Torah Ohr · Parshas Bereishis · Maamar 7
ויאמר ה׳ אלקים הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו…
“And Havayah Elokim said: Behold, man has become like one of us”
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The big idea
Knowing evil is harmless ‘above,’ where knowledge is encompassing and keeps evil apart, but for man, whose knowing is inner, it means becoming mixed with evil; therefore G‑d forbade the Tree of Knowledge, kept man from eternal life once he was mixed with evil, and sent him to refine the world through struggle instead of through sheer light.
The maamar in brief
The maamar asks why the Tree of Knowledge ‘opened their eyes,’ why G‑d kept man from the Tree of Life, and how the serpent knew what eating would do. The answer turns on the difference between encompassing (makif) and inner (pnimi) knowledge. Above, good and evil are known only in an encompassing way, so evil stays separate, as the frankincense of the incense gives life to the kelipos without mixing with them. Man is an inner being: whatever he knows becomes part of him, so knowing evil meant becoming mixed with it, which began the long war between good and evil in every generation. G‑d had wanted man to stay wholly holy and refine the world by drawing down so much light that the fallen sparks would be absorbed of themselves, like a candle before a torch. After the sin, eternal life from the Tree of Life, which stems from Keser, above distinctions, would have made the evil in him eternal too, so man was sent to ‘work the ground’ and refine it through labor, prayer and the separating power of Chochmah. The serpent, itself rooted in the Tree of Knowledge, understood all this and told Chavah a cunning truth.
Outline
- The questionsWhy did the Tree of Knowledge open their eyes, why keep man from the Tree of Life, and how did the serpent know? The answer begins: above, good and evil are known but not mixed.¶1–2
- Encompassing and inner knowledgeKnowledge above is encompassing and keeps evil separate (the spider in the king’s palace, Havdalah, the frankincense); the Tree of Knowledge is inner knowledge, where good and evil truly mix.¶3–4
- Man’s inner nature and the war with evilBecause man absorbs what he knows, knowing evil mixed him with it, producing a see-saw struggle through the generations and, on the plain level, the awareness of desire.¶5–7
- Why man was kept from the Tree of LifeThe Tree of Life, rooted above the shattering in Keser, would have made the evil in him eternal; evil must instead be separated through Chochmah and its gevuros until death is swallowed up forever.¶8–9
- Expulsion and the work of refinementReciting the incense held back the plague but did not remove the guilt; man was sent to work the ground and refine the sparks, whereas originally he would have absorbed them through the light of the 248 positive commandments, like a candle before a torch.¶10–11
- Refinement by light and by warIn Temple times and for Adam before the sin, sparks were drawn in of themselves; after the sin they must be won through labor and prayer, ‘the time of prayer is the time of battle.’¶12
- How the serpent knewThe serpent, rooted in the Tree of Knowledge, understood the prohibition and, to avoid being absorbed into Adam’s light, drew man into war by telling a cunning truth.¶13
- Addendum: Adam in the chambers; Yehudah’s descentFrom the Arizal: Adam fell by agreeing merely to look into the chambers of impurity; from Rabbi Avraham son of the Maggid: Yehudah ‘turned aside’ into the realm of the kelipos to raise sparks.¶14
Key concepts
- Encompassing and inner (makif and pnimi)מקיף ופנימי
- Encompassing knowledge or light acts on something from above without entering it and so stays separate from it; inner knowledge is absorbed and becomes part of the knower. The maamar’s key to why knowing evil harms man but not the higher realms.
- The Tree of Knowledge of good and evilעץ הדעת טוב ורע
- The level of mixture, where good and evil draw on each other and are fused; it arises from the shattering of the vessels.
- Refinements (beirurim)בירורים
- The work of separating the sparks of holiness from the evil they are trapped in and elevating them, man’s task after the sin, carried out through labor, eating, prayer and mitzvos.
- A candle before a torchכנר בפני האבוקה
- The image for refinement through light: when enough holiness is revealed, the fallen sparks are absorbed into it of themselves, without a battle.
- Chochmah as judgmentחכמה נקראת דין
- Because ‘through Chochmah they are refined,’ Chochmah contains gevuros that separate good from evil, unlike Keser, which is simple mercy and makes no distinction.
- Sparks of holinessנצוצי קדושה
- The holy vitality that fell into the realm of evil and sustains it; when it is withdrawn and elevated, the kelipah ceases to exist.
For children · ages 9–13
Why the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden
The big idea
G‑d wanted us to stay wholly good, and now that good and bad are mixed in us, our work is to sort them out through prayer, Torah and mitzvos.
After Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, G‑d said, “Behold, man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” But the angels above also know good and evil, so why was this bad for man? The maamar explains that there are two ways of knowing. Above, knowing is “encompassing” (makif): it stays around a thing, not inside it, so good and bad stay apart. A person’s knowing is “inner” (pnimi): whatever we know becomes part of us. So when Adam came to know evil, good and evil became mixed inside him, and life became a struggle in which sometimes the good wins and sometimes the bad. That is why G‑d did not want him to taste the fruit at all. G‑d’s first plan was that Adam would do the mitzvos and draw down so much light that the holy sparks hidden in the bad would rise into it on their own, and the bad would fade away. Now we must “work the ground”: live in the world, eat, work and pray, and lift up the sparks of holiness hidden in it. The serpent knew all this and told Chavah something true, but said it cunningly: it called a harm an advantage.
The mashal
When a small torch stands near a candle, the candle’s flame is swallowed into the torch; if the candle is moved a little away, it is not. But when the torch is very large, even a far-off candle is swallowed into its light. Before the sin, Adam’s light was meant to be so great that the hidden sparks of holiness in the world would join it by themselves.
Questions for the Shabbos table
- Why is knowing something “from the inside” different from knowing it “from around it”?
- What does the picture of the candle and the great torch teach about how light changes the world?
- What ordinary thing this week, like eating, working or helping at home, can you do in a way that brings out its holiness?
Explanation © likuteitorah.com, CC BY-NC 4.0: retold for children from our translation and explanation, with AI assistance; not yet reviewed by a human editor.
In the Rebbe’s light · 6
AI research Found by AI reading every place in the Rebbe’s works that cites this maamar, and checked against each source by a second AI reader, the less certain by a third. Only what rated high is shown: the Rebbe’s own words, about this very passage. No person has reviewed it yet, so check the place itself before relying on a detail. See something to correct?
The maamar in the Rebbe’s light
The maamar turns on one distinction: above, good and evil are known from outside (מקיף), so evil stays apart, while man knows from within (פנימי) and is mixed with what he knows; from it follow the serpent’s cunning, the war of refinement, and G‑d’s concern „פן ישלח ידו ולקח גם מעץ החיים ואכל וחי לעולם” (that man not live forever) with his evil. The Rebbe’s teachings follow that line to its consequences. In his maamar Bila hamaves of 5 Menachem Av 5725, and in a talk he outlined in 5702, he draws from this maamar that death itself came „בכדי שלא יהי׳ קיום להרע” (so that evil should not endure); in the same maamar he shows, through the Queen of Sheba who remained a queen, that even under Shlomo’s „אבוקה גדולה” (“great torch”) evil still kept a hold. In a letter of 17 Shevat 5714 he carries the maamar’s “above” and “below” into people, the giver who can know of evil unharmed and the receiver who cannot („משפיע ומקבל”); and in sichos of Shabbos Bereishis 5733 and of Hoshana Rabbah 5746 he notes that the serpent’s cunning did not make it higher than man, and what the scapegoat removes. Read together, and this is our own synthesis, the maamar’s knowledge of evil becomes a map of how evil is contained: by death, by giving it its portion, and finally by a light it cannot outlast.
Paragraph by paragraph
- ¶2
A question the Rebbe raises
In a sicha of Shabbos Bereishis 5733 on Rashi’s „לפי ערמתו וגדולתו היתה מפלתו” (“according to its cunning and its greatness was its downfall”), the Rebbe asks how the serpent could mislead Chavah, and argues in note 21 that the verse does not mean the serpent was more cunning than Chavah herself (in general she was the more cunning), only cunning in general.
In a note on that note the Rebbe quotes our paragraph’s „אם לא שנאמר שגבוה הוא מהאדם וכ״ז פלאי” (“unless we say that it is higher than man, and all this is astonishing”), and remarks that its wording implies the same in the plain sense of the verses: the serpent was not above man. But, he adds, one may distinguish between “arum” (ערום), cunning, which the verse says of the serpent, and “gavoha” (גבוה), higher than man, which is what our paragraph finds astonishing.
The Alter Rebbe
אם לא שנאמר שגבוה הוא מהאדם וכ״ז פלאי
The Rebbe
ומלשון זה משמע שכ״ה גם בפשטות. אבל יש לחלק בין „ערום” ל„גבוה”
Likkutei Sichos, vol. י (10), Bereishis, p. 16, note * to note 21 (the sicha begins p. 13) · ש״פ בראשית תשל״ג
- ¶5
Background from the Rebbe
In a letter of 17 Shevat 5714 to Rabbi Yehudah Arye Perlow, among remarks on his book Lev Arye, the Rebbe takes up the Midrash on “He who keeps the commandment will know no evil thing, and a wise man’s heart knows time and judgment” (Koheles 8:5), which reads the verse of pairs in which one knew of a coming calamity and the other did not: Moshe and Aharon, Moshe and Yehoshua, Mordechai and Esther.
In each pair, the Rebbe writes, one is the giver and one the receiver (Moshe „שושבינא דמלכא” (“the King’s companion”), Aharon “the Queen’s”; „פני חמה ופני לבנה” (“the face of the sun and the face of the moon”)). „שלמעלה אין ידיעת הרע מזקת” (“Above, knowledge of evil does no harm”), while for man, „מצד הלמטה שלו” (“from his lower side”), knowing good and evil brings sin and death, and he names Torah Ohr as where this is explained at length. So Moshe could know in advance that the Sanctuary would be hallowed through the death of those close to G‑d („ונקדש בכבודי”), while from Aharon and his sons it had to be hidden; likewise Yehoshua at the golden calf, and Esther at Haman’s decree.
The Alter Rebbe
לא כמו שהוא למעלה שאעפ״י שיודעים גם את הרע מ״מ מובדל הוא ומרוחק מן הטוב
The Rebbe
ומובן שלמעלה אין ידיעת הרע מזקת, משא״כ האדם מצד הלמטה שלו יודעי טו״ר גורם לחטא ומיתה
Igros Kodesh, vol. ח, p. קעג (letter ב׳תיד, pp. קע–קעג) · י״ז שבט תשי״ד, to Rabbi Yehuda Arye Perlow
- ¶8
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In the maamar „בלע המות לנצח” (“Bila hamaves lanetzach”), said on 5 Menachem Av 5725, the day he completed saying kaddish for his mother, the Rebbe starts from the teaching that death will be swallowed up in the future because „ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ” (“the spirit of impurity” will be removed), and asks why death and the sin of the Tree of Knowledge belong together.
The Rebbe cites our paragraph: once evil was mixed into man, „כשיהיה הוא חי לעולם אזי גם הרע שבו יהיה לו קיום לעולם” (eternal life would give the evil in him eternal existence too) (note 10, 'בתו״א שם׳). From this, he says, it follows that death came into the world through the sin „בכדי שלא יהי׳ קיום להרע” (so that evil should have no permanence). He adds that death grows from the sin itself: life belongs to holiness, while evil and impurity are death; once spiritual death was mixed into man, physical death unfolded from it, and so when evil is abolished in the future, death will be swallowed up of itself (here note 12 cites ¶9’s „בלע המות לנצח”, “He will swallow up death forever”).
