Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Ben ve’eved
בן ועבד
Son and servant (ben ve’eved) · also: עבודת עבד
Two modes of serving G‑d: the son serves from love, nullified to his Father like a foot to the head; the servant has his own will and subdues it, accepting the King’s yoke above reason.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 2, ¶15Israel is called the son (“My firstborn son”) and Yaakov the servant. The son is “the leg of his father,” truly nullified to him as a foot to the head; the servant has another will, foreign and separate, yet keeps his master’s commands through battle, overpowering himself (iskafya), whereas Israel is in the mode of transformation (is’hapcha).
שבחי׳ בן ברא כרעא דאבוה היינו בבחי׳ ביטול ממש כרגל לגבי הראש ועבדים היינו כשיש להם רצון אחר
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 5, ¶11Service that comes from choice and from the understanding of the wise that nearness to G‑d is good is not called a servant’s service. The essence of service is accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven above reason, nullifying one’s will before His as if one had no other will; through this the sitra achra is subdued.
אין זו נק׳ בשם עבודת עבד כי עיקר העבודה היא לקבל עליו עול מ״ש שהיא למעלה מן הטעם והדעת המושג
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 4, ¶13In general the son, who serves from love, is higher; yet in one respect the servant has an advantage, for his is the bittul above reason and comprehended knowledge. Therefore one needs both.
ועם היות דבכלל בחי׳ בן גבוה יותר שהוא העובד מאהבה אעפ״כ בבחי׳ א׳ יש מעלה יתירה ג״כ בבחי׳ עבד
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 4, ¶16The Amidah is the higher fear, of Chochmah, the yud of the Name, above even the son’s great love, which is Binah: this is the second servant. Around it (4:14–19), citing the Zohar: the first servant, in Pesukei deZimra, is the lower fear (Yaakov “My servant”); the Shema, love to the point of mesirus nefesh, is the son; the second servant is Moshe “My servant,” the faithful servant whom the son rises to become.
ואח״כ שמו״ע זהו בחי׳ יראה עילאה שלמעלה גם מבחי׳ אה״ר דבחי׳ בן
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 6, ¶6The servant’s complete bittul, without any reason or understanding, is rooted very high: it draws from Keser, above Chochmah and Binah, the Malchus of Ein Sof, the level of “Mine” in which no change applies.
שבחי׳ עבד שהוא הביטול לגמרי בלי שום טעם ודעת שרשו גבוה מאד
Stated differently
Whether Torah study is the son’s service, set against the servant’s mitzvos, or the higher servant’s, coming after the son
שזהו בחי׳ עבד שהוא נפרד משא״כ עסק התורה הוא בבחי׳ בןA mitzvah done physically by the body is not true bittul but bittul of yesh to ayin, keeping the King’s command: the level of a servant, who is separate. Torah study, which can be bittul in thought and speech, is the level of a son. This is “whether as sons or as servants.”
ואינו בבחי׳ עבד כ״א בעשיית המצות שהוא כעבד המקיים מצות המלך ועושה דבריוIn Torah the word of G‑d, the halachah, speaks from the scholar’s throat, and being nullified to it he rules like a king; he is a servant only in doing the mitzvos, like a servant who carries out the King’s commands.
שהוא בחי׳ עבד הב׳ שהן תלמידי חכמים שמקבלים מבחי׳ חכמה וזהו עסק התורה בבחי׳ ביטול“Read not your children (banayich) but your builders (bonayich)”: this is the second servant, the Torah scholars who receive from Chochmah; it is Torah study in bittul (so too Re’eh 8:8: after banayich comes bonayich, through the yoke of Torah, the second servant).
Whether son and servant are two modes of service in a person, or two classes of souls (Atzilus as against Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah)
שהם ג״כ ב׳ בחינות שונות בעבודת ה׳ באדם בחי׳ עבד ובחינת בןYaakov and Israel are two levels above, and also two different modes in a person’s service of G‑d: Yaakov is the servant (“Yaakov My servant”), Israel the son (“My firstborn son Israel”).
והיינו נשמות דאצילות והם הנק׳ בנים משא״כ נשמות דבריאה יצירה עשיה נק׳ עבדיםThe souls of Atzilus, the seed of man, are called sons; the souls of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah are called servants. This is “whether as sons or as servants.”
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 2, ¶15Likkutei Torah, Balak 3, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Balak 4, ¶13Likkutei Torah, Balak 4, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Balak 4, ¶16Likkutei Torah, Balak 4, ¶19Likkutei Torah, Chukas 6, ¶6Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 5, ¶11
Where it appears
In 46 paragraphs of 27 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 2 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 8 ¶4 ¶6 ¶7 ¶8 ¶9 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini 2 ¶14 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 3 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 1 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2 ¶34 ¶44
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 4 ¶13 ¶14 ¶15 ¶16 ¶17 ¶18 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 6 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 2 ¶16 ¶17 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 9 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 2 ¶15 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 34 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 2 ¶12 ¶13
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 5 ¶11
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 11 ¶18
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 12 ¶10
- Torah Ohr, Vayechi 3 ¶29 ¶30
- Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 1 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶28
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 3 ¶27
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 3 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 11 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 4 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 3 ¶33
- Torah Ohr, Shemos 1 ¶27
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 7 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 3 ¶1 ¶40
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.