We have arrived at chapter 23 of the Tanya, found on folio 28a (page 55). This chapter follows directly on the preceding chapters, especially the two immediately before it, where we learned that within the divine speech, the divine power that reveals itself, there are different levels:
In chapter 21 we learned about the level on which the divine word reveals itself to the prophets: that speech is called the "ten utterances," and likewise the entire Torah, Prophets and Writings that the prophets grasped in their prophetic vision. All of this is a divine revelation called "speech," as in "And G-d spoke to Moshe, saying."
In chapter 22 we learned that within the divine power called "speech" there are tzimtzumim and descents, until concealments and screens come into being, "hester panim ho'elyonim," the hiding of the Supernal Countenance. Out of these are created lowly, darkened beings who feel themselves to be an independent existence, which is what is meant by "other gods."
Building on this, the Alter Rebbe says that in light of what we learned in the previous chapter we will better understand the superiority of Torah over mitzvos, and the superiority of mitzvos over everything else in the world. There is a difference between Torah and mitzvos, as will emerge from the precise wording of the passages in the Zohar that he will quote.
An explanation of the difference between Torah and mitzvos was already given at the beginning of the Tanya: chapter 4 offers an explanation that touches on this, and in chapter 5 the Alter Rebbe devoted an entire chapter to the great superiority of Torah, that the mind encompasses it and it encompasses the mind, and that it is like food which enters one's innermost being, as opposed to mitzvos, which are only in the category of a garment. Here an additional explanation will be given, deeper and broader, of what the difference between Torah and mitzvos is, and in particular what the superiority of Torah over mitzvos is. First he will explain the greatness of the mitzvos, and only afterward will he turn to the greatness of the Torah.
Let us begin with the language of the chapter: "ועם כל הנ"ל" ("and with all of the above"), that is, with everything explained in the previous chapters, "יובן ויבואר היטב בתוספת ביאור מה שאמרו בזוהר דאורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד" ("we will well understand, with added explanation, what the Zohar says: the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one"). The Zohar expresses the greatness of Torah study in the most remarkable language possible: the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are one. "ובתיקונים פירשו" ("and in the Tikkunim they explained"), that is, in Tikkunei Zohar, where the subject is the mitzvos, a somewhat different expression is used: "דרמ"ח פיקודין אינון רמ"ח אברין דמלכא" ("that the 248 commandments are the 248 limbs of the King"), the 248 mitzvos are called the two hundred forty eight limbs of the King, of the Holy One, blessed be He.
What is the difference between the expression "limbs of the King," said of the mitzvos, and the expression "entirely one," said of the Torah?
First comes the explanation regarding the mitzvos. And why specifically 248? Two hundred forty eight are the positive commandments, a person's active doing, whereas the 365 prohibitions are passive, something a person refrains from doing. (Obviously the mitzvos have branches and sub-branches, rabbinic safeguards and customs, but the foundation is the 248 positive commandments.) The 365 prohibitions correspond to sinews, and that will be addressed in chapter 24; chapter 23 deals with the difference between Torah and the 248 positive commandments.
To understand why the mitzvos are called "limbs," let us understand it from an analogy in the human body: the limbs serve as vessels through which a person's power is revealed. The power to write is revealed in the hand, the power of walking in the leg, and so on. The limbs, then, are vessels for the powers of the soul, and we need to understand the relationship between the limb, that is, the vessel, and the soul-power that shines within that vessel.
[Worth noting: the Mishnah gives a precise enumeration of the 248 limbs, and there are parts of the body, extremely important in their own right, that do not appear on that list and are not called "limbs," such as the intestines and even the heart. As will become clearer from what follows, a "limb" is a term for a part of the body that performs its function voluntarily: a person wills it, and the action is immediately carried out. Those parts of the body that function involuntarily, not subject to a person's will, do not fall into the category of limbs.]
In the Alter Rebbe's words, the reason the mitzvos are called limbs is "לפי שהמצוות הן פנימיות רצון העליון וחפצו האמיתי המלובש בכל העולמות עליונים ותחתונים להחיותם" ("because the mitzvos are the inner dimension of the Supernal Will and His true desire, which is clothed in all the worlds, upper and lower, to give them life").
Everything that happens in the world obviously exists within the divine will, and nothing happens without His will. But we must distinguish between the inner dimension of the will, which is "His true desire," and things that are also done out of will, yet are not the true desire in the matter.
