In the previous section we spoke about the descent of the neshama and the suffering it involves. True, it has come down from its level, but what is the purpose of its descent here? The Alter Rebbe establishes that it came down in order to refine the body and the vitalizing soul, «ולהפרידם מהרע של שלוש קליפות הטמאות» (to separate them from the evil of the three impure kelipos), so that the body should not be immersed in matters of evil.
The neshama's task, while it is in the body, is to guard the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul, so that it should not fall, G-d forbid, into the evil of the three impure kelipos. This guarding works on two fronts:
The negative side, guarding from evil: through keeping the 365 prohibitions and their offshoots. Alongside the three hundred and sixty five negative commandments there are branches, hundreds and thousands of details, each one a safeguard and a fence, so that a person should not stumble into anything that ties him to matters of impurity.
The positive side, elevating and connecting: «ולהעלות נפשו החיונית עם חלקה השייך לה מכללות עולם הזה» (to elevate his vitalizing soul together with the portion of the world that belongs to it). The neshama is here in order to draw the body upward, and as we learned, with every action the body performs it pulls along with it, in ever widening circles, the parts of the world that belong to it, «ולקשרם ולייחדם באור אין סוף ברוך הוא» (to bind them and unite them with the Ein Sof, blessed be He).
And how is holiness drawn into the vitality of the body? Through «קיומו כל רמ"ח מצוות עשה בנפשו החיונית» (his fulfilling all 248 positive commandments with his vitalizing soul). For who actually performs the two hundred and forty eight positive commandments? Not the neshama on its own. The neshama by itself cannot perform mitzvos. It is the physical body that does them, and the neshama pushes the body to carry out the mitzvah, thereby refining it, «שהיא היא המקיימת כל מצוות מעשיות» (for it is precisely the vitalizing soul that carries out all the practical mitzvos), as is written in Eitz Chaim.
The Alter Rebbe then sharpens the point again: the descent is only in order to refine them. That is the sole reason for the neshama's descent, «כי הנשמה עצמה אינה צריכה תיקון כלל» (for the neshama itself needs no refinement at all). It did not come down to fix itself, and it has no need to be clothed in this world. The only need is «רק להמשיך אור לתקנם» (only to draw down light to refine them), to refine the body and the world as a whole.
If the body did not exist before the neshama's descent, what is there in it to refine?
The Holy One created a world, and His will is that the world should be refined and become a dwelling place for Him. Therefore He sends neshamos down into the world and clothes them in parts of the world (and the body itself is one of those parts), so that the neshama should be clothed in a physical body, walk about here in the world, and bring about its refinement. That is the goal. And the body too stands in need of refinement, since the Holy One creates beings that are not yet refined.
And why did He not send it down already refined? Because the Holy One wants our partnership in creation, and does not want to give us «nahama dekisufa», bread of shame, but rather wants us to be partners. That is why He brings the world down in an unrefined state. It is like the well known question about bris milah: if it is the Holy One's will that a Jew be circumcised, why was he not created from the outset without an orlah, so that no mohel would be needed to remove it? Because the Holy One wants the Jew to be a partner in the refinement. And so it is in many matters, including the one before us.
The garments of the divine soul, however, the garments in which it clothes itself within the body, which are bound up with the body's vitality, these too require refinement. From here we understand that when a neshama returns and is reincarnated in the world, it is not because the neshama itself needs refinement, but because it did not complete, the previous time, the refinement of the garments of the vitalizing soul.
And what sense is there in a mission that is all loss?
On the face of it, what logic is there here: a person is sent and told that he himself will only lose out. You do not need any refinement; you are going down to a place and you will come out of it at a loss, since you will forfeit the levels you could have received while you were above. And why are you going down? To refine somebody else. Where is such a thing heard of? On this the Alter Rebbe concludes: «והוא ממש דוגמת סוד גלות השכינה» (and this is precisely parallel to the mystery of the exile of the Shechina).
The Shechina is now in exile, «shechinta begalusa». Does the Shechina need refinement? Certainly not. Rather, it went down into exile so that the Jewish people should have assistance in their avoda, as the saying goes, «when Israel went into exile, the Shechina went with them». The Shechina could have remained in its place while Israel went into exile and did their work. Why should the Shechina be with them? Rather, «עמו אנוכי בצרה» (I am with him in his distress), it came down with them to assist them in their avoda and in their work of refinement. The Shechina itself needs no refinement, so why did it descend? This is a sod, a mystery, and there are aspects here that are even higher than sod (for sod itself is already above reason and understanding), to extract the sparks. And the descent of the neshama follows the same pattern.
