ליקוטי אמרים

Antithetically,1 I.e., in contrast to the 248 positive precepts whereby the worshipper achieves unity with G–d, as explained in the previous chapter. the 365 prohibitive commandments of the Torah, as well as the Rabbinic injunctions, since they are contrary to His will and wisdom, blessed be He, and, indeed, the very opposite thereof, represent total and complete separation from His Unity and Oneness, blessed be He, the same as the sitra achara and kelipah which are called avodah zarah (idolatry) and “other gods” because of the “hiding of the Countenance” of the Supernal Will, as explained above.2 Ch. 22.

Likewise the three “garments” of the nefesh stemming from the kelipat nogah in Jews, namely, thought, speech, and action, when clothed in the 365 prohibitive commands of the Torah, or in the Rabbinic injunctions, as also the essence of the nefesh itself which pervades these garments—all become actually united with the said sitra achara and kelipah, called avodah zarah.

Furthermore, they become subordinate and secondary to it [the kelipah], and considerably inferior and more debased than it. For the kelipah is not clothed in a corporeal body,3 Hence not so “screened” from the Divine light. and it knows its Master and is not rebellious against Him by any independent act of sending its evil messengers, G–d forbid, when not commissioned by the Omnipresent, blessed is He. Witness Balaam’s statement, “I cannot go beyond the word of G–d….”4 Numbers 22:18.

And even though it is called avodah zarah, He is, at least, acknowledged as “the G–d of gods,” and the latter are utterly powerless to contravene His will, blessed be He, for they know and apprehend that He is their life and sustenance, since they derive their nurture from the so-called “hindermost part” of the will of the Supreme One, blessed is He, which encompasses them. It is only because their sustenance and inner life-source are, as it were, in “exile” within them that they presume to regard themselves as gods, which is a denial of His unity.

Nevertheless they are not so completely heretical as to deny G–d and to assert that He does not exist; only they regard Him as the “G–d of gods,” recognizing that their life and existence are [ultimately] derived and bestowed upon them from His will, blessed be He. Therefore they are never rebellious against His will, blessed be He.

If this be so, then the person who opposes His will, blessed be He, is exceedingly inferior to and more debased than the sitra achara and the kelipah, called avodah zarah and “strange gods,” and he is completely sundered from His Unity and Oneness, even more than they, as though denying His unity more radically than they, G–d forbid.5 Note the distinction between evil and evil-doer.

Compare what is written in Etz Chaim, Portal 42, end of ch. 4, that the evil which is in this material world “is the dregs of the coarse kelipot…hence the ultimate in the purifying process6 See Addendum, Glossary on Birur.…therefore are all worldly things severe and evil, and the wicked prevail in it….”7 Our material world being the “lowest” or grossest, evil is here at its strongest.

This explains the commentary of our Sages, of blessed memory, on the verse, “If any man’s wife turn aside,”8 Numbers 5:12. that “No person commits any transgression [unless a spirit of folly has entered into him].”9 Sotah 3a. For even an adulterous woman, with her frivolous nature, could have controlled her passionate drive, were it not for the spirit of folly in her which covers, obscures, and conceals the hidden love of her divine soul yearning to cleave to her faith in G–d, in His Unity and Oneness, and not to be parted, G–d forbid, even at the cost of her life, from His Unity, by idolatrous worship, G–d forbid, be it only by an outward acknowledgment, without any belief at all in her heart. Surely she could subdue the temptation and lust of adultery, which is lighter suffering than death, may G–d protect us!

But the distinction she makes between the interdict against adultery and that against bowing to an idol is also but a spirit of folly stemming from the kelipah which envelops the divine soul up to, but not including, its faculty of chochmah, because of the Divine light that is clothed in that faculty, as mentioned above.10 Ch. 19.

