LikuteiTorah.comThe Chassidishe Parsha
Sign in

Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah

Berachah

ברכה

Blessing (berachah); “blessed” (baruch) as drawing down

Blessing (berachah), read from bereichah, a pool, and from grafting a vine: drawing G‑dliness down from its hidden source into revelation; as opposed to hodaah, acknowledging what is not revealed.

The word Berachah also names the blessings a person recites (Birkas HaMazon, the blessing before a mitzvah) and plain good fortune. The text often takes such a blessing and explains it by this concept, reading “Baruch” as “drawn down”; the concept is meant where it speaks of drawing (המשכה), revelation, or sovev and memalei.

Where it’s explained

  1. Likkutei Torah, Eikev 3, ¶6Blessing is a drawing down into revelation, from above to below, as one grafts a vine (mavrich). Acknowledgment (hodaah) is bittul hayesh: conceding that before Him all is as nothing, though this is not revealed below, as the Sages “concede” to Rabbi Meir. The same pair is “true and faithful” (emes ve’emunah).ברכה היא בחי׳ המשכה בגילוי מלמעלה למטה כי ברכה היא מלשון בריכה המבריך את הגפן
  2. Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2, ¶30If He is the source of all blessing, what can our blessing add to Him? Yet the Sages say the Sanctuary “needs blessing.” The answer: blessing draws from the source, the Or Ein Sof, into His glory and radiance, from sovev kol almin into memalei kol almin.שהענין הוא להמשיך הברכה מן המקור שהוא אור א״ס ב״ה אל כבודו וזיו יקריה. דהיינו מבחינת סוכ״ע בבחינת ממכ״ע
  3. Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶3As a pool from which water is drawn for all: “He is baruch and She is berachah.” Malchus, memalei kol almin (“Your kingship is the kingship of all worlds”), is called berachah; Yesod Abba, its source, is called baruch. The previous paragraph explains baruch both as “blessed,” receiving blessing (Malchus), and as the source of blessing (Chochmah).וז״ש בזהר איהו ברוך ואיהי ברכה. פי׳ איהי המל׳ נקרא ברכה שהיא בחי׳ ממכ״ע
  4. Likkutei Torah, Devarim 1, ¶4“Blessed are You” is a higher level than “I thank You” (modeh ani). Acknowledgment is from afar, as faith, an encompassing level; blessing is revelation, drawn from the hidden world to the revealed world, through Torah and mitzvos. Between them comes love: the Shema precedes the blessings of the Amidah.אבל ברכה הוא גילוי וכמו ישמעאל בני ברכני וכך ברוך ה׳ מן העולם ועד העולם כו׳ שנמשך מן העולם דאתכסיא עד העולם דאתגלייא
  5. Torah Ohr, Yisro 6, ¶17The purpose of ascent is a drawing down afterward. The drawing from sovev kol almin into memalei kol almin is called blessing, since it is revelation out of concealment; hence the hundred blessings (me’ah) a person says each day, drawing into the level called mah, memalei.כי בחי׳ ההמשכה שנמשך מבחי׳ סוכ״ע לבחי׳ ממכ״ע נק׳ בשם ברכה כי הוא בחי׳ הגילוי מן ההעלם

Stated differently

Whether blessing only reveals what is already in the hidden root, or brings an addition of light

Likkutei Torah, Reeh 1, ¶7שהברכה היא גילוי השרש שבהעלם שיתברך ויהיה נמשך לידי גילוי ולא המשכה חדשה לגמרי

This is the difference between blessing and prayer: blessing reveals the root that is hidden, so that it be drawn into revelation, and is not an entirely new drawing.

Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 2, ¶21הנמשך ומתגלה בתוספת וריבוי האור שלמעלה מעלה מסדר ההשתלשלות וזו היא בחי׳ ברכה שברכה היא בחי׳ תוספת וריבוי

The end of blessing is the revelation of His kingship, with an addition and increase of light from far above the order of hishtalshelus; blessing is addition and increase.

Torah Ohr, Beshalach 8, ¶18לשון ברכה הוא בחי׳ המשכה שנמשך תוספת אור להוי״ה אלקיך

“You shall bless Havayah your G‑d”: blessing is a drawing by which added light, from the lights of Tohu through refining their vessels, comes to Havayah your G‑d, which is of Tikkun.

What blessing draws from: Chochmah (Yesod Abba) into memalei, or sovev and the Or Ein Sof into memalei

Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶3איהו היינו יסוד אבא נק׳ ברוך כי הוא מקור המשפיע בבחי׳ ממכ״ע. אכן למעלה מהחכמה אין יכול לבוא כלל בבחי׳ ממכ״ע רק סוכ״ע

Yesod Abba is called baruch as the source that gives into memalei, and Malchus is berachah, the pool already drawn from Chochmah. Above Chochmah nothing can come as memalei at all, only as sovev, shining in concealment.

Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2, ¶30להמשיך הברכה מן המקור שהוא אור א״ס ב״ה אל כבודו וזיו יקריה

Blessing draws from the source, the Or Ein Sof, into His glory: from sovev kol almin into memalei kol almin.

Torah Ohr, Yisro 6, ¶17וענין מאה ברכות הוא להמשיך מלמעלה למטה ההארה מבחי׳ סוכ״ע לממכ״ע

The hundred blessings draw the radiance of sovev kol almin down into memalei kol almin.

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2, ¶30Likkutei Torah, Eikev 3, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Devarim 1, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Reeh 1, ¶7Torah Ohr, Yisro 6, ¶17

Where it appears

In 524 paragraphs of 219 maamarim.

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.

Text size

Theme

How I learn

Calendar

Language

English

This page is in English only for now. Also in, so far:

العربية72 maamarim so farDeutsch72 maamarim so farEspañol72 maamarim so farفارسی72 maamarim so farFrançais72 maamarim so farעברית72 maamarim so farItaliano72 maamarim so farPortuguês72 maamarim so farРусский72 maamarim so farУкраїнська72 maamarim so far中文（简体）72 maamarim so far中文（繁體）72 maamarim so far

Send us a suggestion

Corrections, ideas, questions. Leave your email so we can answer.

We send it by email to the editor, with the page you’re on. Nothing is published.
Ask Freg about any paragraph