ויקרא אל משה וגו׳

The maamar opens with the first verse of Leviticus and a detail of the Torah scroll: the alef at the end of the word Vayikra is written small, while the first word of Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles), “Adam,” is written with an oversized alef. The Zohar (3:53b) already asks about this small alef and answers that it shows who called: the One who dwells in the Sanctuary, inviting Moshe as a host invites a guest. To understand it, the Alter Rebbe brings the Midrash that contrasts the way G‑d called Moshe with the way Avraham was called.

At the binding of Yitzchak, the angel of Havayah called to Avraham from heaven, and only then did G‑d’s own speech address him, with the oath “By Myself I have sworn.” With Moshe, the Midrash says, G‑d Himself both called and spoke, with no intermediary.

The Zohar says the same: the call to Moshe was the King’s own voice, not sent through any messenger.

This raises a question. If G‑d Himself called, why does the verse not say so, “And Havayah called to Moshe,” instead of leaving the caller unnamed? Rabbeinu Bachya on this verse asks the same and links the unnamed caller to the glory of the verse before it, which is where the maamar’s answer will begin as well.

A second difficulty: the Zohar in Parshas Vayeira says that wherever the Torah says “and he said” or “and he called” without naming the speaker, as in this verse, it was the Angel of the Covenant, and yet all of it is said of the Holy One, blessed be He. This seems to contradict the Midrash, which says that no angel called Moshe; the maamar will explain later who this “angel” is.

The answer begins with a verse near the end of Exodus, just before Vayikra: Moshe could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud rested on it and the glory of Havayah filled the Mishkan. The calling that opens Vayikra came after this, and the maamar will explain it as what enabled Moshe to enter.

The cloud that “rested upon it” was G‑d’s Infinite Light coming to rest from an exceedingly lofty level, the one described in Psalms as “He made darkness His hiding place.” This is the light that “encompasses all worlds” (sovev kol almin): it transcends the worlds, and no created mind can grasp it.

Two well-known teachings show that this level is beyond comprehension. The Tikkunei Zohar says that no thought can grasp G‑d at all and that He is wise, but not with a wisdom that can be known; and G‑d’s knowledge is not separate from Him, for He is the Knower and the Knowledge, which, as the Tanya says, no person can fully understand.

That is why this level is called “darkness.” The word does not mean something evil or lacking; it means that nothing in it can be seen or grasped by created beings.

To explain the “darkness,” the Alter Rebbe turns to the words of the Amidah prayer: “You are holy, and Your Name is holy.” A name is how one is known to others, yet even G‑d’s Name “alone is exalted” (Psalms 148:13): the worlds bear no comparison to it.

The Name is so far beyond the worlds that it is itself “holy,” that is, set apart from them. What reaches the worlds is only its splendor, as the verse continues, “His splendor is over earth and heaven”: a mere illumination from His Name.

“You are holy” goes further: it speaks of G‑d Himself, above even His Name, and from this level the worlds cannot receive even radiance. In Torah Ohr, Va’eira (the discourse “Therefore say to the Children of Israel”), the Alter Rebbe explains these two levels in nearly the same words and adds that through Torah and mitzvos a Jew does receive from the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself.

Now the verse “He made darkness His hiding place” can be understood. G‑d is called “darkness” not in Himself but in relation to the worlds, because they cannot receive even a glimmer of radiance from Him.

What the worlds can receive comes from the level of “Your Name is holy,” and it is called the radiance of the Shechinah. The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse on “And Moshe spoke to the heads of the tribes” (Likkutei Torah, Mattos), where he explains that this radiance comes from G‑d’s Malchus, while He Himself is beyond all thought.

The Raaya Mehemna (“the Faithful Shepherd”), a part of the Zohar printed within it, says that the “darkness” of this verse is Keser Elyon, the Supernal Crown, the highest of all levels. The cloud that rested on the Tent of Meeting was a drawing down of this level.

The second half of the verse also needs explaining. The Zohar notes that the Torah writes malei, “full,” and not the verb milei, “filled,” and says that the glory was “full” because it was filled from everything. In the Zohar’s image it was filled from the sun, like the moon that is full when it receives from the sun on every side.

