The mitzvot requiring action were a major theme in Essay IV. There the Alter Rebbe explained how their observance extricates and elevates the sparks of holiness that originated in the World of Tohu and that are embedded in this material world, and thereby causes G‑dliness to descend there. The same, it was stated, is true regarding the study of the laws that govern the mitzvot.
The Alter Rebbe went on to say that this applies as well to the prohibitory mitzvot, where one cannot apply the dictum that “it is considered as if one performed the command.” Moreover, Torah study remains valuable even with regard to the laws concerning situations that will never occur, even though there too we cannot say that “if one remained passive and did not transgress, he is rewarded as if he had performed a mitzvah.” Nevertheless, even in such cases, a Torah law draws down Supernal Wisdom within the world.
In the Essay before us, the Alter Rebbe will state that although it would seem that purifications (beirurim) cannot be brought about when studying these types of laws (for one only draws down Supernal Wisdom), yet in point of fact, purifications do come about through this Torah study. Moreover, the reason for this is not that the Torah study leads one to observe a positive commandment or to refrain from transgressing a prohibition; nor is it that by virtue of his study he is regarded “as if” he performed the positive commandment or is rewarded for refraining from transgressing a prohibition.
ולהבין פרטי ההלכות דלא שכיחי כלל
Let us understand [how this applies to] the details of the laws that never occur at all,
ואפשר שלא היו מעולם במציאות
and possibly never actually existed,
מכל שכן שלא יהיו לעתיד לבא
and certainly will not come to pass in the Time to Come;
כמו פרטי דיני פיגול, וכהאי גוונא
for example, the detailed laws of pigul1 and the like.
How does the study of these laws extract, refine and elevate the sparks of Tohu?
הנה מודעת זאת שכל איסור שבעולם יש לו שרש ומקור חיים בקליפות
It is known that every prohibited thing in the world has a source and a root of life in the kelipot.
שאם לא כן, לא היה יכול להיות במציאות בעולם, בלתי השפעה עליונה
Otherwise, it could not exist in this world, without the flow from above, i.e., without receiving vitality from a spiritual source.
ואפילו המסלסל בשערו, וכהאי גוונא, מקבל חיותו ברגע זו מהיכלות הקליפות, כמו שכתוב בזהר
Even one who crinkles his hair, and the like, receives his life-force at that moment from the spiritual chambers of the kelipot, as is explained in the Zohar.2
והלכך גם פרטי האיסורים שלא באו לידי מעשה מעולם, בעולם הזה הגשמי
Therefore even the particular prohibitions that never became practical issues in this physical world,
מכל מקום שרשי חיותם הן במציאות בפועל ממש בהיכלות הקליפות
still the roots of their life-force do actually exist in the spiritual chambers of the kelipot.
וגם הפרטים שיוכל להיות שלא היו ולא יהיו לעולם במציאות
Even the particular instances that possibly never did and never will actually occur,
כגון טעות ושגגות, שטעה וקרא לתשיעי עשירי כו׳, וכהאי גוונא
for example errors and unwitting misdeeds, like (when tithing) erroneously calling the ninth [sheep] the tenth,3 and the like,
דלא שייך במזיד, להיות קליפה שורה על זה
the kind of eventuality that cannot be deliberate and thereby cause a kelipah to light upon it.
ויוכל להיות דכהאי גוונא אינו במציאות בהיכלות הקליפות
Possibly in these circumstances it does not exist in the chambers of the kelipot.
How, then, does it possess a source and root in the kelipot?
הגה״ה מאדמו״ר בעל צמח צדק, זכרונו לברכה, נשמתו עדן: נראה לי מה שכתב ויוכל להיות, אלמא דלא ברירא ליה, היינו משום שהשגגות באות מנוגה, אם כן יש לומר דיש להם שרש בהיכלות דנוגה
[4Note inserted by the Tzemach Tzedek, of blessed memory: It appears to me that the Alter Rebbe uses the word “possibly”, implying uncertainty, because unwitting errors derive from nogah. It may therefore be said that their origin is in the chambers of nogah.]
מכל מקום, על כל פנים ישנו במציאות, להבדיל, בחכמה עילאה שנתפשטה בפרט זה למשה רבנו, עליו השלום, בסיני
In any event, it does exist if not in kelipot, then at least — keeping in mind the distinction between the sacred and the profane — in the Supreme Wisdom that issued and descended in this detail to Moses at Sinai,
כמאמר: מה שכל תלמיד ותיק עתיד לחדש כו׳
[5as in the expression,6 “Whatever teaching] any seasoned student will one day innovate… [was taught to Moses at Sinai].”
וכל פרטי האבעיות דרבי ירמיה
Likewise, all the detailed queries of R. Yirmeyah, who posed so many hypothetical possibilities that he was escorted from the House of Study, as the Gemara relates,7
Obviously, his queries involved situations that were entirely unlikely to ever take place.8
וכרכתו כו׳, פרק ד׳ דחולין
and [detailed queries such as] “If she wrapped him…,” in ch. 4 of Chullin.9
The question discussed there is whether a firstborn animal can be considered to have directly “opened the womb” (and hence be sanctified) in either of two hypothetical cases. According to Rashi, it is a question of what happens if the person assisting in the birth entirely wraps up the animal as it is born. According to Rabbeinu Tam, the question involves a multiple birth, with a cow being born together with the firstborn bull, and wrapping itself completely around it — something extremely unlikely to ever occur.
Nevertheless, all these detailed queries were given to Moses at Sinai.
כי התפשטות חכמה עילאה היא בחינת אין סוף, המלובש בה בפועל ממש
For the extension of the Supreme Wisdom that is vested in the laws of Torah is infinite, since the Infinite is actually clothed in it.
וכל פרט הלכה הוא שער נמשך מחכמה עילאה
Every particular of the law is a gate drawn from the Supreme Wisdom
דיסד ברתא, ומלובש בה
which “founded the daughter,” and is clothed in it,
Chochmah (the “father”) founded Malchut (the “daughter”). “Malchut is the mouth, which we call the Oral Torah.”10 Chochmah, then, is clothed in the laws of the Oral Torah as they are to be found in their source in Malchut of Atzilut.
וממנה נמשך, ומתלבש בבריאה יצירה עשיה
and from [Malchut], [Chochmah] is drawn and invested in Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah.
