אם בחקותי תלכו כו׳

The opening verse of Parshas Bechukosai, G‑d’s promise of blessing “if you walk in My statutes,” begins a further discourse on it. The Kehot note says that another transcript of this discourse is printed in the Alter Rebbe’s Sefer HaMaamarim 5566, as an explanation of the maamar “If you walk in My statutes” printed in that volume.

The Arizal’s Etz Chaim, in its gate on the tzelem (the “image” that clothes the soul), is cited: the tzelem is the intellectual soul, the human mind, which joins form and matter, the G‑dly soul and the animal soul, so that together they can refine what needs refining. The text cites it as Sha’ar 25, following the Shklov printing; the Kehot note gives it as Sha’ar 26 in current editions.

The animal soul is a “simple animal,” and the intellectual soul belongs to nogah (the “glowing” husk), the realm in which good and evil are mixed: human cleverness can serve either side, as G‑d says through Yirmeyahu of His people, “They are wise to do evil.” In Likkutei Torah, Nasso (“This is the dedication of the altar”), the Alter Rebbe explains that loving G‑d “with all your heart,” with both inclinations, means that even the desiring power of the animal soul is turned toward Him.

Psalm 90 is Moshe’s prayer, and its verse “The days of our years… are seventy years” is read with the verse above it, “You have set our iniquities before You, our hidden things in the light of Your countenance.” Plainly that verse says that nothing we do in secret is hidden from G‑d.

The Alter Rebbe reads it as the work of a lifetime: the iniquities themselves are transformed until they stand “before You,” and the hidden things come “to the light of Your countenance.” This is done through the tzelem, and for this work each person is given seventy years, according to his measure.

Etz Chaim also teaches that now the Name Mah (45), the light that gives, refines the Name Ban (52), the vessels that receive; when Ban has been refined, “a woman of valor will be the crown of her husband,” the feminine rising above the masculine. The shattering of the vessels took place in the Name Sag (63), as hinted in “they have all turned aside (sag) together,” and specifically in the Ban within Sag. In Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim (“leaping over the mountains”), the Alter Rebbe adds that after the refinement Ban will rise into Sag, through love “with all your might,” without limit.

In the Time to Come, once Sag is refined, a higher level, “Sag of Sag,” will emerge from it. To explain: Mah, the Name that does the refining, is light drawn into a vessel; Moshe, who said “and what (mah) are we,” embodied this utter self-nullification, yet he lived in a body.

Moshe derives from Abba (Chochmah), but only from its “back” (achorayim), its outer side. The numbers 184 and 161 together equal משה (Moshe, 345): 184 is the count of the “back” of the Name Av (72), and in Likkutei Torah, Pekudei, 161 is the Name Ehe-yeh spelled with yuds, the inner dimension of Binah, in which the back of Abba is clothed. On “The voice of my Beloved knocks (dofek),” the Alter Rebbe explains that the outer flow from the back of Abba is like the pulse (dofek) in the wrist, for the letters of דפק are those of 184 (קפ״ד).

Likewise the Midrash’s phrase “the fallen fruit of the Chochmah Above is Torah” refers to what flows from the mochin of Abba into the divine attributes, producing the Torah’s rulings of kosher and unfit. In Torah Ohr’s first discourse, “The heavens are My throne,” the Alter Rebbe explains that the Torah is G‑d’s “throne”: as one who sits lowers his head, so in the Torah His wisdom descends into physical mitzvos like tefillin, tzitzis and charity.

Moshe did have love, awe and emotions, but they flowed from the intellect, from Abba: utter self-nullification, from the “back” of Abba. The inner dimension of Abba is one with that of Atik, the highest level, and Moshe’s love was not the fervor that comes from Imma (Binah).

The difference is like that between Yom Tov, whose mark is joy (the Kehot note cites “you shall rejoice in your festival”), and Shabbos, whose mark is delight (“you shall call the Shabbos a delight”), “glorious in holiness.” The Zohar on Emor calls holiness “a thing in itself,” from which the rest derive, and says that on Shabbos the day is crowned with Abba and Imma; Moshe’s love and awe were of this self-contained kind.

