Tiyul in Tanya Part 9: Meet Your Soul
This is the part that I have been longing to write about. It is really a great piece, and quite possibly one of the most misunderstood pieces in all of Tanya(Rav Steinsaltz agrees with me on that).
The explanation [of the questions raised above] is to be found in the light of what Rabbi Chayim Vital wrote in Sha’ar ha-Kedushah (and in Etz Chayim, Portal 50, ch. 2) that in every Jew, whether righteous or wicked, are two souls, as it is written, “The neshamot (souls) which I have made,” [alluding to] two souls.
This is probably going to become my mantra for this pieces, however, let me say that it is much more complicated than that. I am not going to translate the Eitz Haim here(meaning for this piece, not all of it anyway). But what I have done is translate the relevant piece from Shaarei Kedusha, Part 3 Gate 2:
There is one soul which originates in the kelipah andsitra achra, and which is clothed in the blood of a human being, giving life to the body, as is written, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” From it stem all the evil characteristics deriving from the four evil elements which are contained in it. These are: anger and pride, which emanate from the element of Fire, the nature of which is to rise upwards; the appetite for pleasures— from the element of Water, for water makes to grow all kinds of enjoyment; frivolity and scoffing, boasting and idle talk from the element of Air; and sloth and melancholy— from the element of Earth.
If you have done the reading you already understand this, if not, I will fill you in a bit. What he is breaking down as two souls here are really five. However he is calling one the Sitra Achra and Klipa. First in Kabbalah, every world is a Klipah to the one above it(which will really do your head in when we get to the end of the chapter). Second let’s take the example of an orange. An orange has a peel. An orange peel is made up of three distinct layers(Kilpot) however, since our concern is for the fruit, we only speak in terms of fruit(the inner part of the orange) and klipah(the peel). Since the Baal HaTanya’s primary objective is not to give a full fleshing out of the human soul, but rather only to talk about that part in each person, in fact in each Jew, that relates most closely with HaShem, he is simplifying. However the should of cow, in a cow is equally holy.
From this soul stem also the good characteristics which are to be found in the innate nature of all Israel, such as mercy and benevolence. For in the case of Israel, this soul of the kelipah is derived from kelipat nogah, which also contains good, as it originates in the esoteric “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
Ah now we get to the real issue, the soul that is derived from the Kali Nogah. The Arizal explains that it is forever tinged by evil. Once again this is that Yetzer HaRa that we can never fully expunge from ourselves. Primarily this is on account of the sin of man that the soul is so mixed. Also this leads us to the primary avodah of a Jew which is to separate the good from the evil. The Arizal writes in two places(Shaar HaPasukim and Shaar Mamarei Rashbi) that this is the secret of the 39 melakhot. That since Adam HaRishon sinned on the sixth day, before Shabbat, this work of separating good from evil is not in our hands on Shabbat, as it only affected(in one sense) the profane days of the week. However it doesn’t so much touch Shabbat.
Here we get the problem with Jew. As good a a Jew will ever be, like it says on Sukka 52a, “The greater the Tzadik the greater the Yetzer Hara,” he will have equal evil to contend with. There is no escaping it. Unlike the nations who as we will learn are derived from the harder klipot, this kilpa is fully mixed, there is not peel or shell to strip away and be left with only holiness. Rather it is forever mixed, and thus a Jew always has room to grow in yirat shmayim(fear of heaven) and lshem shamayim(service only for the sake of heaven.
The souls of the nations of the world, however, emanate from the other, uncleankelipot which contain no good whatever, as is written in Etz Chayim,Portal 49, ch. 3, that all the good that the nations do, is done from selfish motives. So the Gemara comments on the verse, “The kindness of the nations is sin,”— that all the charity and kindness done by the nations of the world is only for their own self-glorification, and so on.
I’m going to start this final bit of discussion with the words of Rav Adin Steinsaltz
The author is not coming, with these few brief sentences, to define the nature of the non-Jew. Whatever he says here about non-Jews is just the background for the issue with which he is dealing.
