In the previous section we learned about the state of the poshei Yisrael, those who transgress: the point of Chochma in their soul sits in exile, wrapped in a "garment of sackcloth of kelipa." Now let us look closely at that very expression, and see what it is that awakens the yechida, the essence-point of the soul, and draws it out of its exile.
Why did the Alter Rebbe specifically choose the phrase "a garment of sackcloth" rather than simply "a garment"? An ordinary garment is something a person put on himself, and he can change it or take it off whenever he wishes. But a person who is inside a sack was put into it; he cannot simply decide to climb out. He is stuck in it, it is uncomfortable, and he cannot free himself. That is the situation of the poshei Yisrael: the point of Chochma in their soul is stuck inside a garment of sackcloth of kelipa, and the way to bring it out is when a person is faced with a test of kiddush Hashem, as will be explained further on.
The Alter Rebbe continues: "וממנה נכנס בהם רוח שטות לחטוא", "and from it there enters into them a spirit of folly, causing them to sin." From that very kelipa, from that garment of sackcloth, a spirit of folly enters them. Every sin is folly: a Jew who is prepared to give up his life for kiddush Hashem, and a moment later does the precise opposite, this is folly beyond compare, like a person who wants to live and suddenly leaps into a fire and is burned. Who pulled him toward the fire? That is the ruach shtus, the spirit of folly, that comes from the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul.
On this the Alter Rebbe cites the well known statement of our Sages: "כמאמר רז"ל אין אדם חוטא כו'", "as our Sages said, a person does not sin etc.," meaning "unless a spirit of folly has entered him." It is worth noting that the Alter Rebbe departs slightly from the familiar version and writes "ein adam choteh" (a person does not sin). The Rebbe comments on this that one should search through the various textual versions of the Gemara, to see whether such a version is found there.
Here it is worth adding an interesting point from a letter the Rebbe wrote on erev Chanuka, still before the nesius, during the lifetime of the previous Rebbe. In the letter he draws a lesson from the theme of Chanuka: the Greeks entered the Beis Hamikdash and defiled all the oils. Oil represents the Chochma of the soul, and the Greeks came with Greek wisdom to defile the oil of Israel. Indeed, they managed to defile all the oils, but the single flask sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol they could not defile. Every single person has his own "Kohen Gadol" within him: this is the yechida of the soul, which cannot be blemished, which always remains whole, and over which the Greeks have no dominion.
And the Rebbe added there a striking line: there is a Jew within the Jewish people who is the general "Kohen Gadol," the tzaddik of the generation. One who guards his hiskashrus, his bond, with the heads of the thousands of Israel does not need to come to a test of kiddush Hashem in order to awaken the yechida of his soul; rather, the Chochma of the soul can be revealed within him on a constant basis, even without, G-d forbid, reaching a difficult test. The reason: by the "Kohen Gadol" the flask is always there in its wholeness, and it is he who gives a Jew the ability to connect to that point.
In practice, every Jew is capable of awakening the yechida of his soul. Usually, though, this happens only when he faces a test of kiddush Hashem, and then even the poshei Yisrael are roused and say, "this far and no further." With other sins, by contrast, it is hard for him to overcome, because the yetzer hara confuses him and injects a spirit of folly into him, which will not let him open his eyes and see that every transgression severs him from the Holy One, blessed be He. But when he strengthens his bond with the nesi'im of Israel, then even in lighter transgressions, and not only in a question of kiddush Hashem, it becomes easy for him to say to the yetzer hara: "Stop! I do not want to fall, because I do not want to be cut off from the Holy One, blessed be He." He manages to awaken the yechida of the soul in everyday life, and not only at that one moment when everything is open anyway. Naturally, this depends on the strength of the hiskashrus.
The Alter Rebbe continues: "אלא שגלות הזה לבחינת חכמה אינו אלא לבחינה המתפשטת ממנה בנפש כולה להחיותה", "but this exile of the level of Chochma applies only to that level which extends from it throughout the entire soul to give it life." The dominion of the yetzer hara extends only over the extension of the point of Chochma, not over the point itself. The point of Chochma is meant to illuminate a person's 248 limbs and 365 sinews, and it does not always shine in them. In this it resembles a tinok shenishba, a child taken captive, by whom too the matter is not revealed, because he was never taught anything and does not know what his Jewishness is.
