In the previous part we began chapter 6 and looked at the Alter Rebbe's opening words about kelipah. There is a further reason underlying what he says, which we will come to later in the chapter. For now we turn to the ten powers on the side of kelipah, and to the fundamental difference between the nefesh ha'elokis and the nefesh habahamis that emerges from them.
"עשר כתרין דמסאבותא" - ten crowns of impurity:
These are the very same ten powers we met in chapter 3 - chochmah, binah, daas, chesed, gevurah and so on - except that here they appear on the side of kelipah. Every one of these faculties can be found either on the side of holiness or on the side of impurity:
Chesed - on the side of holiness: love of Hashem. On the side of kelipah: craving for the pleasures of the world.
Gevurah - on the side of holiness: yiras Shamayim, awe of Heaven. On the side of kelipah: anger and rage at another person.
Tiferes - on the side of holiness: beauty and harmony. On the side of kelipah: arrogance and self-glorification, as was mentioned in chapter 1.
The Alter Rebbe defines them as "שבע מידות רעות הבאות מארבע יסודות רעים" ("seven evil middos that come from four evil elements") - the same seven middos (chesed, gevurah, tiferes, netzach, hod, yesod and malchus) that exist on the side of holiness and exist as well on the side of kelipah. As was explained at the end of chapter 1, the middos of the nefesh habahamis, like everything else in the world, divide into four elements: fire, air, water and earth. Some middos stem from the element of fire, such as arrogance and anger; some from the element of earth, such as laziness and sadness; and so with the other elements, as illustrated there.
But that accounts for only seven, and we said ten. What are the remaining three? The Alter Rebbe continues: "ושכל המולידן" ("and the intellect that gives birth to them") - the intellect, which divides into three, chochmah, binah and daas, as was explained in chapter 3 regarding the side of holiness. He calls it "מקור המידות" ("the source of the middos"). Immediately afterward he adds the word "כי" ("for"), which signals that something here needs explaining. At first glance, what is there to explain? Chapter 3 already set out at length that hisbonenus gives birth to emotion. But here lies a fundamental difference between the two souls.
The order is reversed:
In chapter 3, when the Alter Rebbe came to explain the ten sefiros of the nefesh ha'elokis, he opened with the words "ten holy sefiros which divide into two," and he placed first the three "mothers" - chochmah, binah and daas - and only afterward the seven "doubles," the seven days of building, which are the middos.
Here, on the side of kelipah, the order is exactly reversed: first the seven evil middos, and only after them "the intellect that gives birth to them." Why did he invert the order?
Because this is precisely the essential difference between the nefesh ha'elokis and the nefesh habahamis. The difference is visible even physically, between a human being and an animal: in a person the brain sits above and the heart below it, while in an animal the two are on the same level. In "Hayom Yom" the Rebbe brings a saying about the four names given to man - adam, ish, gever and enosh - that the name "adam" points to the intellect. The essence of a human being is the intellect, and his middos are an outgrowth of it. The essence of an animal, by contrast, is its middos.
What is the essential difference between intellect and middos? Intellect examines a thing objectively, as it truly is. Middos weigh everything by the question "what do I get out of this": is it good for me or bad for me, do I love it or hate it. An animal eats what suits it and does what feels good to it, without weighing whether the thing is right or wrong.
It follows that in the nefesh ha'elokis, whose essence is intellect, a person does not spontaneously find love of Hashem or yiras Shamayim within himself. Sometimes it is granted to him from Above as an initial push, like a small child being taught to ride a bicycle, whom you fit with training wheels and give a shove; but when he is asked to ride under his own power, nothing will come on its own. Only hisbonenus and avodah will give birth to the feeling.
The pull toward worldly cravings, on the other hand, arrives with no hisbonenus whatsoever. A person desires something not because he contemplated it, and gets angry not because he contemplated it; it is a natural pull, since the essence of the nefesh habahamis is middos and not intellect. That is why, when speaking of the nefesh habahamis, the Alter Rebbe opens with the middos, and when speaking of the nefesh ha'elokis he opens with the intellect.
In what sense, then, is the intellect "the source of the middos"?
If in the nefesh habahamis the intellect does not give birth to the middos, and they exist on their own, why does the Alter Rebbe call the intellect "the source of the middos"? That is what the word "כי" comes to answer: "כי המידות הן לפי ערך השכל" ("for the middos are according to the measure of the intellect"). The intellect does not generate the middos; it grants them their scope or their limitation. The greater the intellect, the wider the space the middos have to spread out in.
In his words: "כי הקטן חושק ואוהב דברים קטנים פחותי הערך, לפי ששכלו קטן וקצר להשיג דברים יקרים יותר מהם" ("for a child desires and loves small things of little worth, because his intellect is too small and limited to grasp things more precious than these"). A young child is drawn to a candy not because he studied the matter and concluded it is something good, but of himself; a valuable banknote, meanwhile, he will toss out of his hand, because his limited mind does not grasp its worth. His chesed, his desire and love, is measured by the level of his intellect.
The same holds for gevurah, which is anger: the child "מתכעס ומתקצף" ("becomes angry and enraged") over trivialities, and the smallest incident is enough to send him out of his mind. And there are grown adults who behave much the same way, because their intellect is at that level. A person of broad and deep understanding does not get angry over nonsense, only over matters worthy of him. The intensities depend on the intellect, not because the intellect gives birth to the emotion, but because it sets its measure and its balance.
The sequence in the nefesh habahamis, then, runs in reverse: first the craving awakens in the heart, and only afterward does the person turn to his intellect - "help me out, give me the strategies and the explanations for how to get what I want." Chochmah supplies the flash of insight as to how to obtain the thing, and binah expands and develops it. The middos are constantly looking to the intellect to see how far it permits them to rise, and they spread out accordingly. But it does not generate them the way it does in the nefesh ha'elokis.
One more point deserves attention. In chapter 3, regarding the nefesh ha'elokis, the Alter Rebbe explained daas at length; here, regarding the nefesh habahamis, daas is not discussed at all, for an animal has no daas. The role of daas is to give the middos strength and truth. The nefesh ha'elokis needs daas, because it is daas that lends truth to its middos; the nefesh habahamis has no need of it for its middos, since its middos exist on their own, by virtue of its very essence. The dimension of truth is therefore missing in it, and all it possesses is no more than a reflection.
In summary: in this part we learned that the ten powers on the side of kelipah - "עשר כתרין דמסאבותא" - are the very same ten powers of holiness, only turned downward: chesed into craving, gevurah into anger, tiferes into arrogance. The seven evil middos come from four evil elements, and joined to them is "the intellect that gives birth to them," which divides into chochmah, binah and daas. We noted the reversal of order between chapter 3 and chapter 6, which teaches that the essence of the nefesh ha'elokis is intellect while the essence of the nefesh habahamis is middos, and that the intellect of the nefesh habahamis does not generate its middos but rather determines their measure and their worth, as with the child who desires and rages over small things according to the level of his mind. We also saw that daas, which gives the middos truth and strength, is not mentioned at all on the side of kelipah.
In the next part we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words in chapter 6, and take up the further reason we mentioned at the outset.