Jasidut sobre Génesis 9:6

1. The matter of the commandment of being fruitful and multiplying - See, our sages say (Niddah 31) “There are three partners in a person: the father provides seed and from him comes the whiteness – bones, sinews, nails, and the brain in his head, and the whiteness of the eye. The mother gives “seed” from which [comes] the redness - skin, flesh, etc… and The Holy One Blessed be He gives him ruach-spirit and neshama-soul.” Now, it is known based on that which is written on the verse (Yeshaya 57:16) “and the souls I made” that a person has two souls: an animalistic soul that is enclothed within the blood of a person to give it life, and also it gives a person intelligence to comprehend all manner of wisdom in the world, and it draws [its spiritual root] from above from the spiritual forces, which is the quality of the “face of the ox” on the Godly Chariot - and from the “face of a man” [on the Chariot] is drawn the animalistic souls of the Jews - and the second soul within Jews is an actual part of God, as it’s written “God is a portion of His people,” because it is a spark of actual Godliness and it is drawn from the quality of “the likeness of a man upon the throne,” which is the likeness of the form of the glory of God. (see Ezekiel 1:26, 28) And this is [the meaning of] that which is written (Genesis 9:6) “in the image of God He made Man.” Because the essential quality of the ten sefiros (emanations) of zeer anpin correspond to the form of a human structure by way of analogy, and like that which is written also the neshama-soul which is drawn from it is in the form of a human with 248 spiritual “limbs” and 365 spiritual “sinews,” and like that which is written in the Etz Chaim that all the souls put together are like one human enclothed in the human [structure/form] of the sefiros, and the godly soul is enclothed in the animalistic soul, which is also according to the form of a human with 248 limbs and 365 sinews, and is enclothed in the actual physical limbs of a person, which are actually aligned [with the soul’s structure] in form and likeness and the structure of the “limbs” and “sinews” of the spiritual soul, as is found in the Zohar (I 38a) – “the lower world is parallel the upper world.” And now, to understand all this, and the matter of the effects [resulting from] the time of a person's cohabitation in drawing down a soul, it is necessary to preface first the matter of the descent of the soul to this world, why it [is necessary]. Since it is known that the soul, before its descent into the body stands on a very lofty level and derives pleasure from the radiance of the Shechina (Divine Presence of Immanence), as it's written regarding Elijah, "As Hashem lives, before whom I stood" (Kings I 17:1), according to its place and level in Atzilus, Briyah, Yetzira, or Asiyah, and why it descends multitudes [of levels] into a physical body that conceals the light of holiness of God, which it is drawn from, and [the body] runs after physical pleasures of this world by its nature, in that they are its foundation and nature and cause the concealment of godliness. And also, since in truth, all the pleasures and comforts of this world are as nothing, even if one was able to live a thousand years in peace and tranquility and security and be a king of kings, such that you didn't lack anything in the world of all its pleasures, it is still impossible, in truth, to compare them with one hour of the spiritual pleasure, even the lowest of the low levels in the spiritual worlds. For that which is written, (Avos 4:17) "Better is one hour of spiritual satisfaction in the World to Come than all the life of this world." And how much more so [the spiritual pleasure of] the upper Garden of Eden, which cannot be compared at all to the lower Garden of Eden, so much so that when a soul ascends from the lower garden to the upper garden, it needs to "immerse" in the River Dinor to "forget" all the pleasures of the lower Garden of Eden so that it will not be confused in the upper garden - the same way that a soul ascending from this world to the lower garden needs at first to "forget" its {vision?