The Alter Rebbe
כשיהיה הוא חי לעולם אזי גם הרע שבו יהיה לו קיום לעולם
The Rebbe
ועפ״ז יש לומר, דזה שע״י חטא עה״ד נעשה מיתה בעולם הוא בכדי שלא יהי׳ קיום להרע
Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat, vol. ב, p. רעז–רעח · יום ג׳ פ׳ דברים, ה׳ מנחם-אב ה׳תשכ״ה
- ¶8
Background from the RebbeThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In the outline of a talk he gave on 5 Menachem Av 5702 at the founding of a Chevra Kadisha by Agudas Chassidei Chabad in the USA, on why the burial society’s kindness is „חסד של אמת” (“true kindness”), the Rebbe turns to the first death and burial in the world, when „ויקם קין אל הבל אחיו ויהרגהו” (Kayin killed Hevel) and Adam and Chavah „בכו ולא ידעו מה לעשות” (did not know what to do).
Death became part of nature after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. The Rebbe suggests that the descent then was into kelipas nogah (קליפת נוגה), the mixture of good and evil, but not yet into the three impure kelipos. „שטבע המיתה בגשמיות הוא מפני אפיסת הכחות ברוחניות” (Natural death comes from the exhaustion of spiritual strength), which results from the mixture of good and evil in the sin, „כדי שיהי׳ קץ וכליון הרע” (“so that there be an end and destruction of evil”), and here he quotes our paragraph in his own parenthesis; but when Kayin rose against Hevel, „מיתה ע״י בחירה” (a death by choice), that was a descent into „ג׳ קליפות הטמאות” (the three impure kelipos).
The Alter Rebbe
א״כ כשיהיה הוא חי לעולם אזי גם הרע שבו יהיה לו קיום לעולם
The Rebbe
ואפיסת הכחות ברוחניות היא כתוצאה מהתערובות דטוב ורע שבחטא עה״ד — כדי שיהי׳ קץ וכליון הרע
Otzar Reshimos, p. רפ (the Reshimah begins p. רעט) · ה׳ מנחם-אב תש״ב (the Arizal’s hilula)
- ¶9
Background from the Rebbe
In a sicha of the night of Hoshana Rabbah 5746, printed for Parshas Acharei, on why the Rambam rules that the scapegoat (שעיר המשתלח) atones for light sins even without teshuvah while „עצמו של יום” (“the essence of the day”) of Yom Kippur atones only for those who return, the Rebbe distinguishes two effects of every sin.
Every sin, he says, does two things: the act and its pleasure create „קטיגור” (an “accuser”), adding life to the kelipah, and it leaves a blemish in the soul (פגם בנפש). The scapegoat cancels the accuser, „דער נפש וגוף פון דער קליפה” (“the soul and body of the kelipah”), and here he refers to our passage (note 47: “compare Torah Ohr 5d”); with it the blemish falls away of itself, while the essence of the day atones by revealing a level of the soul where there is no blemish at all. Perhaps (biur b’derech efshar) this shows what our paragraph’s „שעיר המשתלח” (“goat that is sent away”) does: what the sin gave the kelipah is handed over to it and sent off, and so cut away from the person.
The Alter Rebbe
וזהו ג״כ ענין שעיר המשתלח
The Rebbe
איז כדי צו מבטל זיין דעם קטיגור (דער נפש וגוף פון דער „קליפה”) — דאָס טוט אויף דער שעיר המשתלח
Likkutei Sichos, vol. כז (27), Vayikra (Acharei 2), p. 131, sec. ח, note 47 (the sicha begins p. 124) · ליל הושענא רבה תשמ״ו
- ¶12
A question the Rebbe raises
In the same maamar of 5 Menachem Av 5725, explaining why evil will be abolished only in the Time to Come, the Rebbe brings the teaching of an earlier maamar he cites (note 13): even in Shlomo’s days, when a very great light shone and the nations submitted to him without war, the external forces could still draw „מאחוריים דקדושה” (from the “back” of holiness), though „לא הי׳ להם אחיזה בפנימיות” (not from its inner part).
The Rebbe adds, in brackets, that this could be seen in the very way the nations bowed to Shlomo. The Queen of Sheba was moved “a little” (קצת) by his fame while still in her own land, and after seeing his wisdom „לא הי׳ בה עוד רוח” (“there was no more spirit in her”); yet „גם אז היתה מלכה” (she remained a queen), and Shlomo even honored her greatly. In note 15 he cites our maamar (TO 6a) that the refinement in Shlomo’s days was „בירור בדרך מנוחה” (“by way of rest”), and that this is like Adam before the sin.
The Alter Rebbe
כמו נעמה העמונית וכן כל העמים באו לשמוע חכמת שלמה וכמ״ש במלכת שבא כו׳
The Rebbe
ויש לומר, דזה שבימי שלמה הי׳ עדיין מקום ליניקת החיצונים, ניכר גם באופן הביטול דהגוים שנתבטלו לפניו
Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat, vol. ב, p. רעח (sec. ב, notes 13–21) · יום ג׳ פ׳ דברים, ה׳ מנחם-אב ה׳תשכ״ה
Short quotes only, with the place of each so it can be read in full. The Rebbe’s sichos, letters and maamarim are published by Kehot and by Vaad Hanochos B’Lahak (lahak.org).
The questions ¶1–2
1ה, גויאמר ה׳ אלקים הן האדם12 היה כאחד ממנו לדעת טוב ורע ועתה פן ישלח ידו כו׳. י״ל [יש לומר] א׳ מהו שע״י עה״ד [עץ הדעת] נפקחו עיניהם להיות כאלקים יודעי טו״ר [טוב ורע].3
“And Havayah Elokim said: Behold, man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, etc.” There is room to ask: first, what does it mean that through the Tree of Knowledge their eyes were opened, to be like G‑d, knowing good and evil?
The maamar opens with G‑d’s words after Adam and Chavah ate from the Tree of Knowledge. The first question: why should eating a fruit “open their eyes” and make them “like G‑d, knowing good and evil”? What kind of knowing is this, and why would it come from eating?
וגם מ״ש ה׳ אלקים ועתה פן ישלח ידו ולקח גם מעץ החיים ואכל וחי לעולם ומה איכפת לו בזה הרי מה שצוה אותו שלא לאכול הוא ג״כ כדי שלא ימות.
And also [we must understand] what Havayah Elokim said, “And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever” — why should this concern Him? After all, what He commanded him not to eat was also so that he would not die.
The second question: G‑d then expels man so that he will not eat from the Tree of Life and live forever. But G‑d’s original prohibition was itself meant to keep man alive (‘on the day you eat from it you shall die’); why then should G‑d now be concerned to prevent him from living forever?
¶8 Hold this question about the Tree of Life: paragraph 8 answers it.
The Alter Rebbe opens with two difficulties in the verse: what ‘knowing good and evil’ means, and why G‑d would prevent man from gaining eternal life after the sin.
TermsEtz HaDaasDaasElokim
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע
- Daas דעת
- Elokim אלקים
Marei mekomos
- 1ויאמר . . הן האדם הי׳ כאחד ממנו · ראה לעיל בציונים והערות לכ״ק אדמו״ר זי״ע. עם הגהות באוה״ת בראשית כרך ו תתרנז, א (מלקו״ת לג״פ כז, כב). נמצא בגוכתי״ק הצ״צ בבוך משנת תקע״א-ב, ומתחיל ”הן האדם”. ומאמר זה הוא משבת פ׳ בראשית תקע״ב. ראה לקמן בהערה לדף ו, א ד״ה ”שאדה״ר”. כמה שינויים נרשמו לקמן וכן ציונים אחדים בשולי הגליון. להתחלת המאמר ראה אוה״ת ואתחנן ע׳ קמג. בענין עה״ד טו״ר המבואר במאמר זה מצויין בלקו״ת שלח מג, א. קרח נב, ב.
- 2ויאמר ה׳ אלקים הן האדם · Genesis 3:22
- 3נפקחו עיניהם להיות כאלקים יודעי טו״ר · Genesis 3:5
Further, and this is the main [question]: from where did the serpent know of this — “that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened” — which in truth is so?
The main question: the serpent told Chavah that eating would open their eyes, and the maamar will show that this was actually true. How did the serpent know something that G‑d had not told man?
¶13 Hold this main question about the serpent: paragraph 13 answers it.
ואם אדם ששמע הצווי מהקב״ה לא הכיר בזה רק כפשוטו שאמר לו ה׳ אלקים כי ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות2 והנחש לא נזכר כלל ששמע הצווי הזה
And if Adam, who heard the command from the Holy One, blessed be He, perceived in it nothing but its plain sense — that Havayah Elokim told him, “For on the day you eat from it you shall surely die” — and the serpent is not mentioned at all as having heard this command;
If Adam, who heard the command directly from G‑d, understood only its plain meaning, the warning of death, how did the serpent know more? The serpent is never described as having heard the command at all.
וגם אם שמע כשנצטווה אדם מאין היה בו בינה יתירה להבין דבר מתוך דבר יותר מהאדם עצמו. אם לא שנאמר שגבוה הוא מהאדם וכ״ז [וכל זה] פלאי.3
And even if it heard [it] when Adam was commanded, from where did it have extra understanding, to infer one thing from another, more than Adam himself? Unless we say that it is higher than man — and all this is astonishing.
Even if the serpent overheard it, how could it deduce more from it than Adam himself? That would imply the serpent is higher than man, which is astonishing, since man was the crown of creation.
הנה תחלה יתבאר מ״ש האדם היה כאחד ממנו לדעת טו״ר [טוב ורע]4 שהוא מאמר ה׳ להמלאכים ומשמע שלמעלה יודעים את הטוב ואת הרע גם שניהם.
Now, first let us explain what is said, “Man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil,” which is G‑d’s statement to the angels; and it implies that above they know good and evil, both of them.
The Alter Rebbe begins his answer with the phrase ‘like one of us.’ G‑d is speaking to the angels, the higher beings, and the phrase implies that they, ‘above,’ also know both good and evil.
אבל מ״מ אינן מעורבים זה בזה כי גלוי וידוע שזה טוב וזה רע ומובדל הרע מן הטוב אע״פ [אף על פי] שידוע שם הטו״ר [הטוב ורע].
Nevertheless, they are not mixed with one another, for it is revealed and known that this is good and this is evil, and the evil is separated from the good, even though good and evil are known there.
Yet above, knowing evil does not mean being mixed with it: each is clearly recognized for what it is, and evil stays apart from good.
משא״כ בחי׳ עה״ד [עץ הדעת] טו״ר [טוב ורע] היינו בחי׳ תערובת הטוב עם5 רע שהרע יונק מהטוב והטוב מהרע והיו לאחדים.
This is not so with the level of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is the level of a mixture of the good with evil, where the evil draws nourishment from the good and the good from the evil, and they become one.
The Tree of Knowledge is a different kind of knowing: good and evil are blended, each feeding off the other until they are fused. This is what man took in by eating.
The paragraph poses the central question of how the serpent knew what eating would do, and begins the answer by distinguishing the knowledge of good and evil ‘above,’ where they stay apart, from the Tree of Knowledge, where they are fused.
The mixture of good and evil brought about by the sin is a basic theme in Chassidus: before the sin, evil was a separate reality outside man; after it, evil entered into man himself, so that good and evil within him draw from one another.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
A question the Rebbe raises
In a sicha of Shabbos Bereishis 5733 on Rashi’s „לפי ערמתו וגדולתו היתה מפלתו” (“according to its cunning and its greatness was its downfall”), the Rebbe asks how the serpent could mislead Chavah, and argues in note 21 that the verse does not mean the serpent was more cunning than Chavah herself (in general she was the more cunning), only cunning in general.
