Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Chuppah
חופה
The wedding canopy (chuppah)
The canopy over groom and bride: an encompassing light (makif) above both giver and receiver, in which they are equal, so that the two opposites can unite. It must precede their inner union.
The word חופה is first the canopy of a wedding (חופה וקדושין, the kallah’s veil, the cloth over poles); as a verb it means to cover (גלגלתא דחפיא על מוחא; a shoe החופה את רוב הרגל). The concept is meant in כי על כל כבוד חופה, כחתן יוצא מחופתו, מצהלות חתנים מחופתם, and wherever the chuppah is a makif over groom and bride above.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 5, ¶3There is no absorption until after the chuppah, the encompassing light from above that shines on groom and bride so they can unite: the Supernal Will resting as a makif over the heart so that it can take in the light; above, a supernal makif over Knesses Yisrael. In service it is contemplation too great for the heart, or even the mind, to hold; the Supernal Will, the chuppah, is revealed on Shabbos and festivals.
שבחי׳ החופה הוא אור מקיף מלמעלה שמאיר על חתן וכלה שיוכלו להתייחד
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 38, ¶4The groom (descent from above, like water) and the bride (Malchus, source of the souls, always rising, like fire) are opposites, joined by the chuppah above both. In particular there are two: the bride’s chuppah is the love “with all your might” (bechol me’odecha), the inner point of the heart, too great to be held in it and so a makif; through it, from below, the groom’s chuppah is aroused, the two join, and so groom and bride join.
אך הנה בדרך פרט יש שני חופות חופה לחתן וחופה לכלה
- Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 2, ¶10Before the most hidden level, Chochmah Ila’ah (the groom) and Malchus (the bride) are wholly equal, so it is called chuppah, which surrounds groom and bride alike. After betrothal, in which the bride rises to the groom, both rise to the chuppah: this is nisuin (“vehasi’enu” of the festivals) and the festivals’ joy, like a king who in his joy shows himself to all equally.
כמ״כ בחי׳ סתימו דכל סתימין הנ״ל הוא בחי׳ מקיף על בחי׳ ח״ע ובחי׳ מלכות בשוה
- Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 3, ¶21The Written Torah, the groom, comes into being only from the afterglow of supernal Chochmah; for the union to draw from the inner Mocha Stima’ah there must first be the chuppah, sovev, Keser above Chochmah. So the seven days of Sukkos, which draw makifim from sovev, are like the seven days of feasting after the chuppah, and the inner union follows on Shemini Atzeres.
זהו ענין החופה שצ״ל קודם היחוד שהוא בחי׳ סוכ״ע בחי׳ כתר שלמעלה מהחכמה
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 12, ¶15At Sinai “He held the mountain over them like a tub”: the higher love, an encompassing light that surrounds all worlds, which aroused their love and bittul. This is why the blessing says “through chuppah and kiddushin”: the makif had to come first so that they could receive the Torah, the kiddushin.
כי החופה הוא בחינת מקיף והוא ענין שכפה עליהם הר כגיגית
Stated differently
What the groom’s chuppah, over Z”A and Nukva, is: sovev kol almin, or Tiferes of Imma
אזי מעורר למעלה ג״כ חופה של החתן שהוא בחי׳ סוכ״עThe chuppah above groom and bride is a makif from sovev kol almin; the bride’s chuppah, “with all your might,” arouses above the groom’s chuppah, which is sovev.
ובאתערותא דלתתא אתעדל״ע עזי מעורר למעלה ג״כ החופה של החתן שהוא בחי׳ ת״ת דאימאTiferes of Imma, the sum of Imma’s middos, becomes the Keser and makif of Z”A and Nukva and joins them; the bride’s chuppah, “with all your might,” is the Keser of Nukva, and from below it arouses the groom’s chuppah, Tiferes of Imma.
לכן נקרא ת״ת דאימא חופה שחופה ומקיף המדות יחד ונבטלים שם הכל בהשואה יחדTiferes of Imma is called chuppah because it covers and surrounds the middos together, and there all are nullified in equality; it is the lower will, born of the intellect, that becomes the Keser of Z”A. Likewise the general Keser of Atzilus, Malchus of Adam Kadmon, is the chuppah over Abba and Imma.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 38, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 39, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 39, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 10, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Matos 5, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 2, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 3, ¶21Likkutei Torah, Tzav 4, ¶4
Where it appears
In 58 paragraphs of 40 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 5 ¶1 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 4 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 11 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 8 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 1 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 7 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 1 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 10 ¶1 ¶4 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 20 ¶31 ¶32
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 38 ¶1 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 40 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 3 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 4 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 3 ¶8 ¶19 ¶21 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 4 ¶12
- Torah Ohr, Terumah 1 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 1 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 5 ¶8 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 21 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 39 ¶1 ¶4 ¶5 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 42 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 2 ¶9 ¶10 ¶11 ¶14
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 12 ¶13 ¶15
- Torah Ohr, Vayechi 5 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 3 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 9 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 1 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 34 ¶5 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 16 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 13 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 11 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 21 ¶13 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 5 ¶28
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 4 ¶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.