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Kelipah

קליפה

Kelipah (the husk)

The “husks” that cover and conceal holiness: forces of yesh set opposite holiness, whose mark is bittul. They came into being through the breaking of the vessels and draw their nurture from holiness.

The word Kelipah is also the plain word for a peel or shell (קליפת האגוז, a nut’s shell, used as the parable). As a concept the same forces are also called החיצונים (the outside ones) and סטרא אחרא / סט״א (the other side). Kelipas nogah, the kelipah of mixed good and evil, has its own entry.

Where it’s explained

  1. Torah Ohr, Vaeira 3, ¶4They are called kelipos after a husk, like the shell of a nut, that surrounds and hides the fruit within it. The only way to get the fruit out is to break the shell; so to bring out the sparks of holiness hidden in the kelipos, the kelipos had to be broken, which is what the signs and plagues in Egypt did.ולכך נק׳ בשם קליפות שהם כמשל הקליפה שהיא חופפת ומקפת על הפרי הכנוס בתוכה ומסתרת אותה
  2. Torah Ohr, Vayishlach 6, ¶14The kelipos came into being chiefly through the breaking of the vessels: the choicest that was refined first became Atzilus, what remained became Beriah, and so on, down to the lowest residue that can no longer be refined, which is the kelipos. Only a little life remains in them, like dust, and only during the exile; in the Time to Come “I will remove the spirit of impurity,” and they will have no life at all.שעיקר הויות הקליפות הוא ע״י שבה״כ ומה שנברר תחלה היותר מובחר הוא נעשה אצי׳ והנשאר נעשה בריאה
  3. Likkutei Torah, Acharei 2, ¶14“G‑d made one opposite the other”: as the G‑dly soul has ten powers, so does kelipah, with a Chochmah of kelipah opposite the Chochmah of holiness. The rule is that on the side of holiness all is bittul to Him, while kelipah is yesh; so one who regards himself as a yesh in pride is likened to one who serves stars, and honor of this world that is yesh is from the side of kelipah.שבסטרא דקדושה הכל בבחי׳ ביטול אליו ית׳ חכמה כח מה משא״כ חכמה דקליפה היא בחי׳ יש
  4. Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶13The outside forces draw their nurture from the middos of holiness, but only once the middos have come out of Binah and are revealed as separate; while they are still contained and hidden in Binah there is no nurture for them, because their nurture comes only from what is yesh and not from what is ayin.יניקת החיצונים אינו נמשך כ״א מבחי׳ היש משא״כ מבחי׳ אין
  5. Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶31“The husk precedes the fruit” does not mean the kelipah itself comes first: the light and life clothed in it in exile, which fell there from the breaking of the vessels, is from higher levels than the fruit, yet the kelipah itself is dross. So the lion is an impure animal, lower than the ox, while the spark in it is rooted higher.ולא שהקליפה ממש קדמה לפרי ח״ו אלא שהאור וחיות הלובש בתוכו בבחינת גלות ונפל שמה משבה״כ

Stated differently

Whether the level of yechidah, the will above reason, has a counterpart in kelipah

Likkutei Torah, Reeh 6, ¶5והנה זה לעומת זה עשה האלהים שגם בסט״א יש בחי׳ יחידה זו שהיא בחי׳ רצון שלמעלה מהשכל והטעם

One opposite the other: the sitra achra also has this level of yechidah, a will above intellect and reason, which is why a person can have a strong will even in worldly matters. So David asked “Save my yechidah from the lions,” that his yechidah be only in holiness.

Likkutei Torah, Balak 1, ¶14אך האהבה שבפנימית הלב שלמעלה מהטעם ודעת רק באה מלמעלה בבחי׳ מתנה אין בחינת זה לעומת זה כנגדה

The love in the inwardness of the heart, above reason and knowledge, which comes from above as a gift, has nothing set opposite it: the inner point of the heart is the level of yechidah, which has only one will, for its Father in heaven; the outside forces have no hold on it at all.

Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 3, ¶12וז״ש ומכפירים יחידתי שהוא יחדה ממש שאין לה לעומת זה בקליפות

Holiness has two makifim, chayah and yechidah; kelipah has one makif, the will above intellect (deep attachment to worldly vanities), but not the second, yechidah proper, which exists only in holiness. The maamar presents this as settling discourses that seem to contradict each other on the point.

Main sources

Torah Ohr, Vaeira 3, ¶4Torah Ohr, Vayishlach 6, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Acharei 2, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶13Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶31Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 3, ¶12Likkutei Torah, Reeh 6, ¶5

Where it appears

In 423 paragraphs of 185 maamarim.

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.

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