In the previous section we learned that the revelation of the Shechinah rests in the Holy of Holies of every world, and that in our time the Shechinah rests upon a Jew who is engaged in Torah. Now we take up a further question: why does the light shine specifically by way of the sefirah of malchus, and what is the special quality of learning halachah?
Our subject here is talmud Torah, and we need to understand why the light shines down below specifically through malchus, which is the dimension of action and speech. The reason is that the matter has come down to the level of actual hislabshus (enclothement), and «Shechinah» comes from the expression «v'shachanti besocham», «I shall dwell within them»: the thing takes up residence in the lower realm. Had the light not descended into malchus, it could not be grasped by anything in the lower world at all. And so it is in every single world: were the light not to descend and enclothe itself in the malchus of that world, that world's creatures, which are its outcome and product, would never come into being. What shines in the malchus of each world is that world's Holy of Holies, the level of ChaBaD (chochmah, binah, daas), except that this ChaBaD shines by means of the sefirah of malchus.
In this physical world a person is occupied with physical deeds and physical speech, that is, with what comes as an expression of malchus and of asiyah (action), since it is from malchus that all practical, concrete things were created. And when a Jew learns Torah, the light that shines here is higher than all the worlds; it simply enclothes itself, descending and coming down through the entire chain of hishtalshelus until it reaches the malchus of the world of action.
Accordingly, this is accomplished in every kind of Torah study, even when a person is working through a transcription of a maamar or an abstract and profound subject in Kabbalah. And yet there is a special quality when the learning is in matters of halachah, which is why the wording is specifically «the four cubits of halachah». The reason for this will emerge as the Alter Rebbe continues.
When the Alter Rebbe comes to give examples of mitzvos that depend on speech, he lists four: talmud Torah, bircas hamazon, krias Shema and tefillah. Now, tefillah is in many places counted as a rabbinic mitzvah and not a Torah mitzvah, and even within the Tanya itself: in Iggeres HaTeshuvah (which, G-d willing, we will learn later), where the rectifications a person must make for having neglected mitzvos are discussed, tefillah is brought as an example of a positive mitzvah of rabbinic origin. Yet here the Alter Rebbe brings tefillah as an example of a Torah mitzvah.
The truth is that tefillah contains both aspects, and the distinction lies in which part of prayer we are speaking about:
The fixed text of the prayers, the fact that every day we daven the tefillah as it appears in the siddur, in a set wording and at set times: that is rabbinic.
The essence of prayer, that a Jew turns to the Holy One Blessed Be He when he has a need, when he feels a lack or a particular problem, and opens his mouth even in his own words and says «Master of the World, help me with this and with that»: with that he is fulfilling a positive mitzvah of the Torah, as it says «ul'ovdo bechol levavchem», «to serve Him with all your heart», and service of the heart is prayer.
It emerges that the obligation to pray is from the Torah, while the formulation of the text, the fixing of times each day, and the placing of the whole matter into a framework, that is rabbinic. And so sometimes this side of tefillah is emphasized and sometimes the other.
Before we address the special quality of halachah, let us consider the special quality of mitzvos in general, even relative to Torah. Where is the Holy One Blessed Be He's will toward us actually revealed? Torah, to be sure, explains to us what the will is, but the expression of that will is in the performance of the mitzvah itself: the actual doing is where the Divine will is expressed. And the will, as is known in the order of the sefiros, is higher even than chochmah. When one maps out the order of the sefiros, ratzon (will) is the level of keser, the crown above everything, and «nothing stands in the way of the will». Torah is the level of chochmah, and the will is above it.
In the words of the Tanya: «ותרי\"ג מצוות התורה עם שבע מצות דרבנן בגימטריא כתר», «the 613 mitzvos of the Torah together with the seven rabbinic mitzvos equal in gematria the word keser». The 613 mitzvos of the Torah plus the seven mitzvos instituted by the Sages come to six hundred and twenty, the numerical value of «keser», the crown that expresses the will standing above the entire order of the sefiros. So the expression of keser, that is, the Divine will, is found in the 613 Torah mitzvos and the seven rabbinic mitzvos, «שהוא רצון העליון ברוך הוא המלובש בחכמתו יתברך», «which is the Supernal Will, blessed be He, clothed in His blessed wisdom»: the Divine will enclothes itself and is revealed in His wisdom, which is the Torah.
