In the previous section we learned that the dwelling place of the nefesh habahamis (the animal soul) is in the left chamber of the heart, and that the blood is the soul's expression within the body. Now we turn to how the nefesh habahamis operates, from the heart outward to the entire body and upward to the brain, and, on the other side, to the dwelling place of the nefesh ha'elokis (the divine soul), in the mochin (the faculties of the mind) in the head and in the right chamber of the heart.
Since the nefesh habahamis dwells in the left chamber of the heart, all of a person's cravings reside in the heart, and the heart acts as a result of the animal dimension of the soul. The Alter Rebbe lists them in a particular order: "תאוות והתפארות וכעס ודומיהן" - "cravings, boasting, anger, and the like." Why precisely this order?
The order of the middos: how the nefesh habahamis operates
Taavah (craving) - first a person craves something.
Hispa'arus (boasting) - once the craving has taken hold of him, he begins to glory in his fantasies and in the feelings he has about the thing he is about to obtain.
Ka'as (anger) - but not everything can be obtained. When a person runs into obstacles and does not reach what he is after, anger is the reaction: why am I not getting what I want? And then the cycle begins again.
This is how the nefesh habahamis expresses itself in the heart. And from the heart these middos spread out through the entire body: the hands act according to the craving, the feet run wherever it leads them, and so too the eyes, the ears and the mouth. The whole body becomes active around a craving whose starting point is in the heart.
"And it also rises to the brain in the head"
At first glance, once we have said that the middos spread through the entire body, the brain is included in that. Why, then, does the Alter Rebbe add that they rise to the brain? The answer is that this is not a mere spreading out but an ascent, an upgrade. The brain's role here is "לחשב ולהרהר בהן ולהתחכם בהן" - "to think and meditate about them and to become clever about them": to devise strategies for how to obtain the craving and how to hold on to it.
A precise point is worth noting: here the brain serves the heart and nothing more; it is not a partner in conversation that restrains the heart. With the nefesh habahamis, the brain does not determine what to want and what to reject, only how to obtain it. It is the same, in its own way, with animals: they possess remarkable cunning and cleverness, but all of their cleverness is enslaved to obtaining their desires and cravings, and their intelligence never tells them to stop. With the nefesh ha'elokis, by contrast, the brain is the one that determines what is appropriate and what is not.
Some explain the verse "ומותר האדם מן הבהמה אין כי הכל הבל" ("and the advantage of man over the animal is nothing, for all is vanity") along these lines: what is man's advantage over the animal? The word "nothing." His ability to say "no," to say "there isn't." The animal craves, and it has no brain to tell it "no." A person can tell himself: you want it, but no, it is not possible, you must stop. Therefore, even when the nefesh habahamis rises to the brain in the head, it is only in order to serve the heart and the craving.
The physical parallel: the blood
The Alter Rebbe has already established that the blood is the soul's expression, and so he shows that this very same pattern exists in physical terms as well: the blood originates in the heart, and from the heart it spreads to all the limbs "וגם עולה למוח שבראש" - "and it also rises to the brain in the head." Here too the question arises why this addition was necessary, and the answer is the same: the flow of blood in the brain is not like its flow in the other limbs. Throughout the body the very same blood flows, whereas what rises to the brain is the refined, delicate part of the blood, because the brain is a refined place that does not accept blood in its coarse form. And just as the blood is refined as it rises to the brain, so too the craving: its source is in the heart, and as it rises to the brain it is upgraded from a coarse craving into a craving full of cleverness, thoughts and calculations.
The dwelling place of the nefesh ha'elokis
Until now we have dealt with where the nefesh habahamis dwells. "אך מקום משכן נפש האלוקית" - "but the dwelling place of the divine soul": where does it reside, and from what base does it operate?
As we have learned, the difference between the two souls is that the nefesh habahamis looks in everything for the "I," for the feeling, for what is worth its while, while the nefesh ha'elokis looks in everything for the truth: not "what do I get out of this," but what is the right thing to do. Therefore its place is "במוחין שבראש" - "in the mochin in the head," because this is the nature of the mind: it is able to understand a thing as it truly is, whether a person is drawn to it or not, and to accept reality without mixing in personal considerations. On the contrary, personal interest that gets mixed into one's understanding is called, in the language of Torah, a bribe, and "a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise" and destroys true wisdom. True wisdom is precisely the neutralizing of one's interests and the acceptance of a thing exactly as it is.
From the brain the nefesh ha'elokis spreads to all the limbs: the mind tells a Jew what the right thing to do is, and in its wake all the limbs listen; the feet run to do a mitzvah, and so with all the other limbs.
"And also in the heart"
Here the meaning of the addition changes. Regarding the nefesh habahamis we said that its ascent to the brain does not establish a dwelling place there; its place remains in the heart. But the words "and also in the heart" refer back to the opening statement itself: the dwelling place of the nefesh ha'elokis is in the mochin and also in the heart. It has two bases. Two precise points teach us this:
The precise wording: had the intent been that it merely extends to the heart, it should have said "and also to the heart." Writing "and also in the heart" indicates a dwelling place of the soul.
An explicit statement in chapter 11: there the Alter Rebbe writes of "the good in his divine soul that is in his brain and in the right chamber of his heart," attributing the good both to the brain and to the heart.
And where in the heart? "בחלל הימני שאין בו דם" - "in the right chamber, which has no blood in it." As has already been noted, this does not mean that there is no blood in it at all. Rather, the meaning is one of two things: that it has no blood of its own and is merely a way station; or that the fourth of a log of blood that sustains the entire body is not found there, since that resides in the left chamber.
"The heart of the wise man is to his right"
From where do we know that the nefesh ha'elokis dwells in the right chamber of the heart? From the verse "לב חכם לימינו" - "the heart of the wise man is to his right." A precise point is in order: this verse has a continuation, "and the heart of the fool is to his left," and had the Alter Rebbe added "etc.," we would have understood that he was bringing proof for both sides: that the fool dwells in the left chamber and the wise man in the right. But he quotes only these three words, because his intent is to prove one thing alone: the place of the nefesh ha'elokis in the right chamber.
And why does he not need a proof for the placement of the nefesh habahamis in the left chamber? Because that is obvious and requires no proof: an animal is all heart and all cravings. But that the nefesh ha'elokis dwells in the heart as well, that is the novelty requiring proof, since we tend to think of it as belonging to the mind.
And in this lies a great principle: a Jew's task in the world is not confined to the mind alone but includes the avodah of the middos, the refinement of the emotions. The soul came down into the world in order to rectify the middos, and the service of the heart is important work with a purpose and a goal, not something incidental. Therefore, just as the nefesh ha'elokis dwells in the brain, so it has a dwelling place in the heart and a task with respect to the heart, and it is for this that the Alter Rebbe brings the verse.
"Love of Hashem like fiery flames"
What is the expression of the nefesh ha'elokis in the right chamber of the heart? Corresponding to the cravings, the boasting and the anger of the left chamber, the Alter Rebbe brings two general examples of Jewish emotion, one level and a level higher than it, and concludes "וכן שאר מידות קדושות" - "and likewise the other holy middos."
The first level is "אהבת השם כרשפי שלהבת" - "the love of Hashem like fiery flames": a love in which a Jew loves the Creator like a blazing flame of fire. And it is understood that although the heart is the dwelling place of the nefesh ha'elokis, what arouses it is the mind, for the mind rules over the heart and acts upon it.
In summary: in this section we learned that the nefesh habahamis dwells in the left chamber of the heart, and from there the cravings spread through the entire body and rise to the brain, with the brain serving as an instrument of the craving, much like the blood that rises to the brain in refined form. Opposite this, the nefesh ha'elokis dwells in the mochin in the head, since the mind is capable of accepting the truth without personal bias, and from there it spreads to all the limbs and also in the heart: in the right chamber, which has no blood, as it is written, "the heart of the wise man is to his right." This precise reading teaches that the avodah of the middos is an essential part of a Jew's task, and its first expression is the love of Hashem like fiery flames.
In the next section we will discuss the Alter Rebbe's emphasis in the phrase "like fiery flames," the higher level that he brings after it, and the other holy middos that dwell in the right chamber of the heart.