In the previous section we drew a fundamental distinction between the divine concealment and the tzimtzum (the contraction of the divine light): in all four levels of creation, the inanimate (domem), the vegetative (tzomei'ach), the animal (chai) and the speaker (medaber), the concealment is exactly the same, and the only difference between them lies in how contracted the divine illumination that brings them into being happens to be. Let us now expand on this principle, and from there move on to the nimshal, the lesson it teaches about the mitzvos.
The concealment is identical, the tzimtzum varies:
When a person looks at a plant, what has changed in it relative to a stone? Not that there is more revelation in it. The concealment is precisely the same concealment; the Creator hides Himself in a plant exactly as He hides Himself in a stone. What has changed is the degree of tzimtzum: the illumination is not as contracted, the divine light that brings the plant into being is greater, and therefore development, growth and beauty appear in it.
Does the vitality we see in a plant count as «revelation»?
Here the terms can easily get confused, so we must sharpen them: «revelation» means a revelation of the Creator Himself. A person looking at a plant does indeed see more vitality in it than in the asphalt of the road, but he does not see any more of the G-dliness in the plant than he sees in the stone. He sees the handiwork of the Creator, and there is no question that this is the work of Hashem, but he does not see the Creator revealed. It is the vitality that is more expansive, while the hiddenness in the inanimate and in the vegetative is absolutely identical.
And so it goes as we climb the levels: in the animal the tzimtzum is smaller still and the expansion greater. It is worth noting that the step from vegetative to animal is an enormous one, because the inanimate and the vegetative do share common ground:
Inanimate and vegetative: both belong to the category we would call «body.» The entire difference between them is that in the stone the body is static while in the plant the body develops, but there is no dimension of nefesh, of soul, in a plant at all: no desires, no aspirations, no emotions, no comprehension. It simply has greater vitality in its body.
Animal and speaker: here we enter an entirely new domain, and something essential is added: not only a body but also a nefesh. There are desires and aspirations, there are emotions, and in a certain sense even comprehension. This is already the world of the soul.
It turns out that the expansion of the divine energy here is so great that an observer no longer sees only a body but begins to see soul-like, spiritual things; and nevertheless the divine hiddenness is present in the animal exactly as it is present in the inanimate and the vegetative. The same holds for the speaker: the expansion is greater still, but the concealment is precisely the same.
Here is the proof. When a person comes to thank the Creator for His wonders that are with us every day, he opens the siddur and reads the text of thanksgiving; he cannot point to the table in front of him and show the Creator in it. The siddur tells him that everything comes from the Creator, while in the table he sees only the handiwork and not the G-dliness within it. And if this were visible openly, would there be a single person in the street who did not believe in the Creator of the world? He steps into the yard and sees the Creator of the world, he goes to the zoo and sees even more, he looks in the mirror and sees the most of all. Why then does he lack faith and vitality in fulfilling mitzvos? The answer is that each person sees as he sees, and that itself is the proof: were the Creator revealed, it would not be left to anyone's subjective perception; everyone would see Him alike.
The four levels in the world:
All the creatures of the world are generally divided into four levels, inanimate, vegetative, animal and speaker, and the Alter Rebbe adds one line as a parenthetical remark: why are there in fact exactly four categories in the world? «שהם נגד ד' אותיות שם הוי' ב\"ה שממנו מושפעים», «for they correspond to the four letters of the Name Havayah, blessed be He, from which they receive their influence.» Since the Name Havayah has four letters, the created beings too come in four categories.
We will not dwell on this at length now, but notice the great novelty in this line: the division into four categories does not begin in the world of that which is brought into being; it is already present in the One who brings it into being. According to the parable we brought earlier: the sun shines in the street, on the balcony, into a house through a window, or through the tiny opening of a keyhole, and those four differences are not in the sun itself but in the recipients of the light; the light on its own side is equal in intensity, and the difference begins with the receiver and the degree of contraction. Here, however, the Alter Rebbe says that the difference between the four categories of creation begins, as it were, already in the four letters of the Name Havayah, and that is a great novelty (perhaps on another occasion we will expand on it).
