Daily Tanya Sunday, 28th Kisleiv: Chapter 4 Part 2 – The Levushim are higher than the G-dly soul

(LY) 1^st Teves

1.       The Levushim are higher than the G-dly soul:

• Although the three garments of thought, speech, and action of Torah are referred to as mere garments of the G-dly soul, in truth they are infinitely higher than the G-dly soul itself.
• G-d and His Torah are One: The reason for this is because G-d is one with His Torah, as the Torah is the will and wisdom of G-d with which G-d is united, as explained above in chapter 2.

2.       The descent of the infinite light of G-d into the Torah:

• Humility: Although G-d himself is infinite, as well as His will and wisdom, and thus His greatness is unfathomable, He chose to humble Himself into a tangible level of greatness which give creations the ability to grasp His will and wisdom.
• Contractions: This was accomplished through contractions of His will and wisdom until it formed the 613 commands of the Torah and its details, as well as the words of Tanach and all of their teachings.

3.       The ability to unite with G-d as a result of the above descent:

• Human comprehension: The purpose of this descent and contraction is to enable the souls that are within the body of every person to comprehend and fulfill G-d’s will and wisdom in thought speech and action, each person in accordance with his capability and potential.
• Unity with G-d: Through doing so, the soul will be able to invest all of its 10 soul aspects and its three soul garments within the will and wisdom of G-d and hence become united with G-d. 

4.       The descent of the Torah below is like water:

• The Torah is compared to water. The reason for this is because just as water travels downwards from a higher elevation to a lower elevation, so too the Torah descended from its original place of glory, which is the pure will and wisdom of G-d, which is not comprehensible by creations, to below into a spectrum of comprehension.
• The journeys of the Torah to receive a connotation of physical Mitzvah’s: To reach this level of comprehension by creation, the Torah had to travel from its original state and descend through various mystical levels, one after the other, until it finally was able to become invested within physical matters and the dealings of this world, which make up majority, if not all, of the content of all of the Mitzvah’s of the Torah and their laws.
• The journey of the Torah into Tanach: This travel was also necessary in order to invest the original Torah and will and wisdom of G-d within the physical letters of ink that are written in a Torah scroll and the 24 books of Tanach, in order so every mind can comprehend it.
• Speech and action: As a result of the above descents and journeys of the Torah, it became possible for even the speech and action of man which is much lower than the level of thought to grasp the Torah and G-d.

5.       How the Jew is completely bound to G-d when learning Torah and doing Mitzvos

• As a result of the fact that the Torah descended to a level that it can be grasped by the 10 aspects of the soul and all of the 613 limbs, from its head to its feet, it is possible for the entire soul to be bound with G-d himself, and for the literal light of G-d to encompass the soul from its head until its feet.