The real truth, however, is that even in the case of a minor sin, the offender transgresses against the will of the Supreme One, blessed is He, and is completely sundered from His Unity and Oneness, blessed be He, even more than the sitra achara and the kelipah, called “strange gods” and “idolatry,” and than all things that are derived therefrom in this world, namely, the unclean cattle and beasts, and unclean birds, and the abominable insects and reptiles. To quote: “the gnat was [created] ahead of You [man],”11 Sanhedrin 38a; Vayikra Rabbah 14. which means that even the gnat—which consumes but does not excrete12 The symbol of extreme selfishness. and is the lowest kelipah and the most distant from holiness, which bestows benevolence even at the greatest distance—precedes the sinful man in the descending gradation and flow of life from the will of the Supreme One, blessed is He. All the more so the other unclean living creatures, and even the fierce beasts, all of which do not deflect from their purpose but obey His command, blessed be He, even though they cannot perceive it….13 Cf. Megillah 3a. To quote further, “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth,”14 Genesis 9:2. eliciting the commentary of our Sages, of blessed memory, that “no evil beast defies a human being unless he appears to it like an animal.”15 Sanhedrin 38b; i.e., debased by sin. While confronting the righteous, from whose face the Divine image never departs, the evil beasts are humbled before them, as is stated in the Zohar of Daniel in the lions’ den.

It is, therefore, clear that he who sins and transgresses against His will, blessed be He, even in a minor offense, is, at the time he commits it, more completely removed from the Supreme Holiness, namely His Unity and Oneness, blessed be He, than all the unclean living creatures and abominable insects and reptiles which derive their sustenance from the sitra achara and the kelipah of “idolatry.”

As for the principle that saving a life overrides certain prohibitions,16 Yoma 82a. and the circumstances when the law calls for the commission of a transgression so as to escape death17 Sanhedrin 74a.—this is in accordance with the explanation of our Sages, of blessed memory, that “the Torah declares, ‘violate one Shabbat for him, that he may observe many Shabbats,’”18 Shabbat 151b; Yoma 85b. and not because of the relative lenity or gravity of the sins.

[This is supported by the fact that the violation of Shabbat is extremely grave and comparable with idolatry in relation to the law of animal slaughtering by one who is a habitual transgressor of any particular Jewish precept, as codified in Yoreh Deah, Sect. II, unlike the case of one whose particular willful sin is that of incest.19 Jewish law disqualifies one who openly desecrates Shabbat, or commits idolatry, from slaughtering animals for “kosher” consumption, but not in the case of a person guilty of any other particular transgression, including incest. Nevertheless, when it is a question of saving a life, the prohibitions of Shabbat are suspended, but never those of incest. Rather, it is a Scriptural decree.]20 Hence it is not a matter of lenity or gravity of the sins in question.

After the sinful act, however, if it belongs to the category of sins the penalty for which is neither karet (spiritual extinction) nor death by Divine visitation, in which case the divine soul does not entirely perish and is not completely cut off from its root in the living G–d, except that through this sin its attachment to, and connection with, its root has been weakened somewhat—

NOTE: According to the extent and specific nature of the blemish [thus caused] in the soul and in its roots in the upper spheres are the various so-called purifying processes and retributions in Purgatory, or in this world—an appropriate retribution for each transgression and sin, in order to cleanse and remove the stain and blemish. Nor is the blemish always identical in the case of transgressions punishable by death or spiritual extinction (karet).

in that case his vitalizing animal soul which is clothed in the body, and also his body, return and rise from the sitra achara and kelipah and draw closer to the holiness of the divine soul that pervades them, which believes in One G–d, and remains faithful to Him even at the time when the sin is committed, except that it is then in a state of veritable “exile,” as it were, within the animal soul of the sitra achara which has caused the body to sin and has dragged it down with itself into the depths of Sheol, far down beneath the defilement of the sitra achara and kelipah of “idolatry”—may G–d preserve us!

What greater exile can there be than this, “[a plunge] from a high roof [to a deep pit]!” For, as has been previously explained,21 Above, ch. 2. that the root and source of all Jewish souls is in the supreme wisdom, and He and His wisdom are one and the same….

It is comparable, by way of example, to one who seizes the king’s head, drags it down, and dips his face in a privy full of filth, from which there is no greater outrage, even if he does it only for a moment. For the kelipot and sitra achara are called22 Hebrew text should read נקראות instead of נקראים. “vomit and filth,”23 Isaiah 28:8. Comp. Guide 3:8. as is known.