From this we can understand the following: Torah is the explanation of the will, so which part of Torah deals with the will itself, with what the Creator ultimately wants? Halachah, and in the Oral Torah. The halachic portion of Torah is what connects most closely to the will. That is why they said «whoever sits and occupies himself with Torah, the Shechinah is with him», for every part of Torah is an expression of the Creator's wisdom, and chochmah is the Holy of Holies of every world, where the Shechinah shines. But this is true in a special way in the four cubits of halachah, where the most direct expression of the Supernal Will is found.
One might object: surely the Written Torah too contains absolute commands, such as the prohibition of idolatry. But the truth is that there is not a single mitzvah in the Written Torah that one could know how to perform from the verse itself. Take tefillin: where do you place them, what do you tie, how do you tie it, and in what color? None of it is written. The same with tzitzis, and the same with mezuzah: «uchsavtam al mezuzos beisecha», «and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house». Do you write on the doorpost at the entrance itself, or on parchment, and how, and how is it affixed? There is no mitzvah whose full set of details is available in the Written Torah without learning the Oral Torah and its halachic portion.
Shemittah is the one mitzvah in which the Written Torah gives more detail than in all the others, which is why it says of it «at Mount Sinai», meaning that its general principles and fine details were all stated there (even though we have learned that everything was said at Sinai). And nonetheless, even with shemittah, the practical halachah, how to carry out all its details in practice, is not known without the Oral Torah.
It emerges that the goal of Torah study is halachah, for it is halachah that tells a person what to do and brings him close to actual performance. And consequently, when a person learns the halachos he is connecting himself to the Divine will.
The Alter Rebbe continues and explains «המיוחדות באור אין סוף ברוך הוא בתכלית היחוד», that the Divine wisdom and the Divine will are united with the Or Ein Sof, blessed be He, in absolute unity. Hidden in this is a question that he answers in the very next line. For we have been saying all along that the Shechinah rests in the Creator's chochmah, and within Torah itself: the Written Torah is called chochmah, while the Oral Torah is called in Kabbalah malchus and «eretz», as in the words of Pasach Eliyahu: «Malchus is the mouth, we call it the Oral Torah». But halachah is found in the Oral Torah, the level of malchus. How then can we say that it is precisely there that the Shechinah rests?
To this he immediately answers: «וה' בחכמה יסד ארץ», «and G-d founded the earth with wisdom». «Eretz» is malchus, which is the Oral Torah, and what shines within it is chochmah, «היא תורה שבעל פה דנפקא מחכמה עילאה, כמו שכתוב בזהר דאבא יסד ברתא», «this is the Oral Torah, which issues from supernal chochmah, as it is written in the Zohar that abba founded the daughter». «Abba» denotes chochmah, and «barta» in Aramaic means daughter, which is malchus. And so runs the order of the sefiros:
Chochmah is called abba (father).
Binah is called imma (mother).
The six middos are called the son.
Malchus is called the daughter.
[From here we also understand why the mitzvah of pru urvu is fulfilled in its completeness when one has a son and a daughter: then there is the completeness of the entire Name Havayah, father and mother, who are chochmah and binah, and son and daughter, who are the six middos and malchus.]
And since «abba yasad barta», that is, malchus is revealed out of chochmah, it follows that in the Oral Torah chochmah itself is revealed.
And now to the conclusion and summation of the whole matter: even today, when the Beis Hamikdash has not yet been rebuilt and the Shechinah is not revealed and resting in the Holy of Holies, the Holy of Holies is available to every single person. Let a person sit and learn the Torah of G-d, and especially halachah, and through that he connects to the Shechinah and it rests upon him. For in learning halachah he is learning the mitzvos, which are the Divine will, and that brings the revelation of the Shechinah here below. So even though the Beis Hamikdash has not yet been rebuilt, the Holy of Holies is accessible to each and every one of us.
