Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Igulim veyosher
עגולים ויושר
Circles and line (igulim veyosher)
Two modes of light in every world: igulim (circles), lights still hidden and included together with no above or below; yosher (line), lights revealed in vessels, divided into Sefiros from head to foot.
The word In plain Hebrew יושר means straightness or uprightness, and עיגול any circle (the text compares the igulim to the globe). As a pair, igulim veyosher are the two arrangements of the Sefiros and their lights, named after the Etz Chaim’s Gate of Igulim and Yosher.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 2, ¶12In the igulim the supernal lights are still hidden and included together in one equality, not yet divided so that Chochmah or Chesed is a thing of its own. Yosher is the lights coming down and revealed, each Sefirah in its own vessel, yet bound together like the limbs of one person. Both are in all the worlds, from before Atzilus to the igulim and yosher of Asiyah; igulim are called Nefesh and yosher Ruach.
דבחי׳ העגולים הוא שאורות עליונים הנמשכים מן המאציל ית׳ אינן נגלים עדיין בבחי׳ גילוי רק הם בבחי׳ העלם
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1, ¶7Or Pnimi settles in the vessel in the mode of yosher, graded from above to below, Chochmah, Binah and Daas down to Netzach, Hod and Yesod. Or Makif, too great to enter the vessel, stays above it and is also a circle, since it surrounds head and foot alike. (Or Makif, Or Pnimi and the kav have their own entries.)
א״פ היינו מה שנכנס ומתיישב בהכלי בבחי׳ יושר והדרגה מעלה ומטה חב״ד חג״ת נה״י
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 4, ¶9As on the globe there is no up or down, and those living on its underside do not walk on their heads, so in the igulim, the light that encompasses all worlds, there is no above and below; only in the direct inner light is there a division into head and feet.
וזהו בבחי׳ העיגולים ודוקא באור ישר בפנימיות יש התחלקות ראש ורגלים
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2, ¶7Every step of the chain of descent has makif and pnimi: first the encompassing light is drawn, then a little of it enters as inner light, as only a fraction of thought enters speech. So first the igulim are drawn and then the partzuf of yosher, the form of a man with its many limbs and its stages of gestation, nursing and mochin; in the igulim everything is equal on every side.
והוא בחי׳ עגולים ויושר שמתחלה נמשך עגולים ואח״כ פרצוף יושר שהוא בחי׳ האדם
- Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 3, ¶9“I clothe the heavens in blackness”: in exile the igulim shine only in concealment, as in a dream, where the imagination joins two opposites in one subject. In their root in the higher world, which is in the mode of igulim, they truly are united; only below, where the lines are divided by Chochmah and Daas, do they appear as opposites and separate.
שמים הם בחי׳ עגולים הם מלובשים בבחי׳ קדרות וחשך
Stated differently
Whether the yosher or the igulim are rooted higher
שרש היושר גבוה מהעגולים שהעגולים הם בחי׳ נפש והיושר הוא בחי׳ רוחThe root of the yosher is higher than the igulim: the igulim are Nefesh and the yosher Ruach. The igulim surround the yosher like a curtain, yet the yosher is like the central point around which the whole circle turns.
אעפ״כ שרש המקיפים נמשך מבחי׳ העיגול הגדול המקיף את הקו וחוטAlthough the encompassing lights are drawn through the kav, their root is the great circle that surrounds the kav, from above the kav; Or Pnimi comes from the yosher.
Whether “their end is wedged in their beginning” (no fixed head and end) belongs to the igulim or to the yosher
דכל דאתי מסטרא דקדושה הוא בבחי׳ נעוץ סופן בתחלתן שאין לו בחינת ראש וסוף והוא בחי׳ עגוליםWhatever comes from holiness is in the mode of “their end is wedged in their beginning,” with no head and end: this is the igulim, drawn from the light that encompasses all worlds. So each Jew has what another lacks, as the feet have an advantage over the head.
דשם בתהו היו זה תחת זה ולא היו בבחי׳ פרצוף. ע״כ לא הי׳ נמצא בחי׳ זו דנעוץ סופןIn the igulim of Tohu the Sefiros were one beneath the other and not in the form of a partzuf, so “their end is wedged” was not found there; it came about in the yosher of Tikkun, through its many vessels, where the foot has what the head lacks.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Shelach 2, ¶12Likkutei Torah, Korach 1, ¶7Likkutei Torah, Nasso 3, ¶19Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2, ¶7Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 29, ¶15Torah Ohr, Shemos 3, ¶7Torah Ohr, Shemos 3, ¶9Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 4, ¶9
Where it appears
In 39 paragraphs of 27 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 9 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 10 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶7 ¶48
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 3 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 1 ¶2 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 3 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 5 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 29 ¶15 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6 ¶30
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 6 ¶28
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 4 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 8 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 2 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 12 ¶8 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 3 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 2 ¶6 ¶7 ¶8 ¶11 ¶12 ¶14
- Torah Ohr, Shemos 3 ¶7 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 20 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 3 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 6 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 3 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 4 ¶11
- Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1 ¶17
- Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 3 ¶8 ¶9 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 9 ¶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.