ועתה יגדל נא כח אדני כאשר דברת לאמר…

The maamar opens with Moshe’s plea after the sin of the spies, asking that “the power of Ado-nai” be made great, and recalling G‑d’s own words that He is “slow to anger.” Before explaining the verse, the Alter Rebbe sets out a theme: the decisive importance of actual deed, taught by “today to do them” and by the Sages’ sayings that deed is the main thing and that study is great because it leads to deed.

The Zohar describes the mitzvos as garments for the soul. Each mitzvah a person performs adds to this garment, so if even one mitzvah is missing, the garment is incomplete. Tanya (end of chapter 5) brings the same teaching from Etz Chaim: the mitzvos are the souls’ garments in Gan Eden, while the Torah is their food; the food is inner light and the garments are encompassing lights (makifim).

Since every one of the 613 mitzvos contributes to the soul’s garment, a soul that has not fulfilled them all must return in another lifetime to complete them. This even includes being born as a Kohen or a Levite, since some mitzvos can be fulfilled only by them.

The Alter Rebbe states the questions the maamar will answer: how a physical deed becomes a garment for the soul, what such a garment is, and why a soul needs one at all. In Torah Ohr, Chayei Sarah (“And Avraham was old”), he explains that the purpose of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is to make garments for the soul, so that it can enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah in the World to Come.

The soul’s descent into a body is meant to raise it higher than it was before. Before its descent it was in a state of “standing,” as the prophet Eliyahu speaks of standing before G‑d; the verse in Zechariah promises “walking” among those who stand, that is, among the angels.

Only through doing mitzvos in this world does the soul gain “walking”: the ability to move upward from level to level instead of remaining fixed. In Torah Ohr, Vayeshev, the Alter Rebbe explains that the angels, and the souls before they come down, “stand” because they are rooted in the letters of G‑d’s speech and thought, which are like the inanimate and have no movement of their own.

“Standing” corresponds to the love of G‑d “with all your soul,” understood here as a love measured by the soul’s own capacity: it loves and fears G‑d only as much as it grasps Him and cleaves to Him. Such a love is real but limited, and so it stays at one level.

Angels are called “those who stand” because each one remains permanently at a single level. The verse “Seraphim stand,” from Isaiah’s vision of G‑d’s throne, is the classic proof, and each angel has one fixed mode of service, as the next part describes.

Michael serves through love and Gavriel through awe, and each serves in the measure of what he comprehends. What they comprehend is the light that fills all worlds, which enters each world in a measured way according to its level, so their service too is measured and fixed.

Souls, before they come down into this world, are like the angels: each stands at one fixed level in every world. Each world receives from the light that fills all worlds according to its own measure, and the soul’s level in that world matches what the world receives.

This world is different. It is the world of action, where a person can truly change his nature and turn his heart from one extreme to its opposite, even transforming darkness into light.

Change is possible here because in this world the light that fills all worlds is hidden: the world conceals it, and it is not revealed as it is in the higher worlds. Precisely there, the higher light that encompasses all worlds rests over the soul from above as an encompassing light (makif), surrounding the soul rather than being absorbed within it.

The verse “which I (Anochi) command you today” alludes to this. “Anochi” (“I”), the word with which G‑d introduces His commands, stands for the light that encompasses all worlds, and it is drawn down specifically through “today to do them,” through action in this world.

A longer treatment is in Likkutei Torah, Pinchas, on “My offering, My bread.” There the Alter Rebbe explains that “today to do them” means that this world alone is the world of action and free choice, where a person can return in teshuvah even after sinning, while in the World to Come he remains as he was drawn here.

This encompassing light has the power to transform a person’s very nature and essence. It achieves far more than the soul could reach on its own, with the inner light it received when it was formed, which is limited to what it comprehends.

This illumination from the encompassing light is called “walking,” because it carries a person from one level to the next. It is drawn down only through fulfilling the Torah and the mitzvos.

