Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Koved rosh
כובד ראש
Heaviness of head (koved rosh)
Submission before prayer: bitterness that the soul’s “head” (Yisrael li rosh) and the Shechinah are weighed down by sin and exile. Like crushing olives, it brings out the hidden love and arouses great mercy.
The word The phrase comes from the Mishnah (“one may stand to pray only out of koved rosh”); TO Beshalach 4:20 cites Rashi’s gloss, “submission,” and LT Balak 3:24 calls submission and lowliness its plain sense. The maamarim add a reading of the “head” as the soul’s level of Yisrael li rosh and as the Shechinah.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 3, ¶12Before prayer one needs koved rosh: bitterness that the level of “Yisrael is to Me a head” does not shine in him openly, because “my iniquities have passed over my head.” It is submission and a sense of one’s own lowliness, known well in the mind.
צריך כובד ראש שהוא המרירות על שאין בחי׳ ישראל לי ראש מאיר בו בגילוי
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6, ¶27Olives hold their oil but give it only when crushed; so the love hidden in the soul comes out through crushing, the koved rosh before prayer. The head is the soul’s level of Yisrael li rosh, weighed down by sins; it is also the Shechinah, source of all souls, sent into exile in the chambers of Nogah through those sins.
וזהו ג״כ ענין כובד ראש שהשכינה מקור כל נש״י נק׳ ראש
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6, ¶31Mercy is drawn only where something is lacking and bitter; so the inner Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, “the good oil,” are revealed only through koved rosh, tasting bitterness over one’s distance from G‑d until the heart is broken. This is the “crushing” of the body.
זהו דוקא ע״י כובד ראש ושיטעום מרירות בנפשו על ריחוקו מה׳
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 3, ¶24Contemplating the great descent, the head brought low to the dust, brings great submission and lowliness, the plain sense of koved rosh. From it come teshuvah from the heart (“with all your heart” in the Shema) and then a true request in the Amidah for the revelation of the Or Ein Sof below.
ומזה יבא לידי הכנעה ושפלות גדולה והיינו פי׳ כובד ראש כפשוטו
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 1, ¶11As a seed grows only after it rots, joy in G‑d grows only from a broken heart and spirit. Koved rosh is grief over the “head,” His holiness, as it were under the weight of exile; for the early chassidim an hour of contemplation before prayer was enough, but others must set a separate time to arouse bitterness, at midnight (Tikkun Chatzos).
שיהא מיצר ודואג על בחי׳ ראש ומעלת קדושתו ית׳ שהוא כביכול בכובד הגלות
Stated differently
Whether koved rosh is a submission in the mind or in the heart
שיבא לידי הכנעה והשפלות ופחיתות עצמו במוח בידיעה היטב וא״צ שיהיה בלב דוקאThe submission and lowliness are in the mind, known well; they need not be in the heart (and before morning prayer the heart cannot be dulled, for Chesed is aroused in the morning).
ועבודה זו נקראת בחינת יראה התחתונה הקודמת לאהבה זו והוא השפלות והכנעת לבוBreaking the heart for the sake of cleaving to G‑d is the lower awe that precedes the hidden love: the lowliness and submission of his heart, which is koved rosh (so too LT Beha’alotcha 6:31: its bitterness breaks the heart within him).
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 3, ¶12Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6, ¶27Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6, ¶28Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6, ¶31Likkutei Torah, Balak 3, ¶24Likkutei Torah, Masei 10, ¶4Torah Ohr, Beshalach 1, ¶11Torah Ohr, Beshalach 4, ¶20
Where it appears
In 11 paragraphs of 7 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.