ביאור על בשעה שהקדימו

This heading marks what follows as a biur, an explanation, of the preceding maamar, which opens with the Sages’ words that at Sinai Israel put “we will do” before “we will hear.” The explanation fills in the Kabbalistic background of points that the maamar made briefly.

The maamar above used the line “the end of the deed is in thought first,” from the Friday-night hymn Lecha Dodi, and applied it to supernal Chochmah. Here the explanation gives the root of that idea: how Chochmah, the first of the Sefiros, can be called G‑d’s “end of the deed.”

The Unknowable Head (Reisha d’Lo Isyada) is the highest level of Keser, so lofty that it cannot be known. Etz Chaim teaches that its enclothement, its descent from level to level, ends in the Chochmah of Atzilus (Sha’ar 2 is cited in its Mahadura Basra, the later version of that gate), and the Tanya cites this in a gloss to chapter 35; so Chochmah is where that descent concludes.

The Unknowable Head is drawn from the Malchus of Adam Kadmon, the primordial level above all the worlds, and Malchus is the level of speech, so this level is called an “utterance.” Pri Etz Chaim says the same in its kavanah (mystical intention) for the morning prayer “Blessed is He who spoke, and the world came into being,” which it connects with the Unknowable Head.

Since utterance and deed are one, as the maamar above explained, an utterance whose descent ends in Chochmah is a deed that ends there. And because Chochmah is called “Thought,” the line can be read: the end of this deed is in Thought, which is first.

The Zohar says that beyond the first hidden point, Chochmah, nothing is known at all. The Mikdash Melech, a commentary on the Zohar, explains that the Infinite Light is revealed only in Chochmah, and from Chochmah it spreads into Imma (Binah) and into the lower configurations, Z’eir Anpin and Nukva.

The Tikkunei Zohar describes divine flow as “like water that waters a tree,” making it grow. The text identifies this water with the five Chasadim (kindnesses) of Z’eir Anpin, which make its vessels grow and are the root of the 248 positive commandments; their root is in the Whiteness of the Skull and, higher, in the Chesed of Atik, the innermost level of Keser, while the 365 prohibitions come from the five Gevuros and, higher, from the Gevurah of Atik.

The Torah is rooted higher, in Mocha Stima’ah, the hidden brain, which is also the source of the “hairs” of the Skull. In Kabbalah these hairs are fine channels of flow, and the text says that they are the laws of the Torah; Etz Chaim treats them in its gate on Arich Anpin, the outer configuration of Keser.

The Skull (Gulgalta) is the outer dimension of Keser, and the mitzvos come from it, through the white path between the hairs. The Idra Rabba says that this path divides into 613 paths in Z’eir Anpin, the 613 commandments.

The Torah stands higher than the mitzvos, for it comes from Mocha Stima’ah, the Chochmah within Keser, its inner dimension. Through Chochmah things are “clarified,” so the Torah decides what is permitted and what is forbidden and rules over the mitzvos, which are like vessels.

A householder decides where each vessel stands; he rules over his vessels. So the Torah rules over the mitzvos, and the text takes the sukkah as its example: the mitzvah itself draws down the encompassing lights (makifim) of Imma, that is, of Binah.

The Torah’s laws define the sukkah: at least seven handbreadths by seven, no higher than twenty cubits, and otherwise it is no mitzvah at all. Such measures are the Torah’s dominion and command over the mitzvah.

Like a householder deciding how a vessel is to be set, this measuring power is what the Zohar calls the Botzina d’Kardinusa, the “lamp of darkness,” the measuring line that sets the dimensions of the building. In Likkutei Torah, Nasso (in the Biur on “So shall you bless”), the Alter Rebbe explains it as the power that gives every flow of lights and vessels its limit and measure, and says that the fine details of the laws are drawn from it.

The measuring line comes from Mocha Stima’ah, in which the Gevurah of Atik, the power of limitation, is enclothed. The Sages count “In the beginning” as one of the ten utterances of creation even though it has no “and He said,” and the text identifies that hidden utterance with the measuring line.