And nevertheless, even by a tinok shenishba, when something touches the point of Chochma of the soul, there are no calculations. It is told in the sefer Toldos Yaakov Yosef, from the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, about a Jewish boy who ended up from childhood in the home of a poritz, a landowner, and knew nothing of his Jewishness. He grew up there as a gentile, and no one ever told him he was a Jew. When he reached a certain age, the poritz, who knew the boy was Jewish, decided the time had come to hold his conversion ceremony to Christianity. The boy asked what this was about, and the poritz answered: it is nothing, until today your name was Feivish and tomorrow your name will be Ivan, that is all. The boy asked: what does it mean that my name is Feivish? He said to him: you were simply a Jew, they called you Feivish and tomorrow they will call you Ivan, and what difference does it make? Carry on behaving exactly the same. Said the boy: to that I am not prepared; Feivish they called me and Feivish they will call me. The poritz had already arranged everything and invited the guests, and the boy would not agree under any circumstances, and in the end he gave up his life for kiddush Hashem the next day. He had no idea what it was all about, but his neshama grasped that here was a crossing over from Jewishness to its opposite, and he gave up his life.
It is worth pausing on the term "poshei Yisrael." It refers to one who acts deliberately, even one who desecrates Shabbos deliberately. How does that square with a "spirit of folly"? He is not aware that the act is forbidden and that it severs him from holiness; he is in a kind of slumber, and nevertheless the act itself is done with full intent. It is like someone who was never taught that at a red light you stop: he drove through the red light fully intentionally, even though he did not know it was forbidden, and ignorance of the law is no defense (although spiritual matters are not entirely comparable to the workings of civil law).
The Alter Rebbe continues: "אבל שרש ועיקר של בחינת חכמה שבנפש האלקית", "but the root and essence of the level of Chochma of the divine soul." The very essence-point of the Jew, the root of the Chochma of the soul, is not subject to exile at all. "הוא במוחין", "it is in the brain": it remains in the mochin, and is unlike the extension that descends into the heart, where there is a right chamber and a left chamber and the yetzer can overpower it. The root remains in the mochin, "ואינה מתלבשת בלבוש שק דקליפה שבלב בחלל השמאלי בבחינת גלות ממש", "and it does not become clothed in the garment of sackcloth of kelipa that is in the heart, in the left chamber, in a state of actual exile." There is no situation in which the point of Chochma of the soul enters there.
So what becomes of this point when a person sins and transgresses the will of Hashem for a day, two days, twenty years, thirty years? Says the Alter Rebbe: "רק שהיא בבחינת שינה ברשעים", "only that in the wicked it is in a state of sleep." What is the difference between exile and sleep?
Exile: a person works on behalf of the one who holds him captive. So too with the extension of the Chochma of the soul into his intellect, his emotions, his speech and his power of action: when they are in exile, it means he does what should not be done, speaks what should not be spoken, and feels what should not be felt.
Sleep: one who is asleep does nothing at all. The point of Chochma of the soul cannot flip over to the other side and work for it; at most it sleeps. It is not active, but neither is it on the opposite side.
In his words: "ואינה פועלת פעולתה בהם כל זמן שעסוקים בדעתם ובינתם בתאות העולם", "and it does not perform its function within them as long as their Daas and Bina are occupied with worldly desires." As long as a person is submerged over his head in the desires of the world, doing one piece of folly after another and enjoying them, he simply does not register that at that very moment he is cutting himself off from the Holy One, blessed be He, and because he does not register it, the Chochma of the soul is asleep.
When will it awaken from its sleep? "אך כשבאים לידי ניסיון בדבר אמונה", "but when they come to a test in a matter of faith." That is, when the test is not about Shabbos, kashrus, tefillin or krias Shema, but about emuna itself: he is placed before a choice, "either you are a Jew, or, G-d forbid, you convert out." In such a test a person cannot tell himself, "it is not so terrible, I will go on being a Jew," because that is precisely the question at hand. With other transgressions he fools himself: I did not say krias Shema, I did not put on tefillin, I desecrated Shabbos, does that make me not a Jew? But in a question of emuna one cannot say "I do not believe and I am not a Jew" and at the same time "I am a Jew." Here it is either yes or no.
"שהיא למעלה מהדעת", "which is above Daas." Emuna is above reason and intellect, and therefore when a person comes to a test in a matter of faith, "ונגעה עד הנפש לבחינת חכמה שבה", "and it touches the soul itself, the level of Chochma within it," the matter touches and stirs the very point of Jewishness within him, "אזי היא ניעורה משנתה", "then it awakens from its sleep." The yechida of the soul awakens, and when it awakens it sweeps the entire system along with it.
In summary: in this section we examined the precision of the phrase "garment of sackcloth," a garment a person is stuck inside and cannot remove on his own; the spirit of folly that enters from the kelipa, without which a person does not sin; and the Rebbe's words about the flask of oil sealed with the seal of the Kohen Gadol, the yechida of the soul in which there is no blemish, and the power of hiskashrus to the nesi'im of Israel to awaken it even in daily life. We also learned that the exile applies only to the extension of the Chochma of the soul, while its root and essence remains in the mochin and does not become clothed in the garment of sackcloth of kelipa, but is only in a state of sleep, until a person comes to a test in a matter of faith, and then it awakens from its sleep.
In the next section we will take up the continuation of the Alter Rebbe's words, explaining how the level of Chochma of the soul awakens at the moment of the test.