המחיה כל הברואים שבכל ההיכלות עליונים ותחתונים, שהן בבחינת מספר וחשבון This [Sefirah of Malchut] animates all the created beings that are in all the upper and lower Heichalot, which are all subject to counting and reckoning (cheshbon), כמו שכתוב: אלף אלפים ישמשוניה as it is written,22 “A thousand thousands (i.e., a finite number of […]

Interdependence and brotherly love among Jews strike far deeper than the visible interpersonal plane. Indeed, if they are lacking, the pain is felt by the Shechinah itself, the Divine Presence. For the Divine Presence is the heart of the Jewish people, who themselves constitute the organs. A deep-seated organic disorder that affects the circulatory system, […]

The above discussion relates only to the drawing down of Divine vitality from the Shechinah into the created worlds, which parallels the emanation of the spirit of life from the heart and its diffusion throughout the entire body. The Alter Rebbe will now go on to explain the second aspect of this analogy — how […]

Just as the Alter Rebbe opened the first Epistle in this series1 with a blessing — occasioned by the good news that most of the chassidic congregations had completed their annual study of the Talmud — so, too, this final Epistle begins with a blessing. Evidently, this blessing too was occasioned by good news — […]

אבל: צדק לפניו יהלך, הוא לשון זכר However, the verse,22 “Tzedek shall go before him,” is in the masculine gender, both the noun (tzedek) and its matching verb (yehaleich). היא מדת החסד המתעוררת בלב האדם מעצמו This refers to the attribute of kindness that is aroused in a man’s heart of his own accord, not […]