In the previous section we studied chapter 2 and the opening of the mashal (analogy) that the Alter Rebbe brings: the son who is drawn from the father's brain, which comes to explain the relationship between the neshamah and the Creator. In this section we will complete the mashal and see how the one root unfolds and descends through the worlds, and how the differences in level between souls come about.
A brief review of what we have learned so far:
The Alter Rebbe opened chapter 2 with the statement that the nefesh ha'elokis, the divine soul, which in his words is "the second soul in a Jew," present in every single Jew, is "חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש" - literally a part of G-d above. He dwells on this at length, and we have already spoken at length about the sheer force of this concept.
This raised a question: if all the souls of Israel come from one and the same source, that same literal part of G-d above, how can there be differences of level among them? How is it that there are the souls of the Avos and the soul of Moshe Rabbeinu, and on the other end the souls of the last generations, the generations of ikvesa deMeshicha, whose level is far lower? And so too in every generation there are the heads of the thousands of Israel, whose souls are on the level of head and brain, as against the masses and the simple folk, whose souls are on a far lower level.
The question of who determines a soul's level we will deal with later; first we have to clarify the prior question: how are differences of level possible at all? After all, every soul comes from the same root, from the same Creator, and seemingly they should all be identical.
The mashal of the son drawn from the father's brain:
To explain this the Alter Rebbe gives a mashal. Since Jews are called children, "בנים אתם לה' אלוקיכם" ("You are children to Hashem your G-d"), and every Jew is called a son of the Holy One blessed be He, who is our Father, "אבינו אב הרחמן" ("our Father, merciful Father"), we can learn from the relationship of a physical son to his father, and from the way he is conceived and comes into being in the world, about the relationship between the neshamah and the Creator of the world. We saw three points in this mashal:
One root for all the limbs: Once the son is born he has 248 limbs and 365 sinews, some of them important and central organs, and alongside them parts that are utterly lowly, which we even cut away and separate from the body, such as the fingernails. Although there are vastly different levels in each part of the body, from the highest to the lowest, physically they were all drawn from one point and one root: from that single drop whose source is in the father's brain, and from it were formed all the details and details of details, down to the fingernails.
What caused the change: What caused that one point to change, so that part of it became heart and brain and part of it became fingernails? The nine months in the mother's womb. Over that time the drop grows progressively coarser and more physical, until a full nine months are needed to arrive even at the fingernails.
The connection that continues even now: Even after the son is born and becomes an entity separate from his father, and even after lowly parts such as nails have formed in him, their connection to the father is not merely historical, as if once upon a time this was in the father and now it is a separate reality. Even now the son is bound to the father, and even his fingernails are bound to him.
How? The order here is precise: the nails draw their vitality from the son's own brain, which is what apportions the roles to all the limbs. The son's brain remains connected to the father's brain even now; it is the same line of thought, and it is the closest and most similar to the source, and this is obvious and needs no elaboration. And it is by way of the son's brain that even the fingernails are connected to the father, for on their own they have no capacity to be connected to him directly, only through the brain.
In the words of the Tanya: "וגם עכשיו בבן, יניקת הציפורניים וחיותם נמשכת מהמוח שבראש" - "and even now in the son, the nourishment and vitality of the nails is drawn from the brain in the head." Even now, after he has become a separate entity, the nails receive their nourishment and life from the brain in the head, and it is through the brain that they are connected to the father.
The special connection between the nails and the brain:
The Alter Rebbe adds that the bond between the nails and the brain is not only a case of every limb being connected to the brain; there is a special connection between these two in particular: the nails are the lowest and most distant, and the brain is the highest of them all. He brings two sources for this:
The Gemara in Niddah: There are three partners in a person, the Holy One blessed be He, his father and his mother, and the Gemara details the contribution of each partner to the child about to be born. Of the father it says "אביו מזריע לובן" ("his father supplies the white"), and from the white are formed "the bones, the sinews, the nails, the brain in the head, and the white of the eye." It emerges that the nails and the brain were formed from one and the same point. In his words here: "כדאיתא בגמרא נדה שם לובן שממנו גידים ועצמות וציפורניים" - "as it is stated in the Gemara in Niddah there, the white, from which come sinews, bones and nails." He does not quote the continuation of the Gemara, that the brain in the head also comes from the white, because his main intent here is to stress that the nails come from the father, whereas the skin, flesh and hair are bound up more with the mother. This underscores just how much the matter of the nails is tied to the father's brain.
Eitz Chaim, Sha'ar HaChashmal: In parentheses the Alter Rebbe brings a further connection from Kabbalah, from the secret of the garments of Adam HaRishon in Gan Eden before the sin. Before the sin his garments were nails over his whole body, and what we have today, nails at the tips of our fingers, is the little that remains of that. Adam's nails were of the aspect of "moach tevunah," the brain of understanding; with him the garment of nails was bound up with the level of the brain. Once again we find a special connection between the nails and the brain.
What emerges from the mashal is this: every detail of the son's body is connected to the father by way of the son's brain. Now we have to locate each detail of the mashal in the nimshal, in the relationship between the Jewish people and the Holy One blessed be He: where is that source-drop, where are the nine months in the mother's womb, and where is the "brain of the son" that joins all the limbs, and by extension the nails as well, to the father.
The nimshal:
The Alter Rebbe writes: "כביכול בשורש כל הנפש רוח ונשמה של כללות ישראל למעלה" - "so to speak, in the root of all the nefesh, ruach and neshamah of the totality of Israel above." The root of all the souls of Israel is one, like the drop from the father's brain from which all the details are drawn and to which they remain bound; and in the nimshal, all souls are literally a part of G-d above.
And what corresponds to the nine months in the mother's womb? On this he writes: "בירידתו ממדרגה למדרגה" - "in its descent from level to level." That lofty, spiritual, divine root descends from level to level, just as that drop descends and grows coarser and more physical over the nine months. And this descent takes place "על ידי השתלשלות העולמות אצילות בריאה יצירה עשייה מחכמתו יתברך" - "through the hishtalshelus of the worlds, Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, from His blessed wisdom," as it is written, "כולם בחכמה עשית" ("You have made them all with wisdom").
To sum up: In this section we completed the mashal of the son drawn from the father's brain, and saw how every detail of the body, down to the fingernails, is connected to the father by way of the son's brain, as brought from the Gemara in Niddah and from the Eitz Chaim regarding the garments of Adam HaRishon. From there we moved to the nimshal: all the souls of Israel share one root, literally a part of G-d above, and the nine months in the mother's womb correspond to the descent of that root from level to level through the hishtalshelus of the worlds from His blessed wisdom.
In the next section we will take up the four worlds, Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and how their hishtalshelus relates to the differences of level among souls and to the need for the heads of the generation.