In the previous installment we learned that the souls of tzaddikim belong to the world of Beriah. Now the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain where the rest of the souls of Israel are placed, souls in whom what surfaces is always only the lower level: the natural love and awe.
“וכן שאר כל נשמות ישראל שעבדו את ה' בדחילו ורחימו המסותרים בלב כללות ישראל - אין עולות לשם” - «And likewise all the other souls of Israel, who served Hashem with the awe and love hidden in the heart of the Jewish people as a whole, do not ascend there.» Souls whose avodah runs on the natural love and awe concealed in the heart of every Jew do not rise to the world of Beriah; they belong to the world of Yetzirah. This follows directly from what we learned about tzaddikim belonging to Beriah: even by a tzaddik, when what is shining in him is the level of ruach rather than the level of neshamah, and likewise by all other souls of Israel who serve out of the hidden love, as long as the dimension of hisbonenus (contemplation) is not revealed and aroused, this does not belong to Beriah but to Yetzirah.
“רק בשבת וראש חודש לבד”: «Only on Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh alone.»
But there is an exception. On Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh all of Israel rise to a higher level, and in the language of the Tanya, to the world of Beriah. Put more simply: on Shabbos there is a greater revelation of G-dliness, a Jew is lifted up, and his avodas Hashem can come from a deeper place. Of course, since he has free choice, it is in his hands not to make use of the special energies revealed to him on Shabbos; but a capacity is certainly given to a Jew on Shabbos that he does not have during the week, because the entire world is elevated. Even by tzaddikim there is a higher elevation, since within every single world there are levels of its own.
Is this ascent dependent on a person's avodah, or does he rise on his own? From the side of avodah, it depends on him. But on Shabbos there are also things that happen naturally. The Gemara says regarding the laws of ma'aser that if someone is suspect concerning tithes and is asked during the week whether his fruits and vegetables have been tithed, his word is not to be relied upon and one must tithe before eating; but if he was asked on Shabbos and answered that the produce was tithed, one may eat, because «even an am ha'aretz does not lie on Shabbos.» Obviously, as far as free choice goes he could lie even on Shabbos, but in his ordinary nature, before the yetzer hara gets involved, on Shabbos he is elevated.
And indeed there are natural things that happen on Shabbos by themselves, as we find with food, whose taste is different on Shabbos. Food has no free choice, yet on Shabbos it receives a higher illumination and has a different «seasoning» in it. How much more so when it comes to avodah, where on Shabbos there is a capacity to rise higher.
“דרך העמוד שמגן עדן התחתון לגן עדן העליון”: «By way of the pillar that leads from the lower Gan Eden to the upper Gan Eden.»
This is a striking expression, and we have to be careful not to turn it into something physical in our imagination. «Lower Gan Eden» and «upper Gan Eden» are the very same concepts we have been dealing with until now: lower Gan Eden is a name for the world of Yetzirah, and upper Gan Eden is the world of Beriah. In other words, we have been given additional names for those same worlds, just as we explained the difference between the level of ruach and the level of neshamah, between Yetzirah and Beriah. Accordingly, the elevation of all souls on Shabbos to a higher world, to the world of Beriah, is called an ascent to the upper Gan Eden.
And how do they rise there? «By way of the pillar.» This does not mean some hidden elevator one travels in. The phrase is stated in the letters of Kabbalah, which give every matter an orderly form, but it has a real spiritual meaning. In one of the maamarim (in Likkutei Torah or Torah Or) the Alter Rebbe brings this concept and explains that the «pillar» is a Jew's bittul to G-dliness. For what is it that makes one world higher than another? The higher the world, the greater the revelation of G-dliness in it; the lower the world, the lower the revelation. On Shabbos the soul reaches a higher bittul to G-dliness, the materiality of the world does not interfere and conceal as much, and there is a far greater capacity for self-nullification, and that very self-nullification is what gives the strength to rise. This is the «pillar» that lifts a person from the lower Gan Eden to the upper Gan Eden, to a higher level.
What is «Gan Eden»?
The Alter Rebbe explains it himself: “לגן עדן העליון שהוא עולם הבריאה” - «to the upper Gan Eden, which is the world of Beriah.» And what is Gan Eden? Everyone understands that Gan Eden is a pleasant, good place, but what does that actually mean? Simply speaking it is not a physical, material concept, although a physical concept exists as well, as we read in Bereishis that Adam HaRishon was in a particular place called Gan Eden, with rivers whose names and locations are even specified. But there is Gan Eden as a spiritual concept, and that is a lofty level of wondrous delight in G-dliness.
