Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Chosam bolet
חותם בולט וחותם שוקע
The raised seal and the sunken seal (chosam bolet, chosam shoke’a)
A raised seal leaves a sunken imprint and a sunken seal a raised one. So love surging up from below (raised) draws light clothed in vessels; bittul below (sunken) draws Or Ein Sof unclothed.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36, ¶1“Set me as a seal upon your heart … upon your arm”: the seals are the tefillin of the head (its straps hanging over the heart) and of the arm, Knesses Yisrael’s request that the seal be from her. The image: a seal pressed into wax makes another seal in the wax; sunken letters on the seal come out raised in the wax, raised letters come out sunken.
והנה אם האותיות שעל החותם שוקע נעשה על השעוה בולט ואם האותיות שעל החותם בולט נעשה על השעוה שוקע
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 37, ¶2Man’s service from below has two modes, ratzo and shov. Ratzo, the fiery love and longing that brings the hidden love out to Or Ein Sof, stands out like a mountain from the plain (“as Avraham, who called it a mountain”): the raised seal. Shov is the sunken seal.
בחי׳ רצוא נק׳ חותם הבולט ובחי׳ שוב נק׳ חותם השוקע
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 37, ¶3Ratzo, “there is one who loves,” is raised, and draws from above a sunken seal: lights drawn into vessels, Or Ein Sof clothed in the ten Sefiros of Atzilus. Shov, utter bittul of the will, “my soul like dust,” is sunken, and draws from above a raised seal, Or Ein Sof revealed without any clothing, as it will be in the Time to Come. So the negative commandments (from yud-hei) reach higher than the positive (from vav-hei): love is still a yesh and a vessel, and only bittul of the yesh can draw from what is above the ten Sefiros.
ועי״ז נמשך אתעדל״ע מלמעלה בחי׳ חותם בולט דהיינו התגלות אור א״ס שלא בהתלבשות כלל
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4, ¶1“In the image (tzelem) of G‑d He made man”: a tzelem is a raised form that leaves a sunken imprint, and man is like an inverted seal. G‑d’s Chesed comes from His greatness, yet below it became Avraham’s “I am dust and ashes,” the self-effacing Chesed of water that goes down to a low place. The “mountains” of the land are the arousal from below in the raised seal, fire; the “valleys” are the sunken seal from below, bittul and awe.
שאדם הוא כחותם המתהפך משמאל של מעלה נעשה ימין למטה
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4, ¶2The arousal from below as water, sinking and bittul, draws a higher arousal from above than the arousal as fiery flames: from the raised seal below comes a sunken seal above, from the sunken one below the raised revelation of Or Ein Sof with no concealing garments. So Yaakov mixed water into wine: the wine libation is the raised seal from below, joy in great love; the water libation is Chochmah, koach mah, bittul, the sunken seal from below.
וא״כ אתעדל״ת שבבחי׳ מיים שהוא בחי׳ שקיעה וביטול משים עצמו כשיריים ממשיך אתעדל״ע עליונה יותר
Stated differently
Whether the raised seal from above, Or Ein Sof revealed beyond the vessels, is drawn now or comes to revelation only in the Time to Come
תש״ר נק׳ חותם בולט אורות שלמעלה מהכלים ומרומז דוקא בבורא חשך לפי שעכשיו אין בחינה זו באה בהתגלות עד לע״לThe tefillin of the head are the raised seal, lights above the vessels; they are alluded to in “creates darkness” because now this level does not come to revelation, until the Time to Come.
אף כי עכשיו אותותינו לא ראינו זהו לפי שההמשכה מבחי׳ חותם שוקעNow “we have not seen our signs” because the drawing-down is from the sunken seal; in the Time to Come, “eye to eye they shall see,” is the raised seal, the revelation of the hidden Chochmah Ila’ah.
ועי״ז נמשך מלמעלה חותם הבולט כי הנה בזמן שאין בהמ״ק קיים אותותינו לא ראינו כו׳ שהכל הוא בבחי׳ העלםThe second seal from below, the sunken one, is the Shemoneh Esreh in whisper and bowing, bittul in Or Ein Sof, and the negative commandments; through it the raised seal is drawn from above. For while the Beis HaMikdash is not standing “we have not seen our signs,” all is hidden; not so in the Time to Come.
ונמשך מזה בחי׳ בליטה גילוי אור א״ס שלמעלה מי״ס דאצי׳ והוא תפילין שבראש בבחי׳ גילויShema and its blessings, the love of ratzo, are the raised seal from below, and draw the sunken seal, the tefillin of the arm, Or Ein Sof clothed in the vessels of Atzilus. The Shemoneh Esreh, bittul of the yesh in bowing and whisper, draws the raised seal: the revelation of Or Ein Sof above the ten Sefiros of Atzilus, the tefillin of the head, revealed.
ועוד שיצ״מ וקי״ס גילוי הנסים בשינוי הטבע לגמרי בשמים ובארץ בחי׳ חותם בולטThe exile in Egypt was a state of ibbur, utter bittul; so the Exodus and the Splitting of the Sea, miracles that changed nature entirely in heaven and earth, were the raised seal, the opposite of “we have not seen our signs.”
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 37, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 37, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 37, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4, ¶2
Where it appears
In 122 paragraphs of 75 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 1 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 2 ¶29
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 6 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36 ¶1 ¶3 ¶5 ¶6 ¶7 ¶8 ¶9 ¶10 ¶12 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 37 ¶2 ¶3 ¶5 ¶7 ¶9 ¶10 ¶12 ¶13 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 7 ¶36 ¶39
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 10 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2 ¶9 ¶42
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2 ¶9 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 3 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 1 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 9 ¶4 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 6 ¶9 ¶12
- Torah Ohr, Bereishis 8 ¶5 ¶9 ¶10 ¶23 ¶29 ¶30
- Torah Ohr, Chayei Sarah 3 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 4 ¶4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 1 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4 ¶1 ¶2 ¶8 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 6 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 4 ¶14 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 1 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 6 ¶9
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 12 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 5 ¶20 ¶22 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 2 ¶4 ¶6 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 8 ¶16 ¶18
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3 ¶1 ¶19 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 1 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5 ¶2 ¶4 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 3 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 17 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 3 ¶2 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1 ¶50
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 4 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 9 ¶1 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 5 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 2 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 4 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 28 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 3 ¶16
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 10 ¶2 ¶7 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 4 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 1 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 1 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 8 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 21 ¶17
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 8 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 14 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 19 ¶8 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 3 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 4 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 3 ¶2 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 13 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 4 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 6 ¶26
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 8 ¶19
- Torah Ohr, Va’eira 5 ¶26
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 9 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 3 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 7 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 18 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 10 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 5 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 17 ¶26
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 6 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 4 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini 2 ¶6
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.