Preserving Kindness: Help from Nothing for the Lowly

181We believe in the words of the holy Arizal. In the kavanos, the inner intentions he set out for Chanukah, he taught that each night the light of one of the thirteen attributes of mercy is awakened.¹ On this night [the eighth] the light awakened runs from the attribute of Notzer chessed, “He preserves kindness,” down to the attribute of v'Nakeh, “and He cleanses.” Notzer chessed is the secret of the higher mazal, the channel through which the flow comes down from on high; it awakens all the unions above, and from it Abba, the “Father,” receives, as is known. “And He cleanses” is the lower mazal. Abba stands for the mind, and by the power of faith a person increases and adds to the flow into Chochmah, which is the mind.² Through pure thoughts, that is, a Jew gives life to the mind, so that it becomes fruitful and gives birth. This is what the holy sefarim mean when they write that Chanukah is a time when barren women are remembered.

182Through bittul and submission, when a person makes himself as nothing and naught, he awakens the mazal above that is called ayin, “nothing,” and “from ayin comes his help.”³ This is “He preserves kindness la'alafim.” La'alafim (לאלפים) means “for thousands,” but here it is read as those still at the alef (אלף). It is kindness for those who know the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, and know, against it, their own low state: they have not yet known or grasped even the faintest edge of it, and they still stand at the beginning, at the alef. As Dovid HaMelech said, “For Hashem is exalted, and the lowly yir'eh.”⁴ Plainly He sees the lowly; here it is read that the lowly one sees. The lowly one sees the greatness of Hashem and sees, against it, his own lowliness, and “from ayin comes his help.”

183This is what the holy Arizal wrote in the Siddur on “He gives snow like wool.”⁵ In the secret of Imma, the “Mother,” the sefirah of Binah, there are three Names Ehe-yeh (אהיה), and so three alefs; spelled out, each alef (אלף) is 111, and together they equal sheleg (שלג), snow, 333. This comes about through the verse's next words, “frost like ashes He scatters”: through one who makes himself like ashes. It is as the holy sefarim write on Chazal's saying, “Money (kesafim) has no safekeeping except in the ground.”⁶ We know that kesafim, silver, stand for chassadim, kindnesses, and they have no safekeeping except “in the ground”: in one who makes himself like dust before all and lowers himself to the very earth. Master of the world, save them [Your people], for there is no one to plead for them!