him, blessed be He, alone, to quench the thirst of their nefesh (the lowest level of the soul) that thirsts for Hashem, as it is written (Isaiah 55:1): "Ah, every thirsty one, go to the water", and as is explained in another place.

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.

But the dwelling place of the nefesh elokit (the soul from God) is in the brains in the head.

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.