LESSONS IN TORAH OR
Angels, and “above this level of watchful angels there is a higher level, and there is a higher level above those also”, until they all receive their life from Hashem aspect of Malchus-Kingship, like it says (Tehilim 145:13): “Your Kingship is what creates and gives life to the Kingdom of all worlds”, since it creates all the worlds literally something from nothing, and all of this creative power is only a “radiance” of His Shechina (Divine Presence), which itself is only like a ray of light compared Hashem’s Essence, which is truly Infinite, He always was, He is, and He will be forever without any change whatsoever, like we say in the daily prayers: “You are the same before the world was created as You are after the world was created”.
This contrast between Hashem, who is Infinite and unchanging and the material matters that are only an expression of the lowest possible level of spirituality that is countless levels removed from even Hashem’s aspect of Kingship, is a contrast from one extreme to the other extreme.
Hashem is Infinitely exalted above all the levels of angels and revelations, and the material world is countless levels removed from Hashem’s “radiance” that becomes that source of life for worlds.
After contemplating deeply into the ideas described above, the contrast between Hashem’s Infinite greatness compared to the relative trivialities of material concerns, using the all his mental concentration and focus, he will then be awakened with great and fiery love and yearning to the spiritual darkness and concealment of this physical world, and he will only want to connect to Hashem.
Like it is written (Tehillim 73:25): “Who do I have in heaven besides You [Hashem], and besides for being with You I don’t want anything on this earth!”
Meaning, that he will come to not want any spiritual levels at all, not the Lower Level of Gan Eden, or even the Higher Level of Gan Eden, which are only a like a “ray of light” of Hashem’s revelation, as our Sages say (Brachos 17a) that in Gan Eden “the righteous dwell and enjoy the radiance of the Shechina,” rather, he will only want to connect to Hashem, to experience how he is just a part of Hashem Himself with no independent existence, which is called in the Zohar (I 217b): “to become absorbed in the Essence of the King”.
When someone is really involved in something, he forgets about himself, he “loses himself”. Depending on how great the thing he is involved in the greater he will “lose himself”. For example, someone involved in learning can forget about himself to a certain extent, but not as much as when he is fully involved in dancing at his best friend’s wedding where he totally forgets about himself and acts silly because he only experiences what is happening now, not his own personality and limitations. More than this- a soldier in battle forgets about himself completely to the point that he can even risk his own life, or willingly give up his own life because he experiences the battle and dedication to the cause more than his own life itself.
More than this, the Divine soul “sees” the truth that Hashem is really the only True existence of everything and there is no independent existence at all. The animal soul and the human intellect, however, don’t “see” it that way, they firmly believe in their own independent existence as being the true reality. When a Jew taps into his Divine soul deeply enough through contemplation of Hashem’s greatness, he is able to be conscious of his Divine soul’s belief that there is nothing besides Hashem. After consciously recognizing that enough times, he will begin to seriously desire to truly experience reality as his Divine soul sees it, that we are just part of Hashem and there is nothing separate from Him at all.
This yearning is called a desire “to become absorbed in the Essence of the King”, meaning experience how we are part of Hashem Himself.
This love to reunite with Hashem is called “Teshuva/Return”, which is with greater intensity when it comes specifically from a place of darkness, where the person was involved only in material matters and the vanities of this world, this greater intensity comes from the advantage of light that shines in a place of darkness.
This love is also called (Devarim 6:5) “You shall love Hashem...with all of your might”, which is literally without any limitations, this love comes from overcoming the opposite of holiness which is spiritual darkness.
Like our Sages commented on the verse (Bereishis 1:31): “And Hashem saw everything that He had made [in the six days of creation] and look, they were very good,” they explained “good” is a reference to the angel of life (which brings revealed good), and “very good” is a reference to the angel of death (which brings hidden good), since specifically through transforming the opposite of holiness and the spiritual darkness which is the animal soul, the Divine soul is able to come to love Hashem “with all of its might” which is without any limitations.
