Joining the Whole: Preserving Kindness on Zos Chanukah

173aIn his kavanah, the inner intention, for this day, the holy Arizal set the attributes from Notzer chessed, “He preserves kindness,” to v'Nakeh, “and He cleanses,” which are the upper mazal and the lower mazal, two channels of blessing on high.¹ On the verse “Yitzchak entreated (vaye'tar) Hashem lenochach, opposite, his wife,” the holy Zohar on Parshas Toldos reads vaye'tar (ויעתר) as chasar (חתר), “dug”: he “dug a tunnel toward the higher mazla.”² And the holy sefarim write that lenochach has the numerical value of mazla (מזלא).³ V'Nakeh, “and He cleanses,” means “He cleanses those who return,”⁴ as in “and his heart will understand (yavin), and he will return and be healed.”⁵ The lower mazal is Binah, understanding, and Binah is the source of teshuvah.

173bLa'alafim, “for thousands,” is as is written in the name of the holy Arizal: it means the Names that begin with alef. And alef (אלף) speaks of both smallness and greatness, for after a thousand (elef, אלף) the count is again alef.⁶ Moshe Rabbeinu reached the place beyond which nothing more can be grasped, and this is the small alef.⁷ And “Tekoa is alfa, first, for oil.”⁸ Tekoa speaks of joining [as in teki'as kaf, a clasp of hands], and alfa too speaks of joining. For through joining together one comes to grasp wisdom, and counsel on how to serve the One Hashem. For oil is wisdom,⁹ and “Chochmah is the brain, thought.”¹⁰ So through joining together one comes to Chochmah, which is Notzer chessed, “He preserves kindness.”

173cIt is also written in the name of the holy Arizal that the thirteen attributes of mercy correspond to the thirteen principles by which the Torah is expounded. So the kal vachomer, the argument from the lesser to the greater, which is the first principle, corresponds to Kel, God, the first of the thirteen attributes of mercy. And the holy Maggid of Mezritch, zt"l, explained Moshe's prayer, “Kel, please heal her, please.”¹¹ For there Hashem, blessed be He, stated a kal vachomer: “If her father had spat in her face,” she would be shamed seven days; all the more so before the Shechinah, fourteen days.¹² That is why Moshe prayed with the attribute of Kel, the Name of mercy, and it corresponds to the kal vachomer. If so, Notzer chessed corresponds to the principle of “a particular that needs the general,” as the holy Arizal wrote in his siddur. True, the general needs the particular too. But the particular [each one of us] must also nullify itself to the general, and by nullifying itself to the general it awakens the attribute of Notzer chessed, “He preserves kindness,” as we saw with joining together.