From that same measuring source comes the Torah, which defines how each mitzvah is to be done. The Biur on “So shall you bless” to which the Alter Rebbe refers is the one in Likkutei Torah, Nasso, where the measuring line is explained.

The verse “This is the Torah: a man (adam)” is read as calling the Torah itself adam. The word adam contains dam, blood, and “the blood is the soul”: blood gives life, whereas water, the five Chasadim, only makes things grow. And adam also recalls adameh, “I will be like the Most High,” for the Torah draws from the very highest level, the Will of all wills, the Primordial Thought.

This is why the Torah was given on Shavuos. Each of the three pilgrimage festivals corresponds to one of the Avos: Pesach to Avraham, for the Midrash learns from his “Knead and make cakes” that it was the time of Pesach, and Shavuos to Yitzchak, because the Torah was given with the sound of the shofar, which recalls the ram offered in Yitzchak’s place. In Likkutei Torah, Pinchas, the Alter Rebbe pairs them in the same way.

Avraham is Chesed, the root of the mitzvos, and the numerical value of his name, Avraham, is 248, the number of the positive commandments, which correspond to the 248 limbs of the body. The Talmud (Nedarim 32b) says that G‑d first made him master over 243 limbs and in the end over 248.

At first he was called Avram, whose value is 243; through the circumcision the letter hei, whose value is five, was added, and these five are the five Chasadim. They are the “water that waters a tree,” the root of the mitzvos, and the circumcision revealed them.

In the Biur on “And the number of the children of Israel shall be,” earlier in Bamidbar, the Alter Rebbe explains that the mitzvos are called water because they come from the five Chasadim, which make the vessels grow “like water that waters a tree.”

Yitzchak embodies supernal Gevurah, and his name, from tzechok, means laughter, an expression of delight, because his root is in the Gevurah of Atik, the level of delight. So Shavuos, Yitzchak’s festival, is the time of the Giving of the Torah, which comes from that same level, the adam described above.

Because the Torah is adam, the life-giving blood, the Ten Commandments include “You shall not murder.” In the terms of the maamar above, it means that no one should “shed the blood of man into man,” pouring the life of the holy adam into the adam of kelipah, G‑d forbid.

The Zohar reads “the river shall be wasted and dried up” as the two destructions: “wasted” in the First Temple and “dried up” in the Second. In the maamar above (Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 13c) the Alter Rebbe explains that sin makes a separation, so that the revelation of Chochmah departs and, all the more, the revelation in the heart’s emotions. The Talmud (Gittin, chapter HaNizakin) relates that when Titus slashed the curtain of the Holy of Holies, blood spurted out.

The blood shown to Titus was a sign of what Israel’s sins had caused: the life-force of the adam of holiness had been poured into the adam of kelipah.

The text turns to the next commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” Etz Chaim reads the three things a husband owes his wife, “her food, her clothing and her conjugal time,” as three kinds of divine flow; “her food” is the life-force that enters the worlds as an inner light, sustaining them from within.

“Her clothing” is the encompassing light, which surrounds the worlds from beyond. Both the inner and the encompassing light belong to the ordinary order of the chain of worlds, which the morning blessing before the Shema describes: “in His goodness He renews every day, continually, the work of creation.”

G‑d constantly renews the worlds, giving them life and existence, for without this they would cease to be. Yet this renewal only re-creates them as they already are; it brings nothing new into being.

“Her conjugal time,” by contrast, is the drawing down of an entirely new light that was never part of the chain of worlds at all. Through it new light and truly new souls come into being.

The Maharnash’s introduction to Pri Etz Chaim speaks of light that is added, an addition greater than the principal itself, and the Zohar calls such a drawing down zivug, “union.” Another transcript of this teaching (Sefer HaMaamarim 5562) sets it against a child who is taught new ideas: that is not a complete innovation, only a bringing out of what was hidden.

Why would the Zohar describe something so lofty with so physical an image as marital union? In the Biur on “I am black, yet comely” (Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim), the Alter Rebbe gives the reason: the arousal that rises from the receiver, the “feminine waters,” is rooted very high, and once refined it rises above the giver, as “a woman of valor is her husband’s crown”; so the union of male and female was the fitting image, physical as it is.

