The Torah Enables the Brain to Reign over the Heart and Liver
Why did HKB”H, the source of “chochmah,” seek advice from the Torah concerning the creation of the world and becoming a full-fledged king? Let us refer to the Gemara (Kiddushin 30b); we learn that HKB”H told Yisrael: "בני בראתי יצר הרע ובראתי לו תורה תבלין, ואם אתם עוסקים בתורה אין אתם נמסרים בידו".—My son, I have created the yetzer hara, and I have created Torah as its antidote. If you engage in Torah-study, you will not be delivered into its hand. Additionally, the Gemara (Chagigah 14a) teaches us that the Torah is referred to as bread, as it is written (ibid. 9, 5): "לכו לחמו בלחמי"—come, partake of My bread.
Accordingly, the author of the Tanya explains in Likutei Amarim (Chapter 5) the analogy of the Torah to bread. When a person consumes bread, it is digested and becomes an integral part of his flesh and blood. In similar fashion, when a person toils intellectually to comprehend the teachings of the Torah, the intellect in the brain encompasses and incorporates the knowledge of the Torah within it. Thus, the Torah is internalized and nourishes the brain.
So, when a person exerts himself to attain the wisdom of the Torah, it illuminates his entire body. From the sanctuary of the neshamah in the brain, it illuminates the heart—the home of the “ruach”—and from there it continues to descend and also illuminates the liver—the home of the “nefesh.”
We can now appreciate HKB”H’s statement to Yisrael: “My son, I have created the yetzer hara, and I have created Torah as its antidote.” Indeed, the yetzer hara which I created causes a person to process and function from the bottom up—from the liver to the heart to the brain—the acronym of כל"ם. To counteract its effect, however, I created the Torah to reverse the process. By studying Torah, a person processes and functions from the top downward. The light of the Torah begins to shine in the brain and is subsequently transmitted stepwise to the heart and then to the liver. Thus, the Torah is an outstanding antidote to remedy the negative influence of the yetzer hara.
This explains beautifully what David HaMelech said (Tehillim 40, 9): "לעשות רצונך אלקי חפצתי ותורתך בתוך מעי"—to fulfill Your will, my G-d, do I desire, and your Torah is in my internal organs. He was expressing his fervent desire to use the intellect in his brain and the desire in his heart to use the “nefesh” in his liver to perform the will of Hashem. As we have learned, however, the yetzer hara strives to reverse the process by influencing man to function from the bottom up, in keeping with the acronym כל"ם — כ'בד ל'ב מו'ח. Hence, we are encouraged "ותורתך בתוך מעי"—to incorporate the Torah in our internal organs—to study Torah, which illuminates from the top down—from the brain down to the liver. Thus, we can overcome the influence of the yetzer.
