Tanya A Modern Translation – First part of chapter 2
By zevi770 · May 2, 2014
Chapter 2
The second soul in a Jew is quite literally part of God, as the verse states “And within his nostrils, he blew a soul of life” and as we say, “You blew within me my soul.”
The hidden meaning behind this is, as it teaches in the Zohar (Kabbalah) “One who blows, causes the breath to come from within” in other words, from his essence; that man’s inner essence is exhaled when one blows with all their might (as will be explained: just as we tire when blowing with all our strength, for a part of our essential being is exhaled, thus the wording, that God blows in this soul; is very symbolic.)
Similarly, to use the analogy of blowing, the souls of the Jewish people arose in God’s thought, as it is written “My firstborn son, is the Jewish people,” “You are God’s children.”
This means, just as a child emanates from the thoughts of the father, similarly so to speak, the souls of each and every Jew emanate from God’s thought and wisdom.
Now the symbolism of this, relates to another idea, that God’s wisdom is unlike the human construct which we call wisdom, for he and his wisdom are inseparable, as the Rambam writes, that he is simultaneously, the knower and the known and the knowledge (which is known) – such a conception of wisdom is impossible for a human mind to comprehend as the verse writes “if you attempt to understand God, can you?” and as it is written “My thinking patterns, are far beyond yours!”
(The above demonstrates, that the source of this second Divine soul comes from God’s thought, which are one with God, hence the notion that it is blown, that it is literally part of God’s essence!)
A question may arise – can we truly say that a great Jewish sinner – possesses such a lofty part of God? – to forestall such a question, the following idea was written by the author:
This, despite the fact that there are tens of thousands of different levels of souls amongst the Jewish people, to the extent of infinite differences; for example, the greatness of the souls of the forefathers and Mosheh Rabeinu visa-vie the souls of our generation, called the heels of Moshiach (indicating that relative to their lofty perceptions of Divinity, we like a heal, feel practically nothing.)
In addition, in every generation, are the leaders of the Jewish people, whose souls are on the category of brain and head, visa-vie the rest of their generation (for as mentioned in the first chapter, God spread the truly righteous to serve as role-models in every generation, hence their innate awareness of God / truth, allows them a vantage point, so necessary for our understanding.)
Similarly, there are vast differences on the level of Nefesh, for every soul comprises three distinct entities called nefesh, ruach, neshama (this is a lengthy subject mentioned in great brevity here.)
Nonetheless, the source of every nefesh, ruach and neshomoh in every single Jew, from the loftiest to the “lowest” souls, inhabiting the most insensitive, unfeeling; comes from God’s mind, in other words, from God himself!
An example how something very high can descend very low; is from a child, who originates in his father’s mind / thoughts (the precursor of the semen) and even the toenails are quite literally created from this drop (in other words, something as lofty as a thought, can become a toenail.) This transformation occurred, through the drop being formed into a baby during the nine months of pregnancy and there it descends, level after level, until it actually transforms itself and creates a toenail.
Nonetheless, it continues to be innately connected and united, totally and intrinsically, with its original source and being, when it was a seminal thought in the fathers mind.
(In other words, within the toenail is the DNA, which is the very same DNA of the fathers drop, so we see, how something can descend to the greatest depths and yet intrinsically be the most lofty Divine source.)