Daily Tanya

This higher level of teshuvah, the cleaving of spirit to Spirit through the study of the Torah and the performance of acts of kindness,

comes as a downward thrust from Above,

so that the word of G-d shall actually be in one’s mouth,

as Scripture states, “I have placed My words in your mouth.”1

“His right hand embraces me,”2 through [man’s] acts of kindness,

for “kindness is the [supernal] right arm….”3

However, mortal man must ascend from stage to stage

toward this higher level of teshuvah and this “cleaving of spirit to Spirit” through the heart’s devoted worship,

particularly during Shema and its blessings,

so that he might in perfect truth say during the recitation of the Shema, “You shall love [the L-rd your G-d] with all your heart and with all your soul….”4

Likewise: “These words [which I command you today] shall be [upon your heart]…. And you shall speak of them….”5

The word of G-d must truly be in his mouth, which is the case when one’s mouth serves as a vessel for G-d’s word,

and7 “there is no truth [but Torah].”8

He must also perform all the mitzvot,

as it is written, “He has sanctified us with His commandments.”9

This [sanctification] has the same sense as in the phrase, “You are sanctified unto me”10—i.e., separate from all others and wholly sanctified unto G-d through the performance of His commandments.

This is the level of kodesh ha’elyon (“supernal holiness”), which one draws upon himself through the performance of the mitzvot.

“kodesh” (translated “holiness”) connotes something apart, or transcendent,

that cannot be contained within the created worlds, permeating each of them with Divine life-force commensurate with its particular capacity,

since “everything is considered as naught before Him.”11

Rather, this is a level [of holiness] that transcends (lit., “encompasses”) all worlds, and hence affects them all equally from afar, so to speak;

this is [the level of] the supreme will, and so on, which is drawn down into this world through the performance of mitzvot,

as discussed in the first part of the Tanya, Likkutei Amarim, ch. 46.

After prayer as well we say, “To You, O G-d, I lift my soul,”12 referring to the initiative of the worshipper below in raising his soul upward to its Source,

so that through the performance of mitzvot, spirit will cleave to Spirit throughout the day….

All this is brought about through meditation on the grandeur of the Infinite One,

concentrating the mind deeply during the two blessings preceding Shema and during the preparatory hymns of praise known as Pesukei Dezimrah, as is known.