Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Gasus haruach
גסות הרוח
Coarseness of spirit, arrogance (gasus haruach)
Coarseness of spirit: arrogance, a person’s regarding himself as a separate something (yesh). Called Amalek in the soul, it is the screen that covers the G‑dly soul’s love, broken through lowliness and bittul.
The word גסות by itself means coarseness or thickness, as in "גסות וחומריות הגוף,” the body’s coarse physicality. גסות הרוח (or just גסות, as in Rashi’s "שאין לו גסות") is arrogance, the sense of being a separate yesh. Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5:20 links the two: the soul’s spirituality itself becomes coarse and thick.
Where it’s explained
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3, ¶5The main screen and partition is Amalek, “first of the nations” and head of the seven. Even now, in the soul’s inner life, Amalek is coarseness of spirit with brazenness and haughtiness (“though you soar aloft like the eagle”), and from it come evil traits, within the soul and outwardly.
מ״מ ברוחניות הנפש יש בחי׳ עמלק והיינו בחי׳ גסות הרוח בחוצפה וגבהות
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2, ¶2The thin skin (peri’ah) that hides G‑d’s light is the desire for permitted things, from kelipas nogah; the screen over a person is drawn from coarseness of spirit: because he counts himself a separate something, he craves and wants his will fulfilled. The remedy is “let my soul be as dust to all”; suffering in this world comes to crush his coarseness of spirit and humble him.
שמחמת גסות רוחו שמחשיב א״ע ליש ודבר בפ״ע הוא מתאוה תאוה וחפץ הוא שימלא רצונו דוקא
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 1, ¶7The love of G‑d is hidden within the vital soul’s desire for physical things, rooted in coarseness of spirit, which covers it. It has many grades of garments; one of high standing must remove even a thin garment of it (“I and he cannot dwell together”), with a broken heart, so the love can enter the inner point of the heart.
צריך הוא להסיר אפי׳ בחי׳ לבוש דק מבחי׳ גסות הרוח
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5, ¶20A G‑dly soul of a low level, clothed in the animal soul, is drawn after the body’s needs because it is in a state of yeshus and coarseness of spirit: its spirituality itself is coarse and thick, so it is drawn after coarse things and is not moved by fine, spiritual ones. The remedy (Zohar) is to crush the body that the light does not rise in.
מחמת שהיא בבחי׳ ישות וגסות רוח דהיינו שהרוחניות היא בבחי׳ גסות ועביות
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 7, ¶15Chametz, which swells and rises, is the self-exaltation and coarseness of the kelipah; matzah is lowliness and submission (“nullify your will”). The evil inclination is likened to leaven because coarseness is the source of all falling into desires and of every kind of evil.
והיינו מפני שבחי׳ גסות הוא מקור כל הנפילות לתאוות וכל מיני רע
Stated differently
What the evil traits and the desires are rooted in, and what the “skin of the serpent” (meshecha dechivya) is
ועמלק הוא גסות הרוח והוא ראשית להם. כי גסות הרוח היא שרש כל המדות רעותThe seven nations are seven evil traits; Amalek, “first of the nations,” is coarseness of spirit and is first among them, for coarseness of spirit is the root of all evil traits.
כי כל המדות שרשם ומקורם מן הגוף הנק׳ משכא דחויא ויכול להתהוות בכל אחד אך החוצפה והגסות מאין הוא באAll the traits have their root and source in the body, called the skin of the serpent; the brazenness and coarseness of each evil trait, which is Amalek, comes instead from chambers of the kelipos called Haman, which send thoughts of coarseness of spirit and brazenness.
בכח המתאוה לדברים גשמיים מנפש החיונית ששרשה בחי׳ גסות הרוח משכא דחויאThe vital soul’s power of desire for physical things has as its root coarseness of spirit; the text continues “the skin of the serpent,” which covers and hides the love.
Main sources
Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3, ¶5Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 4, ¶3Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 12, ¶19Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 7, ¶11Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Behar 1, ¶7Likkutei Torah, Acharei 2, ¶11Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 17, ¶1
Where it appears
In 55 paragraphs of 40 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 2 ¶11 ¶14 ¶16 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 3 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 6 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 6 ¶30
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 2 ¶14 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 2 ¶29
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 3 ¶5 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 4 ¶14 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 3 ¶14
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 1 ¶23 ¶35
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 13 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 7 ¶15 ¶23 ¶24 ¶25
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 1 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 1 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 5 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 17 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 1 ¶7 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 10 ¶48
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 4 ¶6 ¶7 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 7 ¶31
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5 ¶20
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 12 ¶19 ¶20
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 14 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 15 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 4 ¶3 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Vayishlach 6 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 1 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 1 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Metzora 1 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 5 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 1 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 18 ¶32
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶37
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 7 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 7 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 7 ¶20
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 5 ¶26
- Torah Ohr, Vayigash 1 ¶15
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.