Question: but is it not said that «a descent is for the sake of an ascent»?
There is a well known chassidic niggun on the words «the neshama descends into the body», and it cries out «vei, vei!» And the answer within the niggun is: this descent is for the sake of an ascent. Whose ascent? The neshama's own. And it is not only said in a niggun: the Alter Rebbe himself writes this in Likkutei Torah and in Torah Or in many places, that the neshama came down below because it needs an ascent and will receive loftier illuminations. True, it is a descent, but it is worth descending, since after it rises it will receive far greater revelations. And this seems to contradict what is written here, that the neshama needs nothing and descends purely as a mission for the sake of the body and for the sake of the world.
The Rebbe discusses this at length in Likkutei Sichos, and we will bring one point from what he says there: the very same question can be asked in a broader sense, not only about the neshama but about the purpose of the creation of the world altogether:
In Eitz Chaim it says that the world was created in order to reveal the fullness of the Creator's powers in the world.
In the holy Zohar it says «בגין דישתמודעון» (so that He be known), that it is the Holy One's will that He be known, and therefore He created a world containing creatures who know Him. And this is essentially the same idea as in Eitz Chaim: the purpose of creation is the revelation of G-dliness and spirituality, and the world itself is nothing but a means.
In Tanya, quoting the Midrash, the opposite: the purpose of creation is not the lofty revelations, but that the Creator desired a dirah betachtonim, a dwelling place in the lower realms, in the physical lower world itself.
Again the same question: which is the essential one? And the answer is that both are true, and it depends which level we are speaking about. The ultimate purpose and innermost intent is dirah betachtonim, while the reasons given in the Zohar and in Eitz Chaim are reasons on lower levels. The upper worlds and their revelations are also a reason for creation, but on a lower level, whereas the true purpose is a dwelling place in the lower realms.
And the same applies to the neshama. What is written, that the neshama came down below as «a descent for the sake of an ascent», is true, but it is not the real reason and it is not the ultimate purpose of the matter. The real reason for its descent is the refinement of the world. There are other reasons, but they are not the purpose; and by all opinions there is no doubt that the neshama, in its ascent on high, receives great reward. It is simply that this is not the purpose, because the purpose is dirah betachtonim.
Therefore here in Tanya, where the Alter Rebbe is speaking about the goal of a dwelling place in the lower realms, it would not fit to say that the neshama came down for the sake of its own ascent. Here we are dealing with a purpose that is the lower world itself, the fulfillment of mitzvos in actual deed, as is brought in the chapter: «כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאוד בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו» (for the matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it). The emphasis is on «to do it», on action, specifically in the lowest realm.
And with this we say to the neshama: you are spiritual, but the main thing is the physical body. Your body is more precious than you are, and you have been sent here in order to refine it. The neshama, as it were, comes for the sake of the body, so that in this respect the body is the main thing and the neshama is secondary to it.
This is also why the resurrection of the dead will be with the body. Even though the neshama has already ascended on high and is in Gan Eden, and seemingly has finally been freed from the body, at the resurrection it returns and descends back into the body, because the body is exceedingly precious and the Holy One desires it.
This emerges even from halacha. According to the Shulchan Aruch, the body of a Jew is something holy that may not be harmed, and not only another person's body but even one's own, since the body does not belong to him. The body is holy and precious, and one must know the purpose for which it is here.
To summarize: in this section we learned that the neshama's descent into the body is not for its own sake at all, but in order to refine the body and the vitalizing soul: by guarding the 365 prohibitions and their offshoots against evil, and by fulfilling the 248 positive commandments with the vitalizing soul so as to bind its portion of the world to the light of the Ein Sof. We saw that the body and the world were created unrefined so that we should be partners in their refinement (as with bris milah), that this descent is «precisely parallel to the mystery of the exile of the Shechina», and that «a descent for the sake of an ascent» is true but is not the purpose, for the purpose is dirah betachtonim. That is why the body is the main thing, and why even the resurrection of the dead will be with the body.
In the next section we will take up the greatness of tzedaka, which our Sages spoke of in the most superlative terms, and we will explain why it is equal to all the mitzvos and is called simply «the mitzvah».