Chet (חטא) — Sin

Core definition

Chet — sin — is, in the Chassidic account, not a mere transgression of rules but an act with cosmic mechanics: every sin draws holy light down to the sitra achra and strengthens it. The archetype is the chet of the Tree of Knowledge (עץ הדעת): through it, "the nine (ט״ט) of Malchus descended into the kelipos," and "from this was made the mixture of good and evil in the world — at first they were not so mixed" [15893/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 16–18].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The first sin as killing a soul. The Midrash reads "טוב וישר ה׳, על כן יורה חטאים בדרך" on Adam HaRishon: he deserved death for bringing death to the generations, but Hashem had mercy and exiled him — "this is mercies and kindnesses" — as an inadvertent murderer is exiled to the cities of refuge [15893/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 12]. Hence "the chet of the Tree of Knowledge is as the matter of one who kills a soul inadvertently" [15893/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 13]. The explanation: when Adam HaRishon was exiled from Gan Eden after the chet, "several souls and sparks fell to the seventy ministers of nogah" (Chesed LeYackov, in the Arizal's name, Sefer HaGilgulim) [15893/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 14–15].

Spilling the soul's blood. "שופך דם האדם באדם" (whoever spills man's blood — Bereishis 9:6): Adam is aleph-dam — aleph plus blood, and blood is the soul [15893/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 26]. Through sin, "the supernal light's flow descends to the kelipah" — divine vitality, clothed in the sefiros ("וההיא נביעא איהי כנשמתא לגופא"), is spilled to the "other side's" Adam [15893/maamar_021 :: Summary (page ר)]. Sin thus nurses the evil it serves: the sitra achra "defiles the divine soul, effects the din… and they have אחיזה (grasp) and יניקה (nursing) in it" — spiritual death is "separating the soul from the living Elokim" [15893/maamar_021 :: Summary (page ר)]. The wicked "in their lives are called dead" — no divine vitality felt [15893/maamar_021 :: Summary (page ר)].

The thief's economy. "The thief lives only from what he steals": in the holy side the vitality is their own; in the sitra achra it is only stolen [15893/maamar_021 :: Summary (page ר)]. The chitzonim's entire nourishment is only from holy light — "otherwise no existence at all" [15893/maamar_021 :: Summary (page קצח)].

Rectification: the city of refuge. The counsel is flight to the cities of refuge — the Torah: "the Torah is the level of a city of refuge, to rectify the chet of the Tree of Knowledge" [15893/maamar_021 :: Summary (page ר)]. One who is absorbed in the Torah's light is guarded from all the chitzonim's אחיזה and יניקה, and his soul is purified and polished to cleave in the living Elokim [15893/maamar_021 :: Summary (page רה)]. The blemish in fear — being made separate and distanced from divinity — is rectified through Torah learning with the soul's preparation, drawing fear upon his soul [15893/maamar_021 :: Summary (page רה)].

Prevention: yiras chet. Before sin, the guard is yiras chet — fear of sin. R' Chanina ben Dosa (Avos 3:9): "kol she-yiras chet'o kodemes le-chochmaso, chochmaso miskayemes" — whose fear of his sin precedes his wisdom, his wisdom endures. A yerei shamayim is an ohev mitzvah and a sonei aveirah — a lover of mitzvos and a hater of transgression — which is yiras chet; not only must fear of sin ground learning, it must precede it: "the machshavah's beginning is for the maaseh that comes at the end" [15799/maamar_039 :: Intro, Summary (section א)]. One who learns only to know the Torah's wisdom without being mekayeim — when his heart turns from yiras chet, the wisdom has no endurance [15799/maamar_039 :: Intro].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources