LikuteiTorah.comThe Chassidishe Parsha
Sign in

Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah

Levushim

לבושים

Garments (levushim)

What clothes a thing without being of its essence, covering it yet letting it be reached: thought and speech are the soul’s garments; mitzvos make garments for the soul; Malchus is G‑d’s garment.

The word לבוש is first an actual garment (and בגדי כהונה, the priestly vestments, which the text also reads this way). As a concept it is whatever clothes another thing: letters for intellect, a parable for its meaning, Malchus for G‑dliness (ה׳ מלך גאות לבש), the Torah for Or Ein Sof (עוטה אור כשלמה), and the garments of the soul (לבושי הנפש, מחשבה דבור ומעשה) or those made from the mitzvos for Gan Eden.

Where it’s explained

  1. Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶6The letters of thought and speech flow from the soul yet are not of its essence, so they are called only garments, as a garment is not of the essence of its wearer: like ink letters on parchment, foreign to it yet joined to it. Thought is a joined garment, speech a separate one; still they cleave to the soul, which bears them and without which they do not exist.ולכן מחשבה ודבור נקראו רק לבושין בלבד לגבי הנפש כמו הלבוש שאינו כלל ממהות הדבר
  2. Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1, ¶2The soul in itself is simple light; its intellect and middos are garments, which it has but which are not its essence. Thought, speech and action are garments truly separate from it (Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah), while intellect and middos are garments that are not separate, like the vessels of Atzilus, so Tanya calls them the soul’s essence, a name only, not its essence in truth; they are called tikkunim, adornments the soul puts on.והשכל והמדות שלה הן בחי׳ לבושין לנפש שהנפש יש לה שכל ומדות אבל אינן מהות ועצמיות הנפש
  3. Likkutei Torah, Shelach 18, ¶7The garments drawn from the One clothe and surround the soul from head to foot, so that it can enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah and be absorbed in the One; bare, without a garment, it cannot, for it is created and far from the One. So “the soul of my master shall be bound up in the bond of life.”משא״כ כשהיא ערומה בלא לבוש אינה יכולה להתכלל באחד מאחר שהיא בחי׳ נברא
  4. Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 3, ¶1“Days” are garments made for the soul each day; a day without a mitzvah leaves a garment missing. Their root is far above, but they came down into time, like a parable that conveys its meaning, so that the soul can grasp them and through them the radiance of the Shechinah, which it cannot grasp bare.ואם חסר יום א׳ בלא מצוה חסרא לבושא
  5. Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 15, ¶10Kingship is like a garment, a covering so that the body is not exposed: His Malchus conceals G‑dliness so that heaven and earth appear physical, for there is no king without a people. The mitzvos, the King’s commands, draw this garment of kingship (“You have put on splendor and majesty”), but only when the yoke of Heaven is accepted first.והנה בחינת מלכות היא בחינת לבוש. כמ״ש יביאו לבוש מלכות

Stated differently

What makes the soul’s garments: the mitzvos, with the Torah as its food, or Torah and mitzvos together

Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 6, ¶6דאורייתא היא בחי׳ מזון לנשמה ומצות הם לבושים לנשמה

The Torah is food for the soul and the mitzvos are its garments: though lower below, the mitzvos are higher in their root, the supernal makif, Keser above Chochmah of Atzilus, so they become garments for the soul; the Torah, food, is rooted in the inner ten Sefiros of Atzilus.

Torah Ohr, Yisro 2, ¶19והנה המצות הן לבושין ומקיפין והתורה היא מזון ופנימיות

The mitzvos are garments and encompassing lights; the Torah is food and the inner level.

Likkutei Torah, Shelach 18, ¶7ע״י עסק התורה ומצות בג׳ בחי׳ שהם בחי׳ לבושין להנשמה שתוכל ליהנות מזיו השכינה

Through Torah and mitzvos in thought, speech and deed, which are garments for the soul, it can enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah: the garments are “thoughts of Torah and mitzvos.”

Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 3, ¶1היומין הם לבושים הנעשים להנשמה מהתורה ומצות בכל יום דוקא

The “days” are garments made for the soul from the Torah and mitzvos of each day.

Torah Ohr, Bereishis 2, ¶12והתורה אע״פ שנק׳ מזון מ״מ היא ג״כ בחי׳ לבוש כמ״ש עטה אור כשלמה

The mitzvos are makifim and so become garments for the soul in Gan Eden (garments and makifim are one matter); the Torah, though called food, is also a garment, as “He wraps Himself in light as a garment.”

Whether thought is a garment joined to the soul or one truly separate from it

Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶6רק המחשבה היא לבוש המחובר והדבור הוא בחי׳ לבוש הנפרד

Thought and speech are both garments, not of the soul’s essence; but thought is a joined garment and speech a separate one.

Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1, ¶2מחדו״מ שהן לבושין נפרדין ממש ממהות הנפש שהן בחי׳ בי״ע

Thought, speech and action are garments truly separate from the soul’s essence, like Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah; intellect and middos are garments that are not truly separate, like the vessels of Atzilus.

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶6Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1, ¶2Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Shelach 18, ¶7Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 3, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 15, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 16, ¶12Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 6, ¶6

Where it appears

In 494 paragraphs of 210 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.

Text size

Theme

How I learn

Calendar

Language

English

This page is in English only for now. Also in, so far:

العربية72 maamarim so farDeutsch72 maamarim so farEspañol72 maamarim so farفارسی72 maamarim so farFrançais72 maamarim so farעברית72 maamarim so farItaliano72 maamarim so farPortuguês72 maamarim so farРусский72 maamarim so farУкраїнська72 maamarim so far中文（简体）72 maamarim so far中文（繁體）72 maamarim so far

Send us a suggestion

Corrections, ideas, questions. Leave your email so we can answer.

We send it by email to the editor, with the page you’re on. Nothing is published.
Ask Freg about any paragraph