The Alter Rebbe now distinguishes between permitted and forbidden objects. The former receive their life-force directly through kelipat nogah; for the latter to receive the G‑dly life-force clothed in kelipat nogah, it must first descend still further, to be veiled in the three completely impure kelipot.   דהיינו כל דברים המותרים והטהורים שבעולם הזה, וממנה […]

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ואף שבשתיהן, במצוה ובכוונתה, מלובש רצון אחד, פשוט בתכלית הפשיטות בלי שום שינוי וריבוי, חס ושלום, ומיוחד במהותו ועצמותו יתברך בתכלית היחוד True, although both the actual mitzvah and its kavanah contain the same [Supernal] Will, which is perfectly simple, i.e., changeless and indivisible so that it cannot be said that kavanah contains “more” of […]

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In the previous chapter the Alter Rebbe explained why our Sages compare the performance of a mitzvah to a body, and one’s kavanah in performing the mitzvah to a soul. He stated that kavanah can be classified into two categories, analogous to the two classes of creatures which possess a soul — animals and man. […]

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At this point the Alter Rebbe qualifies his earlier statement: Only those tzaddikim whose souls are on the level of Neshamah (i.e., the highest of the three soul-levels — Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah) abide in Beriah. Neshamah represents Mochin deGadlut — a “superior intellectual grasp” of G‑dliness; those on the level of Neshamah understand G‑dliness […]

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In fact, the soul’s reward in the Garden of Eden, described before as the pleasure of “basking in the radiance of the Shechinah,” is actually the radiance of the Torah and mitzvot that the person observed while in this physical world, which have ascended to the supernal Sefirot. In the Alter Rebbe’s words: והנה כל […]

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