The Kabbalah Within Chess

The Rebbe often quoted the founder of Chassidism, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov: “Everything a person sees or hears contains a lesson how to better serve the Creator.”

If his correspondent was an artist, pharmacist or a laundryman, the Rebbe would analyze his profession and use it as a spiritual lesson. (Week in Review “Art,” (vol. VIII, no. 6); “The Druggist and the Laundryman” (vol. VI, no. 18). If a yachting enthusiast or life insurance salesman was present, the Rebbe would derive from that occupation how to better serve the Creator.

The following is adapted from a talk by the Rebbe (1948) when Shmuel Reshevsky, a world-class chess master was in attendance.

Chess is a battle waged by an army of sixteen “pieces” or “soldiers” arranged in two rows.

At the center stands the king, around whom the game revolves. The King is indispensable, and the first and overriding priority of all the soldiers is to protect the King, expand his dominion over the chessboard, and overcome his adversaries. With rare exceptions, the King himself does not enter the fray of battle. The King can move in any direction, one step at a time befitting his limited involvement in the actual battle.

At the King’s side stands the versatile Queen who can move in all directions. Flanking the King and Queen are three levels of “officers,” each with its own mode of movement and conquest. Their power and reach is less than that of the Queen, but they, too, can move in several directions and advance more than one square at a time.

In the forefront stand the “foot-soldiers” or “pawns.” Inferior to the officers, the foot soldiers advance forward only one step at a time.

But the lowly foot soldier possesses a unique power and quality that is far greater than his superiors. An officer can never change his rank: he remains the same throughout the game. But when a foot soldier succeeds in advancing, step by step, to the end of the board, he is elevated to the level of Queen. He cannot, however, become a King, for truly, there is only One King.

Men and Angels

The cosmological map of Kabbalah shows four spiritual “worlds,” or realms. The highest realm is the ‘Atzilut’ world of “emanation,” so close to the original source that it feels no identity of its own; it is a mere extension of the Divine. Nevertheless, it is a distinct ‘world,’ that embodies G-d’s Infinity via distinct “vessels” and character.

Next in the chain of creation is the ‘Beriah’ world of “creation,” where the concepts of “being” and “existence” are born. This is followed by ‘Yetzirah’-“formation.” The lowest link is the world of ‘Asiyah’—“action.” Beriah, Yetzirah and the spiritual level of Asiyah are “populated” by angels and spiritual beings (‘Seraphim,’ ‘Chayot’ and ‘Ofanim,’ respectively) of varying degrees of self-abnegation to G-d.

The lower physical plane of Asiyah is our physical universe with the “lowest” of G-d’s creatures, lowest in the sense that they feel and perceive themselves as beings distinct from and even independent of their Creator.

In a psalm composed by Adam, the first man, proclaims: “Last and first You created me.” Man is both the lowest and loftiest of G-d’s creations. His soul is “literally part of G-d above,” deriving from the world of Atzilut—that realm of creation that never separates from its source. On the other hand, the soul descends to the lowest level of creation, the material ‘Asiyah' to assume a physical existence which obscures its supernal source.

But the soul’s original state lives on as an ever present potential in man, by means of a long and laborious process, long and laborious as life itself. Man can elevate himself to the highest level of intimacy with G-d.

A physical human being seems lower than the spiritual angel. He is encumbered with a material identity that limits his spiritual progress and development. But he surpasses the angel in that only he has the capacity to transcend his created state. Of all G-d’s creations, only man can rise beyond the “world” in which he was placed and ascend to a higher relationship with G-d.

This difference between man and angel is expressed by the fact that man is called a “walker” (mehalech) while the spiritual beings “stand” (omdim) “I will set you as journeyers among these standers.” (Zachariah)

An angel is not a “stander” because it is immobile; indeed an angel has a mission with which it traverses the universe. Angels can also advance in their relationship with G-d, deepening their comprehension of the divine wisdom and intensifying their love and awe of G-d. But they “move” only within their own world, -they cannot transcend their intrinsic capacities. Only man can ascend from his lowly world and rise to the loftiest level of creation.

The Game

Life is a battle and a game, a competition that pits us against the challenges that arouse and reveal our potential. The game of chess serves as a metaphor for the various components of this battle, its methods of combat, and its aims.

The “king” on the chessboard represents the “King of all kings”—G-d Al-mighty. The “queen” represents malchut d’atzilut—the common source of all souls, which is in a state of “marriage” and unity with G-d. The three levels of “officers” correspond to the three classes of angels in the realms of Beriah, Yetzirah and spiritual Asiyah. The lowly “foot soldier” is the finite human being in a confined world.

Challenging this army is a pseudo-army, a virtual battalion equipped with everything from pawns to a “king.” For “this opposite the other, G-d created.” Every positive creation has its negative counterpart; every spiritual force has its malevolent counter-force; every ray of divine light has its obscuring shadow. G-d’s sovereignty is contrasted by the deification of the material and the temporal. The mission of G-d’s army is to overcome its opponent, to reveal the fallacy of its pseudo-truths, to dethrone its god.

The front-line soldiers in this battle are the “foot-soldiers,” souls invested in bodies. With their limited powers and capacities, they advance painstakingly across the battlefield, defending the King’s place in the world, the G-dliness within their own souls (the “queen”), and the spiritual supply lines (the “officers”) to the battlefield.

The officers—with their greater power and range—provide the spiritual fortitude to help vanquish the foe. The King Himself remains, for the most part, aloof from the battle, for this is a challenge. He desires that we succeed on our own; but in times of extreme crisis, He is not above lending a decisive, though limited, aid to the battle, even if it means exposing Himself to the line of fire, so to speak.

The lowly “foot soldier” bears the brunt of the battle. Fighting with limited resources, its advance is slow and impeded by the narrow horizons of his world. But when his steady determination advances him to his goal, he reveals the Queen within himself and wins the battle.

Chess is referred to in the Talmud (Ketuvot 61b) as nadrashir, and appears in the Rishonim responsa as ishkaki. A responsum cited in Otzar Dinim U’Minhagim (Eisenstein), s.v. shach, states that ‘unlike other games of deception and frivolous vanities, the game of ishkaki hones and broadens the mind when one must set aside times of leisure to rest the soul from its toil.” See also Sefer HaSichot 5750, p. 192.