We are in chapter 18, in the first part of the chapter. The chapter begins on daf 23, side 2 (page 46).
Last time we stopped right in the middle of the discussion, six lines from the bottom of the page, at the words "as it is written, 'Hashem founded the earth with chochmah.'" So that we can learn it as one flowing piece, we will start again from the beginning of the passage, "the explanation is that the Avos are themselves the merkavah", even though we have already read it once.
In this chapter the Alter Rebbe opens a whole new approach. Even someone who lacks the understanding and the capacity to meditate on G-d's greatness, and even someone whose heart does not stir with feeling toward love of G-d, even for him "the matter is very near to you," and he has it in him to reach love of G-d and fear of G-d. The answer to the question we studied in the previous chapter, how it can truly be near to every single person, rests on one point: every Jew possesses a hidden love for the Creator, a love that already exists within him, inherited from our Avos.
On this inheritance the Alter Rebbe raised four questions:
What is the root of this love in the soul? Where exactly in the soul is this level located?
What is the nature of this love? What does it yearn for, and what is its goal?
How can love be inherited? How does the concept of inheritance apply to it at all?
Where is yirah, fear of G-d, included in it? If we are speaking about love, how do we know that fear is included as well?
In this chapter we will receive the answer to the first question and to the third, and the Alter Rebbe begins specifically with the third one: how inheritance applies here. To explain that, he prefaces that our Avos are in the category of a merkavah, a chariot.
As we discussed at length in the previous lesson, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov are called a merkavah for the Shechinah, "and therefore they merited to draw down nefesh, ruach and neshamah to their children after them forever." Anyone descended from Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, no matter how many generations have passed, receives a nefesh, ruach and neshamah that contain something of the very essence of Avraham Avinu and of his love.
From where are these souls drawn? "From the ten holy sefiros of the four worlds, Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah", and at what level? "To each and every one according to his level and according to his deeds." Every person receives the level of nefesh, ruach or neshamah that corresponds to the G-dly mission assigned to him in this world and to his deeds, and as we learned, through his deeds a person can merit a higher level than the one he was given to begin with.
And although there are countless levels, each different from the next, what they all share, from the highest to the lowest, is that in each one lies that same inner point whose source is Avraham Avinu, and within it a hidden love for the Holy One, blessed be He.
And from here to the very lowest extreme: "and in any case, even to the lightest of the light and the sinners of Israel, there is drawn down in their union a nefesh of nefesh of Malchus of Asiyah." We are speaking of a Jew who is "the lightest of the light," a frivolous person whom nothing interests, and more than that: a sinner and a wicked man, the lowest sort of person not only in his deeds but even in his degraded inner state. And even if he married a woman who is also on that level, and the two of them live at that level of frivolity and transgression, they are still the descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and although the basic starting point of the child born to them is seemingly low, a soul is drawn down in their union.
True, this is the lowest possible level. "Nefesh" is the lowest of nefesh, ruach and neshamah, and "nefesh of nefesh" is the lowest within that; "Malchus" is the last of the sefiros, and "Asiyah" is the lowest of the four worlds. In other words, a soul whose capacity to grasp anything G-dly would seem to be extremely limited.
And nevertheless: "and even though it is the lowest level of the holiness of Asiyah, still, since it is from the ten holy sefiros, it includes them all." Which means it includes chochmah of Asiyah as well, within which is clothed chochmah of Malchus of Atzilus, and within that, chochmah of Atzilus, "in which the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, literally shines." Because of the principle of hiskallelus, the way every sefirah of holiness contains all the others, even after a long chain of links and hishtalshelus, that same original point of Avraham Avinu is present even in this lowly soul, and even such a person has a tremendous, inner love for the Creator.
"As it is written": here the Alter Rebbe brings a proof for what he has said, that in every Jew, even the lowest of the low, lies that same lofty point whose source is the sefirah of chochmah. Putting the verses together gives us the full picture:
"Hashem founded the earth with chochmah" (from Shlomo HaMelech in Mishlei). On the simple level the verse says that the Holy One created the world with wisdom, but there is also a hint here, and the phrase can be divided in two. "Hashem with chochmah": the Name Havayah, the Ein Sof light, shines first into the sefirah of chochmah, which is the first vessel able to receive it. "With chochmah He founded the earth": that same sefirah of chochmah, the first of the sefiros, is found even in "earth," which in chassidus represents the sefirah of Malchus, the last of the sefiros. All of this is said regarding the world of Atzilus, the highest world: the source is in chochmah, and it descends all the way down to Malchus.
"You made them all with chochmah" (David HaMelech in Tehillim). Chochmah, the loftiest of the sefiros, is drawn down even into "You made," into the world of Asiyah, the lowest world of all, which receives from chochmah, the highest of them all.
Putting the two verses together, the words of Shlomo HaMelech and the words of David HaMelech, we get the complete picture: the illumination begins in chochmah, from there it shines into the sefirah of Malchus of Atzilus, and from there it descends all the way down to the world of Asiyah. It turns out that even in the very lowest world, the very highest point is present, the point whose source is chochmah.
And from here comes the conclusion: "it emerges that the Ein Sof, blessed be He, is clothed in the aspect of chochmah in a person's soul." At this stage the fact is simply stated as it is; the explanation of why specifically the faculty of chochmah is the vessel for the Ein Sof light will be given in the second part of the chapter. In every person's soul all the soul powers are present, among them that power called chochmah, "whoever he may be among Israel", even the lowest, the most distant, the most fallen Jew: in the chochmah of his soul the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, shines.
But we could still ask: perhaps this chochmah is hidden away in some sealed compartment in the depths of the soul, buried under many layers. How do we know that it has the power to break out and actually make a difference? After all, the entire idea that "the matter is very near to you" is built on this foundation.
To this the closing words respond: "and the aspect of chochmah within it, together with the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, clothed in it, spreads through every aspect of the soul in its entirety." The sefirah of chochmah in the soul does not remain locked in a hidden compartment; it has the power to influence the entire system. Granted, it does not always actually break out, but in every single person, even in the lightest of the light, it has the power to affect all the faculties of the soul.
In summary: in this section we learned that the Avos are themselves the merkavah, and therefore they drew down nefesh, ruach and neshamah to their children after them forever, from the ten sefiros of the four worlds, to each one according to his level and his deeds. Even at the very lowest level, "nefesh of nefesh of Malchus of Asiyah," which is drawn down even to the lightest of the light and to the sinners of Israel, all ten sefiros are included, chochmah among them, reaching up to chochmah of Atzilus in which the Ein Sof light literally shines. This was proven from the verses "Hashem founded the earth with chochmah" and "You made them all with chochmah," that the illumination begins in chochmah and descends all the way to the world of Asiyah. It emerges that the Ein Sof, blessed be He, is clothed in the aspect of chochmah in the soul of every Jew, and from there it spreads through every aspect of the soul in its entirety.
In the next section we will take up the explanation of why specifically the faculty of chochmah is the vessel for the Ein Sof light, and on which occasions this point bursts forth and reveals itself at once, and on which occasions its path meets with difficulties.