"The Torah and the Holy One, blessed is He, are altogether one," says the Zohar. Chapter twenty-three of the Tanya explains what this means in practice. And the explanation transforms every mitzvah into something cosmic.
The 248 positive commandments, the Tikkunei (spiritual repair) Zohar says, are the "248 organs of the King." Rabbi Schneur Zalman unpacks this metaphor. The organs of a human body are garments for the soul, they obey the soul's will instantly, without hesitation, without resistance. When you decide to move your hand, the hand moves. There is no negotiation, no delay. The body is a perfect instrument of the will.
The commandments work the same way for God. They are the innermost garment of God's innermost will. When a person performs a mitzvah, the life-force that flows through that act is pure, uncontracted divine will, not the reluctant "back" of God that sustains the shells, but the "face," the direct inner desire.
This means that when a person's hand gives charity, that hand becomes a chariot for God's will, in exactly the same way that the Patriarchs' entire bodies were chariots for God. Not metaphorically. The hand, at that moment, is a divine organ. The feet walking to perform a commandment are divine organs. The mouth speaking words of Torah is a divine organ.
The Tanya extends this to thought. When a person's brain contemplates Torah, that brain becomes clothed in the divine will and wisdom simultaneously. The mind is wrapped in God, and God is wrapped in the mind. This union, the Tanya says, is the purpose of all creation. The descent of the divine light through all the worlds, the contraction, the concealment, it all happened so that a human being in a physical body could pick up a lulav, study a page of Talmud, or put a coin in a charity box, and in that moment, become one with the Infinite.
Every mitzvah is an organ of God, activated by a human being. This is why the Tanya says the commandments are not obligations imposed from outside. They are invitations to let God inhabit your body.
In the light of all that has been said above, we can better understand and more fully and clearly elucidate the statement in the Zohar1 Cf. I:24a; II:60a. that “the Torah and the Holy One, blessed is He, are altogether one” and the commentary in the Tikkunim that “the 248 commandments are the 248 ‘organs’ of the King.”2 Tikkunei Zohar 30. The commandments constitute the innermost will of the Supreme One and His true desire which are clothed in all the upper and nether worlds, thereby giving them life, inasmuch as their very life and sustenance is dependent upon the performance of the commandments by the [creatures], in the lower world, as is known. It follows that the performance of the commandments and their fulfillment is the innermost garment of the innermost will of the Supreme One, since it is due to this performance that the light and life of the Supernal Will issue forth to be clothed in the worlds. Hence they are called “organs” of the King as a figure of speech, for just as the organs of the human body are a garment for its soul and are completely and utterly surrendered to it, as evidenced from the fact that as soon as a person desires to stretch out his hand or foot, they obey his will immediately and forthwith, without any command or instruction to them and with no hesitation whatsoever, but in the very instant that he wills it; so, by way of example, is the life-force animating the performance of the commandments and their fulfillment completely surrendered to the Supernal Will which is clothed therein, becoming in relation to it like a body to a soul. Likewise the external garment of the divine soul in the person fulfilling and practicing the commandment—this being its faculty of action—clothes itself in the vitality of the performance of the commandment, thus also becoming like a body in relation to the soul, the “soul” being the Supernal Will to which it is completely surrendered. In this way, the organs of the human body which perform the commandment—in which the divine soul’s faculty of action is clothed at the time of the act and fulfillment of the commandment—truly become a vehicle for the Supernal Will; as, for example, the hand which distributes charity to the poor or performs another commandment or the feet which carry a person toward the performance of a commandment; similarly with the mouth and tongue engaged in uttering the words of the Torah or the brain engaged in reflecting on the words of the Torah or on the fear of Heaven or the greatness of G–d, blessed is He. This is what the Sages meant when they said that the Patriarchs were truly the “chariot” of G–d,3 Cf. above, ch. 18, note 3. for all their organs were completely holy and detached from mundane matters, serving as a vehicle solely for the Supernal Will alone throughout their lives. As for the thought and meditation—in the words of the Torah—that are in the brain, and the power of speech—engaged in the words of the Torah—that is in the mouth,4 I.e., the faculties of thought and speech as distinct from action. these being the innermost garments of the divine soul, not