In other words it would be a grave error to try to extrapolate from this any sort of doctrine about a non-Jew’s relationship with HaShem. One of the most important commentaries on the Eitz Haim, the Beit Lehem Yehuda, has several long pieces spread out over a number of Shaarim in which he builds at last a logic system of understanding the nature of non-Jews from the various statements that the Arizal makes. Let me start with a direct quote from the piece at hand, “There is no created thing in the world that does not contain sparks of holiness which enliven it.” He then points us to something he said earlier in the chapter, which is another long piece. There he tells us about the righteous amongst the nations. In short a non-Jew has an incredibly hard time breaking through the shell of the klipa from which his soul is derived, but once he does he has access to holiness much easier(hence the reason that a Noahide only has to keep 7 laws).
Furthermore the question from which klipot the non-Jew’s soul is derived. For instance a Jew may have a soul that is derived from the Kali Noga of Asiyah(the lowest of the worlds) whereas a non-Jew may have a soul derived from the Klipa of fire of Atzilut. Thus if the non-Jew were to overcome his sitra achra and break through to being a righteous gentile, his connection with Hashem would be qualitatively superior(this is all spelled out in Shaar HaGilgulim and the second Drush of Shaar Ruah HaKodesh).
The Alter Rebbe states in Tanya that the collective soul of Israel (makh-tzav ha-n’sha-mote) comes from under the Keesei Ha-kavode (presumably the world of B’reeya). Rav Chayyim Volozhiner states in the Neffesh Ha-chayyim that it comes from the Mahlkhoot of Ahtziloot, and Rav Chayyim Vittal’s excerpt here seems to confirm that it comes from Ahtziloot.
How do you reconcile the two opinions?
Since the first three sefirot of the world of Beriyah is the Kise HaKavod, coming from under it would be the lower six sefirot of Beriah . Malkhut of Atzilut would be Beriyah, and Atzilut well… that would be Atzilut. So in one sense there is your contradiction resolved.
The primary problem is that you are thinking there is only four worlds(Atzilut, Beriyah, Yetzirah and Asiyah). Where in fact there are infinite worlds, and each of the four worlds contains four worlds by the same names. That will solve part of your problem.
Second to that, the question is are we talking Nefesh(Asiah), Ruah(Yetzirah) or Neshamah(Beriyah)? In Shaarei Kedusah he is talking about the nefesh(which will never rise above Asiah) though stating that the source of the Nefesh is Atzilut of Asiah(though one must ask Asiah of which general world, as is pointed out in Shaar HaGilgulim and Shaar Ruah HaKodesh, which were only printed about 150 yrs ago and the Baal HaTanya never saw them).
You cannot equate Nefeshot with Neshamot, especially as is written in the first Hakdamah of Shaar HaGilgulim(as well as in a couple of places in Eitz Haim) the majority of Jews will never access their Neshamah as it requires an extraordinary level of Tikun.
“…the majority of Jews will never access their Neshamah as it requires an extraordinary level of Tikun.”
That’s true, but the Neshamah is there nonetheless, connecting them to the makh-tzahv ha-n’sha-mote and it is functional. The “light” that comes down during the process of t’shoova to re-establish the connections, ultimately comes from there.
The Arizal says that the connection is not there. Shaar HaGilgulim, hakdama 13.
Thanks again for your response.
Shaar Ha-gilgoolim, Hakdama 13 talks about the n’shamote that are retrieved from the kleepote via Israel’s prayers, via the process of Ibbur ba’Mahlkhoot, acting as M”N, and how one n’shama that’s already in Mahlkhoot can help another by contributing something of itself into the other n’shama that is in the Kleepote, even if that other one is from a lower quality source.
It also talks about how long they both gestate in Mahlkhoot, which depends on the origins of both n’shamote.
And it also discusses how one n’shama in Mahlkhoot can assist up to ten other n’shamote, contributing something of its own to assist them, and as a result, how they are obligated one to the other.
It does not address how an individual accomplishes his own t’shoova nor does it explain that that the higher levels of a n’shama are never cut off.
See Neffesh Ha-chayyim, Shaar 1, end of Perek 18, and Perek 19 and Perek 20, regarding kareit and the process of t’shoova. Follow his citations back to their sources for more details.
Sorry I was thinking Hakdama 11. While you are at it also read Hakdamot 1, 2, and 7. If you are still confused I will try to answer your questions, though primarily I am trying to discuss Tanya, and not the particulars of Shaar HaGilgulim. Perhaps your own local Rav would be better suited to this sort of discussion.
Rav Tzadok (k”h) wrote:
“Sorry I was thinking Hakdama 11. While you are at it also read Hakdamot 1, 2, and 7. I”
and
“…the majority of Jews will never access their Neshamah as it requires an extraordinary level of Tikun.”
Thanks for this opportunity to review the Shaar Ha-gilgoolim.
I respectfully suggest that you are confusing being zo-kheh to having the NR”N enter ones body b’shleimoot with being able to connect the levels to each other and to the shoresh of one’s N’shama in the Mahkhtzahv Ha-n’sha-mote even when the levels above are not in the body.
As you say, most people don’t even have the complete aspect of Neffesh within their bodies. This doesn’t prevent them from potentially davening effectively. The process of Hit-kash-root Ha-olamote before and during t’feela doesn’t require that they be in the body.
Similarly, again with the utmost respect, you seem to conflating the process of tikkun across gilgoolim with the process of t’shoova within one’s current life. T’shoova within one’s life reconnects the lower parts of the Neffesh (or R or N) that is damaged (or r”l – in the case of Neffesh – possibly cut-off ) with the higher parts of that aspect. As we read in Hakdama 6, it takes some knowledge of the source of one’s n’shama to do this properly.
If I am mistaken, I’d appreciate your correction.
It is written in several places(including the beginning of Shaar Ruah HaKodesh) that until one is Zokhe those levels, one has no access to them and cannot affect them. Rav Asus makes a big deal about this in his commentary on Shaar Ruah HaKodesh, because if one does not know, one cannot properly to the various Yihudim.
Rav Michael Tzadok (k”h) wrote:
“It is written in several places (including the beginning of Shaar Ruah HaKodesh) that until one is Zokhe those levels, one has no access to them and cannot affect them.”
We may not be able to affect things at those higher levels or access the details of those worlds, but we are connected to the root of our N’shama via the levels between it and our bodies. We are always connected unless we are in a state of (r”l) kareit. And even then, we have the potential to re-establish the connection via t’shoova.
If we are not connected, how does the “light” that maintains us descend to us? When we daven or do mitzvote, how does the M”N get up to where it has to go, and how does the M”D descend?
If you have a citation that contradicts this, I would be appreciative if you would post it.
I’m referring to the n’shama b’kla-loot and the o’la-mote b’kla-loot, not the individual aspects and their divisions (not the b’kheenote pra-tee-im).
Where would you say the mahk-tzahv ha-n’shamote for the n’shama b’kla-loot is? And how do you reconcile the Alter Rebbe and Rav Chayyim Volozhiner?
As you note, the Malkhut of Atzilut is only the very top of of B’reeya. It is certainly not *under* the Keesei Ha-kavode.
Beyond the four worlds (five, if you include the mostly unknowable olam Ahdahm Kahdmone). there are the o’lamote Ein Sofe, which are numberless. And above them all is the source of Torah.
When you do a hitkashroot ha-o’lamote, connecting to the shoresh of your n’shama before t’feela, do you only address the aspects of the Neffesh of Ahseeya? Or do you work with the k’la-loot of your entire N’shama, in all the o’la-mote?
So now you want that I should rectify a seeming stira between the Baal HaTanya and the Nefesh Hayim. Well in simplest terms, the Malkhut of Atzilut is all of Beria.
Could it be that the way to reconcile the apparent stira is the way Rav Kadouri corrected your copy of the Tanya?
I found the Alter Rebbe’s position about the location of the Makhtzav Ha-n’shamote stated very clearly in the RaMa”K’s Pardes Rimonim, Shaar Alef. The Asis Rimonim goes even further in his commentary, placing the Makhtzav Ha-n’shaote in Y’tzira, understanding “ta-khat keesei ha-ka-vode” as being the world of Y’tzira.
So this appears to be fundamental difference of understanding.
And thanks for your response.
B’khavode…