In the previous section we learned how the feeling that accompanies Torah and mitzvos lifts them upward. Now we will see to exactly which level the deed is elevated, for that depends on the level of the feeling itself:
With natural love and fear, the deed rises to the Elokus of the world of Yetzirah.
With intellectual love and fear, the deed rises to the Elokus of the world of Beriah.
In the category of merkavah (a chariot, total bittul), the deed rises to the Elokus of the world of Atzilus.
And this is exactly what the Alter Rebbe says next: «עד מקומה - ביו"ד ספירות דיצירה או דבריאה» (up to its place, in the ten sefiros of Yetzirah or of Beriah). What decides whether it rises to Yetzirah or to Beriah? The level of the kavanah: «לפי מה שהיא הכוונה בדחילו ורחימו שכליים או טבעיים» (according to whether the kavanah is with intellectual or natural fear and love). If it is with intellectual dechilu urechimu (fear and love), it belongs to the world of Beriah; if with natural dechilu urechimu, to the world of Yetzirah.
«כו' כנ"ל» (etc., as explained above). What does that added «kulei» (etc.) come to include? In Igros Kodesh there is a letter in which the Rebbe is asked about the meaning of this «kulei». The Rebbe rejects the suggestion offered by the questioner, for the reasons spelled out there, and explains that the «kulei» comes to hint at the higher level: the world of Atzilus.
And why write it as a hint rather than openly? Because the Alter Rebbe had already written, on page 53a (at the bottom), when he spoke of this level of the world of Atzilus: «אין לנו עסק בנסתרות» (we have no business with hidden matters). This is the rung of the great tzaddikim who are in the category of merkavah, and we do not belong to such levels, and therefore one does not discuss them. So when he wishes to hint at this level, he is content with the words «kulei kanal»: there is also a third level, as mentioned earlier, but it is not to the point to dwell on it, since we have no business with such lofty rungs. (All the more so, since this sefer is a «book for beinonim».)
What actually happens in this ascent of feeling? A Jew took his feeling, whether natural or intellectual, and clothed it in his tefillah and in his Torah, and by doing so he caused an elevation upward, «ושם מאיר ומתגלה אור אין סוף ברוך הוא, שהוא רצון העליון ברוך הוא, המלובש באותיות התורה שלומד ובכוונתן, או בתפלה ובכוונתה, או במצוה ובכוונתה» (and there the Ein Sof light shines and is revealed, which is the Supernal Will, clothed in the letters of the Torah he learns and in their kavanah, or in the tefillah and its kavanah, or in the mitzvah and its kavanah).
With this, the question raised earlier is answered. The mitzvos a Jew performs are the Supernal Will itself, and the Torah he learns is Divine wisdom, so what need is there for his kavanah? The answer: indeed the mitzvah is the Supernal Will, but if he performs it in a dry, physical manner, it remains constricted. The Supernal Will is clothed in it, but in a contracted way, and it is not revealed here on its highest level. Whoever wants there to be an actual revelation of the Supernal Will here must elevate the deed, and that is done through kavanah and feeling.
This is why the Alter Rebbe continues that the Supernal Will is revealed in the letters of the Torah he learns and in their kavanah, or in the tefillah and its kavanah, or in the mitzvah and its kavanah, «בהארה גדולה לאין קץ» (in an infinitely great illumination). That is, even before the mitzvah is performed, the Supernal Will is present here: the tefillin are the Supernal Will, and the Torah is the Supernal Will. But in the physical tefillin, and likewise in Torah, without feeling, the Supernal Will is present in a great tzimtzum, a great constriction. And when the Jew invests his feeling into them, it then shines with an infinitely great illumination, «מה שלא יכול להאיר ולהתגלות כלל בעוד האותיות והמצוה בעולם הזה הגשמי» (which could not shine and be revealed at all while the letters and the mitzvah are in this physical world).
And each person according to his own level: it is according to a person's level that the Divine will is revealed here. But if he puts no feeling into it at all, and the deed remains entirely dry and physical, then the Divine will cannot shine and be revealed in the physical thing. It is there, but not in a revealed way, «לא מינה ולא מקצתה» (neither it nor part of it): no revelation or illumination of the Supernal Will can come to light in the mitzvah or in the Torah if they are without the inner feeling.
And the Alter Rebbe continues: «עד עת קץ הימים שיתעלה העולם מגשמיותו ונגלה כבוד ה' וגו' כנ"ל באריכות» (until the time of the end of days, when the world will be elevated from its physicality and the glory of G-d will be revealed, etc., as explained above at length). When Moshiach comes, please G-d, there will be an end to all darkness and to all concealment and hiddenness, and then «the right hand of G-d is exalted» will be revealed: the Divine light will shine without any concealment or hiddenness, and the world will be elevated from its physicality.
Today, physicality conceals and obstructs the revelation of the light that is without limit, for the physical is limited, and limitation is the opposite of unlimited light. In the future, the limitation of the physical will no longer be an obstruction, and Elokus will be revealed within physicality itself. But today this happens only when a person accompanies the physical deed with an inner feeling, and then there is elevation and refinement here.
As for the manner in which mitzvos will be kept then: the way things are seen, the way they are felt, and the revelation within them will be of an entirely different order, a revelation of Elokus in the fullest possible way.
