Now, what Maimonides, of blessed memory, has said that the Holy One, blessed is He, His Essence and Being and His Knowledge are completely one, a perfect unity and not a composite at all,1Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 2:10. applies equally to all the attributes of the Holy One, blessed is He, and to all His holy names and the designations which the Prophets and Sages, of blessed memory, have ascribed to Him, such as Gracious, Merciful, Beneficient, and the like. This is also true with respect to His being called Wise, as it is written, “And He is also wise…,”2Isaiah 31:2. and with respect to His Will, [as it is written] “G–d desires those who fear Him,”3Psalms 147:11. and “He wishes to do kindness,”4Micah 7:18. and “He desires the repentance of the wicked and, does not wish their death and wickedness,”5Cf. Ezekiel 18:23; cf. Liturgy, Neilah for Yom Kippur. and “Your eyes are too pure to behold evil.”6Habakkuk 1:13; Isaiah 33:15. This is yet another thing that He does not desire. In his Reshimot on Tanya, the Lubavitcher Rebbe notes: “The intent of this additional statement requires examination.” His Will and His Wisdom and His attribute of Kindness and His Mercy and His other attributes do not add plurality and composition, G–d forbid, to His Essence and Being, but His Essence and Being and His Will and Wisdom and Understanding and Knowledge and His attribute of Kindness and His Might and Mercy and Beauty—which is composed of His Kindness and Might7Tiferet (beauty) is the combination of the qualities of chesed (kindness) and gevurah (might), with chesed predominating. Chesed is the unrestrained flow of the life-giving force. This in itself is too strong to allow finite creatures to exist. So the attribute of gevurah limits and controls the abundance of light, while chesed tempers the severity of gevurah. The result is tiferet—the harmonious balance between stark severity and the overabundance of love.—and likewise His other holy attributes, are all an absolutely perfect unity, which is His very Essence and Being.
And as Maimonides, of blessed memory, stated: “This is beyond the power of speech to express, beyond the capacity of the ear to hear, and of the heart of man to apprehend clearly,”8Loc. cit. for man visualizes in his mind all the concepts which he wishes to conceive and understand—all as they are within himself. For instance, if he wishes to envisage the essence of Will or the essence of Wisdom or of Understanding or of Knowledge or the essence of the attribute of Kindness and Mercy and the like, he visualizes them all as they are within himself. But in truth, the Holy One, blessed is He, is “High and exalted”9Liturgy, Morning Prayer. and “Holy is His Name,”10Ibid., Shabbat Morning Prayer. that is to say, He is Holy and separated11The Hebrew word for “holy” means “set apart,” i.e., separated from the unholy. When applied to G–d, it indicates His sublime exaltedness and transcendence over the worlds. many myriads of degrees of separations ad infinitum, above the quality, type, or kind of praises and exaltations which creatures could grasp and conceive in their intellect.
For the first12I.e., highest. quality and rank of creatures is wisdom, hence it is called “the beginning.”13Cf. Psalms 111:10. Targum Yerushalmi, Genesis 1:1. Zohar I:3b; II:121b. For indeed, it is the beginning and fountainhead of all the life-force in creatures, for from wisdom are derived understanding and knowledge and from them flow all the emotion attributes of the rational soul, such as love and kindness and mercy and the like. As is seen clearly that the child, having no wisdom, is always angry and unkind. And even his love is for trivial things which are not worthy to be loved, because he has no wisdom to love things which are worthy of love, for [the quality of] love is according to [the level of] wisdom.
And from the emotion attributes of the soul words and letters of thought issue forth, for the soul thinks of that which it loves or [of] how to perform [deeds] of kindness and mercy. And so it is with the other emotion attributes. In every thought in the world, there is clothed some emotion attribute which brings it [the soul] to think that thought, and this attribute is the vivifying force of that thought. And from the letters of thought proceed letters of speech, and they [the letters of thought] are their very vivifying force. And speech brings to action, [as] of charity and kindness, e.g., the king who commands his servants to give [charity].
And even when a man himself performs some deed, the power of the soul and its life-force which clothes itself in this deed, is as absolute nothingness in relation to the power of the soul and its life-force which clothes itself in the speech of man; [they are to each other] as the relation and comparison of the body to the soul. Likewise is the relation of the letters of speech to the letters of thought; and likewise is the relation of the letters of thought to the essence of the emotion attribute which is clothed in it and vivifies it; and likewise the relation of the essence and life-force of the emotion attribute in comparison with the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge which together constitute the intellect from which this attribute was derived.
All this applies to the soul of man and the souls of all the created beings in all the higher and lower worlds. In all of them, wisdom is the beginning and source of the life-force.
