We left off on page 60b, three lines from the bottom. The Alter Rebbe sets out to explain the wording of the blessing a Jew recites when fulfilling a mitzvah, «אשר קידשנו במצוותיו» (who has sanctified us with His mitzvos): what does it actually mean that the Holy One sanctifies us by means of the mitzvos? He offers two ways of understanding the word «kideshanu», the first fitting mitzvos asei (the positive commandments) and the second fitting mitzvos lo saaseh (the prohibitions).
The first way: «kiddushin» in the sense of union. In the Alter Rebbe's words: «וזהו שכתוב אשר קדשנו במצותיו, כאדם המקדש אשה להיות מיוחדת עמו ביחוד גמור» (this is the meaning of «who has sanctified us with His mitzvos», like a man who betroths a woman so that she be united with him in a complete union). Just as a man betroths a woman and says to her «behold you are consecrated to me», and the first purpose of kiddushin is that she be united with him in a complete union, as was said of Adam, and as it is with every couple married according to Torah law: «כמ"ש ודבק באשתו והיו לבשר אחד» (as it is written, «and he shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh»). The goal of kiddushin is the «cleaving», the dveikus.
And so the Jew says to the Holy One: You have betrothed us too. «וכך ממש ויתר על כן לאין קץ הוא יחוד נפש האלקית» (and exactly so, and infinitely more so, is the union of the divine soul). The union brought about by fulfilling a mitzvah is incomparably higher than the analogy of betrothing a woman. «העוסקת בתורה ומצות ונפש החיונית ולבושיהן הנ"ל באור א"ס ב"ה» (which occupies itself with Torah and mitzvos, and of the vitalizing soul, and of their aforementioned garments, with the blessed Ein Sof light). When a Jew learns Torah and performs mitzvos, his divine soul becomes united with the Creator; and not his divine soul alone, but also his nefesh hachiyunis, the soul that gives him his vitality, by whose power the hand moves and the foot walks, takes part in the mitzvah. And so too the garments: thought, speech and action. If he fulfilled the mitzvah in speech, his speech is united; if in action, his action is united, and all of it becomes united with the blessed Ein Sof light.
«ולכן המשיל שלמה עליו השלום בשיר השירים יחוד זה ליחוד חתן וכלה בדבקה חשקה וחפצה וחיבוק ונישוק» (this is why Shlomo, peace be upon him, compared this union in Shir Hashirim to the union of bridegroom and bride, with cleaving, longing, desire, embracing and kissing). The whole of Shir Hashirim is told as a parable of a man and a woman, a bridegroom and a bride, yet in truth it is nothing but a mashal for the Holy One and the Jewish people: King Shlomo compares a Jew's union with the Holy One to the union of bridegroom and bride, a union created at every single opportunity of learning Torah and doing a mitzvah. This is the most wondrous bond there is, and this is the meaning of «asher kideshanu»: when a Jew performs a mitzvah, the Holy One, as it were, gives him the wedding ring. And this is the mashal we learned in the previous section: the king who takes the filthy man out of the garbage heap, raises him up, and tells him, from now on you and I are together.
The second way: «kedushah» in the sense of separation. The Alter Rebbe opens once more with the very same words, «וזהו שכתוב אשר קדשנו במצותיו» (this is the meaning of «who has sanctified us with His mitzvos»), because the word «kideshanu» accomplishes something further, something higher still. Here too it is learned from the betrothal of a man and a woman, where the groom says to the bride «behold you are mekudeshes to me», and the word «mekudeshes» carries two meanings:
United to me, as explained above, that she be united with him in a complete union.
Set apart. Until the moment of kiddushin she was «penuyah», free, that is, available to anyone in the world and able to marry any other Jew; once she is betrothed to her husband she is set apart from the entire world, and can belong to him alone.
And so the Holy One says to the Jewish people: I am elevating you. In the Alter Rebbe's words: «שהעלנו למעלת קודש העליון ברוך הוא» (that He has raised us to the level of the supernal Holiness, blessed be He). The Holy One gives us the opportunity to rise to the level of the supernal Holiness, «שהיא קדושתו של הקב"ה בכבודו ובעצמו» (which is the holiness of the Holy One Himself, in His very glory and essence). Every mitzvah a Jew performs brings him chamber within chamber, to be united with the King Himself.
«וקדושה היא לשון הבדלה» (and «kedushah» denotes separation). Here the Alter Rebbe underscores the additional meaning in the word kedushah: set apart from everything. Not only from the lower levels, but from every single level. In the mashal of the king: even if he were to raise the filthy man from the garbage heap into the royal courtyard, and even into the great hall, and even bring him chamber within chamber, this aspect remains set apart from all of those levels. So it is with mitzvos lo saaseh: they are loftier than, and separate from, all the levels to which the mitzvos asei belong.
The Alter Rebbe continues: «מה שהקב"ה הוא מובדל מהעולמות והיא בחינת סובב כל עלמין, מה שאינו יכול להתלבש בהן» (that the Holy One is separate from the worlds, and this is the aspect of sovev kol almin, which cannot clothe itself within them). It is called «sovev kol almin», encompassing all worlds, precisely because it cannot clothe itself within the worlds, since it is above them. And as was mentioned earlier: mitzvos asei are a limited light that enters within a person's own limits and clothes itself in him actively, whereas mitzvos lo saaseh are a divine light that remains separate. The Rebbe discusses this at length in the farbrengen of Shabbos Parshas Yisro 5751, and there connects these two levels to the mitzvos asei and the mitzvos lo saaseh.
