Page 29. Lower third of the page. At the line starting “beoneg haeloki she bedibur”. Click on the herring (in tool bar on the right) to see text.
Chochmah is a vessel for the koach of pleasure that is in the nefesh.
Chochmah brings the oneg/nefesh quality into all the kochot. Oneg represents the profound quality of nefesh itself.
In the world, all is a composite. Everything is put together from parts. Functionally it exists, but not as an essence. The essence of a thing, like a table exists in the human soul. All actual existence is composed of precarious composites, but on the other hand there has to be an essence. This essence is the koach ha=Eloki that created the world. What gives the table the sense of reality? The human being - is the nefesh that is dressed into his body. This reality is real in and of itself – in the body it takes 613 elements to clothe it. A composite will decompose, but an essence is eternal.
This essence that is dressed in the limbs of the body is called oneg. Why oneg? Anything that affects something beyond itself has to express itself in someway. This way it can be felt by something beyond itself. The essence of the nefesh, it does not express to the guf. So we have a koach that is representative of the nefesh – this is the oneg, which brings the guf to life and gives it a sense of an essential presence. It is a koach, but has an essential status. Normally a koach doesn't have this quality – it has a function. Oneg is not function dependent.
Oneg is an experience of nefesh.
When a king of Israel passes away all his objects that he used, get burned – their presence represented the king. The oneg has extended from the nefesh of the king , into his body and into these objects. There is continuity between kings of Israel, but they cannot overlap.
The oneg of avodah/service: In avoodah, essentially we have specific actions – specific actions, making up specific mitzvoth. You do it since it is a command. This is the body of the mitzvah.
But the experience of it is not just the action of wrapping. There is the perception in the sechel of “what I am doing” and this perception of the sechel is contained in an even higher perception of connecting to an overall truth.
You can see yourself and Him as two separate entities, and then there's no oneg, just fear of punishment – just the oneg of self preservation. The essence of the mitzvah is interrelationship – I'm a real participant in what is going on – a participant in the world. The oneg is, “I am a participant in His will – this is our reality in the world.”
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... וחיי עולם
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