In the previous section we looked at the four categories of creation in this world (domem, tzomeach, chai and medaber: inanimate, vegetative, animal and human) and at the statement that a prayer or a blessing said without kavana (without intention) is «like a body without a soul». In this section we will look at what all four categories share, at what they do not share, and at two concepts that must be carefully distinguished from one another: «revelation and concealment» on the one hand, and «tzimtzum and hispashtus» (contraction and expansion) on the other.
What all creatures share: hester panim
There is one thing that all four categories have in common. Someone looking at a stone does not perceive that a divine life force is bringing it into being at this very moment; and the same is true of someone looking at a human being. He does see life there, but he does not recognize that this life is divine; he assumes the person is acting by his own power. The reason is one and the same: the Creator concealed Himself, so that it should not be seen that He is the One acting. And in this respect there is no difference at all between the stone and the human being. The concealment is the very same concealment, no less and no more.
This entire world stands under the dominion of the kelipah, the «shell» that covers over the fruit. There is no revelation of G-dliness in it: there is no more revelation of G-dliness in humanity than there is in plants, in animals or in stones. Everything is covered over, and one who looks at physical things does not see. Of this world it is said: «אכן אתה א-ל מסתתר» («Indeed, You are a G-d who hides Himself»).
And what exactly is this «seeing of G-dliness» that is absent from our world?
We are not really in a position to define it properly, since we ourselves are living inside the world of kelipah. It does not mean seeing the development within creation. Development we do see, and the difference between a plant and a stone is plain to the eye; it is the One who brings about that development who is not seen. The divine hand that is continuously bringing into being the stone, the plant, the animal and the human being is not seen, and that is what is called hester panim, the hiding of the Divine countenance. True, at times, when a person witnesses a miracle, a break in the ordinary course of nature, it is revealed to him in that moment that the world has an Owner; but as far as the nature of creation goes, everything stands in hester panim. The complete revelation will come in the future, with the Geulah, as it says «וראו כל בשר יחדיו» («and all flesh shall see together»), and then it will also become clear what the real difference is between domem, tzomeach, chai and medaber.
Two concepts: «revelation and concealment» and «tzimtzum and hispashtus»
Even after the Creator concealed Himself, He said, as it were: «Me they will not see, I am behind the curtain; but energy I do send down. Here I send down a contracted measure of energy, and here a broader one.» So we are dealing with two distinct concepts, and to clarify them let us use a parable drawn from light:
Revelation and concealment: One can light up a room with a spotlight, so that everyone sees the light itself; or one can hang a thick curtain, and then whoever stands on the other side of the curtain does not see the light behind it at all, only something else. An example: the light of the moon at night is in fact the light of the sun, but once it has passed through such a «regulator», one does not recognize the sun's light in it at all. Without the curtain: revelation. With the curtain: concealment.
Tzimtzum and hispashtus: Once it has already been decided to conceal, a different question arises: in what measure will the concealed thing be given over? One can let the light out through a tiny pinhole, or through a larger opening, or through a wider opening still. That is tzimtzum and hispashtus, contraction and expansion. It is not the question of concealment versus revelation, but the question of measure and intensity.
In this world the Holy One decided that everything would be concealed and unseen, in the mode of «א-ל מסתתר», a G-d who hides Himself. But once He had already decided to conceal Himself, He created the things on the other side of the curtain in varying degrees of tzimtzum and hispashtus:
Domem: the only thing present in it is the existence of its body, nothing more.
Tzomeach: its body exists, and it grows and develops, but it has no nefesh, no soul.
Chai: here the Creator revealed a nefesh as well, instinctive and natural.
Medaber: a revelation of the nefesh that includes intellect as well, which can change, act, and so on.
From the mashal to the nimshal: the four levels within the mitzvos
Everything said until now about physical things is only a mashal, a parable. The nimshal, the lesson it points to, is this: just as there is domem, tzomeach, chai and medaber in the physical world, so these same four levels exist in spiritual matters. In the world of the mitzvos the general division is into body and soul. The body of the mitzvah is its actual fulfillment and performance, and the soul of the mitzvah is the kavana, its inner dimension. And in more specific terms it divides into the four levels we mentioned:
Domem, the deed: the physical performance of the mitzvah.
Tzomeach, speech: although speech seems finer and more elevated than action, it too is something physical, produced by physical organs; therefore action and speech both belong to the realm of the body.