We can grasp this from a person who understands and loves music, who hears the deep and beautiful melody of a Jew pouring out his soul in prayer. Because he loves it, understands it, and is attuned to the delicacy of the melody, he takes delight in it. So too a person who has a feel for a refined and beautiful insight in Torah, who hears profound ideas and enters into them: he takes delight in the very world he finds himself in, and he feels himself to be in Gan Eden. This is what is meant when it is written that the souls sit in Gan Eden and bask in the radiance of the Shechinah, that is, a revelation of G-dliness to the soul.
This is why the world of Beriah is called the «upper Gan Eden,» for this is the delight that comes from the world of Beriah, whose character, as we have learned, is intellect, understanding and hisbonenus in G-dliness. In the Alter Rebbe's words: “להתענג על ה' וליהנות מזיו השכינה, כי אין הנאה ותענוג לשכל נברא אלא במה שמשכיל ומבין ויודע ומשיג בשכלו ובינתו מה שאפשר לו להבין ולהשיג מאור אין סוף ברוך הוא על ידי חכמתו ובינתו יתברך” - «to delight in Hashem and bask in the radiance of the Shechinah, for a created intellect has no enjoyment or delight except in what it comprehends, understands, knows and grasps with its own intellect and understanding, as much as it is able to understand and grasp of the Ohr Ein Sof, blessed be He, through His wisdom and understanding.» From what does a created intellect derive pleasure? From understanding. A person with a mind, who loves to learn and to delve in, feels delight when he understands something: someone who has learned a page of Gemara or a chapter of Tanya and really understood it takes pleasure in it. And the more his mind succeeds in grasping deeper and more refined matters in G-dliness, and the broader his understanding becomes, the loftier his delight. When the Creator reveals to a person the level of divine Chochmah and divine Binah, the matter shines within him and he is lifted up.
And what does it mean that such a Jew belongs right now to the world of Beriah? After all, he is here, a soul inside a body, and we see him walking around among us. The meaning is that a revelation of G-dliness shines within him in a way of the deepest understanding, and that is his delight, and this is called being in the upper Gan Eden. This is what is said about Shabbos, “וקראת לשבת עונג” («and you shall call Shabbos a delight») and “אז תתענג על ה'” («then you shall delight in Hashem»): the delight of Shabbos is not the cholent and the delicacies, it is delight in G-dliness, and this delight of Shabbos is the ascent to the upper Gan Eden, to whatever a person is able to understand of the illumination of the world of Beriah.
To summarize what we have learned so far:
Tzaddikim: they are always in the world of Beriah.
A tzaddik at the level of ruach: when it is the level of ruach within him that is shining, he belongs to the world of Yetzirah.
Most souls: those who are not tzaddikim, whose avodas Hashem runs only on natural love and awe, belong to the world of Yetzirah.
On Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh: all of Israel rise to the world of Beriah, and in doing so they leap past the angels, who remain at the level of the world of Yetzirah.
The angels have no ascent on Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh; they remain forever at the same level, without change. A Jew, however, even a simple Jew who all week long managed only to arouse an emotion belonging to the world of Yetzirah, on Shabbos and Rosh Chodesh parts ways with the angels and rises to a level above them. The question arises: why does he deserve to be elevated? His avodas Hashem is with natural love, and in that he resembles the angels. A Jew's advantage over an angel lies in his intellect, yet by this Jew the avodah is not in the intellect at all but comes from the natural middos. In what, then, is he superior to the angel, and why should he merit to rise?
In the Alter Rebbe's words: “ומה שזוכות נשמות אלו לעלות למעלה מהמלאכים, אף שעבדו בדחילו ורחימו טבעיים לבד” - «And the reason these souls merit to rise above the angels, even though they served with natural awe and love alone...» Why do the souls of the Jewish people, whose avodah is generally with natural love and awe, merit to be elevated from time to time, once a week and once a month?
The Alter Rebbe answers: “היינו מפני שעל ידי דחילו ורחימו שלהם אתכפיא סטרא אחרא המלובשת בגופם” - «It is because through their awe and love the sitra achra clothed in their body is subdued.» A Jew has an advantage that an angel does not have, one that the angel could not attain even if it wanted to: as a result of the natural love and awe that a Jew has, he fights and contends with the yetzer hara, with the sitra achra and with the kelipah that stands in his way, and every single thing he does is done through effort and struggle. An angel has no yetzer hara, no battle and nothing to contend with; a Jew does. And we have already learned in Tanya a number of times that the avodah of iskafya sitra achra (subduing the other side) is precisely what draws down the loftiest revelation of G-dliness, the most wondrous revelation there can be, and it is the greatest thing a Jew can reach. This is the answer to the question: since by a Jew there is iskafya of the sitra achra that is clothed in his body, he therefore merits to rise above the angels.
In the next installment we will go further and delve into the matter of iskafya sitra achra and its place in avodas Hashem.