Obviously this comes through a very low form of enclothement. In the first Beis Hamikdash the matter was enclothed in the world of Beriah; in the second Beis Hamikdash it descended as far as the chochmah of the world of Asiyah; and here it descends all the way to the malchus of Asiyah, the very lowest enclothement there is. And nevertheless, the light that shines here is a light that is above all the worlds entirely.
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Let us fill in a few points on what we read, the 613 Torah mitzvos together with the seven rabbinic mitzvos. First, what are the seven rabbinic mitzvos? The Sages instituted many enactments, far more than seven, yet only seven are counted under the name «the seven rabbinic mitzvos»: those seven over which the Sages instituted a blessing. [Which is why the fasts are not among them, since no blessing is recited over them.] They are:
Netilas yadayim (washing the hands).
Eruvin.
Berachos (blessings).
The Shabbos candle.
Reading the Megillah.
Kindling the Chanukah lights.
Reciting Hallel.
In the sefer Megaleh Amukos a mnemonic is given to remember them, the acronym «nua besimchah» (move with joy): nun for netilas yadayim; ayin for eruvin; beis for berachos; shin for the Shabbos candle; mem for Megillah; ches for Chanukah; hei for Hallel.
Here is an interesting point: where do we find the hint that the seven rabbinic mitzvos are an integral, inseparable part of the body of mitzvos itself? After all, we see enactments that were instituted over the course of the generations: netilas yadayim and eruvin were instituted by King Solomon, and until King Solomon these mitzvos simply did not exist. How, then, can we say that what King Solomon instituted is an inseparable part of the Torah mitzvos that Moshe Rabbeinu brought down from Sinai?
The foundation of everything we have been discussing is that all of it shines within the Ten Commandments, which are the Torah in its entirety. Therefore all 613 mitzvos are contained in the Ten Commandments, and so are all seven rabbinic mitzvos. And the hint to this is remarkable: the Ten Commandments contain six hundred and twenty letters, and each letter alludes to a particular mitzvah. This is no arbitrary number.
The last seven letters of the Ten Commandments are the two words «asher lere'echa» («that belongs to your fellow»), «asher» having three letters and «lere'echa» four, seven in all, and these allude to the seven rabbinic mitzvos. The reason, put simply: the 613 letters are the Holy One Blessed Be He's own, and the last seven letters, «asher lere'echa», He left to the sages of each generation to add whatever they would uncover in the course of the generations, and even so He included them as an inseparable part of the Ten Commandments.
The six hundred and twenty letters of the Ten Commandments are therefore the level of keser, the numerical value of «keser»: the Divine crown, the Divine will. And this is the revelation of the Torah as a whole: the entire Torah is contained in the Ten Commandments, each letter alludes to something and each commandment alludes to something, and the totality of Torah contained in the Ten Commandments includes the Shechinah.
In the Beis Hamikdash the Ten Commandments were engraved on stone; in our time they must be engraved on the heart, on our speech, and on our hands and feet, in deed, so that we fulfill all six hundred and twenty letters in practice. And when we fulfill the 613 Torah mitzvos and the seven rabbinic mitzvos, we will have a complete crown, the Divine keser, and that is the revelation of the Shechinah here below.
In summary: in this section we learned why the light shines in this world specifically by way of the sefirah of malchus, since «Shechinah» comes from «v'shachanti besocham», and enclothement in the lower realm requires a descent into malchus, and yet the light that shines in Torah study down here is higher than all the worlds. We clarified the two sides of the mitzvah of tefillah, the Torah side and the rabbinic side; the special quality of mitzvos, which are the level of keser, since 613 mitzvos together with seven rabbinic mitzvos equal in gematria «keser», which is the Supernal Will clothed in His blessed wisdom; and from there the special quality of the four cubits of halachah, where the will is most directly expressed, and the fact that there is no practical halachah without the Oral Torah. We learned how the Shechinah rests in halachah, which is the level of malchus, since «and G-d founded the earth with wisdom» and «abba founded the daughter», and how the Holy of Holies is available in our time to every single person through Torah study. Finally we listed the seven rabbinic mitzvos and the allusion to them in the final seven letters, «asher lere'echa», of the Ten Commandments, which total six hundred and twenty letters, the numerical value of «keser».
With this the explanation that began in chapter 51 comes to a close, and in the next section we will continue our learning in the Tanya.