Tanya/Shaar Hayichud V’haEmunah, Chapter 12, Class 4

[and the firmament called] Machon, in which there are stores of snow and stores of hail….”³

מָכוֹן, שֶׁבּוֹ אוֹצְרוֹת שֶׁלֶג וְאוֹצְרוֹת בָּרָד וְכוּ’”,

Each of the seven firmaments thus has its general nature—the fact that it is a firmament—as well as its individual aspect, as exemplified above.

The heavens as a whole were created and live and exist the aggregate words of the utterance, “Let there be a firmament…,”

שֶׁכְּלָלוּת הָרְקִיעִים נִבְרְאוּ וְחַיִּים וְקַיָּימִים בִּכְלָלוּת תֵּיבוֹת אֵלּוּ, שֶׁבְּמַאֲמַר “יְהִי רָקִיעַ וְכוּ’”,

In general terms,⁴ their existence as heavens results from the comprehensive illumination contained within the words, “Let there be a firmament…,”

and each individual created being in the seven heavens⁵ was created and lives and exists by virtue of some combination of the letters of these words, or their substitutions and transpositions,

וּפְרָטֵי הַבְּרוּאִים שֶׁבְּז’ רְקִיעִים – נִבְרָא כָּל פְּרָט מֵהֶם וְחַי וְקַיָּים מֵאֵיזֶה צֵירוּף אוֹתִיּוֹת מִתֵּיבוֹת אֵלּוּ, אוֹ חִילּוּפֵיהֶן וּתְמוּרוֹתֵיהֶן,

[these combinations, substitutions, and transpositions being] according to the quality of the life-force of that particular creature.

שֶׁהֵן כְּפִי בְּחִינַת חַיּוּת הַנִּבְרָא הַפְּרָטִי הַהוּא

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FOOTNOTES

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3. Chagigah 12b. See Commentary of the Rebbe at the conclusion of this chapter.

4. The Rebbe explains that the Alter Rebbe writes here that “the heavens as a whole were created…through the…words…‘Let there be a firmament,’” because each individual heaven was created by the name it is known by in the Holy Tongue (e.g., Shechakim), as stated above at the end of ch. 1.

5.  Note by the Rebbe: “This includes the firmament itself, as explained above.”