לא ילבש ג

And therefore the essential purification of the Niddah is through water. This is the aspect of what is stated in the said discourse: "v'nafatz maya mi-trei usya v'havu ke-trei mabrei d'Sura" ("and waters will burst from two bones and will be like two scholars of Sura") — that through the waters of Da'as that will be revealed in the future, through this the "clouds covering the eyes" will be nullified. And then he will not need to suspend his attachment. And this is the aspect of the waters of the mikveh — which are the aspect of the waters of Da'as that will be revealed in the future. Through these waters the "clouds covering the eyes" — which are the aspect of the blood of Niddah — are removed. And therefore through these waters the Niddah is purified from her impurity. For through these waters the "clouds covering the eyes" — the heresies mentioned — are nullified. And then Emunah is purified and strengthened as before. And then she can be united with her husband — to receive the intellect and reveal and give birth to comprehensions of His divinity, blessed be He, in the world. And then it will be fulfilled: "v'hayah or ha-levanah k'or ha-chamah" ("and the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun") — for the blood of Niddah is the aspect of the diminishment of the moon, as is known. And therefore the standard cycle is from month to month — for each month [the moon] wanes and waxes, as is known. And then it will be fulfilled: "ki simalei ha-aretz de'ah es Hashem ka-mayim la-yam mechasim" ("for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as waters cover the sea"). For when Emunah is pure, holy, strong, and one relies on one's Emunah alone without any intellect and without any knowledge at all — then one merits to know Hashem in the aspect of "v'erasich li be-emunah v'yada'at es Hashem" ("and I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know Hashem"). Amen and Amen.

For we are a holy nation, and we are obligated always to subdue and break the sitra de-mosa — the Side of Death — which is the sitra achra. Therefore we must guard the faculty of memory with the utmost vigilance. What this means is: to attach one's thought to the World to Come — and this is the very essence of memory — as is explained in the discourse Vayehi mi-Kaytz, in Likutay Moharan, Part One, Siman 54. For the World to Come is the place of Life, as is known — it is the very opposite of forgetting, which is the sitra de-mosa, as is explained there in the dimension of the verse, "I have been forgotten as a dead man out of the heart" (Tehillim 31:13).

Now, the essential wholeness of memory comes about through forgetting — meaning, through forgetting from the heart all the affairs of this world, which are outside the World to Come. That is: all the evil desires and evil character traits must be utterly forgotten from the heart, so that they are not remembered at all, as it says, "and forget your people and your father's house" (Tehillim 45:11). And when this is done, memory attains its wholeness — for then one is able to cleave one's thought to the World to Come. For as long as one remembers this world and does not forget it, one is certainly far from the dimension of memory, since it is impossible to cleave one's thought to the World to Come when one's attention remains fixed on this world — for the World to Come and this world are two opposite things, each the reverse of the other, as is well known.

The general principle, then, is that we must distance the sitra achra — the Side of Death — so that it does not draw nourishment from holiness. Therefore all the affairs of this world, which are outside of holiness, outside the World to Come, which belong to the sitra achra, the sitra de-mosa, the dimension of forgetting — all of these must be utterly forgotten from the heart, as stated above, and not remembered at all. For as long as one does remember them, the sacred dimension of memory — the cleaving of one's thought to the World to Come — is thereby blemished and undermined, as above. And this is called the memory of forgetting: namely, that one remembers the very thing that should be forgotten — that is, the things which lie outside the World to Come as described above — and this constitutes the blemish and fall of the sacred faculty of memory. It follows, then, that through this one gives, G-d forbid, strength and vitality to the sitra achra, for one draws the capacity of memory — which is the source of life — toward its very opposite, G-d forbid, which is the place of forgetting, the sitra de-mosa.

Therefore we are obligated to forget the forgetting — meaning, all the affairs of this world that lie outside of holiness, which are all in the category of sitra de-mosa, in the dimension of forgetting, must be forgotten — in order to restore them to their proper place, for from there they came and to there they should return. For they all came from the dimension of forgetting, and therefore they must be returned there — meaning, forgotten, not remembered at all, as above. And when this is done, the true memory — the memory of holiness — is restored to its rightful state, as above.

And this is why we are commanded not to mourn for the dead excessively, so as not to draw the sitra de-mosa downward, G-d forbid. Rather, one must release the departed from one's mind and forget them, as above, for the dimension of forgetting must itself be forgotten, as above. Rather, one must do the very opposite: to cleave one's thought to the World to Come, which is the dimension of memory, where Life dwells. For when one cleaves one's thought to there, one will no longer feel grief over the deceased, for why should one grieve? On the contrary — the departed has now left behind the transient life and has merited eternal life, which is in the World to Come.