} (translation uncertain) of this world, as is known in the Zohar, since it is actually like a foreign thought that confuses...etc. If so, any understanding person can grasp the matter to picture the awesome power of the pleasures of the upper garden, and there are many more levels above that that are not even mentioned in books, only these two levels [are], but in truth, it is known to us from the holy authors to which the paths of heaven are revealed to them, that there are levels ad infinitum, and each one is greater than the essence of the one below it, like that which is written by our sages (Chagigah 13a) "the feet of the chayos [angels] are corresponding to all." And to this our sages had in mind in their statement (Brachos 64a) "Torah scholars have no rest in the World to Come" - they go from strength to strength according to the concept of ascending to higher and higher worlds to take pleasure in God. Furthermore, the magnitude of the soul's descent can be understood - how it goes from "a high roof to a low pit" - through another matter, namely, that which our sages stated (Chagigah 15b) [about "acher," (the heretic Elisha ben Avuyah)] that "better he be judged properly [by the heavenly court] and then go into the World to Come" - this means to say that even the lower Garden of Eden. Now the judgement and suffering of Gehenom are very great and strong, as it's written in Iggeres Hateshuva (chapter 12) in the name of the Ramban, that even the suffering of Job for seventy years is not comparable to even one hour in Gehenom, and the judgement of the wicked in Gehenom is twelve months (Eiduyos 2:10) and they are more than eight, closer to nine thousand hours, and from the time that Acher died in the lifetime of R' Meir (who was before R' Shimon b' Yochai as is written in the Rambam's introduction to the Mishnah and in the [Tosfos Yom Tov?] in the first chapter of Shevuos (mishnah 4) that he was the teacher of Rebbe who was the teacher of R' Yochanan, who lived a long life) and when he died, the smoke stopped ascended from Acher's grave [a sign that his time in Gehenom had ceased]. And all this is relevant to the lower Garden of Eden, how much more so many multitudes and multitudes more is the level of the lower Garden of Eden of which it is worth to bear much suffering just for it alone, something that isn't true for the pleasures of this world [that one wouldn't] bear [even] minor suffering to earn it ... ויאמרו לו הן וכו' [translation uncertain] ... Rather, in truth there is no comparison between the pleasure of the body to the spiritual pleasures and even between the pleasures of the lower Garden of Eden, and how much more so the spiritual worlds of which the lower Garden of Eden compared to the higher Garden of Eden is like the difference between physical pleasures and the spiritual pleasures of the lower Garden of Eden, so too in this, higher and higher the levels go with no end, so that when an understanding person puts his heart to contemplate this matter he'll be shocked into silence by the wondrous and extremely lofty levels that the soul had to descend from down into this world of physicality. However, in truth, blessed is our God, blessed be He, the Good and the one who does good, and in His simple will desired to do good to His people, the Jews, and this descent is for the purpose of an ascent - to raise them up further higher and higher beyond any limit or end, from their original status and place, so that this ascent is specifically through their descent into this world first, and this is [the idea of] what our Sages say: "Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than all the life of the World To Come." (Avos 4:17) And they say "than all the life of the World To Come" since all the lofty and refined levels that are found in the spiritual worlds - the place of the soul's {enjoyment?} where they benefit from the radiance of the Shechinah higher and higher as is known to those who enter the "gates" (ie: works) of the Ari z"l - they are all as nothing compared to one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world. That is because the revelation of godliness that is drawn through any mitzvah in this world is higher than all of them and more preferable beyond any limit, measurement, or end than all the pleasures of the life of the World To Come as stated earlier, and upon that which was stated earlier about how the satisfaction of the World To Come is better than the life of this world of materialism, and so much more than that without end is the difference between, as it's written "Of every finite thing I have seen the end; your commandments are very broad." (Tehillim 119:96) Meaning, for all the dissolution of the soul and the pleasures of the souls from their understanding of godliness in the Garden of Eden there is an end and a limit, that a soul can only understand so much and not more, but the "width" (ie: capacity) of a mitzvah to receive in it the revelation of godliness in the manner of the Infinite (Ain Sof) and without end, for that is the meaning of the word "me'od-very" [in the verse from Tehillim], which implies something without limit or measure, (as in Iggeres Hakodesh 17).

Now, the explanation of these matters [may be understood in a manner] of “From my flesh I shall behold God,”⁵Job 19:26 because “Man was made in the image of God,”⁶Genesis 9:6 as stated,⁷Genesis 1:26 “[Let us make man] in our form and in our likeness.”