GOD’S NAME OF CREATION
The name of God that denotes God as Creator179God created the world with this ineffable name. is the Tetragrammaton, Y-H-V-H.180This name of God also refers to God’s love. It was with the name of love that He created the world, for His purpose in creation was love. He loves. That is why he made a world, as a total gift to creation. See Psalm 89, olam chesed yibbaneh, “The world is built upon love.” See further Pachad Yitzchak, Rosh Hashanah, Ma’amar 1, Chapter 2. Rav Hutner explains that the blowing of the Shofar is a reminder of the beginning of Creation where God filled an empty space with His essence, as a result, it causes an awakening of love, for God’s purpose in creation and His mode of creation was love. See further Horeb, Chapter 72. The first letter, the yud, has an apex, kutzo shel yud, a crown with which it begins, that visually seems to stand apart from the letter. The apex is to be considered a virtual letter unto itself. Since the five universes and the five parts of the soul were created with this name they parallel the Name’s five letters.
The soul part nefesh and the universe of asiyah were created from the final heh in God’s name. In Hebrew the heh is a letter of femininity, since a heh at the end of a word usually indicates that the word is grammatically feminine. In the process of creating life, the masculine contributes the first seed, while the feminine receives that seed within her. She then hides it within herself for nine months and develops it into a new being. In Jewish thought the masculine represents giving while the feminine represents humility, to be empty, and receive. In conception, after receiving the first spark, the feminine eventually develops it into a child, thus returning something far greater than what she received. Our universe is primarily feminine in that we receive from God life and all of its blessings, our mission is to absorb these gifts, develop them, and eventually return to Him a better world.181See further Innerspace, Chapter 9, where Rabbi Kaplan writes,
If you think of male and female biologically, the male is the giver; the female receives and nurtures and then gives forth much more than the man initiated. The man gives over one million sperm cells from which the woman selects only one. From her one single fertilized egg, however, she gives back a complete infant. She receives, but as part of receiving she ends up creating and building something complete. Hence, the essence of femininity turns out to be much more complex. If masculine is giving, femininity is receiving and completing (pgs. 75-76).
The soul part ruach (emotions) and the world of yetzirah emerge from the letter vav in the Divine name. Emotions and speech connect the mind (neshamah) with the body (nefesh). The letter vav means “and”; it connects words to each other. Vav also means hook, and a hook is an item that pulls together two disparate and different entities, such as a curtain with a wall. The world of yetzirah is the world of angels.182Innerspace pg. 31 Angels serve as intermediaries. God is the source of life, and it is the angels who transmit God’s blessings to the physical dimension. Yetzirah is the world of connecting beriah with asiyah, and it too emerged from the vav.
Neshamah and the universe of beriah are represented by the first letter heh in the Divine name. Beriah is a universe in which the majority is good, pure thought. The neshamah usually is good and is thus “mostly” good.
Chayah is experienced as a state of soul in which all of the personality is united with, and attached to, Heaven. It parallels the world of atzilus and the first yud of the Name. Yechidah represents the connection with God that is so powerful that one absolutely ceases to exist independently. It corresponds to the kutzo shel yud, the apex and first dot of ink in the formation of the yud. This connection is hidden, just as the apex of the yud is hidden within the letter.
Another set of terms for body and soul is chomer (matter) and tzurah (form). An example of these terms is a sculpture where the rock is the matter (chomer) while the shape, the form, is its soul (tzurah). Matter is the body to its soul, its form. Rabbi Tzadok Ha-Cohen of Lublin183Rabbi Tzadok was born to a non-Chasidic family in 1823. He was a child prodigy who eventually joined the Chasidic movement and became a follower of the first Izbetzer Rebbe. He was a great expert in all aspects of Jewish law and an extremely prolific and original Chasidic thinker. Many of his writings were lost in the Lublin ghetto during World War II and never published. Fortunately his five volumes of collected writings, and his Pri Tzaddik, five volumes of homilies on the Torah portions, were published and are widely used throughout the world of Jewish learning. He passed away in 1900. defined chayah and yechidah as matter and form:
Chayah is the chomer of the life-source for neshamah, ruach and nefesh. It is the principle of chelek Elokah mi-ma’al, “A piece of the Divine from above.” This concept provides existence and passion to the neshamah [it stimulates holy thoughts that arouse holy feelings that guide saintly behavior]. When you are totally attached and immersed into this thought, feeling that “All of my capabilities, energy, and strength are from He who resides within me.” This is the matter that provides life and passion to the rest of the saintly soul.
That is why it is called chayah, “living soul.” God is an eternally living King, and since my soul is a piece of Him, that piece will live even after all else in the physical world withers. 184See Bereishis Rabbah 14:9.
Yechidah is the tzurah to chayah—it is when you think deeply upon this thought and you feel so connected to God that you unite as one. In other words, all the forces are united in the essence of the One who released them. There, all is One in the most absolute union. [For the human this level is reached through] absolute deveikus, “attachment.” The piece is so connected to its Source that it is no longer a separate piece of Divinity total union between the spiritual and physical... this is yechidah.185Sichas Malachei Ha-Shareis, Chapter 3.
