תורה 19

9. Now, someone who has attained this level of “from Zion [will come] your support,” as a result his heart will shine. It is called LeV (heart) by virtue of its receiving and being sustained “from the beauty of beauties,” from the L-V Elohim in the Act of Creation. These are synonymous with the letters contained in each thing, which are all drawn from the concept of the Thirty-two Elohim in the Act of Creation.

And, through the illumination of the light which the heart receives from the Thirty-two Elohim, one’s face radiates with this light, as in (Proverbs 15:13), “A happy heart makes a good countenance.” And when one’s face shines with this purity, then another person can see his face in this face as he would in a mirror, and then feel remorse and return in repentance. This corresponds to (Deuteronomy 5:4), “God spoke to you face to face.” In other words, because you have with you “God’s speech,” i.e. perfection of the Holy Tongue, the countenance radiates and shines to such a degree so that person can see himself “face to face.”

This is [the meaning of]: “As long as there was no scale, [there was no providence face to face].” This alludes to the Holy Tongue, which is called a scale because with His will the Holy One weighed the letters, as explained. This corresponds to (Job 28:25), “He makes a weighing of the spirit.” The Holy One weighed so many and so many letters for each and every thing, so that it would have a specific taste, smell and form, as He willed it.

But before the Holy Tongue was perfected, “… there was no providence face to face.” The concept of “face to face” did not yet exist. For it is impossible to merit to a shining face—the concept of “face to face”—except by means of the “scale,” which corresponds to the perfection of the Holy Tongue. This is because essentially, “face to face” is the result of “God spoke to you,” as above.

“scale” corresponds to the concept of the Holy Tongue in that its [the Holy Tongue’s] principal perfection comes through Targum which is nogah, [and nogah] is called a scale, as is known.

And this is the difference between hearing something from a teacher, from a student, or [seeing it] a book. For the tzaddikim are (Psalms 103:20), “strong warriors doing His word.” They make and construct the word of the Holy One—namely, the Holy Tongue with which the world was created. This corresponds to (Bereishit Rabbah 8:7): “The Holy One consulted with the souls of the tzaddikim and created the world.”

The Holy One anticipated the delight He would have from the souls of the tzaddikim, and by virtue of this, “With the word of God the heavens were made, and by the spirit of His mouth their entire host.” That is, the word of the Holy Tongue, with which the world was created, was made. This is because the tzaddikim are synonymous with “doing His word.” They make the word of the Holy One—that He should speak and create the world.

All this preceded [the Act of] Creation. Now, too, when the tzaddikim want to hear some word from the Holy One, they first make the word and construct it. That is, through their good deeds they merit to hear the Holy One speak. Thus, these words came into existence and were constructed by them. This corresponds to (Psalms 103:20), “Doing His word, to hear the sound of His word.” When they want to hear the Holy One’s word, they first make the word—this being “doing His word.” Then afterwards, they hear that word from the Holy One—this being “to hear the sound of His word.” It is with this word that the Holy One talks to them.

Perfecting the speaking of the Holy Tongue is dependent upon fear, corresponding to, “He constructed her like a storehouse,” as explained. And fear depends upon the ears (Tikkuney Zohar #70, p. 122a). We find that when the tzaddik hears words of Torah from the mouth of the Holy One, these words are perfect. This is because the words are dependent upon fear , and he hears the words in the aspect of “to hear the sound of His word.”

Therefore, someone who hears directly from his [the tzaddik’s] mouth receives the words of the Holy Tongue with perfection—namely, with fear. This Holy Tongue has perfection because of the concept of “to hear the sound of His word.” For perfection of the word depends upon fear, and fear depends upon the ears. But someone who hears it from someone else is far from this perfection, because it has gone down in its level.

And this is [the explanation of the opening verse]: {“Tefillah l’Chabakkuk (A prayer by Habakkuk) the prophet for having erred. O God, I heard Your utterance, I feared; O God, revive Your acts in the mid st of shanim (years)….”}

O God, I heard Your utterance, I feared — directly from the tzaddik, who hears it from Your mouth, as in, “Doing His word, to hear the sound of His word.” And thus:

Your utterance — He hears from You, that is, from the mouth of the Holy One Himself. Then:

I feared — For in the main, fear depends upon the ears. And then there is perfection to this Holy Tongue, as explained earlier. And thus:

O God, revive Your acts in the mid st of shanim (years) — “Revive,” Rashi explains as arouse. In other words, Your acts are aroused—the power of the Act of Creation is aroused.

in the midst of shanim — [As our Sages teach (Sotah 49a):] “Do not read this ‘in the midst of ShaNiM, ’ but in the midst of Sh’NayiM (two)”— the verse twice , i.e. the Holy Tongue. And through a perfected Holy Tongue—perfected through fear which depends upon the ears—the power of the Act of Creation, which was created by means of the Holy Tongue, is aroused and made to radiate.

This is what Rashi explains: A prayer by Habakkuk [the prophet] for having erred — [Rashi says,] “k’Targumo (according to its translation).” For principally, the perfection of the Holy Tongue is through the Targum, as above. And this is:

for having erred — For “errors” allude to Targum. This is because Targum is the concept of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. It is an admixture of good and evil. The same is true of one who sins unintentionally, he also contains good and evil. For the deed is evil, but his intention is good.

Excerpts related to this lesson: The difference between someone who learns from a book and someone who hears [the teaching] directly from the sage is even greater. This is because a book is only for remembering, as is written (Exodus 17:14), “Write this as a reminder in the Book.” And memory is [fixed] in the power of imagination, for even an animal has memory. This we know empirically, that even an animal can recall that in this place it was bitten by a dog and so it runs away from there. This is why our Sages said (Gittin 60b): “Words of the Oral Torah may not be written down.”

