Chapter 7: Kelipas Nogah versus Gimel Kelipos Hatmeios

4^th Teves/(LY)8^th Teves

1. Items that come from Kelipas Nogah:

The following is a list of items that derive from the higher level of evil which contains some good and is known as Kelipas Noga:

• Animal soul Jew: The animal soul of the Jewish people which is invested in their blood.
• Kosher animals: The souls of Kosher animals, birds, and fish which are permitted to be consumed.
• Kosher vegetation: The existence and energy of all inanimate and vegetative items which are permitted to be consumed.
• Thought speech and action not for the sake of heaven: The thought, speech, and action, of worldly matters that do not contain any remnant of prohibition within the 365 negative commands, whether biblical or rabbinical. If such thought, speech, and action of worldly matters is not done for the sake of heaven but is simply done due to the will and lust of the body, then they derive from this higher level of evil known as Kelipas Noga. Even if such matters are performed and entertained for the sake of enlivening the body and caring for its health, if this is not intended to be done for the sake of heaven to serve G-d with one’s body, then such thought speech and action is no better than the animal soul itself which derives from Kelipas Noga.

2. What is Kelipas Noga?

• All of the above-mentioned items derive and receive their energy and life force from Kelipas Noga.
• Second level: Kelipas Noga is the second level of Kelipos and Sitra Achra.
• Fourth Kelipa: Kelipas Noga is considered the fourth Kelipa.
• Only a little good: In this physical world, the vast majority of Kelipas Noga is made up of evil and only contains a minuscule amount of good within it.
• From the good comes the good traits: From this minuscule amount of good that is found within Kelipas Noga derives all of the good traits found in the animal soul of Jewish people.
• Is medium between Kedusha and complete evil: Kelipas Noga serves as the medium between the three completely unclean Kelipos and the level of holiness.
• Ability to ascend to holiness and descend to complete evil: As a result of Kelipas Noga serving as a medium between holiness and complete evil, on occasion it descends into the level of complete evil and is incorporated within it. Likewise, on occasion it is elevated and incorporated within holiness. This occurs when the good that is within it becomes refined from its evil and overcomes it and is then elevated to holiness.

3. Examples of Elevating Kelipas Nogah to Kedusha:

• Eating Lisheim Shamayim: For example, one who eats fatty ox meat, and drinks pleasurable wine for the sake of widening his intellectual capability to comprehend G-d and his Torah, is considered to have elevated it towards holiness.
• Eating on Shabbos for Oneg Shabbos: Likewise, one who eats on Shabbos and Yom Tov for the sake of fulfilling the mitzvah of Oneg Shabbos and Yom Tov, elevates the food towards holiness.
• Energy of Kelipas Noga is elevated: Specifically, the energy from the level of Kelipas Noga that is inside the meat and wine is elevated to G-d like a sacrifice and offering.
• Saying jokes for service of G-d: Likewise, one who says a joke or anecdote for the sake of widening one’s mind’s intellectual capabilities, and to help rejoice one’s heart in service of G-d and the study of His Torah which must be done with joy, then he elevates this joke and anecdote towards holiness. This indeed was practiced by the famous Sage Rava as he was accustomed to say a joke before his students and cause them to chuckle prior to beginning the Torah lesson.

5^th Teves/(LY)9^th Teves

4. Demoting Kelipas Nogah to absolute evil:

• While previously we dealt with how the energy from Kelipas Noga can be elevated to holiness we will now deal with how it can be demoted into the three absolutely evil Kelipos.
• Eating gluttonously: One who gluttonously eats meat and drinks wine simply to satisfy his lusts and cravings of his animal soul, through doing so demotes the energy of Kelipas Noga that is in the meat and wine into the three completely evil Kelipos.
• The lust comes from the evil element of water: Such animalistic lust for food derives from the element of water that is found within one’s animal soul from amongst the four evil elements that are in it, as from the element of water comes lusts and passion for pleasure.
• A temporary descent: The energy of Kelipas Noga that is in the meat and wine only temporarily descends into the three completely evil Kelipos.
• Body becomes temporary garment for evil: In addition to the demotion of the energy into the three unclean Kelipos, likewise, during this act of gluttonous eating one’s body temporarily becomes a garment and carrier for the three completely evil Kelipos.

5. Removing and elevating energy that was demoted to the three completely evil Kelipos:

• Returning to service of G-d: The demotion of the energy of Kelipas Noga, and the bodies status as a carrier for complete evil, is temporary and only lasts so long as the Jew has yet to return to serving G-d and studying His Torah.
• The reason for its easy removal and elevation: The reason that one is able to remove the energy and his body from its absorption in complete evil through simply returning to service of G-d, is because the meat and wine were kosher and permitted to be eaten, and hence they are able to return and become elevated when the Jew returns to serving G-d.
• The meaning of the term permitted-not tied to the Kelipos: The term Heter and permitted in reference to a food or action means precisely the above, that the item is not tied and bound to the forces of evil in a way that is unable to be re-elevated back to G-d, and hence it is possible to re-elevate the kosher meat and wine back to G-d even after its demotion into complete evil.
• Some of the energy remains stuck for eternity: Although in general one can re-elevate the demoted energy back to holiness, a remnant of the energy does remain stuck in the body, and is not elevated even upon one’s return to service of G-d.
• Chibut Hakever to remove even this energy: It is for this purpose that after death the body goes through Chibut Hakever, to refine and elevate even this leftover energy from amongst the Kelipos.