And this is precisely why the nations of the world, who are far from holiness, far from the dimension of the World to Come — for they are from the sitra achra, the sitra de-mosa — therefore they seek to strengthen, G-d forbid, the sitra achra. And for this reason they make bald patches and cut themselves over their dead, in order that the deceased should be remembered among them and not forgotten — in order to draw down and strengthen, G-d forbid, the sitra de-mosa. They seek to draw the dimension of memory toward the place of forgetting, as above.

And therefore we are commanded and warned concerning this, for we must guard the sacred dimension of memory — meaning, to attach one's thought to the World to Come, which is the place of Life, as above. And we must forget the dimension of forgetting, as above. The core of the prohibition against making a bald patch over the dead, against cutting oneself — that is, the tattoo-incision — is because the nations were accustomed to do so over their dead, to cut themselves and make bald patches on their heads, in order to blemish the memory that resides in the head. For memory is in the brain, and they seek to turn things upside-down — to strengthen the sitra de-mosa there, G-d forbid — to make a sign there in order to remember the dead, which is in the category of the blemish of memory, for they draw the dimension of memory toward the place of forgetting, as above.

And see the discourse "Bo el Phar'oh" (Siman 64) regarding the vacated void — where only Emunah is needed, etc., see there. For in truth the vacated void itself is the aspect of Emunah — namely that the intellect is vacated, etc., and nothing remains except the aspect of Emunah, as mentioned. And understand this well.

And one who uses intellect alone without Emunah — this is the aspect of the sin of Adam the First who ate from the Tree of Knowledge. And this is the aspect of emitting seed in vain (motzeh zera l'vattalah), God forbid. For one emits the drops of Da'as without the vessel of Emunah — likewise one uses one's Da'as without the vessel of Emunah. Then the drops of Da'as are blemished and the Kelippos grip them, God forbid. And this is the aspect of "Adam Harishon mashuch b'orlaso hayah" ("Adam the First was drawn with his foreskin") (Sanhedrin 38), and as is brought in the sacred writings that Adam the First sinned this sin. For Adam the First blemished this both in the physical and spiritual sense — for in truth they are all one. For one who blemishes this sin in the physical [sense], God forbid, through this one's Da'as is blemished and stripped from Emunah, and one can come to great heresies, God forbid. And from this come all the heretics and deniers — and likewise all those who dispute the true tzaddikim. For through all kinds of blemish of the covenant (bris), Da'as is blemished — for union depends on Da'as, as it is written: "v'ha-adam yada" etc. ("and the man knew") — for from there the drop is drawn, as is known.

And this is the dimension of korcha — the bald patch — namely, that they tear out the hairs of their heads, for the hairs are the surplus-flowings of the brain (mosaray mochin) and they are in the dimension of Malchus, as is expounded in the discourse Maysara de-sakina, Siman 30 — and it is there that the sitra achra, the sitra de-mosa, chiefly strengthens itself, in the dimension of "her feet go down to death" (Mishlai 5:5).

And the essential blemish of Da'as through the blemish of the covenant is that Da'as is stripped from Emunah. For through the holy union, Da'as is joined with Emunah — and this is the essential completion of Da'as. And on this the Sages of blessed memory said: how does one study Torah in purity? — one marries a woman and afterward studies Torah. For the Torah is the Da'as that one merits through the holy union. And the opposite: one who blemishes the covenant strips Da'as from Emunah, and through this comes to heresies. And therefore generally the adulterous are great heretics (apikorsim) — or they dispute the true and righteous tzaddikim. For this too is the aspect of heresy — for in truth they are one. When one believes in the tzaddikim, one believes in Hashem the Blessed. For it is impossible to believe in Hashem the Blessed without believing in the tzaddikim, as it is written: "va-ya'aminu ba-Hashem u-b'Moshe avdo" ("and they believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant") — for one depends on the other. And as our Rebbe of blessed memory said: just as Hashem the Blessed certainly exists, so too the tzaddikim certainly exist in every generation.

And because they blemished the holy covenant and stripped Da'as from Emunah — this being the aspect of the Breaking of Vessels — their Emunah and Da'as is broken and corrupted. And because of this they came to heresies against Hashem the Blessed and true tzaddikim — and it seems to them that they are great wise men. And they are unwilling to cast aside their turbid and blemished intellect, defiled with the filth of the lust for adultery. And they raise difficulties, God forbid, against Hashem the Blessed or against true and righteous tzaddikim. And all this is because of the blemish of the covenant, as mentioned. And this is what is stated in the holy Zohar: that for the blemish of the drops of the brain there is no teshuvah that avails. And as our Rebbe of blessed memory said explicitly and outright: that in truth teshuvah does avail even for this sin. Rather, the intention [of the Zohar] is that it is difficult for one to return — because one's Da'as is greatly blemished, and when one wants to return, certainly the heresies and confusions will overpower, and because of this one cannot return. But if one truly wants to spare one's soul — to save one's soul from the deepest abyss and below it — one should cast aside and entirely remove one's intellect as if one has no intellect or Da'as at all, and rely on Emunah alone, and believe in Hashem the Blessed and in true tzaddikim — one will certainly merit to return to Hashem, and He will have compassion. "V'el Elokeinu ki yarbeh lisloach" ("and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon") — Amen and Amen.

