In the previous section we examined the descent of the Shechinah and how it clothes itself within the worlds. Now we continue with the Alter Rebbe's wording regarding the world of Yetzirah: «הרוחות והמלאכים שביצירה», «the spirits and the angels of Yetzirah».
«הרוחות», the spirits, refers to souls (specifically the souls of Israel). As is known, a soul has levels: nefesh, ruach and neshamah. The souls that belong to the level of «neshamah» are bound up with the world of Beriah, while the souls on the level of «ruach» are bound up with the world of Yetzirah. Accordingly, once the Shechinah clothed itself in the world of Yetzirah, there came into being from it the spirits and the angels of Yetzirah.
The Shechinah is the Torah, and since the Torah descended into the world of Yetzirah, therefore «וגם משם היא המשנה שלפנינו», «and from there, too, comes the Mishnah that is before us». The Mishnah is the dimension of the middos, the divine emotive attributes, for in it there is revealed either the side of divine chesed or the side of divine gevurah. The Mishnah is «שהיא הלכות פסוקות הנמשכות גם כן מחכמה בינה דעת של אין סוף ברוך הוא», «for it consists of decided halachos, which likewise are drawn from the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of the blessed Ein Sof». Certainly the Torah we learn is G-dliness and its source is in the world of Atzilus; it is only that in its descent it came about in such a way that «רק שבחינת חכמה בינה ודעת, שהם טעמי ההלכות, הם מלובשים וגנוזים בגופי ההלכות ולא בבחינת גילוי», «only that the dimension of Chochmah, Binah and Daas, which are the reasons behind the halachos, are clothed and concealed within the bodies of the halachos, and are not in a state of revelation».
This is comparable to emotion. Even within an emotion there is logic and intellect, for the emotion is born of the intellect; but once the matter has descended into the world of emotion, the intellectual cause that generated the feeling no longer shines and is no longer sensed. It is there, but hidden, and what is actually felt is the emotion itself. So too in the world of Yetzirah: it is the world into which the Torah descended to the point where what shines there is primarily the divine middos. The reasons behind the halachos are not visible there, because they are concealed.
So what is revealed there? The bodies of the halachos: the mishnayos and the rulings. «וגופי ההלכות שהן בבחינת גילוי, הן הן הארת מדותיו של אין סוף ברוך הוא בבחינת גילוי», «and the bodies of the halachos, which are in a state of revelation, they themselves are the illumination of the attributes of the blessed Ein Sof in a state of revelation». For the ruling of kosher or unfit, forbidden or permitted, is chesed or gevurah, «כמו שנתבאר לעיל בשם התיקונים דשית ספירן מקננין ביצירה», «as was explained above in the name of the Tikkunim, that six sefiros nest in Yetzirah»: the six sefiros of Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod and Yesod nest in the world of Yetzirah.
As we said, what is dominant in the world of Beriah is Chochmah, Binah and Daas, while what is dominant in the world of Yetzirah is the six sefiros, the six middos. Therefore, when the Torah is revealed in the world of Yetzirah, it is not the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of Torah that come to light, but primarily the middos of Torah, which can be summed up in two general lines, the line of the right and the line of the left: «שהן דרך כלל שני קוין ימין ושמאל להקל מסטרא דחסד דהיינו להתיר שיוכל לעלות אל ה' או להחמיר כו'», «which are, in general, two lines, right and left: to be lenient, from the side of chesed, meaning to permit, so that the thing can ascend to G-d, or to be stringent, and so forth».
And what does this mean in practice? When the ruling in the Mishnah establishes that a certain food is permitted to eat, that means a person can take that physical food, sanctify it through his eating, and elevate it to the Holy One, blessed be He. It can rise to holiness. When, on the other hand, the ruling establishes that the thing is unfit and forbidden, that means this item cannot be elevated to holiness through eating. These are the two general lines in the world of Yetzirah: to be lenient, so that it can ascend to G-d, or to be stringent, so that it cannot ascend to G-d.
«והכל על פי חכמה עילאה דאצילות», «and all of it is according to the supernal Chochmah of Atzilus». «All of it» means both the Talmud, which belongs to the world of Beriah, and the Mishnah, which belongs to the world of Yetzirah. All of it is an expression of the Shechinah, for the source of Torah is high above; the fact that it came down below so that we should be able to understand it, learn it and grasp it, is nothing but a descent to our level. In its essence it is divine wisdom, «ובינה ודעת כלולות בה ומיוחדות באין סוף ברוך הוא», «and Binah and Daas are included within it and are united with the blessed Ein Sof». The Torah is the way in which the Shechinah descends and is revealed in each and every world, and all these levels, even those that came down very low, are in essence an expression of the supernal Chochmah of Atzilus.