From here one should arouse a longing for this: the longing a Jew must awaken within himself that Moshiach should already come, so that he can finally see the Divine revelation. For today a person has to labor, to exert himself, to contemplate and to lift himself up, until some feeling is awakened in him for a single second, and immediately afterward it slips away from him. Whereas at the «time of the end of days» the revelation will be full and absolute, and then «the world will be elevated from its physicality and the glory of G-d will be revealed».
And about this we already learned in Tanya, in chapter 37, that this whole state depends on «our deeds and our service throughout the duration of the exile». The world has been going through close to two thousand years of galus, and throughout all that time it is undergoing a constant refining work of Torah and mitzvos and is being purified. And even though we do not see the purification, because the Creator has not yet lowered the curtain to show us its results, the purification exists and is complete; everything is in order, and all that is needed is to «turn on the light», and then what is actually happening here will be revealed. As we explained at length in chapter 37.
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The gloss relates to what was said in the body of the text: that when a Jew performs a mitzvah, learns Torah, or prays with kavanah and feeling, the act is elevated to a higher level, and then the Divine will, the Supernal Will, is revealed in the mitzvah and in the Torah. In the gloss the Alter Rebbe adds a further point: when the Divine will is revealed in the mitzvah, something else also takes place, the yichud (union) of the sefiros.
This concept appears in the works of Kabbalah, is explained in the works of Chassidus, and is printed in almost every siddur. It is a broad and lengthy subject, and there are places in Chassidus where it is explained at considerable length: for example in the Tzemach Tzedek's sefer Derech Mitzvosecha, in the section called Shoresh Mitzvas HaTefillah, where in the tenth and eleventh chapters he elaborates on this matter and explains what the union of the middos is. We will explain the matter briefly, as an introduction to reading the gloss.
We are all familiar with the wording of the introduction said before Baruch She'amar: «for the sake of the union of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah... to unite the Name yud-kei with vav-kei». Many have the custom of saying this expression before every tefillah or before performing mitzvos, each according to the customs of Israel; and even one who does not say it, the matter is true and real, and its existence does not depend on saying it. What, then, is this union of the middos and of the sefiros, what does it mean, when does it take place, and what is the idea behind it?
As is known, there are ten supernal sefiros in every single world, down to the soul of man, and all the influences that descend to this world pass through the order of hishtalshelus, the chain of the ten sefiros. In general the sefiros divide into two groups, intellect and emotion: Chochmah, Binah and Daas, and all the rest of the middos. And in more detail:
In the intellect: Chochmah, Binah and Daas divide into two, Chochmah being the giver and Binah the receiver.
In the middos: these too divide into two groups, the six sefiros called in Chassidus Zeir Anpin (Z"A), and the sefirah of Malchus, which is called the receiver.
All the influence of the Divine powers descending to this world passes in this way: from Chochmah to Binah, and from Zeir Anpin, the six middos, to the sefirah of Malchus, and so on from world to world, until it is received in this physical world.
When a Jew prays and asks the Holy One, blessed be He, to bestow abundance upon the world, in Shemoneh Esrei and even before it, and likewise when Jews perform mitzvos and when a Jew learns Torah, the content of the request and the point of it all is that there should be a yichud, a union, in the supernal sefiros.
And what does this union accomplish? Just as when there is a union between giver and receiver the giver gives to the receiver, and the receiver, having received, can then pass the thing further on, so it is with the union of the sefiros. If there will be a union between Chochmah and Binah, then since in the sefirah of Chochmah an exceedingly lofty Divine light shines, when it shines into the sefirah of Binah there will be a greater revelation in Binah; and once there is a greater revelation in Binah, there will be a greater revelation in Zeir Anpin, in the six middos; and if the six middos will unite with the sefirah of Malchus, there will be a greater revelation in Malchus, and from there the matter descends further downward still.
Let us illustrate this and bring it down to earth through the soul of man. A person wants to speak, and what does he speak about? About what he is thinking. And what is he thinking about? About something he has a connection to, a middah, an inclination toward. And what determines which middah he will have toward a thing? His intellect tells him what suits his level and his age and what he is drawn to; and his attraction to the thing determines what he will think about; and once he is thinking, he also speaks, and from speech comes action.
Here we have a complete order of hishtalshelus: from the intellect to the middos, from the middos to thought, from thought to speech, and from speech to action. And just as in the soul of man the entire process passes by way of a union of Chochmah and Binah, from Binah to the middos, and from the middos to speech, and so on, so it is as well in the upper worlds.
In summary: in this section we learned that the ascent of Torah and mitzvos depends on the level of the feeling with which they were done: natural feeling raises them to the world of Yetzirah, intellectual feeling to the world of Beriah, and the category of merkavah and bittul to the world of Atzilus, which is only hinted at in the words «כו' כנ"ל» because «we have no business with hidden matters». We explained that the Supernal Will within the mitzvah and the Torah does not shine «in an infinitely great illumination» except through kavanah and feeling, while in a dry, physical deed it is present only in tzimtzum, and «neither it nor part of it» is revealed, until the «time of the end of days, when the world will be elevated from its physicality and the glory of G-d will be revealed», which depends on «our deeds and our service throughout the duration of the exile». Finally, we introduced the concept of the union of the sefiros: the order of hishtalshelus from Chochmah to Binah and from Zeir Anpin to Malchus, through which the influence descends from world to world, as illustrated in the soul of man.
In the next section we will learn the gloss itself, and we will see how the union of the sefiros comes about through a mitzvah, Torah and tefillah that are done with kavanah and with feeling.