Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Turning ani into ayin
אני ואין
Turning ani into ayin (“I” into “nothing”)
Ani (“I”) and ayin (“nothing”) share letters. A person turns his ani into ayin, bittul hayesh, and so draws the supernal delight into Torah; above, the hidden Ayin is to be revealed as Ani.
The word אני is simply “I” in countless verses (“I am Havayah,” “I am first”), and אין simply “there is not.” The term is in play where the text joins them (אני אותיות אין, עושה מאני אין) or names a level “בחי׳ אני.” For ayin as such, and for bittul hayesh as service, see those entries; this one is the letter-play and what Ani and Ayin name.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 21, ¶19“I was Your Torah’s delight day by day”: through the daily Shema with mesirus nefesh, the supernal delight is drawn and clothed in Keser and Chochmah. This comes through ani: when a person makes his ani into ayin, which is bittul hayesh.
הוא ע״י אני, דהיינו כשעושה מבחי׳ אני אין שהוא ביטול היש
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 20, ¶19Making ani into ayin applies to Torah study too: it should be done not as a yesh but in bittul hayesh. This causes, above, a drawing from the true Yesh, the essential delights, into Chochmah, which is truly ayin; the text links it to the Etz Chaim on Ani and Ayin.
והיינו שגם בלימוד התורה לא יהי׳ בבחי׳ יש אלא בביטול היש
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15, ¶2Citing the Etz Chaim on “I am first and I am last”: Keser is both. As the Malchus of the Emanator, the last of Him, it is called Ani; as the root of the emanated, the first of them, it is called Ayin, the same letters.
כי הכתר הוא ראשון והוא אחרון והוא אין והוא אני
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15, ¶6“When the Ani of the Holy One comes”: what is now utterly hidden, and so, seen from below, called Ayin, will in the time to come be drawn into revelation below as it is above, “See now that I, I am He.”
כי אני הוא אותיות אין דהיינו מה שעכשיו בחי׳ העלם בתכלית ונק׳ מלמטה למעלה בשם אין
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 3, ¶15“I am first”: supernal Chochmah, the beginning of all coming into being, comes not by a chain of cause and effect but from ayin. “I am last”: physical heaven and earth come from the spiritual word in the same way, something from nothing, from sovev.
וזהו אני ראשון אני אותיות אין
Stated differently
Whether Ani names His very Essence, or His Malchus, the lowest level of the Emanator
אני אותיות אין עצמות אור א״ס דלית מחשבה תפיסא בי׳In “I am Havayah,” Ani, the letters of ayin, is the Essence of the Or Ein Sof that no thought can grasp; Havayah is the light drawn into the inner light through the tzimtzum of the Yud.
השמים והארץ אני מלא דהיינו מהו״ע שהוא בחי׳ אני ממש“I fill heaven and earth” means His Being and Essence, the very Ani, which fills even this world through being clothed in the letters of the Torah.
שבחינת אני נקרא מלכות דא״ק ובחינת אין נק׳ כשנעשה כתר לאצילותFollowing the Etz Chaim, Ani is the Malchus of Adam Kadmon, and it is called Ayin when it becomes Keser for Atzilus: as Havayah with the vowels of Elokim, the lowest level of the Emanator.
אני הוא הקורא היינו מדת מלכותו ית׳ שנק׳ אני אחרון“I am the one who calls” is His Malchus, called “I am last”; “I am the one who speaks” is Chochmah, found from ayin, in which the Or Ein Sof is clothed, called “I am first.”
What Ayin, the letters of Ani, names: Chochmah itself, or Keser, the hidden source from which Chochmah is found
יומשך הארה בחכמה שהיא בחי׳ אין ממשBittul below draws, above, from the true Yesh, the essential delights, into Chochmah, which is truly ayin; this is the drawing from Ani into Ayin.
והב׳ בכתר שהוא בחי׳ אין שממנו תמצא החכמהKeser is ayin, from which Chochmah is found; citing the Etz Chaim, Keser as the root of the emanated is called Ayin, the letters of Ani.
והחכמה מאין תמצא בחי׳ אין הוא אותיות אני והוא סתימו דכל סתימיןThe Ayin from which Chochmah is found is the letters of Ani, the most hidden of all, called ayin by us because it is beyond grasp; Ani itself is His Being and Essence.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 20, ¶19Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 21, ¶19Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 3, ¶15Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7, ¶26
Where it appears
In 40 paragraphs of 31 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 3 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 4 ¶5 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15 ¶2 ¶3 ¶4 ¶5 ¶6 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 3 ¶28
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 5 ¶26
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 4 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 6 ¶25
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 5 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 8 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 3 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 10 ¶1 ¶11
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 7 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 11 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 20 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 21 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 2 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 1 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 11 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 1 ¶19 ¶36
- Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 3 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7 ¶26
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 14 ¶16
- Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 4 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 5 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 6 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶30
- Torah Ohr, Va’eira 1 ¶17
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Bereishis 5 ¶5 ¶14
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 6 ¶9
Written with AI from the paragraphs of Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, each entry checked by a second AI reader and every Hebrew quote checked by code; not yet reviewed by a person. Our English: CC BY-NC 4.0.