Before we go further in the chapter, we have to be clear about which «soul» we are talking about. The soul comprises five levels: nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah and yechidah. There is a soul rooted in the world of Atzilus and a soul rooted in the world of Beriah, a soul from this sefirah and a soul from that one, an enormous range that the Alter Rebbe already touched on in chapter 2. But here we are not dealing with spiritual levels in avodas Hashem at all. We are dealing with the plain soul as it comes to give life to the body, and with the way in which it does so.
This lengthy treatment of the analogy of soul and body is not for its own sake. Every detail we dwell on will eventually help us grasp the nimshal, how these things apply in Elokus. Hashem revealed this to us because this is how He chose to reveal Himself. He could have done otherwise, He could have given us no example at all, and then we would know nothing. Animals, plants and metals were not created in a way that lets us learn from them the form of things Above. Man, however, He chose to create as «נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו» (Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness), so that from man it would be possible to learn how things are in Elokus, as the verse says, «ומבשרי אחזה אלוה» (From my flesh I behold G-d). That is why we are spending so much time on the analogy of soul and body: it bears directly on understanding the subject we are learning.
Let us go back and look closely at the language of the chapter, even though we have already studied it. The topic is extremely abstract, and the more we return to it and examine it, the more the ideas settle into understanding and come into focus. We will begin again from the words «אך הענין» in the fifth line of the chapter, and we will note, line by line, which of the levels we sketched out is being referred to, so that it is easy to locate each one in the words of the Tanya.
Let us read the text itself and be precise:
«שכמו שנשמת האדם היא ממלאה כל רמ״ח אברי הגוף מראשו ועד רגלו» (Just as a person's soul fills all 248 limbs of the body, from head to foot): here we are speaking of the highest abstraction, the etzem hanefesh, the essence of the soul. The essence is present in every single detail, and it is no closer to one detail than to another, for it is abstracted from everything, and nothing can be nearer to it than anything else.
«ואף על פי כן עיקר משכנה והשראתה במוחו» (And nevertheless its principal dwelling and rest is in the brain): this is the intermediate level, the one called chai be'etzem. In the brain the first point of the soul is revealed, the point that can already be called a source for enlivening the body, and it includes both a general life-force and a particular life-force.
«ומהמוח מתפשטת לכל האברים» (And from the brain it spreads out to all the limbs): this is the general life-force.
«וכל אבר מקבל ממנה חיות וכח הראוי לו לפי מזגו ותכונתו, העין לראות והאזן לשמוע והפה לדבר והרגלים להלוך» (And each limb receives from it the life-force and power appropriate to it according to its makeup and function: the eye to see, the ear to hear, the mouth to speak, the feet to walk): this is the particular life-force.
Here too the wording deserves attention: «מקבל ממנה חיות וכח הראוי לו», the limb receives from the soul the power suited to it. The differentiation does not begin with the limb; the limb receives from the soul precisely what fits it. This is not like the analogy of pipes drawing water, where the pipe takes water from the spring and it makes no difference where it draws from, since it is all one water. Here the limb takes specifically the point that suits it, and anything else would not suit it.
And the proof that the differentiation already exists in the source that rests in the brain is an empirical one: «כנראה בחוש שבמוח מרגיש כל הנפעל ברמ״ח אברים וכל הקורות אותם» (as is evident to the senses, that the brain feels everything that happens in the 248 limbs and all that befalls them). From the fact that the brain registers whatever occurs in each limb, with the particulars unique to each place, it is clear that the division into the various senses and faculties is already present in the brain.
And indeed the brain itself is divided: there is mocha dechochmah, the brain of chochmah, and mocha debinah, the brain of binah. The maamarim explain that the general life-force comes from the brain of chochmah and the particular life-force from the brain of binah, so that even within this level itself there is multiplicity.
It is worth noting that in the maamarim of the Rebbeim after the Alter Rebbe, among them the series of maamarim the Previous Rebbe delivered in 5708, there is a great deal of explanation on each and every line before us, with added analogies, illustrations and expansions. We will not lay all of that out here, since we would have to spend many months on every line, and we will learn the material in a general way. For whoever wishes to go deeper, there are references available for study at length.
Having briefly mentioned the levels, the Alter Rebbe now comes to stress that the differentiation begins specifically at the intermediate level, and not at the highest level of the soul. One might have thought that the essence of the soul is itself already divided, and that no intermediary resting in the brain is needed. The Alter Rebbe therefore proves that the etzem hanefesh is entirely abstract, and that no division whatsoever applies to it: «והנה אין שינוי קבלת הכחות והחיות שבאברי הגוף מן הנשמה מצד עצמה ומהותה, שיהא מהותה ועצמותה מתחלק לרמ״ח חלקים שונים ומתלבשים ברמ״ח מקומות כפי ציור חלקי מקומות אברי הגוף» (The variation in the powers and life-force received by the limbs of the body does not come from the soul in its own essence and substance, as though its essence were divided into 248 different parts clothed in 248 locations corresponding to the layout of the limbs of the body).