The verse “If you walk in My statutes” ties “walking” to the statutes (chukim) of the Torah. This walking is the love “with all your might” in the Shema, a love beyond one’s own measure, unlike the measured love “with all your soul” described above.

This boundless love comes from contemplating the light that encompasses all worlds, as the two blessings before the Shema describe it: G‑d “Who gives light to the earth” and Who “in His goodness renews each day, continually, the work of creation.” In Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai, the Alter Rebbe reads bechukosai (“My statutes”) as chakikah, “engraving”: before this love the soul is engraved from outside, by contemplating G‑d’s greatness, and from within, by the mitzvos that are statutes.

Every world and every creature, however spiritual, is mere “work” and physical making compared to G‑d, as the verse calls them all His “works.” In Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar (“When Israel put ‘we will do’ before ‘we will hear’”), the Alter Rebbe explains “last in deed, first in thought”: even Chochmah, the beginning of revelation, is only the Holy One’s “last deed,” while the “first thought” before it is the Supernal Will, the source of the Torah and the mitzvos.

Creation from nothing comes about through a mere glimmer of G‑d’s light, not through G‑d descending into the worlds step by step as cause and effect. He remains holy and separate, as the first blessing before the Shema says: “the King Who alone is exalted from then.”

In the prayer, me’az simply means “from of old”; the Alter Rebbe reads it as “as then.” G‑d is now as He was “then,” before the world was created: alone, beyond the bounds of the worlds, and unchanged by having created them.

The same is meant by “uplifted from the days of the world.” What spreads into the worlds as their life-force is only His being “King,” and it enters them only because He is King over them, as the verse calls it “a kingship over all worlds.”

The blessing before the Shema continues, “In Your abundant mercies, have mercy on us.” Since G‑d is entirely beyond the worlds and encompasses them, man, who has become physical, is utterly far from Him, and so he truly needs mercy.

Yet the blessing goes on to call G‑d “Master of our strength.” Even though the Infinite Light is not absorbed within the soul so as to fill it inwardly with love and self-nullification, He is still our Master; “its inside inlaid with love” is borrowed from the Song of Songs, where it describes King Shlomo’s palanquin.

“Master” means His Kingship, which one accepts upon oneself as “You shall surely set a king over yourself,” and it rests on the soul from above as an encompassing light (makif). From it come three encompassing lights for the soul, in its thought, its speech and its action.

The Alter Rebbe continues reading the blessing before the Shema: after “Master of our strength” come “Rock of our stronghold, Shield of our salvation, a Stronghold for us.” A “rock” here means a refuge, a place one shelters within, as in the verse “the rock of my strength, my refuge,” and a shield and a stronghold likewise surround and protect. In Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim (“Sos Asis”), the Alter Rebbe reads the same three titles as three encompassing lights, which surround a person as the sukkah does.

These three are the encompassing lights for the soul’s three garments, thought, speech and action, and for its three levels, nefesh, ruach and neshamah (its vital soul, its spirit and its higher soul). These correspond to Isaiah’s three verbs, “created, formed, made,” which echo the names of the worlds Beriah (creation), Yetzirah (formation) and Asiyah (making).

The encompassing lights surround every level of the soul from all sides, so that it is included in the Infinite Light itself, “bound up in the bond of life” with G‑d Himself. Likkutei Torah, Sh’lach (51d) compares this to a person binding his money in a purse: the soul is bound up, surrounded and clothed, so that it can be included in the One.

Isaiah’s promise “Your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Havayah shall gather you in” is read the same way, with tzidkecha (“your righteousness”) taken as tzedakah, charity. The charity a person gives becomes a surrounding light, “the glory of G‑d,” which gathers him into itself so that he is included in G‑d’s light.

Every makif lifts what it surrounds upward, as a discourse in Torah Ohr, Mikeitz explains. This is what the “garments of the soul in the World to Come” are: encompassing lights, made by the mitzvos.

