Powers and Senses

Powers and senses are illuminations from the soul's essence (its garment). Talents are characteristics of the body, indicating how refined the body is and how suitable it is for the soul's revelation within it, whether the soul's powers will be absorbed easily or with difficulty.

Power

The soul's powers are generally divided into powers and senses, which are two levels in the soul's revelation. The soul itself is "simple," has no "form," and cannot be divided into parts. Therefore: a) it cannot be revealed in the world, and b) certainly it cannot act in the world. What is revealed and acts in the world is not the soul's essence but only its "foot" aspect, the illumination extending from it - the powers and senses.

The soul's powers are the essence of the soul's illumination itself (unlike the senses, see below). Just as sunlight is not the sun itself, but the sun warms and illuminates only through its light, so do the soul's powers give life to the body: the external powers give life to external limbs (like hands and feet), more internal powers from the soul give life to internal organs (like heart and brain), and the truly internal powers constitute the life force of the person himself (emotion and intellect). Just as in the analogy we often refer to sunlight as if it were the sun itself, sometimes we refer to the powers as if they were the soul itself (for example, in Tanya chapter 3). Generally, the soul's powers are divided into ten, but in detail there are many powers created from the integration of these ten powers, such as the power of imagination, the power of throwing, etc., and particularly they integrate with each other infinitely.

Levels in Powers

Each of the soul's powers includes three levels, which are stages of its revelation from potential to actual:

Primal Power

The power as it exists in its root, abstracted from any form. The power at this level exists in every person always and completely. For example, the power of sight: as it exists in its primal root, it is present completely in every person. It's possible that a person may be born blind and this power will never be revealed in him throughout his life, but in its abstract source and origin it is complete. The proof for this - even a blind person can have a child who can see with his eyes without any problem. That is, even though the power of sight was not revealed in him, he passed it on completely to his son - from here we learn that even in the father the power was complete, just not revealed from potential to actual.

Existence of the Power

The power as it has already taken form in a specific reality and exists in the person actually, but is still not revealed. For example, a person known to us as someone who always helps others - the power of kindness exists in him even when he is not helping and not engaged in acts of kindness at all. For example, with Abraham our father, the power of kindness shined so much that when there was no other person nearby to allow him to actualize this kindness - it caused him great pain, proving that it wasn't the external reality that aroused him to behave with kindness, but it was within him inherently.

Power in Action

When the power is clothed in action within the body's limbs, for example when a person actually sees or hears, this is called 'power in action.'

Sense

The senses in a person are: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Similar to powers, senses are also illuminations from the soul, but they are not the essence of the soul's illumination (like powers) but only its externality and extension, and they are not revealed in the limbs themselves but only in the "cracks" of the body: eyes, ears, nostrils, etc.

Even their revelation in these organs is not in the organs themselves, but through the organs. Similar to the revelation of breath from the mouth during speech, where the breath is not related to the speech itself, and speech is not clothed in breath, but it is revealed together with it.

Their Function

The difference between powers and senses is also evident in their function: while powers provide life force to the organs and even influence others, senses do not give life to the organs, and certainly do not affect others at all.

Advantage of Senses over Powers

The advantage of senses over powers is that in them the essence of pleasure, which is the inner dimension of the soul, is revealed. The reason for this is that although powers are more elevated than senses, the root of the senses is anchored in the very essence of the soul - much higher than the powers, and as everyone feels in themselves, the pleasure in seeing "captures" them much more than the pleasure in intellectual understanding.

Within this itself there are different levels: despite the greatness of the pleasure in the power of sight, the pleasure in hearing is greater than it, and the pleasure in smell is even greater, as we see tangibly that it touches the essence of the soul, so that even when a person faints, they can be awakened by giving them something to smell, and the greatest pleasure is the pleasure in the power of speech.

Number of Powers and Senses

The general number of powers is ten (Chochmah, Binah, Daat, Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut). But in detail they are included within each other, and there are various specific powers explained in Chassidic teachings as analogies for understanding different concepts. For example: the power of throwing is used as an analogy for understanding the concept of the first tzimtzum, the power of imagination is an analogy for the light that fills all worlds, and similarly the concept of the power of speech is explained in many places, and more.

The number of senses is five (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch). But here too, as with powers, this is only general. In detail, these five forms exist not only in the soul but in all three definitions of the world: world, year, soul (which are general definitions for place, time, and the spiritual force that acts and enlivens everything), and in each and every level of them. For example in the intellect, there is the sense of sight within intellect, the sense of hearing within intellect, and similarly the other senses.

Garments

Besides powers and senses, the soul is also revealed through three garments: thought, speech, and action. But the illumination of the soul in the garments is so diminished that they are no longer considered as belonging to it, but as separate. This is like actual garments: even though the garment belongs to the person (and moreover - the person cannot do without it), the garment itself is not part of the person's body at all.

Talent

Talent is the quality of the body's material to receive the soul's powers. For example, someone whose brain matter is coarse will understand intellect slowly, and vice versa. Although talent is much lower than sense, it has a wonderful advantage - when a person with coarse intellect exerts effort and succeeds in understanding deep concepts, he reaches a more fundamental understanding than someone born with talent. This reveals the advantage of the body - that its existence comes only from the Divine Essence.

See Also

Light, Life Force, and Power