For the essential teshuvah for the blemish of the covenant is that one strengthen and fortify oneself with all one's might, and pray and beseech Hashem the Blessed greatly with many prayers and supplications — that one merit perfect Emunah. For the essential blemish is in Emunah. Therefore the essential rectification is through Emunah. And the essential thing is to cast aside one's intellect entirely as if one has no intellect at all, and to strengthen oneself with perfect Emunah alone in Hashem the Blessed and in the tzaddikim — in the ultimate simplicity, in the manner of the ordinary people who have perfect Emunah without any wisdom at all. Then one will merit to rectify all one's blemishes — certainly without doubt — and will merit complete teshuvah. Amen.

And this is the aspect of what our Rebbe of blessed memory wrote in the said Torah: that it is impossible for the tzaddik to always be attached to Hashem the Blessed, and he must necessarily be suspended sometimes. For sometimes the suspension of Torah is itself its fulfillment — so that the "clouds covering the eyes" should not overpower, God forbid, and his attachment be entirely nullified etc., as is explained there, see there. That is, as mentioned: the attachment to Hashem the Blessed is the aspect of the union of the Holy One blessed be He and His Shechinah — the aspect of the joining of Da'as with Emunah, as mentioned. And likewise every person — at every time he engages in Torah and service, he makes unifications according to his level — as we say before every commandment and Torah engagement: "L'shem yichud kudsha brich hu u-Shechintei" etc. ("For the sake of the unification of the Holy One blessed be He and His Shechinah"). And all the unifications are in the aspect mentioned above — the aspect of the joining of holy Da'as with holy Emunah. But the adversarial force and the Kelippos that cling to the sparks being clarified from the Breaking of Vessels — through the unifications made through Israel's service — they greatly overpower in this person who labors to clarify them through his service. This is the aspect of the unifications mentioned. Therefore when one engages some hours in Torah and service, one's brain grows weary and becomes confused — and all kinds of confusion in the world all come from the aspect of the "clouds covering the eyes" mentioned. These are the aspect of heresies, blemish of Emunah — and from them all kinds of confusion of Da'as in the world are extended and produced.

And this is also the dimension of chesoves ka'aka — the tattoo-incision — for they engrave a mark into their flesh as a memorial. For the flesh of the body is in the dimension of Malchus, and it is there that the blemish of the sitra de-mosa's strengthening reaches, G-d forbid, as above. And this is the dimension that is called chesoves ka'aka — which is the blemish of memory — and it corresponds to the verse, "write this for a memorial in the book" (Shemos 17:14). And this is why our Sages of blessed memory derived a gezayra shava — a textual analogy — connecting the place for tefillin to the prohibition of making a bald patch. As our Sages taught: just as there, the place where a bald patch is made… and from this they derived the place for placing tefillin. For tefillin are the exact opposite of this: tefillin are for memory, as it says, "and for a memorial between your eyes" (Shemos 13:9). And therefore they embody Life, as our Sages taught: one who places tefillin merits long life — for memory is the dwelling-place of Life, as above. Therefore, the very place where it is forbidden to make a bald patch — in order to guard memory from being blemished through the strengthening of forgetting, which is the sitra de-mosa, so that memory should not be drawn toward the place of forgetting, as above — that is precisely the place where one is commanded to place tefillin, which likewise serve to guard memory, as above. And therefore both are expressed with the words "between your eyes" — both the prohibition of korcha and the commandment of tefillin — even though the core of the commandment and the prohibition alike pertains to the place of the hair. For the guarding of memory is bound up with the eyes, as above, as is explained in the discourse Vayehi mi-Kaytz, Siman 54, mentioned above. And this is the meaning of the verse: "You are children of Hashem your G-d" — "of Hashem your G-d" specifically — meaning, the dimension of the World to Come, to which one must cleave one's thought. And therefore: "you shall not cut yourselves, and you shall not make a bald patch" — for this constitutes a blemish of memory, as above. And this is also what our Sages derived from the verse "you shall not cut yourselves" (Devarim 14:1) — that you shall not make factions within factions. For one must cleave one's thought to the World to Come — and there, "both these and these are words of the living G-d."