In the previous section we studied the three "mothers" of the soul, chochmah, binah and daas, and the way one contemplates G-dliness through three perspectives: memaleh kol almin (the light that fills all worlds), sovev kol almin (the light that encompasses all worlds), and kula kamei kelo chashiv (before Him all is as nothing). In this section we go deeper into how that contemplation actually works inside the soul: how the intellect, in the role of father and mother, gives birth to the emotions of yirah and ahavah.
"When he contemplates and delves very deeply":
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, the Rebbe's father, a great mekubal who explained many passages of Tanya according to Kabbalah, asks a precise question: why did the Alter Rebbe use these three distinct expressions? He explains that they correspond to the three perspectives:
"מתבונן" (contemplates) corresponds to memaleh kol almin, which every person is capable of contemplating.
"מעמיק" (delves deeply) corresponds to sovev kol almin, a level meant for those who go deep, the "Yid" within the soul.
"מאוד" (very) means reaching the level of "bechol me'odecha," with all your "very," which the mind cannot grasp at all: the bittul of the neshamah, the yechidah of the soul, corresponding to kula kamei kelo chashiv.
So it turns out that even the introductory words of the Tanya, "contemplates and delves very deeply," line up with the three perspectives. And the yechidah of the soul stands above all the faculties and above all details: it is self-surrender as it simply is.
From yirah to ahavah:
What does this contemplation and depth accomplish in a person? "נולדה ונתעוררה מידת יראת הרוממות במוחו ומחשבתו" ("there is born and aroused in his mind and thought the attribute of yiras haromemus"), specifically the awe of G-d's exaltedness, and not the fear of punishment.
Fear of punishment: a fear that comes from the person himself, a concern for his own ego, that no harm should come to him. This too is good, and it is certainly better that a person not stumble into sin even if what holds him back is thinking about punishment. But this is a level that the nefesh habahamis, the animal soul, can also reach.
Yiras haromemus: the awe of the nefesh ha'elokis, the G-dly soul, in which a person is in awe of the exaltedness itself. It is like a person standing before a great and deeply honored tzaddik, who feels a profound reverence simply because of who stands before him.
And where does this awe reside? "במוחו ומחשבתו" ("in his mind and thought"), just as we learned regarding the difference between yirah and pachad, that yirah has its place in the mind. "לירא ולהתבושש מגדולתו יתברך" ("to fear and be abashed before His blessed greatness"), awe and shame before the greatness of the Creator, "שאין לה סוף ותכלית" ("which has no end and no limit"). And when that awe seeps downward into the heart, it becomes "פחד השם בליבו" ("the dread of G-d in his heart").
Once a person has yirah and pachad, then "ושוב יתלהב ליבו באהבה עזה כרשפי אש" ("and then his heart will blaze with a love as powerful as fiery flames").
Why must yirah come before ahavah?
Because a person must first nullify his own sense of self, his yeshus, and only then can he be drawn in love toward the Holy One. To leap directly from loving worldly things to loving the Creator simply does not work. As the well known expression in chassidus puts it: between one yeshus and another yeshus there must be a zero in the middle, a bittul; between the seed and the tree, the seed must first decompose. So too, in order to move from loving the things of this world to loving G-d, in between there must come yiras Hashem and the dread of G-d in the heart, a state of bittul of the self, and only then will his heart blaze with a love as powerful as fiery flames.
The Alter Rebbe uses a whole series of expressions here: "בחשיקה וחפיצה ותשוקה ונפש שוקקת לגדולת אין סוף ברוך הוא" ("with a craving, desire, longing and a yearning soul, for the greatness of the blessed Ein Sof"). Five expressions in all: ahavah, chashikah, chafitzah, teshukah, and nefesh shokekah. One explanation is that they correspond to the five levels of the neshamah, nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah and yechidah, according to how high a person has risen, and "nefesh shokekah" is the highest of them. And when he reaches that highest level, "היא כלות הנפש" ("this is the expiring of the soul"), his soul is consumed and becomes entirely absorbed in G-dliness.
The three verses from Tehillim:
The Alter Rebbe brings his sources from the verses: "כדכתיב נכספה וגם כלתה נפשי וגו'" ("as it is written, 'My soul yearns, indeed it pines...'"), "וכתיב צמאה נפשי לאלוקים וגו'" ("and it is written, 'My soul thirsts for G-d...'"), "וכתיב צמא לך נפשי וגו'" ("and it is written, 'My soul thirsts for You...'"). All three come from Tehillim. And this is not simply a random collection of verses about thirst, since there are other such verses as well.
Notice too that the order of the verses is not the order in which they appear in Tehillim: "nichsefah vegam kaltah" is from chapter 84, "tzam'ah nafshi l'Elokim" is from chapter 42, and "tzamah lecha nafshi" is from chapter 63. Neither ascending nor descending order.
So what is the idea behind this particular order?
The explanation is that each verse speaks of a different level, corresponding to the three perspectives:
"נכספה וגם כלתה נפשי לחצרות השם" ("My soul yearns, indeed it pines, for the courtyards of G-d"): contemplating memaleh kol almin, the first level, brings a person to yearn for the "courtyards of G-d," for the lower portion.
"צמאה נפשי לאלוקים" ("My soul thirsts for G-d"): here the thirst is not for the courtyards, but for the living G-d Himself. This is the level of sovev kol almin.
"צמא לך נפשי כמה לך בשרי" ("My soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You"): for You, for Your very self, as in the Alter Rebbe's famous words: "I do not want Your This World and I do not want Your World to Come, I want You Yourself." This is the lofty level of kula kamei kelo chashiv.
This is why the Alter Rebbe brought precisely these three verses, and in precisely this order: the three levels contained in them match the three matters he is describing.
To summarize: in this section we learned how contemplating the three perspectives of G-dliness works within the soul: how yirah, born in the mind and thought and then descending as pachad into the heart, produces yiras haromemus; and how, after the bittul of the self, the heart blazes with a love as powerful as fiery flames, to the point of kelos hanefesh. We also saw how the five expressions of love correspond to the five levels of the neshamah, and how the three verses from Tehillim correspond to the three perspectives of contemplating G-dliness. In general, we learned about the structure of the soul, which contains both intellect and emotion; we tasted a bit of chochmah and binah; and we saw how they, as father and mother, give birth to the love of G-d, the awe of Him and the dread of Him.
In the next section we will continue with chapter 3: the contemplation that gives birth to the offshoots of love and awe, and how these emotions branch out into their various offshoots and derivatives in avodas Hashem.