When Moshe asked, “Show me, please, Your glory,” he wanted to see the Infinite One directly, not through a vessel; the text cites the Ra’aya Mehemna on Pinchas for this. According to the Kehot note, the Tzemach Tzedek’s Or HaTorah explains “not through a vessel” as not through its being clothed in Z’eir Anpin.

G‑d answered, “For man shall not see Me and live,” and the Sages read it: in their lifetime they do not see, but in their death they do. In Likkutei Torah, Emor, the Alter Rebbe explains that in life the body hides G‑d, so that the world seems to exist in its own right, while the soul that leaves the body sees that nothing can conceal Him.

The Midrash reads “very good” this way: “good” is the angel of life and “very” is the angel of death, for after death one can grasp the limitless level of “very” (me’od).

While a person lives in a body, a vessel, he cannot see; only after death, once the vessel has been fully refined by subduing evil (iskafya) and transforming it (is’hapcha), does he see.

In the Time to Come the body itself will be purified and will no longer come from male and female; the Zohar cited here (Part II, 167b) describes how the body is formed from the seed. Instead it will be revived, as Isaiah says, “He will strengthen your bones,” by what the Zohar calls “the dew of crystal,” the “dew of lights” with which the dead will be revived, and then even the body will be able to see and grasp the Infinite Light.

That is the meaning of “like the light of the seven days”: the light as it was before creation, in the World of Tohu, where seven lights were greater than their vessels.

The vessels of Tohu shattered, and in the World of Tikkun the vessels are large and the light small. In the Time to Come purified vessels will hold a great light like that of Tohu, and then “a woman of valor will be the crown of her husband.”

The parenthesis refers to the discourse on “And the light of the moon shall be” (Likkutei Torah, Tzav), which explains “the light of the seven days” as the light G‑d created at first and hid away, the light of the three highest Sefiros of Atik within its seven lower ones; and to the Mikdash Melech and the Ramaz (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto), commentaries on the Zohar.

The Shema hints at this: the word Shema divides into shem, “name,” and ayin, the letter written large in the Torah’s text of the Shema. The ayin is seventy, the seven days each including ten, so the large ayin stands for the light of the seven days, and the “feminine waters” raised by refining the animal soul rise up to it.

In “And you shall love Havayah your G‑d,” the word et includes what is secondary to it (for this way of reading et the Kehot note points to Eruvin 4b and Sukkah 6a): one becomes secondary and nullified to G‑d’s Name and is included in the One. In Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan (“And you shall know this day”), the Alter Rebbe explains that “love et” means drawing love and joy into et, the secondary, which is awe and self-nullification.

“With all your heart” refers to the animal soul, centered in the blood of the heart; “with all your soul” refers to the intellectual soul, the tzelem that joins the two. When both are transformed and refined, one reaches “with all your might,” me’od, “very,” a love without limit, the “very high” of Isaiah’s verse on G‑d’s servant.

It is for this love beyond limit that the G‑dly soul descended into the body.

Before its descent the soul was limited and counted, for the souls of Israel come from Z’eir Anpin and Nukva of the World of Tikkun, which are vessels; it was “standing” before G‑d, in the words Eliyahu and Elisha used in their oath, “As Havayah lives, before Whom I have stood.” In Likkutei Torah, Sh’lach, the Alter Rebbe explains that before coming into this world the soul is “standing,” its love limited like an angel’s, and through the mitzvos here it gains “walking.”

After its descent, as the tzelem that refines and subdues the animal soul with “all your heart and all your soul,” the soul can attain love from the Infinite Light itself, “with all your might,” a love from the World of Tohu.

Such love cannot be fully present in a body, but a glimmer of it is possible every day, and after death, when all has been refined, the soul sees.

