In the previous part we looked at the structure of the chapter and at the Alter Rebbe's phrase «מעשינו ועבודתנו כל זמן משך הגלות» (our deeds and our service throughout the duration of the exile). Before we enter the body of the chapter, let us add a note that the Rebbe brings in another maamar on precisely these two words: what is the difference between «maaseinu» (our deeds) and «avodaseinu» (our service)?
The precision of the words «maaseinu va'avodaseinu»:
«מעשינו» (our deeds) - the Rebbe brings in the name of his father, who points to a passage later in Tanya, that asiyah, doing, is any act a person performs according to his nature and according to the way it flows naturally in him, within his own limited capacity.
«עבודתנו» (our service) - avodah is something far harder, as in the expression «ibbud oros», the tanning of hides: working a hide is a deep and difficult labor that demands time and effort. The meaning is that a person draws out of himself an exertion of soul that goes much deeper.
And the result divides along the same lines, as the Alter Rebbe writes that this corresponds to the days of Moshiach and to the resurrection of the dead:
«מעשינו» - everything a Jew did in the course of the exile according to his nature and his limited capacity: its result will be revealed in the days of Moshiach.
«עבודתנו» - everything he did through genuine avodah, toil and labor, when he squeezed out of himself intensity and depth: its result will be revealed at the resurrection of the dead.
Where the divine light penetrates in the performance of a mitzvah:
Having laid out the structure of the chapter, let us now begin at the beginning of the subject. The Alter Rebbe comes to show exactly where the divine light enters and penetrates in our deeds and our service throughout the exile. In the performance of mitzvos, «ממשיך האדם גילוי אור אין סוף ברוך הוא מלמעלה למטה להתלבש בגשמיות עולם הזה» (a person draws down a revelation of the light of the Ein Sof from above to below, to become clothed in the physicality of this world), for mitzvos are performed specifically with physical objects of this world, and it is into them that the Jew draws holiness.
But a mitzvah cannot be performed with just anything in the world. As we learned in chapter 6, there are things that belong to the three impure kelipos, which are absolute evil, and these cannot be sanctified or refined; and there are things that are kelipas nogah, which can rise upward or descend downward, and it is specifically with these that a Jew can perform a mitzvah.
This is what the Alter Rebbe writes: «בדבר שהיה תחילה תחת ממשלת קליפת נוגה ומקבל חיותה ממנה» (in a thing that was previously under the dominion of kelipas nogah and received its vitality from it). The very object with which the mitzvah is performed was, before the mitzvah, under the rule of kelipas nogah and drew its life from it. It is not absolute evil, but it has no holiness in it yet either. «שהם כל הדברים הטהורים והמותרים שנעשית בהם המצווה מעשית» (these are all the pure and permitted things with which a practical mitzvah is performed).
With something forbidden, no mitzvah can be performed, and therefore no holiness can be introduced into it. Of all those things bound up entirely with the three impure kelipos it is said regarding the future, «ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ» (and I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth). But everything in the category of kelipas nogah: that is a person's task and mission in this physical world, to sanctify it.
Three examples: from the animal, the vegetable, and the inanimate:
From the animal: the parchment of tefillin, a mezuzah, and a sefer Torah. Parchment may be made only from a kosher animal, not from a non-kosher one, «כמאמר רבותינו ז״ל לא הוכשר למלאכת שמיים אלא טהורים ומותרים בפיך» (as our Sages said: only those that are pure and permitted in your mouth were deemed fit for the work of Heaven). Something permitted to eat can be made into a mitzvah; something forbidden to eat is tied to the three impure kelipos, and cannot be turned into a mitzvah.
From the vegetable: the esrog. When a Jew takes the physical esrog and shakes it, he brings holiness into it, but here too the esrog must be kosher, «שאינו ערלה» (that it is not orlah). One cannot take an esrog from the first three years of the tree, which is orlah and forbidden to eat, and therefore invalid for the four species. In a gloss the Alter Rebbe notes that orlah is from the three completely impure kelipos, «שאין להם עלייה לעולם» (which have no ascent ever), as brought in Etz Chaim; and likewise any mitzvah that comes about through a transgression, G-d forbid, such as one who steals and performs a mitzvah with the stolen item. (The law of orlah applies to all fruit trees.)
