Editing Hegai (The Eunuch of King Ahasuerus) (section)

=== Intermediary Between Thought and Speech ===
"The King" is the Holy One, blessed be He, and "Esther" is the neshamah that yearns for Him. But the limited neshamah does not have the power to cleave to the Holy One, blessed be He (the Unlimited) without assistance. This assistance comes through the malachim (angels), who have the power to receive the divine light and then draw it down to the neshamot. This is what they meant when they said Michael offers the neshamot of tzaddikim – because the neshamot are in the category of created beings, and through Michael they are drawn upward to be included in Atzilut.

The malachim themselves receive from Elokut through Hegai, and this can be understood through the analogy of the soul's powers: Hegai is higayon (reasoning), which is the inner dimension and source of speech, which is the level of thought within speech. However, Hegai is the "active result" of higayon, which creates speech. Now, the higayon of the heart is not actual speech but rather the thought and intention of the heart, as in "and your heart will contemplate (yehgeh) fear," and as explained in the Zohar, "and the contemplation (higayon) of my heart, these are hidden matters that a person cannot express with his mouth, this is higayon which is in the heart."

Since higayon is the intermediary between thought and speech, sometimes thought is called higayon, and sometimes speech is called that. This intermediary is the thought within speech, what is drawn from the essence of thought to be the source of speech.

In the analogy, just as there is an intermediary between thought and speech (Hegai), so too there is an intermediary between Atzilut and Beriah, which is the Holy of Holies sanctuary. Since on one hand the light of Atzilut shines within it, but on the other hand it is the beginning of the world of Beriah, it is therefore the intermediary that connects Atzilut and Beriah, and it influences the malachim and the sanctuaries (in Beriah) to sing and speak – through which they elevate the neshamot.