Like the soul’s garments, the mitzvos themselves divide into thought, speech and action; Iggeres HaKodesh 29 brings the Arizal’s teaching that every Jew must come in many reincarnations until he fulfills all 613 mitzvos in thought, speech and action, to complete the garments of his soul. Some mitzvos depend entirely on the heart’s intention, so that, in the Mishnah’s words, if he directed his heart he has fulfilled his obligation, and if not, he has not fulfilled it at all.

Other mitzvos depend on speech, and others on action. All of them are makifim, as the blessing says, “Who has sanctified (kiddeshanu) us with His commandments”: through them is drawn down the supernal holiness (kodesh), a word that means “set apart,” for as the Zohar says, holiness is “a thing apart by itself.”

A second section begins. Before the mitzvos can raise the soul, G‑d’s Kingship must first be drawn down from above, in the words of every blessing, “Blessed are You … King of the world,” the level of “Master of our strength”; only afterward does the blessing say “Who has sanctified us with His commandments,” the makifim that raise the soul to the supernal holiness. The Alter Rebbe refers to his explanation in Likkutei Torah, Shemini, on “This Livyasan,” which draws on the Midrash that G‑d’s garment is “strength” (oz), linking it to “Master of our strength (uzenu).”

The order of the blessing reflects two aspects present in every mitzvah as it is done. The next two parts set them out.

The first aspect is that by doing a mitzvah one carries out the King’s command, as with a royal decree that is fulfilled (“You shall decree a matter, and it shall be established”). In Or HaTorah, as the Kehot note quotes it, the Tzemach Tzedek explains that this aspect is the higher one, since through it one reaches above reason.

The second aspect is that the mitzvah draws the Infinite Light and the Supernal Will into the deed, for every mitzvah is rooted in the “mountains” of the supernal holiness. This is what “Who has sanctified us with His commandments” expresses.

Now the Alter Rebbe ranks the two aspects. A person should not begin doing mitzvos only in order to draw down the Infinite Light and the Supernal Will, even though that is a real effect of the mitzvos.

Doing a mitzvah only for its effect would be like using a charm or a medicine, or like doing business for profit. That is not service of G‑d.

The Torah rebukes those who did “not serve”: mitzvos must be done as a servant serves, carrying out his master’s command even without knowing its reason. This is the meaning of “You shall surely set a king over yourself,” accepting G‑d as King.

When the mitzvos are done this way, the Infinite Light is drawn down of itself. Without accepting the yoke of G‑d’s Kingship, a mitzvah draws down nothing at all.

The reason is that G‑d in Himself is “exalted alone,” beyond the worlds, and He relates to them only as King, as explained above. In Torah Ohr, Mikeitz (“For with You is the source of life”), the Alter Rebbe explains that the flow of light to all the worlds is as nothing before the Holy One Himself, and light is revealed only “in Your light,” through the Torah and the mitzvos, “the limbs of the King.”

In Torah Ohr, Yisro, on “And all the people saw … the sound of the shofar,” it is explained that the Torah was given with the shofar because its sound makes one tremble, for the yoke of the mitzvos must be accepted like a servant’s. Yet “shofar” also hints at the Midrash’s “beautify (shapru) your deeds”: it draws down delight, so that the mitzvos are done with joy.

Knowing the inner intention (kavanah) of a mitzvah serves to increase one’s joy in it, beyond the joy of “an abundance of everything.” All that the great tzaddikim attained came through this joy; the Kehot note says the Arizal is meant, and Torah Ohr, Toldos, to which it points, says that the Arizal rejoiced greatly in doing the mitzvos and so merited the holy spirit (ruach hakodesh).

Understanding is only a means to joy, because the Torah, G‑d’s “garment” of light, is a garment for the mitzvos. The Torah comes from Chochmah, and within Chochmah is clothed the Supernal Will, which is the root of the mitzvos.

Indeed, the Torah we have, revealed and hidden alike, deals with the mitzvos: it is their explanation. In Likkutei Torah, Beha’alotcha (“I have seen, and behold, a menorah of gold”), the Alter Rebbe explains that the Torah is to the mitzvos as light is to the oil and wick: it reveals how each mitzvah is done, and through it the supernal delight hidden in the mitzvos comes into the open.

