The divine soul has ten holy faculties and three garments—thought, speech, and action—through which it connects to God via the 613 commandments. But there is another soul inside you too. The nefesh (the vital soul) habehamit (נפש הבהמית), the animal soul, has its own ten faculties and its own three garments. And they are dark mirrors of the divine ones.
Chapter four of the Tanya explains the architecture of the animal soul. It has its own intellect—chochmah, binah, and da'at (Knowledge)—but these serve the passions rather than commanding them. Where the divine soul's intellect rules its emotions, the animal soul's intellect is a servant to desire. It reasons backward from what it wants, constructing justifications after the fact.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman makes a striking observation: this is why children love worthless things. A child's intellect is too immature to appreciate what is truly valuable, so the child's emotions attach to whatever is nearest and shiniest. Adults whose animal soul dominates their intellect operate the same way—their mind, however sharp, serves their appetites.
The seven emotional attributes of the animal soul—its loves, fears, ambitions, and pleasures—flow from the four elements that compose it: fire (pride and anger), water (desire for pleasure), air (frivolity and boasting), and earth (laziness and depression). Every negative trait a person experiences can be traced to one of these four roots.
When a person thinks, speaks, or acts according to these impure faculties, the Tanya says, they are wearing the "impure garments" of the animal soul. These garments wrap around the ten dark faculties the way clothing wraps around a body. And the Tanya's term for everything done under their influence is devastating: "vanity and a striving after wind" (Ecclesiastes 1:14). Not evil in the dramatic sense. Just empty. Every thought, word, and deed not directed toward God is, in the Tanya's framework, ultimately hollow.
In addition,1 Having outlined in ch. 3 the intrinsic faculties of the soul, the author goes on to explain how they express themselves through the three outer “garments,” or instruments. every divine soul (nefesh elokit) possesses three garments, viz., thought, speech, and action, [expressing themselves] in the 613 commandments of the Torah. For, when a person actively2 All italics are the translator’s. fulfills all the precepts which require physical action,3 Note that “action” is put first. and with his power of speech he occupies himself in expounding all the 613 commandments and their practical application, and with his power of thought he comprehends all that is comprehensible to him in the Pardes4 Literally meaning “orchard,” it is taken as an acronym of the four Hebrew words פשט, רמז, דרוש, סוד, meaning: plain sense, intimation, homiletical exposition, and esoteric meaning, respectively, the four levels of Scriptural interpretation. of the Torah—then the totality of the 613 “organs” of his soul5 The physical organism of the human body consists of 248 members and 365 blood vessels, corresponding to the 248 positive and 365 prohibitive commands (Tanchuma Hakadum, Teitzei; Makkot 24a). The soul contains the spiritual counterparts of these 613 “organs.” (See below, ch. 51.) are clothed in the 613 commandments of the Torah. Specifically: the faculties of chabad in his soul are clothed in the comprehension of the Torah, which he comprehends in Pardes, to the extent of his mental capacity and the supernal root of his soul. And the middot, namely fear and love, together with their offshoots and ramifications, are clothed in the fulfillment of the commandments in deed and in word, namely, in the study of Torah which is “equivalent to them all.”6 Mishnah, Peah 1:1. For love is the root of all the 248 positive commands, all originating in it and having no true foundation without it, inasmuch as he who fulfills them in truth truly loves the name of G–d and desires to cleave to Him in truth; for one cannot truly cleave to Him except through the fulfillment of the 248 commandments which are the 248 “organs of the King,”7 Tikkunei Zohar 30. as it were, as is explained elsewhere;8 Below, ch. 23. while fear is the root of the 365 prohibitive commands, fearing to rebel against the Supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed is He; or a still deeper fear than this—when he feels ashamed in the presence of the Divine greatness to rebel against His glory and do what is evil in His eyes, namely, any of the abominable things hated by G–d, which are the kelipot and sitra achara, which draw their nurture from man below and have their hold in him through the 365 prohibitive commands [that he violates]. Now these three “garments,” deriving from the Torah and its commandments, although they are called “garments” of the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah, their quality, nevertheless, is infinitely higher and greater than that of the nefesh, ruach, and neshamah themselves,9 The soul itself, as the subject loving and fearing G–d, must remain apart from G–d; it is only through its “garments” that it attains true identity with G–d, as