וישלח יהושע מן השיטים שנים אנשים מרגלים חרש…

The maamar opens with the verse in the book of Yehoshua: before Israel crossed the Jordan, Yehoshua secretly sent two spies from Shittim to see the land, and Yericho in particular. The word cheresh, “secretly,” will later be read in several ways: as earthenware, as thought and as silence.

The Alter Rebbe takes it as certain that Yehoshua sent his spies at G‑d’s command. Moshe’s spies were different: on the words “Send for yourself,” the Sages, quoted by Rashi, explain that G‑d left the matter to Moshe’s discretion and did not command it.

The question is why G‑d would command spies only for Yericho and not for the rest of the land. The answer begins with Yericho’s place: it was the “lock” of the Land of Israel, the city “shut up” against Israel, and the Midrash says that once Yericho was conquered the whole land would be conquered. In Likkutei Torah, Masei, the Alter Rebbe adds that Yericho had seven walls, for the seven nations, which are rooted in the seven middos, and that it was never divided among the tribes because it includes the whole land.

The Midrash teaches that people of all seven Canaanite nations gathered in Yericho, and the verse in Yehoshua lists them all as “the citizens of Yericho.” Because all of them were included in it, Yericho was the general and collective expression of the whole land, which is why conquering it meant conquering the land.

The Alter Rebbe turns to the inner meaning: every Jew has his own “Land of Israel,” and within it a “Yericho” that needs spies, while the rest of it does not. To explain this he brings the verse that Avraham was old and “came into days.”

The Zohar reads “came into days” to mean that Avraham entered the next world clothed in his days: each day of a person’s life becomes part of a garment for the soul. So each person is given as many years as his soul needs for its garments. In Torah Ohr, Chayei Sarah, the Alter Rebbe brings the same Zohar in explaining the Sages’ saying that one hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come.

The verse “Days were formed” is read as saying that a person’s days are formed into garments, through the Torah and mitzvos done in them. A day spent without Torah and mitzvos leaves a gap in the garment, in proportion to what was neglected.

This raises the maamar’s main questions: what are these garments, why does the soul need them so as not to be “naked,” and why does the Torah tell us this at all?

In the Kedushah of the daily prayers we say, “We will sanctify You.” The Alter Rebbe asks how we can speak of sanctifying G‑d, who is holy in Himself and needs nothing from us.

A second question is why “Holy” is said exactly three times, no more and no less.

The answer begins: the Torah was given to be fulfilled in three ways, thought, speech and action. Some mitzvos are fulfilled by speech alone, some by thought alone and some by action alone, so each of a person’s three faculties has mitzvos of its own.

One might think that G‑dliness revealed through action is lower than G‑dliness revealed through speech and thought. Action is coarser and more physical, and it even reaches the inanimate, as when charity is given in silver and copper coins.

But before G‑d all levels are the same, since “all before Him is considered as nothing,” as the Zohar says. Next to the Infinite One, the difference between higher and lower beings is no difference at all, for nothing can compare to Him.

In the Yishtabach blessing we call G‑d “holy in heaven and on earth.” The Alter Rebbe reads this as saying that heaven and earth, the higher and the lower, are equal before Him, since “holy” means separate: He is set apart from both alike. The bracketed note refers to his discourse in Parshas Re’eh on “After Havayah your G‑d shall you walk.”

Although G‑d gives all the worlds life and brings them into being, the life-force He gives them comes in the manner of “running and returning”: it reaches them and withdraws, so He remains apart from them. The words echo Yechezkel’s vision, “and the chayos ran and returned”: there chayos are the living creatures of the Chariot, and here the same letters are read as chayus, the life-force.

Though G‑d is separate, Israel draws His holiness down into the world. The verse calls Israel “one nation on earth,” which the Alter Rebbe reads as: even here on the lowest earth, Israel draws down the level of One. In Iggeres HaKodesh (epistle 9) he reads the verse the same way: even in earthly matters, such as earning a living, a Jew must not be separated from the true One.