Had the verse meant only that the glory of Havayah filled the Mishkan, it would have used the verb milei, “filled”; that would describe only what the glory did to the Mishkan. The printed vowels in this line read malei, but the argument requires milei, and the translation follows the argument.

The word “full” teaches more. First the glory of Havayah itself was completed and filled, and only then was this filled glory drawn down and revealed in the Mishkan.

The “glory of Havayah” that filled the Mishkan is the light that fills the worlds (memalei kol almin), “the radiance of His glory.” This is G‑d’s Malchus, His sovereignty, also called the “lower Chochmah,” because it is the source from which the three lower worlds come into being.

Malchus has a higher root: the “higher Chochmah,” called the “higher glory.” Within this Chochmah the Infinite Light itself rests.

This higher glory is what Moshe asked to see when he said, “Show me, please, Your glory.” The bracketed reference is to the Ramaz (Rabbi Moshe Zacuto), who explains there that “glory” is Chochmah, the inner garment of Arich Anpin (the “Long Countenance,” the configuration of Keser above Chochmah); in Likkutei Torah, Emor and Shelach, the Alter Rebbe uses this to explain why the Torah, which is Chochmah, is called the garment of the mitzvos and of the supernal will.

The angels’ words, which plainly say the glory is blessed “from His place,” are read here as “from its place”: Malchus, the light that fills the worlds, is blessed from its root in the higher Chochmah, the source of all blessings. In Likkutei Torah, Tazria, the Alter Rebbe explains that baruch can mean one who receives blessing or the source that blesses; here Malchus is “blessed,” receiving from Chochmah, and this blessing is the flow of the encompassing light into the light that fills the worlds.

This is the Zohar’s point about the word “full”: the glory, Malchus, was first filled from its source, the higher glory.

That filling came about because the cloud rested on the Mishkan, and the cloud drew down the supernal encompassing light (makif). Through it the transcendent light (sovev) was revealed within the light that fills the worlds (memalei) as an inner light (or pnimi), one that is taken in and felt, and so the glory actually filled the Mishkan.

In parentheses the Alter Rebbe refers to other discourses on the revelation of sovev within memalei: on “For over all the glory shall be a canopy,” which explains that above the two kinds of glory, the lower and the higher, stands the “canopy,” the encompassing light; and on “You have captured my heart, my sister, bride,” which explains how prayer draws the encompassing light into the light that fills the worlds. He also refers to a discussion of “For seven days he shall fill,” said of the priests’ installation, whose “fill” echoes the “full” glory.

This is why Moshe could not enter: he could not receive from a level as high as the “darkness” that is G‑d’s hiding place, which is exceedingly high.

Yet at Sinai Moshe did enter the cloud. The Zohar at the beginning of Vayikra answers that there were two clouds: one that Moshe entered on the mountain, and one that rested on the Mishkan.

Section 2 explains what the calling was. “And He called” was an illumination and a flow of influence given to Moshe, which gave him the power to rise and enter the Tent he could not enter before; the Kabbalist Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano explains it the same way in his Asarah Maamaros, in the essay Maamar Em Kol Chai.

The proof comes from the angels in Isaiah’s vision, who plainly “called one to another” and said “Holy, holy, holy.” The Aramaic translation of Yonasan ben Uziel renders “called” as “receive”: the angels receive from one another, and then they say “Holy.”

So “calling” means receiving: each angel draws influence to the other, and each receives what is drawn to it. The maamar will apply this to G‑d’s calling to Moshe.

The Alter Rebbe agrees with the Targum: the verse cannot mean simply that one angel called out to another. Why would Michael need to summon Gavriel before saying “Holy,” or Gavriel Michael?

So “calling” must mean receiving: each angel receives from the other through the influence that is drawn from one to the other.

This receiving is what enables each angel to say “Holy” three times. Saying “Holy” is the angel’s kelos hanefesh, the soul’s yearning toward G‑d’s Infinite Light to the point of expiring; the Alter Rebbe compares it to the Mishnah’s phrase “they go out with a shir,” where shir means an animal’s collar but is read here as “song”: the soul goes out of itself in song.

The angels serve in different ways: Michael’s yearning is in love, Gavriel’s in awe. On his own, Michael could therefore say “Holy” only once, in his own way, love.

Gavriel too could say it only once, in awe. They can say it three times because “one called to the other”: each draws influence to the other.

This is the inter-inclusion (hiskallelus) of the levels, each coming to include the others. In general the angels are three, corresponding to Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferes: Michael (kindness and love), Gavriel (restraint and awe) and Refael (the harmony between them).

Receiving from one another allows each angel to say “Holy” three times. In a bracketed aside the Alter Rebbe adds that through this inclusion each angel rises higher than its own level alone, and refers to the end of his discourse on “Your teeth are like a flock of ewes … all of which bear twins” (Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim), where the three “Holy”s are tied to the three strokes of the letter shin, read in shinayich, “your teeth.” The word for “bear twins” (mas’imos) also means “matched in pairs,” as the levels are matched and included in one another.

He also refers to Torah Ohr, Bereishis, on the verse about Yaval, which explains the “threefold song”: a simple song is plain self-nullification, a double song includes one attribute, love or awe, and a threefold song includes both, just as each angel, including the others, says “Holy” three times. And he refers to the discourse “Your cheeks are comely with rows [of jewels].”

Further references: the Raaya Mehemna (Parshas Eikev) on “And one called to the other,” with the commentary of the Ramaz on it, and the Etz Chaim of the Arizal (Sha’ar 15, end of chapter 6).

The discourse “Thus shall you bless the Children of Israel” (Likkutei Torah, Nasso) explains Adam’s “calling” names to the animals the same way: he called forth and drew down their names, the letters of the Ten Utterances that create them, from concealment into revelation, so as to raise them to their source.

The Zohar explains “And G‑d called the light day” in the same way: He “called” and invited, drawing forth a light. So too the Shabbos morning blessing “He called to the sun, and light shone forth” can be read this way: the calling drew light into the sun.

Returning to the verse: “And He called to Moshe” was an illumination drawn to Moshe, and that illumination is the small alef of Vayikra. Why an alef? Its letters (אלף) also spell pele (פלא), “wonder,” what is beyond understanding; and alef also means teaching, as in “I will teach you (a’alefcha) wisdom,” so the alef is the source from which wisdom itself comes.

The alef stands for Keser, the Crown, the level above Chochmah. In Likkutei Torah, Tzav, the Alter Rebbe reads “who has dealt wondrously (lehafli) with you” as the revelation of the Future, when Malchus will rise to Keser, the level of pele, “wonder.”

The introduction to the Zohar speaks of large “upper” letters and small “lower” letters. The large alef is Keser as it is in its own essence, and that is the level Moshe could not enter.

The small alef is the light of Keser as it is drawn down through tzimtzum, contracted so that it can be received. From this level came “And He called to Moshe”: the illumination that later enabled him to enter the Tent of Meeting covered by the cloud.

The large alef of “Adam” in Chronicles stands for Adam before the sin, when he stood on an exceedingly lofty level, as Sefer HaGilgulim, a Kabbalistic work on the souls from the school of the Arizal, describes.

The Alter Rebbe then lists other places that discuss “And He called to Moshe.” The Talmud in Yoma learns from it that one should call a person before speaking to him; in Shemos Rabbah Moshe reasons that he could not enter the Tent of Meeting unless the Holy One called him; and Shemos Rabbah takes it up again in Ki Sisa.

Bamidbar Rabbah discusses it as well, in chapter 2 and at the end of chapter 14, in Nasso.

Koheles Rabbah discusses it on the verse “Whatever has been, its name has already been called.” The Alter Rebbe also lists passages of the Zohar, and says that all of these can be understood along the lines explained here.

Section 3 explains the Midrash “I am the One who calls and I am the One who speaks.” To do so the Alter Rebbe first brings a teaching on the festivals, which are also “called.”

The verse says, “These are the appointed festivals of Havayah, holy convocations (mikra’ei kodesh), which you shall proclaim them (osam).” Since osam is written without a vav, the Sages read it atem, “you”: the holiness of the festivals depends on the court that proclaims them.

So the festival blessing says, “Who sanctifies Israel and the seasons”: G‑d sanctifies Israel, and Israel sanctify the seasons.

The Zohar compares a festival to a king who invites guests, and says that three festivals are “invited from Kodesh,” holiness: Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos. The festivals usually fall on ordinary weekdays.

