From: murray.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Tanya, Epistle 7, 1 of 3
Date: 23 Aug 92 01:51:48 GMT
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Tanya Epistle 7   1/3
 
Epistle Seven
 
"Fortunate are we. How good is our portion, how pleasant is our lot..."
(1)  [In this  prayer,  which is  recited as  part of  the introductory
morning  prayers preceding  Hodu,  we  offer  thanks  to  G-d  for  our
"portion" and  "lot" -  His self-revelation  to  every individual  Jew.
These same terms appear  together in a similar context in the following
two successive verses:](2)
 
"G-d is the allotment (3)  of my portion and of my cup; [You support my
lot].   The tracts [apportioned by lot] have fallen unto me pleasantly;
[yea, I have a goodly heritage]."
 
[These verses together indicate that the Jews' pleasant portion and lot
is  an irradiation of G-dly light.  A question, however, arises: Why is
the G-dliness that illumines our souls referred to by both terms,  both
as "our portion" and as "our lot," when "portion" can refer to  any one
of several  identical  benefactions, while  "lot"  indicates  something
which  is granted  exclusively to  a particular  individual who  wins a
lottery, for example, having been chosen by "lot"?]
 
In order  to understand the terms "our portion" and "our lot," one must
properly explain a common (4) expression in the teachings of our Sages,
of blessed memory, viz.: "He has no part in the G-d of Israel."
 
Now it would seem that a term like "part" cannot possibly be applied to
G-d, because He is not divisible into parts, Heaven forfend.
 
[G-d  is  the  ultimate in  simple  and  uncompounded  unity, the  very
antithesis of  divisibility; nevertheless we  find that our  Sages here
use the term "part" in relation to G-d. How can this be?
 
We must perforce conclude  that though G-d Himself is  indivisible, the
G-dly illumination  that descends  into Jewish  souls can  be described
with the word "part", inasmuch as it is revealed in parts, so to speak,
as shall soon be explained.]
 
This concept can be understood by considering a verse concerning Jacob:
(5) "And he called Him `E-l, G-d of Israel.'"
 
[The Alter Rebbe now  goes on to  explain the meaning  of the verse  in
order to answer a number of  simple questions: (a) Until this verse the
name  "Jacob" is used consistently; why does this verse suddenly change
to "Israel"?  (b) How does this  conclusion of the verse  relate to its
beginning,  "And he  set up  an  altar"? (c)  What is  novel about  the
epithet, "E-l, G-d of Israel"?]
 
The meaning  [of this  verse is  as follows]: In  truth, the  Holy One,
blessed is He, is true to His  Name. [On the one hand, the phrase "Holy
One" (in the Hebrew original, Kadosh) implies that G-d stands above and
apart from creation,  while "blessed  be He" (where  the Hebrew  Baruch
lit.,  "blessed", also means to  descend and be  revealed) implies that
the  level of G-dliness which previously was  "holy" and "apart"  - the
indirect "He" in the phrase quoted - is drawn down into the world  in a
revealed manner, as will soon be explained.]
 
Though He  permeates all the upper  and lower worlds, from  the peak of
all levels to this lowly corporeal world, [G-d permeates and is present
to  an equal degree  in all  worlds. It should  be noted  that the term
"permeates  all worlds"  used here,  does  not refer  to the  degree of
contracted  G-dliness  that is  generally  said  to "fill  all  worlds"
according to their individual  capacity to retain it. Rather,  here the
Alter Rebbe refers to G-d's permeating  all worlds to an equal degree.]
as it is written, (6) "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth" - i.e.,
"I, My  very self," meaning G-d's  very Being and Essence,  as it were,
and not only His glory -
 
