In the previous section we studied the mashal of the husk, which explains how it can be that this entire world is filled with kelipos and sitra achra, and nevertheless all of it is part of the Creator's own plan. In this section we will look at a note the Alter Rebbe added in the margin, and then begin the explanation of the two levels within the kelipos.
The Marginal Note: Ohr Ein Sof Fills the Whole Earth
In the margin the Alter Rebbe adds a note whose content is really one simple idea: even though this world is defined as the world of kelipos and sitra achra, that is no contradiction to the Holy One, blessed be He, being present here. And not present at a distance, but present inside this very world, except that His presence here is in a state of exile.
To understand this, a preface. We have already met the concept of hishtalshelus, the chain of worlds: four worlds, Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and in each world ten sefiros (corresponding to the ten faculties of the soul). "Hishtalshelus" means a chain, a series of links each gripping the next. Even if the chain has forty links, the top link is ultimately connected to the bottom link as well. Therefore, even though we find ourselves in the lowest world, at the very end of the chain, that same divine life-force is present at the end exactly as it is at the beginning. Every descent is never a descent in His presence, since He is present everywhere; it is only a descent in the creation's awareness. His presence here and His presence there are equal in intensity, and the only question is how much the creation feels it.
In the language of the note: within this world there are "עשר ספירות דעשייה דקדושה", "the ten sefiros of Asiyah of holiness" (Etz Chaim, Shaar 43), meaning spiritual Asiyah, for there is a physical Asiyah and a spiritual Asiyah. And within the ten sefiros of Asiyah are invested the ten sefiros of Yetzirah, which is a higher world; and within them the ten sefiros of Beriah, a world higher still; and within them the ten sefiros of Atzilus. It turns out that all four worlds are included together even in the lowest level, only that the awareness of them there is minimal. We should add that every single sefirah is itself composed of ten, and sometimes the subdivision continues without end.
From here comes the conclusion of the note: "ונמצא אור אין סוף ברוך הוא מלא כל הארץ הלזו התחתונה", "and so the ohr Ein Sof, the infinite light of the Holy One, blessed be He, fills this entire lowest earth", the very same earth we just called the world of kelipos. When we say that this is the world of kelipos we have not, God forbid, banished the Creator from the world; the ohr Ein Sof is present here too in full force, only that the world, the olam which is a he'elem, a concealment, gives it no expression and hides it, and that is what exile means. How is He present here? "Through His investment in the ten sefiros of the four worlds, Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah", as explained in Etz Chaim (Shaar 47, ch. 2) and in Sefer HaGilgulim (ch. 20). Since this was written as a note in the margin and is not the main line of the chapter, we will not dwell on it at length here.
Two Levels Within the Kelipos
Now that both sides have been clarified, the side of holiness on the one hand and the side of sitra achra on the other, the Alter Rebbe begins an explanation that carries over into the next chapter as well: when we speak of the world of kelipos, of the side that is not holiness, we are not speaking of one uniform thing. "אלא שהקליפות נחלקות לשתי מדרגות זו למטה מזו", "but the kelipos are divided into two levels, one lower than the other".
An analogy from physical peels and shells: there is a hard shell, like the shell of a nut, which has to be cracked in order to reach the fruit, and which one throws away because nobody eats it; and there is a soft peel, like the peel of an orange, which also conceals the fruit, yet with the right processing it can be turned into a delicacy fit to eat. So even within the name "kelipah" there are levels: there is a kelipah that has no way of being elevated, whose "breaking is its repair", and there is a kelipah which, although right now it conceals, can itself be transformed into fruit.
The same is true in spiritual terms: there are realities that represent the worst kind of kelipah, which cannot be raised up and turned into holiness, and there are kelipos that any one of us can elevate to the side of holiness in a single moment.
