Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Chayus
חיות
Life-force (chayus)
Life-force: the G‑dly vitality that brings each creation into being and keeps it alive, drawn to each according to its level and renewed from nothing, as the soul enlivens the body.
The word The same letters spell chayos: wild animals, and the Chayos of the Merkavah (חיות הקדש). Chayus also means simply the life of a soul in its body. It is the G‑dly life-force when it is drawn, enclothed or enlivens (נמשך, מתלבש, מחיה) in creations or worlds.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶2Memalei kol almin is the chayus enclothed in the worlds, in each according to its measure: the power of the maker within the thing made, down to each blade of grass and its mazal. This chayus is only His Malchus, an outer radiance that brings no change in Him; it is drawn anew each Rosh Hashanah from sovev.
ממכ״ע הוא החיות שמתלבש בעולמות לפי מדרגתם לכאו״א כפום שיעורא דילי׳
- Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 8, ¶1The chayus held within the worlds diminishes step after step as it descends: the inanimate has the least, the plant more, so it grows. The seraphim grasp the G‑dly chayus within them; the ofanim and chayos do not, for in them it is more diminished, so they are in great tumult. So too the soul fills the body with chayus divided among the limbs.
שהחיות מתמעט מיעוט אחר מיעוט עד בחי׳ דומם הוא חיות מועט היותר אחרון
- Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 2, ¶1As the soul’s chayus is enclothed in each limb according to its nature (intellect in the brain, sight in the eye, action in the hands, walking in the feet), so the chayus from the Or Ein Sof is drawn into every world and creature as much as it can bear; this is memalei kol almin, revealed most in Gan Eden.
וכללות חיות זה נק׳ בזוה״ק ממלא כל עלמין
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 1, ¶2World, year and soul correspond: as the head holds the general chayus of the soul and gives each limb its own, Rosh Hashanah reveals the general chayus of the year and each month renews its particular chayus from nothing. The worlds live from the revelation of His Malchus alone, and its renewal depends on the deeds of those below.
בר״ה הוא גילוי כללות החיות וממנו נמשך חיות פרטי לכל חודש כי כל חודש הוא התחדשות החיות מאין ליש
- Torah Ohr, Toldos 5, ¶3The host of heaven are nullified because they grasp the chayus drawn to them from His holiness. The kelipos also receive chayus from holiness, but it is in exile with them and swallowed up inside them, so they are not nullified but grow haughty; they live from an encompassing light above them (the frankincense) that is not swallowed.
שהחיות הנמשך אליהם הוא אצלם בסוד גלות
Stated differently
Whether the chayus of the worlds is the memalei enclothed in them, His Malchus alone, or comes mainly from sovev, which enlivens without enclothing
כי חיות כל העולמות הוא רק כמ״ש אנא אמלוך שמדת מלכותו ית׳ בלבדThe chayus of all the worlds is only His attribute of Malchus, the memalei enclothed in them, an outer radiance; His essence, sovev, is exalted above them.
דעיקר ההתהוות והחיות הוא מבחי׳ סוכ״ע שהוא בחי׳ א״ס ממשThe main bringing into being and chayus is from sovev, the Ein Sof itself, which enlivens and brings the worlds into being as an encompassing light, without enclothing in them.
האור הוא החיות ממש המחיה את הנבראים שחיות זה מתפשט ונמשך מבחי׳ סוכ״עThe light of sovev is not radiance in the plain sense but the very chayus that enlivens creatures; it enlivens all of them equally, even the coarse matter of this world, not by way of enclothing.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 1, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 8, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Reeh 3, ¶3Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 2, ¶1Torah Ohr, Toldos 5, ¶3Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 3, ¶7
Where it appears
In 1,138 paragraphs of 324 maamarim: part of the language of nearly every page.
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.