When a festival falls on a weekday, that day is “called” and invited to the level of Kodesh, holiness, which is the higher Chochmah. That is why it is called mikra kodesh, a “calling of holiness,” like the guests the king invites.

But the weekdays belong to the outer dimension of the emotive attributes, such as Chesed and Gevurah. For such a day to rise to the higher Chochmah, the supernal holiness, light must first be drawn down from the higher Chochmah into that day; only through this illumination from above can the day ascend.

The light is drawn down by the souls of Israel, which is why the verse stresses “you shall proclaim.” The reason rests on the law of agency: “a person’s agent is like himself.”

That is why a deaf-mute, a person not of sound mind or a minor cannot serve as an agent: they lack the standing of the sender. But a proper agent is fully like the sender, so that, as the Mishnah says, a man may betroth a woman himself or through his agent. The Kehot note cites the Rebbe (Likkutei Sichos, vol. 13), who links “truly like the sender” here with the Tanya’s words that the G‑dly soul of a Jew is “truly a part of G‑d above.”

So too above: an agent sent from the supernal holiness to “invite” the weekdays can do so only if he is like the One who sends him. The next paragraph explains why Israel can be that agent.

Israel can be this agent because of the verse “Israel is holy (kodesh) to Havayah”: the souls of Israel are rooted in the higher Chochmah, the supernal Kodesh. The Zohar in Pekudei says the same, that Israel are kodesh and come from the side of kodesh.

Because their root is in that holiness, the light of the supernal Kodesh can be drawn through them into the day on which the festival falls. That is how, through “you shall proclaim,” the days become holy convocations, so that afterwards they can rise to the supernal holiness.

The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse “Command the Children of Israel” (Likkutei Torah, Pinchas), on offering the sacrifice “in its appointed time.” There he explains that the prayers of the weekdays draw from the supernal holiness of Shabbos, and that the path for this is the festivals, the mikra’ei kodesh in which holiness is “called” and drawn down.

A general rule follows. Whenever light from above is drawn through some intermediate level, that level, the “agent,” must bear some relation to the source of the light; otherwise it cannot serve as its agent.

The angels too are agents: the Hebrew word malach means “messenger.” They are the channels through which G‑d’s flow reaches the worlds, as explained in the discourse “I have come into my garden,” on the words “I have eaten my honeycomb.”

The discourse “How beautiful are your steps in sandals” (Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim) explains more: there the “sandals” are the angels Metatron and Sandalfon, who are enclothed below to conduct this world during the six weekdays and rise on Shabbos. The Alter Rebbe also cites the Etz Chaim’s discussion of the angels, in its gate on the “feminine and masculine waters.”

The text says “Iggeres HaKodesh, near its end”; the passage is in the Kuntres Acharon, which follows it in the Tanya, and it speaks of the difference in an angel’s rank. When an angel is sent on a mission from above, it is called by the Name Havayah itself, which dwells within it.

When it is not on a mission, the angel has its own name, according to its service, and it says “Holy, holy, holy is Havayah”: it proclaims that the Name is holy and separate from it.

After a reference to Pardes Rimonim, the Kabbalistic work of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (its gate on the four worlds), the Alter Rebbe returns to the Midrash: with Avraham, “the angel calls and the speech speaks.”

The explanation begins with G‑d’s words to Moshe: He appeared to the Patriarchs as Kel Sha-dai, but by His Name Havayah He was not known to them.

As the Alter Rebbe explains in Torah Ohr, Va’eira, the Patriarchs grasped Havayah only as it is already drawn down and clothed in Elokim, the Name of G‑d as concealed within nature; Havayah as it is before it is clothed in Elokim was not known to them, and only Moshe’s apprehension came from there. There he adds that this higher level was revealed to all Israel at the Giving of the Torah, “face to face.”

For more on this he refers to the Ramaz’s commentary on the Zohar at the beginning of Va’eira, and to the Zohar in Vayeira.

This explains why an angel called Avraham first. An angel could serve as the agent of the first drawing down, the “calling,” which raised Avraham so that he could then receive G‑d’s speech.

An angel could do this because the speech to Avraham came through the Name Elokim, and angels too are called elokim. Scripture calls G‑d “the G‑d of the elokim,” which Pardes explains as “the G‑d of the angels.”

