Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Chashmal
חשמל
Chashmal
A garment from Binah’s outer dimension, wrapping Zeir Anpin and Nukva so outside forces cannot draw from them; beneath their feet, the screen between Atzilus and Beriah. Chash-mal: silence and speech.
The word In modern Hebrew חשמל means electricity; in the maamarim it is always Yechezkel’s “chashmal” (Yechezkel 1:4), the garment and screen described here, often read as two words, חש מל.
Where it’s explained
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4, ¶2The Chashmal comes from the outer dimension of Binah and clothes the ten Sefiros of Zeir Anpin and of Nukva from their sides like a garment of skin, so that the outside forces cannot draw from the middos except as hair and nails; beneath their feet it is the “shoe,” the screen between Atzilus and Beriah. Like a parable to its meaning, it is an outer garment, yet its root, Binah, is above the middos: “chash” (silence) from that root, “mal” (speech) as it becomes their garment.
והפרסא היא מבחי׳ חשמל שהוא מחיצוניות הבינה שמלביש ומקיף את י״ס דז״א וי״ס דנוק׳
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4, ¶4The “shoe” beneath Zeir Anpin and Nukva does more than keep away the outside forces: it divides, so that the light of Atzilus, where “He and His vessels are one,” is not revealed as such in Beriah. The light that passes through the screen is a light of offspring, ayin relative to the light above it, so Beriah comes to be as yesh from ayin.
נעל זה אינו לבד בשביל שלא יהי׳ יניקת החיצונים אלא הוא מפסיק שלא יהי׳ גילוי כל האור שבאצילות
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 3, ¶2“His garment is white as snow” is chiefly a Chashmal, not the one between Atzilus and the lower worlds but a higher Chashmal that encompasses all of Atzilus, through which the Gevurah of Atik is clothed in the hidden brain of Arich Anpin. It is like a parable: wisdom congealed like snow, so that it can melt again into wisdom for those below.
אלא הוא החשמל עליון המקיף כל האצילות
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 42, ¶8The screen between Atzilus and Beriah is the Chashmal drawn from Binah, from the Tiferes of Imma, which becomes the Keser of Zeir Anpin and encompasses it from head to foot. The screen is the outer dimension of that Tiferes, while the yechidah and Or Makif of Zeir Anpin are its essence, yet the makif itself causes the throne and the screen, called “rakia.”
דהמסך הוא החיצוניות דת״ת דאימא ואמנם היחידה והמקיף דז״א הוא עצמיות ת״ת דאימא
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 4, ¶18In a person’s service: a love that comes in a vessel can break off, and then one may come to desire physical things; a love above limitation in a vessel is a makif that guards him. This is the garment of the Chashmal that clothes Zeir Anpin and Nukva on both sides so the outside forces cannot draw from them.
והוא ענין לבוש החשמל שמלביש לזו״נ משני צדדיהם בשביל שלא יינקו החיצונים
Stated differently
What the “chash” (silence) in Chashmal is
חש לשון שתיקה היינו מצד בחי׳ א׳ שבו שהוא שרשו מהבינה כי סייג לחכמה שתיקה“Chash” is the silence of its root in Binah, the bittul of Chochmah (“a fence for wisdom is silence”); “mal” is speech and revelation as it becomes a garment for Zeir Anpin and Nukva, as letters clothe a meaning.
והיינו שהסתר והעלם דק״נ גורמים שלא יתגלה בחי׳ הדבור עליון וזהו חש לשון שתיקה“Chash” is the silence caused by kelipas nogah, which surrounds the Chashmal (Etz Chaim) and conceals, so that the Supernal speech is not revealed in exile; when nogah is refined in the future it will be “a time to speak”: “mal.”
Whether the Chashmal that divides Atzilus from the worlds below is in nogah
ולא החשמל המפסיק בין אצילות לבי״ע כי זהו מחיצוניות בינה והוא בנוגה שמבחי׳ שבה״כThe Chashmal that separates Atzilus from Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah is from the outer dimension of Binah and is in nogah, from the shattering of the vessels; the higher Chashmal around all Atzilus is a different one.
שכשמסירים הערלה שהיא ק״נ אז נשאר רק חשמל דבינה שהוא הלבוש שצ״לThe curtains between Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah are all holiness; kelipas nogah is a further screen below Asiyah, the foreskin over the covenant. When it is removed, only the Chashmal of Binah remains, the garment that must be for the worlds to come into being.
Main sources
Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4, ¶2Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4, ¶3Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4, ¶4Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Acharei 3, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 42, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Tzav 4, ¶3
Where it appears
In 19 paragraphs of 13 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 7 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 4 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 11 ¶14 ¶15 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 3 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 4 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 16 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 42 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Chayei Sarah 3 ¶5 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4 ¶2 ¶3 ¶4 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 2 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 4 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 3 ¶7
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.