Shabbos is like “conjugal time”: on it additional lights are given as a gift, a new light that was not part of the creation of the four worlds. That is why the Talmud calls Shabbos “a good gift” from G‑d’s treasure house, and why on Shabbos we add the Musaf (“additional”) prayer, for the added holiness.

Pri Etz Chaim (Sha’ar Krias Shema) explains that Abba and Imma (Chochmah and Binah) have two unions: an outer one, constant and never interrupted, which keeps the worlds alive, and an inner one, not constant, which brings forth souls. From this the text derives that “food” and “clothing,” the ongoing sustenance of the worlds, come from the outer dimension of Abba and Imma, and “conjugal time” from their inner dimension.

Pri Etz Chaim adds, at the end of chapter 11, that the union which brings forth new souls needs a new light received from above, whereas the union of the worlds draws on what Abba and Imma already hold; another transcript of this teaching gives the reason: “conjugal time” is birth, a complete child, an entirely new thing. The commandment “You shall not commit adultery” warns against drawing this highest flow, G‑d forbid, to the external forces, the forces outside holiness.

“You shall not steal” is explained in terms of a person’s inner life: he must guard against self-deception, imagining that he has already broken his evil desires when in truth he has not. It is this false self-assurance that the text connects with stealing.

From such self-deception comes a “stealing” above, in which the external forces steal vitality from holiness, as Etz Chaim describes. The text also cites the Arizal’s Likkutei HaShas on the Jordan, which “takes from this one and gives to that one,” a teaching mentioned in the discourse on the techeles in Parshas Shelach.

The text points to Rashi on Job and to the Talmud in Sanhedrin on the words “a word was stolen to me”: Rashi explains that the word reached Elifaz only by stealth, and in Sanhedrin the Satan applies the verse to what he overheard from behind the heavenly curtain. The remedy is to break one’s desires in complete truth; then no stealing will be drawn above.

The Zohar notes that in “You shall not steal” the cantillation makes a break, teaching that some “stealing” is permitted: one may “steal the mind” of one’s teacher in Torah. The text also points to Etz Chaim, Sha’ar HaOna’ah (the gate of deception), chapter 2, which speaks of “only actual stealing.”

Yosef had his silver goblet hidden in the sack of Binyamin, the lower tzaddik. Elsewhere this is explained to mean that the “silver goblet,” great love and joy of the soul, was not Binyamin’s own but came from the level of Yosef. Another transcript of this teaching (Sefer HaMaamarim 5562) explains the “stealing”: Binyamin did not know of it, and through it Yosef wished to raise him up to himself; this is a holy “stealing,” which must never be drawn, G‑d forbid, to the external forces.

Psalms speaks of the angels as “those who do His word, to hearken to the voice of His word.” Here “do” is read as “make”: through Torah and mitzvos a Jew makes, that is, builds and perfects, the word of Havayah, Malchus of Atzilus, so that the Infinite One becomes King over a people, for there is no king without a people; and afterwards comes “hearkening to the voice of His word.”

The power to be “those who do His word” depends both on the deed and on the will of the heart, the inner desire behind the deed.

That will of the heart is the “secret” of the heavenly voice’s question, “Who revealed to My children this secret?”: putting “we will do” before “we will hear.” It revealed the love for G‑d hidden in every Jew, bringing it out of concealment, and in response a revelation was drawn down from the most hidden level of all, Temira d’chol Temirin.

This is the difference between Israel at Sinai and the Avos, who kept the Torah before it was given. It parallels the Sages’ saying that baalei teshuvah, those who return to G‑d after sin, stand where complete tzaddikim cannot.

The Zohar (Chayei Sarah) gives the reason: baalei teshuvah draw themselves near to the King with more will of the heart and with great strength. The text explains: they bring the point of the heart out of concealment into revelation more than tzaddikim do.