Angels are also called “sons of Elokim,” so an angel is fit to be the agent of speech that comes through the Name Elokim.

With Moshe, however, the prophecy came from Havayah itself, before it is clothed in Elokim, and its source was the cloud of “He made darkness His hiding place.” Therefore even the first step, the calling, could not come through an angel, a created being brought into existence from nothing, which by the rule of agency bears no relation to so high a source; rather, G‑d Himself both called and spoke.

This is as in the verse “I am first and I am last.” Of the Future it is said, “See now that I, I am He,” with “I” said twice.

The Zohar explains the doubled “I” as showing that there is no separation between above and below: the same G‑d is present in both.

“I am last” is Malchus, “the end of all levels,” which is clothed in the three lower worlds and is the source of separate created existence, as the verse says of the river that goes out of Eden, “and from there it divides.”

“I am first” is ayin, “nothing”: the verse “And wisdom, where (me’ayin) shall it be found?” is read as “wisdom is found from ayin,” for Chochmah is self-nullification before G‑d.

In the Future the revelation below will be as it is above. That is “See now that I, I am He”: then we will see it with our own eyes, as Isaiah says, “Eye to eye they shall see.”

After another reference to the discourse on “Your cheeks are comely with rows [of jewels],” which explains that when Malchus is redeemed from its enclothement below, “I am first” and “I am last” become equal, the Alter Rebbe turns to Moshe. Plainly “he saw the first portion for himself” is said of the tribe of Gad, who chose the first land to be conquered, but here it is read of Moshe, who “saw reishis,” the higher Chochmah, drawn from ayin, “I am first”; therefore the Sages could say of him, “I am the One who calls and I am the One who speaks.”

“I am the One who calls” is Malchus, “I am last.” This is the meaning of the Hoshanos prayer “Ani vaho, please save,” where ani, “I,” is Malchus.

“I am the One who speaks” is Chochmah, “found from ayin,” for the Infinite Light itself is clothed in the higher Chochmah, as in “Havayah with Chochmah founded the earth.” This revelation of Chochmah is “I am first.”

Now the Alter Rebbe answers the second question, from the Zohar that says the caller in “And He called to Moshe” was the Angel of the Covenant. Malchus itself, called melech, “king,” is sometimes called malach, “angel”: the Zohar in Balak says that it is called an angel when it is an emissary from above and receives radiance from above.

A created angel is on a higher level when it is on a mission from above, as explained earlier, and the same is true of Malchus. Although Malchus is one with her vessels, she is raised higher still when she is “an emissary from above,” as the Ramaz explains there.

So the Angel of the Covenant is Malchus as an emissary from above, not a created angel, and this fits with the Midrash. The small alef of Vayikra is this same light, drawn from the cloud of “He made darkness His hiding place,” and the word malach (מלאך) is melech (מלך) with an alef.

The Zohar at the end of Vayeira reads “the angel of His presence saved them” as the Shechinah, which is with Israel in their exile.

The Zohar on “Naftali is a hind sent forth” speaks of the voice that is “sent” from a deep place above to lead the speech; the word sheluchah, “sent forth,” is the same root as shaliach, an emissary. Pardes Rimonim discusses the term malach in its entry on it.

Section 4 applies all this to every generation, since the Torah is eternal. Of Torah study G‑d says, “I have put My words in your mouth, and in the shade of My hand I have covered you.”

The word tzel, “shade,” in that verse is a supernal makif, an encompassing light that surrounds a person rather than entering him. So the Zohar calls the sukkah “the shade of faith,” for it draws down supernal encompassing lights.

That is why the Mishnah rules that a sukkah with more sunlight than shade is invalid: the sukkah is like the cloud of “He made darkness His hiding place,” which comes only as shade and makif, not as open light and revelation.

The sukkah recalls the Clouds of Glory in the desert, which were like the cloud that rested on the Tent of Meeting. Yet the stars should be visible through the roof of the sukkah: something of the makif’s light does shine inward, like the small alef.

Torah study, too, is “the shade of My hand,” a makif: as the Alter Rebbe explains in his discourse for Shemini Atzeres, the breath of the spoken words of Torah becomes an encompassing light for the soul. In the discourse “And I will betroth you to Me” (Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar) he reads “You have affirmed (he’emarta) Havayah today” as “you have caused Him to say”: through Torah study one draws G‑d’s own speech, a makif like the ring of betrothal.

