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Page 36 – about 8 lines into the second paragraph. Line starts “bechinat...”
Water runs down till it finds a place to rest. So too hishtalshalus – sechel wants to go to a point of completion – it looks for substantiation. The deed represents the essence of the sechel.
Shmini atzeret is the absorption of the effect of rosh hashanah and yom kippur. This effect is beyond world. The neshamas of Israel are where it rests, since these neshamas are not part of the world, but part of atzmus. These neshamas are essential, not functional.
Simchat torah is on shmini atzeret, though you might have thought it would have been more appropriate to have it on Shavuot. This is because it corresponds to the second set of tablets. This second set is the level in torah as it is “in the essence and for the essence”.
Chochma as refined as it is, is still, “looking in from the outside”, and thus an hamshacha not the essence as it is unto itself, and simchat torah is beyond this level of chochmah.
There is a level of simcha that is not associated with any experience. It is not associated with give and take. The inanimate object has a lot to say, but it says it in a quiet way. Inanimate means it does not react to external effects, but it rather means it does not tell you about itself, but it is a true presence. Torah is an essential, G-dly presence in the world. Israel celebrates and the torah celebrates on simchat torah.
This is why the second tablets represent the torah – the tablets in their inanimate state are screaming, “Ein od milvado! There is nothing but Him!” and in this there is an essential simcha. In the very essence of existence itself there is simcha, goodness and kindness. The second tablets represent tshuvah, which reach deeper than a regular service/avodah.
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... וחיי עולם
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