שער א 18

וכל זה מרוב טובו וחסדו הגדול ית"ש אשר חפץ להצדיקנו להטיב אחריתנו לזאת הפליא עצה וקבעם בענין זה שכל בחי' מהג' אלו תתקשר בהבחי' שעליה כדי שעי"ז יוכל האדם לעלות ולהתקשר ממטה למעלה מעט מעט. לפי רוב עסקו בתורתו ועבודתו ית"ש וטהרת לבו ואהבתו ויראתו. עד שיעלה ויתדבק בצרור החיים כביכול את ה' אלקיו ית"ש. לפי שרשו ומדרגתו.

And all of this [arises] from His overwhelming goodness and His (blessed be His name) great kindness, for He desires to exonerate us and to do good for us in the end. For this reason He created these wondrous designs, and made them permanent in this context, that each of these three should attach to the aspect above it [fem.], so that by way of this, man would be able to rise and connect from below to above, little by little, according to the degree of his involvement with His Torah and service of Him (blessed be His name), and the purity of his heart and his love and awe, until he shall ascend and attach (so to speak) to the “bundle of life” with God-YHV”H his Lord (blessed be His name), according to his root and level.

זאת ועוד אחרת. כי יש כמה עונות שהנפש החוטאת באחת מהנה. נתחייבה כרת או אבדון ח"ו. וענין הכרת הוא. שבחי' הנפש נפסק ונכרת משורשו וינתק החבל שהיה קשור ומדובק בו עד הנה ע"י התקשרות הנ"ל.

There’s this and also more, for there are certain sins that if the soul-Neffesh commits one of them, it is liable for the punishment of being “cut off³²⁷Heb.: ka-reit” or total destruction (heaven forefend). And the matter of “cutting off” is that the aspect of Neffesh is interrupted and cut off from its heavenly root, and the “rope³²⁸Heb.: cheh-vel” that was connected and attached to it until now via the connection we discussed above is severed.

וכמ"ש בזוהר תרומה הנ"ל. ואית נפשא כו' דכתיב בה ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מלפני אני ה'. מאי מלפני דלא שריא עלה רוחא. וכד רוחא לא שריא עלה לית לה שותפו כלל במה דלעילא כו' וע"ש. וע' בלק"ת פרשה בא. ובמכילתא פרשה בא ובסוף פ' תשא ובספרי פ' בהעלותך ופ' שלח ונכרתה אין הכרתה אלא הפסקה.

And as it is written in Zohar T’rooma that we mentioned above: “and there is a soul-Neffesh… in relation to it is written ‘and that soul-Neffesh shall be cut off from before Me, I am God-YHV”H’. What is ‘from before Me’? That the soul-Ruakh no longer rests upon him, and when the soul-Ruakh does not rest upon him, there is no connection at all with what is above… .” Refer there [for more details]. And refer to the Likutei Torah, parshat Bo, and in Mekhilta, parshat Bo, and at the end of parshat Tee-sa, and in Sifri, parshat B’ha-ah-lote-kha, and in parshat Sh’lakh. And “shall be cut off” is not complete cutting off but rather an interruption.

וז"ש (ישעי' מ"ט) כי אם עונותיכם היו מבדילים ביניכם לבין אלקיכם היינו לבין אלקיכם ממש כנ"ל. ואז נטבעת בעמקי הטומאה והקליפות ר"ל.

And that which is written (Yeshayahu 59:2): “For your sins have separated between you and your God-Elohi”m”, that is literally between you and your God-Elohi”m as we discussed above, and then it drowns in the depths of impurity and the husks (may the Merciful save us).

ע' בע"ח שער כללות אבי"ע ריש פ"א. ובשער היחודים סוף פ"ד ושם פ"א מתקוני עונות. ובלקתנ"ך בישעיה בפ' כי רוח מלפני יעטוף. ובגלגולים ס"פ ל"ה. וכ"כ בכתבי קדשו של רבינו הגדול מוהר"א ז"ל בפי' על ההיכלות בהיכלא תניינא.

Refer to the Etz Chayyim, Sha-ar K’la-loot ABY”A³²⁹Gate of Overall Description of ABY”A, beginning of chapter 1, and in the Sha-ar Ha-yikhoodim³³⁰Gate of Unifications, end of chapter 4, and there chapter 1 in the section addressing the rectification of sins, and in the Likutei T’Na”Kh in Y’shaya in the verse “for the soul-Ruakh that enwraps itself is from Me” (57:16), and in Gilgoolim³³¹Sha-ar Ha-gilgoolim—Gate of Reincarnations, end of chapter 35. And so it is written in his holy writing from our great rabbi, our teacher Rabbi Eliyahu³³²The Vilna Gaon (OBM), in his commentary on the Hei-kha-lote, in the second Hei-khal.