Since yechidah is an amplification of chayah, its letter, the crown or apex, is subsumed within the yud, the letter of chayah.
The letters of the Tetragrammaton tell the story of charity. Yud is small and simple representing a coin. Heh has a gematria of five, and it represents the five fingers of the hand of the giver holding the coin. Vav as the letter of bonding signifies the outstretched arm of the giver connecting with the poor man. The final heh represents another hand, the hand of the poor man who receives the charity.
Life is charity that God constantly provides. First it exists in a different and spiritual state (atzilus and chayah), then it enters God’s hand (beriah and neshamah), finally God reaches to give it to us (yetzirah and ruach). We then receive it, and the ability to receive is also from God (asiyah and nefesh).186Innerspace, pgs. 11, 16, and 21-37.
There are four levels of interpretation for every verse in the Torah. These layers of meaning are known by the acronym of their terms, Pardes, which stands for peshat, remez, derash, and sod. Peshat is the literal and simple meaning of a verse. Remez is the hinted meaning such as lessons from gematria and roshei teivos. Derash is the homiletical interpretation such as lessons that emerge from the rules for resolving Scriptural difficulties, i.e., grappling with contradictory verses and their resolutions. Sod is the secret, mystical meaning.
A parable might amplify the nature of these layers of Divine intent. Imagine that you are a traveler in South Africa. You arrive at a plot of land, and it seems to be a simple field with wheat. What would happen if you took a sledge-hammer and dug in that field? Once you reach a certain depth you might find copper. Take a better instrument and dig deeper you might find deposits of silver. Burrow lower and you might reach gold. If you continue to dig and reach the depths you will discover diamonds.
Torah is the field. The literal interpretation provides the learner with one level of benefit. If one considers all the hinted meanings in the verse, such as the hidden connection between words due to word values, the heart might sense the joy of discovering a treasure of copper. If one then ponders verses that contradict each other, or considers laws and attempts to determine whether they are meant to apply in realms beyond where they are mentioned, one will access enlightenment as precious as silver. If one delves even deeper one will reach the most precious part of Torah, the sod, the secret meanings of verses. Sod teaches how all is about God, and it attaches the student to Him in a most powerful way. The secret meanings of Torah verses are gold and diamonds.
The Torah is truth. The four levels of interpretation are four layers of truth. They, like the soul and the universes, evolved from the supernal universes and the letters of God’s name. Peshat corresponds to asiyah and the final heh. Remez corresponds to yetzirah and the vav. Derash corresponds to beriah and the first heh. Sod emerges from the world of atzilus and the yud.187See further Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz’s Living Inspired, pg. 93, and pg. 18. Without the yud, God’s name would merely be heh, vav, heh, spelling hoveh, the Hebrew word for the present, and without the samech, the Pardes would be pered, meaning, “divided.” To become truly Godly, to feel how all is One, the Torah learner must also taste the secret interpretations of the Torah.188Razei Ha-Bosem pg. 17.
Some tzaddikim have a grasp on the secrets of sod; others do not comprehend the depths of sod. They focus on the literal truth, such as peshat and the knowledge of halachah, Jewish law. The reason for this is that the seder hishtalshlus, the “Order of Development,”189The term seder hishtalshlus was discussed in Chapter 9. for each soul differs. Each soul passes through the same steps before it appears in this world yet each has a different main stop along that journey.190Rabbi Tzadok Ha-Cohen of Lublin expressed this concept in the follow-ing passage (adapted from his Sichas Malachei Ha-Shareis, pg. 21, s.v. sibbas hevdel): “Each soul is a piece of the Divine, each personality is a microcosm of all the forces in the world, so how can personalities differ? God desired to create distinct and different characters. So, while each soul has within it all of the forces of life, God arranged that the combinations of strengths should differ from soul to soul. While each soul has all the forces of life within it, in each soul there is one aspect that is primary. Other souls will also have that force, yet it will be secondary within them.” Hence each individual has a different point in Heaven that is the root of his or her soul. The ability to comprehend Torah depends on one’s root in Heaven.
The road of the soul is the four spiritual universes, atzilus, beriah, yetzirah, and asiyah. After the soul has passed through the four worlds, the soul appears in this world clothed in a body. Some souls are rooted in atzilus—these souls were affected greatly by their sojourn in atzilus. Individuals who are mostly rooted in atzilus merit to fully access their chayah. Sod parallels atzilus and chayah, and therefore these tzaddikim have the feelings that allow them to comprehend sod. Other souls were influenced greatly by their time in yetzirah. These individuals, if they live a life of devotion, will merit a strong sense of ruach, which will be the dominant force within them. Other souls have a predominant element of nefesh and asiyah, and they stuggle to grasp the abstract and complex sensitivities of Kabbalah. These tzaddikim may have “merely” a great grasp in the realm of peshat and halachah. Secrets of Torah cannot be merely read in a book and organized in the mind. The secrets of Torah must be sensed, and some souls struggle to fully feel these concepts, since they are not strongly atzilus-like, and they have a weak attachment to the sensitivities of their chayah.