This is why “Holy” is said three times: to draw G‑d’s holiness into a person’s thought, speech and action, which correspond to the three levels of the soul, nefesh, ruach and neshamah. The note sends the reader to the discourse “And now, please, let the power of Ado-nai be great,” earlier in this parsha, where three encompassing garments surround nefesh, ruach and neshamah on every side, so that the soul is “bound up in the bundle of life.”

The holiness enters all three through Torah and mitzvos done in thought, speech and action, and these become garments for the soul. They let it “enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah,” the Sages’ description of the reward of the righteous in the World to Come, which the Alter Rebbe explains as being included in the One.

Without garments a soul cannot be included in G‑d’s Oneness, because it is a created thing, and everything created comes into being and passes away, far from the true One.

The garments are the thoughts of Torah and mitzvos, which surround the soul from head to foot. Because they are drawn from G‑d’s Oneness itself, they carry the soul into that Oneness.

This is the meaning of Avigail’s blessing to David in the first book of Shmuel, that his soul would be “bound up in the bundle of life with Havayah.” As a person ties his money up in a pouch, so the soul is tied up and kept within the “bundle of life.”

The bundle is the garment of Torah and mitzvos, which surrounds and clothes the soul. Its purpose is in the verse’s last words, “with Havayah”: that the soul be included in the One.

A bracketed note now lists sources on “bound up in the bundle.” The Talmud in Chagigah places the souls of the righteous in Aravos, the seventh heaven, and the Talmud in Shabbos says that they are stored away beneath the Throne of Glory, both citing this verse. The note also points to the Alter Rebbe’s explanation on “This is the dedication of the altar” and to Midrash Rabbah on Haazinu and on Nasso, where “and guard you” is read as G‑d guarding the soul.

The list continues with Koheles Rabbah, which says that the souls of the righteous are kept in a treasury, citing Avigail’s words, and with several passages of the Zohar, the Pardes and Me’orei Or. The Zohar explains that the nefesh is bound to the ruach, the ruach to the neshamah and the neshamah to G‑d, so that the nefesh is “bound up in the bundle of life.”

A new section begins. The light drawn down by Torah and mitzvos is the level of scent (rei’ach), as Yeshayahu says of Mashiach, “his scenting shall be in the fear of Havayah.”

A scent is not the thing itself, only something that spreads from it. In the same way, this light is not G‑d’s essence but a radiance spreading from the Infinite Light.

The attribute through which this radiance spreads is called Arich Anpin, the “long countenance,” the outer level of Keser (the Crown). Its name is heard in the verse “I will lengthen My anger (a’arich api)”: af means both anger and nose, so “lengthening the af” suggests a long countenance, and the verse’s next word, echetom, comes from chotem, the nose.

In the Idra of Nasso, Rav Hamnuna Sava would pray “to the Master of the nose,” and the Alter Rebbe explains that this radiance is called the nose because it is the level of scent, while G‑d Himself, its essence and source, is “the Master of the nose.” In Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo, he gives the reason one prays to “the Master of the nose”: prayer takes the place of the offerings, which were a “pleasing scent.”

The phrase “longer than the earth in measure,” from Iyov, describes how far this radiance reaches: from the highest place, the Infinite One who has no limit, down to the lowest level, the place of limitation.

In a bracketed note the Alter Rebbe suggests that this is why the Midrash reads echetom lach as chotam, a seal, as in “Set me as a seal upon your heart”: a seal presses its form into what lies below it, which is the drawing of the light downward. The note also refers to the Sages’ saying “The seal of the Holy One, blessed be He, is truth,” which he explains in the discourse on “These are the journeys,” where Moshe’s writing down of Israel’s journeys, their ascents from below to above, is linked with that seal.