One of the explanations of the above commentary of the Sages that “good” is the angel of life and “very good” is the angel of death is that this is a reference to the Divine soul and animal soul of every Jew.
The Divine soul is inherently good, it yearns to serve Hashem and connect to Him. Therefore, it is called the ‘angel of life’ since it brings connection to Hashem, the Source of Life.
The animal soul wants to steer a person away from connecting to Hashem and be involved in worldly matters and pleasures, thus weakening the connection to Hashem who is the Source of Life, there it is called ‘the angel of death’.
Even though the Divine soul is already ‘good’, but its desire to connect to Hashem is natural and therefore somewhat limited. However, when it has to overcome the animal soul’s distractions it goes beyond its ‘nature’ and reaches a much deeper love and connection to Hashem. This deeper connection and love is ‘very good’.
So far, we explained the advantage of the love for Hashem in this world like the advantage of light in a place of darkness.
Now the Alter Rebbe will explain another aspect of the advantage of being in this world, not just from overcoming darkness, but from the spiritual source of the darkness itself:
This advantage is also because in the ultimate spiritual source of the animal soul, there the source of the animal soul is higher than the Divine soul.
As it is written (Bereishis 36:31): “And these are the kings that ruled [in the land of Edom] before there was king for the Children of Israel”, referring to the Divine soul.
Edom is another name for Eisav, Yaakov’s brother, who represents the World of Tohu as opposed to 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- was not able to handle the intensity of the Light, and 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”, i.e. to be channeled properly, but the Light is inherently limited to the capacity of those “Keilim”, as opposed to the Light of Tohu that has no such limitation.
Because Eisav/Edom is connected to the World of Tohu, that is why he had so much energy, but couldn’t 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, “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.
It is only that through the “breaking of the Keilim” of Tohu where the animal soul originates that they fell down very low, like it says (ibid. 32:33): “and these kings reigned, and they died”, showing how the Keilim of Tohu “broke” or “died” and fell down, included in them was the source of animal soul who also “fell down”.
However, in their source they (the animal soul and other things from the broken Keilim of Tohu) are much higher than the Divine soul.
Therefore, even as they exist in their “fallen” state here below they have strength and power over the Divine soul, because of their source in the level of “Kings/Royalty” of Tohu, which is the idea of rulership.
Also, the person receives his life from animals and other food, without which he would not be able to live. Whereas the food does not need the person for its existence.
This is because in their ultimate source Above they are higher than souls of people.
Therefore, specifically through the descent of the Divine soul to become invested in the animal soul to become involved in the worries and thoughts of obtaining livelihood, which are called “many waters”, it is able to come to love Hashem “with all of it might” without any limitations, and -as explained previously- this is a much higher level of love for and connection to Hashem than it experiences before it descended into the body, when it only “enjoyed the radiance of the Shechina”.
This is accomplished specifically through the “is’kafya-overpowering” and “is’hafpcha-transforming” the spiritual darkness, which brings about an advantage similar to the advantage of light that shines in a place of darkness, and light that comes from transformed darkness, as explained above.
This is because in their source above they are higher than the Divine soul, as explained above, it’s just that they “fell down”, as it is written “and they ruled and they died”, and through the “is’kafya-overcoming” the animal’s desires and revealing its lofty source it creates “resurrection of the dead” of these souls and sparks from Tohu that they should “live” with a revealed connection to Hashem.
Part 3
This is the meaning of the Sages “One minute of teshuva and good deeds in this world is better than all of the life of the World to Come”, as explained above.
Since specifically in this world the Divine soul can come to 1-loving Hashem with all of its might, without limits, 2-receiving the “Light of Tohu” hidden in the animal soul and physical objects, which is higher than the “Light of Tikun” that the Divine soul had in its source.
