Chapter 7: Kelipas Nogah: Raising the Permitted, Redeeming the Forbidden

However: the animal soul that gives life to a Jew, which comes from kelipah and is clothed in human blood, as mentioned above [chapter 1]; the souls of animals, beasts, birds and fish that are kosher and permitted to eat; the existence and life of all the inanimate and all the growing things that are permitted to eat; and likewise the existence and life of every action, word and thought about matters of this world that have nothing forbidden in them (neither a root nor a branch of the 365 prohibitions and their offshoots, from the Torah or from the Sages), only they are not done for the sake of Heaven but out of the body’s will, wish and desire; and even when it is a real need of the body, to keep it in being and alive, yet what he has in mind is not Heaven’s sake, to serve G‑d with his body: these actions, words and thoughts are no better than the animal soul itself. All of them alike flow and are drawn from the second level within the kelipos and the sitra achra, a fourth kelipah called kelipas nogah. Here in our world, the World of Asiyah (Action), the bulk of it, indeed almost all of it, is bad, with only a little good mixed into it. [From that good come the good traits in the animal soul of a Jew, as explained above.]

This kelipah is an in-between level, between the three wholly impure kelipos and the level and rank of holiness.

Therefore sometimes it is absorbed into the three impure kelipos [as written in Etz Chaim, Gate 49, beginning of chapter 4, citing the Zohar]. At other times it is taken up into holiness and rises to its level and rank: that is, when the good mixed into it is separated from the bad, prevails, rises and is absorbed into holiness.

For example: one who eats rich meat and drinks fragrant wine to broaden his mind for serving G‑d and learning His Torah, as Rava put it, “Wine and a pleasant scent [sharpen my mind]” (Yoma 76b), or in order to keep the mitzvah of delighting in Shabbos and Yom Tov. Then the life-force of the meat and wine, which flowed from kelipas nogah, is refined and rises to G‑d like a burnt offering and a sacrifice.

So too one who says something witty to open his mind and gladden his heart for G‑d, His Torah and His service, which must be done with joy. This is what Rava did with his students: he would first say something witty, and the scholars would brighten (Pesachim 117a).

But one who is among “the guzzlers of meat and swillers of wine”, to fill the lust of his body and his animal soul (the element of water, one of its four bad elements, from which comes the trait of desire): through this the life-force of the meat and wine inside him goes down and is absorbed, for the time being, in the total evil of the three impure kelipos, and his body becomes, for the time being, a garment and a chariot for them. [This lasts] until the person comes back to serving G‑d and studying His Torah. Because it was permitted meat and kosher wine, they can return and go up together with him once he comes back to serving G‑d. This is the meaning of the words hetter and mutar [literally “released”]: it is not tied and bound (assur) in the hands of the outside forces so that it could not return and rise to G‑d.

Only, an imprint of it remains in the body. That is why the body needs chibut hakever, the “beating of the grave”, which is discussed further on [chapter 8].

So too the life-force in drops of seed that came from him with animal lust, when he did not sanctify himself during intimacy with his wife when she was pure.

Not so with forbidden foods and forbidden relations, which come from the three wholly impure kelipos. They are bound and tied in the hands of the outside forces forever, and do not rise from there until their day comes and death is swallowed up forever, as it is written, “The unclean spirit I will drive out of the land” (Zechariah 13:2). Or until he does teshuvah so great that his deliberate sins become actual merits for him. That is teshuvah out of love, from the heart’s innermost depths, with intense love and yearning, a soul yearning to cleave to G‑d, blessed be He, and thirsting for G‑d like a weary and parched land. For until now his soul was in a parched land, in death’s shadow, that is, the sitra achra, as far as can be from the light of G‑d’s face. That is why his soul thirsts with greater strength than the souls of the tzaddikim, as the Sages said: “In the place where baalei teshuvah stand [even complete tzaddikim cannot stand]” (Berachos 34b).

It is about this teshuvah out of great love that the Sages said “deliberate sins become like merits for him” (Yoma 86b), since through them he came to this great love.

But teshuvah that is not out of this love, even though it is proper teshuvah and G‑d forgives him, still does not turn his sins into merits, and they do not rise from the kelipah completely until the time of the end, when death is swallowed up forever.

But the life-force in drops of seed that came from him wastefully, even though it went down and was absorbed in the three impure kelipos, rises from there through proper teshuvah and intense kavanah (concentration) in the Shema said at bedtime. This is known from the Arizal, and hinted in the Gemara: “Whoever recites the Shema on his bed is as though he holds a double-edged sword…” (Berachos 5a), to kill the bodies of the outside forces that have become a garment for the life-force in the drops, and the life-force rises from them, as is known to those who know chen [the hidden wisdom].

That is why the sin of wasted seed is not listed in the Torah among the forbidden relations, even though it is graver than they are: his sin is greater in the size and amount of the impurity and the kelipos that he begets and multiplies, very, very greatly, by wasting seed, more than through forbidden relations. Only, with forbidden relations he adds strength and life to a most impure kelipah, so that he cannot raise the life-force from there through teshuvah,

Note: This is because it has been taken in by the yesod of the nukva of kelipah [its “female”, receiving side], which receives and takes in life-force from holiness. Not so with wasted seed, where there is no nukva of kelipah; only its powers and hosts clothe the life-force in the drops, as is known to those who know chen.

unless he does teshuvah out of love so great that his deliberate sins become like merits for him.

With this we can understand the saying of our Sages: “What is ‘a crooked thing that cannot be made straight’ (Koheles 1:15)? One who had relations with an ervah [a forbidden relation] and fathered a mamzer” (Chagigah 9a). For then, even if he does teshuvah as great as that, he cannot raise the life-force to holiness, since it has already come down into this world and taken on a body of flesh and blood.