Antithetically, the 365 prohibitive commandments of the Torah, as well as the Rabbinic injunctions, since they are contrary to His blessed Will and Wisdom and, indeed, the very opposite thereof, represent total and complete separation from His blessed Unity and Oneness, the same as the sitra achra and kelipah which are called avodah zarah (idolatry) and "other gods" because of the "Hiding of the Countenance" of the Supreme Will, as is explained above.

Likewise the three "garments" of the nefesh stemming from the kelipat nogah in Jews, namely, thought, speech and action, when clothed in the 365 prohibitive commands of the Torah, or in the Rabbinic injunctions, as also the essence of the nefesh itself which pervades these garments— all become actually united with the said sitra achra and kelipah, called avodah zarah. Furthermore, they become subordinate and secondary to it [the kelipah ], and considerably inferior and more debased than it. For the kelipah is not clothed in a corporeal body, and it knows its Master and is not rebellious against Him by any independent act of sending its evil messengers, G‑d forbid, when not commissioned by the Omnipresent, blessed be He. Witness Balaam's statement, "I cannot go beyond the word of G‑d... ." And even though it is called avodah zarah, He is, at least, acknowledged as "The G‑d of gods," and the latter are utterly powerless to contravene His blessed Will, for they know and apprehend that He is their life and sustenance, since they derive their nurture from the so-called "hinder-most part" of the blessed Supreme Will which encompasses diem. It is only because their sustenance and inner life-source are, as it were, in "exile" within them that they presume to regard themselves as gods, which is a denial of His unity. Nevertheless they are not so completely heretical as to deny G‑d and to assert that He does not exist; only they regard Him as the "G‑d of gods," recognising that their life and existence are [ultimately] derived and bestowed upon them from His blessed Will. Therefore they are never rebellious against His blessed Will.

If this be so, then the person who opposes His blessed Will is exceedingly inferior to and more debased than the sitra achra and the kelipah, called avodah zarah and "strange gods," and he is completely sundered from His Unity and Oneness, even more than they, as though denying His unity more radically than they, G‑d forbid.

Compare what is written in Etz Chayim, Portal 42, end of ch. 4, that the evil which is in this material world is the dregs of the coarse kelipot, ...; hence the ultimate in the purifying process, and so on. Therefore are all worldly things severe and evil, and the wicked prevail in it, and so forth.

This explains the commentary of our Sages, of blessed memory, on the verse, "If any man's wife turn aside," that "no person commits any transgression [unless a spirit of folly has entered into him]." For even an adulterous woman, with her frivolous nature, could have controlled her passionate drive, were it not for the spirit of folly in her which covers, obscures and conceals the hidden love of her divine soul yearning to cleave to her faith in G‑d, in His Unity and Oneness, and not to be parted, G‑d forbid, even at the cost of her life, from His Unity, by idolatrous worship, G‑d forbid, be it only by an outward acknowledgment, without any belief at all in her heart. Surely she could subdue the temptation and lust of adultery, which is lighter suffering than death, may G‑d protect us! But the distinction she makes between the interdict against adultery and that against bowing to an idol is also but a spirit of folly stemming from the kelipah which envelops the divine soul up to, but not including, its faculty of chochmah, because of the Divine light that is clothed in that faculty, as mentioned above.

The real truth, however, is that even in the case of a minor sin, the offender transgresses against the blessed Supreme Will and is completely sundered from His blessed Unity and Oneness even more than the sitra achra and the kelipah, called "strange gods" and "idolatry,' and than all things that are derived therefrom in this world, to wit, the unclean cattle and beasts, and unclean birds, and the abominable insects and reptiles. To quote: "The gnat was [created] ahead of thee [man]," which means that even the gnat— which consumes but does not excrete, and is the lowest kelipah and the most distant from holiness, which bestows benevolence even at the greatest distance— precedes the sinful man in the descending gradation and flow of life from the blessed Supreme Will. All the more so the other unclean living creatures, and even the fierce beasts, all of which do not deflect from their purpose but obey His blessed command, even though they cannot perceive it... , To quote further, "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth," eliciting the commentary of our Sages, of blessed memory, that "No evil beast defies a human being unless he appears to it like an animal." While confronting the righteous, from whose face the Divine image never departs, the evil beasts are humbled before them, as is stated in the Zohar of Daniel in the lions' den.

It is, therefore, clear that he who sins and transgresses against His blessed Will, even in a minor offence, is, at the time he commits it, more completely removed from the Supreme Holiness, namely His blessed Unity and Oneness, than all the unclean living creatures and abominable insects and reptiles which derive their sustenance from the sitra achra and the kelipah of "idolatry."

As for the principle that saving a life overrides certain prohibitions, and the circumstances when the law calls for the commission of a transgression so as to escape death— this is in accordance with the explanation of our Sages, of blessed memory, that "The Torah declares, 'violate one Sabbath for him, that he may observe many Sabbaths,'" and not because of the relative lenity or gravity of the sins. (This is supported by the fact that the violation of the Sabbath is extremely grave and comparable with idolatry in relation to the law of animal slaughtering by one who is a habitual transgressor of any particular Jewish precept, as codified in Yore Deah Sect. II, unlike the case of one whose particular wilful sin is that of incest. Nevertheless, when it is a question of saving a life, the prohibitions of the Sabbath are suspended, but never those of incest. Ergo, it is a decree of Holy Writ.)

After the sinful act, however, if it belongs to the category of sins the penalty for which is neither karet (spiritual extinction) nor death by Divine visitation, in which case the divine soul does not entirely perish and is not completely cut off from its root in the living G‑d, except that through this sin its attachment to, and connection with, its root has been weakened somewhat— in that case his vitalising

Note: According to the extent and specific nature of the blemish [thus caused] in the soul and in its roots in the upper spheres, are the various so-called purifying processes and retributions in Purgatory, or in this world— an appropriate retribution for each transgression and sin, in order to cleanse and remove the stain and blemish. Nor is the blemish always identical in the case of transgressions punishable by death or spiritual extinction (karet).

animal soul which is clothed in the body, and also his body, return and rise from the sitra achra and kelipah and draw closer to the holiness of the divine soul that pervades them, which believes in One G‑d, and remains faithful to Him even at the time when the sin is committed, except that it is then in a state of veritable "exile," as it were, within the animal soul of the sitra achra which has caused the body to sin and has dragged it down with itself into the depths of Sheol, far down beneath the defilement of the sitra achra and kelipah of "idolatry"— may G‑d preserve us! What greater exile can there be than this, "A plunge from a high roof to a deep pit!"— as has been previously explained, that the root and source of all Jewish souls is in the Supreme Wisdom, and He and His Wisdom are one and the same, and so forth. It is comparable, by way of example, to one who seizes the king's head, drags it down and dips his face in a privy full of filth, than which there is no greater outrage, even if he does it only for a moment. For the kelipot -and sitra achra are called "vomit and filth," as is known.