Episode notes
In the chapter that follows, the Alter Rebbe describes yet another manner of attaining the level of lishmah, of performing Torah and mitzvot with the innermost feelings of one’s soul. This approach consists of utilizing the third of the primary spiritual emotions, namely, compassion—the attribute of tiferet (lit., “beauty”), which is the distinctive characteristic of our forefather Jacob—as follows. Before engaging in Torah and mitzvot, a Jew should arouse in his mind the attribute of compassion for the divine spark of his soul. For the soul had to descend from its source, from the most lofty of spiritual heights, to the nethermost level in order to garb itself in a body whose life-force derives from kelipot and is as distant as possible from G-d. This is all the more so if the individual caused the “E ...
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