“With great strength” means with a mighty force that rises from the inwardness and depth of the point of the heart, which is revealed in them.

Because their arousal from below came from such depth, they also aroused above a greater revelation from the Most Hidden of all hidden. The arousal above always matches the arousal below.

This is why the Torah was given with “the voice of Havayah in power.” The Midrash reads it as a power matched to each one’s strength, and the text explains that the power from above answered the “greater strength” with which Israel revealed the secret by putting “we will do” first.

That strength came from the point of the heart, the level of teshuvah, awakened through the Exodus from Egypt. So at the Giving of the Torah more was drawn out of concealment into revelation.

The Avos, complete tzaddikim, drew down revelations too, but theirs remained above, in Atzilus, and did not descend into the lower worlds.

Israel drew down “hearkening to the voice of His word,” a revelation that reached below and was “engraved on the tablets.” The Sages read charus, “engraved,” as cheirus, “freedom,” and the text explains it as freedom from the nourishment the external forces draw.

The utterance “You shall not murder” was then a decree and a promise that the pouring of holy life into kelipah described above would no longer happen.

Now the words of the heavenly voice are explained: “Who” (mi) is Binah, and “revealed to My children this secret” is Yesod of Abba, the channel of Chochmah, for the hidden love is rooted in supernal Chochmah (Tanya, chapter 18) and is revealed through Binah, contemplation. This is the “point in a palace,” Chochmah within Binah, for Chochmah and Binah are “two companions” that never part. In the discourse on “See, I set [before you]” (Likkutei Torah, Re’eh), the Alter Rebbe draws the lesson for a person’s service: contemplation and self-nullification must never part either.

In a bracketed addition, the text points to the Ramaz (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto) on the Zohar: on Vayera, on “it is a hidden secret,” and at the beginning of Chukas, on “and in a supernal secret.”

Another reading: “this secret” is the Chasadim (kindnesses) covered within Yesod of Imma. In the Biur on “And the number of the children of Israel shall be,” the covered Chasadim are called mi, the hidden, and the revealed ones eleh, the two parts of the Name Elokim.

The Midrash reads “the secret of Havayah is for those who fear Him” as circumcision, for circumcision reveals the Chasadim covered in Yesod of Imma. That covered level, called “secret,” is the hidden love.

Through revealing the hidden love, Israel was given the power to draw down from above a revelation of the supernal will, to be “those who do His word.” The Zohar (Balak) reads these as the ones who repair the “word” and restore her to her first beauty, after which all the hosts stand “to hearken” to her; so only after this comes “hearkening to the voice of His word.”

Bekol literally means “in the voice”: to hear what is within the voice, its inner content. This inner voice is drawn down below through “His word,” as the Zohar says of Sinai that the speech of each level came forth from within the one above it.

So one must first be “those who do His word,” as the verse says, “For the word is near to you… to do it.” Only then can one hearken to the voice of His word.

“To do it” means to make and perfect the level of the word, Malchus, so that the revelation of voice can be drawn into it. The Kehot note traces this sense of “making” to the Midrash that everything created in the six days still needs making, “even man needs perfecting”; and the Zohar discusses how voice and speech are joined.

One must also draw into the word the inner level “in the voice,” as explained above. This is like the discourse on “And now, let the power of Ado-nai be great,” where the power of Ado-nai, the Name associated with Malchus, is to be made great.

This is done through Torah and mitzvos, which draw from the Will of all wills. So the Sages say, “Do not read banayich, ‘your children,’ but bonayich, ‘your builders’”: Israel builds the word of G‑d, and through this afterwards hearkens to the voice of His word.

The text now explains the word “Who” (mi) in the heavenly voice’s question by comparing the verse in which G‑d says of Israel at Sinai, “Who will give that they should have this heart, to fear Me.” In plain Hebrew mi yitein, “who will give,” means “if only”; the maamar takes the words literally and asks who this “Who” is.

The Midrash and the Talmud say that Israel were at fault for not answering, “You give!”: they should have asked G‑d Himself to give them such a heart.