In a note on that note the Rebbe quotes our paragraph’s „אם לא שנאמר שגבוה הוא מהאדם וכ״ז פלאי” (“unless we say that it is higher than man, and all this is astonishing”), and remarks that its wording implies the same in the plain sense of the verses: the serpent was not above man. But, he adds, one may distinguish between “arum” (ערום), cunning, which the verse says of the serpent, and “gavoha” (גבוה), higher than man, which is what our paragraph finds astonishing.
The Alter Rebbe
אם לא שנאמר שגבוה הוא מהאדם וכ״ז פלאי
The Rebbe
ומלשון זה משמע שכ״ה גם בפשטות. אבל יש לחלק בין „ערום” ל„גבוה”
Likkutei Sichos, vol. י (10), Bereishis, p. 16, note * to note 21 (the sicha begins p. 13) · ש״פ בראשית תשל״ג
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsEtz HaDaasDaasMalachimElokim
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע
- Daas דעת
- Malachim מלאכים
- Elokim אלקים
Marei mekomos
- 1
- 2כי ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות · Genesis 2:17
- 3אם לא שנאמר שגבוה הוא מהאדם וכ״ז פלאי · ראה בלקו״ש ח״י ע׳ 16.
- 4האדם היה כאחד ממנו לדעת טו״ר · Genesis 3:22
- 5עה״ד טו״ר היינו בחי׳ תערובת הטוב עם הרע · ראה מאמרי אדה״א דברים ח״ד ע׳ א׳קעו ואילך. סה״מ תרמ״ח ע׳ קצח ואילך. ד״ה כי אתם עוברים תרנ״א ע׳ קצז. ובארוכה ד״ה ושבתה במאמרי אדה״א ויקרא ח״ב ע׳ תדש. ובסה״מ תרס״ב ע׳ ש ואילך. סה״מ עזר״ת ע׳ פט. ד״ה בלע המות תשכ״ה בתחלתו.
Encompassing and inner knowledge ¶3–4
3וצ״ל דהרי פי׳ עץ הדעת טוב ורע היינו לשון ידיעה וא״כ למה נעשה תערובת טו״ר [טוב ורע] מחמת הדעת בטו״ר [בטוב ורע] הלא למעלה ג״כ ידוע הטו״ר [הטוב ורע].
Now this needs [explanation]: for the meaning of “the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil” is a term of knowing; if so, why did a mixture of good and evil come about because of the knowledge of good and evil? Above, too, good and evil are known!
A difficulty: ‘Tree of Knowledge’ means knowing. If knowing good and evil causes them to mix, why does it not cause a mixture above, where good and evil are also known?
אך ההפרש בזה הוא ענין ההפרש בין מקיף לפנימי כי בחי׳ ידיעת הטו״ר [הטוב ורע] שלמעלה היא בבחי׳ מקיף בלבד
But the difference here is the matter of the difference between the encompassing (makif) and the inner (pnimi): for the knowledge of good and evil above is only in the manner of the encompassing.
The answer is the distinction between makif, ‘encompassing,’ and pnimi, ‘inner.’ Something known in an encompassing way is grasped from outside and above without being absorbed; something known in an inner way is taken into oneself. Above, the knowledge of good and evil is only encompassing.
ולכן יכול להיות הבדלה בין טוב לרע שידע את הרע ולא יחליפנו ולא ימירנו1 בטוב ח״ו [חס ושלום].
And therefore there can be a separation between good and evil, so that He knows the evil and yet will not exchange it nor substitute it for good, heaven forbid.
Because it is only encompassing, knowledge above keeps good and evil apart: evil can be known without being confused with good. The phrasing borrows the Torah’s law that one may not exchange a consecrated animal, good for bad or bad for good.
כענין שממית בידים תתפש2 והיא בהיכלי מלך שאע״פ [שאף על פי] שהיא בהיכלי מלך אבל יודע הוא ומכירה ששממית היא.
As in the matter of “The spider grasps with its hands, and it is in the king’s palaces”: even though it is in the king’s palaces, he knows it and recognizes that it is a spider.
The verse about the spider in the king’s palace illustrates this: a spider may be found even in a palace, yet one who sees it knows it is only a spider. Being present in the same place does not blur its identity.
The paragraph gives the key to the maamar: knowledge ‘above’ is encompassing (makif) and therefore keeps good and evil distinct, whereas the Tree of Knowledge represents inner knowledge.
The makif/pnimi distinction runs throughout Chassidus: an encompassing light acts on a thing without entering it, while an inner light is absorbed and shaped by its recipient. Here it explains why the same ‘knowledge of evil’ is harmless above and damaging in man.
TermsEtz HaDaasDaasOr Makif
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע
- Daas דעת
- Or Makif אור מקיף
Marei mekomos
- 1ולא יחליפנו ולא ימירנו · Leviticus 27:10
- 2שממית בידים תתפש · Proverbs 30:28
4ויש הבדלה בין טוב לרע כמאמר המבדיל בין קודש לחול.1 והיינו מצד שיודע טו״ר [טוב ורע] בבחינת מקיף עליהם ולכן אינם מתערבים יחד.
And there is a separation between good and evil, as the saying [goes], “Who separates between holy and profane.” That is, because He knows good and evil in the manner of encompassing them, they therefore do not mix together.
The separation between good and evil above is like the Havdalah blessing, ‘Who separates between holy and profane.’ Because G‑d’s knowledge of them encompasses them from above, they remain distinct.
וכענין בחינת לבונה זכה2 שבי״א סממני הקטורת שהעשרה סממנים הם י׳ נצוצי קדושה המובלעים בקליפות והי״א היא לבונה היא בחינת מקיף עליהם ואינה מתלבשת בפנימיותם.5
It is like the level of the pure frankincense among the eleven spices of the incense: the ten spices are ten sparks of holiness that are swallowed up in the kelipos, and the eleventh, the frankincense, is the level that encompasses them and does not become enclothed in their inner being.
A second illustration: the Temple incense had eleven spices. The ten are compared to sparks of holiness swallowed inside kelipos (the husks of concealment), while the eleventh, frankincense, stands for a light that encompasses them without entering their inner being.
(ולבונה היא ג״כ חיות להם אבל לפי שהחיות הזה שהיא מחיה אותם הוא רק ע״י שהיא בבחי׳ מקיף בלבד עליהם ע״כ אינה מתערבת עמם כלל וכולה טוב).
(And the frankincense is also a life-force for them; but since this life-force by which it gives them life is only through its being solely encompassing over them, therefore it does not mix with them at all, and it is entirely good.)
Frankincense too gives them life, yet because it does so only from outside, as an encompassing light, it never mixes with them and remains wholly good.
והנה המקיף הוא גם דוחה את החיצונים כנראה בציור האילן3 שבפרד״ס [שבפרדס רמונים] במקיפים ופנימיים שמעמד ומצב הקליפות אחוריהם אל המקיף כו׳. משא״כ בחי׳ עה״ד [עץ הדעת] טו״ר [טוב ורע] הוא בחי׳ פנימי4 ואז הטוב מעורב עם הרע ממש.
Now, the encompassing [light] also repels the external forces, as is seen in the diagram of the Tree in the Pardes, in the encompassing and inner [lights], where the position and stance of the kelipos is with their backs toward the encompassing, etc. This is not so with the level of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is the level of the inner, and then the good is actually mixed with the evil.
The encompassing light even pushes away the external (negative) forces: in the “diagram of the Tree” (a chart of the Sefiros and worlds) found in the Pardes, the kelipos are drawn with their backs to the encompassing lights. (The Kehot note suggests the diagram printed at the end of the book Pa’amon VeRimon.) By contrast the Tree of Knowledge is inner knowledge, and there good and evil are truly mixed.
The paragraph illustrates encompassing knowledge through Havdalah and the frankincense of the incense, showing that an encompassing light can give life to evil without mixing with it, and contrasts it with the inner knowledge of the Tree of Knowledge.
Elsewhere (Torah Ohr, Toldos) the Alter Rebbe explains that the life-force entering the kelipos is ‘swallowed’ inside them, while the frankincense is the encompassing light that shines on them from above their awareness. Likkutei Torah, Balak, cites this passage: the Tree of Knowledge is Daas in its inner mode, while Daas in its encompassing mode repels the nurture of the external forces.
TermsEtz HaDaasRapach nitzotzinKelipahOr Makif+2
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Kelipah קליפה
- Or Makif אור מקיף
- Pnimiyus פנימיות
Also Chayus
Marei mekomos
- 1המבדיל בין קודש לחול · Pesachim 104a:7–8
- 2לבונה זכה · Exodus 30:34
- 3ציור האילן · הכוונה לכאורה לציור שבסוף ספר פעמון ורימון (אמ״ד תכ״ח). וראה הנסמן בסידור עם דא״ח ריב, א הערה 99. הערות וביאורים אהלי תורה גליון א׳קל בסופו.
- 4שו״ה אחוריהם — עה״ד טו״ר הוא בחי׳ פנימי · בלקו״ת בלק סט, ב מציין לכאן: ”שעה״ד טו״ר הוא הדעת שבבחי׳ פנימי׳ משא״כ הדעת שבבחי׳ מקיף הוא אדרבה דוחה יניקת החיצונים”.
- 5וכענין בחי׳ לבונה זכה · ראה לקמן כ, ג. אוה״ת שמות כרך ז ע׳ ב׳תקסח. ובהמשך זאת חנוכת המזבח תר״מ פרק יז שאפשר שנק׳ זכה ע״ש ז״ך אותיות שהרי זהו האותיות הנמשכים להחיות הקליפות בבחי׳ מקיף, ע״ש. ראה לקו״ת תזריע כג, ד. המשך תער״ב פרק רי.
Man’s inner nature and the war with evil ¶5–7
5וז״ש [וזהו שכתוב] הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו.1 פי׳ שהוא היה ג״כ כאחד ממנו פי׳ כמו שבבחי׳ אחדות דהיינו למעלה ידוע הטו״ר [הטוב ורע] כן היה גם הוא ע״י שטעם מעה״ד [מעץ הדעת] המעורב טו״ר [טוב ורע].
This is [the meaning of] what is said, “Behold, man has become like one (ke’echad) of us.” That is, he too became like one of us — meaning: just as in the level of oneness (achdus), that is, above, good and evil are known, so too was he, through having tasted from the Tree of Knowledge, which is mixed of good and evil.
Now the verse is explained: “like one (ke’echad) of us” is read as “like the [realm of] oneness (achdus),” that is, above. By eating from the Tree of Knowledge, man came to know good and evil just as they are known there.
אבל לו הדבר מזיק כי הרי האדם הוא מבחי׳ פנימי׳ [פנימיות / פנימית] ומיד שידע הוא מן הרע ע״י שטעם מעה״ד [מעץ הדעת] הרי יתערב עמו ויהי׳ [ויהיה] הוא ממש מעורב ברע.
But for him the matter is harmful, for man is of the level of the inner, and as soon as he knows of evil, through having tasted from the Tree of Knowledge, he will become mixed with it, and he will actually be mixed with evil.
But for man this is harmful, because man is a ‘pnimi’ being: what he knows he takes into himself. Once he knew evil, it became part of him.
לא כמו שהוא למעלה שאעפ״י [שאף על פי] שיודעים גם את הרע מ״מ מובדל הוא ומרוחק מן הטוב ואין לו התקרבות כו׳ לפי שהוא בבחי׳ מקיף.