From the inanimate: «מעות הצדקה שאינם גזל» (coins of tzedakah that are not stolen). The money a person gives to tzedakah must be money he earned honestly, in faithful business dealings, with no theft in it. But of one who seeks to cover over theft by giving tzedakah it is said, «כי לא אקח שוחד» (for I take no bribe): the Holy One does not accept bribes, and one cannot sanctify something whose very essence is theft, or something entangled with the refuse of holiness.
And when a person takes those physical items, the pure and the permitted, and performs the mitzvah with them, in that moment he makes a dirah betachtonim, a dwelling for G-d in the lower worlds, and he sanctifies the object with which he comes into direct contact: that esrog, those coins he put into the box, that parchment which became tefillin, a mezuzah, or a sefer Torah. «ועכשיו שמקיים בהם מצוות ה' ורצונו, הרי החיות שבהם עולה ומתבטל ונכלל באור אין סוף ברוך הוא» (and now that he fulfills with them the mitzvos of G-d and His will, the vitality within them rises and is nullified and absorbed into the light of the Ein Sof). The energy in that parchment and in that esrog becomes utter bittul, complete nullification, to the divine will. It is the divine will that a Jew shake an esrog on Sukkos, and this esrog has merited to become the expression of that supernal will.
«שהוא רצונו יתברך המלובש בהם» (which is His blessed will, clothed within them): in those objects the divine will is clothed and it is what rules them, and they are nullified to it, «מאחר שאין שם בחינת הסתר פנים כלל להסתיר אורו יתברך» (since there is no aspect of hester panim there at all to conceal His blessed light). Nothing conceals the divine light. The parchment has become tefillin and a mezuzah, and now holiness rests upon it.
Direct contact in the limbs of the body:
Exactly the same thing happens in the person who performs the mitzvah: «וכן כוח נפש החיונית הבהמית שבאיברי גוף האדם המקיים המצווה» (and likewise the power of the vital animal soul in the limbs of the body of the person who performs the mitzvah). He performed the mitzvah with particular limbs: his hand took hold of the esrog and shook it, and the grip and the vitality in that hand come from his nefesh hachiyunis, his vital soul. That same vitality could have gone out into empty matters, and instead it was directed to holding the esrog and shaking it at the moment of the mitzvah. That power, clothed in the physical limbs that perform the mitzvah, «עולה מהקליפה ונכלל בקדושת המצווה שהיא רצונו יתברך ובטל באור אין סוף ברוך הוא» (rises out of the kelipah and is absorbed into the holiness of the mitzvah, which is His blessed will, and is nullified in the light of the Ein Sof). Until that moment this vitality belonged to kelipas nogah, since it could just as well have descended downward, heaven forbid; now it has risen into holiness, and the physical hand itself has become sanctified.
With this, the question we raised in chapter 34 is answered: why did the Holy One bring the soul of the beinoni down into a physical body? So that with the physical body he should perform the mitzvos, and thereby sanctify the physical hand and all of his vitality.
(At this stage the chapter is dealing only with direct contact: what happens to the object with which the mitzvah was performed, and what happens to the limb and the energy that came into contact with it. The rest of the body is not a partner here; what takes place in those parts we will see further on.)
The mitzvos of speech:
Until now we have spoken of practical mitzvos, and the same holds true «במצוות תלמוד תורה וקריאת שמע ותפילה וכיוצא בהם» (in the mitzvos of Torah study, Krias Shema, prayer, and the like), which are performed with the limbs of a person's physical body, «אף שאינם בעשייה גשמית ממש» (even though they are not literal physical action) like the power of deed in the hands and feet, which is under the dominion of kelipas nogah. For if the goal is to sanctify the lowest physicality and make a dirah betachtonim, the lowest level in a person is action, and speech is not quite so low.
Nevertheless, «קיימא לן דהרהור לאו כדיבור דמי» (we hold that thought is not equivalent to speech). A person standing in prayer who merely thinks the words in his mind has not discharged his obligation, «ואינו יוצא ידי חובתו עד שיוציא בשפתיו» (and he does not fulfill his obligation until he articulates them with his lips), «וקיימא לן דעקימת שפתיו הוי מעשה» (and we hold that the movement of his lips constitutes an act). Moving the lips counts as a certain kind of deed. It is not literal physical action like a deed of the hand, but it is an act done with physical limbs.
