In the previous part we worked with the analogy of speech in the human soul, and with the point that divine speech does not produce something foreign, since all of creation is nothing but the result of that very same power. Now we will climb step by step and clarify what a single word is worth relative to the faculties of the soul, and from there we will understand the relationship of the worlds to the Creator.
Every thing has what is in it, and what is missing from it. A single word that a person lets out of his mouth: why is it worth nothing? Because of what is in it, or because of what is missing from it? Certainly it is not because speech as such has no value; the fact is that there is a faculty in the soul whose whole business is speaking, and speech as speech has value. The deficiency of the single word is not that speech is nothing, but that one act of speech compared to infinite speech is nothing. It turns out that the word's nothingness comes from what is not in it, it has no infinitude, whereas from the standpoint of what is in it, it is something meaningful, since the potential it came from is an infinity of words of that very same kind.
A settled person, before he speaks, thinks. The world of thought is also a world of letters, only that these are letters more abstract than the letters of speech, and here too the thoughts a person can think are endless. Now let us set the single word not against the power of speech but against the power of thought. Here its nothingness stems not only from what is missing in it, but also from what is present in it. For relative to the power of speech we said that this is speech and that is speech, and the only difficulty is that one is a single word and the other is without limit. But relative to thought another deficiency is added: in the world of thought, speech has no function at all, since thought is a higher rung. The word is therefore not merely too small, it is literally nothing.
We can climb one more step. There is something in the soul that precedes thought: the soul itself, emotion and understanding, and there there are no letters at all. To picture it: a question like "What language do you speak?" is a legitimate question, and so is "What language do you think in?" or "What language do you count in?" But "What language do you understand in?" has no place at all, because understanding has no language. The process that leads to understanding, the thinking and the speaking, has letters in it. But the understanding itself, once a person has grasped that one plus one is two, is abstracted from letters.
Another example, from a different direction, of what it means that the soul itself is abstract: the sensation of hunger a person feels even before he registers that this is hunger. That sensation does not differ between an Israeli and an Englishman, an American or a Frenchman, between a Jew and a non-Jew; the sensation itself is the same sensation. Only when he begins to think about it, "I am hungry," do the differences begin: one finds his solution in bread, another in meat, another in some other way. But in the sensation itself there are no letters and no language. It is above letters, it is not clothed in them, and it is an entirely inner matter.
So let us return to the ranking we have been describing:
A single word against the power of speech: it is nothing because it is too small, but the word itself has meaning.
A single word against the power of thought: it is nothing twice over, both because it is only one, and because it is a different kind of reality altogether. And yet it is not an entirely different reality, since thought too consists of letters, only letters on a higher level.
A single word against the soul itself: there there are no letters at all, and therefore the nothingness of the word is nothingness three times over.
All of this is the analogy, as it works in each one of us. And the nimshal: all the worlds, all of them, how do they exist? "By the word of G-d the heavens were made." From here we come to discuss the standing, the worth and the significance of the world relative to the Creator. With us, a word that has been spoken does not create anything, it is simply tossed into the air; whereas with the Creator the speech actually created. But as was explained in the earlier analogy, the creation is not something foreign, for the creation is nothing but the result of that very same energy. And what is this creation worth? Relative to the one who speaks, relative to the power of speech, we have already said it has no value. And relative to a higher rung, all the more so. Literally naught and nothing.
And now there is no room left to argue: certainly "You are the same before the world was created and You are the same after the world was created," and nothing was added. Just as with a person: is there any change in his soul between one who has already spoken a million words and one who has not yet spoken them? Is the soul of one more complete and the soul of the other more used up? You are the same before he spoke the million words and You are the same after he spoke them: nothing was subtracted from him and nothing was added to him. If so, the whole of creation, which is nothing but an expression of the word of G-d, is literally naught and nothing.
