ויאמר ה׳ הן עם אחד ושפה א׳ לכלם…

The maamar opens with G‑d’s words about the builders of the Tower of Babel: because they are one people with one language, nothing they plan will be beyond them. The whole discourse will explain why their unity gave them such power.

Two questions. First, nothing can happen against G‑d’s will — as the verse in Lamentations says, nothing comes to be unless He commands it — so how could G‑d say that their scheme, which He opposed, would succeed? Second, what were they really trying to achieve with a tower whose top reaches heaven?

¶17 Hold this question: paragraphs 13–17 answer it.

The Alter Rebbe points to the Likkutei Torah of Rabbi Chaim Vital, the Arizal’s chief disciple: not the Alter Rebbe’s book of that name, but an earlier Kabbalistic work, the Arizal’s teachings on the Torah as Rabbi Chaim Vital recorded them. There he explains that the builders wanted to force a flow of blessing down to themselves by using the holy Names, receiving good from Above even though they themselves were not good; the rest of the maamar explains how such a thing could work and why G‑d stopped it.

The Talmud lists seven Names of G‑d that may not be erased. The Arizal and Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (in his Pardes Rimonim) match these Names with the Sefiros: the Name Kel (a short Name of G‑d) with Chesed, Elokim with Gevurah, and Havayah (the four-letter Name) with Tiferes.

Every Sefirah has a light (the revelation within it) and a vessel (the form that contains it). The Alter Rebbe explains that the light in all of them is from Havayah; the different Names apply only to the vessels, which give each Sefirah its particular character.

Tiferes is the exception: even its vessel is Havayah, not only its light (the parenthesis sends the reader to the Alter Rebbe’s maamar in Torah Ohr, Parshas Bo, on “On that very day all the hosts of Havayah went out of the land of Egypt”). Why should Tiferes differ from the other Sefiros? The answer comes in paragraph 12, after a long explanation of how the Sefiros become included in one another.

¶12 Hold this question about Tiferes: paragraph 12 answers it.

To prepare the answer, the Alter Rebbe turns to “Eliyahu opened” (Patach Eliyahu), the famous passage in the introduction to the Tikkunei Zohar, a companion work to the Zohar, the foundational book of Kabbalah; it opens with words spoken by the prophet Eliyahu. It describes G‑d bringing forth ten “tikkunim,” the ten Sefiros, and matches them to the limbs of a body: Chesed the right arm, Chochmah the brain, Binah the heart.

Patach Eliyahu goes on: every Sefirah has a “known name” — a definite, defined identity — but G‑d Himself has none. He is wise, yet not with any wisdom we could define; He understands, yet not with any understanding we could define.

The difficulty: the passage has just called Chochmah “the brain” and Binah “the heart.” So “You are wise” cannot mean G‑d clothed in that Chochmah, one of the ten Sefiros — otherwise it would simply repeat what was said.

The context proves it: “You are wise” comes right after “You have no known name.” So G‑d’s being “wise” must itself be beyond any defined name — a wisdom that is not one of the known Sefiros.

When the Infinite Light clothes itself in the Sefiros of Atzilus, the highest world, G‑d is called by the Name that belongs to that Sefirah — as in the list of the seven Names above.

This is set out in Pardes Rimonim, in its Gate of the Names. So the question is sharper: if speaking of G‑d as “wise” means He is in a Sefirah, He would then have a known name — how can the Tikkunei Zohar say both “You are wise” and “You have no known name”?

The answer begins from the start of the passage, “You are One, but not in number”: G‑d’s oneness is not the “one” of counting. Yet He brought forth ten distinct Sefiros, the ten of the World of Tikkun in Atzilus, each quite different from the others.

Someone might think that since the Sefiros are distinct, G‑d’s own Essence also has separate parts — a wisdom here, a kindness there. Eliyahu rules this out: in the Essence there is “wisdom,” but not a defined, known wisdom set apart from the rest.

The Chochmah of Atzilus is called “a known wisdom.” It is immeasurably higher than the wisdom of the three lower worlds, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah; yet the next part explains why even it is still called “known.”

