We are in chapter 35. In the previous lesson we stopped in the middle of the chapter, on page 44b (page 88), six lines from the bottom, at the point where there is a gloss marked with an asterisk. Before we go on, let us review what has been explained so far.
The two questions with which the Alter Rebbe opens the chapter:
The meaning of the word «לעשותו» (to do it) in the verse «כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאוד בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו», «for the thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.» What is so great about the dimension of action, that the very phrasing of the verse proves that the deed is the main point of the entire enterprise, and that the whole purpose is to arrive at «לעשותו»?
Why did the souls of the beinonim descend and become clothed in a body and in a nefesh habahamis, the animal soul? After all, it is clear that they will not manage to bring about any change in it. The animal soul remains «בתוקפה וגבורתה כתולדותה», in its full strength and vigor as it was from birth, and does not change. The beinonim are forever fighting it, but they have no power to transform it. And on the face of it, if the whole avodah looks as though it is for nothing, why did the Holy One send their souls down to be clothed in a body and in an animal soul?
The two questions hang together and depend on one another. If we were to say that action is not so terribly important, and that the main thing is the feeling in the heart, we would be left with no answer to why the souls of the beinonim came down, since they will never succeed in changing the essential nature of the animal soul. But once it is explained that the extraordinary advantage lies precisely in «לעשותו», in actual deed, which is exactly the area in which the beinonim do succeed, it becomes self-understood why it was worth their souls descending to this world, for the entire emphasis is placed on the doing.
A summary of the passage from the Zohar studied in the first part of the chapter:
The Zohar begins with the fact that the Shechinah always rests upon a Jew's head, and that for this reason he must always walk with his head covered. From there the Yenuka moves on to a parable of a burning lamp:
The mashal: In a burning lamp, what enables the wick to go on giving light is the fuel, the oil. And this is the unique quality of oil: it is able to be consumed and to become part of the flame itself, and by doing so it sustains the burning and the light.
The nimshal: A person's body is the wick; the Shechinah that rests upon him is the light and the flame; and for the flame to continue resting upon him, oil is needed, a fuel that is consumed and becomes one with the fire. That oil is «עובדין טבין», good deeds.
On this the Alter Rebbe asks: why is the soul itself not enough? Why should a soul filled with feeling and with comprehension of G-dly matters not serve as the oil that draws down the Shechinah? Why are deeds needed at all, and what do they add? Here before us is a soul brimming with love and awe of the Creator, at very high levels of spiritual intensity, and the Shechinah is not resting on emptiness but on a soul full of powerful emotion. Why is that not sufficient, and why does the Yenuka use specifically the expression «עובדין טבין», deeds, meaning the mitzvos?
The condition for the Shechinah to rest:
In his answer the Alter Rebbe teaches us a very important principle, sharp to the ear that hears it for the first time, yet utterly clear. There is one goal: to bring about the indwelling of the Shechinah. And for the Shechinah to rest there is one clear condition: absolute bittul, total self-nullification, to Elokus. For what is Elokus? «ה' אחד», G-d is one, one and there is nothing besides Him, the single absolute reality, beside which no other reality exists at all, and everything that does exist is entirely nullified to it. The indwelling of the Shechinah therefore demands a state in which everything is completely nullified.
Love and awe are not bittul. Why not? Because love and awe belong to a soul that has a sense of itself as an existence, and it is that existence which does the loving. There is no question that this is something wonderful, a great emotion that quantitatively penetrates every layer of the soul and rules over all its parts, but it is not a state of nullified existence; it is a state of an existence that loves. This is what is called «יש מי שאוהב», there is a somebody who loves.
The mashal: a student before his teacher and a servant before his master:
The student: A student sitting before his teacher is required to use his own mind and his own understanding and to grasp what is being taught. If he says, «I am nothing, I am zero, I am nullified, I am an empty vessel,» at that moment he has stopped being a student, the teacher is no longer his teacher, and the communication between them breaks off. To be a student who understands, his existence must remain in place together with all its comprehension. True, he has a general bittul to the teacher: he is ready to listen to what he says and he directs his thoughts and his understanding along the lines the teacher steers him toward. But he preserves his own existence.
The servant: A servant before his master must be completely nullified. It is not the «I» that exists, only the will of the master.
And in the nimshal: a Jew who says, «I have the option of staying with my intellect and my emotions, and I do not want to carry out the Creator's will in actual practice; leave me alone, I love the Creator, I think about Him and I am deeply moved by His greatness and His perfections,» as far as the emotions at work in him are concerned, these are lofty and powerful feelings, and he even takes pleasure in them, to the point of klos hanefesh, the expiry of the soul, and even fainting, like the parable we mentioned in the previous lesson. But there is no self-nullification to the King here. There is a preservation of his own sensations, his own middos and his own character traits, with a readiness to fill them with love and awe of the Creator.
By contrast, when a Jew says, «I admit I do not understand why this has to be done, I do not know what it means, and it even strikes me as dry, but I know that this is the will of the King, and therefore I do His will,» then although the bittul has not penetrated his whole being, and there is no emotional excitement here, in terms of quality there is genuine bittul to the King. That is bittul, and that is the oil that has the power to draw down the Shechinah, for bittul is the one and only condition for the Shechinah to rest.
In summary: in this section we reviewed the two questions that open chapter 35, the meaning of the word «לעשותו» and why the souls of the beinonim descended to be clothed in a body, and how the two depend on each other. We summarized the Yenuka's parable in the Zohar: the body is the wick, the Shechinah is the flame, and good deeds, «עובדין טבין», are the oil that is consumed and allows the light to burn. We explained why the soul by itself is not enough, for all its love and awe: the only condition for the indwelling of the Shechinah is absolute bittul to Elokus, and love and awe are an existence that loves, «יש מי שאוהב», not a nullified existence. In the parable of the student and the servant we saw that the student must preserve his own existence, whereas the servant is utterly nullified to his master's will. From here it emerges that precisely the actual fulfillment of the King's will, even without understanding and without emotional excitement, is the bittul of true quality that brings the Shechinah to rest.
In the next section we will go deeper into the question of what bittul actually means in practice, and then we will continue from where we left off, at the gloss in the chapter and in the Alter Rebbe's words that follow.