There is more to this than meets the eye. For in truth, this verse “Write this as a reminder in the Book,” was said about the Written Torah which specifically needs to be written down. {All this I [Reb Noson] heard from his [Rebbe Nachman’s] holy lips when I transcribed the lesson in his presence, but he did not fully clarify this point.}

This is the deeper meaning of what our Sages said (Sanhedrin 38b): “The First Man disguised his circumcision. The First Man spoke Aramaic.” Understand this well.

As explained, through the Aramaic tongue, which is the tongue of Targum, the foreskin/the comprehensive evil was able to draw and nurture from the Holy Tongue/the Holy Covenant. Study this carefully. For primarily, blemishing the Covenant/the comprehensive evil/the tongue of the nations is nurtured through the tongue of Targum / nogah. Through this they ascend to nurture from the Holy Tongue/the Holy Covenant, as explained above. This is because quintessentially the scale—choice and free will—corresponds to nogah / Targum, because nogah is referred to as a scale, as above.

And this is: “The First Man disguised his circumcision. The First Man spoke Aramaic.” For one depends upon the other. This is because in the main, the blemishing of the Covenant/”disguising the circumcision” comes about as a result of [people] not elevating the Aramaic tongue/the tongue of Targum to the Holy Tongue, as above.

“Doing His word, to hear the sound of His word.” When the tzaddik makes the word…, as above. When the Holy Tongue comes from above, it is still in need of rectification. For the good still has to be elevated from the Targum. This is the deeper intention of circumcision. As the Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 11:6) brings the question which the heretics asked concerning the mitzvah of circumcision: How is it that the Holy One created something which is still in need of rectification? But it was with this intention. As explained earlier, the Holy Tongue, which corresponds to the sanctification of the Covenant that comes from above, is still in need of rectification. Primarily, its rectification is below, in this world, by our elevating the good in the Targum and perfecting the Holy Tongue. This is because the primary rectification of all things is completed below, specifically in this world. This is the concept of the perfection of the Holy Tongue through Targum. For, even though the Holy Tongue comes from above, it nevertheless can only be perfected through the tongue of Targum which is the concept of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil; that is, by extracting the good in the Targum, the good in the Tree of Knowledge, specifically through this is the Holy Tongue perfected.

And this is the concept of what was explained in the Midrash: the answer to the question of the heretics concerning the mitzvah of circumcision: “How is it that the Holy One created something which is still in need of rectification?” They answered there that everything requires rectification. “Lupines need to be cooked… man, too, is in need of rectification.” See there.

As mentioned above, the Holy One created the entire Creation for the sake of man, the owner of free will, specifically so that he rectify all things by extracting the good in the Tree of Knowledge. By doing so he completes and rectifies everything in the world. Thus, it is necessary to make the correction of circumcision, the concept of rectification of the Covenant, specifically in this world. For this is the concept of the perfection of the Holy Tongue specifically through Targum. The Holy Tongue which comes from above, comes from above without perfection, and is only perfected through our extracting the good in the Targum. Only then can the Holy Tongue be perfected, as explained.

And this is chashmal: chash MaL, synonymous with MiLah (circumcision). And MaL is numerically equivalent to seventy, corresponding to the “conflagration of the seventy stars,” mentioned earlier. It is nitMaLel (extinguished), neChTaKh (cut off) and nullified through the mitzvah of circumcision, which is the rectification of the Covenant, as above. Study the Kavanot and understand.

Elevating the good from the Targum is achieved through the rectification of errors. A person has to rectify all that he did by sinning unintentionally. Understand this.

Now, like Yosef, someone who has achieved a perfection of the Holy Tongue is capable of interpreting the dreams of deep sleep, as explained there. This is because dreams are determined by the foods that one eats, as is brought. We’ve seen that in every thing there are letters. And so, when a person lays down and sleeps, the vapors of the foods he’s eaten ascend and rise to the brain. The letters which they contain are combined, and from this the dream is made.

It can be concluded from this that if, when eating, a person would eat the second spoonful before the first, an entirely different dream would show itself to him. For every thing has different letters and if he had eaten this spoonful first, the letters would have combined in different permutations and another dream would have been shown to him. Now, the person who has achieved a perfection of the Holy Tongue knows the letters which all things contains. Therefore, as mentioned earlier, he is capable of interpreting dreams.

Understand well how the subject of interpreting dreams through the perfection of the Holy Tongue has now been properly explained by what is written there afterwards, that through the perfection of the Holy Tongue the illumination of the letters in each thing is made to shine. Through the illumination of the letters in all foods—from which dreams emanate—the tzaddik/Yosef knows how to interpret the dreams of tardemah, as explained earlier.

The following material, which relates to this lesson and was written by Rebbe Nachman himself, was later found:

“May He send your help from Holiness.” The value of the Holy Tongue is very great; with it the world was created. As our Sages said: “‘This one shall be called IShah (woman) because from ISh (man)’—a play on words. From here we see that the world was created with the Holy Tongue.” For woman is synonymous with the Holy Tongue—through her the world was created. And this is ChaVaH, corresponding to speech, as in, “Night yeChaVeH (declares) to night.” And this is what is implied in, “This one shall be called a woman.” For speech is called zot, as in, “V’zot (this is) what their father spoke to them.”

And by virtue of the Holy Tongue, He exalted us above all the L’ShoNot (nations). This is the concept of lashon nophel al lashon: All the l’ shonot (tongues) are overcome by the lashon of holiness. And there is no….