Not as it is above, where, even though they also know the evil, nevertheless it is separated and distant from the good and has no closeness [to it], etc., because it is in the manner of the encompassing.
Above it is different: evil is known but remains distant from the good, because the knowing there is encompassing.
אבל האדם שהוא מבחי׳ פנימי כשידע גם הוא מן הרע אזי יתערב הוא גם הוא ממש2 עם הרע
But man, who is of the level of the inner — when he too knows of the evil, then he too will actually become mixed with the evil.
Man, being inward, cannot know evil from a distance; knowing it means becoming mixed with it.
כי בבחי׳ פנימי׳ [פנימיות / פנימית] א״א להיות כ״כ [כל כך] מובדל הרע כנ״ל ואז הוא קשה מאד להפריד את הרע אלא מלחמה עצומה היא ולאם מלאם יאמץ3 פעמים זה גובר ופעמים שכנגדו גובר.
For in the level of the inner it is impossible for the evil to be so separated, as explained above; and then it is very hard to separate out the evil, but rather it is a tremendous war, “and one nation shall be mightier than the other nation”: at times this one prevails, and at times its opponent prevails.
Once evil is mixed within him, separating it is very difficult; it becomes a constant war, like Rivkah’s twins, where ‘one nation shall be mightier than the other’: when one rises, the other falls.
כאשר מצאנו ראינו בנשמות ישראל מראש הדורות עד עתה שהיו כמה עתים משונים פעמים בדור א׳ היו נשמות שבמעלה עליונה ונצחו את הרע.
As we have found and seen in the souls of Israel from the first generations until now, that there have been many differing periods: at times, in one generation, there were souls of an exalted level who vanquished the evil,
History bears this out: some generations had lofty souls who overcame evil.
The paragraph applies the distinction to man: knowledge of evil is harmless above, but because man is an inner being, knowing evil means absorbing it, which turns his life into a struggle between good and evil.
Rashi on this verse, from the Talmud (Megillah 6a), says the two will never be great at once: when one rises, the other falls. The maamar applies this to good and evil within man after the sin.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
Background from the Rebbe
In a letter of 17 Shevat 5714 to Rabbi Yehudah Arye Perlow, among remarks on his book Lev Arye, the Rebbe takes up the Midrash on “He who keeps the commandment will know no evil thing, and a wise man’s heart knows time and judgment” (Koheles 8:5), which reads the verse of pairs in which one knew of a coming calamity and the other did not: Moshe and Aharon, Moshe and Yehoshua, Mordechai and Esther.
In each pair, the Rebbe writes, one is the giver and one the receiver (Moshe „שושבינא דמלכא” (“the King’s companion”), Aharon “the Queen’s”; „פני חמה ופני לבנה” (“the face of the sun and the face of the moon”)). „שלמעלה אין ידיעת הרע מזקת” (“Above, knowledge of evil does no harm”), while for man, „מצד הלמטה שלו” (“from his lower side”), knowing good and evil brings sin and death, and he names Torah Ohr as where this is explained at length. So Moshe could know in advance that the Sanctuary would be hallowed through the death of those close to G‑d („ונקדש בכבודי”), while from Aharon and his sons it had to be hidden; likewise Yehoshua at the golden calf, and Esther at Haman’s decree.
The Alter Rebbe
לא כמו שהוא למעלה שאעפ״י שיודעים גם את הרע מ״מ מובדל הוא ומרוחק מן הטוב
The Rebbe
ומובן שלמעלה אין ידיעת הרע מזקת, משא״כ האדם מצד הלמטה שלו יודעי טו״ר גורם לחטא ומיתה
Igros Kodesh, vol. ח, p. קעג (letter ב׳תיד, pp. קע–קעג) · י״ז שבט תשי״ד, to Rabbi Yehuda Arye Perlow
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsEtz HaDaasAchdus HashemOr Makif+1
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע explained hereAbove, evil is known in the manner of a makif and stays apart; but man is of the inner (pnimi) dimension, so once he tasted the tree mixed of good and evil, evil mixed into him. Separating it became a hard war in which first one side, then the other, prevails.
ומיד שידע הוא מן הרע ע״י שטעם מעה״ד הרי יתערב עמו ויהי׳ הוא ממש מעורב ברע
- Achdus Hashem אחדות השם
- Or Makif אור מקיף
Also Neshamah
Marei mekomos
- 1הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו · Genesis 3:22
- 2אבל האדם . . אזי יתערב הוא גם הוא ממש · ראה ביאוה״ז לצ״צ כרך ב ע׳ תרמח.
- 3ולאם מלאם יאמץ · Genesis 25:23
6ובדור אחר היו רשעים גדולים שגבר הרע מאד. והיינו כי כולם נמשכים מאדה״ר [מאדם הראשון] והיה בו ג״כ שינויים אלו פעמים גבר הוא ופעמים גבר הרע עליו.
and in another generation there were great wicked men, in whom the evil prevailed greatly. This is because they all derive from Adam, the first man, and these changes were in him as well: at times he prevailed, and at times the evil prevailed over him.
Other generations had great wicked men. This alternation is inherited from Adam, the root of all souls, who himself had times when he prevailed and times when evil prevailed over him.
וכ״ז [וכל זה] היה לפי שהוא בבחי׳ פנימיות ומיד שידע מן הרע נתערב עמו ממש וא״כ הוא מלחמה גדולה ה, דוקשה להפרידו מאד אלא עת כך ועת כך כנ״ל.
All this was because he is of the level of the inner dimension, and as soon as he knew of evil he became actually mixed with it; and if so, it is a great war and very hard to separate it, but rather [there is] a time [for] this and a time [for] that, as explained above.
All this comes from man’s inner nature: once he knew evil, it was truly mixed into him, and the struggle to separate it goes back and forth, ‘a time for this and a time for that.’
The paragraph traces the rise and fall of good and evil across the generations to Adam’s inner mixture with evil after the sin.
TermsPnimiyus
- Pnimiyus פנימיות
7וכן גם עפ״י [על פי] פשוט שמקודם היו ערומים והיו עסוקים בתשמיש להוליד בנים ולא יתבוששו1 כמו שהיו אוכלים ושותים כי מצות ה׳ היא ולא היו יודעים כלל שיש תאוה בזה2
So too according to the plain [sense]: beforehand they were naked, and they engaged in marital relations to beget children and “they were not ashamed,” just as they would eat and drink, for it was G‑d’s commandment, and they did not know at all that there is desire in this;
The same point on the simple level: before the sin Adam and Chavah were naked and “not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). They joined to have children as simply as one eats and drinks, as the fulfillment of G‑d’s command, knowing nothing of desire.
אבל אחר שאכל עה״ד [עץ הדעת] וידעו שיש תאוה בזה אזי קשה לפרוש כו׳.
but after he ate from the Tree of Knowledge and they knew that there is desire in this, then it is hard to withdraw, etc.
After eating from the Tree of Knowledge they became aware of desire, and from then on it is hard to hold back.
The paragraph shows the same idea in the plain sense of the story: the Tree of Knowledge brought awareness of desire, so that what had been pure became a matter of struggle.
TermsEtz HaDaasKoach hamisaveh+1
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע
- Koach hamisaveh כח המתאוה
Also Torah and mitzvos
Marei mekomos
- 1ולא יתבוששו · Genesis 2:25
- 2ולא היו יודעים כלל שיש תאוה בזה · ראה בלקוטי שיחות ח״ו ע׳ 199 הערה 28.
Why man was kept from the Tree of Life ¶8–9
8ולכן לא רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא שיטעם האדם מעה״ד [מעץ הדעת] כי לו הדבר מזיק כנ״ל והיה רוצה שלא ידע ממציאת הרע כלל ויהיה כולו קדוש ולא רצה להכניסו במלחמה עצומה הזאת.
Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, did not want man to taste from the Tree of Knowledge, for to him the matter is harmful, as explained above. He wanted him not to know of the existence of evil at all and to be entirely holy, and He did not want to bring him into this tremendous war.
This is why G‑d forbade the Tree of Knowledge: knowing evil would harm man, who absorbs what he knows. G‑d wanted man to remain wholly holy and never be drawn into the war with evil.
אבל אחר שכבר טעם מעה״ד [מעץ הדעת] ונתערב ברע אז אמר פן ישלח ידו ולקח גם1 מעה״ח [מעץ החיים] ואכל וחי לעלם.
But after he had already tasted from the Tree of Knowledge and become mixed with evil, then He said, “Lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever.”
Now the second question is answered: only after man had already eaten and become mixed with evil did G‑d express concern about the Tree of Life.
¶1 This answers the question from paragraph 1 about the Tree of Life.
פי׳ שחשש עוד מעתה שכבר נתערב ברע ולקח גם מעה״ח [מעץ החיים] ששרשו מבחי׳ שלמעלה מהשבירה שמשם הוא שהיה התחלת המיתה והתהוות עה״ד [עץ הדעת] טו״ר [טוב ורע] משא״כ מה שלמעלה מהשבירה הוא עה״ח [עץ החיים] ואם יאכל גם ממנו וחי לעולם.
That is, He was further concerned, now that he had already become mixed with evil, [that he would] take also from the Tree of Life, whose root is from the level that is above the shattering — for it is from [the shattering] that the beginning of death and the coming into being of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil came about, whereas what is above the shattering is the Tree of Life — and if he eats from it too, he will live forever.
The Tree of Life is rooted above the “shattering of the vessels” (the primordial cosmic breakage from which, in Kabbalah, evil and death originate). The Tree of Knowledge, with its mixture of good and evil, comes from the shattering; the Tree of Life comes from a level untouched by it, and eating from it grants eternal life.
פי׳ כי הרי באמת בבחי׳ זו נאמר אם צדקת מה תתן לו (איוב לה) ורבו פשעיך מה תעשה לו2
That is: for in truth, of this level it is said, “If you are righteous, what do you give Him” (Job 35), “[and if] your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him?”
At that lofty level man’s deeds make no difference: as Elihu tells Job, man’s righteousness gives G‑d nothing and his many sins do nothing to Him.
וא״כ אף שמעורב ברע הרי גם אם רבו פשעיך כו׳ ויכול להיות וחי לעולם ואז גם הרע שבו יהיה לו קיום לעולם
If so, even though he is mixed with evil, still, even “if your transgressions are many,” etc., he could “live forever”; and then the evil within him too would have existence forever,
So even a man mixed with evil and full of sins could receive eternal life from it, and then the evil within him would last forever too.
מאחר שהוא בבחי׳ פנימי׳ [פנימיות / פנימית] והרע מעורב כו׳ וא״א לו להפרידו מעליו. א״כ כשיהיה הוא חי לעולם אזי גם הרע שבו יהיה לו קיום לעולם.3
since he is of the level of the inner and the evil is mixed [in him], etc., and it is impossible for him to separate it from himself. If so, when he lives forever, the evil within him too will have existence forever.
For man is an inner being and the evil is mixed into him; he cannot peel it away from himself, so if he lived forever, the evil in him would be preserved forever as well.
The paragraph answers the second question: G‑d kept man from the Tree of Life because, once evil was mixed into him, making him eternal would make the evil in him eternal too.
The ‘shattering of the vessels’ (shevirat hakelim) in the Arizal’s teaching is the source of the sparks that fell into kelipah; the Tree of Knowledge belongs to this realm, while the Tree of Life belongs to the realm above it, which is indifferent to man’s deeds.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In the maamar „בלע המות לנצח” (“Bila hamaves lanetzach”), said on 5 Menachem Av 5725, the day he completed saying kaddish for his mother, the Rebbe starts from the teaching that death will be swallowed up in the future because „ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ” (“the spirit of impurity” will be removed), and asks why death and the sin of the Tree of Knowledge belong together.