6. Elevation of the forbidden and actual evil:

• The meaning of the term forbidden-Tied to the Kelipos until the Geula: The above term of permitted is in contrast to forbidden foods which are not kosher, as well as forbidden relations, which come from the three completely unclean Kelipos, which are eternally bound and tied within the evil forces, and will only see elevation in the future era when evil will cease to exist.
• A method to elevate even the forbidden-Teshuvah Ilah: Aside for the elevation which will automatically occur in the future era, it is possible even today to elevate the forbidden through the person performing such an intense form of repentance that he transforms his sins to actual merits. This type of repentance is known as Teshuvah Ilah.

7. The definition of Teshuvah Ilah:

• Great love and passion for G-d: Teshuvah Ilah is a repentance of love which comes from the depths of the heart with a great and passionate love and soulful thirst and desire to connect to G-d.
• Passion is intensified due to distance: This passion to connect to G-d is intensified due to the fact that the person’s soul until then was in a spiritual desert being connected to the side of evil and being completely distanced from the light of G-d.
• Greater than Tzadikim: Thus, in his repentance to return to G-d he experiences an infinitely intense passion and thirst to attach to G-d even more than is experienced by the righteous as he is coming from a spiritual desert and distance from the light of G-d.
• The reason it turns sins to merit: It is specifically this type of repentance of great love and passion for G-d that can accomplish the transformation of one’s sins into merits. The reason for this is because it is specifically the sins and spiritual lacking that propelled one to have such a great passion to now attach to G-d, and hence the past sin becomes the source of the merit.

8. Teshuvah Tata‘ah-Lower level Teshuvah-No complete elevation from evil:

• Repentance that does not reach the level of passion and love as described in Teshuvah Ila’ah, does not transform one’s sins to merits. As a result, the energy that entered the three completely unclean Kelipos as a result of the prohibition will not fully merit elevation from the Kelipos until the future era when evil will cease to exist.
• This is the despite the fact that repentance itself may be a genuine and valid and merit to receive G-d’s forgiveness.

6^th Teves/(LY)10^th Teves

9. The sin of Zera Levatala and how to elevate the energy demoted to evil:

• Even simple repentance elevates: The one exception to the above lack of ability to elevate the energy demoted into evil through transgressing a prohibition unless one does Teshuvah Ila’ah, is by the transgression of Zera Levatala. Although the energy that is found in the seminal drops that were wasted become included within the three completely unclean Kelipos, this energy is able to be elevated from it with simple proper repentance, even if it is not on the level of Teshuvah Ila’ah.
• Concentration by bedtime Shema kills the body of the Kelipos: This simple repentance is to be coupled with a great concentration during the recital of the bedtime Shema, in order to affect the elevation of the energy of wasted seed from the side of evil. This idea is hinted to in the Talmud which states that one who reads the bedtime Shema is likened to one who holds a double-edged sword. Through reading the bedtime Shema one kills the bodies of the evil forces, which became garments for the energy found in the seminal drops. The energy then becomes elevated to holiness after their body is killed.
• Not mentioned in Torah: It is because of this ability to elevate back to holiness the energy that was entered into evil through the sin of Zera Levatala, that the sin of Zera Levatala is not mentioned in the Torah amongst the list of forbidden relations, even though that from one aspect it is even more severe than them, as we will now explain.
• Is more severe than forbidden relations in the amount of evil that it creates: The sin of Zera Levatala is more severe than the transgressions of forbidden relations with a woman, in terms of the amount of evil that it creates in both quality and quantity, as seed spilled in vain creates a great amount more of impurity and evil then do forbidden relations. As well, the strength of the evil created by spilling seed in vain is much greater than the strength of the evil created through forbidden relations.

10. The sin of Forbidden relations and its severity:

• Forbidden relations become stuck forever: Nonetheless, from another aspect forbidden relations is more severe than the sin of spilling seed in vein, as during forbidden relations the energy that one enters into evil enters into such depth of evil that it is not able to be elevated from there with a regular form of repentance, unless one performs the higher repentance from great love, as explained above, which has the ability to transform sin to merit.
• Gloss: The reason the energy that is invested through forbidden relations cannot be elevated is because the energy becomes conceived within the Yesod of Nukva of Kelipa and is hence held captive by her. This is in contrast to one who wastes seed, in which there is no female partner of Kelipa, and it is just that the power and life force of Kelipa garb the energy found in the drops.
• It is hence for this reason that the sin of spilling seed in vain is not recorded in the Torah in its list of forbidden relations, being that it’s evil is able to be elevated through regular repentance and is not bound and Assur to the Kelipos in a way that requires Teshuvah Ila’ah to elevate as is the case with all the other forbidden relations.
• No Tikkun for sin if a Mamzer was born: Based on this we can understand that which is stated by the sages that one who brings a Mamzer into the world through having relations with an Erva has committed a sin that is not rectifiable. The reason for this is because the energy that was invested into this sin and created the bastard child cannot be elevated to holiness even if he performs a great level of repentance, being that it has already entered into this physical world and invested itself within a body of flesh and blood.