The Alshich asks: the Sages teach that “everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven,” meaning that awe of G‑d is left to a person’s own choice. How, then, could Israel have asked G‑d to give it?

The Maharsha answers in his Chiddushei Aggados that even so, G‑d certainly has the power to incline people’s hearts toward good, as many verses show.

The text agrees that the Maharsha’s words are compelling, for in the blessing before the morning Shema we ask, “Unite our hearts to love and to fear Your Name.”

So too King David prays, “Unite my heart to fear Your Name,” and the Talmud cites three verses showing that G‑d Himself turns hearts, among them “I will give you a heart of flesh.”

But then what do the Sages mean by “everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven”? The text adopts the explanation of Rabbeinu Bachya on this verse.

Rabbeinu Bachya explains “in the hands of Heaven” as in the hands of the attribute called Heaven, while the fear of Heaven is above it. The Alter Rebbe adds that “Heaven” (shamayim) means the supernal attributes through which G‑d conducts the worlds, Chesed and Gevurah, called fire (esh) and water (mayim), the two parts of the word shamayim.

The fear of Heaven, however, does not depend on these attributes but on a level above them, of which the Tikkunei Zohar says, “He is not of any of these attributes at all.” Only G‑d as He transcends the attributes can “give” awe.

G‑d’s words “Who will give that they should have this heart” come from the level called “Who” (mi), as in “Who will give a pure thing out of an impure?” This “Who” is the Infinite One, the light that encompasses all worlds, beyond all grasp.

Below, at the level of “Heaven,” the attributes have opposites: for every holy attribute there is an evil attribute of kelipah, “this opposite that.” There good and evil stand against each other.

In relation to the Infinite One Himself there is no opposite: “even darkness is not dark for You,” and before Him “mountains melted like wax.” The Tanya, at the end of chapter 19, cites “mountains melted like wax” for the power of the Infinite Light to drive away the kelipos.

In the same way the Sages’ saying that “children, life and sustenance” depend not on merit but on mazal (usually “fortune”) is explained: merit works through the attributes of Chesed and Gevurah, while mazal is Keser, above the attributes.

The text now explains the matter through the classic question of G‑d’s foreknowledge and human free choice.

G‑d knows beforehand whether a person will be righteous or wicked, yet, as the Rambam explains in Hilchos Teshuvah, this knowledge does not compel his choice, and the Raavad there adds that His knowledge is not a decree. In Likkutei Torah, Emor, the Alter Rebbe explains that man’s freedom of choice is drawn from a very high level, G‑d’s own sovereignty, which nothing can hinder.

The explanation is that this knowledge is in the supernal Daas, the level of Keser, the Primordial Thought, which shines only as an encompassing light, surrounding a person rather than entering him.

Because it does not enter a person inwardly, he is not affected by it, and it does not force his deeds. The text refers to its explanation on “You shall keep My Shabbosos.”

The attributes, by contrast, flow into a person inwardly and do shape him.

Of this inner level the Talmud says that the angel appointed over conception asks of each drop whether it will be wise or foolish, strong or weak. But it does not ask whether the child will be wicked or righteous, because “everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven.”

This means that it is precisely on “Heaven,” the attributes, that the fear of Heaven does not depend. All the more so the angel, part of the host of heaven, has no power over it.

G‑d’s knowledge of who will be righteous or wicked belongs to a level far above the chain of worlds, a general light that holds the whole chain in a single thought, as the Rosh Hashanah prayer says: He “looks and sees to the end of all generations” at a single glance.

Nothing of this knowledge flows inwardly, even into the supernal attributes of Atzilus, called “Heaven,” through which G‑d conducts His world.

This is also explained in the discourse on “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak.” So the knowledge does not compel choice at all; as the Mishnah says, freedom “is given” to every person.

G‑d deliberately established His world so that the supernal Daas would not shine inwardly, even into the supernal attributes, in order not to compel man’s choice.

But if G‑d willed to let some of it shine inwardly, awe would certainly be drawn into a person. So Daniel’s companions were seized with trembling though they did not see the vision, because “their mazal saw.”