This is why Arich Anpin is called aricha de’anpin, “long of countenance”: through the level of scent it lengthens itself far enough to clothe the soul in the thought, speech and action of the mitzvos and the Torah.

A bracketed note refers to the discourse on “These are the journeys,” where the Alter Rebbe explains that all the journeys led to “the Jordan at Yericho” and that Yericho is the level of scent (rei’ach), a slight radiance from a thing’s essence. It cites the Zohar in which a child knew “by the scent of your garments” what two sages had done that day, showing that garments carry a scent. It also refers to the end of the discourse “And now, please, let the power of Ado-nai be great,” earlier in this parsha, which reads “long-suffering” (erech apayim) as this revelation lengthening and being drawn further down.

The garments come to the soul through days, and the year has 365 days, which are 365 channels through which light is drawn down. They are compared to the 365 sinews through which the blood and life of the heart reach every limb.

These channels are gevuros, powers of might, and the words play on each other: gevuros call for hisgabrus, a mighty effort, because the garments are formed when a person exerts himself to overcome the sitra achra. He must strive that all his thought, speech and action serve G‑d alone.

The bracketed note cites the Zohar on “Draw forth (mishchu) and take”: the word mishchu equals 366, the number of the supernal days, which are drawn down to the lower days.

The note lists further places on the subject of the days: the Pardes under “Yemei Olam,” the Zohar on “seven days and seven days” and two other passages of the Zohar, and Sefer Hadras Melech.

The practical point: when a person thinks holy thoughts, he should be aware that he is drawing a garment for his soul from above. His aim should not be a reward, as the Mishnah warns against serving “in order to receive a reward,” but only to be included in G‑d’s Oneness.

Since holy thought clothes the soul, a person’s constant desire should be never to be separated from G‑d’s unity. He should likewise consider the opposite: evil thoughts are impure garments for the soul, and the simple-minded are wrong to treat stray thoughts lightly because they never lead to action.

The Sages taught that G‑d does not count an evil thought as if it were a deed, and idle or evil musings are lighter still. One might conclude that thoughts matter little.

The Alter Rebbe answers that, even so, the thought itself is an impure garment that surrounds the soul from head to foot. While it is clothed in it, the soul cannot be included in G‑d’s unity.

That is why an extraneous thought should seem to a person as grave as idolatry: both separate him from G‑d’s Oneness. Like the “masters of accounting” of the Zohar, he should review each day how many thoughts passed through his mind, since each one is a garment.

This is the meaning of the verse in Tehillim, “Days were formed, and not one among them.” In its plain sense David praises G‑d, who saw him before he was formed and wrote all his days in His book, but the Alter Rebbe reads it in another way.

Following the Midrash and the Zohar, he reads the verse as words of Adam after he ate from the Tree of Knowledge. “Your eyes saw my unformed mass (golmi)” means that after the sin Adam saw himself naked, without garments, like an unformed golem, as he told G‑d, “For I am naked.”

Adam goes on: “Days were formed”: You gave me days to be formed into garments, to draw the One into them; but “and not One in them”: I did not draw the One into any of them. The Alter Rebbe reads echad, “one,” as G‑d’s Oneness, and in Likkutei Torah on Shir HaShirim he explains the verse the same way: the days are garments, formed so that the level of One should shine in them.

The note lists where the verse “my unformed mass” is discussed: the Talmud in Sanhedrin, which says that Adam’s dust was gathered from the whole world, Midrash Rabbah, and the Zohar.

It continues with the passages of the Zohar that explain “Days were formed” and the Ramaz’s commentary on them. In Vayechi the Zohar says that when a person merits with good deeds in this world, his days are blessed above.

Yehoshua’s spies stand for the level of scent: the name Yericho holds the letters of rei’ach, scent, the radiance described above. Every person must “spy out” and examine the garments of his soul, which come from this level. The note points to Etz Chaim, Sha’ar 49, chapter 5, where the Arizal teaches that the Torah and mitzvos were given to refine the garments of the soul: intention in Torah and mitzvos completes the garment of the neshamah, Torah study refines the garment of the ruach, and the mitzvos of action the garment of the nefesh.