For example, all of tractate Sukkah explains how to make the sukkah, and tractates Zevachim and Menachos explain the animal and meal offerings. The hidden part of the Torah likewise explains the mitzvos.

The mitzvos themselves, though, are not explanation: they are G‑d’s will that His Infinite Light be drawn down below, through the 613 mitzvos of the Torah and the seven mitzvos instituted by the Rabbis.

Together the 613 and the 7 make 620, the “pillars of light” that join above and below, and 620 is also the numerical value of Keser (כתר), the “crown” above wisdom in which the mitzvos are rooted. The mitzvos express G‑d’s will to have a dwelling place among the lower realms.

G‑d’s will is to dwell among us (“And I will dwell within them”), and the Torah is His wisdom that defines exactly how that dwelling takes place. The Torah sets the limits and forms through which the Infinite Light can rest in the world.

For example, the laws of sukkah define a kosher sukkah: its shade must be greater than the sunlight coming through, and it must not be higher than twenty cubits.

In the same way, the whole Torah sets out the contractions and limits that determine how the Infinite Light is drawn down and comes to rest below.

That light does not rest or become revealed in just any way, but only in the form G‑d’s wisdom requires: tefillin must be square and their straps black, and the offerings must be brought in the prescribed manner.

Because the Torah consists of such defined measures, it can be understood, and so it is “food” for the soul, an inner light that the soul absorbs. Tanya (chapter 5) reads “Your Torah is within my innards” the same way: Torah that is understood is absorbed into the soul as bread is absorbed into the body and becomes part of it.

What the soul absorbs, in Gan Eden as well, is the understanding of these contractions and limits, both in the revealed Torah and in its hidden teachings.

The mitzvah itself, which is the Supernal Will, is not absorbed into the soul; it rests above it as a makif. Likewise the Torah, which comes from Chochmah, is only a “garment” for G‑d’s Will and Delight, which is His very essence, above every garment.

The Ramaz (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, a Kabbalist of the seventeenth century) writes in his commentary on the Zohar that supernal Chochmah, called Abba, is the inner garment of Arich Anpin (the “Long Face,” the inner dimension of Keser), the level of the Supernal Will: wisdom clothes will. In Likkutei Torah, Emor, the Alter Rebbe cites the same Ramaz and adds the other side: because the Torah is Chochmah, it draws from the inner dimension, while the deeds of the mitzvos draw from the outer dimension of Keser.

This is why the Torah is called a garment for the mitzvos. In Likkutei Torah, Acharei, on “For on this day He shall make atonement,” the Alter Rebbe explains that the Torah is G‑d’s garment “white as snow”: as snow comes from water and melts back into it, the Torah’s garment comes from supernal Chochmah, and one who clothes his thought and speech in Torah is clothed in G‑d’s own garment.

The same holds in a person: knowing the intention (kavanah) of a mitzvah is only a garment for the essential thing, accepting the mitzvos as a servant accepts his master’s word. “The children of Israel are servants to Me” teaches that by being servants they truly become “to Me”; in Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar, on “And I will betroth you to Me,” the Alter Rebbe explains that wherever “to Me” (li) is said, it endures forever.

A third section returns to the opening verse. The Name Ado-nai (“Master”) stands for G‑d’s Kingship; its letters, א-ד-נ-י, can be rearranged to spell dina, “law,” as in the Talmud’s rule that “the law of the kingdom is law.”

So “Ado-nai” means doing the mitzvos as the King’s command, and “the power of Ado-nai” is the light that encompasses all worlds, drawn down through this acceptance of His Kingship in actual deed. This is the power Moshe asked to be made great.

Why is it called “power” (koach)? Power is something hidden that becomes revealed, like a person’s strength to throw a stone: the stone is inanimate, and by its nature it falls.

