Near in Place, Near in Time
“Higher still is the level of those whose evil inclination is a “fine kelipah.” Such an evil inclination is sent only to a truly worthy man. But this is still not the level of the evil inclination of the true Tzaddikim. Theirs is really a holy angel.”
— Likutey Moharan I, 72
What is the fine kelipah?
The coarse kelipah pulls sideways — wandering eyes from side to side, escaping the straight. It seeks instant gratification by turning off the line, side to side. But when a person commits to yashar, to straightness, that path is no longer looked at. It’s understood. So the kelipah must refine itself. It no longer says, “Turn aside.” Now it says, “Go higher, become everything right now.” It no longer seeks instant gratification by escaping the straight. Now it seeks instant gratification in the straight — by jumping ahead into the future of the straight line. It stays on the straight, and escapes the present. No longer through ease, but through over-extension: reaching for where you’ll be instead of standing where you are, living ahead of itself. That’s the fine kelipah. Straight, but living ahead of itself.
And Moshe already answers this illusion, in this week’s Parsha, Netzavim
Devarim 30:12. לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲלֶה־לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה — It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend to heaven for us, bring it to us, and make us hear it, so we may do it?”
Verse 13. וְלֹא־מֵעֵבֶר לַיָּם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲבָר־לָנוּ אֶל־עֵבֶר הַיָּם וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה — And not beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea for us, bring it to us, and make us hear it, so we may do it?”
And verse 14. כִּי־קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר מְאֹד בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ — It is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.
The undoing of the fine kelipah is realizing that closeness. Not holiness as somewhere else. Near in place is also near in time — the cure for escaping the present is the nearness of the present.