וְהִנֵּה, מַה שֶּׁכָּתַב הָרַמְבַּ״ם זִכְרוֹנוֹ לִבְרָכָה שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ־בָּרוּךְ־הוּא מַהוּתוֹ וְעַצְמוּתוֹ וְדַעְתּוֹ הַכֹּל אֶחָד מַמָּשׁ, אַחְדּוּת פְּשׁוּטָה וְלֹא מוּרְכֶּבֶת כְּלָל – כֵּן הָעִנְיָן מַמָּשׁ בְּכָל מִדּוֹתָיו שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ־בָּרוּךְ־הוּא, וּבְכָל שְׁמוֹתָיו הַקְּדוֹשִׁים וְהַכִּינּוּיִים שֶׁכִּינּוּ לוֹ הַנְּבִיאִים וַחֲכָמֵינוּ־זִכְרוֹנָם־לִבְרָכָה, כְּגוֹן ״חַנּוּן״ וְ״רַחוּם״ וְ״חָסִיד״ וְכַיּוֹצֵא בָהֶן, וְכֵן מַה שֶּׁנִּקְרָא ״חָכָם״, דִּכְתִיב: ״וְגַם הוּא חָכָם וְגוֹ׳״, וְכֵן רְצוֹנוֹ ״כִּי רוֹצֶה ה׳ אֶת יְרֵאָיו״ וְ״חָפֵץ חֶסֶד הוּא״ וְ״רוֹצֶה בִּתְשׁוּבָתָם שֶׁל רְשָׁעִים וְאֵינוֹ חָפֵץ בְּמִיתָתָם וּבְרִשְׁעָתָם״ וּ״טְהוֹר עֵינַיִם מֵרְאוֹת בְּרָע״, אֵין רְצוֹנוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ וּמִדַּת חַסְדּוֹ וְרַחֲמָנוּתוֹ וּשְׁאָר מִדּוֹתָיו מוֹסִיפִים בּוֹ רִיבּוּי וְהַרְכָּבָה חַס וְשָׁלוֹם בְּמַהוּתוֹ וְעַצְמוּתוֹ, אֶלָּא עַצְמוּתוֹ וּמַהוּתוֹ וּרְצוֹנוֹ וְחָכְמָתוֹ וּבִינָתוֹ וְדַעְתּוֹ, וּמִדַּת חַסְדּוֹ וּגְבוּרָתוֹ, וְרַחֲמָנוּתוֹ וְתִפְאַרְתּוֹ הַכְּלוּלָה מֵחַסְדּוֹ וּגְבוּרָתוֹ, וְכֵן שְׁאָר מִדּוֹתָיו הַקְּדוֹשׁוֹת – הַכֹּל אַחְדּוּת פְּשׁוּטָה מַמָּשׁ, שֶׁהִיא הִיא עַצְמוּתוֹ וּמַהוּתוֹ.
Now, what Maimonides, of blessed memory, has said that the Holy One, blessed is He, His Essence and Being and His Knowledge are completely one, a perfect unity and not a composite at all,1Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 2:10. applies equally to all the attributes of the Holy One, blessed is He, and to all His holy names and the designations which the Prophets and Sages, of blessed memory, have ascribed to Him, such as Gracious, Merciful, Beneficient, and the like. This is also true with respect to His being called Wise, as it is written, “And He is also wise…,”2Isaiah 31:2. and with respect to His Will, [as it is written] “G–d desires those who fear Him,”3Psalms 147:11. and “He wishes to do kindness,”4Micah 7:18. and “He desires the repentance of the wicked and, does not wish their death and wickedness,”5Cf. Ezekiel 18:23; cf. Liturgy, Neilah for Yom Kippur. and “Your eyes are too pure to behold evil.”6Habakkuk 1:13; Isaiah 33:15. This is yet another thing that He does not desire. In his Reshimot on Tanya, the Lubavitcher Rebbe notes: “The intent of this additional statement requires examination.” His Will and His Wisdom and His attribute of Kindness and His Mercy and His other attributes do not add plurality and composition, G–d forbid, to His Essence and Being, but His Essence and Being and His Will and Wisdom and Understanding and Knowledge and His attribute of Kindness and His Might and Mercy and Beauty—which is composed of His Kindness and Might7Tiferet (beauty) is the combination of the qualities of chesed (kindness) and gevurah (might), with chesed predominating. Chesed is the unrestrained flow of the life-giving force. This in itself is too strong to allow finite creatures to exist. So the attribute of gevurah limits and controls the abundance of light, while chesed tempers the severity of gevurah. The result is tiferet—the harmonious balance between stark severity and the overabundance of love.—and likewise His other holy attributes, are all an absolutely perfect unity, which is His very Essence and Being.
