Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Hislabshus
התלבשות
Enclothement (hislabshus)
Enclothement: a higher thing held within a lower, its essence grasped there, as intellect in a trait or soul in body; this is how G‑dly light fills the worlds, not how it encompasses them.
The word The word comes from לבוש, a garment, and putting one on. In a plain garment the clothing surrounds the wearer; in hislabshus the higher light enters within the lower, which serves as its “garment,” as the soul within the body. A light that stays outside and surrounds is called makif, not hislabshus.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 1, ¶30Enclothement means the essence of the cause is grasped within the effect, as intellect in an emotion or the soul in the body. It belongs to the life-force that fills the worlds (memalei kol almin); from what is holy and separate (sovev kol almin) the flow comes only through “hairs,” a contraction with no comparison to the source.
דענין התלבשות והשתלשלות הוא שנתפס המהות העילה בהעלול כמו התלבשות השכל במדה או אפילו כהתלבשות הנשמה בגוף
- Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 2, ¶1The soul is clothed in the body and in each limb according to its nature: intellect in the brain, the power of action in the hands, walking in the feet; the finer the vessel, the greater the light it holds. So the life from the Or Ein Sof is clothed in every world and creature as it can bear, and this is memalei kol almin.
נמצא האור והחיות מאיר ומתלבש בכל כלי לפי בחינתו ומהותו
- Likkutei Torah, Reeh 3, ¶2The glow of the Kav from the Or Ein Sof is clothed in the vessels of Atzilus and united with them (“He and His causations are one”), and even a glow of a glow of it is truly clothed in the creatures to give them life, down to the letters of the Ten Utterances in an inanimate stone: the power of the Maker within the made.
אפילו הארה דהארה מהקו מלובש ממש בהנבראים להחיותם
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶2Enclothement is set against mere passing through. In the Land of Israel the flow passes through the prince (sar) of Asiyah like sunlight through clear glass, unchanged, and is ascribed to Yetzirah. Enclothement is like a screen, or a riddle or parable over an idea, hiding the light greatly, so that sunlight seen through a screen is called “derived light”; so where Malchus of Atzilus is truly clothed in Malchus of Asiyah, the flow is ascribed to Malchus of Asiyah.
אין זה כ״א דרך מעבר בלבד ולא בדרך התלבשות ממש וכמו שרואין אור השמש ע״י אמצעית זכוכית בהירה
- Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 11, ¶6Intellect is clothed even in a physical act, such as writing deep ideas in ink. But the Supernal Emanator is in neither hishtalshelus nor enclothement; He is sovev kol almin, and grasping or enclothement in the worlds would mean change in Him. The life drawn into the worlds is only His “name,” from His Malchus.
אבל במאציל עליון ב״ה לא שייך כל בחי׳ אלו שאינו בבחי׳ השתלשלות ולא בבחי׳ התלבשות כלל
Stated differently
Whether, and in which Sefiros, the Or Ein Sof itself is enclothed
ואור א״ס המחי׳ אותם הוא המתלבש בהם כנשמה בגוףThe Or Ein Sof that gives the Sefiros life is clothed in them as a soul in a body (Chesed the right arm, Tiferes the body); since in itself it is none of these traits, this enclothement comes through the arousal from below, Torah study, called “Israel sustain their Father.”
ואינו מתלבש בשום כלי בבחי׳ א״פ כ״א בבחינת החכמה לבדה שבה הוא מתלבש בבחי׳ אור פנימיHe is not clothed as an inner light in any vessel except Chochmah alone, in which He is clothed as an inner light, and through it He acts in the other nine Sefiros (citing Tanya, ch. 35, note).
אבל אינו מתלבש ממש בבחי׳ חכמה כי החכמה מאין תמצא כתיבHe is the source of Chochmah and Binah but is not truly clothed in Chochmah; Chochmah does not come into being through the enclothement of the Or Ein Sof itself but from a mere radiance (ziv), itself a great contraction.
אבל הנביאים שאחריו המשיכו את אור א״ס ב״ה שיתלבש ג״כ בכלים דבי״עMoshe drew the enclothement of the Or Ein Sof into the vessels of Z”A, from where the Torah came, but not into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah; the prophets after him (from Chanah’s “Havayah Tzevaos”) drew the Or Ein Sof to be clothed in the vessels of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah too.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Emor 1, ¶30Likkutei Torah, Reeh 3, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 11, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3, ¶35Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 2, ¶1Torah Ohr, Bo 1, ¶7
Where it appears
In 1,093 paragraphs of 312 maamarim: part of the language of nearly every page.
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.