In other words: the differentiation by which this limb receives this power and that limb receives another begins at the level called chai be'etzem, which rests in the brain, and not from the essence of the soul. For if we were to say that the essence of the soul divides into two hundred and forty eight different parts corresponding to the limbs of the body, and that it is clothed more here and less there, then «שלפי זה נמצא עצמותה ומהותה מצוייר בציור גשמי» (according to this, its very essence would be configured in a physical form), and there would be room to say of it «ודמות ותבנית כתבנית הגוף חס ושלום» (and a likeness and shape like the shape of the body, G-d forbid). This is certainly not so. The essence of the soul is a chelek Eloka mimaal, a part of G-d above; there is no division in it and no definition of it, and it is utterly abstracted from any description or configuration. One cannot even call it the source of the 248 limbs, for the very statement implies that it is bound up with the matter, and it is abstracted even from that.
Rather, says the Alter Rebbe: «אלא כולה עצם אחד» (rather it is entirely one single essence).
The word «one» deserves a closer look, because it does not necessarily rule out a multiplicity of details. In the account of creation we read «ויהי ערב ויהי בוקר יום אחד» (and it was evening and it was morning, one day), and that «one day» includes evening and morning, day and night, twenty four hours and each hour in turn. As we learned in an earlier chapter of Tanya, every portion has a different tziruf, a different combination of the letters of the name Havayah, one combination by day and another by night, and nevertheless all of this differentiation is called «one day». So the designation «one» can include a multiplicity of details.
But here the Alter Rebbe goes on to clarify which kind of «one» he means: «עצם אחד רוחני פשוט ומופשט מכל ציור גשמי ומבחינת וגדר מקום ומדה וגבול גשמי» (one spiritual essence, simple and abstracted from any physical configuration and from any aspect or category of place, measure and physical limitation). The essence of the soul is abstracted from every description, every configuration and every definition. And therefore «מצד מהותה ועצמותה ולא שייך במהותה ועצמותה לומר שהיא במוחין שבראש יותר מברגלים, מאחר שמהותה ועצמותה אינה בגדר ובחינת מקום וגבול גשמי» (in terms of its essence and substance it is impossible to say that it is in the brain in the head any more than in the feet, since its essence and substance is not in the category of physical place and limitation).
Where, then, does the differentiation begin? «רק שתרי״ג מיני כחות וחיות כלולים בה» (only that 613 kinds of powers and life-forces are included within it). Once we say that 613 kinds of powers are included within it, we are no longer speaking of the essence of the soul as it is in its abstraction, but of the essence of the soul as it has descended, as it were, to a more defined level, the one called chai be'etzem. From there comes the essential life-force, and from there will come, further on, the various categories of particulars. And the Alter Rebbe does not simply write «613 powers» but «תרי״ג מיני כחות», 613 kinds of powers, and a «kind» is a general category that contains many particulars within it, for every single power includes within itself a great further multiplicity.
He continues: «כלולים בה במהותה ועצמותה לצאת אל הפועל והגילוי מההעלם» (included within its essence and substance, to emerge from concealment into actuality and revelation). Once it has descended to the level that rests in the brain in the head, the differentiation will come from it «להחיות רמ״ח אברין ושס״ה גידין שבגוף, על ידי התלבשותם בנפש החיונית שיש לה גם כן רמ״ח ושס״ה כחות וחיות הללו» (to give life to the 248 limbs and 365 sinews of the body, by being clothed in the vital soul, which likewise has these 248 and 365 powers and life-forces).
The G-dly soul is entirely abstract, and facing it stands the physical, material body that is supposed to receive the life-force. The distance between them is a distance with no bridge at all. Even after the soul has descended to the level called chai be'etzem, which includes the general life-force and the particular life-force, we are still speaking of a G-dly level that has no relationship whatsoever to the body. An additional intermediary is therefore necessary in between, and that is what is called the nefesh hachiyunis, the vital soul: a soul that is not lofty, abstract and G-dly like the G-dly soul, whose entire purpose is to enliven the body, and through which the life-force can descend into the body.
It turns out that everything by which we live and exist without feeling a thing, the koach hamafli laasos, the wondrous power that binds soul to body at every single moment so that the body functions and every faculty and sense works properly, passes at every moment through a long and remarkable process of seder hishtalshelus: from the essence of the soul to the general life-force in the brain in the head, from there to being clothed in the vital soul, and only afterward to the actual limbs of the body. The vital soul is thus the middle station between them, the stage just before execution.
Although it is hard to locate and picture such abstract matters, Hashem gave us the ability to understand that logically this arrangement is a necessity: there must always be an intermediary that connects and links. We see this with electricity as it travels from the power station to the appliance in the home, how many reductions and stages it has to pass through. There are appliances for which even the current in the wall socket is unsuitable, and transformers and further reductions are needed to scale the power down until it can enter and be contained in the device. And if this is so with tangible things, how much more so with the soul, which is far more abstract: the G-dly soul must clothe itself in the vital soul, and the vital soul in the limbs of the body. This is the order in which the whole thing works.