Because it is the source of their wisdom, and because in Atzilus there are real, separate vessels — Chochmah in its own vessel and Binah in its own — the Chochmah of Atzilus counts as a defined, “known” wisdom.

The “known” Sefiros belong to Atzilus. The wisdom of “You are wise” is not a known wisdom at all, and the gap between them is total: the Chochmah of Atzilus comes from it the way something comes from nothing.

Two kinds of coming into being are contrasted. Something from nothing (yesh me’ayin) means the result bears no likeness to its source; cause and effect means the effect is a lower version of its cause. The wisdom of the lower worlds comes from the Chochmah of Atzilus in the second way, and so it counts as part of the chain of descent (hishtalshelus).

This explains the name “known”: the lower worlds’ wisdom, which comes step by step from the Chochmah of Atzilus, is revealed and knowable. Since what descends from it is known, its source, the Chochmah of Atzilus, is also called “known.”

“Adam” (Man) is the Kabbalistic name for the full ten-Sefirah structure of a world. Even the Adam of Atzilus, so lofty compared with what is below it, is like the lowest world, Asiyah, compared with what is above it. The wisdom of “You are wise” is what Pardes Rimonim calls “the ten Sefiros hidden in their Emanator,” the roots of the Sefiros as they are within G‑d Himself.

The Arizal’s Etz Chaim describes three early stages of the Sefiros: Akudim (“bound together”), Nekudim (“points”) and Berudim (the interconnected). The names are the words the Torah uses for Yaakov’s “streaked, speckled and spotted” flocks (paragraph 12). In Akudim all ten are held in a single vessel, with no division among them.

In Nekudim the Sefiros separate into ten isolated points (this, the maamar will explain, is the World of Tohu, of chaos). In Berudim, the World of Tikkun, they form partzufim — full configurations in which each Sefirah includes the others. Eliyahu’s “ten tikkunim” are these Sefiros of Berudim.

Their source, Akudim, is where Chochmah, Binah and the rest are literally in one vessel. That is possible because this level is far above the defined Chochmah and Binah of Atzilus.

That is why they are called “hidden.” To illustrate, the Alter Rebbe turns to the human soul: its powers, once clothed in the body, are separate from each other, each working through its own organ.

Sight works through the eye, hearing through the ear, action through the hands; and the higher powers too — intellect in the brain, emotions in the heart. In the body, each power is distinct and has its own place.

All of the soul’s powers come from one soul, and the soul is a single, simple essence. So before they were drawn into the body, while still within the soul, they must have been completely merged, with no separation at all.

An objection: sight and hearing are plainly different things. How can they be “one” in the soul?

The answer: within the soul these powers exist in a form infinitely subtler and more spiritual than in the body, so there they are united as if they were literally one thing. This will serve as the model for the Sefiros, which are ten distinct things in Atzilus but one in their hidden root.

Now the analogy is applied. The Sefiros of Atzilus are like the soul’s powers once they are in the body: each is distinct, with its own vessel — Chochmah here, Chesed there.

Their root, the hidden ten Sefiros, is like the soul’s powers within the soul itself: so subtle and exalted that they are simply one. That is what “Akudim” means — all the Sefiros bound together in a single vessel.

Why then are Chochmah and Chesed separate things in Atzilus? Because the Chochmah of Atzilus is a different order of being from the Chochmah of Akudim, not a slightly lower version of it. That is why it is called “a known wisdom,” while the Chochmah of Akudim is not.

After Akudim came the World of Nekudim (“points”), where each Sefirah stands alone as a separate point. This is a great descent from Akudim, where all are one; the Sefiros of Nekudim are now defined and separate, like “a known wisdom.”

The same pattern is found in another pair of Kabbalistic concepts. After the first tzimtzum, when the Infinite Light withdrew to leave a “vacated space,” a thin line of light, the kav, was drawn back into it, and a trace of the withdrawn light, the reshimu, remained. The kav shines into each world according to that world’s capacity, like the separate Sefiros; the reshimu is one general level that includes all worlds, like Akudim.