Take the analogy of a person who wants to build a house: the inner, primary, true will is that he have a roof over his head in which to live. To reach that goal, a great many details take place in the course of the building: materials, operations, plaster inside and out, and all the decoration. He wants all of these too, for had he not wanted them he would not have ordered them and would not have paid for them. But this will is an external will, an accompanying will that the inner will drags along with it; and were he able to reach his goal without those details, he might well have dispensed with them.
So it is with the divine will: the inner, primary will, for whose sake everything was created, is Torah and mitzvos. The 248 positive commandments that a Jew fulfills are the inner dimension of the divine will, they are His true desire. In the many worlds too, and especially in the physical world in which we find ourselves, there is a divine will, for otherwise they would not exist at all. But the divine will in the worlds is an external will, while the true will is the mitzvos.
This is similar to what we mentioned when we studied chapter 1 of Tanya, that the vitality with which a person feels his own existence and his sense of "I" comes from the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul, whereas from the side of the divine soul there is complete bittul, total nullification, to G-dliness. And the example brought there: a person who, thank G-d, has a healthy arm, and he puts tefillin on it. Two ways of looking at this stand before him:
He may feel: I have a healthy arm, which is very good, and since I have seen that the Torah has a mitzvah to put on tefillin, I am placing tefillin on the arm that I already have.
Or he can look at it in a far truer and deeper way: the Torah has a mitzvah of putting on tefillin, and how could it be done if there were no arm on which to place them? Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, gave me an arm, so that putting on tefillin would be possible.
The question is what is primary and what exists for the sake of what: is the arm the true and original reality, onto which the mitzvah of tefillin is now being draped? Or the reverse: the mitzvah of tefillin is the goal and purpose for which everything was created, and it is the inner will, that the Holy One, blessed be He, wants there to be tefillin for the sake of tefillin itself. Since the Torah says "and you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm," the arm was created for this, and the hide of an animal was created for this, and so on.
[And one cannot argue that man preceded the mitzvah: the Torah preceded the world by two thousand years, and the whole concept of mitzvos existed before creation, and exists as well on higher planes that are not found in this physical world, even though the ultimate purpose is specifically here, in the physical world.]
The reality of the mitzvos, then, is the true, inner, purposeful will, and the entire world runs in accordance with the mitzvos. In the words of the chapter, all the worlds, "כי כל חיותם ושפעם" ("for all their vitality and their flow of sustenance"), all the vitality that exists in the world and all the abundance the world receives, "תלוי במעשה המצוות של התחתונים כנודע" ("depends on the performance of the mitzvos by those below, as is known").
What is the difference between "their vitality" and "their flow of sustenance"? It is explained that "their vitality" is the life-force the world receives in a fixed, orderly way, a constant daily portion; and when a special day arrives, Shabbos or a Yom Tov, the world receives an added flow beyond the ordinary. That addition comes as a result of the mitzvah being fulfilled, in the merit of Shabbos and in the merit of the festival. It is not that Shabbos arrives into a world that already exists and already has its abundance; on the contrary, Shabbos is the purpose, and the very existence of abundance in the world is because of Shabbos and because of the festival.
There is a much fuller treatment of this in the later sections of Tanya, especially in Iggeres HaKodesh, where there is an entire letter about King David, who praised himself through Torah and said, "Your statutes were songs for me in the house of my sojourning." The Alter Rebbe explains there at length that King David's praise was precisely that the mitzvos are what give the flow of sustenance to creation: every single detail of creation moves this way or that as a result of a Jew's deed. A Jew puts on kosher tefillin with all the letters as they should be, and thereby he draws down all the lights and all the abundance; one letter is missing in the tefillin, and the flow and everything connected with it come to a halt.
In summary: at the opening of chapter 23, on the basis of what we learned in chapters 21 and 22 about the levels of divine speech and about hester panim, the Alter Rebbe comes to explain, with added explanation, the difference between Torah and mitzvos. Of Torah the Zohar says, "the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one," while of the mitzvos the Tikkunim say, "the 248 commandments are the 248 limbs of the King." The mitzvos are compared to limbs, vessels through which power is revealed, because they are the inner dimension of the Supernal Will and His true desire, which is clothed in all the worlds, upper and lower, to give them life, and all the vitality and sustenance of the worlds depend on the performance of the mitzvos by those below.
In the next section we will go deeper into the analogy of the limbs and into the explanation of the relationship between the vessel and the soul-power that shines within it, and from there we will ascend to the explanation of the unique superiority of Torah over mitzvos.