At the beginning of the chapter we learned about the superiority of the deed itself, the actual physical act, through which the world becomes a dirah betachtonim, a dwelling place for G-d in the lower realms. Now we turn to the difference between the illumination that shines within and is clothed in the practical mitzvos, and the illumination that shines within the kavanah, the intention, of the mitzvos.
Two levels of illumination:
The illumination clothed in deed and in speech: this is the revelation that shines within and is clothed in the physical mitzvos themselves, which correspond to the domem (the inanimate) of the four categories, and likewise in the mitzvos that depend on speech and the articulation of the lips, which correspond to tzomeiach (the vegetative). When speech is produced without kavanah it counts as a physical act in every respect, and therefore deed and speech both belong to one general category called «body».
The illumination clothed in kavanah: "ההארה והמשכת אור אין סוף ברוך הוא המאירה ומלובשת בכוונת המצוות מעשיות שהאדם מתכוון בעשייתן" (the illumination and drawing down of the light of the Ein Sof, blessed be He, which shines and is clothed in the kavanah of the practical mitzvos, the intention a person has when performing them). When a person does that very same mitzvah but invests it with kavanah, the illumination shines with a far greater expansion.
What kavanah is meant here? "כדי לדבקה בו יתברך על ידי קיום רצונו שהוא ורצונו אחד, וכן בכוונת התפילה, קריאת שמע וברכותיה ושאר הברכות, שבכוונתו בהן מדבק מחשבתו ושכלו בו יתברך" (in order to cleave to Him, blessed be He, through fulfilling His will, since He and His will are one; and likewise in the kavanah of prayer, of Krias Shema and its blessings and the other blessings, where through his intention in them he attaches his thought and his intellect to Him, blessed be He). When a person has kavanah at the moment he performs the mitzvah, the illumination is present in that kavanah with a greater expansion than in an act performed without kavanah.
And yet there is a point on which the two are entirely equal: even when a mitzvah is fulfilled without kavanah, nothing whatsoever is missing in the connection to the Divine will. A Jew who puts on tefillin, even with no kavanah at all, has the Divine will expressed in him openly and literally: this is the revelation of the Supreme Will. The kavanah is not visible to the eye, and when it is present the Divine will is found in the person himself with greater force and greater expansion.
From here comes an important point: why does kavanah carry a greater value?
It is not because the thing itself is more important. After all, why does fulfilling a mitzvah have value at all? Because this is G-d's will. The same is true of kavanah: its value lies only in the fact that this is G-d's will, and there is no difference between G-d's will in the one and G-d's will in the other.
Two kinds of will:
This is understood on the basis of what is explained at length in Hemshech 5666, in two maamarim that deal with the difference between two kinds of ratzon, two kinds of will:
A will that comes from the side of the object: a person wants the thing because of the thing itself, because it is appealing, beautiful, useful and worth something. Such a will is born in a person because the object aroused him to want it, and therefore its intensity varies: the more the thing is worth, the greater the will; the less it is worth, the smaller the dose of will.
A will that comes from the side of the person: a person wants the thing not because of the thing but because of himself. This is simply what he wants, not because of the thing's worth. In such a will there is no difference at all in intensity from one thing to another: there is no «small» and no «large», and the trivial thing and the great thing are equal in one and the same intensity, since the whole of this will is nothing but «this is what I want».
This is only a parable and an analogy: a small child who decides he wants a particular thing, without understanding its worth and without even being able to explain why he wants it. The analogy comes to illustrate one point: when the will comes from the side of the one who wills and not from the side of the object, there is no difference in its intensity from one thing to another.
From here we come to understand the value of kavanah. Why does a person have kavanah in fulfilling mitzvos? Not because kavanah is pleasant and agreeable to him, but because the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed in His Torah that His will is that there be kavanah. We can put it this way: if it were written nowhere, not in the Written Torah and not in the Oral Torah, that kavanos matter, and the matter were not even hinted at, and all that were written was that the mitzvos must be performed in actual practice, then kavanah would have no value whatsoever. It emerges that the entire value of kavanah lies in its being the Creator's will, and that very same value is present in the deed in exactly equal measure.