The Rebbe cites our paragraph: once evil was mixed into man, „כשיהיה הוא חי לעולם אזי גם הרע שבו יהיה לו קיום לעולם” (eternal life would give the evil in him eternal existence too) (note 10, 'בתו״א שם׳). From this, he says, it follows that death came into the world through the sin „בכדי שלא יהי׳ קיום להרע” (so that evil should have no permanence). He adds that death grows from the sin itself: life belongs to holiness, while evil and impurity are death; once spiritual death was mixed into man, physical death unfolded from it, and so when evil is abolished in the future, death will be swallowed up of itself (here note 12 cites ¶9’s „בלע המות לנצח”, “He will swallow up death forever”).
The Alter Rebbe
כשיהיה הוא חי לעולם אזי גם הרע שבו יהיה לו קיום לעולם
The Rebbe
ועפ״ז יש לומר, דזה שע״י חטא עה״ד נעשה מיתה בעולם הוא בכדי שלא יהי׳ קיום להרע
Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat, vol. ב, p. רעז–רעח · יום ג׳ פ׳ דברים, ה׳ מנחם-אב ה׳תשכ״ה
Background from the RebbeThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In the outline of a talk he gave on 5 Menachem Av 5702 at the founding of a Chevra Kadisha by Agudas Chassidei Chabad in the USA, on why the burial society’s kindness is „חסד של אמת” (“true kindness”), the Rebbe turns to the first death and burial in the world, when „ויקם קין אל הבל אחיו ויהרגהו” (Kayin killed Hevel) and Adam and Chavah „בכו ולא ידעו מה לעשות” (did not know what to do).
Death became part of nature after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. The Rebbe suggests that the descent then was into kelipas nogah (קליפת נוגה), the mixture of good and evil, but not yet into the three impure kelipos. „שטבע המיתה בגשמיות הוא מפני אפיסת הכחות ברוחניות” (Natural death comes from the exhaustion of spiritual strength), which results from the mixture of good and evil in the sin, „כדי שיהי׳ קץ וכליון הרע” (“so that there be an end and destruction of evil”), and here he quotes our paragraph in his own parenthesis; but when Kayin rose against Hevel, „מיתה ע״י בחירה” (a death by choice), that was a descent into „ג׳ קליפות הטמאות” (the three impure kelipos).
The Alter Rebbe
א״כ כשיהיה הוא חי לעולם אזי גם הרע שבו יהיה לו קיום לעולם
The Rebbe
ואפיסת הכחות ברוחניות היא כתוצאה מהתערובות דטוב ורע שבחטא עה״ד — כדי שיהי׳ קץ וכליון הרע
Otzar Reshimos, p. רפ (the Reshimah begins p. רעט) · ה׳ מנחם-אב תש״ב (the Arizal’s hilula)
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsEtz HaDaasTzedakahKadosh
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע explained hereThe Tree of Knowledge came into being from the shattering of the vessels, the beginning of death; the Tree of Life is rooted above the shattering. Hence the concern that Adam, now mixed with evil, would eat of the Tree of Life and the evil in him would last forever.
שמשם הוא שהיה התחלת המיתה והתהוות עה״ד טו״ר משא״כ מה שלמעלה מהשבירה הוא עה״ח
- Tzedakah צדקה
- Kadosh קדוש
Marei mekomos
- 1פן ישלח ידו ולקח גם · Genesis 3:22
- 2ורבו פשעיך מה תעשה לו · Job 35:6
- 3
9וזהו היפך הכוונה שהרי צ״ל בלע המות לנצח1 שיהיה ובערת הרע כמאמר והרשעה כולה בעשן תכלה שזה יהיה לימות המשיח.
And this is the opposite of the intention, for there must be [the fulfillment of] “He will swallow up death forever,” that there be “you shall eradicate the evil,” as the saying [goes], “and all wickedness will vanish like smoke” — which will be in the days of Mashiach.
Eternal life for evil contradicts G‑d’s purpose, which is that evil and death be abolished: ‘He will swallow up death forever,’ and ‘all wickedness will vanish like smoke’ (a phrase from the High Holiday prayers), in the days of Mashiach.
For the entire duration of the exile is the time of the refinements and of separating the evil; and this is through the level of Chochmah, for “through Chochmah they are refined,” to separate the evil from the good.
Until then, the exile is the time of ‘refinements’ (beirurim): sorting the good out of the mixture and separating it from evil. This is done through Chochmah, as the Zohar says, ‘through Chochmah they are refined.’
ולכן נק׳ החכמה דין. שלא כמו שדימו המקובלים הראשונים שהחכ׳ [שהחכמה] כולה חסד שהרי היא מקור חסד.
Therefore Chochmah is called judgment — not as the early Kabbalists supposed, that Chochmah is entirely kindness, since it is the source of Chesed.
Because it separates, Chochmah is called ‘judgment’ (din), which differentiates and sets limits. Earlier Kabbalists had thought Chochmah was pure kindness, since Chesed flows from it.
והחייט45 המציא שיש בה ג״כ דין ושבחו האר״י [האלקי רבי יצחק] ז״ל [זכרונו לברכה / זכרונם לברכה]6 שכך מבואר בזוהר באדרא כחמרא דשקיט7 ושכיך על דורדיי׳8 כו׳.
The Chayat innovated that there is judgment in it as well, and the Arizal, of blessed memory, praised him, for so it is explained in the Zohar, in the Idra: “like wine that is still and settled on its lees,” etc.
Rabbi Yehudah Chayat (a Kabbalist of the Spanish expulsion, author of the commentary Minchas Yehudah on Maareches HaElokus) taught that Chochmah contains judgment too, and the Arizal praised this, for the Zohar’s Idra speaks of the hidden Chochmah as “settled like good wine on its lees”: the clear wine rests on its sediment.
כי מאחר שיש בירורים להפריד הרע וזהו ע״י גבורות וע״ז נאמר (תהלים צד) אשרי הגבר9 אשר תיסרנו יה שגם היסורים שהם לתועלת העברת הרע הוא מבחי׳ י״ה וכידוע שהיסורים הם לתועלת הפרדת הרע.
For since there are refinements to separate the evil, and this is through gevuros, and of this it is said (Psalms 94), “Fortunate is the man whom You, Kah, chasten” — that the sufferings too, which serve to remove the evil, are from the level of Kah; and as is known, sufferings serve to separate the evil.
Separating evil is done through gevuros (forces of severity). The verse ‘Fortunate is the man whom You, Kah, chasten’ shows that even suffering, which serves to remove evil, comes from the Name Kah (whose letters Yud-Hei correspond to Chochmah and Binah).
For the kelipos are likened to a leech, which, when it sucks blood, immediately dies; and this is [the meaning of] what is said (Proverbs 30), “The leech has two daughters.”
The kelipos (forces of concealment) are like a leech: once it sucks its fill of blood it dies. So too, when the kelipah receives its portion, it is thereby detached and falls away. The verse continues that the leech’s daughters cry “Give, give,” a picture of endless craving. The maamar reads the leech as the kelipah, which clings to holiness to draw life but is cut off once it has been given its share.
וזהו ג״כ ענין שעיר המשתלח. וכן וישלח יעקב12 וגו׳ מנחה לעשו אחיו13 עזים מאתים14 כו׳ שבזה שנותן לו חלקו הוא מפרידו.
And this is also the matter of the goat that is sent away. So too, “And Yaakov sent,” etc., “a gift to Eisav his brother: two hundred she-goats,” etc. — for by giving him his portion he separates him.
This is the idea behind the goat “sent away” (hamishtale’ach) to Azazel on Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16), and behind “Yaakov sent” (vayishlach) Eisav a gift of goats: giving evil its due portion separates it from holiness.
וכך צ״ל לאחר שכבר טעם האדם מעה״ד [מעץ הדעת] ונתערב ברע אזי צריך לבירורי׳ [לבירורים] עד שיפרידו ע״י שיקחו כל נצוצי קדושה שבו כו׳.
So too, after man has already tasted from the Tree of Knowledge and become mixed with evil, there must be refinements until it is separated, by taking all the sparks of holiness in it, etc.
Likewise, once man has become mixed with evil, a process of refinement is needed until the evil is separated from him, by extracting all the sparks of holiness from it.
וכ״ז [וכל זה] הוא ע״י החכ׳ [החכמה] שבחכ׳ [שבחכמה] אתברירו. לפי שיש בה גם בחי׳ גבורות להיות תיסרנו יה וכמ״ש (דברים ח) כאשר ייסר איש15 את בנו16 כו׳.
And all this is through Chochmah, for “through Chochmah they are refined,” since there is in it also the level of gevuros, so that there be “You, Kah, chasten,” and as it is written (Deuteronomy 8), “As a man chastens his son,” etc.
This refining is done by Chochmah, which contains gevuros; hence ‘You, Kah, chasten,’ and ‘as a man chastens his son,’ that is, chastening that comes from love and aims to purify.
משא״כ בחינת כתר שלמעלה מחכמה הוא רחמים פשוטים וכחשיכה כאורה17 ולכן פן ישלח ידו ולקח גם מעה״ח [מעץ החיים] ואז וחי לעולם מאחר דאם צדקת מה תתן לו18 כו׳
This is not so with the level of Keser, which is above Chochmah: it is simple mercy, and “darkness is like light.” Therefore [He said], “lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life,” and then “live forever,” since “if you are righteous, what do you give Him,” etc.
Keser (the Crown), above Chochmah, is simple mercy that makes no distinctions: to it ‘darkness is like light.’ The Tree of Life stems from there, so it would give eternal life regardless of man’s deeds.
ולפי שהוא מבחי׳ פנימית וא״כ הרע קשור ואדוק בו ויהי׳ [ויהיה] גם לו קיום ולא זו היא הכוונה כנ״ל.
And since he is of the inner level, the evil is therefore bound and attached to him, and it too would have existence — and this is not the intention, as explained above.
Since the evil is bound up inside man, it too would gain permanence, which is the opposite of G‑d’s intention.
The paragraph explains why evil must not become eternal: the goal is its removal, achieved through the separating power of Chochmah and its gevuros, while the Tree of Life stems from Keser, which does not distinguish between good and evil.
Etz Chaim (13:6 on Sefaria) cites Rabbi Yehudah Chayat’s Minchas Yehudah that Chochmah is din and links it to the Zohar’s image of wine settled on its lees; it also says Keser is complete mercy, as here. Likkutei Torah (Re’eh) explains that this din in Chochmah is the “line of measure,” the supernal Gevurah that allows the Infinite Light to be revealed only according to the measure of bittul.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
Background from the Rebbe
In a sicha of the night of Hoshana Rabbah 5746, printed for Parshas Acharei, on why the Rambam rules that the scapegoat (שעיר המשתלח) atones for light sins even without teshuvah while „עצמו של יום” (“the essence of the day”) of Yom Kippur atones only for those who return, the Rebbe distinguishes two effects of every sin.
Every sin, he says, does two things: the act and its pleasure create „קטיגור” (an “accuser”), adding life to the kelipah, and it leaves a blemish in the soul (פגם בנפש). The scapegoat cancels the accuser, „דער נפש וגוף פון דער קליפה” (“the soul and body of the kelipah”), and here he refers to our passage (note 47: “compare Torah Ohr 5d”); with it the blemish falls away of itself, while the essence of the day atones by revealing a level of the soul where there is no blemish at all. Perhaps (biur b’derech efshar) this shows what our paragraph’s „שעיר המשתלח” (“goat that is sent away”) does: what the sin gave the kelipah is handed over to it and sent off, and so cut away from the person.