Chai and medaber, the kavana: kavana belongs to the realm of the soul, and within kavana itself there are two levels, a kavana corresponding to the animal world and a kavana corresponding to the human world. The difference between them will be explained further on.
And here is a very important point. Among the four categories in the world, what they share is the concealment: in all of them there is hester panim. But among the four categories within the mitzvos, what they share is precisely the opposite: all of them are a revelation of the Creator's will. The divine will is revealed in the mitzvah performed in action, in the mitzvah performed in speech, and in both kinds of kavana within it. «Revelation» means that in the thing itself one sees the divine will and recognizes the Creator in it, with no hester panim. Every single mitzvah is the divine will out in the open. One who looks at the domem, the tzomeach and the chai of the world sees hester panim: world, kelipah. But one who looks at these four categories as they appear in Torah and mitzvos sees revelation in all of them. What is not equal among them is the measure of tzimtzum and hispashtus.
From here we can understand the matter we began with. A mitzvah performed without kavana: its essential point is intact, since the actual doing is the main thing, because this lowly physical world is the purpose and the body is what is required. It is only that without kavana it is like a body without a soul: the revelation is there, but in tzimtzum. With kavana it would not be in tzimtzum but in hispashtus, a broader expansion of comprehension and of connection to the mitzvah. And in any case, even in tzimtzum it is still revelation: this is the will of Hashem, the mitzvah was fulfilled, the Creator is present here in a revealed way, and the person has connected himself to Him in a revealed way. The only question is in what manner: in a contracted way or in a broad one.
Let us look closely at the words of the Tanya:
«אך אף על פי כן אמרו תפילה או שאר ברכה בלא כוונה הן כגוף ולא נשמה. פירוש, כי כמו שכל הברואים שבעולם הזה שיש להם גוף ונשמה, שהם נפש כל חי ורוח כל בשר איש ונשמת כל אשר רוח חיים באפיו מכל בעלי החיים» («Nevertheless they said that a prayer, or any other blessing, said without kavana is like a body without a soul. The meaning is: just as all the creatures of this world have a body and a soul, these being the soul of every living thing and the spirit of all flesh of man and the breath of every creature in whose nostrils is the breath of life»). In every creature there is a body and a soul.
A note is in order here. To make the idea easier to grasp we separated creatures of «body» from creatures of «soul», but the truth is that in every single creation there is both a body and a soul. Even in the domem there is a nefesh. The Arizal speaks of the nefesh hadomemes, the soul of the inanimate. It is only that in our own understanding we divided things this way so that they would be easier to follow. The words here in the body of the Tanya say that all the creatures of this world have a body and a soul, and further on the Alter Rebbe will spell this out in more detail.
«וה' מחיה את כולם ומהווה אותם מאין ליש תמיד באור וחיות שמשפיע בהם» («And Hashem gives life to them all and brings them into being out of nothing, constantly, through the light and life force that He bestows within them»). The Holy One brings all the categories into being out of nothing, all of them, at every single moment, including the lowest category, the domem: «שגם הגוף החומרי ואפילו אבנים ועפר הדומם ממש יש בו אור וחיות ממנו יתברך» («for even the material body, and even stones and earth, which are literally inanimate, contain light and life force from Him, blessed be He»).
The inert stones exist at this moment only because Someone is holding them and bringing them into being out of nothing at this very moment: the Holy One, through the life force pulsing within them, «שלא יחזור להיות אין ואפס כשהיה» («so that it should not revert to being naught and nothingness as it was»). So in all of them there is divine vitality. But is the manner of that vitality the same in all of them? Certainly not. What is equal in all of them is that all of them contain divine life, and that in all of them the Creator conceals Himself equally; what is not equal is the manner of that vitality, the measure and intensity of tzimtzum and hispashtus.
«ואף על פי כן, אין ערך ודמיון כלל בין בחינת אור וחיות המאיר בגוף לגבי בחינת אור וחיות המאיר בנשמה שהיא נפש כל חי» («And nevertheless, there is no comparison or likeness whatsoever between the light and life force that shines in the body and the light and life force that shines in the soul, which is the soul of every living thing»). In each and every creature there is no way at all to compare the vitality present in its body in a contracted form with the vitality present in its soul in a state of expansion.
