Daily Tanya

Since everything in the realm of holiness has its counterpart in the unholy realms of the sitra achara, there is also an unholy counterpart to the observance of the mitzvot and to Torah study, which produce union with G-d. Their counterpart is:

the 365 prohibitions stated in the Torah and all the Rabbinical prohibitions.

Since they are contrary to and the very opposite of G-d’s will and wisdom,

they represent total and complete separation from His unity and oneness.

They are the same as the sitra achara and the kelipah, which are called “idolatry” and “other gods,” since the internal aspect of the Divine will is concealed from them, as explained above1—that they receive their life-force from the “hinder-part” of the Divine will, the level of אֲחוֹרַיִים, and for this reason, they are called אֶלֹקִים אֲחֵרִים—“other gods.”

Just as the forbidden actions themselves represent separation from G-dliness, so, too, the three garments of a Jew’s animal soul, which stems from the kelipah of nogah—namely, the thought, speech, and action that are clothed in, i.e., that think, speak, or act in violation of, the 365 Torah prohibitions or any of the Rabbinic injunctions,

and similarly the essence of the soul itself which is clothed in its garments, since it is the soul itself, after all, which thinks, speaks, and acts through its “garments”—the faculties of thought, speech, and action,

all of them become completely united with this sitra achara and kelipah called “avodah zarah,” i.e., idolatry.

Not only are they united with the kelipah and thus equal to it, but furthermore, they become secondary and subordinate to it and much lower and more debased than it.

For the kelipah is not clothed in a corporeal body and hence is more exposed to the divine light; it knows its Master and does not rebel against Him (G-d forbid) by any independent act of sending its evil messengers, other than in the service of G-d.

So did Bilaam say: “I cannot violate the Word of G-d….”2

Although the kelipot are called avodah zarah, idolatry, which is a denial of G-d, yet they refer to Him as “the G-d of gods,” indicating that they do not deny Him completely.

They cannot violate G-d’s will, for they know and perceive that He is their life and sustenance, since they derive their nurture from the “hindermost aspect” of the Divine will which encompasses them.

It is only the sustenance and life-force that is within them, i.e., the internal life-force which constitutes the identity of every created being, as explained in ch. 22, that is in a state of exile, so that they regard themselves as gods—which is a denial of G-d’s unity.

But they are not so completely heretical as to deny G-d and to assert that He does not exist. On the contrary, they regard Him as “the G-d of gods,” recognizing that their life and existence ultimately derive from His will.

Therefore, they never rebel against G-d’s will.

It follows, then, that the person who does violate G-d’s will is greatly inferior to and more debased than the sitra achara and kelipah, which are called avodah zarah and “other gods.”

He is separated completely from G-d’s unity and oneness even more than they are as though denying His unity even more radically than they, G-d forbid.

This is similar to what is written in Etz Chaim, Portal 42, end of ch. 4, that the evil in this corporeal world is the dregs of the coarse kelipot, it is the sediment of the purifying process, and so on.

For this reason, all matters of this world are harsh and evil, and the wicked prevail in it, and so forth.