further explained in ch. 35. as explained in the Zohar,10 I:24a; II:60a. See below, beg. ch. 23. because the Torah and the Holy One, blessed is He, are one. The meaning of this is that the Torah, which is the wisdom and will of the Holy One, blessed is He, and His glorious Essence are one, since He is both the Knower and the Knowledge, and so on, as explained above in the name of Maimonides. And although the Holy One, blessed is He, is called En Sof (“Infinite”), and “His greatness can never be fathomed,”11 Psalms 145:3. and “no thought can apprehend Him at all,”12 Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction 17a. and so are also His will and His wisdom, as it is written, “There is no searching of His understanding”13 Isaiah 40:28. and “Can you find G–d by searching?”14 Job 11:7. and again, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts”15 Isaiah 55:8. —nevertheless, it is in this connection that it has been said: “Where you find the greatness of the Holy One, blessed is He, there you also find His humility.”16 Megillah 31a. This is interpreted to mean that G–d combines the powers of expansion (“greatness”) and contraction (“humility”), which come into play in the process of tzimtzum. Cf. Zohar I:140a; II:99a; III:58a, 159a. For the Holy One, blessed is He, has compressed His will and wisdom within the 613 commandments of the Torah and in their laws, as well as within the combination of the letters of the Torah, the books of the Prophets and the Writings, and in the exposition thereof which are to be found in the Aggadot and Midrashim of our Rabbis of blessed memory. All this in order that each neshamah, or ruach, and nefesh in the human body should be able to comprehend them through its faculty of understanding, and to fulfill them, as far as they can be fulfilled, in act, speech, and thought, thereby clothing itself with all its ten faculties in these three garments. Therefore has the Torah been compared to water,17 Bava Kama 17a. for just as water descends from a higher to a lower level, so has the Torah descended from its place of glory, which is His will and wisdom, blessed be He; [for] the Torah and the Holy One, blessed is He, are one and the same and no thought can apprehend Him at all. From there [the Torah] has progressively descended through hidden stages, stage after stage, with the descent of the worlds, until it clothed itself in corporeal substances and in things of this world, comprising almost all of the commandments of the Torah, their laws, and in the combinations of material letters, written with ink in a book, namely, the 24 volumes of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings; all this in order that every thought should be able to apprehend them, and even the faculties of speech and action, which are on a lower level than thought, should be able to apprehend them and be clothed in them. Thus, since the Torah and its commandments “clothe” all ten faculties of the soul with all its 613 organs from head to foot, it [the soul] is altogether truly bound up in the Bundle of Life with G–d,18 I Samuel 25:29. and the very light of G–d envelops and clothes it from head to foot, as it is written, “G–d is my Rock, I will take refuge in Him,”19 Psalms 18:3. and it is also written, “You will envelop him with favor (ratzon—will) as with a shield,”20 Psalms 5:13. that is to say, with His will and wisdom, blessed be He, which are clothed in His Torah and its commandments. Hence it has been said: “Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life of the World to Come.”21 Avot 4:17. For, the World to Come is that state where one enjoys the effulgence of the Divine Presence,22 Berachot 16b. which is the pleasure of comprehension, yet no created being—even celestial—can comprehend more than some reflection of the Divine light; that is why the reference is to “effulgence of the Divine Presence” (Ziv haShechinah).23 I.e., the “glow” of the Shechinah, not the Shechinah itself. Note the author’s interpretation of זיו in this context as a remote gleam, a mere reflection. But as for the essence of the Holy One, blessed is He, no thought can apprehend Him at all, except when it apprehends, and is clothed in, the Torah and its mitzvot; only then does it truly apprehend, and is clothed in, the Holy One, blessed is He, inasmuch as the Torah and the Holy One, blessed is He, are one and the same. For although the Torah has been clothed in lower material things, it is by way of illustration, like embracing the king. There is no difference, in regard to the degree of closeness and attachment to the king, whether while embracing the king, the latter is then wearing one robe or several robes, so long as the royal person is in them. Likewise, when the king, for his part, embraces one with his arm, even though it is dressed in his robes; as it is written, “And His right hand embraces me,”24 Song of Songs 8:3. which refers to the Torah which was given by G–d’s right hand,25 Deuteronomy 35:2. which is the quality of chesed and water.26 In Kabbalah, the “right” hand or side is the side of benevolence. Chesed and water are synonymous of Divine benevolence. See note 10, ch. 3.
