Rabbi Chaim Vital, the great student of the Arizal, revealed something extraordinary about what happens in the upper worlds when we study Torah. Study Torah with genuine intention, with love and awe of God, and your words ascend into the ten sefirot (ספירות), the divine emanations where the actual light of the Ein Sof (אין סוף) dwells. Study Torah without intention, and your words still ascend, but only to the outer halls of the heavenly palaces, where they create angels in the world of Yetzirah (the World of Formation).
But study Torah for selfish reasons, for glory or prestige, and the words do not ascend at all. They remain trapped in this lowest world, the domain of the kelipot (קליפות), the husks of impurity.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains the logic. The Torah and God are completely one. So why would Torah words need intention to reach the divine realms? Because although God fills all worlds equally, the worlds themselves are not equal. Higher worlds receive an infinitely greater radiance with fewer concealing screens. This material world receives the most contracted, filtered, diminished light of all.
When the animal soul speaks words of Torah without kavanah (כוונה), intention, those words are holy letters. But the kelipat nogah (קליפת נוגה), the translucent shell that animates the body, has not been overcome. The holiness in the words and the impurity in the speaker are locked in a stalemate, and the words cannot rise.
Add love and fear of God, and the stalemate breaks. The light of the letters overpowers the kelipah (a shell of impurity), lifts the words beyond this world, and carries them into the presence of the Infinite. This is why the Talmud says, "Happy is he who comes to the next world with his Torah in his hand" (Pesachim 50a). Good intentions do not merely improve your Torah study. They determine whether your Torah reaches heaven at all.
However, as long as he has not restudied that subject “for its own sake,” his study does not ascend even into the ten sefirot which shine in the worlds of Yetzirah and Asiyah. For the sefirot are a category of G–dliness, and in them is clothed and united the actual light of the En Sof, blessed is He, and “Without fear and love it cannot ascend and stand before G–d,” as is written in the Tikkunim. But his study ascends into the hechalot and abodes which are the externalities of the worlds, wherein the angels stand. Thus Rabbi Chaim Vital, of blessed memory, writes in Shaar Hanevuah, ch. 2, that from Torah studied without kavanah angels are created in the world of Yetzirah, while from commandments performed without kavanah, angels are created in the world of Asiyah1 Ibid.—and all angels are possessed of matter and form.2 Cf. Nachmanides, Shaar HaGemul. However, Torah which is studied “not for its own sake” indeed, as, for example, for the purpose of becoming a scholar and the like, does not at all ascend on high even to the hechalot and abodes of the angels of Holiness, but it remains below in this material world which is the dwelling place of the kelipot NOTE: As explained in the Zohar, vol. III, pp. 31b and 121b, see there: “That word ascends and breaks through the heavens…and evokes what it evokes—if good—good…,” note there. Also page 105a: “From a word of the Torah is formed a sound which ascends….” Also page 168b: “The voices of Torah and Prayer ascend on High and rend the heavens….” as commented in the Zohar3 I:233b. on the verse, “What profit has man of all his toil which he labors under the sun?”4 Ecclesiastes 1:3, with emphasis on “his labor” and on “under the sun.”: “Even with the toil of Torah, if he does it for his own glory….” This is also the meaning of the statement, “Happy is he who comes here with his learning in his hand,”5 Pesachim 50a. which means that it was not left behind in this world below. [The reason Torah requires kavanah to ascend on high] albeit the Torah and the Holy One, blessed is He, are altogether One, for He and His will are One [is as follows]. Although the Holy One, blessed is He, fills all worlds alike, nevertheless the worlds are not all of equal rank. The difference is due to the recipients in two respects: Firstly, in that the higher worlds receive a radiance infinitely greater than the lower; secondly, in that they receive it without as many “garments” and “screens” as the lower. And this world is the lowest world in both aspects, for the radiance that is in it is greatly contracted to the utmost limit; hence it is corporeal and material. And even this [contracted radiance] comes in many “garments” and “screens” until it is clothed in the kelipat nogah to animate all clean things in this world, including the vivifying, articulate soul in man. [Consider,] therefore, [this animal soul] as it utters words of Torah and prayer without kavanah. These are holy letters, of course, and the kelipat nogah in the vivifying soul constitutes no separating curtain in any degree concealing and covering His Holiness, blessed be He, clothed in them, as it conceals and covers His Holiness, blessed be He, in the vivifying soul when it speaks idle words, or as in the vivifying soul of any of the other living creatures that are clean. And though there is no place that is void of Him,6 Tikkunei Zohar 57. yet He is the “Most hidden One of all the hidden”7 Ibid., Introduction. and is called the “Hidden G–d.”8 Isaiah 45:15. So, too, the radiance and extension of vitality from Him, blessed be He, is hidden in the many dense “garments” and “screens” until it is clothed and concealed in the garment of nogah. This is not, however, the case with the holy letters in the words of Torah and Prayer, wherein, on the contrary, the kelipat nogah is converted to good and is absorbed into this Holiness, as is discussed above.9 Chs. 35, 37; cf. end ch. 53. Nevertheless the glow of His Holiness, blessed be He, that is in them is in a state of tzimtzum to the utmost limit, since the voice and speech are material. But in the case of prayer with kavanah and Torah with kavanah “for its own sake,” the kavanah is clothed in the letters of the speech because it is their source and root, since by reason and cause of it he speaks these letters. Therefore it elevates them to its level in the ten sefirot of Yetzirah or Beriah, according to whether the kavanah is inspired by intelligent or natural fear and love, and so on, as has been discussed above. There the Light of the En Sof, blessed is He, namely, the will of the Supreme One, blessed is He, which is clothed in the letters of the Torah which he studies and in