The thrower’s power carries it through the air. That power could not be seen while it was in his hand; it became noticeable only when it passed from concealment into revelation and carried the stone.

The power of the Infinite Light drawn down from above works the same way. Before G‑d, all worlds and creatures are like the inanimate stone, unable to rise by themselves.

So “the dust on the floor of the Mishkan” is read as the angels and souls, the place where G‑d’s Presence rests among the higher beings: even they are called “dust,” since nothing compares to Him. The text cites the Zohar and the Mikdash Melech, a commentary on the Zohar by Rabbi Shalom Buzaglo.

The power drawn down from above lifts them into G‑d’s light. It is this encompassing power that binds the soul “in the bond of life” and “gathers it in,” as explained above.

This power draws from below upward, like the thrower’s power that surrounds the stone on every side and keeps it from falling. So too the makif surrounds the soul and holds it aloft.

The Alter Rebbe suggests that “He carries it on His pinions (evraso),” said of the eagle, refers to the mitzvos: the Tikkunei Zohar calls the 248 commandments the King’s 248 “limbs” (eivarim), a word that sounds like evraso, and through them G‑d lifts the soul, and the Raaya Mehemna (“Faithful Shepherd,” a part of the Zohar that explains the mitzvos) reads the verse the same way. Elsewhere, in Likkutei Torah, Haazinu, the same verse is explained as referring to teshuvah, through which a person rises like the eagle “in the heavens,” from ascent to ascent.

Because the sin of the spies was so grave, Moshe asked that this lifting power reach very far down, so that even what had fallen very low could be raised. That is why he recalled G‑d’s words, “Havayah is slow to anger (erech apayim).”

Erech apayim plainly means “slow to anger” (literally “long of nostrils”); the Alter Rebbe reads apayim as panim, “face,” so that it means a “long face.” The “face” is G‑d’s influence given with closeness and love, as opposed to the “back,” giving without warmth, like someone tossing something behind his shoulders.

Moshe asked that the “face,” the loving revelation, be “long” (erech), reaching very far down. This flow comes from “as You have spoken (dibarta), saying (lemor),” and the next part explains the two verbs.

“Speaking” (dibbur) is the loud, open voice of proclamation, as the Zohar explains, and belongs to the revealed world, while “saying” (amirah) is in the heart and thought. What is revealed speech on a higher level becomes hidden thought on the level below, as a teacher’s spoken words become thought in the student’s mind.

This hidden level is the root from which the lower levels come into being. The Arizal teaches that Malchus, the last level of each world, becomes the first levels (Keser, Chochmah, Binah and Daas) of the world below it; the Kehot note points to Etz Chaim (the Arizal’s teachings as recorded by Rabbi Chaim Vital), Sha’ar Kisei HaKavod.

The drawing down from revealed “speaking” above to hidden “saying” below takes place through the Torah. The verse at Sinai, “And G‑d spoke all these words, saying,” joins the two.

When a person studies Torah aloud, “the word of G‑d,” which is halachah, is placed in his mouth (“I have put My words in your mouth”). This speech becomes “saying” and concealment on the lower level, so that the flow reaches the lowest level.

This is why Adam was placed in Gan Eden “to work it and to guard it”: man is the one who draws the radiance of the Shechinah into Gan Eden. G‑d in Himself has no fixed attributes, as Eliyahu’s prayer in the Tikkunei Zohar (Patach Eliyahu) says, so their revelation depends on an arousal from below, which brings an arousal from above.

Torah study draws G‑d’s radiance into the higher Gan Eden, while the mitzvos draw it into the lower Gan Eden. “To work it and to guard it” means the positive and the negative commandments, and Adam was placed in the lower Gan Eden, the one on earth.

This seems puzzling, since the mitzvos are rooted higher than the Torah: the Torah comes from Chochmah, while the mitzvos are the Supernal Will, as explained above. The answer is that what is rooted higher can descend further down, which is why the mitzvos reach even the lower Gan Eden on earth.