«כי על ידי יחוד הנפש והתכללותה באור אין סוף ברוך הוא, הרי היא במעלת ומדרגת קדושת אין סוף ברוך הוא ממש» (for through the union of the soul and its absorption into the blessed Ein Sof light, it is literally in the rank and level of the holiness of the blessed Ein Sof). When a Jew performs a mitzvah he is united with the King, and therefore he is on the level of the King, one with Him: «מאחר שמתייחדת ומתכללת בו יתברך והיו לאחדים ממש» (since it becomes united with and absorbed in Him, and they become literally one). Just as in the analogy of husband and wife, «and he shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh», where each of them is called «half a body» and each is a half, and the wholeness lies in their being together, so in the nimshal: a Jew becomes one with the Holy One, and at the moment of the mitzvah the holiness of the blessed Ein Sof is literally present within him.
The fact that a person does not feel this, as will be explained a few lines further on, changes nothing, because reality does not depend on his sensations: at the moment he is learning Torah and doing a mitzvah, the King has brought him chamber within chamber, and G-dliness itself is there. For this reason, as the Alter Rebbe goes on to say, when a Jew performs a mitzvah one should stand up before him, for it is not he alone, the union with the King is there with him.
«וזהו שכתוב» (and this is the meaning of the verse) in the book of Vayikra, «והייתם לי קדושים כי קדוש אני ה', ואבדיל אתכם מן העמים להיות לי» (and you shall be holy to Me, for I the L-rd am holy, and I have separated you from the nations to be Mine). One verse contains both ways: «and you shall be holy to Me, for I the L-rd am holy» is the bond with His holiness, the language of union; «and I have separated you from the nations to be Mine» is the language of separation, that the Jewish people are set apart from everything, not only from the nations but from all the worlds and all the tzimtzumim.
«ואומר ועשיתם את כל מצוותי והייתם קדושים לאלוקיכם, אני ה' אלוקיכם וגו'» (and it says, you shall do all My commandments and be holy to your G-d, I am the L-rd your G-d). What does this verse add? It is like a husband telling his wife that her whole being and all her affairs are his, that she has become part of him; so the Holy One says to a Jew: «you shall do all My commandments and be holy to your G-d», be a part of Me. And the Alter Rebbe explains: «פירוש, כי על ידי קיום המצוות הריני אלוק שלכם» (meaning, through fulfilling the mitzvos I am your G-d). The Creator's Name rests upon us.
At such a moment the Holy One says of each and every one: I am his G-d, the G-d of Yaakov, the G-d of David, the G-d of Yosef. I am his G-d, I rest upon him, in the manner of «כמו אלקי אברהם אלקי יצחק וכו'» (like «the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchak», and so on). Now on the face of it, He is the G-d of the whole world, so why is He called specifically «the G-d of Avraham»? The answer is that Avraham Avinu and Yitzchak were in a state of bittul to the Creator constantly, and there was not one moment of their lives about which you could say that they were not in Torah and mitzvos. And since at every single moment they were in Torah and mitzvos, at every single moment they were one with the Creator and stood chamber within chamber, and therefore the Creator can call His Name upon them in a permanent way.
And this is how the Alter Rebbe concludes: «שנקרא כן מפני שהאבות היו בחינת מרכבה לו יתברך ובטלים ונכללים באורו» (He is called so because the Patriarchs were a chariot to Him, nullified and absorbed in His light). The Avos were like a chariot for the Creator, in bittul and absorbed in His blessed light. And what is the essence of a chariot? The horses are nullified to the driver, and wherever he leads them, there they go; elsewhere it is explained as a vehicle nullified to its driver, that wherever he steers it, there it goes. The Avos were nullified to the Creator constantly, to the point that they had no will of their own in any matter whatsoever, as we learned at length: not in anything, not in any detail, not at any time and not in any limb, always.
In summary: in this section we learned two ways of explaining the wording «asher kideshanu bemitzvosav». The first, which fits the mitzvos asei: «kideshanu» from the word kiddushin, a complete union, «and he shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh», and this union takes place between the Jew's divine soul and vitalizing soul together with their garments (thought, speech and action) and the blessed Ein Sof light, as King Shlomo portrayed it in Shir Hashirim. The second, which fits the mitzvos lo saaseh: «mekudeshes» in the sense of being set apart, separate from all the worlds and all the tzimtzumim, the aspect of sovev kol almin which cannot clothe itself within the worlds, and the raising of the Jew to the level of the supernal Holiness. Both ways are hinted at in the verses «and you shall be holy to Me, for I the L-rd am holy, and I have separated you from the nations» and «you shall do all My commandments and be holy to your G-d», and from here «I am your G-d», in the manner of «the G-d of Avraham, the G-d of Yitzchak», who were a chariot and in constant bittul to the Creator.
In the next section we will go on to see that a person does not feel this wondrous union, yet the fact remains exactly as it is, and we will learn the directive to stand up before a Jew at the moment he is performing a mitzvah.