The Alter Rebbe opened the fourth chapter by beginning to explain the concept of repentance according to the mystical approach to the Torah. He prefaced his commentary by noting that according to Scripture and our Sages a person who committed a sin punishable by excision would actually die before his fiftieth year, while one who committed a sin punishable by death by Divine agency would actually die before his sixtieth year.

The Alter Rebbe thereupon posed the following question: How is it, he asked, that “in every generation there are so many individuals liable to excision and death [by Divine agency] who nevertheless enjoy extended and pleasant days and years!”

In answer, the Alter Rebbe explained that the soul is part of the Divine Name Havayah, the Tetragrammaton. Furthermore, both the internal and external aspects of the soul are “blown” or “breathed” forth, i.e., their source is the innermost reaches of G‑dliness. The innermost core of the soul derives from the internal aspect of the Tetragrammaton, the internal level of holiness. And even the external level of the soul, which is drawn down into man’s body through the Utterance “Let us make man,” derives from the internal aspect of this Utterance. Thus all aspects of the soul, even as enclothed within the body, ultimately derive from an act of “blowing”. And it is noted in ch. 5 that unlike speech, which can be heard even when something separates the listener from the speaker, exhaled breath does not reach its destination when there is an intervening obstruction (in this case, the individual’s sins).

The Alter Rebbe next uses this image and another to explain the concept of excision. The Jewish people’s relationship to G‑d is compared in Scripture to a rope, whose upper end is bound above and whose lower end is bound below — “Jacob is the rope of [G‑d’s] inheritance.” This rope is the lifeline through which G‑dliness is drawn down even into the external aspect of the soul that lodges within the body. Sins, especially those incurring excision, sever this lifeline, thus preventing the life-force which is “blown” forth to penetrate to the soul that is invested in the body. In the past, this meant that a person liable to excision would actually die before his fiftieth year, while a person liable to death by Divine agency would actually die before his sixtieth year.

In this, the sixth chapter, the Alter Rebbe goes on to explain that this applied only during the time when the Divine Presence dwelt among Israel, for then each Jew’s spiritual sustenance reached him only from the “side” of holiness — from the Four-Letter Name of the Infinite One.

In times of exile, however, when the Divine presence too is (so to speak) in exile, even the life-force of holiness can be drawn down through a garb of kelipah. It is therefore then possible that even individuals guilty of sins punishable by excision and death by Divine agency continue to receive their vitality, even though their spiritual lifeline to the Tetragrammaton has been severed. This explains why during the era of exile even those guilty of the above-mentioned sins can live long lives. Parenthetically, this also provides them with the opportunity to repent and rectify their past misdeeds.

אמנם זהו בזמן שהיו ישראל במדרגה עליונה, כשהיתה השכינה שורה בישראל בבית המקדש

However, all this obtained when Israel was on an elevated plane, when the Divine Presence dwelt among Israel1 in the Beit HaMikdash.2

ואז לא היו מקבלים חיות לגופם רק על ידי נפש האלקית לבדה, מבחינת פנימיות השפע שמשפיע אין סוף ברוך הוא, על ידי שם הוי׳ ברוך הוא, כנ״ל

Then the body3 received its vitality only through the divine soul, from the innermost source of the life-giving power issuing from the Infinite One, through the Tetragrammaton, as discussed above.

Thus, if the spiritual lifeline emanating from the Tetragrammaton was severed, it was impossible for them to continue living. However, as the Alter Rebbe now goes on to say, once they had fallen from that spiritual height, and thereby diverted the flow of the Divine life-force from its accustomed course, even deliberate transgressors can now receive their vitality as freely as do mere creatures.

אך לאחר שירדו ממדרגתם, וגרמו במעשיהם סוד גלות השכינה

But they then fell from their estate, and through their actions brought about the mystic exile of the Divine Presence,

That the Divine Presence should be in a state of exile among the forces of unholiness is indeed an inconceivable mystery.4

כמו שכתוב: ובפשעיכם שולחה אמכם

as the verse5 states,6 “Through your sins was your mother banished.”

“Your mother” refers to the Divine Presence, the “mother of the children” (as explained in Part I, ch. 52), also known as Knesset Yisrael, the source of Jewish souls — the level of Malchut of Atzilut. In the context of the letters that constitute the Tetragrammaton, this corresponds to the final hei, from which proceeds the “rope” or “lifeline” to the soul.

דהיינו, שירדה השפעת בחינת ה״א תתאה הנ״ל, ונשתלשלה ממדרגה למדרגה למטה מטה

This means that the benevolence flowing forth from the above-mentioned7 latter hei of the Tetragrammaton was lowered far down, from plane to plane,

עד שנתלבשה השפעתה בי׳ ספירות דנוגה

until it became enclothed in the Ten Sefirot of nogah,

Inasmuch as the kelipah called nogah includes an admixture of goodness, it is composed of Ten Sefirot, corresponding to the Ten Sefirot of holiness.8

המשפיעות שפע וחיות על ידי המזלות וכל צבא השמים והשרים שעליהם

which transmit9 the benevolence and vitality through the hosts of heaven and those charged over them,

לכל החי הגשמי שבעולם הזה, וגם לכל הצומח

to every living physical being in this world, even to vegetation,

כמאמר רז״ל: אין לך כל עשב מלמטה שאין לו מזל וכו׳

as our Sages state:10 “There is no blade of grass below that has no spirit [Above that smites it and commands it: Grow!]”

Thus, the life-force of all living beings — even of vegetation, which expresses its vitality through growth — derives from the kelipah of nogah.

ואזי יכול גם החוטא ופושעי ישראל לקבל חיות לגופם ונפשם הבהמיות

Hence, even the sinful and deliberate transgressors11 of Israel may receive vitality [from it] for their bodies and animal souls,

כמו שאר בעלי חיים ממש

exactly as other living creatures do,

כמו שכתוב: נמשל כבהמות נדמו

as Scripture states,12 that there exists a state wherein human beings are “likened and similar to beasts.”