In Nekudim the vessels shattered; this is the World of Tohu (chaos). They broke because each Sefirah was a lone point that could not join the others. In the World of Tikkun (Berudim) the Sefiros became partzufim, full configurations in which each includes the others.

In Tikkun, Chochmah does not stand alone: it contains all ten Sefiros within itself and becomes the partzuf of Abba (“Father”). Likewise Z’eir Anpin, the configuration of the emotions, contains all the Sefiros.

In Z’eir Anpin all the emotions are included together, and the intellect of Abba and Imma shines within them. This is a great advantage over Nekudim, where Chesed stood alone and Gevurah stood alone.

The inclusion of Tikkun is like separate letters joining to form words. But it is not the oneness of Akudim, where everything was truly one in a single vessel.

In Tikkun each Sefirah keeps its own vessel and yet includes all the others. Through this joining a higher light from the Infinite One shines in them, because the Infinite Light rests specifically where there is joining and inclusion.

Two examples from our world: G‑d blessed man and woman only once they were joined, as the verse says, “Male and female He created them, and He blessed them”; and ten Jews who join together can say the prayers of holiness that need a minyan, a quorum of ten, because the Shechinah rests on a group of ten — which is not so for ten individuals each on his own.

What brings about the inclusion of Tikkun is the Name Mah — Havayah spelled out so that its letters total 45, the numerical value of mah. It is rooted in Adam Kadmon, above Nekudim, and like Akudim it is a general, all-inclusive light; that is why it can bring the separate Sefiros together.

Mah means “what,” as when Moshe and Aharon said, “And what are we?” — an expression of self-nullification. The Sefiros can include one another only when each sets aside its own separate existence before the Infinite Light; so the Name Mah, which is bittul, is what makes the Tikkun.

Now the question of paragraph 2 can be answered: why is even the vessel of Tiferes marked by the Name Havayah, while the vessels of Chesed and Gevurah bear the Names Kel and Elokim? The answer lies in what brings about the inclusion of the World of Tikkun.

¶2 This answers the question from paragraph 2.

Chesed and Gevurah are opposites — giving and holding back. Tiferes is the “middle line” that joins them. It is the attribute of Yaakov, called in the Zohar “the completion of the Patriarchs” because he unites Avraham’s Chesed and Yitzchak’s Gevurah, and in the Torah “a dweller of tents.”

Yaakov’s wages from Lavan were the marked young of the flock (Genesis 30:32; 31:8), and in a dream he saw the rams that mounted the flock “streaked, speckled and spotted,” akudim, nekudim u-verudim (31:10): the very names of the three stages of the Sefiros. The Alter Rebbe reads Yaakov’s drawing forth of these flocks as Tiferes drawing the oneness of Akudim down into Berudim through the Name Mah, so bringing about inclusion.

The Zohar (at the start of Parshas Vayikra) reads Rachav’s request, “give me a sign of truth,” as the letter vav, the letter of Tiferes; the Hebrew os means both “sign” and “letter,” so it is also “a letter of truth.” Truth here means what joins and does not take sides: Tiferes brings Chesed and Gevurah together so that they no longer oppose each other.

In the phrase “the great, the mighty and the awesome,” “great” is Chesed and “mighty” is Gevurah, while “awesome” is Tiferes. Only the last word has an added vav — “and the awesome.”

The vav, a straight line, is the letter of drawing down. Its presence in “and the awesome” shows that Tiferes draws down a higher flow, which is what brings about inclusion — just as the Name Mah does. Fittingly, Yaakov says of the place of his vision, “How (mah) awesome is this place!”, combining mah and “awesome.”

That is why the Name Havayah shines even in the vessel of Tiferes: its vessel carries a greater light than the vessels of Chesed and Gevurah.

Havayah is the Name through which inclusion is drawn down, which is why Scripture says “Havayah is One.” The Alter Rebbe refers to his maamar on the war against Midian (Likkutei Torah, Matot 6:20–21): Midian, strife and division, is the very opposite of Havayah, whose essence is peace and inclusion, and through inclusion a higher light is drawn from the level that includes everything; so that war was “the vengeance of Havayah.”

