Chapter 4: The Soul’s Three Garments: Embracing the King

In addition, every G‑dly soul has three garments. They are the thought, speech and action of the 613 mitzvos of the Torah. When a person actually does all the mitzvos that call for action, and with his speech is occupied in explaining all 613 mitzvos and their laws, and with his thought grasps all that he is able to grasp of the Torah’s pshat, remez, drush and sod [plain meaning, allusion, exposition and hidden meaning], then the whole of the 613 “organs” of his soul is clothed in the 613 mitzvos of the Torah.

More specifically: the chochmah, binah and daas of his soul are clothed in his understanding of the Torah, which he grasps in pshat, remez, drush and sod, according to the capacity of his mind and the root of his soul above. And the middos, which are fear and love with their branches and offshoots, are clothed in keeping the mitzvos in action, and in speech, which is Torah study, “equal to them all” (Pe’ah 1:1).

For love is the root of all 248 positive mitzvos. They all flow from it, and without it they have no true existence. For the one who keeps them in truth is the one who loves G‑d’s Name and truly wants to cleave to Him, and it is impossible to truly cleave to Him except by keeping the 248 commands, which are the 248 “organs of the King”, so to speak, as is explained elsewhere. And fear is the root of the 365 prohibitions: he is afraid to rebel against the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.

Or [it is] a fear deeper than this: he is ashamed before His greatness to rebel against the eyes of His glory and do what is evil in His eyes, all the abominations of G‑d that He hates. These are the kelipos and the sitra achra, which draw their nourishment from man below, and their hold on him is through the 365 prohibitions.

Now these three garments of the Torah and its mitzvos, although they are called garments of the nefesh, ruach and neshamah, are nevertheless infinitely higher and greater than the nefesh, ruach and neshamah themselves. As the Zohar says, “the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one.” This means: the Torah is the wisdom and will of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory and His essence, is entirely one with them, for He is the Knower and He is the Knowledge, and so on, as explained above in the name of the Rambam.

And although the Holy One, blessed be He, is called Ein Sof, “without end”, and “His greatness cannot be searched” (Tehillim 145:3), and “no thought can grasp Him at all” (Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction), and so too His will and His wisdom, as it is written: “There is no searching His understanding” (Yeshayahu 40:28), and “Can you find G‑d by searching?” (Iyov 11:7), and “For My thoughts are not your thoughts” (Yeshayahu 55:8),

about this the Sages said: “Where you find the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, there you find His humility” (Megillah 31a). The Holy One, blessed be He, compressed His will and His wisdom into the 613 mitzvos of the Torah and their laws, and into the combinations of letters of Torah, Prophets and Writings, and their expositions in the Aggados and Midrashim of our Sages, of blessed memory.

This was so that every neshamah, ruach and nefesh in a human body could grasp them with its mind, and keep whatever can be kept of them in action, speech and thought, and in this way clothe itself, with all ten of its powers, in these three garments.

That is why the Torah is compared to water (Bava Kama 17a). Just as water flows down from a high place to a low place, so the Torah came down from its place of glory, which is His will and wisdom, blessed be He, where “the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one” and “no thought can grasp Him at all.”

From there it travelled and descended through hidden stages, level after level, through the chain of the worlds, until it clothed itself in physical things and matters of this world, which make up almost all the mitzvos of the Torah and their laws, and in combinations of physical letters, in ink on a scroll: the twenty-four books of Torah, Prophets and Writings. This was so that every thought could grasp them, and even speech and action, which are lower than thought, could grasp them and be clothed in them.

And since the Torah and its mitzvos clothe all ten powers of the soul and all its 613 organs, from its head to its foot, it is entirely bound up in the bond of life with G‑d Himself (I Shmuel 25:29), and the very light of G‑d surrounds it and clothes it from head to foot. As it is written: “My Rock, in Him I take shelter” (Tehillim 18:3), and: “Like a shield, You surround him with ratzon” (Tehillim 5:13), that is, with His will and His wisdom, blessed be He, which are clothed in His Torah and its mitzvos.

That is why the Sages said: “One hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come” (Avos 4:17). For the World to Come is where one enjoys the radiance of the Shechinah, which is the pleasure of comprehension. But no created being, even of the higher ones, can grasp anything more than a glimmer of G‑d’s light. That is why it is called the “radiance” of the Shechinah. But the Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory and His essence, no thought can grasp at all, except when it grasps and is clothed in the Torah and its mitzvos. Then it truly grasps and is clothed in the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, for the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one.

And although the Torah has clothed itself in low, physical things, this is, by way of a parable, like embracing a king. There is no difference in how close and attached one is to the king whether one embraces him while he wears one robe or many robes, since the king’s body is inside them.

And so too if the king embraces him with his arm, even though it is clothed inside his robes. As it is written: “And His right hand embraces me” (Shir HaShirim 8:3). That is the Torah, which was given from the right (Devarim 33:2), which is the quality of chesed and water.