Nefesh HaChayim, Reb Itzele's Long Annotation

Annotation: According to the above explanation, just as the tzellem comes from the hidden worlds, and d’moot comes from the revealed worlds, so too are a person’s wisdom and intellect the tzellem hidden within him to express d’moot, the actual instruments of physical action503Heb.: klei ha-ma-ah-seh mahmahsh, via the performance of the mitzvote. And just as at the start of the creation of the world the d’moot of the instruments of action are the mitzvote—them being what came to mind first: the arousal to actualize the instruments of the tzellem—so too now, the performance of the mitzvote that a person actually accomplishes physically creates the arousal to draw upon himself the tzellem from its primeval roots.