To explain:

[What characteristics of the soul also characterize Havayah, the Four- Letter Name of G-d, and thus indicate that the soul is indeed a part of that Name?

In answer to this question, the Alter Rebbe now explains that just as the Ten Sefirot are included within the Tetragrammaton, so, too, there are ten corresponding faculties that are intrinsic to the soul].

There is a well-known statement of Eliyahu, [in the passage entitled Patach Eliyahu, in the introduction to Tikkunei Zohar]: "You are He Who elicited the ten tikkunim (lit., garments) which we call the Ten Sefirot, by which to conduct the concealed worlds .... [and the revealed worlds ....]. [28]

You are wise, but not with a knowable attribute of wisdom;

You understand, but not with a knowable attribute of understanding; and so on" - [with regard to the remaining Sefirot].

All the Ten Sefirot are included and represented in their source, the Tetragrammaton.

[The Alter Rebbe now shows how the various Sefirot find expression in the four letters that comprise this Divine Name, Havayah].

The yud, which is a simple point, [extending in neither length nor breadth], indicates G-d's Wisdom, [the Sefirah of Chochmah], which is the state of concealment and obscurity, before it develops into a state of expansion and revelation in comprehension and understanding.

[29] (The "thorn" above [30] the yud indicates the Supreme Will, [this being the level of Keter], which transcends by far the level of Chochmah Ila'ah, [Supernal Wisdom], as is known.)

When [the seminal "point" of Chochmah] is eventually amplified and revealed as something comprehensible to the concealed worlds, [i.e., when it descends to the level and Sefirah of Binah], it is then contained and represented in the letter hei of the Tetragrammaton.

This letter extends in breadth, implying a breadth of explanation and understanding, [which is the function of Binah].

[The letter hei] also extends in length, to indicate extension and flow downward into the concealed worlds.

[The hidden worlds are nourished from the level of Binah, so that they may have an understanding of G-dliness].

In the next stage, when this extension and flow are drawn still lower into the revealed worlds, which may be compared, by way of analogy, to one who wishes [31] to reveal his thoughts to another through his speech, this extension is contained and represented in the [final] letters vav and hei [of the Tetragrammaton].

For the letter vav, which is shaped like a vertical line, indicates downward extension.

[There is another connection between this stage and the letter vav]:

Also, this downward flow into the revealed worlds is effected through the Divine traits of benevolence and goodness and [G-d's] other holy traits, included in general terms in the six attributes, [the numerical equivalent of vav], in the verse, [32] "Yours, O G-d, is greatness....," - until "Yours, O G-d, is sovereignty....," but not including it.

For His attribute of sovereignty is called the "Word of G-d" [and speech is not one of the middot, the spiritual emotive attributes], as in the verse, [33] "Wherever the word of the king holds sway."

[Supernal speech, then, is related to Malchut, G-d's sovereignty].

This [attribute of sovereignty] is contained and represented in the final hei of the Tetragrammaton, [in the following manner]:

The internal aspect and the source of speech is the breath that rises from the heart, then is particularized into the five oral articulations [five being the numerical equivalent of the letter hei].

[One of these produces the bracket of letters] alef, chet, hei and ayin from the throat, [another produces the bracket of letters beit, vav, mem and pei from the lips], and so on.

[At any rate, the internal aspect of speech is breath].

In particular, the enunciation of the letter hei is solely unvocalized breath, as in the phrase, [34] "A light letter without substance."

[Emanating, as it does, solely from the breath, it alludes to the level of Malchut and speech whose internal aspect is "breath"].

Now, "He has no corporeal form," G-d forbid. [How, then, can one differentiate Above between those letters that possess substance and those that do not?]

Nevertheless, "the Torah speaks as in the language of men."

[Since on the mortal plane this differentiation exists, it is also applied to the Divine plane, for spiritually, too, there exists a corresponding difference between the letter hei and the other letters].

Moreover [i.e., there is yet another reason why this analogy is apt, notwithstanding the fact that G-d has no corporeal form]:

For G-d's speech as well consists, as it were, of twenty-two letters that separate into the five articulations [that produce the divine speech] from which all beings were created.

[35] (For a discussion of these letters and their significance, see Likutei Amarim, Part II, chapter 11.)

[We thus see that all the Ten Sefirot are included and represented within the Tetragrammaton.

The Alter Rebbe now goes on to explain that likewise within the soul, which is part of the Tetragrammaton, there exist ten corresponding levels or faculties].

Analogously, exactly the same applies to the soul of man, again keeping in mind the infinite separation [between the Creator and the created soul], which is the divine soul which "He blew from within Himself."

[Since the soul derives from the internal aspect of G-dliness, the Tetragrammaton, which comprises the Ten Sefirot, the soul likewise comprises the following characteristics]:

There is [the initial state of Chochmah,] the hidden concept alluded to by the letter yud.

[Just as the letter yud lacks length and breadth and is but a simple point, so, too, is Chochmah a faculty that lacks intellectual length and breadth, merely] possessing the potential of being revealed, and thereby understanding and conceiving G-d's true existence and greatness, in each person according to his measure, according to the breadth of his intellect and understanding.

[While the degree of one's comprehension of G-dliness depends on the breadth of one's intellect, a Jew's essential ability to find G-d's true being and greatness securely integrated in his mind, stems from the soul's attribute of Chochmah, alluded to in the letter yud].

As a man deepens his intelligence, as he broadens his mind and comprehension, to contemplate G-d's greatness, his now-developed understanding, the faculty of Binah, is alluded to by the letter hei, that has breadth, [indicating the breadth of his understanding].

[The hei] also has length, to indicate downward extension, so that from his understanding and contemplation of G-d's greatness, he arouses love and fear and their offspring, i[.e., the other emotive attributes, which are termed the offspring or branches of love and fear], in his mind and in the recesses of his heart.

[At this early stage in the generation of the spiritual emotions of love and fear and so on, they are not yet manifest].

Until ultimately they find overt expression in his heart.

[The downward progression of intellect into the realm of emotions is thus indicated by the vertical length of the letter hei].

These [spiritual emotions] lead to the true service of G-d, in Torah study and mitzvah observance, with voice and speech or with deed.

[True divine service is that which is motivated by the love and awe of G-d, as explained above in Part I, chapter 4].

This is is the import of the [final] letters vav and hei [of the Four-Letter Name, Havayah] ...., [for vav alludes to voice and speech, while hei alludes to action].

Furthermore, contemplation that endeavors to understand and conceive of G-d's true being, also derives from Torah.

[I.e., such contemplation must necessarily be preceded by the study of Torah], for [36] "Torah proceeds from Chochmah," which is the yud of the Tetragrammaton.

   

Notes:

28. (Back to text) The Rebbe Shlita asks the following question:

    The statement that the purpose of the Ten Sefirot (which, as he shall soon say, are included within the Tetragrammaton) is "to conduct the concealed worlds," seems to contradict the earlier statement that the Tetragrammaton transcends by far the state of "letters" (from which the various worlds and their creatures come into being).

    The Alter Rebbe resolves this, explains the Rebbe Shlita, by now going on to quote, "You are wise, but not with a knowable attribute of wisdom; You understand, but not with a knowable attribute of understanding...." This cannot possibly refer to the state of "letters", since their purpose is to make known and to reveal (as oft stated in Part II of Tanya). Rather, the above- mentioned conduct of the worlds first relates only to the "concealed worlds," worlds that are "not known."

29. (Back to text) Parentheses are in the original text.

30. (Back to text) Note of the Rebbe Shlita: "The Alter Rebbe stresses `above', for the `thorn' that projects beneath the yud has a different significance."

31. (Back to text) Note of the Rebbe Shlita: "In the analogy the Alter Rebbe speaks of `one who wishes to reveal his thoughts to another," for this mirrors the `Divine traits of benevolence and goodness' that are mentioned below."

32. (Back to text) I Divrei HaYamim 29:11.

33. (Back to text) Kohelet 8:4.

34. (Back to text) From the hymn entitled Akdamut.

35. (Back to text) Parentheses are in the original text.

36. (Back to text) Zohar II, 85a, 121a.