to mention the divine soul itself which is clothed in them—all of them are completely merged in perfect unity with the Supernal Will and are not merely a vehicle. For the Supernal Will is identical with the very subject of the halachah wherein one thinks and speaks, inasmuch as all the laws are particular streams flowing from the innermost will of the Supreme One itself, for so it arose in His will, blessed be He, it that a particular act be permissible, or a food ritually fit for consumption, or this [person] inculpable and that entirely innocent, or the reverse. So also are the letter combinations of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings a promulgation of His will and wisdom which are united with the En Sof, blessed is He, in perfect unity, since He is the Knower and the Knowledge, and so forth. This, then, is the meaning of the abovementioned quotation that “the Torah and the Holy One, blessed is He, are altogether One,” and not merely “organs” of the King as are the commandments. Now, since at such time as a person occupies himself with the words of the Torah, the Supernal Will, united as it is in perfect unity with the En Sof, blessed is He, is completely manifest and in no way obscured in the divine soul and its innermost garments, i.e., its thought and speech—it follows that the soul and its garments are also at such time veritably united with the En Sof, blessed is He, in perfect unity, like the union of the “speech” and “thought” of the Holy One, blessed is He, with His essence and being, as mentioned above.5 Ch. 21. For there is no separate thing except through “concealment of the Countenance” as explained there. Moreover, their union is even of a higher and profounder order than the union of the Light of the En Sof, blessed is He, with the upper worlds, since the Supernal Will is actually manifest in the soul and its garments when they are engaged in the Torah, because it is identical with the Torah, while all the supernal worlds receive their vitality from the light and life that are derived from the Torah, which is His will and wisdom, blessed be He, as it is written, “You have made them all with wisdom.”6 Psalms 104:24. Thus, His wisdom, i.e., the Torah, is above them all, and it is identical with His will, blessed be He, which is described as “encompassing” all worlds, i.e., that aspect which cannot clothe itself within the worlds, but animates and illuminates in a transcending and encompassing manner.7 Further discussion on the immanent and transcending aspects of the Divine emanation will be found in chs. 41, 46, 48, and 51. Yet, it [this very light] does clothe itself in the human soul and its garments in a truly manifest form, when the person occupies himself with the words of the Torah, even though he does not perceive it…8 Cf. Megillah 3a. [—this is what enables him to endure it, because he does not perceive it; it is otherwise, however, in the case of the upper spheres9 …where there is no such obscurity as in the physical world.]. With the above in mind, it becomes clear why the study of the Torah excels so much over all other commandments, including even prayer, which is the unifying force of the upper spheres. [As for the ruling that one, whose study of the Torah is not his entire occupation, must interrupt his study for prayer,10 Seemingly indicating that prayer has priority over study. this is only because he pauses and interrupts his studies anyway11 Shabbat 11a; Maimonides, Hilchot Tefillah 6:8; Rabbi Schneur Zalman, Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 106:4..] From this the intelligent man will be able to draw a sense of great awe as he occupies himself with the Torah, considering how his soul, and its “garments” in the brain and mouth, are truly merged in perfect unity with the Supernal Will and light of the En Sof, blessed is He, which are manifest in them, compared with which all the worlds, supernal and nether, are truly as nought and as a nonentity and nullity, so much so that the Divine light is not actually clothed in them, but merely surrounds all the worlds in a form of “encirclement,” as it were, in order to provide their essential source of life; only some glow which they can bear is clothed in them, in order that they should not revert to nought altogether. This is the meaning of the verse, “And G–d commanded us [to do] all these statutes, in order to fear G–d….”12 Deuteronomy 6:24. In the quotation the word לעשות (“to do”) is missing. [Regarding this “great fear” it was said, “If there is no wisdom, there is no fear,”13 Avot 3:17. and in relation to it the Torah is called “a gateway to the courtyard,”14 Shabbat 31b; Yoma 72b—see Rashi there. as is explained elsewhere.] However, not every mind can sustain such fear; yet even he whose mind cannot bear such fear at all, whether in whole or in part, because of the inferiority of his soul’s level in its root and source in the lower15 Hebrew text should read תחתונות instead of תחתונים. gradations of the ten sefirot of the World of Asiyah, nevertheless the lack of such fear is no obstacle to performance, as will be explained later.16 Ch. 41.