It is also worth pointing out that relative to the order as it is written, inanimate, vegetative, animal, speaker, the order within the Name Havayah runs in reverse: the final hei corresponds to the inanimate, while the letter yud corresponds to the speaker.
Summing up the parable:
Here the Alter Rebbe sums up the parable, and it is important to dwell on this summary in order to understand why we learned so much about the four categories of creation, and what they have to do with the subject of mitzvos and intentions: «וכמו שאין ערך ודמיון ההארה והמשכת החיות שבדומם וצומח להארה והמשכת החיות המלובשת בחי ומדבר», «just as there is no comparison or similarity between the illumination and flow of vitality in the inanimate and vegetative and the illumination and flow of vitality vested in the animal and the speaker.» If we place the inanimate on one side and the animal and speaker on the other, there is simply no comparing them. The four categories are really two: the inanimate and the vegetative share the domain of «body,» while in the animal and the speaker the nefesh is introduced, and their level of intensity is incomparably greater.
And nevertheless, «אף שבכולם אור אחד שווה בבחינת הסתר פנים», «even though in all of them there is one and the same light in the mode of hester panim (the concealment of the Divine countenance).» From the standpoint of the concealment, He is vested in all of them in one single garment. A garment conceals the one clothed within it, and the Holy One clothed His light in the garment of kelipas nogah, which includes the inanimate, the vegetative, the animal and the speaker, all of them. So in all of them He shone His light through the concealment of kelipas nogah.
These two points must always be held together: on one hand all four share something in common, the concealment is identical in all of them; on the other hand there is an unfathomable difference between them, the degree of tzimtzum is not the same.
The nimshal: the mitzvos:
In the nimshal too we will speak of two general categories, body and soul, just as the four categories of creation divide into two:
The body of the mitzvah: the fulfillment of the mitzvah on its technical side. Even within this there are sub-categories: some mitzvos are performed through action and some through speech, but both together belong to the technical fulfillment, which is the «body.»
The soul of the mitzvah: the kavanah, the intention within the mitzvah. The Holy One wants a person to invest intention in the mitzvah as well, and that is already its soul dimension.
The difference between intention and deed is like the difference between body and soul, and this is what is meant by the statement that a mitzvah, a prayer or a blessing without intention is like a body without a soul: one who fulfills the mitzvah on its technical side has made the body, and one who invests intention in it has placed a soul within it.
But note: in the parable, the element shared by all the levels was the concealment, whereas in the nimshal the shared element is the exact opposite: everything here is the will of the Holy One revealed. The intention is the divine will, and the performance in deed is also the divine will, and the difference between them is as great as the difference between body and soul. In the Alter Rebbe's words: «אין ערך ודמיון כלל בין הארת והמשכת אור אין סוף ברוך הוא שהוא פנימיות רצונו יתברך בלי הסתר פנים ולבוש כלל», «there is no comparison or similarity whatsoever between the illumination and the drawing down of the Or Ein Sof, blessed be He, which is the innermost dimension of His will, without any concealment of countenance or garment at all.» In the mitzvos there is a divine revelation with no hester panim and no garment whatsoever; the entire difference is the extent to which that revealed divine will is expansive or contracted, that is, whether the act was done without intention or with intention.
In summary: in this section we learned that in the four levels of creation the divine concealment is identical in all of them, all of them clothed in the single garment of kelipas nogah, and the difference between them lies in the degree of contraction or expansion of the vitality: the inanimate and the vegetative belong to the realm of «body,» while in the animal and the speaker the dimension of nefesh is introduced. We saw that the division into four corresponds to the four letters of the Name Havayah, a great novelty according to which the difference begins already in the One who brings into being and not only in that which is brought into being. And in the nimshal: in the mitzvos the shared element is the reverse, everything is the will of Hashem revealed, without any concealment of countenance or garment at all, and the difference between an act done without intention and an act done with intention is like the difference between body and soul, a matter of how expansively that revealed divine will is present.
In the next section we will continue in the Alter Rebbe's own words and delve more deeply into the difference between mitzvos performed with intention and those performed without it, and into what that difference means in avodas Hashem.