This is the meaning of Hoshea’s promise that Israel’s “number” will be beyond counting: from limit and number to what has no limit.

Section 2 of this discourse: before the love of the Shema comes Pesukei DeZimrah, the psalms of praise in the morning prayers.

The plural “My statutes” (chukosai, from chok, something engraved) is read as two engravings (chakikos), as a vessel is engraved both outside and inside. The animal soul is such a vessel and needs both before it can “walk,” that is, love G‑d and be included in the One, like Avraham “going on and journeying toward the south.”

The outer engraving is Pesukei DeZimrah, read from zemir, “cutting down” (in the verse it can also mean “song”), as in “the zemir of the tyrants”: contemplating G‑d’s greatness in these psalms prunes away the evil, so that G‑dly love can spread through the soul.

The feeling stirred by this contemplation is not yet love. It is only being moved by G‑dliness, enough to separate the evil from the good.

As the psalm says, “The exaltation of G‑d is in their throat, and a two-edged sword in their hand”: contemplating G‑d’s exaltation is the sword that cuts the evil away.

That is why the Mishnah mentions only the two blessings before the Shema and not Pesukei DeZimrah: in the Mishnah’s time people did not need this preparation every day.

The inner engraving is done through practical mitzvos that are chukim, statutes beyond reason, such as the red heifer, tzitzis and tefillin.

This is because the root of the mitzvos is in Keser, above reason. The Torah issues from Chochmah, but the mitzvos are rooted in Keser: 613 from the Torah and seven from the Rabbis make 620, the value of כתר.

Each Sefirah contains a full set of all the levels, such as Chochmah of Chochmah. So Keser too has mitzvos that come from its Chochmah, clothed in the Chochmah of Atzilus and then in Beriah, which is why such a mitzvah can have a reason that is understood below.

Other mitzvos come from the Keser of Keser: the chukim, pure expressions of divine will, called “the Will of wills.” Because their root is so lofty, they can engrave the animal soul from within.

This is like the Exodus: “I will pass through the land of Egypt,” which the Haggadah reads as “I, and not an angel” (the Kehot note says the Zohar, Part I, 117a, brings and explains it). Israel was sunk in the depths of the kelipos, so only the very highest level, G‑d Himself, could reach them.

In the same way, only these lofty mitzvos can engrave the animal soul deeply enough for it to love G‑d and be included in the One. In Likkutei Torah, Sh’lach (“And now, let the strength be great”), the Alter Rebbe explains that the mitzvos become the soul’s garments and give the soul, which before its descent could only “stand,” the power to “walk.”

The verse “a well that princes dug” alludes to this. The well is the Yesod of Nukva, the soul’s capacity for connection with G‑d; it must be dug open, for otherwise the heart remains sealed, “like a virgin,” in the Talmud’s phrase. In Likkutei Torah, Matos, the Alter Rebbe explains that before the union Malchus is called besulah, from a word meaning “sealed,” and that digging the well means making a vessel to receive what is drawn from above.

The parenthesis cites other discourses on this theme; in Shir HaShirim the sealed heart is one not yet moved to love and awe by contemplating the revealed world. The digging is done “with the mechokek”: plainly a ruler’s staff, but mechokek is from the same root as chakikah, engraving, so it means the mitzvos that are chukim.

Even these mitzvos beyond reason are conveyed through Chochmah, through Moshe; even the red heifer was taught through Moshe. Of this the verse says, “I said, I will become wise,” which the Sages apply to the red heifer.

So “If you walk in My statutes,” which the Sages read as a plea, “Would that you walk” (the Talmud, Avodah Zarah 5a, likewise says that “if” here is the language of entreaty), means: for the soul to walk, to love and be included in the One, it needs both engravings, outer and inner.

Without them love is impossible, for the soul is bound within the body and the animal soul, like a prisoner in chains who cannot walk until the chains are broken.

Section 3: the essence of walking is cleaving to G‑d, the soul included in the One. How can a person achieve this? Through “and keep My commandments,” as the blessing says, “Who has sanctified us with His commandments.”