«ואף שבשניהם אור אחד שווה» («even though in both of them it is one and the same light»). Both the «body» category and the «soul» category have something in common. And in what are they equal in this world? «בבחינת הסתר פנים ולבושים שווים» («in the aspect of hester panim and in equal garments»). In all of them the Creator placed the very same screen. He said, as it were: I created many things in this world, and what they all share is that Me they will not see in them. This world is a world of kelipos and sitra achra, and one does not see the Creator in it except through avodah, through work.
«שהאור מסתתר ומתעלם ומתלבש בו» («for the light hides itself and becomes concealed and clothes itself within it»). The divine light conceals itself, so that the Creator will not be seen and not be felt; this is how the Creator made it, hiding Himself. And why are body and soul equal in this? Because both of them belong to this world. When we speak of body and soul in this world, the soul is a soul of this world, a soul of kelipah, and one does not see G-dliness in it; and the body is a body of this world, a body of kelipah, and one does not see G-dliness in it either.
«שבכללותו מסתתר בשווה האור והחיות שמרוח פיו יתברך, בבחינת הסתר פנים וירידת המדרגות בהשתלשלות העולמות» («for in its general character the light and life force that comes from the breath of His mouth is concealed equally, in the aspect of hester panim and the descent of levels in the hishtalshelus of the worlds»). The divine light that comes from Him is concealed with equal force in the «body» portion and in the «soul» portion. Since the Creator made a physical, lowest world, the further the world descends through the chain of levels, the hishtalshelus, the more the concealment varies (and in the next chapter the Alter Rebbe will also mention the order of the worlds); but in this physical world the concealment is absolute, and therefore in all the categories it is that very same absolute concealment.
«ממדרגה למדרגה בצמצומים רבים ועצומים, עד שנתלבש בקליפת נוגה להחיות כללות עולם הזה החומרי, דהיינו כל דברים המותרים והטהורים שבעולם הזה» («from level to level through many mighty contractions, until it became clothed in kelipas nogah so as to give life to this material world in general, that is, to all the permitted and pure things in this world»). The material world receives divine vitality by way of kelipas nogah, unless a Jew does his work and sanctifies those things. But from the standpoint of the nature of the world, everything one sees in it is kelipas nogah, and consequently one does not see what hides behind the shell: the Holy One Himself, who concealed Himself. «וממנה ועל ידה מושפעים דברים הטמאים כי היא בחינה ממוצעת כנזכר לעיל» («and from it and through it the impure things receive their flow, since it is an intermediate category, as mentioned above»). Kelipas nogah is an intermediate category.
And here the Alter Rebbe concludes the point: «אף על פי כן, ההארה שהיא המשכת החיות אשר ה' מאיר ומחיה דרך לבוש זה אינו שווה בכולם בבחינת צמצום והתפשטות» («nevertheless, the illumination, that is, the drawing down of the life force with which Hashem illuminates and gives life through this garment, is not equal in all of them, in the aspect of tzimtzum and hispashtus»). Although there is something equal in all of them, namely that in all of them there is hester panim, there is also something that is not equal: the aspect of tzimtzum and hispashtus. The concealment is identical in all of them; the measure of contraction and expansion differs in each and every one.
In summary: in this section we learned that what all four categories of creation in this world share is hester panim. In all of them the Holy One brings the creature into being out of nothing at every moment, and in all of them He concealed Himself equally, until the life force became clothed in kelipas nogah, which gives life to this material world. What is not equal among them is the aspect of tzimtzum and hispashtus. We distinguished between two concepts: «revelation and concealment», illustrated by the parable of the light and the curtain, and «tzimtzum and hispashtus», illustrated by the parable of the narrow opening and the wide one. Over against this we learned that in the mitzvos the common denominator is exactly the reverse: the deed (domem), speech (tzomeach) and the two kinds of kavana (chai and medaber) are all the divine will in revelation, and the difference between them lies only in tzimtzum and hispashtus. Hence a mitzvah without kavana is like a body without a soul: revelation in a contracted measure, whereas with kavana it is revelation in a broad expansion.
In the next section we will go back and read the words of the Tanya slowly from within, expand on further examples in order to simplify these new concepts, rise from the mashal to the nimshal until we see how it translates into the mitzvah and its kavana, and examine the four levels as they exist within the Jew himself, as well as the precise definition of hester panim and the question of whether tzimtzum and illumination have any effect upon it.