Of this G‑d says, “Who will give that they should have this heart, to fear Me”: “Who” here is the Most Concealed of all concealed, the level that has the power to draw awe into people, a power not found “in the hands of Heaven,” the attributes.

“Who will give” is therefore like the Talmud’s teaching that G‑d Himself prays, “May it be My will that My compassion overcome My anger.”

Shushan Sodos explains that “the Holy One, blessed be He,” who prays, is the light that shines in the attributes, and His prayer draws down will from the source of compassion far above them. So too “Who will give” asks for awe from above the attributes.

The same approach explains Koheles’ question, “Who knows the spirit of men that goes upward,” set against the spirit of the beast that goes down to the earth.

On the face of it the question is puzzling, since Koheles later states plainly that “the spirit returns to G‑d, who gave it.” How could he first ask “Who knows”?

The Midrash at the end of Haazinu has Moshe say, “I do not know where my soul is going,” citing this same verse, “Who knows the spirit.”

This is astonishing: how could Moshe doubt whether his soul would go up? And if it might go down into the earth, what would his words mean, that it should rest well, when a spirit that goes down to the earth, like an animal’s, has no lasting existence? In Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim (49c), the Alter Rebbe raises the same question and answers it from the Zohar’s “three souls,” as this maamar goes on to do.

So “heaven” and “earth” here must mean Z’eir Anpin and Nukva (Malchus) of Atzilus, which are called heaven and earth: both are levels of holiness.

“Earth” is Malchus, as explained in the discourse on “And the number of the children of Israel shall be.” So Malchus is “My footstool,” and the righteous are promised that they “shall inherit the earth” forever.

Since souls are born from the union of Z’eir Anpin (“heaven”) and Nukva (“earth”), every soul contains both levels; the Zohar on Vayechi speaks of three kinds of soul. Some lofty souls come mainly from Z’eir Anpin, with only a little from Malchus.

Such souls are “the spirit of men” that goes upward. Others are the reverse, coming mainly from Malchus, the Name Ban (Havayah spelled out to the value 52), and these are called “the spirit of the beast,” for behemah, “beast,” also has the value 52; yet they too are rooted in a holy level.

So too some angels are called by animal names, “the face of a lion” and “the face of an ox,” and the twelve tribes are called “twelve oxen,” like the twelve oxen that bore the Sea in Shlomo’s Temple, as the Mikdash Melech explains. An animal name here describes a soul’s root, not a lowly soul.

This explains Moshe’s doubt: in his humility he was unsure from which level his soul came, heaven or earth. “Heaven” and “earth” are also the higher and the lower Gan Eden, as in the verse “Whom do I have in heaven? And with You I desire nothing on earth.”

The discourse on “And this is the commandment… to do on earth” explains this further. So “Who knows” means that the level of mi, the “Who” of “He who spoke and the world came into being,” knows which souls are “the spirit of men that goes upward.”

The same reading of “Who” explains the words of the king of Nineveh, “Who knows, G‑d may turn and relent,” and the verse “If You keep account of sins, Y-ah, Ado-nai, who will stand?” which another maamar discusses.

In the same way, “Who revealed to My children this secret” means that the level of mi revealed it. The text also refers to the discourse on “And all your children shall be taught of Havayah.”

Midrash Tehillim notices that the words “Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel” appear twice in the book of Psalms (14:7 and 53:7), and asks why.

Rabbi Levi answers that two other “Who will give” sayings were never fulfilled in this world: the Teacher, G‑d, said “Who will give that they should have this heart,” and the student, Moshe, said “Who will give that all the people of Havayah be prophets.” In the World to Come both will be fulfilled.

G‑d’s wish will be fulfilled in “I will give you a new heart,” and Moshe’s in “I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh,” prophecy for all. The Yalkut quotes the same Midrash.

All this will come because in the Time to Come the level of mi will be revealed. Mi has the numerical value fifty, the fiftieth gate of Binah, called the gate of eisan, “the strong”; the letters of eisan are the prefixes of the future tense, a hint that this gate belongs to the future.