It is for this reason that these “many waters” of material concerns are called “the waters of נֹחַ-Noach”, since through them the Divine soul achieves a “נַיְׁיחָא דְׁ רו חָא-a relaxed/satisfied spirit” in terms of a deeper connection to Hashem, this deeper connection to Hashem is brought out during prayer, so that from these “many waters” these prayers attain the level of “the ת ֵּבַָּׁהַׁ-Ark/Boat of Noach”, since the word “ת ֵּבָ ה” can mean box or boat, or it can mean words, thus the “ת ֵּבָ ה-ark/boat of Noach” can also mean the “ת ֵּבָ ה-words of Noach”, which are the words of the prayers.
As it is written (Bereshis 7:1): “You [Noach] and all your family should come into the ת ֵּבַָּׁהַׁ-Ark/Words of prayer”.
Meaning that just like had to come into the ת ֵּבַָּׁהַׁ-Ark to be protected from the Great Flood and the ת ֵּבַָּׁהַׁ-Ark was picked up by the waters, so too A Jew must “enter” into the ת ֵּבַָּׁהַׁ-words of prayer to be protected from the material concerns taking over his mind and heart, and then these “many waters” will actually pick up his words of prayer to a higher level.
This is the meaning of (ibid. 7:18-20): “And the waters became very strong...the waters became so strong that they covered the mountaintops by fifteen amos.
This corresponds to how the animal soul tries to overpower the Divine soul through overwhelming him with involvement in obtaining livelihood and other material matters.
However, through this there is an advantage afterwards in prayer like the advantage of light that comes from darkness.
This is the meaning of (ibid. 7:18) “and the ת ֵּבַָּׁהַׁ-Ark traveled on ‘פ ְנֵּי-the face/surface’ of the water”, specifically on the ‘פ ְׁנֵּי-face’ of the water.
The word “פ ְׁנֵּי” which means face or surface is connected to the word “פ ְׁנִּימִּיו ת-inner dimension”, since the inner purpose of the waters was so that the world be purified and the Ark become elevated, so too the “פ ְׁנִּימִּיו ת-inner dimension” or inner intent of the animal soul and worldly distractions is to purify and elevate the Divine soul to a deeper connection to Hashem.
In the previous verse it stated: “And the waters increased and they picked up the ת ֵּבַָּׁהַׁ-Ark which became elevated above the ground.” Meaning that specifically through the “waters” of material concerns the “ת ֵּבַָּׁהַׁ-words” of prayer become elevated to a much higher level.
This is a mistake that working people make: They think that they are not able to pray as well as those who are full time involved in learning Torah. The truth is just the opposite, they are able to pray even better than them! This is because the advantage of light is specifically when it comes from darkness.
So too, someone involved in the darkness of this world has a much greater advantage in the spiritual light of his prayers, much more so than someone who is constantly in the spiritual light of Torah study.
This is the idea that the material concerns called the “waters of Noach” are called “נַיְׁיחָא דְׁ רו חָא-a relaxed/satisfied spirit”, which is the aspect of Shabbos.
Like it says (Bereshis 2:3): “For on it [Shabbos] He [Hashem] ש ָּב ת -rested from all of His work,”
As mentioned above, the word “ש ָבַת-rested” (which is the same letters as “ש ַב ָת-Shabbos”) is translated by Unkelos as “וְׁנָח” which means rest and is the same letters as “נֹחַ -Noach” and connected to the phrase “נַיְׁיחָא דְׁ רו חָא-a relaxed/satisfied spirit”.
This connection is: During the six days of creation (and the six days of the week) Hashem’s Kingship expresses itself in being drawn down to create and give life to the worlds; as we find that on the first day of creation “Hashem said let there be light and there was light”, on the second day He said “let there be a sky” and there was a sky, on the third day Hashem said “the earth cover itself with plant-life” and it happened etc., all of these acts of creation happen during the six days of the week called “the days of creation”, and on Shabbos there is the aspect of resting from work and creation, which is the idea of “נַיְׁיחָא דְׁ רו חָא-a relaxed/satisfied spirit”, to be elevated above, like a person who rests and relaxes from his work.