The Alter Rebbe
וזהו ג״כ ענין שעיר המשתלח
The Rebbe
איז כדי צו מבטל זיין דעם קטיגור (דער נפש וגוף פון דער „קליפה”) — דאָס טוט אויף דער שעיר המשתלח
Likkutei Sichos, vol. כז (27), Vayikra (Acharei 2), p. 131, sec. ח, note 47 (the sicha begins p. 124) · ליל הושענא רבה תשמ״ו
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsBechochmah isbreruKachasheichah kaorahEtz HaDaasRapach nitzotzin+11
- Bechochmah isbreru בחכמה אתברירו explained hereThe whole exile is the time of refining, and it is done through Chochmah; therefore Chochmah is also called Din, for separating evil is through Gevuros, as with suffering that removes evil (“Happy is the man whom Kah chastens”). This is against the early Kabbalists who held Chochmah to be all Chesed.
והיינו ע״י בחי׳ חכמה דבחכמה אתברירו להפריד הרע מהטוב ולכן נק׳ החכמה דין
- Kachasheichah kaorah כחשיכה כאורה
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Kavanah כוונה
- Tzedakah צדקה
- Le’asid lavo לעתיד לבא
- Gevurah גבורה
- Kelipah קליפה
- Birur בירור
- Yud-hei and vav-hei י״ה ו״ה
- Keser כתר
- Chesed חסד
- Pnimiyus פנימיות
Also Chochmah
Marei mekomos
- 1בלע המות לנצח · Isaiah 25:8
- 2דבחכמה אתברירו · הובא באגה״ק סכ״ח בשם זוה״ק וראה ע״ח שי״ח פ״ה, של״ט ד״א. סהמ״צ להצ״צ מצות מחצית השקל, שם איסור אכילת בעל מום (הערת כ״ק אדמו״ר זי״ע בספר המאמרים תש״א ע׳ 79, ובסה״מ תש״ח ע׳ 206). וראה גם אוה״ת נ״ך כרך ב ע׳ תתקפא.
- 3דבחכמה אתברירו · Tanya, Iggeres HaKodesh 28:5
- 4והחייט · פי׳ לספר מערכת האלקות לר׳ יהודא ב״ר יעקב חייט מערכת אלקות פ״ד. מובא גם בלקו״ת פ׳ ראה לא, א. בענין חכמה נק׳ דין ראה ביאוה״ז להצ״צ כרך ב ע׳ תשיח ואילך. וראה לקמן קז, ג ובמ״מ לשם. ובתורת חיים בראשית לא, ד.
- 5החייט · Sefer Etz Chaim 13:6
- 6ושבחו האר״י ז״ל · ע״ח שי״ג פ״ה.
- 7בזהר באדרא כחמרא דשקיט · Zohar III, 288a
- 8כחמרא דשקיט ושכיך על דורדיי׳ · Zohar, Idra Rabba 3:14–6:25
- 9
- 10
- 11שו״ה שתי בנות · בגוכתי״ק נוסף ”שע״י שמוצצי׳ דם שונאיהם של ישראל אזי מיד מתים הקליפות”.
- 12וישלח יעקב · Genesis 32:4
- 13מנחה לעשו אחיו · Genesis 32:14
- 14עזים מאתים · Genesis 32:15
- 15
- 16כאשר ייסר איש את בנו · בגוכתי״ק: כאב את בנו יוכיח.
- 17וכחשיכה כאורה · Psalms 139:12
- 18דאם צדקת מה תתן לו · Job 35:7
Expulsion and the work of refinement ¶10–11
10וכמ״ש בזוהר גבי רבי אחא1 מכפר טרשא2 שכיפר בקטורת על מקום שהיה הנגף שם ואמרו לו שלא הועיל כי עדיין בחיובא אשתכח. בשלמא אם היו עושין תשובה כו׳.
As it is stated in the Zohar concerning Rabbi Acha of Kefar Tarsha, who atoned with incense for a place where there was a plague, and they told him that it did not help, for “they are still found guilty”; “it would be well if they had done teshuvah,” etc.
The Zohar tells that Rabbi Acha came to Kefar Tarsha during a plague and had the townspeople recite the Torah’s passage of the incense, and the plague stopped; but he was told in a dream that they were still guilty, and “it would be well if they had done teshuvah”: he must tell them to repent.
Therefore, immediately, “He sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he was taken.”
Holding back the destroyer is not enough; the evil itself must be removed. Likewise man could not simply be made immortal with his evil, so G‑d immediately sent him out of Eden to “work the ground from which he was taken.”
דהיינו עבודת הבירורים ע״י זריעה חרישה וקצירה ואח״כ באכלו ממנו ואו׳ [ואומר] אחד ואהבת הוא מברר ומעל׳ [ומעלה] כו׳.
That is, the work of refinements through sowing, plowing and reaping; and afterwards, when he eats from it and says “One” and “You shall love,” he refines and elevates [it], etc.
‘Working the ground’ is the work of refinement: through plowing, sowing and reaping, man produces food, and when he eats it and then serves G‑d, saying the Shema (‘One,’ ‘You shall love’), he refines and elevates the sparks in that food.
The paragraph explains the expulsion from Eden: evil must be truly removed, not merely held back, so man was sent to ‘work the ground’ and refine the sparks of holiness through his labor and divine service.
The Rebbe Maharash (Sefer HaMaamarim 5634) cites this passage together with Iggeres HaKodesh 26, that the main purpose of Torah and mitzvos is to refine the sparks.
Marei mekomos
- 1וכמ״ש בזהר גבי רבי אחא · Zohar I, 101a
- 2רבי אחא מכפר טרשא · Zohar, Vayera 6:123–127
- 3ולכן מיד וישלחהו מג״ע . . ושמה יברר הבירורים · מובא בסה״מ תרל״ד ע׳ קמג ושם מציין לאגה״ק סי׳ כו שעיקר עסק התורה והמצות הוא לברר הניצוצות.
- 4לעבד את האדמה אשר לקח משם · Genesis 3:23
And then he must actually go upon the ground from which he was taken, and there he will eat, and there he will carry out the refinements.
After the sin man must actually go down to the ground, the place of the mixture, eat there and refine there.
אך צ״ל איך היה מתחלה כוונתו ית׳ כשלא ידע האדם מטו״ר [מטוב ורע] כלל מאחר שיש מציאת הרע בעולם א״כ איך יתבררו הבירורים שזה צ״ל ע״י האדם.
But we must understand: what was His original intention, may He be blessed, when man did not know of good and evil at all? Since there is the existence of evil in the world, how, then, would the refinements be accomplished, which must be done by man?
A question: evil already existed in the world before the sin. If Adam was never meant to know evil, how were the sparks trapped in it supposed to be refined, since that is man’s task?
אך הענין כי אז היה באופן אחר ממש שלא בדרך מלחמה אלא ע״ד מ״ש ויניחהו בג״ע [בגן עדן] לעבדה זה2 רמ״ח מ״ע [מצות עשה] להמשיך אור א״ס בג״ע [בגן עדן]
But the matter is that then it was in an entirely different manner, not by way of war, but in the manner of what is written, “And He placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it” — these are the 248 positive commandments — to draw the Infinite Light into the Garden of Eden.
Before the sin, refinement was to happen in a completely different way, without war. Adam was placed in Eden “to work it,” which the Zohar explains as the 248 positive commandments (and Targum Yonasan as laboring in Torah); through them he would draw the Infinite Light into Eden.
וע״י רבוי התגלות האור ממילא יתעלו נצוצי3 קדו׳ [קדושה] שנפלו ונתערבו ברע ויהיו נכללים בתוך האורות עליונים שימשיך האדם כנר בפני האבוקה
And through the abundant revelation of the light, the sparks of holiness that fell and became mixed with evil would rise of themselves and be absorbed within the supernal lights that man would draw down, like a candle before a torch.
The sheer abundance of that revealed light would draw the fallen sparks upward of themselves and absorb them into the light, as a candle is swallowed up in the flame of a torch.
שאם האבוקה קטנה אזי נר הסמוך לה יוכלל4 ו, אבה ואם ירחיקוהו מעט לא יתכלל בה מפני שהאבוקה קטנה. אבל אם תהיה5 האבוקה גדולה אזי אע״פ [אף על פי] שיהיה הנר רחוק יהיה מתכלל בה.
For if the torch is small, a candle close to it is absorbed in it, but if it is moved a little away, it is not absorbed in it, because the torch is small. But if the torch is large, then even if the candle is far away, it is absorbed in it.
If the torch is small, only a candle close by is absorbed; a large torch absorbs even a distant candle. So the great light Adam would draw down could absorb even distant sparks, without his ever having to confront evil.
The paragraph describes the original plan: before the sin, man would have refined the world not by battling evil but by drawing down such great light through the mitzvos that the fallen sparks would be absorbed into it of themselves.
Two modes of refinement emerge: ‘by war,’ through direct engagement with evil, and ‘by light,’ where increased holiness absorbs the sparks of itself. Likkutei Torah (Bamidbar) also treats the idea of raising the sparks through increased revelation.
TermsRichuk makomGan EdenAvodas HashemBirur+2
- Richuk makom ריחוק מקום
- Gan Eden גן עדן
- Avodas Hashem עבודת ה׳
- Birur בירור
- Hiskallelus התכללות
Also Or Ein Sof
Marei mekomos
- 1את האדמה אשר לקח משם · Genesis 3:23
- 2ויניחהו בג״ע לעבדה זה [בגוכתי״ק: זו] רמ״ח מ״ע · Genesis 2:15
- 3וע״י רבוי התגלות האור ממילא יתעלו נצוצי קדושה · ראה גם בלקו״ת במדבר ג, ד. וראה גם לקו״ש ח״כ ע׳ 215 הערה 32.
- 4שו״ה כנר — יוכלל · בגוכתי״ק: יכלה.
- 5שו״ה תהיה — תהיה · בגוכתי״ק: יהי׳.
Refinement by light and by war ¶12
12וע״ד שהיה בזמן שבהמ״ק [שבית המקדש] היה קיים שהרי ארז״ל [אמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה] לא גלו ישראל1 אלא כדי שיתוספו עליהם גרים דהיינו להעלות נצוצות ומה היה נעשה אם לא חטאו ולא היו גולים.
It is like what was at the time when the Holy Temple stood. For our Sages, of blessed memory, said, “Israel was exiled only so that converts would be added to them,” that is, to elevate sparks. What, then, would have happened had they not sinned and not been exiled?
An illustration from Jewish history. The Talmud says Israel was exiled so that converts would join them, which Chassidus reads as the elevation of sparks of holiness scattered among the nations. So how would those sparks have been elevated had Israel never sinned and been exiled?
אלא ע״כ צ״ל שאז היו נכללים הנצוצות2 ממילא כנר בפני האבוקה כמו נעמה העמונית3 וכן כל העמים באו לשמוע חכמת שלמה וכמ״ש במלכת שבא4 כו׳.
Necessarily we must say that then the sparks were absorbed of themselves, like a candle before a torch — like Naamah the Ammonite; and so too all the nations came to hear the wisdom of Shlomo, and as is written of the Queen of Sheba, etc.
The answer: in Temple times the sparks were drawn in of themselves, like a candle swallowed up by a torch. Naamah the Ammonite (a wife of King Shlomo; the Talmud calls her and Ruth ‘two good doves,’ the worthy women G‑d would bring forth from Ammon and Moab) joined Israel, and all the nations, including the Queen of Sheba, came to hear Shlomo’s wisdom.