Rav Yosef Karo191He was born in Spain in 1488, he later moved to Israel and served as the Chief Rabbi of Safed, and he passed away in 1575. He was one of the greatest experts of Jewish law and authored the authoritative Shulchan Aruch, “Code of Jewish Law.” He was also a great Kabbalist. studied mysticism with Rabbi Isaac Luria. When the Ari would teach classes with very deep lessons in Kabbalah, R. Karo would fall asleep. Rav Karo was very upset about this. The Ari revealed to him that the secrets he was revealing were from a very high point in the Heavenly worlds and Rav Karo’s soul was not rooted at that height.
No one should infer from this story anything negative about Rav Yosef Karo. The level of his nefesh and asiyah was lofty, as he had tremendous mastery of practical halachah. There may have been individuals whose grasp of secrets was at a higher point than Rav Karo’s yet he was greater due to the breadth of peshat that he possessed.
The Chasam Sofer192Rav Moshe Sofer was born in 1762 and passed away in 1838. He was the Rabbi of Pressburg from 1806 until 1838. He was a great teacher of Torah who wrote responses to questions of Jewish law and wrote voluminously about the five books of the Torah. He is known by the title of his books, Chasam Sofer. was unique in that he had a grasp in all four levels. Apparently he possessed a full complement of soul (nefesh, ruach, neshamah, and chayah) and connection to the worlds (asiyah, yetzirah, beriah, and atzilus). The Chasam Sofer was a giant in practical law indicating a strong and holy nefesh. His homilies display great creativity in derash (resolving scriptural difficulties) and remez (hinted meanings) revealing a holy neshamah and ruach. And his original ideas in the realm of sod indicate that he possessed a sense of atzilus and chayah.193Rav Wolfson.
We differ because of differences in the influences of our souls.194The Tanya asks: How can people be different if we all emerged from God’s breath and God is an absolute unity? He answers that the seder hishtalshlus, the Order of Development, explains the distinctions. For example, we all emerged from the same source, but some of us spent more time at the third step within asiyah and others spent more time at the fourth step within yetzirah. At the beginning of any soul’s descent, it was an absolute unity indistinguishable from other souls, after its particular journey it has its own unique character that differs from other souls who had a different emphasis in their descent. In our prayers we ask, Ve-sein chelkeinu be-Sorasecha, “And please give us our portion in your Torah.” All we can hope for is the attainment of our part of Torah, our level of understanding based on the capabilities of our soul. Each soul passed through all four worlds so each soul can have some degree of connection to all the levels of Torah: literal, hinted, interpreted, and hidden. Yet the area of your success in Torah learning will depend on where your soul is rooted.195“Behold in the world of asiyah there is far more chaff [waste] than food, and the amount of holiness in asiyah is very limited. In the world of yetzirah there is less waste, but it is a place of much waste, and it is where good and evil reign together. In the world of beriah good rules over evil, and there is very little chaff. Atzilus is total and absolute holiness. This is why an individual who emerged from the world of atzilus [i.e., the tzaddik] has no sin, and no sins occur because of him, for in this universe the sitra achra, the forces of evil have no hold. Because of the four universes there are four Torahs: the Torah of atzilus, the Torah of beriah, the Torah of yetzirah, and the Torah of asiyah. The simple meaning [peshat] is from asiyah; the hinted meaning, remez, is from yetzirah; the interpreted meaning, derash is from beriah, and the secrets of Torah are from atzilus. Corresponding to these, man has nefesh, ruach, neshamah, and chayah. Nefesh is from asiyah, which is why it tends to sin, to physical urges. One must be vigilant and purify one’s nefesh through avoidance of prohibited food and ritual impurity, and be careful even with Rabbinic prohibitions. One must be very exacting on one’s limbs, eyes, and mouth to ensure they do not perform misdeeds in order to attain and preserve the Godly nefesh. If one does not preserve one’s nefesh one will be unable to access ruach. One who maintains the saintly level of his nefesh might then attain ruach and might fully comprehend the hinted meanings of the Torah. If one rises to the next spiritual level one will comprehend derash. Only those with the highest level of soul will fully comprehend the secrets of Torah” (Ma’or Va-Shemesh, Parashas Yisro).
The Torah has five types of numbers: singles, tens, hundreds, thousands, and ten thousand. These correspond to the five universes and the five levels of soul. Thus, when the prophetic leader Devorah asked for ten thousand Jews to join Barak in battling the Canaanite tyrant Sisra, she was really attempting to arouse the full complement of the Jewish soul. Jews were being asked to reach down to the level of yechidah and dedicate all for a war to save the Jewish people. Furthermore, this symbolic number was intended to arouse the merit of all the parts of the soul and all the positive effects that Jews had produced in all the universes. These merits would be reason for a miraculous routing of Sisra’s armies (Resisei Lailah pg. 48).
The Chasam Sofer explains the reason why in the count of the Jewish nation in the Desert, each tribe’s total was completed in the hundreds column (such as 57,400 for Zevulun and 59,300 for Shimon). These groups of Jews had fully perfected their nefesh and ruach, and they were seeking to perfect that which is rooted in the world of beriah, the realm of neshamah, which corresponds to the hundreds.