Therefore there is no difference in the revelation of the Creator's will: in kavanah and in deed alike, that very same will is revealed, and it makes no difference whether the Creator's will is in a small matter or a great one, for «small» and «great» are our measurements, while with Him, blessed be He, it is all simply «this is what He wants».
What, then, is the difference between kavanah and action? It is not truly an essential difference, but a difference that concerns us: in kavanah there is a greater expansion and a greater awareness of the Divine will, while in the deed the expansion and the awareness are more constricted. But with regard to the will itself there is no essential difference between them.
The dispute between the nations of the world and Dovid HaMelech:
This very principle was the subject of a dispute in earlier generations. In the time of Dovid HaMelech, the nations of the world and the Jewish faith differed on the question: is the Creator closer to heavenly things than to physical things, or is it that from His side there is no difference at all between a heavenly thing and a physical thing, and everything is in one and the same measure?
The nations of the world held that there is a vast difference between a heavenly thing and an earthly one. Their view grew out of the fact that they had no true grasp of what the Creator is: they imagined that He is located at a certain point and place, lofty, spiritual and holy, and that the loftier a thing is the closer it is to Him, while an earthly thing is far from Him. This conception is rooted in error.
The true conception is that from His side, blessed be He, there is no difference between something lofty and something low. To descend and constrict Himself into something lofty or into something low is, from His side, exactly the same; and more than that, His will is precisely to dwell in the lower realm. The difference exists only with regard to us; with regard to Him it is all one.
These two positions are folded into two verses in Tehillim, which are said in Hallel:
"רם על כל גויים ה' על השמים כבודו" (G-d is exalted above all nations, His glory is above the heavens). This is the conception of the nations: the Holy One, blessed be He, is high and exalted, and from this they concluded that His glory is in the heavens and that He is not to be found on earth.
"מי כה' אלוקינו המגביהי לשבת המשפילי לראות בשמים ובארץ" (Who is like G-d our L-rd, who dwells on high, who lowers Himself to look upon the heavens and the earth). Dovid HaMelech came and said that this is a mistake. Who can grasp the greatness of the Creator, who is higher than the heavens and higher than the earth in equal measure, so that His lowering Himself to a heavenly matter and to an earthly matter is one and the same lowering.
When a person holds the mistaken view, he comes and asks: what value is there in a physical act? Kavanah, contemplation and all sorts of heavenly matters, fine, through these one can connect to Him; but through earthly things, how can a person connect to Him? To this Dovid HaMelech said that the premise itself is mistaken.
And therefore, from His side, blessed be He, it makes no difference whether a person fulfills His will through action or fulfills His will through kavanah. Is kavanah closer to Him than action? If we think so, we have erred in the very way we look at the Creator. The worth of kavanah is that this is His will, and the worth of the deed is that this is His will, so that there is a point on which kavanah and action are completely equal.
On the other hand, as we learned at the beginning of the chapter, it is specifically the deed that is higher than the kavanah, since in the end it is through the deed that the world becomes a dirah betachtonim. It is only that, in addition to this, one who wishes to rise higher will add kavanah to his deed.
In summary: in this section we learned that the illumination clothed in the kavanah of the mitzvos is present with greater expansion than the illumination in deed and in speech without kavanah, which are considered «body» (corresponding to domem and tzomeiach). At the same time, the value of kavanah does not stem from the intrinsic importance of the thing but from the fact that this is the Creator's will, and that identical value is present in the deed as well. According to what is explained in Hemshech 5666, in a will that comes from the side of the person and not from the side of the object, there is no difference in intensity between a small thing and a great one. It emerges that the difference between kavanah and action concerns us alone, in the degree of expansion and awareness of the Divine will, and not in essence. We also looked at the dispute between the nations of the world (רם על כל גויים ה' על השמים כבודו) and Dovid HaMelech (המגביהי לשבת המשפילי לראות בשמים ובארץ), that from His side, blessed be He, there is no difference between higher and lower.
In the next section we will continue with the words of the Alter Rebbe and see how this principle is developed in the rest of the chapter.