Moshe’s spies were sent to scout the land of Canaan; inwardly, this is examining the true nature of a person’s love and awe of G‑d.

Such an examination is possible only at the level of Moshe, whose face was “like the face of the sun,” and the Alter Rebbe says that this sun, chamah, comes from Chochmah, wisdom. Not every soul can reach this level.

That is why G‑d did not command it: “I do not command you” means that it is not a duty for everyone. Tanya, chapter 14, explains that the level of the beinoni is open to every person, while the perfection of the tzaddik is not.

Yehoshua’s spies are different: every person must check that his soul is not left naked, without the garments of thoughts of Torah and mitzvos.

A note gathers sources on Yehoshua’s spies. Midrash Rabbah on Shelach opens with them, Ruth Rabbah reads “They are the potters” in Divrei HaYamim as speaking of these spies, and the Zohar on Acharei calls “two men as spies” a secret of the Sifra deTzniusa.

The note continues with the Zohar on Shelach, where Yehoshua learned to send two spies from the two who carried the cluster of grapes, and with the Shelah, who explains the Zohar’s statement.

The Alter Rebbe offers his own reading of “They are the potters (yotzrim)”: the spies examine what is “formed” (yutzaru), the days that are formed into garments.

They also examine the forming of man himself. In the verse “And Havayah Elokim formed the man,” vayyitzer is spelled with two yuds, which the Midrash reads as two inclinations (yetzer), the good and the evil; and the evil inclination must bow and give way to the good.

One of the two yuds is voweled and heard, and the other is silent: a hint that G‑d wants the evil inclination to be absorbed into the good inclination and to submit to it. This is the Ramaz’s comment on Parshas Tazria.

The evil inclination is subdued by guarding thought, speech and action, as Sefer Shel Beinonim (Tanya) explains. That is why the spies are called “potters”: they are sent to examine these garments.

The Midrash’s plain meaning is that the spies disguised themselves as potters, makers of earthenware (cheres), matching “spies, cheresh.” The Alter Rebbe explains this through a passage of Me’orei Or.

Yaakov went back for small jugs, and Me’orei Or says these stand for the sparks that fell when the vessels of the World of Tohu broke. Since the mitzvos raise these sparks to their root, those who do them are the “potters” of those vessels.

Another verse built on yotzer, “potter,” is “We are the clay, and You are our Potter.” The Alter Rebbe points to Midrash Rabbah on Ki Sisa and to Bereishis Rabbah on the verse “like a potter’s vessel,” and connects them with “They are the potters.”

But that Midrash distinguishes “an earthenware vessel” (cheres), which has been fired, from “a potter’s vessel,” which has not; so “potters” cannot explain cheresh in “spies, cheresh.” Instead, cheresh means thought, as in “Do not devise (tacharosh) against your fellow.”

The spies’ work is that of the “masters of accounting” (marei d’chushbena), who reckon their thoughts: thinking carefully about the soul’s garments of thought, speech and action, so that they are “a pleasing scent to Havayah.”

The Alter Rebbe first refers to his discourse on “Therefore the rulers say: Come to Cheshbon,” whose cheshbon, a reckoning, recalls the “masters of accounting.” Then he gives a third meaning of cheresh, silence: Rashi renders it “in secret” and says the spies were told to act as if deaf. The Midrash calls what would stand up for Yosef “the silence of the mother,” Rachel, and traces that silence to her descendants: Binyamin, whose stone in the breastplate was yashfeh, read yesh peh, “there is a mouth,” for he knew of Yosef’s sale yet kept silent, and Esther, who “did not tell” her origins.

The Alter Rebbe also points to the Rambam’s commentary on the Mishnah in Avos, “I have found nothing better for the body than silence.”