Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Koach hapoel banifal
כח הפועל בנפעל
The power of the Maker in the made (koach hapoel banifal)
A maker’s own power truly clothed within what he makes, as in a person’s deed. Some passages identify it with memalei, the life within the worlds, unlike His essence; others place it only lower down.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Reeh 7, ¶4“Created” implies the power of the Maker in the made: the giver’s very power drawn into and clothed in what is given. It does not apply to Ein Sof’s essence (“He commanded and they were created”), only to His Names, memalei: the vessels of Atzilus become a soul to Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. Above the vessels, in sovev, it does not apply.
כי לשון ברא משמע שיש כח הפועל בנפעל דהיינו שכח המשפיע ממש נמשך ומלובש בההשפעה
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶2Memalei is the life clothed in each world by its level, the Creator’s power truly within each creature, down to the angel over each blade of grass, divided like the earth’s growing power among many plants. Yet it is only an outer radiance, His kingship, so creation is “something from nothing,” not cause and effect.
ממכ״ע הוא החיות שמתלבש בעולמות לפי מדרגתם לכאו״א כפום שיעורא דילי׳ נשמות כך ומלאכים כך והוא בחי׳ כח הפועל שמלובש בהנפעל בתוכו ממש
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 35, ¶2All the countless worlds, even the hidden ones, are “making” relative to Him: as a person’s physical deed holds no intellect, only a glimmer of it, so above there is only the Maker’s power, a power alone. That power clothed there is memalei; the Maker’s essence (the text reads ועצמיול, evidently for ועצמיות) is sovev, before which upper and lower are equal.
רק כח הפועל בנפעל כח בלבד כו׳. וזהו עשית עשייה דוקא (ועמ״ש בד״ה אוסרי לגפן גבי עשה פלא) והנה הכח הפועל שמתלבש שם נק׳ ממכ״ע
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 11, ¶8Creating the worlds makes no change in Him, because His making is unlike human making: in a person’s work the maker’s very power is in the made, for he turns himself to it and sinks his mind into what he is making.
שמעשה אנוש הנה כח הפועל ממש הוא בנפעל. כמו עד״מ כשעושה דבר פונה א״ע ומעמיק שכלו בדבר שהוא עושה
- Likkutei Torah, Reeh 3, ¶2The light of the kav clothed in the vessels of Atzilus, and even a radiance of its radiance, the letters of the Ten Utterances, is truly clothed even in a stone to give it life: this is the power of the Maker in the made (Tanya, Shaar HaYichud ch. 3). Yet it is still creation from nothing, only a radiance, and the made is truly nullified to it, unlike a body to its soul. This is memalei; sovev is not clothed in them at all.
והרי זה בחי׳ כח הפועל המלובש ממש בהנפעל כמש״ש פ״ג ואעפ״כ התהוות הנפעל כמו האבן מבחינת כח הפועל המלובש בו
Stated differently
Whether the kingship (Malchus) that gives the worlds life is itself clothed in them as the power of the Maker in the made, or that investing is found only lower down
ממכ״ע הוא כח הפועל בנפעל שבחי׳ מל׳ דאצילות מחיה עולמות בי״ע אזי מתלבשת ממש בבי״ע בבחי׳ פנימיות וחיותMemalei is the power of the Maker in the made: Malchus of Atzilus, giving life to Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, is truly clothed in them as their inner life, like the soul giving life to each part of the body.
לא שיהיה כח הפועל מתלבש ממש בנפעל אלא שהוא כח השופע עליהם בלבדThe life that creates them is not spread and clothed within them in a revealed way; “by the breath of His mouth” does not mean the Maker’s power is truly clothed in the made, only that it flows upon them. Only His Name, His kingship, is called upon them.
ומ״ש בספרים כח הפועל בנפעל כו׳ הוא למטה בבחי׳ עשי׳ שנק׳ פעול כידועThe source of all the worlds’ life is only a radiance from Him, like sunlight, which makes no change in Him; what the books call the power of the Maker in the made is below, in Asiyah, called “pa’ul” (the made).
והתלבשות כח הפועל בנפעל הוא למטה בע׳ שרים שר של מים שר של כו׳ שהם משמרי האופניםHis kingship, like a human king’s, is only His Name called upon the realm, not a true investing of the Maker’s power in the made; that investing is below, in the seventy ministers (the minister of water and so on), the keepers of the Ofanim.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Reeh 7, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Reeh 3, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 6, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 35, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 1, ¶6Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 11, ¶8Torah Ohr, Beshalach 5, ¶11
Where it appears
In 27 paragraphs of 21 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 6 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 1 ¶21 ¶36
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 3 ¶2 ¶3 ¶17 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 7 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 35 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 6 ¶3 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 7 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 10 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 8 ¶27
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 15 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 7 ¶43
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 1 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 14 ¶7
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 5 ¶11
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 11 ¶8 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Kedoshim 1 ¶25
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 15 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 3 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 2 ¶6
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.