Chapter 7
Now, this level of great love for Hashem described above, which is “ב ְכַָּׁלַׁ ַַָּׁׁךֶדֹאְמ-with all your might/unlimited,” is much loftier and more powerful, above and beyond the love that the Divine soul had for Hashem before it came into this world, and it comes specifically through refining the life-giving animal soul and nullifying the bad in it, as it is written, (Iyov 12:22) “He reveals deep things (deeper love for Hashem) from the darkness (of the animal soul),” and, like it says, (Koheles 2:13) “The advantage of light is when it comes from (transformed) darkness,” specifically.
This is the purpose of the descent of the Divine soul into this world- to refine and clean out the bad of the animal soul, in order that the Divine soul should reach this greater love for Hashem.
The explanation of this: Since the source of the life-giving animal soul is from a very high level, as it is written, (Bereishis 36:31) “And these are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom, before there was a ruling king for Children of Yisroel.”
Edom is another name for Eisav, who represents the World of Tohu, in contrast to his brother Yaakov, who represents the World of Tikkun.
The World of Tohu is a level of Hashem’s revelation where the Light is unlimited and infinitely intense, but the “Keilim-Vessels” - the capacity to define that Light and channel it - is not able to handle the intensity of the Light. Thus, the Keilim “broke down” and became the source for unholiness.
The World of Tikkun is a level of Hashem’s revelation where the Light is limited to the capacity of the “Keilim-Vessels.” The light of Tikkun must be channeled properly, but the Light is inherently limited to the capacity of those “Keilim,” as opposed to the Light of Tohu, which has no such limitation.
Because Eisav/Edom is connected to the World of Tohu, he had so much energy. Since it was too intense, he could not contain it properly and broke down into channeling all of his energy into unholiness.
Yaakov, who is connected to the World of Tikkun, was able to properly channel all his energy into holiness.
This is the idea of saying that the animal soul comes from the “kings of Edom before the Children of Yisroel:” The animal soul derives its life in its original source from the World of Tohu. This is why it has so much passion and energy, but has a very hard time channeling it into holiness. This World of Tohu is called “the kings of Edom,” meaning the strength and power of the source of Eisav/Edom in the World of Tohu. This is called “before there was a ruling king for the Children of Yisroel,” since the Light of Tohu is on a higher level, the level of “before,” the level of Tikkun, which is called “a ruling king for the Children of Yisroel,” since Yisroel/Yaakov and his children are sourced in the World of Tikkun.
Even though the source of the animal soul in Tohu is very high, it fell down through the “breaking of the Keilim/Vessels,” and through many levels of concealment and constriction on Hashem’s revelation, which cover over and conceal the True Oneness of Hashem’s Infinite Light, i.e. they conceal the perception of Hashem’s True Oneness, that He is
