Daily Tanya Friday 20th Nissan Chapter 41 Part 4: Serving G-d for the purpose of unifying the Shechinah with G-d

20^th Nissan/(LY) 16^th Nissan

1. Yichud Kudsha Berich Hu Ushichintei-Serving G-d for the purpose of unifying the Shechinah with G-d:

• Intending to attach the general souls of Israel to G-d: Our sages teach us that a person should never remove himself from the general public. Accordingly, [the intent of one’s Divine service should not only be for personal reasons, such as for personal love and fear of G-d but] one should also intend in his Divine service to unify and attach the source of his G-dly soul and the source of the general souls of all Israel to G-d.
• The general souls of Israel refer to the Divine presence, the Shechinah: The source of the general souls of Israel is the breath of G-d and is called by the name Shechinah.
• What is the Divine presence? The reason it is called by this name is because the term Shechinah means to reside, as this Divine revelation resides and is invested within all of the worlds in order to give them life and existence.
• The energy to speak and perform action comes from the Divine presence: Now, a human’s ability to speak words of Torah or to perform actions of a specific Mitzvah comes from this Divine revelation of the Shechinah which gives him the energy to do so.
• Unifying the Divine presence with G-d Himself: Now, this unification between the Divine presence and G-d Himself is accomplished through drawing down the infinite light of G-d below. This itself is accomplished through the study of Torah and fulfilling the Mitzvah’s which contain the infinite light of G-d within them.
• The intent: Accordingly, upon studying Torah or performing a Mitzvah one should [also] intend to draw down the light of G-d onto the source of his soul and to the source of the souls of all the Jewish people in order to unify it with G-d, as will be explained in length in chapters 46 and 52 the essence of this unity.
• Lisheim Yichud Kudsha Berich Hu Ushichintei: Based on the above, one can now understand the meaning of the statement [that is recited prior to the fulfillment of a Mitzvah] “for the sake of unifying G-d with his Divine presence in the name of all Israel,” [as it refers exactly to that which we explained above that one is to intent to draw down the infinite light of G-d onto the Divine presence in order to unite them together.
• Gloss-Unifying the side of severity with the side of kindness: Through performing the above unification of the Divine presence with G-d, one also consequently accomplishes the sweetening of the severities with the side of kindness, through incorporation of the character traits and their unification. This is accomplished through revealing the supernal will of G-d which is revealed above through the arousal that comes from below, as through the study of Torah and Mitzvah performance below one reveals the will of G-d here below which is reciprocated with a revelation also above. This follows the teaching of the Zohar that the 613 commands of the Torah are drawn from the level of whiteness of Erech Anpin, which is the supernal will and the source of all kindness.