The text refers to its discussion above, in Likkutei Torah, Shelach, of “The land is very, very good.” There the Alter Rebbe explains that the Infinite Light, “very” (meod) beyond any limit, is drawn down specifically through the practical mitzvos of the land below, for the higher a level is, the more it is revealed in the lowest thing, as a great sage can convey his deepest insight only through a hint in deed.

This is why Moshe, pleading after the sin of the spies, asked for “the power of Ado-nai”: the power and light drawn down by serving G‑d through the mitzvos. That service is the level of “the children of Israel are servants to Me,” and the Midrash teaches that wherever G‑d says “to Me,” it lasts forever.

Moshe needed a light that could reach further down than usual, so that even the sin of the spies would not block it, and for that it had to come from a higher source.

That higher source is the power of Ado-nai, the Supernal Will, which is far above the level of the Torah.

Because it is so high, this power can descend very far and lift those who have fallen very low, binding them again to the Infinite Light.

“As You have spoken, saying” recalls the process described above: the Torah’s “speaking” becomes hidden “saying” in the lower levels, and so becomes the source of the Divine flow in Gan Eden for the souls.

Moshe asked that the power of Ado-nai be erech apayim, that its revelation “be lengthened” (yisarech, from the same root as erech, “long”) and reach still further down. The same happens with the Torah and the mitzvos even now: their power descends into this physical world.

Some mitzvos yield “fruits” that a person enjoys in this world, as the Mishnah teaches, and the blessings of Bechukosai (abundant harvests, peace in the land) are meant literally too, for a verse never loses its plain meaning.

The blessing “all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you” means that they will reach down to wherever a person is. Through this great drawing down comes G‑d’s “bearing iniquity” (nosei avon), which plainly means forgiving it and is read here as lifting it: even the heavy weight of sin is carried and lifted, as the thrower’s power lifts the stone.

“Passing over transgression” is read through a play on letters: pesha (פשע, transgression), rearranged, is shefa (שפע, abundance). Sin itself is transformed into good, as the Sages say that through teshuvah deliberate sins become like merits.

This explains how Torah study atones: “through kindness and truth iniquity is atoned for,” and “truth” means Torah. Likewise charity redeems sin, as Daniel advised Nevuchadnetzar: “redeem your sin through charity.”

The Alter Rebbe asks how Torah study or charity can repair everything a person has blemished in his soul through sin.

The answer follows from what was said above. Torah studied as G‑d’s own words in one’s mouth, and mitzvos done as acceptance of His Kingship, draw down a power from above that, like the power that lifts the stone, raises even what had fallen.

This revelation comes only through action in this world, as the Sages read “today to do them”: today, and not tomorrow, in the World to Come.

That is why Moshe said “And now.” The Midrash says that “and now” always refers to teshuvah, which turns darkness into light, and teshuvah belongs to “now,” the time of “today to do them,” within this lifetime of action.

Only now, while a person has free choice and can turn his heart to good, does the light that encompasses all worlds rest on him. That light is the “power” Moshe asked for.

The closing parenthesis lists sources on “And now, please, let the power be great”: the Talmud in Shabbos and Sanhedrin, the Kabbalistic works Sha’arei Orah (by Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla) and the Pardes (by Rabbi Moshe Cordovero), the Midrash on Shelach, and the Zohar on Shelach and Haazinu. The marking “(mem-dalet)” stands so in the text; the Kehot notes record that many of these passages are copied in Or HaTorah, Shelach.

The list continues with the Zohar on Pinchas, the Ramaz’s commentary there, and Me’orei Or, a work arranged by letters (the print’s אוף is read as אות, “letter”); the Kehot note suggests that “section 79” should read 69, as in Or HaTorah. Likkutei Torah, Chukas notes that this Zohar on Pinchas explains “with all his strength (koach)” like “let the power (koach) of Ado-nai be great.”

It ends with the Midrash on Eichah (“they went without strength”), the Tikkunei Zohar, and the Torah commentary of Rabbeinu Bachya (Rabbi Bachya ben Asher) on Shelach.