The Lower Level: the Three Impure Kelipos
In the Alter Rebbe's words: "המדרגה התחתונה היא שלוש קליפות הטמאות ורעות לגמרי ואין בהם טוב כלל", "the lower level consists of the three kelipos that are completely impure and evil, with no good in them at all". At first glance this is puzzling. We just learned that in everything, even the lowest of the low, there is a divine life-force present in a state of exile, so how can there be "no good in them at all"? The meaning is that in these kelipos the good is concealed to such a degree, to the ultimate degree of concealment, that it is as if it were not there.
This resembles the halachic concept that "the piece itself becomes neveilah": a piece of kosher meat that fell into a large pot of forbidden food, where there was not enough kosher food to permit the mixture, renders the entire pot forbidden, and even that kosher piece itself becomes neveilah. We no longer say that the pot contains a certain percentage of permitted food; we look at the whole of it as forbidden. So too with the three impure kelipos: although there is a divine life-force within them, it has descended and contracted and been hidden to the point that one who looks says, "there is no good in this at all, it is entirely evil".
These kelipos are called, in Yechezkel's vision of the chariot, "רוח סערה וענן גדול ואש מתלקחת", "a stormy wind, a great cloud, and a flaming fire". In chapter 1, which opens the book of Yechezkel, the prophet describes the supernal chariot that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him, and among the things he saw were also the forces that oppose holiness, which he called by these names. But Yechezkel was seeing the root of the kelipos above, whereas we see down here those things in creation that receive their life-force through them.
How the Three Kelipos Are Represented in Creation
All of creation is divided into four categories: inanimate, vegetative, animal and speaking. The Holy One, blessed be He, created forces of kelipah in the world from the very outset; they are not the product of man's actions but a part of the plan of creation. Thus it says of the sixth day, "And God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good", and our Sages expounded: "good", this is the good angel; "very", this is the angel of death. Already on the sixth day evil too was created. Still, as we will see further on, a person's own deeds enlarge the forces of evil.
These forces were given representation within creation: there are parts of creation that belong, by the very fact of their being created, to the branch of the three impure kelipos. It is worth noticing that the Alter Rebbe brings examples from only three categories, speaking, animal and vegetative, and brings no example from the inanimate; we will return to the reason for this.
From the speaking category: "ומהן נשפעות ונמשכות נפשות כל אומות עובדי גילולים וקיום גופם", "and from them flow and are drawn the souls of all the idol-worshipping nations, and the sustaining of their bodies". Both their soul and their body receive their life-force from the three impure kelipos. But the soul of a Jew, as we learned already in chapter 1, receives from kelipas nogah and not from the three impure kelipos.
From the animal category: "ונפשות כל בעלי חיים הטמאים ואסורים באכילה וקיום גופם", "and the souls of all impure animals that are forbidden to be eaten, and the sustaining of their bodies". They too have a soul and a body, and both receive their life-force from the three impure kelipos.
From the vegetative category: "וקיום וחיות כל מאכלות אסורות מהצומח, כמו עורלה וכלאי הכרם", "and the sustaining and life-force of all forbidden foods of the vegetative kind, such as orlah and kilei hakerem". Orlah is the fruit of a tree's first three years, which is forbidden to eat; kilei hakerem is sowing grain next to a vine.
Other matters, however, such as songs, belong to kelipas nogah, and we will deal with them in chapter 7.
To summarize: in the marginal note we learned that even though this is the world of kelipos, the ohr Ein Sof, blessed be He, fills this lowest earth through His investment in the ten sefiros of the four worlds, and that the concealment lies in the creation's awareness and not in His actual presence. We then began the division of the kelipos into two levels, and examined the lower level, the three kelipos that are completely impure and evil with no good in them at all, called in Yechezkel's chariot "a stormy wind, a great cloud, and a flaming fire", together with their representation in creation in the categories of speaking, animal and vegetative.
In the next section we will take up the second level of kelipah, kelipas nogah, and the way in which a person can elevate it to the side of holiness.