Chapter 18

In the previous chapter, the Alter Rebbe discussed the verse, “For this thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it”1 (i.e., it is simple for you to fulfill the mitzvot with your heart, with love and awe of G‑d). He explained that through contemplating G‑d’s greatness, every person can come to experience such love and awe. Not every man, to be sure, is a tzaddik, with his heart under his control. But everyone’s mind is under his control, and he can focus his mind in meditation on any subject he chooses. Even if the love and awe produced by such meditation do not make themselves felt in the heart in a revealed way, they will at least appear in his mind, and in the recesses of his heart, as an attitude of love and awe. Even this detached form of love and awe is sufficient to motivate one to observe the mitzvot and will enable the mitzvot so motivated to soar heavenward as though he had observed them with a true love and awe of G‑d actually felt in the heart.

But it cannot truly be said of love and awe, which must be created by way of meditation, that their attainment is “very near” to everyone. Meditation requires knowledge of the subject at hand and intellectual predisposition. If one’s understanding of G‑d’s greatness is scant or if he lacks the intellectual capacity for meditation, how is it “very near” to him to observe the mitzvot with love and awe of G‑d?

In the following chapters, the Alter Rebbe will therefore explain an alternative method of attaining the love and awe of G‑d, a method that may be used even by one with the aforementioned shortcomings. It consists of arousing the natural love of G‑d that lies hidden in the heart of every Jew, a love that is his birthright, his inheritance from our Patriarchs. No meditation is needed to arouse it; all that is required of him is to recall and to make himself aware of this love—and he will be motivated by this recollection to observe the mitzvot. Since no meditation is required to create them, such love and awe of G‑d are indeed “very near.” They are accessible to all.

The word “very” indicates that it is an extremely simple matter to serve G‑d “with one’s heart”—with love and fear of G‑d. In the previous chapter, the Alter Rebbe explained that a love of G‑d is readily attainable through meditation on G‑d’s greatness, whereby one can generate at least an “intellectual love”—tevunah. Yet it cannot be said of profound meditation that it is “very near to you.”

The love and fear of which the Alter Rebbe will now speak are emotions in the fullest sense of the word. But how can one acquire a true love and fear of G‑d if he is incapable of meditation? In answer, the author continues:

Since every Jew already possesses this love as an inheritance, he need not create it through meditation; all that is required of him is that he arouse it and implement it in his observance of the mitzvot. In order to explain how one goes about doing so, the author first discusses the characteristics of this love.

There is a love of G‑d which seeks a unity with G‑d while still remaining a separate entity—a soul clothed in a body; there is another kind of love which is a yearning for self-extinction; and so forth. What drive is contained in this love which is our inheritance?

As stated previously, observance of the prohibitive commandments requires a fear of G‑d. Therefore, the statement that the hidden love in every Jew will lead him to observe all the commandments implies that this love also contains an element of awe.

“His level” refers to the level of the root of his soul; “his deeds” refers to one’s efforts toward refining himself—as the Zohar states: “When one betters himself, he is given a higher order of soul.”

This means to say that the union of every Jewish couple, no matter how low their spiritual level, brings forth a soul from, at the very least, the lowest level of holiness. This lowest level is nefesh d’malchut d’Asiyah, for Asiyah is the lowest of the Four Worlds, and malchut is the lowest sefirah within that World. Malchut itself is further composed of three levels—nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, nefesh being the lowest of the three. In addition, as we have seen in the previous chapters, the soul itself consists of the three levels of nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. Thus, one who has been given only a nefesh which stems from nefesh d’malchut d’Asiyah has the lowest order of soul deriving from the lowest level in the spiritual hierarchy—as the Alter Rebbe now goes on to say.

As the author explains in ch. 52, the sefirah of malchut d’Atzilut clothes itself in, and illuminates, the World of Asiyah. Since malchut d’Atzilut contains all the sefirot of Atzilut, the illumination of Asiyah by malchut thus means that each sefirah of Atzilut as it is contained in malchut d’Atzilut garbs itself in the corresponding sefirah of Asiyah—chochmah d’malchut d’Atzilut in chochmah d’Asiyah, binah d’malchut d’Atzilut in binah d’Asiyah, and so forth.

A soul that has fallen captive in the hands of the kelipot remains in this state until the kelipot release it of their own will. Anything in the hold of the kelipot cannot be wrested from them against their will, for the principle that “G‑d does not make unjustifiable demands of His creations”9 holds true even with regard to kelipot. In the case of a child to be born to sinful parents, the kelipot willingly release the soul in the hope that such a child will be influenced by its parents and will become a sinner like them. In this way, the kelipot stand to extract an even greater measure of vitality from the holiness of the soul by means of its eventual sins. However, having such a lofty soul, the child is able to overcome the obstacles imposed by its parents’ wickedness and may rise to the level of a tzaddik. In this way, paradoxically, it comes to pass that a tzaddik may be born to wicked parents because of their wickedness.10

Returning to his original point, that every Jew has a soul which stems from the holy sefirot and that ultimately each soul is animated by the light of the Ein Sof by way of the soul’s faculty of wisdom (chochmah), the Alter Rebbe now goes on to explain why it is chochmah that is the original recipient of the light of the Ein Sof. The explanation is based on a discussion of the nature of the soul’s faculty of wisdom, which now follows:

It is this latter aspect of chochmah which enables it to suffuse the entire soul (as stated earlier) and, in its active state, to affect even one’s thought, speech, and action (which are even lower than the soul’s lowest faculties, being merely the “garments,” the organs of expression, for the soul), as will be stated further in ch. 19.

Those faculties whose functions are intelligence and comprehension cannot serve as receptacles for the light of the Ein Sof, for knowledge cannot grasp the unknowable. Only chochmah, which itself is higher than comprehension, can receive this light.

That is, the fool, lacking understanding, grasps every subject through the medium of faith, while the clever man’s grasp is based on reason. However, this derogation of the fool for approaching every idea with faith can apply only where the subject of his belief is within the grasp of reason. In this case, the basis for his faith is his own lack of understanding, and he is therefore called a fool. When dealing with G‑dliness, however, which is essentially beyond comprehension, there is no other approach, as the Alter Rebbe goes on to say:

Were their readiness to face martyrdom intellectually motivated, the benefits and costs of the act would first be carefully weighed. But, in fact, we see that the decision to sacrifice oneself is not based on such rational arguments, stemming instead from a nonintellectual resolve that it is simply impossible to do otherwise.

Since the light of the Ein Sof is vested in every Jew’s soul, everyone, regardless of his level of knowledge, is prepared to sacrifice his life for his faith in G‑d.