their kavanah, or in the prayer and its kavanah, or in the commandment and its kavanah, shines forth and is revealed with a great and infinite brightness that cannot shine forth and be revealed at all in any manner or form as long as the letters and the commandment are still in this material world, until the era of the end of days, when the world will be uplifted from its materiality, “And the glory of the L–rd will be revealed…,” as has been previously discussed at length.10 Chs. 36-37. See also ch. 33. NOTE: And there [in the ten sefirot] shines forth and is revealed also the supernal union (yichud elyon) that is produced by each commandment and by Torah study, this being the union of His attributes, blessed be He, which coalesce into one another, gevurot (the “stern” attributes) are sweetened by chasadim (benevolent attributes) through the propitious time of the supernal En Sof, blessed is He, which shines forth and reveals itself in a manner of a great and intense manifestation by reason of the “impulse” from below, namely, the performance of the commandment, or the occupation in Torah, wherein the will of the supernal En Sof, blessed is He, is clothed.But the essential union takes place far higher, in the world of Atzilut, where the core and essence of His attributes, blessed be He, are united with their Emanator, the En Sof, blessed is He, and there is the core and essence of the the will of the supernal En Sof, blessed is He, while only a glow from them shines in Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, in each of these worlds according to its rank. And although the soul of the person who occupies himself in the Torah and in the commandment does not derive from Atzilut, nevertheless the Supernal Will that is clothed in this commandment and which is identical with the very halachah or word of the Torah in which he is occupied is G–dliness and light of the En Sof, the Emanator, blessed is He, for He and His will are One, and by His Will, blessed be He, He has caused His attributes to emanate from Him yet they are united with Him, blessed be He. By the revelation of His will, which becomes manifest through this occupation with the Torah and the particular commandment they [the attributes] coalesce into one another and the gevurot are sweetened by chasadim at this propitious moment. In the light of the above it will be clearly understood why fear and love are figuratively called “wings,” as is written, “And with two he would fly”11 Isaiah 6:2. [and as Rabbi Chaim Vital, of blessed memory, explained in Shaar Hayichudim, ch. 11], that the wings are to a bird what arms are to a man…. And in Tikkunim it is explained that they who occupy themselves with Torah and commandments in fear and love are called “children”; otherwise they are called “fledglings” that cannot fly. NOTE: In Tikkun 45 it is written that the [figure of a] bird represents Metatron.12 The highest ranking angel. His head is the letter yud, the body is the letter vav, and the two wings are the two [letters] hey,13 Referring to the Name of Havaya. and so forth. This refers to the world of Yetzirah which is identified with Metatron, wherein are the “bodies” of the halachot of the Mishnah; his head symbolizes the intellectual aspects, the chochmah, binah, daat (chabad), that is the inwardness of the halachot, their esoteric meaning and their reasons; while the two wings—fear and love—refer to the higher hey, which is love, and the lower hey, which is the lower fear (yirah tataah), namely, the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven and the dread of G–d, like the awe one feels in the presence of a king, for example; for this is an external and exposed fear, unlike the higher fear (yirah ilaah), which is a feeling of shame, which is of “The hidden things belonging to the L–rd our G–d,”14 Deuteronomy 29:28. and it is found in the Higher Wisdom (chochmah ilaah), symbolizing the letter yud of the Name of Havaya, blessed is He, as is explained in Raaya Mehemna. For just as the wings of a bird are not the essential parts of it, and its vitality does not depend on them at all—as we have learned, that “If its wings have been removed, it is kosher” (ritually clean),15 Chullin 56b. the essential parts being its head and entire body, while the wings merely serve the head and body, enabling it to fly with their aid—so, by way of example, are the Torah and commandments the essential aspect of the higher union through the manifestation of the Supernal Will that is revealed through them, while the fear and love raise them to that place where the will, the light of the En Sof, blessed is He, and the union (yichud), are revealed, namely, the worlds of Yetzirah and Beriah. NOTE: Or even in [the world of] Asiyah, in the ten sefirot of holiness, the abode of the active commandments and also of [the study of] Scripture. But in the case of the Mishnah, the yichud and light of the En Sof, blessed is He, are revealed in [the world of] Yetzirah; and, in the case of Talmud, in [the world of] Beriah. This means that when one studies Scripture, the yichud and light of the En Sof, blessed is He, are diffused from Atzilut to Asiyah; and in [the study of] Mishnah [they reach] to Yetzirah only; and in [the case of] Talmud—to Beriah only. For they are all in Atzilut. As for Kabbalah, it is not diffused at all from Atzilut to Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, as is explained in Pri Etz Chaim. And although fear and love also form part of the 613 commandments,16 See Maimonides, Sefer Hamitzvot, Precepts 3 & 4. nevertheless they are called “wings,” for the consummation of love is the service out of love, and love without service is a “love of delights”17 See above, chs. 9, 14. delighting in G–d, which is of the nature of the World to Come and the receiving of reward, as it is written, “This day—to do them,” “and tomorrow” [in the World to Come]—to receive one’s reward.18 Eruvin 22a. But he who has not attained this dimension of savoring the nature of the World to Come, but whose soul still yearns and thirsts for G–d and goes out to Him all day, yet he does not quench his thirst with the water of the Torah that is in front of him—such a man is like one who stands in a river and cries: “Water! Water to drink!” Thus the prophet laments over such a man, “Ho, all who thirst, go to water.”19 Isaiah 55:1. For in its simple meaning the verse makes no sense: Surely, he who is thirsty and longs to learn will study of his own accord; why, then, does the prophet need to rebuke him “Ho”? This is explained at length elsewhere.