וּכְמוֹ שֶׁכָּתַב הָרַמְבַּ״ם זִכְרוֹנוֹ לִבְרָכָה, שֶׁדָּבָר זֶה אֵין כֹּחַ בַּפֶּה לְאָמְרוֹ, וְלֹא בָּאֹזֶן לְשָׁמְעוֹ, וְלֹא בְּלֵב הָאָדָם לְהַכִּירוֹ עַל בּוּרְיוֹ. כִּי הָאָדָם מְצַיֵּיר בְּשִׂכְלוֹ כָּל הַמּוּשְׂכָּלוֹת שֶׁרוֹצֶה לְהַשְׂכִּיל וּלְהָבִין – הַכֹּל כְּמוֹת שֶׁהֵם בּוֹ, כְּגוֹן שֶׁרוֹצֶה לְצַיֵּיר בְּשִׂכְלוֹ מַהוּת הָרָצוֹן, אוֹ מַהוּת חָכְמָה, אוֹ בִּינָה, אוֹ דַּעַת, אוֹ מַהוּת מִדַּת חֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים וְכַיּוֹצֵא בָהֶן, הוּא מְצַיֵּיר כּוּלָּן כְּמוֹת שֶׁהֵן בּוֹ. אֲבָל בֶּאֱמֶת, הַקָּדוֹשׁ־בָּרוּךְ־הוּא, הוּא רָם וְנִשָּׂא וְקָדוֹשׁ שְׁמוֹ, כְּלוֹמַר, שֶׁהוּא קָדוֹשׁ וּמוּבְדָּל רִיבּוֹא רְבָבוֹת עַד אֵין קֵץ וְתַכְלִית מַדְרֵגוֹת הַבְדָּלוֹת, לְמַעְלָה מַּעְלָה מֵעֵרֶךְ וְסוּג וּמִין כָּל הַתִּשְׁבָּחוֹת וְהַמַּעֲלוֹת שֶׁיּוּכְלוּ הַנִּבְרָאִים לְהַשִּׂיג וּלְצַיֵּיר בְּשִׂכְלָם.
And as Maimonides, of blessed memory, stated: “This is beyond the power of speech to express, beyond the capacity of the ear to hear, and of the heart of man to apprehend clearly,”8Loc. cit. for man visualizes in his mind all the concepts which he wishes to conceive and understand—all as they are within himself. For instance, if he wishes to envisage the essence of Will or the essence of Wisdom or of Understanding or of Knowledge or the essence of the attribute of Kindness and Mercy and the like, he visualizes them all as they are within himself. But in truth, the Holy One, blessed is He, is “High and exalted”9Liturgy, Morning Prayer. and “Holy is His Name,”10Ibid., Shabbat Morning Prayer. that is to say, He is Holy and separated11The Hebrew word for “holy” means “set apart,” i.e., separated from the unholy. When applied to G–d, it indicates His sublime exaltedness and transcendence over the worlds. many myriads of degrees of separations ad infinitum, above the quality, type, or kind of praises and exaltations which creatures could grasp and conceive in their intellect.
כִּי הַמַּעֲלָה וּמַדְרֵגָה הָרִאשׁוֹנָה אֵצֶל הַנִּבְרָאִים הִיא הַחָכְמָה, שֶׁלָּכֵן נִקְרֵאת ״רֵאשִׁית״, כִּי בֶּאֱמֶת הִיא רֵאשִׁית וּמְקוֹר כָּל הַחַיּוּת בַּנִּבְרָאִים, כִּי מֵהַחָכְמָה נִמְשָׁכוֹת בִּינָה וָדַעַת, וּמֵהֶן נִמְשָׁכוֹת כָּל הַמִּדּוֹת שֶׁבַּנֶּפֶשׁ הַמַּשְׂכֶּלֶת, כְּמוֹ אַהֲבָה וָחֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים וְכַיּוֹצֵא בָּהֶן, וְכַנִּרְאֶה בְּחוּשׁ, שֶׁהַקָּטָן שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ דַּעַת, הוּא בְּכַעַס תָּמִיד וְאַכְזָרִי, וְגַם אַהֲבָתוֹ, הִיא לִדְבָרִים קְטַנִּים שֶׁאֵין רָאוּי לְאַָהֳבָם, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ דַּעַת לֶאֱהוֹב דְּבָרִים הָרְאוּיִים לְאָהֳבָם, שֶׁהָאַהֲבָה כְּפִי הַדַּעַת.
For the first12I.e., highest. quality and rank of creatures is wisdom, hence it is called “the beginning.”13Cf. Psalms 111:10. Targum Yerushalmi, Genesis 1:1. Zohar I:3b; II:121b. For indeed, it is the beginning and fountainhead of all the life-force in creatures, for from wisdom are derived understanding and knowledge and from them flow all the emotion attributes of the rational soul, such as love and kindness and mercy and the like. As is seen clearly that the child, having no wisdom, is always angry and unkind. And even his love is for trivial things which are not worthy to be loved, because he has no wisdom to love things which are worthy of love, for [the quality of] love is according to [the level of] wisdom.
