Now, there is another “river of fire” that exists below, in this world, which is created from “the sweat of the holy תֹו יַח -Chayos angels.”
In the Gemara Chagigah (13b) it describes the “river of fire,” saying that it comes from the “sweat” of the holy Chayos angels and flows down into Gehinnom on the head of the wicked.
The Mittler Rebbe explains in Toras Chayim (paraphrased and with additional sources):
In Tanya (chap. 10) the Alter Rebbe explains that love and hate are two sides of the same feeling. When a person truly loves something, he will hate the opposite. When someone truly enjoys something, he will he have pain if it is lacking. When someone is happy about something, he will be sad if that thing is missing. When someone experiences love of Hashem, and enjoyment and happiness in experiencing His revelation and closeness, then he will be equally filled with anger and hatred at anyone or anything that tries to stop him from connecting to Hashem, and to block and conceal Hashem’s Light.
Thus, the passionate love and excitement for Hashem has a “side result,” the hatred of unholiness. This “side result” of love is referred to as “sweat.” When one is filled with emotion, his body heats up and he starts sweating. This sweat is the body ridding itself of the possible negative effects of having too much emotion, such as overheating etc., (and possibly also to remove toxins from the body). Thus, sweating is a cleansing process for the body, which in the case of sweating from emotional overload, is cleansing also emotionally. This somewhat unpleasant “side effect” of emotional overload corresponds to the other unpleasant “side effect” of emotion, namely, that love of something will result in hate of its opposite. In that sense, the “sweat” of love of Hashem is the hate and anger at those that go against Hashem.
Because the Chayos angels are so passionate in their love for Hashem, the unpleasant result of that, the “sweat” resulting from that emotional overload, is the anger and hatred for unholiness. This anger at unholiness is so powerful it forms a “river” of energy to knock down and nullify anything that conceals Hashem. This is why it flows into Gehinom, to cleanse the wicked from the unholiness that became connected to them in their lifetime through their sins.
This river can also cleanse anyone who wishes to remove any subtle aspects of concealment of Hashem that are attached to the person. This is why souls need to immerse in this river every time they want to reach a higher spiritual level, since, relative to the higher level, their current level is like a subtle concealment on Hashem’s Light.
The name of the angels, “תֹו יַח-Chayos” can also be interpreted to mean “חַיוּת-passion,” (in fact, the name of the angels is connected to their passionate excitement about Hashem,) thus “ ש דֹ קַה תֹו יַח” can be interpreted as passionate excitement, about Holiness.
Based on this, the “sweat” of this excitement about Hashem exists not only in the angels Above, but also in people in this world. When a person gets very excited about Hashem, the “sweat,” the unpleasant “side effect,” is the bitterness that comes from realizing how far the person is from Hashem.
“Holy Chayos” and the Wine of Love
The term “holy תֹו יַח-Chayos” can also mean “holy חַיוּת-passion,” referring to the lofty level of love of Hashem, called “the wine the makes happy,” and the “sweat” of this “חַיוּת-passion” is the unpleasant result of this passion for Hashem, when this love becomes expressed in a very low place, it becomes like the “dregs” and unwanted aspects, as it descends into this coarse material world.
Using the analogy of “wine” for love: Wine has the ability to make someone happy and excited, which is why we serve wine on Shabbos and Yom Tov and at weddings etc., to enhance the joy of the special occasion. However, every wine comes with dregs, that are not edible, and must be discarded. Similarly, even the edible part of the wine comes with a negative aspect, the possibility that drinking wine can make the person intoxicated, and bring out his anger and bitterness. Thus, even though wine is essentially a very good thing, enhancing a person’s joy, it contains a negative potential, which is expressed in a person who is himself on a low level or in an unhealthy situation.
Similarly with love. Love is essentially a good thing, but it contains a negative aspect, the anger and hatred of whatever is opposite of the love. In our case, the anger and bitterness in the person over his distance from Hashem. Just as the dregs of wine must be discarded, this fixation on bitterness and anger is something negative that must ultimately be discarded. However, it is useful in getting the person to overcome his own coarseness and push himself to become more refined and serve Hashem better. (See Tanya chapter 26 and chapter 31, that bitterness in the service of Hashem is useful in the limited context of helping the person open his unfeeling heart so he should afterwards come to true joy, but otherwise is not healthy and should be avoided.)