והיינו לפי שאז היה אבוקה גדולה עד״מ ע״כ ממילא מתכללים בה הנצוצות ואם היה נמשך בהמ״ק [בית המקדש] כן יותר היו כולם מתבררים עד״ז
That is, because then there was a great torch, so to speak, the sparks were therefore absorbed in it of themselves; and had the Holy Temple continued so longer, they would all have been refined in this way,
The Temple was a ‘great torch’ of revealed G‑dliness, so the sparks were absorbed of themselves. Had that state lasted, all the sparks would have been refined this way, without exile.
as is written of the Time to Come (Zephaniah 3), “For then I will turn to the peoples a clear (berurah) language,” etc., and “Nations shall walk by your light,” etc.
This is what will happen in the Time to Come, as the prophets foretell: G‑d will turn the nations to “a clear (berurah) language,” a word from the same root as the birurim, the “refinements,” and nations will walk by Israel’s light, drawn by the revealed light itself.
וכך היה ענין האדם כשלא היה חוטא שהיה כולו קדוש כי גם גופו נלקח ממקום המזבח78 וממנו נעשו9 רמ״ח אבריו בלול בשמן כו׳
And so was the matter of man when he had not sinned: he was entirely holy, for his body too was taken from the place of the altar, and from it his 248 limbs were made, “mixed with oil,” etc.
Adam before the sin was the same: entirely holy. The Midrash says his body was taken from the place of the altar, and his 248 limbs were made “mixed with oil,” like a meal-offering: his very body was sacred. (The Kehot note compares other traditions: from Babylon, Sanhedrin 38b; from the four corners of the world, Zohar 1:130b.)
והיה עומד בג״ע [בגן עדן] ושם היה מוסיף אורות וממילא היו הקליפות כלים ע״י שהיו הנצוצי קדושה כלים מהם אבל הדבר היה10 שלא ע״י מלחמה כו׳.
He stood in the Garden of Eden, and there he would add lights, and of themselves the kelipos would cease to be, through the sparks of holiness ceasing from them; but the matter was not through war, etc.
In Eden he would have added light, and the kelipos would have faded away as the sparks of holiness that sustain them were drawn out, without any battle.
משא״כ אחר שחטא אזי צ״ל הבירורים ע״י עבודה ומלחמה שעת צלותא שעת קרבא כנ״ל וצריך לירד אל מקום הקליפות ושם יבררם וזהו את האדמה אשר לקח משם.11
This is not so after he sinned: then the refinements must be through labor and war — “the time of prayer is the time of battle” — as explained above; and he must go down to the place of the kelipos and refine them there. And this is “the ground from which he was taken.”
After the sin, refinement requires toil and war. The Zohar’s phrase ‘the time of prayer is the time of battle’ describes prayer as the arena of this struggle. Man must descend to the place of the kelipos, ‘the ground from which he was taken,’ and refine them there.
The paragraph illustrates the two modes of refinement: in Temple times, and for Adam before the sin, the sparks were absorbed by the sheer power of revealed light; after the sin, they must be won through labor and war.
In Torah Ohr, Toldos, the Alter Rebbe explains that refining good from evil requires shining a great light there so that the sparks are gathered in; Yitzchak wanted this to happen through revelation in Eisav himself, rather than through Yaakov’s labor, a parallel to the two modes described here.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
A question the Rebbe raises
In the same maamar of 5 Menachem Av 5725, explaining why evil will be abolished only in the Time to Come, the Rebbe brings the teaching of an earlier maamar he cites (note 13): even in Shlomo’s days, when a very great light shone and the nations submitted to him without war, the external forces could still draw „מאחוריים דקדושה” (from the “back” of holiness), though „לא הי׳ להם אחיזה בפנימיות” (not from its inner part).
The Rebbe adds, in brackets, that this could be seen in the very way the nations bowed to Shlomo. The Queen of Sheba was moved “a little” (קצת) by his fame while still in her own land, and after seeing his wisdom „לא הי׳ בה עוד רוח” (“there was no more spirit in her”); yet „גם אז היתה מלכה” (she remained a queen), and Shlomo even honored her greatly. In note 15 he cites our maamar (TO 6a) that the refinement in Shlomo’s days was „בירור בדרך מנוחה” (“by way of rest”), and that this is like Adam before the sin.
The Alter Rebbe
כמו נעמה העמונית וכן כל העמים באו לשמוע חכמת שלמה וכמ״ש במלכת שבא כו׳
The Rebbe
ויש לומר, דזה שבימי שלמה הי׳ עדיין מקום ליניקת החיצונים, ניכר גם באופן הביטול דהגוים שנתבטלו לפניו
Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat, vol. ב, p. רעח (sec. ב, notes 13–21) · יום ג׳ פ׳ דברים, ה׳ מנחם-אב ה׳תשכ״ה
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsRapach nitzotzinGan EdenLe’asid lavoKelipah+7
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Gan Eden גן עדן
- Le’asid lavo לעתיד לבא
- Kelipah קליפה
- Avodas Hashem עבודת ה׳
- Birur בירור
- Kadosh קדוש
- Lights and vessels אורות וכלים
- Tefillah תפלה
- Malchus מלכות
- Hiskallelus התכללות
Marei mekomos
- 1לא גלו ישראל · Pesachim 87b:14
- 2שו״ה אם — היו נכללים הנצוצות · בגוכתי״ק: הי׳ נכלל הנצוצים.
- 3נעמה העמונית · Bava Kamma 38b:2–3
- 4וכמ״ש במלכת שבא · I Kings 10:1
- 5
- 6והלכו גוים לאורך · Isaiah 60:3
- 7גופו נלקח ממקום המזבח · Sanhedrin 38b
- 8גופו נלקח ממקום המזבח · Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 12:1
- 9שו״ה וממנו — נעשו · בגוכתי״ק: עשו.
- 10שו״ה אבל — הדבר היה · בגוכתי״ק ליתא.
- 11את האדמה אשר לקח משם · Genesis 3:23
How the serpent knew ¶13
13ובזה יובן גם מה שהנחש ידע מזה. כי הנה אדה״ר [אדם הראשון] עצמו שהיה כולו קדוש למעלה מעה״ד [מעץ הדעת] טו״ר [טוב ורע] לא ידע ממציאת הרע כלל כנ״ל.
With this we will also understand how the serpent knew of this. For Adam, the first man, himself, who was entirely holy, above the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, did not know of the existence of evil at all, as explained above.
Now the main question is answered: how did the serpent know what eating would do? Adam, entirely holy and above the Tree of Knowledge, knew nothing of evil’s existence.
¶2 This answers the question from paragraph 2: how the serpent knew.
אבל הנחש שהוא עצמו נלקח מבחי׳ עה״ד [עץ הדעת] טו״ר [טוב ורע] וידע מזה וידע שמה שצוה1 לאדם שלא יאכל2 ממנו היה בכדי שלא יהיה לו ידיעה3 ברע כלל שלא יצטרך לכנוס עמו במלחמה כלל.
But the serpent, which was itself taken from the level of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, knew of this; and it knew that [G‑d’s] commanding Adam not to eat from it was so that he would have no knowledge of evil at all, so that he would not need to enter into war with it at all.
The serpent, however, came from the Tree of Knowledge itself, the realm where good and evil are mixed, so it understood what Adam did not: that the prohibition was meant to keep Adam from any knowledge of evil and so spare him the war with it.
וחרה לו מאד על שכ״כ [שכל כך] נשמרים ממנו אף שלא לידע ממנו שלא יכשל בו והשיא עצות בנפשו שמוטב לו שיכנס האדם בזה ויהיה מלחמה ואז פעמים שיגבור גם הוא וכמ״ש (קהלת ח) עת אשר שלט האדם באדם4 כו׳ משלא ידע האדם מזה כלל
And it was very vexed that they guard themselves so much from it — even not to know of it, so as not to stumble in it; and it took counsel in its soul that it would be better for it that man enter into this and there be a war, for then at times it too would prevail, as is written (Ecclesiastes 8), “A time when man rules over man,” etc. — rather than that man not know of this at all;
The serpent resented being so completely avoided. It reasoned that it would be better for it if man entered the mixture and there was a war, for then it would sometimes win, as in “a time when man rules over man” (Ecclesiastes 8:9), read as the times when the evil in man prevails, rather than man never knowing evil at all.
ואז יהיה הטוב המעורב בו נכלל באדה״ר [באדם הראשון] כנר בפני האבוקה והוא ימות ויפסד לגמרי ובא בערמומית לחוה
for then the good mixed in it would be absorbed into Adam like a candle before a torch, and it would die and perish entirely. So it came with cunning to Chavah,
For if man never knew evil, his great light would absorb the good mixed into the serpent, “like a candle before a torch,” and the serpent, left with no life, would perish entirely. So it approached Chavah with cunning.
וכמ״ש (בפר״א [בפרקי דרבי אליעזר] פי״ג) בא ס״מ [סמאל] ורכב5 על הנחש כו׳. ואמר6 כי ידע אלקים כי ביום אכלכם ממנו7 וגו׳ והייתם כאלקים ידעי טו״ר [טוב ורע].
as is stated (in Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, ch. 13), “Samael came and rode upon the serpent,” etc. And it said, “For G‑d knows that on the day you eat from it,” etc., “and you will be like G‑d, knowing good and evil.”
The Midrash says Samael (the angel of evil) rode upon the serpent, using it as his vehicle. The serpent told Chavah that eating would make them “like G‑d, knowing good and evil.”
וכן הוא עפ״י [על פי] האמת ולא אמר שקר כנ״ל רק שבערמה דבר זה כי הוא אמר והייתם כאלקים למעליותא. אבל באמת זהו חסרון.
And so it is according to the truth, and it did not speak a lie, as explained above; only it said this with cunning, for it said “and you will be like G‑d” as an advantage, but in truth this is a deficiency.
This was true; the serpent did not lie. Its cunning lay in presenting as an advantage what was really a flaw.
אף שיהי׳ [שיהיה] יודע טו״ר [טוב ורע] כאלקים הנה למעלה אין זה פוגם כלל אף שיודע טו״ר [טוב ורע] מ״מ הרע נבדל לפי שלמעלה הוא בחי׳ מקיף משא״כ אם האדם שהוא מבחי׳ פנימי8 יהי׳ [יהיה] יודע מטו״ר [מטוב ורע] לו יהי׳ [יהיה] הדבר מזיק כנ״ל:9
Even though he would know good and evil like G‑d — above, this is no blemish at all: even though good and evil are known, nevertheless the evil is separate, since above is the level of the encompassing; but if man, who is of the level of the inner, would know of good and evil, for him the matter would be harmful, as explained above.
Knowing good and evil is harmless ‘above,’ where knowledge is encompassing and evil stays separate. For man, whose knowing is inner, it means being mixed with evil, as explained earlier.
The paragraph resolves the central question: the serpent, rooted in the Tree of Knowledge, understood its effect, and deceived Chavah by telling a truth, presenting as a virtue what was actually a harm for man.
The serpent’s motive follows from the earlier image of the candle and the torch: in the original plan evil would simply dissolve as its sparks were absorbed into Adam’s light, so evil’s only chance of survival was to draw man into a war in which it could sometimes prevail.
TermsEtz HaDaasKadoshOr MakifElokim+1
- Etz HaDaas עץ הדעת טוב ורע
- Kadosh קדוש
- Or Makif אור מקיף
- Elokim אלקים
- Hiskallelus התכללות
Marei mekomos
- 1שו״ה עצמו — שמה שצוה · בגוכתי״ק: שאשר ציוו.
