Midos (מדות) — the traits, emotional attributes

Core definition

Midos ("traits," "measures") are the emotional attributes — love, awe, mercy, severity, and their kin — as they exist in the soul of man and, by reflection, in the sefirot above. The corpus treats the seven lower sefirot (Chesed through Malchus) as the divine midos, and the soul's own midos as their counterpart below. Excitement is the essence of the trait: "the general matter of the feeling of good is excitement (hispaalus), for excitement is middot" [31675/maamar_002 :: p.יז].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Intellect as cause, middos as effect. A Rosh Hashanah maamar explains that "intellect and middot are cause and effect: intellect is the cause, and middot are the effects — even the most wondrous wisdom necessarily produces its effect," and "one can recognize the cause's quality in the middah it produces — the intellect flows and enclothes itself in the middah." "The drawing-down of the middah is the very body of a drawing-down from the intellect, which is the cause of the middot." Within the middos themselves there is likewise cause and effect: "Netzach-Hod-Yesod are the branches of Chesed-Gevurah-Tiferet — Netzach is the branch of Chesed," and "the order of the standing of the sefirot is in three lines: Chochmah-Chesed-Netzach on the right, Binah-Gevurah-Hod on the left, Daat-Tiferet-Yesod in the middle" [31675/maamar_002 :: pp.טז–יז].

Middos within the mochin vs. middos in the heart. The same maamar traces the soul's subtle gradations: when a sage grasps an argument fully, his intellect inclines toward chesed or din — intellectual excitement (hispaalus sichlit), the inclination (hatayah) of the intellect: "not yet movement or excitement, yet no longer pure intellect." Contemplation of a divine matter that arouses love brings a subtle pull toward Divinity still in the category of mochin; contemplating a matter that arouses yirah brings contraction and bitul even during the contemplation — "for all this is the level of the middot within the mochin, which afterward come in revelation in the heart and become the level of actual middot." And the two feel different: "in the middot within the intellect, the feeling there is that Divinity is good; whereas in the middot of love and awe comes the feeling of how the thing is good for him" — "that for him it is good" being of no comparison to what is good in essence [31675/maamar_002 :: p.יז].

The middos' hispaalus is from daas. A maamar on daas supplies the crucial condition: "the middos' hispaalus is from daas" — Chochmah's flash-point reaching Binah's comprehension comes into daas, "the moach that recognizes and feels"; without daas "there is no true yirah and ahavah — only false imaginings" (Tanya). The refined middos are "conducted per the seichel" — what the seichel comprehends of Divinity's good cleaving to Him, "despising evil, choosing good." Without daas the middos flip: comprehending Divinity in seichel alone, "it is easy to flip, doing a thing and its reverse." "Every intellectual matter has a middah," and bringing out the musar is of the most exalted matters — R. Yochanan ben Zakkai's praise of R. Elazar ben Arach, "you expound beautifully and fulfill beautifully," is explained: what "fulfilling" is in such a matter is the middah in it, "reached only through recognition" [15966/maamar_012 :: p.קמז].

Passing over one's middos draws the thirteen mercies. The avodah of the traits has a supernal counterpart. On the Sages' "whoever passes over his middos — they pass over all his sins for him": Rashi explains that though he was pained, he does not do to him measure for measure; through this he draws from above "and Havayah passed before his face" — and through conquering his inclination he draws from above "to conquer the middas hadin of Atzilus," so that "the thirteen middos harachamim be drawn, to conquer middas hadin." This is the teaching "the Holy One, blessed be He, prays: may it be Your will that My mercies overcome My anger," and "these are His mighty deeds — that He conquers His inclination": the matter of His inclination above is the middas hadin — "and this depends specifically on the avodah of passing over his middos and conquering the inclination." "For whom does He bear sin? For him who passes over transgression — for him who makes himself as leftovers" [15962/maamar_022 :: p.רפ].

Key distinctions

1. Intellect vs. middos — cause and effect: the intellect is the cause, the middah its necessary effect; the middah's drawing-down is the intellect's own drawing-down enclothed [31675/maamar_002 :: pp.טז–יז]. 2. Middos in the mochin vs. middos in actuality — in the intellect the feeling is "Divinity is good" in essence; in the heart's love and awe it is "how the thing is good for him" [31675/maamar_002 :: p.יז]. 3. The inclination vs. the middah — the intellect's hatayah toward chesed or din precedes actual middos; even "the middots within the intellect" are still intellect [31675/maamar_002 :: p.יז]. 4. Supernal middos and human middos — passing over one's own middos draws from above the thirteen middos of mercy to conquer the middas hadin [15962/maamar_022 :: p.רפ].

Related concepts

Sources