Daily Tanya

But in truth, if you examine closely the above-quoted text of Raaya Mehemna—

“And the Tree of [Knowledge of] Good and Evil, i.e., prohibition and permission…”—

[you will note that] it does not say “the teachings (i.e., studying the subjects) of prohibition and permission” nor “the laws of prohibition and permission,” which would suggest that they are (G-d forbid) the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Rather, it means to say that the actual thing which is prohibited, or the thing which is permitted, is of the Tree of Good and Evil,

i.e., of kelipat nogah, as stated in Etz Chaim.47

This, in fact, is the root of “assur” (meaning “forbidden”; lit., “bound”): the kelipah hovers over [the forbidden thing] so that it cannot rise aloft to holiness like that which is “muttar” (meaning “permitted”; lit., “unbound”);

[while “muttar”] means that [a permitted object] is not tied and bound (“assur”) to the kelipah that would anchor it,

and is [therefore] able to ascend by means of the person eating it with his mind on G-d, e.g., in order to have the strength to serve Him.

The same applies when there is no specific intent,

with any person who serves G-d, who studies [Torah] and prays to G-d with the energy derived from this eating,

so that the letters of Torah and of prayer which ascend to G-d are formed out of the energy distilled from that food.

This is so during the week: In order for the food eaten on weekdays to be elevated, it must be utilized for Torah or prayer.

But on the Shabbat, the kelipat nogah itself is elevated, together with the external aspect of all the worlds, for the Shabbat is characterized by the “elevation of the worlds” (aliyat haolamot).48

It is therefore a mitzvah to eat all kinds of pleasurable things on the Shabbat for the sake of oneg Shabbat (“enjoying the Shabbat”), irrespective of the fact that it gives one the strength to serve G-d,

and to partake of more meat and wine than usual,

even though on a weekday, one would be called a glutton and a drunkard.

It is otherwise with a forbidden thing.

It cannot ascend [to holiness,] neither on the Shabbat nor on a weekday, even if one were to pray and study with that energy, i.e., with the energy derived from eating it49—

unless one ate in order to save an endangered life, which is permitted by our Sages, of blessed memory, so that [the food] becomes [entirely]50 permissible.

But the study of Torah, even the laws of issur and hetter, impurity and purity, i.e., not the objects but the laws concerning them,

those being the Mishnayot and the Baraitot in the Gemara that address these issues,

and the codifiers who explain and clarify their words for practical application,

these constitute the body of the Oral Torah,

which is the sefirah of malchut in [the World of] Atzilut, as stated in innumerable places in the sacred Zohar.

It is likewise written at the beginning of the Tikkunim,51 “malchut (lit., ‘sovereignty’)—that is the Mouth, which we call the Oral Torah.”

And in Atzilut, “He and His causations (garmohi; lit., ‘organs’) are one in them.” I.e., the [infinite] Ein Sof-light, and the vessels (kelim) which emanate from Him, and so, too, His attributes, are all one with Him—in the sefirot.52

That is, the [infinite] Ein Sof-light unites itself in Atzilut in an absolute unity so that He and His will and wisdom—vested in His speech, which is called malchut—are entirely one.