מקרא ומשנה ותלמוד וקבלה – כולם באצילות | הרב מנחם מיידנצ'יק, ז' חשוון | אגרות הקודש סימן כ"ו

7th of MarCheshvan, page 144. We are continuing with Epistle 28, in Iggeret HaKodesh of the Tanya. As we said yesterday, we are continuing the point that when we say that legal rulings and the study of the Torah regarding prohibitions and permissions are called the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil "—it is not, Heaven forbid, that they are the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but rather that matters of prohibition and permission receive vitality from...and through Kelipat Nogah, for Kelipat Nogah is mixed with good

and evil, as we continue to explain how this works according to the internal concepts. The Alter Rebbe says : This is what the Ari z "l wrote, that the Mishnah is the Malchut of Yetzirah, whereas we say here from the Zohar that the Mishnah is the Malchut of Atzilut.

As is known, Atzilut is much higher; we have Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. So how can it be that the Ari z " l says that the Mishnah is the Malchut of Yetzirah, and seemingly from the Zohar it appears that it is the Malchut of Atzilut? It means: the garment of the Malchut of Yetzirah that is enclothed within the Malchut of Atzilut. This means that the Malchut, the lowest level of Atzilut, comes to be enclothed within the Malchut of Yetzirah.

And there is the concept of the Mishnah that is in the world of Yetzirah. And the Malchut of Yetzirah is called a "handmaid.""Handmaid" is a matter of her serving and being subordinate to those enclothed in her, which refers to the Malchut of Atzilut. And this matter actually resolves—it resolves what our Rebbe brought from the Jerusalem Talmud, the first chapter of Tractate Berachot, that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai holds that one does not even stop for the recitation of the Shema, except for Scripture. Only for Scripture, and not for Mishnah.

Seemingly, one does not stop for Mishnah, but it appears as though Mishnah is higher than Scripture. But this is a contradiction to what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai himself said in Ra'aya Meheimna, that Mishnah is called a "handmaid" and Scripture is called a "queen." That is higher. Rather, as we are saying here, there is no contradiction, because what he says that the Mishnah is a "handmaid" is how it comes to be enclothed in the Malchut of Yetzirah. But just as the Mishnah is actually in the Malchut of Atzilut, also regarding Scripture, there is a difference between how it is essentially and how it comes to be enclothed.

Let us see it in the words of the Alter Rebbe: the Malchut of Beriah is called a "maidservant."" Maidservant" is higher than "handmaid"; there is a maidservant and there is a handmaid. A maidservant—a Hebrew maidservant. A handmaid is, yes, it refers to a non-Jewish handmaid. And know, let us go into this, and know that there is a difference between how it is essentially and how it comes to be enclothed, as the Ari z "l wrote that regarding Scripture—meaning the Written Torah—and Asiyah.

Yet it is explicit in the Zohar and in the writings of the Ari z" l in many places that it is Tiferet, which is Zeir Anpin of Atzilut. How can we say that the Torah is in Asiyah? It is explicit both in the Zohar and in the writings of the Ari z "l that this is the lowest level in Atzilut; it is even higher than the Malchut of Atzilut, it is Zeir Anpin; so how can we say it is in Asiyah? Rather, I say that Scripture, the intention of the Torah being in Asiyah, is that it is enclothed in Asiyah.

And so it is explicitly stated in the Sefer HaKavanot of the Ari z" l, that Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud, and Kabbalah are all in Atzilut, but Scripture is enclothed down to Asiyah. The Written Torah, its essence is the letters, and letters are a matter of Asiyah. So one writes it on actual parchment. And in what is the Mishnah enclothed?

It is enclothed down to Yetzirah. For the Mishnah is a matter of laws, valid or invalid, which comes from Chessed (kindness) and Gevurah ( severity). So it clothes itself in Yetzirah. The world of Yetzirah is the world of attributes.

And the Talmud clothes itself in Beriah. The Talmud is the reasoning behind the laws. The clothing descends even further down. It clothes itself in Beriah.

Beriah is the world of comprehension. There, Binah ( understanding) shines. As it is written , if the doe nests in the treetops. Where does the mother nest?

This is the Binah in the world of Beriah. And with God's help, we will explain later, the Alter Rebbe, that it is not only the Torah that comes in a state of clothing , to the point that because of this clothing, one can also refer to it as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Essentially, we are learning here the whole matter of Divinity that clothes itself, all the matters of the Torah and so on, clothes itself in our world, and our role in general is to clarify, to extract the good from the evil, and to prepare the world for the complete redemption, when the good will be completely separated from the evil.