From here to the end of the chapter one can read quickly, and the words will seem clear enough. Still, it will look as though the Alter Rebbe is repeating himself again and again: once the idea has been understood, another passage comes with a point that was not said before, and after it something that again looks like a repetition. In those maamarim we mentioned, the Rebbeim take the passages apart and show that there is no repetition here at all, but rather further levels, further details and further stages. We will not enter into that, since the general division we have learned is enough to understand the nimshal that follows. Nevertheless we will read the text, knowing that this is not repetition.
«והנה על המשכת כל התרי״ג מיני כחות וחיות מהעלם הנשמה אל הגוף להחיותו» (Now, regarding the drawing down of all 613 kinds of powers and life-forces from the concealment of the soul into the body to enliven it): this is the drawing down from the essence of the soul until it enlivens the limbs of the body, with the intermediate state resting in the brain in between. «עליה אמרו שעיקר משכנה והשראתה של המשכה זו וכילו זה הוא כולו במוחין שבראש» (of this they said that the principal dwelling and rest of this drawing down and of this containment is entirely in the brain in the head). Already here one should be precise: the shifts in language, «משכנה והשראתה» on the one hand and «המשכה וגילוי» on the other, correspond to the general life-force and the particular life-force. Every detail of the wording is exact.
«ולכן הם מקבלים תחלה הכח והחיות הראוי להם לפי מזגם ותכונתם, שהן חכמה בינה ודעת וכח המחשבה וכל השייך למוחין» (And therefore they receive first the power and life-force appropriate to them according to their makeup and function, namely chochmah, binah and daas, the faculty of thought and all that pertains to the brain). Since the revelation rests in the brain in the head, the brain is the first to receive the particular life-force that belongs to it.
«ולא זו בלבד, אלא גם כללות כל המשכת החיות לשאר האברים גם כן כלולה ומלובשת במוחין שבראש, ושם הוא עיקרה ושרשה של המשכה זו בבחינת גילוי האור והחיות של כל הנשמה כולה, ומשם מתפשטת הארה לשאר כל האברים, ומקבל כל אחד כח וחיות הראוי לו כפי מזגו ותכונתו - כח הראיה מתגלה בעין, וכח השמיעה באוזן וכו'» (And not only that, but the entirety of the drawing down of life-force to the remaining limbs is also included and clothed in the brain in the head, and there is the root and core of this drawing down in the aspect of revelation of the light and life-force of the entire soul; and from there an illumination spreads to all the other limbs, each receiving the power and life-force appropriate to it according to its makeup and function: the power of sight is revealed in the eye, the power of hearing in the ear, and so on), and so it continues, «וכל הכוחות מתפשטים מהמוח» (and all the powers spread out from the brain).
«כנודע כי שם הוא עיקר משכן הנשמה כולה בבחינת גילוי, שנגלית שם כללות החיות המתפשט ממנה, רק כחותיה של כללות החיות מאירים ומתפשטים לכל אברי הגוף, כדמיון האור המתפשט ומאיר מהשמש לחדרי חדרים. ואפילו הלב» (as is known, for there is the principal dwelling of the entire soul in the aspect of revelation, since there the general life-force that spreads from it is revealed, and only the powers of that general life-force shine and spread to all the limbs of the body, like light spreading and shining from the sun into innermost chambers. And even the heart), which is so general a life-force in a person, even it «מקבל מהמוח, לכן המוח שליט עליו בתולדתו כנ״ל» (receives from the brain, and therefore the brain rules over it by nature, as explained above).
As we said, dozens of pages of explanation have been written on these lines. We will not enter now into the fine points, in order to preserve the flow of the general understanding, and perhaps on another occasion we will go into detail.
To summarize: in this section we dealt with the soul as it comes to give life to the body, and we identified three levels. First, the etzem hanefesh, the essence of the soul, utterly abstracted from any configuration, any place and any definition, so much so that it cannot even be called the source of the 248 limbs. Second, the intermediate level called chai be'etzem, which rests in the brain in the head and includes both a general and a particular life-force, and it is from there, and not from the essence of the soul, that the division into 613 kinds of powers begins. Third, the nefesh hachiyunis, the vital soul, the intermediary through which the life-force is actually clothed in the limbs of the body. We also looked closely at the wording of the Tanya, saw the empirical proof that the differentiation already exists in the brain, and noted that this order is a logical necessity, like the stages of reduction between the power station and the appliance at home.
In the next section we will move from the mashal to the nimshal, how all of this applies in Elokus within the world. The Alter Rebbe himself opened the chapter with the words «להבין קצת», to understand a little, and we will try to understand a little of that little. The subject is highly abstract and hard to grasp, and with Hashem's help and siyata diShmaya we will try to bring it down as far as we can.