In each world, when the matter descends into that world, it shines according to that world: in Beriah the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of Beriah shine; in Yetzirah the six middos of Yetzirah shine; and so on. And the reason is: «כי בתוך כולן», «for within all of them», both in the Talmud and in the Mishnah, «מלובשות חכמה בינה דעת דאצילות, שאור אין סוף ברוך הוא מיוחד בהן בתכלית האיחוד», «are clothed the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of Atzilus, in which the light of the blessed Ein Sof is united in absolute union».
Up to this point the Alter Rebbe has traced the process of the Shechinah's descent into the world of Beriah and into the world of Yetzirah, which is the revelation of G-dliness in each world. And what is the revelation of the Shechinah in a given world? After all, the Holy One, blessed be He, is everywhere, and His essence and being are found in the lowest world of Asiyah exactly as they are found in the world of Atzilus and higher, equally. Rather, when we speak of «the revelation of the Shechinah» we mean the revelation of His divine wisdom as it is revealed in each world in accordance with that world. That is the revelation of Torah in that world.
And from the Torah, which is the essential thing in every world, the created beings of that world and the angels of that world also came into being, for everything is built from the Torah and comes from the Torah, as it is said, «He looked into the Torah and created the world». The Torah is the source of everything, and its descent into each world is the expression of the created beings, the formed beings and the fashioned beings of that world.
The process of descent is an orderly hishtalshelus, a chain-like unfolding. The source of the matter is Malchus of Atzilus, which is called the Shechinah, and from there comes the manner of its descent into each world: the descent into the world of Yetzirah is greater than the descent into the world of Beriah, and so on. In the Rebbe's explanations on Tanya, two approaches are brought in this chapter to explain the process. One approach is that Malchus of Atzilus descends and clothes itself directly in Malchus of Beriah, and afterwards, with a more intense descent and a deeper enclothement, in the world of Yetzirah, and so on. The second approach is that it need not pass through all the worlds in order to reach the lowest world.
It is worth being precise about the word «בהתלבשותן», «in their enclothement», in the plural. The explanation is that Malchus of Atzilus together with Malchus of Beriah clothe themselves in Malchus of Yetzirah. In one place the Alter Rebbe used a general plural expression without spelling out the levels, and here he spelled them out explicitly.
All this is being learned here only in a general way, and one must not make the matter physical and picture a route traveling from place to place. The whole picture is given only to provide our understanding with some handle on the subject. The main point is to grasp the central question with which we opened and its resolution, and above all, that the Torah we learn is an expression of the Shechinah, a divine expression.
The portions of Torah being spoken of here divide into three, as the Gemara says: «A person should always divide his years into three: a third in Mikra, a third in Mishnah, a third in Talmud». A person apportions his time and his study among these three parts. And why must all three be studied? The inner dimension of Torah explains: a third in Mikra corresponds to the world of Asiyah, a third in Mishnah corresponds to the world of Yetzirah, and a third in Talmud corresponds to the world of Beriah. The Torah descended into all these layers, and a person must have a connection to each and every part of Torah, according to the manner of its descent lower and lower.
We have now arrived at the third world, the world of Asiyah, and here the Alter Rebbe is brief: «וכן בדרך זה ירדה השכינה ונתלבשה בהיכל קודשי קודשים דעשיה», «and in this same way the Shechinah descended and clothed itself in the chamber of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah». «In this same way» means as was explained regarding the world of Yetzirah, that the sefirah of Malchus of Atzilus first clothes itself in the chamber of the Holy of Holies. Here he does not specify what that refers to, because we are expected to understand on our own that the Holy of Holies of the world of Asiyah is the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of the world of Asiyah. There the Shechinah first clothes itself, and from there it passes through the entire order of hishtalshelus down to the sefirah of Malchus of the world of Asiyah, and from the sefirah of Malchus of the world of Asiyah the created beings of the world of Asiyah came into being. And the portion of Torah connected to the world of Asiyah is Mikra, Scripture.
To sum up: in this section we learned that «the spirits» of Yetzirah are the souls on the level of «ruach», just as the level of «neshamah» belongs to the world of Beriah; that the Mishnah before us is the Torah as it descended into the world of Yetzirah, which is why the reasons behind the halachos are concealed within it while the bodies of the halachos are in a state of revelation, the shining of the attributes of the blessed Ein Sof, to be lenient from the side of chesed or stringent from the side of gevurah. We examined the statement that «all of it is according to the supernal Chochmah of Atzilus», since within all of them are clothed the Chochmah, Binah and Daas of Atzilus, in which the light of the Ein Sof is united in absolute union; the meaning of the revelation of the Shechinah in each world, and that the created beings of every world came into being from the Torah; the two approaches to explaining the order of descent, and the precision of the word «in their enclothement»; the threefold division of study into Mikra, Mishnah and Talmud corresponding to Asiyah, Yetzirah and Beriah; and the descent of the Shechinah into the chamber of the Holy of Holies of Asiyah, from which Mikra belongs to the world of Asiyah.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words further on in the chapter, and go deeper into the subject of Mikra and its connection to the world of Asiyah.