Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Chosamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu emes
חותמו של הקב״ה אמת
G‑d’s seal is truth (chosamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu emes) · also: אמת
Chazal’s “G‑d’s seal is truth,” read as Chochmah: truth, since it grasps what truly is, that nothing exists besides Him; a seal, a mere making beside Or Ein Sof, yet it confirms and sustains all.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 4, ¶14Chochmah is called truth because when one grasps a thing with the intellect one knows that it is so. It is called a seal: as a person’s name written in ink is no match for the person himself, Chochmah is like a physical making relative to Ein Sof, and the Will is the “name.” Yet as a seal confirms a matter so that it cannot be changed, Ein Sof, far above Chochmah, rests and is clothed in it; Moshe’s “writing” draws this down.
וחכמה היא החותם שהוא בחי׳ עשייה של השם
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 8, ¶15A wise man grasps the truth with his wisdom, so wisdom is called truth; so above, Chochmah Ila’ah is the wisdom of the truth that there is nothing besides Him (Tanya ch. 35, gloss). Yet relative to Or Ein Sof, Chochmah counts as bodily making, which is why it is called only His “seal” (8:16).
ועד״ז למעלה חכמה עילאה הוא חכמת האמת שאין עוד מלבדו
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 5, ¶20Here the seal is the light of the face (the seventh tikkun, “ve’emes,” the “two apples”), drawn from the hidden Chochmah, which as long as it is hidden cannot yet be called truth (5:19). Like a person’s face beside the wisdom in his brain, it is only a making relative to the hidden Chochmah; yet “everything follows the seal”: it sustains all, as in “seal us in the book of life.”
הגם שנחשב בחי׳ עשייה לגבי מהות ועצמיות הח״ס מ״מ זהו קיום הכל
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36, ¶10A seal is a physical making, a name engraved, yet it confirms everything; so Chochmah Ila’ah is called G‑d’s seal of truth and a “making” to Him (“You made them all with Chochmah”). The seal is raised or sunken: the higher and the lower Chochmah.
ויש בזה חותם בולט וחותם שוקע ח״ע וח״ת
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3, ¶19The seal engravings on the tzitz are the letters of the Torah. The Torah before us, clothed in physical matters, is a seal: like letters pressed into wax, which are not of the nature of letters in thought or speech, yet are the very letters given form.
כי חותמו של הקב״ה אמת ואין אמת אלא תורה
Stated differently
Which level is G‑d’s seal, the “making” relative to what is above it
וכך בחי׳ חכמה הוא בחי׳ עשייה גשמיית לגבי א״ס ב״הChochmah is the seal: relative to Ein Sof it is like a physical making, as a name written in ink, while the Will is the “name.”
ושם במל׳ הוא עיקר החותם וזהו שבנעילה דיוהכ״פ אומרים וחתמנו בספר החייםThe light of the face of Arich Anpin, drawn through Zeir Anpin into Malchus, the source of created beings: there is the main seal. It is called a seal, a making, in the plain sense, because Malchus is the making within Atzilus relative to Keser.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Masei 4, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Masei 5, ¶13Likkutei Torah, Masei 5, ¶20Likkutei Torah, Masei 5, ¶22Likkutei Torah, Masei 5, ¶23Likkutei Torah, Masei 8, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Masei 8, ¶15Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3, ¶19
Where it appears
In 33 paragraphs of 17 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36 ¶9 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 5 ¶10 ¶13 ¶17 ¶19 ¶20 ¶21 ¶22 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 1 ¶2 ¶5 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 3 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 5 ¶12 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 3 ¶6 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 2 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Kedoshim 1 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 4 ¶14 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 8 ¶14 ¶15 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 18 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 29 ¶25 ¶27
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 7 ¶21
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3 ¶19
- Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 5 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17 ¶3
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.