Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Esh shechorah al gabei esh levanah
אש שחורה על גבי אש לבנה
Black fire upon white fire (esh shechorah al gabei esh levanah)
The Sages’ image of the Torah as black fire upon white fire: white is Or Ein Sof beyond grasp; black, the contraction that hides it so it can be revealed, like ink on parchment.
The word In “I am black” (שחורה אני) blackness also has its plain sense of a lowly, covered state. Shir HaShirim 5:14 counts two blacknesses: the love is hidden because it is above grasp (black fire, darkness from below upward), and it is covered by the animal soul (darkness from above downward, the lower level). Only the first is the black fire.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶4Seen from above downward, whatever comes into grasp is darkness before Or Ein Sof, so Or Ein Sof itself, above all grasp, is the white fire, and everything below it, even Keser and the highest Atzilus, is black fire before the Emanator. Seen from below upward it is the reverse: what is beyond the grasp of created beings is called darkness, “He made darkness His hiding place.”
ולכן אור הא״ס ב״ה בעצמו ובכבודו מה שהוא למעלה מגדר ההשגה נק׳ אור והוא בחי׳ אש לבנה
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶6The analogy of ink on parchment: the smooth parchment is Or Ein Sof itself; the yud, a black point, darkens it so that a form, Chochmah Ila’ah, can appear, yet it is the parchment that shows the form, for a letter not surrounded by parchment is invalid. Engraved letters (Keser) darken the stone only slightly, so Keser is black fire before Ein Sof but white fire before Chochmah and Binah, the written letters; Zeir Anpin is black fire upon Keser’s white fire.
וכמשל הדיו שע״ג הקלף שהקלף החלק רומז לבחי׳ אש לבנה אור א״ס ב״ה בעצמו
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶38The Written Torah, drawn from Chochmah of Atzilus clothed in Binah (“the book,” where letters chiefly form), is black fire upon white fire: as ink letters hide the white of the parchment, the drawing of Or Ein Sof into the grasp of Chochmah and Binah is a real concealment, since it can be grasped only through tzimtzum.
דכמו שאותיות שמהדיו מסתירים לובן הקלף שתחתיו כך מה שנמשך אור א״ס ב״ה אש לבנה להיות מושג בחו״ב דאצילות זהו הסתר והעלם ממש
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶14In a person’s service the same pair appears as revealed love and hidden love, like the Ofanim of Yetzirah (“forms light”) and the Seraphim of Beriah (“creates darkness”). The hidden love, above intellect, is black fire, darkness seen from below upward; its root is in the white fire, the “sun” that the worlds cannot receive, and so it was hidden.
והאהבה המסותרת נק׳ אש שחורה ע״ד שנתבאר לעיל בענין השרפים שנק׳ אש שחורה
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 4, ¶6Black fire is the fire hidden in the heart of every Jew, burning to cleave to G‑d even while he is busy with material affairs. With this hidden love one “bakes” the Torah, so that its words are absorbed within him and become one with him.
והנה ענין אש שחורה הוא אש מסותרת ונעלמת בלב כל א׳ ואחד מישראל באהבה ותשוקה לדבקה בו ית׳
Stated differently
What the white fire (and the black fire on it) is: Or Ein Sof itself, or a level within the sefiros
ועכ״ז היא נק׳ אש שחורה לגבי המאציל א״ס ב״ה שנק׳ אש לבנהThe white fire is the Emanator, Ein Sof; even the highest Atzilus is black fire before Him.
בחי׳ אש לבנה דתורה זהו ענין ושער רישיה כעמר נקא ועכ״ז הוא רק בחי׳ שערות ואינו ערוך להעצמיותCiting another explanation: the white fire of the Torah is the hair of the head “like pure wool,” only hair and not comparable to the Essence; a greater light comes through descending into black fire to refine the darkness of the animal soul.
פי׳ אש שחורה חכמה סתימאה ע״ג אש לבנה הוא אבאCiting the Ramaz: the black fire is the hidden Chochmah (Chochmah setima’ah) and the white fire beneath it is Abba.
ור״ל דאש שחורה זהו בחינת מל״ת ואש לבנה זהו בחי׳ מ״עThe black fire is the negative commandments, which depend on the black hair of Zeir Anpin; the white fire is the positive commandments, from the beard of Arich Anpin “like pure wool” (Shir HaShirim 8:41 adds that the root of the light in the negative commandments is higher than this white fire).
מימינו אש דת אש שחורה ע״ג אש לבנה וזהו אנכי ולא יהיה לך שהן מקור בחי׳ חסד וגבורהThe Torah’s black fire upon white fire is “I am” and “You shall have no other,” the sources of Chesed and Gevurah, through which the Torah sweetens the Gevuros in the Chasadim (the text does not say which fire is which).
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶38Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 4, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶41
Where it appears
In 34 paragraphs of 18 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 3 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 4 ¶1 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8 ¶21 ¶40 ¶41
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 8 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5 ¶1 ¶3 ¶4 ¶6 ¶11 ¶12 ¶14 ¶15 ¶16 ¶21 ¶22 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 12 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Beshalach 1 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 1 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 4 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2 ¶38 ¶39
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 3 ¶7 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 6 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 2 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2 ¶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.