The mitzvos “keep” the Infinite Light, the level of Atik: tishmeru means both to observe and to guard, preserve.

That is why Scripture calls a mitzvah a lamp: as a lamp holds the oil and the flame, the mitzvah holds the Infinite Light. In Likkutei Torah, Beha’aloscha, the Alter Rebbe explains that the souls are the lamp’s vessel and the mitzvos its oil and wick, through which the light of Torah shines; in Re’eh he adds that this “keeping” means the light does not withdraw to its root, which is done specifically through the vessels.

The verse continues “and do them” (osam), written without a vav so that it can be read atem, “you”: the Midrash reads it as though you made yourselves, and the Zohar as though you made Me. This is real “doing”: through the mitzvos the souls of Israel, as it were, compel the drawing of the Infinite Light into the vessels, as in “Greater is the one who causes the doing than the doer.”

Asiyah, doing, implies compulsion (as in a get me’useh, a compelled divorce, the Kehot note adds from the Rebbe Rayatz). When intellect is carried into action, it is forced down into something below its own nature.

So too with a mitzvah: the Infinite Light, which is “removed” (ne’etak, the root of Atik) from the chain of worlds, is drawn down to rest in the vessels of Z’eir Anpin. That is why this is called “doing.”

The parenthesis refers to the discourse on “leaping over the mountains,” which explains why the mitzvos are called “the 248 limbs of the King,” and to the discourse on Shemini Atzeres, which explains “which You swore to our fathers from days of old” as G‑d’s promise beyond the order of His wisdom, drawn from the “days of old” above the chain of worlds.

The next verse, “And I will give your rains in their season,” refers to the Torah, which Moshe compared to rain: “My teaching shall drop like the rain.”

Rain falls through Gevurah, and the Torah was given with five voices. These five voices are five chassadim, kindnesses that make things grow, which began as the five gevuros of Abba and became the chassadim of Imma.

Moshe heard the whole Torah in a single voice, as in “G‑d answered him with a voice,” because his soul came from the light of Abba itself.

Israel could not receive it that way, so through the five gevuros of Abba the one voice was divided into five.

This is “the stream (peleg) of Elokim is full of water”: plainly, the channel of rain with which G‑d waters the earth, but peleg also means division. What was divided off from Elokim, the five gevuros, is “full of water”: in truth it is chassadim, kindness in a form the people could receive.

Through the Torah, the “rains,” comes “The voice of my Beloved knocks: Open to me”: the heart opens so that love can grow in the soul. The result is “the land shall give its produce,” the Name Ban refined from the animal soul.

The discourse on Ha’azinu explains that Torah is called rain because, like rain, it brings the earth’s hidden power of growth into the open. There the Alter Rebbe says that through Torah study that leads to action a person gains the strength to say “And you shall love.”

That growth is love “with all your might.” The word ve’ahavta, “and you shall love,” equals twice or, “light” (2 × 207 = 414): one light is “light is sown for the righteous,” and the other is the growth, love “with all your might.” Tanya (end of chapter 43) makes the same point: the soul is first lit with the light of Torah and mitzvos, and afterward the light of love shines on it.

Then comes “the tree of the field shall give its fruit,” the masculine waters from the G‑dly soul. The Zohar and the Mikdash Melech are cited for this.

As in nature the earth sends up its “feminine waters” and the rain descends as “masculine waters,” so the union of Mah and Ban makes the tree “give its fruit.”

The fruit is the good hidden within, the 288 sparks of holiness that fell in the shattering, now concealed, as “the wicked surrounds (machtir) the righteous”; machtir is from the same root as keser, “crown.” When they are refined and transformed, their light is revealed, “a woman of valor, the crown of her husband,” a level above the Tikkun, Sag of Sag.

This is the meaning of “it shall succeed in that for which I sent it”: the refining is done specifically through Torah, “My word that goes out of My mouth,” for when a person studies Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and studies opposite him.