אגרת התשובה

In the true and direct path to the lower teshuvah, returning the latter hey noted above, there are two general elements.

The first is to awaken supreme compassion from the Source of mercy for his spirit (neshamah)1There are three elements in the soul, and it may be known by any of these names according to the context—nefesh, ruach, and neshamah. Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 1 describes the “animal nefesh” and ch. 2, the “Divine (or G–dly) nefesh.” (Bereishit Rabbah 14:9; Devarim Rabbah 2:37) notes two more discussed at length in Chasidut—chaya and yechidah. and divine soul (nefesh) that has fallen from a lofty peak, the true Life, into a deep pit, the chambers of defilement and sitra achara. [Divine compassion is] also to be aroused for the source [of the soul] in the Source of life, the Name of Havaya, blessed is He. “He shall return to G–d, and He will grant him mercy.”2Isaiah 55:7. “Him” would refer to G–d here, arousing mercies for the life-giving power issuing from His Name, that has descended into the chambers of the impure sitra achara, to give them vitality. This was brought about through the deeds of man, his scheming and evil thoughts. “The king is bound with tresses”3Song of Songs 7:6. is interpreted as “bound with the tresses of the mind….”4Cf. Tikkunei Zohar 21b; 124b. This is the “Exile of the Shechinah,” as noted above.

The auspicious time for this arousal of mercies is Tikkun Chatzot, the midnight prayers, as stated in the Siddur, in the Note;5Siddur Im Dach 151c (Kehot, 1965). see there at length. We find there, “The crown of our head is fallen; woe to us, for we have sinned.”6Lamentations 5:16.

Therefore the Holy One is called the “humiliated King” in Pirkei Hechalot,7Ch. 18. as R. Moshe Cordovero wrote, for there is no humiliation deeper than this. Especially when a thoughtful person meditates on the greatness of the Infinite, who encompasses8See On Learning Chassidus, Explanatory Notes. all worlds and permeates all worlds, each person according to the range of his intellect and understanding, will they be extremely grieved over this.

The second element is to crush and subdue evil, the kelipah and sitra achara, whose entire being is simply grossness and arrogance. “Though you exalt yourself as the eagle….”9“…from there I will bring you down, says the L–rd.” Obadiah 1:4 (cf. Jeremiah 49:16). See Likkutei Amarim, Part I, ch. 27. This crushing and subjugation is to be absolutely to dust, for this is its death and nullification.

Evil is crushed through a broken and shattered heart, a sense of personal unworthiness, repugnance, and so forth. This is described in the Zohar on the verse, “The offerings of G–d (Elokim) are a broken spirit, a heart broken and shattered….”10Psalms 51:19. All animal offerings are dedicated to G–d (Havaya), the attribute of mercies. To Elokim, the Name indicating the attribute of justice, no animal offering is brought. Instead the offering is the sundering and removing of the spirit of defilement and sitra achara. This is the meaning of a “broken spirit.”

How is the spirit of the sitra achara broken? When the heart is broken and crushed….

And how is the heart to be broken and crushed? Only a minor part of this can be through mortifications and fasts in our generations. We cannot fast as did King David. Our Sages remark on the verse, “My heart is a void within me”11Psalms 109:22.—he destroyed it with fasts.12Berachot 61b; Likkutei Amarim, Part I, chs. 1, 13, etc. David utterly destroyed the evil impulse within him.

But the true humbling of the heart, that it be broken and crushed, and the removal of the spirit of impurity and sitra achara, is achieved through being of the “masters of accounts,”13Cf. Zohar III:178a. with all the profundity of the mind. He must concentrate his intellect and understanding deeply for a period every day, or at night before Tikkun Chatzot, to realize that through his sins he wrought the exile of the Shechinah, as noted above. He will also ponder that he [caused] the uprooting of his spirit and divine soul from the true Life and demeaned it to a place of defilement and death, the chambers of the sitra achara. He must become deeply aware that his soul has become a vehicle for them, receiving from them vitality to endow his body, as noted above.

Our Sages declared that “The wicked while alive are dead.”14Berachot 18b. Their ability to live is derived from the site of death and defilement. (Hence, the verse, “The dead will not praise…”15Psalms 115:17. is no mockery of the impoverished,16Proverbs 17:5. Berachot 18a applies the verse to wearing tefillin in a cemetery, etc., a “mockery of the impoverished” who cannot perform the mitzvah. G–d forbid. Rather, the reference is to the wicked who, while living, are called dead, for they are confused with alien thoughts while in their wickedness and do not desire repentance, as is known.)

One who has never violated a sin of excision or a sin incurring death by divine agency, for example, vain emission and the like, but other, less severe sins, nonetheless suffers a defect in the spirit and divine soul, as in the analogy of the defects and severance of the fine strands of cord, as noted above: Through an accumulation of sins, there can eventually be a defect as grave as from one prohibition involving excision or death. This would be true even when a single sin is repeated numerous times.

The prophet compares sins to a cloud that dims the light of the sun. “I have wiped away your transgressions like a cloud”17Isaiah 44:22. A discourse on this verse by Rabbi Menachem Mendel (1789-1866), author of Tzemach Tzedek, has been translated as a Supplement to The Tzemach Tzedek and the Haskalah Movement, p. 100. The reader is warmly urged to study that discourse, for it treats much of the material in this chapter of Iggeret Hateshuvah. It was originally delivered before Jewish soldiers in the Czarist army in 1843 (ibid. p. 55).—these are the grave sins [that are barriers] between the interior of the power flowing forth from G–d and the divine soul. This barrier is like the separation of a thick cloud that stands between the sun and the earth with its inhabitants. “And like a cloud your sins”—these are the lesser sins that man tramples under heel,18Avodah Zarah 18a; Rashi on Deuteronomy 7:12. sins that separate as does a thin and wispy cloud.

In the illustration, if one obscures the sunlight streaming through a window with many fine and lacy curtains, they will darken as much as one thick curtain will, and even more. Exactly so is the parallel, with all those sins that man tramples indifferently, and certainly those well known from the words of our Sages to be actually like idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed.

Examples of these are sins like ignoring the needy19Cf. Avot 5:13.—“Beware lest there be in your heart something beliyaal (unworthy)….”20Deuteronomy 15:9. Beliyaal is used in reference to idolatry….21Berachot 31b. Or talebearing,22Cf. Shabbat 33; Bava Batra 164b; Erchin 15b. the evil tongue that is equated with idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed. The vile-tempered23Cf. Shabbat 105b; Avot 2:10. is like the idolatrous, and so is the arrogant.24Sotah 4b. There are many such described in the Talmud. Torah study equals them all,25Mishnah, Peah 1:1. as our Sages assert, “G–d has pardoned idolatry….”26See above, ch. 1 and note 18.

For this reason the order of Kriat Shema at the bedside includes acceptance of the four executions of the Court…. Besides, according to the mystical interpretation of sod, impairing the yud of the Name of Havaya is like incurring lapidation; impairing the hey is like incurring burning; impairing the vav is like incurring the sword; and the latter hey is like incurring strangulation. Neglecting the Shema impairs the yud, and tefillin the hey, tzitzit the vav, and prayer the latter hey….

From this the intelligent, thoughtful person can infer for other sins and transgressions, and for neglect of Torah, which equals them all.