- 2שו״ה יאכל — היה · בגוכתי״ק בהכת״י ליתא.
- 3שו״ה יאכל — ידיעה · בגוכתי״ק: נגיעה.
- 4
- 5ורכב · Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 13:5
- 6שו״ה ואמר — ידע . . וגו׳ · בגוכתי״ק: יודע . . ליתא.
- 7כי ידע אלקים כי ביום אכלכם ממנו · Genesis 3:5
- 8שו״ה פנימי — לו · בגוכתי״ק: ולו.
- 9שו״ה כי — למעליותא . . שיהיה יודע · בגוכתי״ק הנ״ל: למעלה . . שיהיו יודעי.
Addendum: Adam in the chambers; Yehudah’s descent ¶14
14בלק״ת [בלקוטי תורה (להאריז״ל)] מהאר״י [מהאלקי רבי יצחק] ז״ל [זכרונו לברכה / זכרונם לברכה] נת׳ [נתבאר] הענין שאדה״ר [שאדם הראשון] היה הולך בהיכלות1 כי בחי׳ אדם היה למעלה גם מרשב״י [מרבי שמעון בר יוחאי]2 כי היה בערך אחר ממש שהרי היה יציר כפיו של הקב״ה.
In Likkutei Torah of the Arizal, of blessed memory, the matter is explained that Adam, the first man, would walk through the chambers, for the level of Adam was higher even than Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, since he was of an entirely different order, for he was the handiwork of the Holy One, blessed be He.
The Likkutei Torah of the Arizal (his teachings on the Torah, as recorded by his disciple Rabbi Chaim Vital; not the Alter Rebbe’s book of that name) explains that before the sin Adam would walk through the heavenly “chambers” (heichalos). For Adam, G‑d’s own handiwork, was of a different order entirely, beyond even Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar (the Tzemach Tzedek records hearing these words from the Alter Rebbe).
ובהיכלות הטומאה לא רצה להביט כלל והשיאו הנחש שעכ״פ [שעל כל פנים] יביט מה יש בהם3 ועי״ז נכשל ונפל בתאוה אליהן.
Into the chambers of impurity he did not want to look at all; and the serpent enticed him that he should at least look at what is in them, and through this he stumbled and fell into desire for them.
He avoided looking into the chambers of impurity, but the serpent persuaded him at least to look at what was there. Merely looking led him to stumble and fall into desire for them.
וכן שמעתי מהק׳ [מהקדוש] ר׳ [רבי]4 אברהם בן הה״מ [הרב המגיד] ז״ל [זכרונו לברכה / זכרונם לברכה] ע״פ ויט יהודה עד איש עדולמי5 ושמו חירה6 שמחמת מעשה דיוסף אזי ויט.
So too I heard from the holy Rabbi Avraham, son of the Maggid, of blessed memory, on [the verse] “And Yehudah turned aside to an Adullamite man whose name was Chirah”: that because of the episode of Yosef, therefore “he turned aside.”
A parallel teaching from Rabbi Avraham “the Angel,” son of the Maggid of Mezritch: Yehudah “turned aside” to the Adullamite after the episode of Yosef.
פי׳ ויט היינו שנטה למטה בהיכלות הקליפות7 עד איש עדולמי כדי להעלות נצוצות משם8 וזהו ענין הכוונה דנפילת אפים כו׳:
The explanation: “he turned aside” means that he inclined downward into the chambers of the kelipos, “to an Adullamite man,” in order to elevate sparks from there; and this is the matter of the intention of the falling on the face, etc.
Yehudah descended into the realm of the kelipos to raise sparks from there. This is also the inner meaning of “falling on the face” (nefilas apayim, the Tachanun prayer), in which one descends in order to raise sparks from below.
The concluding paragraph adds the Arizal’s account that Adam fell by agreeing merely to look into the chambers of impurity, and a teaching of Rabbi Avraham the Angel on Yehudah’s descent to raise sparks, parallel to man’s post-sin mission of refining through descent.
The Tzemach Tzedek records hearing from the Alter Rebbe that Adam’s level was above the Baal Shem Tov, the Arizal and even Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Likkutei Torah (Tzav) explains that even the loftiest souls, from the union of Abba and Imma of Atzilus, are to Adam’s soul as Beriah is to Atzilus. The Zohar says Yehudah descended to a level to which the serpent is attached.
TermsHeichalosRapach nitzotzinKoach hamisavehKavanah+1
- Heichalos היכלות
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Koach hamisaveh כח המתאוה
- Kavanah כוונה
- Kelipah קליפה
Marei mekomos
- 1שאדה״ר הי׳ הולך בהיכלות · באוה״ת ענינים ע׳ פו: ”וכן שמעתי הלשון מרבינו ז״ל שאמר בענין אדה״ר, שאדה״ר הי׳ הולך בהיכלות כי בחי׳ אדם הוא למעלה מהבעש״ט והאריז״ל וגם מרשב״י כי הי׳ בערך אחר ממש שהרי הי׳ יציר כפיו של הקב״ה ע״כ”, ע״ש. המשך וככה תרלז פרק קכט. סה״מ תרס״ח ע׳ קצד. ובאוה״ת וישב כרך ו תתרפה, ב מסיים ”כזה״ל שמענו מרבינו ז״ל פ׳ בראשית תקע״ב”. ענין זה נזכר בלקו״ת צו ח, ג. יז, ד.
- 2גם מרשב״י · ראה באוה״ת פ׳ וישב כרך ו שם שהי׳ למעלה מעלה מהבעש״ט והאריז״ל וגם מרשב״י. וראה גם בדרוש ג׳ מיני אדם באוה״ת פ׳ בלק ע׳ תתקע, ובלקו״ת פ׳ צו ח, ג כי הרי אפילו הנשמות הגבוהות מאד שמיחוד או״א דאצילות שזהו נשמה דאצילות הוא כערך הבריאה לגבי אצילות ממש נגד נשמת אדה״ר כנ״ל (ועיין בזהר תרומה דף קס״ז ע״ב). עכ״ל. ובדף ח, ב מביא שם בשם ספר הגלגולים פי״ט שאדם הראשון קודם החטא הי׳ לו נשמה לנשמה מאצילות ע״ש. בהגה״ה כת״י על תו״א מציין ללקו״ת פ׳ צו ח, ב בהביאור ואכלתם אכול דשם נמצא בשינוי לשון קצת.
- 3והשיאו הנחש שעכ״פ יביט מה יש בהם · Zohar II, 193b
- 4וכן שמעתי מהק׳ ר׳ [בגוכי״ק: מר׳] אברהם בן הה״מ · וכ״ה גם באוה״ת בראשית כרך ו שם.
- 5ויט יהודה עד איש עדולמי · Zohar, Vayeshev 13:143–15:153
- 6ויט יהודה עד איש עדולמי ושמו חירה · Genesis 38:1
- 7פי׳ ויט היינו שנטה למטה בהיכלות הקליפות · באוה״ת חנוכה כרך ב שכו, א מציין לזח״א קפו סע״א שנטה עד דרגא דחויא, ע״ש.
- 8כדי להעלות נצוצות משם · ראה בסה״מ תרכ״ט ע׳ יא [בהוצאת תשנ״ב ע׳ יג] שז״ע גלות השכינה ע״ש. בענין יהודה ותמר ראה במאמרי אדה״ז על מאמרז״ל ע׳ רכד שכ׳ שגם ביהודה לא היה כוונה רק לש״ש בלבד . . בכדי שיתגבר עליו אח״כ בניצוח גדול יותר. וראה גם ביאוה״ז להצ״צ כרך א ע׳ קלז. דרך מצותיך לב, ב. סה״מ תרס״ט ע׳ קכג.
Finished the maamar?
Mark it as learned; it counts toward the week and the year’s siyum.
Each Rosh Chodesh the names of those learning here are brought to the Ohel. Add your name, and mark what you learn so it is counted.
In one’s avodah
After the sin, a person is inwardly mixed with good and evil, so his life is a struggle in which at times one side prevails and at times the other. His task is to ‘work the ground from which he was taken’: to engage the physical world, eat and work in it, and through prayer (‘the time of prayer is the time of battle’), the Shema and the mitzvos refine and elevate the sparks of holiness within it. The Adam story also teaches caution: Adam fell by agreeing merely to look into the chambers of impurity.
Questions for discussion
- What is the difference between encompassing and inner knowledge, and why does knowing evil harm man but not the angels?
- Why would eternal life from the Tree of Life have been harmful after the sin, and how does this relate to Keser being ‘simple mercy’?
- How does the image of a candle before a torch describe the original way the world was to be refined, and how does it differ from refinement ‘by war’?
- Why is Chochmah called ‘judgment,’ and what does this say about suffering and purification?
- In what sense did the serpent tell the truth, and where did its cunning lie?
Key terms in this maamar
- The Holy One, blessed be Heקב״ה
- Aramaic, “the Holy One, blessed be He”: G‑d as holy, set apart from the worlds, paired with Shechinteh, His indwelling; read as sovev kol almin, Z’eir Anpin, Atzmus, and sometimes memalei kol almin. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Life-forceחיות
- Life-force: the G‑dly vitality that brings each creation into being and keeps it alive, drawn to each according to its level and renewed from nothing, as the soul enlivens the body. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The inner dimension (pnimiyus)פנימיות
- The inner dimension: the part of anything that turns toward and cleaves to its source (from panim, face), its depth and chief will. Its partner, chitzoniyus, goes out to others; the inner does not descend. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Chochmah (wisdom)חכמה
- The first Sefirah of revelation: a single point of insight (koach mah, the yud of Havayah) that comes from the “nothing” above it; being bittul, Or Ein Sof rests in it, and Binah expands it. ×4Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Chesed (kindness)חסד
- The Sefirah of kindness (the right arm; Avraham): giving that comes from its nature to do good, spreading from highest to lowest like water. Gevurah, its opposite, limits it; in tikkun each includes the other. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Kelipah (the husk)קליפה
- The “husks” that cover and conceal holiness: forces of yesh set opposite holiness, whose mark is bittul. They came into being through the breaking of the vessels and draw their nurture from holiness.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Keser (the Crown)כתר
- The Crown over the Sefiros: intermediary between Or Ein Sof and the emanated, holding the lowest level of the Infinite; the Supernal Will and source of delight, beyond grasp; Chochmah emerges from it. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Teshuvah (return)תשובה
- Returning the soul, which descended into physical things, to its source and root, to cleave to G‑d; not only leaving sin. Its two levels are the return of the lower and the higher hei. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof)אור אין סוף
- The boundless light radiating from G‑d’s Essence like sunlight from the sun: His “Name,” a revelation, not the Essence. Chiefly the light before the tzimtzum; also that light as clothed in the sefiros.Where it’s explained, stated differently, Sefer HaErchim
- The Name Elokimאלקים
- The Name of contraction and concealment, the shield and sheath over Havayah, through which creation appears separate (yesh) and runs as nature (hateva, numerically Elokim). Relative to a higher revelation, Havayah counts as Elokim. ×7Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Daas (knowledge)דעת
- Knowledge as felt recognition: the intellect bound into the soul until it is felt as if seen. Daas unites Chochmah with Binah and spreads into the middos as their inner life; the middos follow it. ×4Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Binah (understanding)בינה
- The Sefirah of comprehension (Imma, the first hei): it expands Chochmah’s flash in length and breadth; letters of thought appear in it; it is “yesh,” and from it love, joy and the middos are born. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Netzach (victory)נצח
- The Sefirah below Chesed on the right line, its branch: giving carried through by resolve after its reason has gone. With its partner Hod it is “outside the body,” yet rooted in Keser. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently