Hiskashrus (התקשרות) — Bonding

Core definition

Hiskashrus, "bonding" or "connection," is the soul's binding itself to Divinity — the relationship in which the soul attaches to the Divine not by understanding alone but by essential attachment. Its primary arena is prayer: "the soul's hiskashrus in Divinity is through tefillah" [31667/maamar_019 :: עב׳ 250], and "the main hiskashrus is through the avodah of the heart in tefillah" [31667/maamar_019 :: עב׳ 247]. Prayer is "the hiskashrus from below to above" [31633/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 152] and "hiskashrus's ladder through hisbonenus (contemplation)" [31628/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 511].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The Rebbeim insist that hiskashrus is chiefly an inner act. "The main hiskashrus is in thought (machshavah): action can be without hiskashrus at all — as one merely occupied; speech too can be without hiskashrus so much" [31633/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 153–155]. It is the product of contemplation: "a reason for the love and hiskashrus — that he need contemplate in this, and through this the hiskashrus be" [31628/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 687]. There is also "the hiskashrus of the haskalah" — the bonding that intellectual apprehension itself effects, differing in quality with the intellect that does it: "the hiskashrus and drawing that an average intellect binds and draws is not like the hiskashrus and drawing that a wondrous intellect binds and draws" [31667/maamar_019 :: עב׳ 280, עב׳ 289].

The deepest hiskashrus is that of Yisrael as children: "B'nei Yisrael's true hiskashrus in Divinity — called 'banim': as written 'banim atem l'Havayah Elokeichem' (you are children to Havayah your Elokim)" [31628/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 711]. At that level "in this hiskashrus's bechinah he grasps in the essence's bechinah" — the bond reaches Awtsmoos [31628/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 748]. Like all 613 limbs of the soul and body, hiskashrus binds the whole person: "their hiskashrus… was in all 613 limbs of the connected soul and body" [31667/maamar_019 :: עב׳ 69].

Key distinctions

• Hiskashrus vs. hislabshus (enclothement): enclothement is tailored to the recipient — "enclothement is sometimes in an external cause" [58843/maamar_023 :: עב׳ 446] — and a Rav with a student "would be in the level of enclothement and not in the level of hiskashrus" [58843/maamar_023 :: עב׳ 480–481]. Hiskashrus "goes out of the category of enclothement into the category of hiskashrus (bonding)" [58843/maamar_023 :: עב׳ 445]: the father learning with his small son "is bound to him in immense hiskashrus," and "in truth there is no difference at all between this hiskashrus…and the Rav with his great student" — the bond is independent of the recipient's level [58843/maamar_023 :: עב׳ 468–470].
• Hiskashrus vs. ahavah: a lover and beloved may have "love's strength and hiskashrus's strength" together [31628/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 665] — love is the feeling, hiskashrus the bond itself.
• Thought vs. action and speech: "the main hiskashrus is in thought"; action and even speech can be performed without it [31633/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 153–155].
• Hiskashrus's ladder: prayer ascends to bonding "through hisbonenus" [31628/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 511] — contemplation is the means, not a substitute.

Related concepts

• Tefillah
• Hisbonenus
• Dveikus
• Banim (children of the Omnipresent)
• Hislabshus
• Ahavah

Sources

• 31667/maamar_019 — השם נפשנו בחיים (12 Tammuz 5694): hiskashrus in all 613 limbs [עב׳ 69]; main hiskashrus through tefillah [עב׳ 247, עב׳ 250]; hiskashrus of haskalah [עב׳ 280, עב׳ 289]
• 31633/maamar_021 — ויצא יעקב מבאר שבע: prayer as hiskashrus from below to above [עב׳ 151–152]; main hiskashrus in thought [עב׳ 153–155]
• 31628/maamar_010 — ש״פ וישלח (sheva berachos): prayer as hiskashrus's ladder [עב׳ 511]; love and hiskashrus [עב׳ 665]; contemplation as its reason [עב׳ 687]; true hiskashrus of banim [עב׳ 711]; grasping the essence [עב׳ 748]
• 58843/maamar_023 — עשה לך תבת (Shabbos Parshas Noach 5681): from hislabshus to hiskashrus [עב׳ 445–446]; the father and small son [עב׳ 468–470]; Rav and student as hislabshus [עב׳ 480–481]; hiskashrus unchanged in its essence [עב׳ 544]