ולבל ידח ממנו נדח. גזרה רצונו יתברך שלא יוכרתו ח"ו לגמרי כל היו"ד חלקי בחי' הנפש רק הט' בחי' התחתונים מחכמה דילה ולמטה הם הנכרתי'. אבל בחי' העליונה סוד הכתר דילה אינה נכרתת. שמצד דביקותה והתקשרותה עם בחי' הרוח כנ"ל נדונית כבחי' הרוח שאין בו כרת כמ"ש להלן. והוא מחסד העליון ב"ה שע"י בחי' הרוח היינו ע"י ודוי דברים מלב שהוא בחי' רוח כנ"ל. יתעלו גם הט' בחי' הנפש להתקשר כולם בבחי' הרוח כמקדם:

Lest he go completely astray, His (blessed be He) will issued a judgment that they shouldn’t be cut off (heaven forefend) completely in all the ten aspects of the Neffesh. Only the nine lower aspects, from her Wisdom³³³Heb.: Chokhma and down they are cut off. However the uppermost aspect, the secret of her crown³³⁴Heb.: Ketter [*A] is not cut off; that from the perspective of her attachment and connection with the aspect of the Ruakh (as we described above) [*B] it [fem.] is judged to be aspect of Ruakh for which there is no cutting off, as we will learn later. And this comes from supernal compassion³³⁵Heb.: mei-khessed ha-el-yone (blessed is He), that via the aspect of Ruakh, that is via heartfelt verbal confession (which is the aspect of Ruakh, as we described above), the nine aspects of the Neffesh will rise to connect all of them with the aspect of Ruakh as before.

הגהה: היינו שאף אם נפשות ישראל משוקעים ח"ו בתאוות רעות ר"ל עכ"ז יסד רצונו ית"ש להעלות נפשם ע"י בחי' רוחו ית"ש. כענין הכתוב ואני זאת בריתי אתם אמר ה'. רוחי אשר עליך וגו'. לא ימושו וגו'. וכענין יצ"מ. וזהו אנכי ה' אלהיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים. וידוע בזוהר שאנכי הוא בחי' כתר. וזהו דרשתם ז"ל (שבת ק"ה א') אנכי אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית. ואמירה נעימה וכו'. והם שני הבחי'. נפש ורוח. והמשכיל יבין:

Annotation A: That is to say, even if our souls-Neffesh are mired (heaven forefend) in evil desires (may the Merciful save us), even so His will (blessed be His name) established to elevate their soul-Neffesh via the aspect of His soul-Ruakh (blessed be His name), as in the context that is written (Yeshayahu 59:21): “And as for Me, this is My covenant with them, says God-YHV”H: My spirit-Ruakh that is upon thee… shall not depart…”, and as in the context of the Exodus from Egypt (Sh’mote 20:2), and this is “and I am God-YHV”H your God-Elohi”m who took you out of the land of Egypt”. And it’s known in the Zohar, that I-Ah-no-khee is the aspect of the crown. This is the commentary of the sages (OBM) (Shabbat 105a): “The word ‘I-Ah-no-khee’ is a nootrikone³³⁶A nootreekone is a word formed by appending the first letters of a sequence of words to form a new word. It can serve as a mnemonic device or to encode a deeper meaning. that means ‘I, Myself, wrote this and gave it to you³³⁷Aram.: Ahna nahfshee k’ta-veet y’ha-veet …’ [and another is] ‘beautiful pronouncement’.” And they are the two aspects of Neffesh and Ruakh, and the wise will understand.

הגהה: היינו רצון הפנימי המכתיר נפש מישראל מצד היראה אינה נפסקת לעולם: וע' רמב"ם סוף פ"ב מהלכות גירושין בדין גט מעושה עד שיאמר רוצה אני שהגט כשר אם הדין נותן שכופין אותו לגרש ופ' שם הטעם דלא מקרי אנוס. כיון שאמית' רצונו לעשות כל המצות אלא שיצרו הוא שתקפו וכיון שהוכה עד שתשש יצרו ואמר רוצה אני כבר גירש לרצונו ע"ש לשונו הק':

Annotation B: That is to say that the inner will that crowns a Neffesh in Israel from the perspective of fear/awe -yir’ah is never, ever interrupted. And refer to the RaMBa”M at the end of chapter 2 relating to the ruling in a divorce issued under duress³³⁸The case here deals with divorce. A divorce must be issued by the man’s own free will. If the divorce is issued under duress, the divorce is not legal. Maimonides ruled that a court may physically coerce a man to the point where he issues the divorce, and the divorce is considered legal. Isn’t this a “divorce issued under duress”? The answer is “no” because the court considers a man who refuses to issue a divorce as one who is overcome by his evil inclination. Rav Chayyim seems to be saying that the court’s physical coercion effects his repentence (i.e., the weakening of his evil inclination, which causes a disconnect in his Neffesh) and re-establishes the connection between the lower part of the Neffesh and the Ruakh above it. Therefore the divorce is considered valid.: “…until he says ‘I desire’, for the divorce is deemed legal if the law allows that he can be forced to grant the divorce.” And there they explained the reason that he is not considered “compelled”: his true will is to perform all the commandments, but his evil inclination dominated him. Since he was beaten until his evil inclination weakened and he then said “I desire [to divorce her]”, he divorced by his own will. Refer there for the holy one’s³³⁹RaMBa”M (Maimonides) phrasing.

וכן אם פגם וקלקל ח"ו בחי' הדבור שלו ע"י עונות התלוים בדבור בלה"ר וכיוצא. או שארי עונות התלוים בשרשם בבחי' הרוח. ונתקלקל בזה בחי' הרוח. (והגם שאין בחי' הרוח נכרת כלל. כי לא מצינו בתורה ענין הכרת. רק אצל בחי' הנפש לבד. ונכרתה הנפש ההיא. ונכרתו הנפשות העושות וכיוצא הרבה. וכ"כ בלק"ת פ' בא שם. ובפ"ו מהגלגולים ובסופו שם. עכ"ז ע"י העונות התלויים בשרשם בבחי' הרוח. הוא מקלקלו ופוגמו. ומגביר לעומת זה כח רוח הטומאה ר"ל). מצד שהבחי' העליונה סוד כתר שלו. קשור ודבוק לעולם בבחי' התחתונה של הנשמה כנ"ל. יוכל הוא להתקן ע"י בחי' הנשמה בהרהורי תשובה במחשבת הלב שהוא בחי' הנשמה:

And similarly, if he blemished and damaged (heaven forefend) his aspect of speech via sins that are dependent on speech—via evil speech and the like, or the other sins that are dependent in their root on the aspect of Ruakh— and the aspect of Ruakh is thereby damaged,³⁴⁰The original structure of this paragraph is convoluted, and appears as a very long sentence with a lengthy embedded parenthetical. To make it clearer, I’ve broken out the parenthetical with an indentation. I suggest first reading the paragraph without the indented section, and then to include it in a second reading. (and even though the aspect of Ruakh is never cut off in any way—for we have never found in the Torah the context of cutting off except in relation to the aspect of Neffesh alone: “and that Neffesh shall be cut off” (Vayikra 22:3), “and the souls-Neffesh who commited…” (there, 18:19) and many like that, and so is written in the Likutei Torah, parshat Bo there, and in chapter six in Gilgoolim at its end there—even so, via all sins that are dependent on their roots in the aspect of Ruakh, he damages and blemishes them, and the power of the impure Ruakh dominates (may the Merciful save us)), from the perspective that the uppermost aspect (the secret of its Ketter) is connected and attached forever in the lower aspect of the Neshama as we described above, it³⁴¹Ruakh [male] is able to be rectified via the aspect of Neshama, with the stirrings of repentance in the thoughts of the heart/mind, it being the aspect of Neshama³⁴²Rav Chayyim says that a blemish of the Neffesh is rectified via speech, which is an expression of Ruakh. A blemish of the Ruakh is rectified via thought, which is an expression of the Neshama..

אבל בחי' הנשמה. אינה נפגמת כלל לעולם. כי מקור שרשה הוא מעול' המשומר ממגע זרים. ודבוקה לעולם בשורש הנשמה כידוע שהם רעין דלא מתפרשין לעלמין ואין מעשי האדם מגיעים עדיה כלל לקלקל ח"ו. ואם האדם חוטא במחשבה אשר לא טובה ח"ו. הוא גורם רעה לעצמו לבד. שיסתלק ויתעלם ממנו ניצוצי אור הנשמה. אבל לא שהיא נפגמת ח"ו.

However the aspect of the Neshama is never blemished in any way, for the wellspring of her root is forever protected from foreign influence, and is forever attached in the root of the Neshama, as is known; for they are companions who are never separated for all eternity³⁴³The companions referred to here are Abba and Eema, the two partzoofim referred to by the first two letters of the Tetragrammaton. They also correspond to the s’feerote of Chokhma and Beena, and also to the Neshama and the root of the Neshama., and the actions of man do not reach them in any way to damage them (heaven forefend). And if man should sin in a thought that is not good (heaven forefend), he causes evil to himself alone, that the sparks of the soul-Neshama should depart and be hidden from him, but not that it is blemished (heaven forefend).