In a manner corresponding in every detail to the said figure and image [of the love shown by the mighty king to this most lowly individual], but to a much greater degree, doubled and redoubled infinitely more [than in the parable], has our G-d dealt with us.

For His greatness is beyond comprehension.

[Just as G-d is infinitely greater than any physical king, so too does his kingdom extend over an infinitely greater territory, so to speak], and He pervades all worlds and encompasses i.e., transcends all worlds.

And it is known from the holy Zohar, as also from our Master, Rabbi Isaac Luria of blessed memory, of the multitude of Heichalot - these being the specific levels within each spiritual world - and worlds which are infinite, and of the myriads of myriads of angels found in each world and Heichal, countless and without end.

So does the Gemara note: [4] "It is written:[5] `Is there any numbering His regiments [of angels]?' Yet it is also written: [6] `A thousand thousands minister unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him....'

[The second verse indicates that there is indeed a finite number of angels, albeit a very great number, while the rhetorical question in the first verse implies that the number is truly infinite].

The Gemara answers: " `A thousand thousands ... " is the quota of one regiment, but His regiments are innumerable."

[The second verse, then, speaks of the number of angels within one regiment, while the first verse alludes to the number of regiments, which is truly infinite].

Yet, before Him, all of them are accounted as nothing at all and are nullified in their very existence, just as one word is truly nullified in relation to the essence and being of the articulate soul, [the soul possessing the power of speech], while the speech of the soul was still present in [the soul's] faculty of thought, or in the will and desire of the heart, as has been explained above at length.

[In chapters 20 and 21 the Alter Rebbe explained at length how a single utterance is as absolutely nothing when compared to the infinite capacity of the articulate soul. This is so even when the word has already been uttered and has thereby become a distinct entity. Even more so, in the case when the person's speech is in potentia in the person's thought or heart's desire (which are the sources of speech, since a person thinks before he speaks, and speaks about things that he desires). In such an instance, the single word is totally nullified in its source and is not at all perceptible as an entity separate from it.

So too with Divine speech that creates and animates angels, the various worlds, and all creatures. Divine speech is always absolutely united with its source, and is therefore always in a state of total nullification to it].

   

Notes:

4. (Back to text) Chagigah 13b.

5. (Back to text) Iyov 25:3.

6. (Back to text) Daniel 7:10.