Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Chasadim mechusim umegulim
חסדים מכוסים ומגולים
Covered and revealed chasadim (chasadim mechusim umegulim)
The powers of Chesed (chasadim) in Zeir Anpin: covered while still inside Yesod of Imma, which ends at its chest; revealed below it. In the soul: love hidden within, and love revealed in the heart.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 7, ¶2Binah is clothed in Zeir Anpin, the middos. The covered chasadim in Yesod of Binah are “mi”; the revealed are “eleh,” split off from them (“plag Elokim”) and flowing down like water. In the soul, the revealed are love and fear born of contemplation, in the open heart; the covered are love still hidden in the mind (Tanya ch. 16). The root of the revealed is the hidden: “Mi bara eleh.” At times even the upper third, or all five chasadim, are revealed.
והנה הבינה מתלבשת בז״א שהוא המדות ויש בחינת חסדים המכוסים ביסוד הבינה ויש בחי׳ חסדים המגולים
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 7, ¶13Below the chest of Zeir Anpin, where Yesod of Imma ends, the chasadim and gevuros are revealed and divide into three lines: the root of number, from which Malchus receives. Where they are covered in Yesod of Imma, all the chasadim of the three lines are one and included in each other, bittul in the Or Ein Sof, “without number.” In the future the revealed world will rise to the level of the hidden.
אבל לתבונתו היינו במקום שהחו״ג מכוסים ביסוד אימא הם בבחי׳ אחדות והתכללות כל החסדים דג׳ קוין
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶13From the chest down, where Yesod of Imma ends, begins the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. The outside forces draw only from a middah that has come out of Binah into revelation; while the middos are included and hidden in Binah as covered chasadim, they cannot draw from them, for they draw only from yesh, not from ayin.
אבל בהיותן כלולים ונעלמים בבחי׳ בינה ונק׳ חסדים המכוסים אז אין מהם יניקה לחיצונים
- Torah Ohr, Vayigash 2, ¶8Chesed (the five chasadim drawn into Zeir Anpin, and the Chesed in Tiferes) divides into three thirds: the upper third, its Chabad, is hidden, the covered chasadim; two thirds are revealed. These are Yosef’s three hidden treasures: two were revealed, and the upper third will be revealed to the tzaddikim in the future, the hidden primordial light.
השליש העליון הוא בבחי׳ העלם והסתר ונק׳ חסדים מכוסים וב׳ שלישי׳ מתגלין
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 8, ¶8The pattern of hidden and revealed in the covered and revealed chasadim recurs at every height, even in Adam Kadmon: the Yesod of Atik, clothed in Arich Anpin, also ends at the chest of Arich Anpin, as Yesod of Imma does in Zeir Anpin.
שיסוד דעתיק המתלבש בא״א מסתיים ג״כ במקום החזה דא״א ע״ד יסוד אימא בחזה דז״א
Stated differently
What the covered chasadim are in a person’s love of G‑d
רק האהבה מסותרת במוחו ותעלומות לבוThe covered chasadim are love that stays hidden in the mind and the recesses of the heart, when one’s understanding cannot bring it out into revealed love (Tanya ch. 16); the revealed are the love and fear born of contemplation.
אפ״ל ג״כ דחסדים מכוסים ומגולים הם בחי׳ אה״ר ואה״ע הנ״לIt can also be said that the covered and revealed chasadim are ahavah rabbah and ahavas olam, spoken of earlier in the maamar, named in that order.
וא״כ פי׳ שהטמין הגביע זהו ענין חסדים המכוסים ביסוד אימאThe goblet Yosef hid is the covered chasadim in Yesod of Imma: the high love of delights, “this great and lofty love,” a tzaddik’s level, present in the beinonim without their knowing of it.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 7, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 7, ¶13Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶13Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶17Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 2, ¶1Torah Ohr, Vayigash 2, ¶8Torah Ohr, Vaeira 5, ¶8
Where it appears
In 16 paragraphs of 13 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 5 ¶30
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 4 ¶32
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 16 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 7 ¶2 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 2 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 2 ¶1 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 1 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 3 ¶13 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 3 ¶1
- Torah Ohr, Va’eira 5 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Vayigash 2 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 8 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 21 ¶21
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.