[In another  verse we find, (7)  "The earth is filled  with His glory."
That  verse alludes merely to  the "glory" and  radiation of G-dliness.
Here,  however,  the  words  "I  fill"  refer  to  G-d's  very  Essence
permeating all worlds.   Now, although G-d Himself  permeates and is to
be found  in all  worlds:] He  is nevertheless "holy"  in the  sense of
"apart from" the upper and lower worlds, and is not at all contained in
them, Heaven forfend, in  the way, by analogy, that the  soul of man is
contained in  his  body, [and  is affected  by the  changes within  it.
Unlike the  soul, G-d is not at all affected  by the worlds in which He
is to be found,] as explained elsewhere at length. (8)
 
For this reason,  [i.e., since G-d is entirely distinct  and apart from
all worlds,] they could not receive their life-force from His Being and
Essence in itself, as it were. Rather, the diffusion  of the life-force
whereby  the Holy  One, blessed  be  He, animates  the upper  and lower
worlds is, metaphorically speaking, like a radiation shining forth from
His  Name,  [G-d's  Name is  itself  a  mere radiation;  from  it there
emanates yet  another radiation, for  He and  His Name are  One -  [for
which reason a ray  that emanates from His Name is able  to animate the
various worlds.]
 
Thus  it is written, (9) "For [even]  His Name alone is exalted" [i.e.,
G-d's Name is exalted "alone", standing apart from all the worlds which
it transcends, while only  His reflection and (9) "His splendor  are on
the earth  and the heavens." [Thus,  all of creation exists  from but a
radiation  of G-d's  Name,  which, as  previously mentioned,  is itself
merely a radiation.]
 
This radiation actually  vests itself in the upper and  lower worlds in
order  to animate them.  [At this  level, the  G-dly life-force  is not
merely  present in created beings and worlds, but actually vests itself
in  them: it  contracts and  adapts to the  spiritual capacity  of each
particular world in which it is vested, and is integrated within it.]
 
It is contained in them by means  of many intermediaries, [i.e., levels
that  are related  both  to the  levels above  and below  them, thereby
enabling  them to  serve  as  conduits  for  the  transference  of  the
radiation,]  and  by  means   of  numerous  and  intense  contractions,
["Numerous" describes  the quantitative diminution of  Divine light and
life-force; "intense" alludes to their qualitative diminution,  whereby
the light that emerges after the contraction is entirely different from
the  light   that  originally   emanated  before  being   screened  and
contracted.] in  a downward, chainlike progression  [through the levels
of the various worlds,] in a sequence of cause and effect, and so on.
 
[Within every world the  lower level develops from the higher  level by
way of  cause and  effect, the  higher level serving  as the  cause and
source of the lower.  After all these contractions and  descents, then,
the light manifests itself within the various worlds by becoming vested
in them.]
 
Now  although  above,  [in  the  lofty   worlds  of  infinitude,]  this
illumination  radiates and  extends  itself in  unlimited and  infinite
fashion,  to animate worlds that are infinitely concealed, [I.e., there
are infinite kinds of worlds, each of which is of  infinite degree,] as
is  written in the Idra  Rabba, (10) nevertheless,  as [this radiation]
descends  by means of numerous contractions, to animate the beings that
have  been created, formed and  made, [In their  Hebrew original, these
three verbs allude respectively  to the beings that inhabit  the Worlds
of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah.
 
Accordingly, we understand that previously reference was being  made to
the  World of Atzilut  and to those  infinite worlds  that are "higher"
than Atzilut.] it is  divided primarily into 613  [rays], corresponding
to the 613 commandments of the Torah.
 
These [commandments] are in  fact 613 kinds of conduits  which transmit
this radiation from  the [infinite] Ein Sof-light,  [whose function is]
to  illumine man's soul, which comprises 248 "organs" and 365 "sinews",
totalling 613 elements.
 
For  it was mainly for the sake of [man's soul] that this radiation was
caused to flow down below to all those beings which  have been created,
formed and made, [their  respective locations in the Worlds  of Beriah,
Yetzirah  and  Asiyah being  "below"  the  loftier  worlds of  infinite
degree,] since the ultimate purpose of all these [beings], as is known,
is man. 
 
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