Study brings more than a makif. When a person understands the Torah and grasps a halachah with his mind, the verse “He reveals deep things out of darkness” applies. The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse on “in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting” (Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar).

Through understanding, the hidden makif of “He made darkness His hiding place” is drawn down as open light. That is why the Torah is called light: “and Torah is light.”

The Infinite Light then rests below as it does above, as in “I am first and I am last.” In the discourse “Who is enthroned on high” (Torah Ohr, Miketz) the Alter Rebbe reads hamagbihi as raising the yud of the hei, as charity raises a person into the Infinite Light, so that the Infinite Light comes to rest there.

This is why Havayah spoke to Moshe “from the Tent of Meeting”: it was the place where the cloud rested and the glory was “full.”

All these levels are present in Torah study, as the Talmud says that since the Temple was destroyed G‑d has in His world only “the four cubits of halachah.”

So Torah study holds what once rested in the Mishkan and the Temple, for, as the Mishnah says, “there is no glory but Torah,” and, as the Zohar says, the Torah comes forth from Chochmah. The Torah is thus the “higher glory,” Chochmah with its thirty-two paths of wisdom, of which Sefer Yetzirah speaks.

The Infinite Light itself is clothed in this Chochmah, and so the Torah “reveals deep things out of darkness.” This is the Ramaz’s explanation, cited in paragraph 4, of Moshe’s request “Show me, please, Your glory.”

The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse “To a mare” (Torah Ohr, Beshalach), which explains that through the letters of the Torah the encompassing light comes to be revealed below, until “I fill heaven and earth.” This, he says, is the meaning of the Zohar’s reading of malei, “full,” discussed in paragraph 3.

He suggests that the Torah is higher than the sukkah. Through the sukkah’s roof only stars show: mere sparks of the encompassing light.

In the Torah, which is truly “light,” a great and powerful illumination shines inward from the very essence of the makif.

A parallel is the Splitting of the Sea, where “there was the cloud and the darkness, and it gave light”: the cloud of “darkness” itself became light. In the same way the Torah “reveals deep things out of darkness.”

Something similar happens on Shemini Atzeres, which is Simchas Torah: the encompassing lights of Sukkos are drawn inward. As the Alter Rebbe explains elsewhere on “In his shade I delighted and sat, and his fruit was sweet to my palate,” the “shade” is Sukkos and the “fruit” is Shemini Atzeres.

The Zohar reads the verse as speaking of Torah study: “In his shade” is the Holy One, blessed be He, and “his fruit” is the words of Torah, “sweeter than honey.”

The fruit is the inward drawing down that comes from the shade, the makif. The Alter Rebbe also refers to another passage of the Zohar, in Noach.

The Tikkunei Zohar speaks of “the extension of Moshe in every generation.” In every Jew this is his capacity for bittul, self-nullification, the quality Moshe expressed when he said, “and what (mah) are we?”; mah is also the Kabbalistic Name Mah, which stands for this bittul, as the Alter Rebbe explains at the end of the discourse “Moshe would speak” (Torah Ohr, Yisro).

Torah study must rest on bittul. Moshe is Daas, the faculty that draws the unity of the Infinite Light down into a person’s soul, so that the person becomes a “Tent of Meeting” (ohel mo’ed), from “I will meet (venoadti) with you there,” whose letters also spell venodati, “I will be known.”

In this “tent” the soul comes to know G‑d, the Life of all life, besides whom there is nothing, in the spirit of “See now that I, I am He.”

That verse speaks of the Future, yet every Jewish soul already has this power through its bond with the soul of Moshe, as the Tanya explains in chapter 42: to bind its thought to G‑d as firmly as to something seen with physical eyes.

“To come into the Tent of Meeting” applies to every person as well. One must come “with his learning in his hand,” as the Talmud says of those who come to the World to Come, because the Torah we study is clothed in physical matters.

So the verse says, “And I (Anochi) taught Ephraim to walk (tirgalti)”: G‑d’s very self, Anochi, lowered itself to the level of a “foot” (regel), the physical subjects of the Oral Torah.