And why is physicality sanctified specifically through this? «כי אי אפשר לנפש האלוקית לבטא בשפתיים ופה ולשון ושיניים הגשמיים כי אם על ידי נפש החיונית הבהמית המלובשת באיברי הגוף ממש» (because the divine soul cannot articulate with the physical lips, mouth, tongue, and teeth except by means of the vital animal soul clothed in the actual limbs of the body). The divine soul on its own cannot speak with the lips; the partnership of the vital soul is required, and consequently the holiness penetrates into the physical body itself: the lips and the teeth (the «teeth letters» of prayer) are actually sanctified. This is what the Holy One wants, that the physicality of the world and the physical body become sanctified, and this holiness is not lost, for the body will stand again at the resurrection of the dead.
And the more forcefully a person speaks, the more powers of his vital soul he invests in his speech. A person who speaks with all his strength becomes tired, because all his limbs are partners in the speech, and therefore all those limbs merit to be sanctified by the words he said. «וזהו שאמר הכתוב כל עצמותי תאמרנה» (this is what the verse means, all my bones shall say). Saying is done with the lips and teeth, so what do the bones have to do with saying? Rather, when a person says the words with all his vitality, all his bones take part in the saying, and this is «all my bones shall say» in the most literal sense.
«If it is arranged in all 248 limbs, it is retained»:
From here the Alter Rebbe explains, in passing, a beautiful idea. Many people look for segulos and advice for retaining what they learn and avoiding forgetfulness: learn with greater depth, concentrate better, and so on. The Sages give one simple piece of advice: «אם ערוכה בכל רמ״ח איברים - משתמרת, ואם לאו - אינה משתמרת» (if it is arranged in all 248 limbs, it is retained; and if not, it is not retained). If the learning penetrated into all of a person's limbs, it stays with him; if he said it lightly, it does not stay.
And what is the reason for this? «כי השכחה היא מקליפת הגוף» (for forgetfulness comes from the kelipah of the body) and from the vital animal soul, «שהם מקליפת נוגה» (which are from kelipas nogah). Forgetfulness comes from the side of the kelipah and the sitra achra: «there is no forgetting before the Throne of Your glory», and the farther one is from the Throne of Glory, the stronger forgetfulness becomes; the purer a person is and the closer to holiness, the less he forgets. And since kelipas nogah can be absorbed into holiness, when it is absorbed a person does not forget, «והיינו כשמתיש כוחן» (and that is when he saps their strength): when he weakens the power of the kelipah by investing all of their strength into the holiness of Torah and prayer.
The point is easy to grasp. When a person learns at half strength, the animal within him is his partner in the learning, and no sooner has he put a few words into his mind than it pushes them right back out and makes him forget them. But when he learned with all his vitality, he left the animal within him no room at all, and it has no way to make him forget what he learned. And this is «all my bones shall say»: one who sways in prayer, who says the words with life and with a voice, who learns with all the energy he has, his entire body is a partner in that holiness.
In summary: we learned the precision of the words «maaseinu va'avodaseinu», deeds done according to one's nature and service that comes from toil and labor, whose results are the days of Moshiach and the resurrection of the dead. We saw where the divine light penetrates: in the pure and permitted physical object that was under the dominion of kelipas nogah, and through the performance of the mitzvah its vitality rises and is absorbed into the light of the Ein Sof. The examples are from the animal (parchment), from the vegetable (an esrog that is not orlah), and from the inanimate (tzedakah coins that are not stolen). So too in the power of the vital soul in the limbs of the body that perform the mitzvah, and in the organs of speech in Torah study, Krias Shema, and prayer, for the movement of the lips constitutes an act, and the divine soul can articulate the words only by means of the vital soul clothed in the limbs. And whoever invests all his strength in holiness saps the power of the kelipah, and as a result his learning is retained within him.
The bottom line is that in all our deeds and our service during the exile we are building the dirah betachtonim. More than enough has already been accomplished in this, as someone once put it, the world is already bursting from the sheer quantity of tefillin that have been put on in it since the giving of the Torah, and the time has come for the revelation to be plain before our eyes: with the coming of Moshiach, and immediately afterward with the resurrection of the dead, when we will see the dirah betachtonim in the most literal sense.
In the next part we will deal with the remaining parts of the body and the powers of the soul that do not come into direct contact with the performance of the mitzvah, and what takes place within them.