The Torah is called “the Torah of Havayah” because it is all about peace: “all its paths are peace.” The Sages read the verse “let him take hold of My strength (the Torah), that he may make peace with Me” as referring to one who studies Torah.

The Sages say that such a person makes peace in the heavenly household and in the earthly household. In Kabbalistic terms, this peace is the inclusion and union of the Sefiros and of the heichalos (the “chambers” of the lower worlds), and through it the Infinite Light is revealed. And inclusion comes only through bittul.

This is the heart of the whole Torah: to set aside one’s own separate “something” (yesh) before G‑d’s “nothing” (ayin), G‑dliness, called “nothing” because it is beyond all grasp. The three pillars on which the world stands — Torah, prayer (“service”) and acts of kindness — all serve this purpose. Only when there is bittul can separate things truly join; while each insists on its own existence, they cannot.

Now the Alter Rebbe returns to the Tower. “Let us make ourselves a name” means they wanted their flow of blessing to come from the Name Havayah — the supernal flow that, as just explained, is the source of inclusion.

The maamar reads “lest we be scattered” as their refusal to receive from a lower level, from which the “external forces” — the forces of kelipah that oppose holiness — draw their nourishment. These forces are fed from the “hind-part,” the most external aspect, of the Name Elokim, which is why idolatry is called elokim acherim, “other gods.”

The advantage of Tikkun is inclusion. The Torah counts Yaakov’s family as “seventy nefesh” — “soul” in the singular — because they were united as one. In the World of Tohu there was no such inclusion, and so its vessels shattered.

The builders knew that receiving from the World of Tikkun requires bittul, as shown above: inclusion comes through the Name Mah, which is self-nullification. That is exactly what they refused to do.

As Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote in his Likkutei Torah (paragraph 1), they wanted to follow their own desires and still receive blessing. So they devised a clever way around the requirement: the city and the tower.

Their plan was unity. In Hosea the words mean that Ephraim, the northern kingdom, is attached to idols, “let him be”; the Midrash (Bereshis Rabbah 38:6, on this very generation) reads chavur as “joined together”: even idol-worshippers who are at peace with one another are left alone. The builders hoped their unity alone would bring them at least material blessing, without bittul or serving G‑d.

Through their knowledge of the holy Names they understood that inclusion draws down a very high light — like Akudim, where all is in one vessel, a level above both Tohu and Tikkun.

“Let us make ourselves a name” means drawing from the Name Havayah, the all-inclusive light that relates equally to every level of the chain of descent — a level above the distinctions of the worlds.

That way they would not have to submit to the holiness of Atzilus, the World of Tikkun. From Atzilus the unholy can receive only its outermost aspect, and only by being subdued; they wanted to bypass that submission.

The city and tower were the means to that unity: a landmark that would keep them together as one people.

Ibn Ezra explains the plain meaning: they were shepherds who wandered in all directions, so they built a city and a tall tower where all could gather and stay together.

The Zohar on Parshas Noach (1:74b–75b) explains this on the spiritual level: the holy Name takes hold on earth only through “a city and a tower,” the builders used that wisdom to set one up for the other side, and because they were all together, in their unity they would succeed.

Now G‑d’s words, quoted at the start, become clear: because they are “one people with one language,” nothing they plan will be beyond them.

Unity really does draw down light from a very high place, as the verse about Ephraim “joined together” to idols shows. That is why G‑d could say that nothing would be withheld from them. It was not that they could override His will, but that unity itself draws a flow from on high, and G‑d had made it so.

¶1 This answers the question from paragraph 1.

The danger, in the maamar’s image: they would draw this holy flow, the waters that go forth from the House of G‑d, into a privy, the most degraded of places.

“The lewd woman, etc.” is a second image, which the text leaves unfinished, of holy power serving what is impure. This would happen because they followed their own desires and refused bittul and the yoke of Heaven.

So G‑d confused their language. The Mishnah teaches that it is good for the world when the wicked are scattered and when the righteous gather. United, the righteous, who have bittul, draw blessing from above for everyone; hence the Sages’ saying that peace is the only vessel that can hold blessing.