Step by Step: Humility, Root and Lower Waters

10Or we may read “Go for yourself …” as a call to climb step by step, a need that goes back to Adam HaRishon. Of him it is written, “Of every tree of the garden achol tochal, you shall surely eat.”¹ This is puzzling: why did Hashem command Adam and Chavah what to eat? For achol tochal is the language of command. We must also ask: at first it says, “Of every tree of the garden,” which implies that they would eat of the Tree of Life too. Why, then, once they had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, were they forbidden to eat of the Tree of Life?²

11It seems we can explain it this way. At first Adam had a great level in the upper world, which is called the Tree of Life. That is why Hashem commanded him to eat of the Tree of Life: so that he would remain in his holiness forever. He was commanded not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is the lower worlds, so that he would not become physical. Afterward, when he ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he fell from the upper level and became physical. So Hashem commanded him not to eat of the Tree of Life: since he had already become physical, and good and evil were now in Adam and Chavah, it was not fitting for him to touch the Tree of Life until he rose from the lower level to the upper, step by step. It follows that since the sin of Adam HaRishon, a person must serve Hashem step by step, from a lower level to a higher one.

12This is how we read “Go for yourself from your land.” Lech lecha: go to yourself, to your root on high, from which you were hewn.³ “From your land”: the first beginning, the one that lets you come to your root on high, is humility; think of your lowliness, “for dust you are.”⁴ “From your birthplace and from your father's house”: from these too you go to your root, if you bring all of it into the thought of the greatness of God, blessed be He. This will make you worthy to come “to the land that I will show you,” the land on high.

13This also explains “Fortunate are you who sow upon all waters.”⁵ There are upper waters and lower waters.⁶ These [lower waters] are called “the raging waters,”⁷ and they are also called “many waters”; that is the meaning of “Many waters cannot quench the love”:⁸ these lower waters cannot quench it. A person must serve from below upward, raising the lower waters, which are called “the weeping waters” and come from the side of the kelipah, the husk that hides holiness, up into holiness. A hint of this is “Baruch kevod Hashem mimkomo, Blessed is the glory of Hashem from His place”: its initials (ב כ י מ, with the yud of Hashem's Name) spell bochim (בכים), weeping.⁹ That is “Fortunate are you who sow …”: thought is called sowing, and fortunate are the sowers whose thought is “upon all waters,” upon the lower waters too, to bring them into holiness.