Let us read this in the Alter Rebbe's own words: "ולמשל כמו בנפש האדם כשמדבר דבר אחד שדבור זה לבדו כלא ממש אפילו לגבי כללות נפשו המדברת" ("By way of illustration: in the soul of man, when he utters a single word, that word by itself is as literally nothing even in relation to his speaking soul as a whole"), the one word that left his mouth has no value even relative to the power of speech in his soul, "שהוא בחינת לבוש האמצעי שלה, שהוא כח הדבור שלה שיכולה לדבר דבורים לאין קץ ותכלית" ("which is the middle garment of the soul, namely its power of speech, which can speak words without end or limit"). Of the three garments, thought, speech and action, speech is the middle garment; and since this power can issue words without end or limit, the single word takes up no space and carries no value against it. That is stage one.
From here the Alter Rebbe climbs to the second stage: "וכל שכן לגבי בחינת לבוש הפנימי שלה, שהיא המחשבה, שממנה נמשכו הדיבורים והיא חיותם" ("and how much more so relative to its inner garment, which is thought, from which the words were drawn and which is their vitality"). Thought is the inner garment, more inward than speech, and therefore the single word is even more of a nothing in relation to it: relative to speech it is a nothing because it is too small, while relative to thought it is a nothing both because it is only one, and because when you stand in the world of thought, the entire world of speech does not count for anything.
And the third stage goes without saying: "ואין צריך לומר לגבי מהות ועצמות הנפש שהן עשר בחינותיה הנזכרות לעיל, חב\"ד כו', שמהן נמשכו אותיות מחשבה זו המלובשת בדבור זה כשמדבר" ("and needless to say relative to the essence and being of the soul, which are its ten faculties mentioned above, ChaBaD and so on, from which were drawn the letters of this thought that is clothed in this speech when he speaks"). The essence of the soul is above the power of speech and above the power of thought. Its ten faculties are Chochmah, Binah, Daas, Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchus, and the soul itself is utterly abstracted from letters.
The soul itself, abstracted from letters, first brings forth thought from within itself and afterwards speech, and this is a whole process that we never notice. Of the sefirah of Chochmah alone it is said that it contains thirty two paths of wisdom, and of the sefirah of Binah alone, fifty gates of understanding. That is, from Chochmah there is a descent of thirty two stages, and in Binah a further fifty stages; after that it descends into the emotions, and still there are no letters there, only abstraction. Only afterwards does it descend into thought and letters begin to form, abstract letters of thought, and only then does it descend into speech, take on coarse letters, and a word comes out. And once you set that word against the entire process that preceded it, it is literally naught and nothing.
The Alter Rebbe continues: "כי המחשבה היא גם כן בחינת אותיות כמו הדבור, רק שהן רוחניות ודקות יותר" ("for thought too consists of letters, like speech, only that they are more spiritual and more refined"). A single word against the power of speech, and likewise a single word against the power of thought: in the end both are a matter of letters, except that in thought the letters are more spiritual and refined. "אבל עשר בחינות חכמה בינה דעת כו' הן שרש ומקור המחשבה, ואין בהן בחינת אותיות עדיין קודם שמתלבשות בלבוש המחשבה" ("but the ten faculties of Chochmah, Binah, Daas and so on are the root and source of thought, and there are as yet no letters in them before they become clothed in the garment of thought"). And since in the soul itself there are no letters at all, the nothingness of the word in relation to it is absolute, and there is no angle at all from which one could say that it has content, meaning or importance.
For relative to the power of speech the word does have a certain importance, and the same relative to the power of thought, and you cannot erase the category and say that letters have no value whatsoever; the fact is that the power of thought is itself a potential for letters, abstract letters, but letters. But relative to the soul, in which there are no letters, the word is worth nothing and simply does not belong there.
In summary: in this part we laid out three stages in the nothingness of a single word. Relative to the power of speech, it is nothing because it is one against infinite words, even though speech in itself is something of value. Relative to the power of thought, it is nothing both because it is one and because in the world of thought speech has no place, even though thought too is a world of letters, finer ones. And relative to the essence of the soul and its ten faculties, it is absolute nothingness, since there there are no letters at all, like understanding and like the inner sensation that have no language. And from here to the nimshal: the whole of creation, which is nothing but "by the word of G-d the heavens were made," is literally naught and nothing before the Creator, and "You are the same before the world was created and You are the same after the world was created."
In the next part we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words and go deeper into the explanation of the root and source of thought, which is above the level of letters.