There must also be “taking them upon His arms”: love and awe, the two arms. This is “coming here,” the soul pouring itself out toward its source, as the Alter Rebbe explains in his discourse “When you come into the land” (Likkutei Torah, Behar).

He also refers to his discourse “My dove” (Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim), which reads “Arise (kumi lach)” as “arise for yourself,” to the soul’s own root above, so that it may be “My beloved,” drawing down the Torah as nourishment.

For Moshe himself, “could not come” meant that the cloud came from the unreachable level of “He made darkness His hiding place.”

For the “Moshe” in every person, the Daas of the G‑dly soul, the words mean just what they say: this Daas cannot come and be revealed in the person, because the animal soul conceals it.

For the inner Moshe to come and be revealed, an arousal from above is needed, and it comes through the mitzvos: through them G‑d “takes them upon His arms,” for “charity uplifts.”

The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse on “And now, let the power of Ado-nai be great” (Likkutei Torah, Shelach): keeping the mitzvos draws down a supernal power and encompassing lights that lift the soul and bind it to G‑d, the way the force of one who throws a stone carries it upward.

Now the calling of Moshe is applied to every person. “I am the One who calls” refers to the mitzvos, which are called “the commands of the King”; the Midrash Tanchuma says in G‑d’s name, “Honor the mitzvos, for they are My agents,” and since a person’s agent is like himself, honoring them is honoring Him.

The Alter Rebbe refers to his explanation of “And you shall remember all the commandments of Havayah and do them.” The first two letters of mitzvah (מצוה), mem and tzaddi, become yud and hei in At-bash, the cipher that exchanges the first letter of the alphabet with the last, the second with the second-to-last and so on; with the remaining vav and hei, the word spells the Name Havayah.

Since mitzvah contains the Name Havayah, the mitzvos are called “the 248 limbs of the King”: as the limbs are vessels for the soul, the mitzvos are vessels for the Infinite Light itself. They are also called “the commands of the King,” and this is Malchus of Atzilus, the level of G‑d’s sovereignty that issues commands.

The mitzvos as they come down to us are “commands of the King,” but their root above is the “limbs of the King.”

When a person does a mitzvah, his arousal from below draws it down so that it becomes a “limb of the King,” a vessel for the Infinite Light. Before that, at first, the mitzvos are called G‑d’s “agents.”

At first the mitzvos are at the level of Malchus. This is Yaakov’s dream of a ladder set on the earth, with “angels of Elokim” going up on it.

The “angels of Elokim” are the mitzvos, which rise on the ladder of prayer, as the Alter Rebbe explains elsewhere in connection with Yom Kippur.

Yet even then the mitzvos are not agents like the created angels, for an angel is a created being, brought into existence from nothing. In the mitzvos, rather, it is “I am the One who calls,” G‑d Himself: He draws a power into the soul that lifts it, so that it can “come here,” into the Tent of Meeting.

This is “And I am prayer”: the “I” of “I am the One who calls” is at work in prayer, lifting the soul. Prayer, lifted by the mitzvos, prepares a person for Torah study, where “I have put My words in your mouth, and in the shade of My hand I have covered you.”

The words of the Shabbos prayer say the same: first “Sanctify us with Your mitzvos,” and afterwards “grant our portion in Your Torah.” The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse on the Ten Commandments, “And G‑d spoke … I (Anochi).”

This is “And Havayah spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting.” As the Alter Rebbe explains in Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar, mo’ed (meeting) is from venoadti, which has the letters of venodati, “I will be known,” so the inner Tent of Meeting is the soul’s knowledge of G‑d, as in “See now that I, I am He.”

This revelation comes through Torah study, as explained at the end of the discourse “Who is enthroned on high, who lowers Himself to look in heaven and on earth”: heaven and earth are the Written and the Oral Torah, through which G‑d “looks,” that is, is seen and revealed.

It comes through both “I am the One who calls” and “I am the One who speaks.” Plainly the verse says “I speak in righteousness,” but the Alter Rebbe reads bitzedakah as “through charity”: the charity and kindness a person does draw G‑d’s own speech, “I speak,” into his Torah study.

That is the meaning of “My words that I have put in your mouth,” and of “In every place where I cause My Name to be mentioned, I will come to you and bless you.” The Alter Rebbe closes with a reference to his discourse on “There are sixty queens.”