Hislabshus (התלבשות) — Clothing / Enclothing

Core definition

Hislabshus is the principle by which a higher, spiritual reality "clothes" itself in a lower vessel (malbush, "garment") and thereby becomes operative within it. It is the master-mechanism of both cosmic emanation (lights clothing in vessels, the soul clothing in the body) and human psychology (intellect clothing in speech, the Divine soul clothing in the animal soul). The corpus's central analysis, in a Tetzaveh maamar, lays out the doctrine in full: "Known: there are two levels in hislabshus" [15966/maamar_019 :: §355].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The two manners of hislabshus. First manner: the malubash (the clothed, inner one) "rules and governs the malbush — the levush (garment)": "the levush battel, subordinate, dragged after the malubash within it" [15966/maamar_019 :: §358–499]. The examples: the soul's faculties clothing in one another — the intellect-power clothing in the speech-power, so that all the speech's matter is "revealing and explaining the seichel clothed in it"; the intellect-power's clothing in the movement-power in drawing, where the drawing shows life "through the intellect-power's hislabshus in the movement's chachmah" [15966/maamar_019 :: §499]. The supernal analogue: "the ohr rules and draws the keli; the keli subordinate and battel to the ohr: 'ihu v'chayohi chad, ihu v'garmohi chad'" — as the lights unite with Awtsmoos, so the vessels unite with the lights [15966/maamar_019 :: §499]. This holds even for Beriah's vessels: though vessels are "the reality's beginning" there, they stand "in bittul's level" — bitul hayesh — "the reality is Divinity," as the serafim "burned in the bittul" [15966/maamar_019 :: §499].

Second manner: "the malubash — which is the levush — rules and governs what is clothed in it; the levush leads it as it wishes, against the malubash's will — since the malubash is in it in galus" (exile) [15966/maamar_019 :: §502–743]. The extreme case is gilgul: a soul reincarnated in an animal's body, "drawn by force in all the animal's coarse, material, turbid matters" — the reincarnated soul "has no revelation from it," "no power to leave by itself," and "must be fixed first and raised from there" [15966/maamar_019 :: §743].

The Divine soul in the animal soul. "In this hislabshus's generality is also the Nefesh haElokis's hislabshus in the Nefesh habehamis" — and hence the animal soul's overcoming the Divine soul is possible [15966/maamar_019 :: §511, §743]. Yet there is a crucial difference from gilgul: though the Nefesh haElokis clothes itself in the Nefesh habehamis "in hislabshus and tefisah's level — coming in hagshamah by the Nefesh habehamis's natural manner" — still "the Nefesh haElokis's hislabshus in the Nefesh habehamis" is "in revelation at least in its hislabshus." Therefore "the Nefesh haElokis has power to effect in the Nefesh habehamis: to refine, purify, fix it" — unlike the reincarnated soul, which has no revelation at all [15966/maamar_019 :: §743]. Because the Divine soul is revealed within its clothing, "the Nefesh haElokis effects the Nefesh habehamis's zikuch and birur, since it comes in hislabshus in the Nefesh habehamis" [15966/maamar_019 :: §345].

The soul in the body. The master parable is the soul clothing in the body's limbs: "the soul's powers come in hagshamah by the limbs' material manner: the sight-power in the eye, the hearing-power in the ear, the intellect-power in the head's brain." When the sight-power clothes in the eye's matter, "he sees a physical thing" — "not in the soul's sight's proportion"; and even a complete tzaddik "shall not reach his deveikus's level... as before his descent to this material world — no proportion or likeness at all" [15966/maamar_019 :: §352]. Yet "through this hislabshus the guf lives": though the limbs' movement comes from the soul's powers clothing in them, "truly the main from the nefesh, alive in essence" — and so with the worlds, whose life is mainly from Shem Havayah [15966/maamar_019 :: §1352–1496].

Key distinctions

The two manners. In the first, the inner clothed one rules the garment (intellect in speech; light in vessel). In the second, the garment rules the clothed one — the hislabshus of galus and shivyah (exile and captivity), where "the Nefesh habehamis's overcoming the Nefesh haElokis can be" [15966/maamar_019 :: §355–743].

Hislabshus vs. gilgul. Both are the second manner, but the Nefesh haElokis retains revelation within its clothing while the reincarnated soul has none — and hence can refine its garment while the gilgul-soul must be "fixed first and raised from there" [15966/maamar_019 :: §743].

Hislabshus and tzimtzum. For Divinity to shine revealed in the neshamah and be received tangibly, "through the tzimtzum specifically": the neshamah is a vessel for Divinity "yet through the tzimtzum first" — as Atzilus's keilim receive the Ohr Ein Sof only through the kav's constricted measuring. "Elokim = tzimtzum; Elokeinu = rachamim": Elokim, the contraction that is the revelation's cause; Elokeinu, "Divinity shining revealed in the neshamah" [15966/maamar_019 :: §743].

Related concepts

Tzimtzum (the contraction that makes hislabshus possible); Ohr and Keilim (light and vessel); Levush (garment); Nefesh haElokis and Nefesh habehamis; Galus (exile); Gilgul (reincarnation).

Sources