וּמֵהַמִּדּוֹת שֶׁבַּנֶּפֶשׁ נִמְשָׁכוֹת בָּהּ תֵּיבוֹת וְאוֹתִיּוֹת הַמַּחֲשָׁבָה, שֶׁהַנֶּפֶשׁ מְחַשֶּׁבֶת בְּדָבָר שֶׁאוֹהֶבֶת, אוֹ אֵיךְ לִפְעוֹל הַחֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים, וְכֵן בִּשְׁאָר מִדּוֹת. וּבְכָל מַחֲשָׁבָה שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם – מְלוּבֶּשֶׁת בָּהּ אֵיזוֹ מִדָּה הַמְּבִיאָה לַחֲשׁוֹב מַחֲשָׁבָה זוֹ, וּמִדָּה זוֹ – הִיא חַיּוּתָהּ שֶׁל מַחֲשָׁבָה זוֹ. וּמֵאוֹתִיּוֹת הַמַּחֲשָׁבָה נִמְשָׁכוֹת אוֹתִיּוֹת הַדִּבּוּר, וְהֵן חַיּוּתָן מַמָּשׁ. וְהַדִּבּוּר מֵבִיא לִידֵי מַעֲשֵׂה הַצְּדָקָה וָחֶסֶד, כְּגוֹן הַמֶּלֶךְ שֶׁמְּצַוֶּה לַעֲבָדָיו לִיתֵּן.
And from the emotion attributes of the soul words and letters of thought issue forth, for the soul thinks of that which it loves or [of] how to perform [deeds] of kindness and mercy. And so it is with the other emotion attributes. In every thought in the world, there is clothed some emotion attribute which brings it [the soul] to think that thought, and this attribute is the vivifying force of that thought. And from the letters of thought proceed letters of speech, and they [the letters of thought] are their very vivifying force. And speech brings to action, [as] of charity and kindness, e.g., the king who commands his servants to give [charity].
וְגַם כְּשֶׁהָאָדָם עוֹשֶׂה בְּעַצְמוֹ אֵיזֶה דָבָר, הֲרֵי כֹּחַ הַנֶּפֶשׁ וְחַיּוּתָהּ הַמִּתְלַבֵּשׁ בַּעֲשִׂיָּה זוֹ, הוּא כְּאַיִן מַמָּשׁ לְגַבֵּי כֹּחַ הַנֶּפֶשׁ וְחַיּוּתָהּ הַמִּתְלַבֵּשׁ בְּדִבּוּר הָאָדָם, וּכְעֵרֶךְ וּמְשַׁל הַגּוּף לַנְּשָׁמָה, וְכֵן עֵרֶךְ אוֹתִיּוֹת הַדִּבּוּר לְאוֹתִיּוֹת הַמַּחֲשָׁבָה, וְכֵן עֵרֶךְ אוֹתִיּוֹת הַמַּחֲשָׁבָה לְמַהוּת הַמִּדָּה הַמְלוּבֶּשֶׁת בָּהּ וּמְחַיָּה אוֹתָהּ, וְכֵן עֵרֶךְ מַהוּת וְחַיּוּת הַמִּדָּה לְגַבֵּי הַחָכְמָה וּבִינָה וָדַעַת, שֶׁכְּלָלוּתָן הוּא הַשֵּׂכֶל שֶׁמִּמֶּנּוּ נִמְשְׁכָה מִדָּה זוֹ.
And even when a man himself performs some deed, the power of the soul and its life-force which clothes itself in this deed, is as absolute nothingness in relation to the power of the soul and its life-force which clothes itself in the speech of man; [they are to each other] as the relation and comparison of the body to the soul. Likewise is the relation of the letters of speech to the letters of thought; and likewise is the relation of the letters of thought to the essence of the emotion attribute which is clothed in it and vivifies it; and likewise the relation of the essence and life-force of the emotion attribute in comparison with the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge which together constitute the intellect from which this attribute was derived.
וְכָל זֶה בְּנֶפֶשׁ הָאָדָם וְנֶפֶשׁ כָּל הַבְּרוּאִים שֶׁבְּכָל הָעוֹלָמוֹת עֶלְיוֹנִים וְתַחְתּוֹנִים, שֶׁבְּכוּלָּם הַחָכְמָה הִיא רֵאשִׁית וּמְקוֹר הַחַיּוּת:
All this applies to the soul of man and the souls of all the created beings in all the higher and lower worlds. In all of them, wisdom is the beginning and source of the life-force.