Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Lo bashamayim hi
לא בשמים היא
“It is not in heaven” (lo bashamayim hi)
Deuteronomy 30:12: what G‑d asks is not in “heaven,” the encompassing levels; it has been drawn down and is near, so the Torah is decided below and G‑dliness is drawn through Torah and teshuvah.
The word שמים here is not the visible sky but the encompassing level (makif) that is beyond reach; Nitzavim 2:11 itself notes that the blue we see is the air, not the heaven.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 2, ¶11“Heaven” is a supernal encompassing light, like the sky that is not seen from the earth (the blue is the air); “beyond the sea” is the makif over the sea of Chochmah. Though Anochi is makif and makif of makif, it is not like them, for “the thing is very near you”: in your mouth, through Torah study, where G‑d reads and learns opposite the one who learns, and in your heart, through teshuvah.
שמים הוא בחי׳ מקיף עליון כמו שמים לרום שאינו נראה על הארץ
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶33Why the law was not set like the Holy One’s ruling (“pure”) but by the majority: “heaven” is the encompassing levels of chayah and yechidah, and the Torah has already been drawn from them into the inner light, the middos of Atzilus.
וזהו ענין לא בשמים היא כי שמים הם מקיפים דחיה ויחידה. והתורה כבר נמשכה מהמקיפים לתוך א״פ במדות דאצילות
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 6, ¶2The Torah has been lowered below, as Rabbi Yehoshua said, “we pay no heed to a heavenly voice”; it is called the Torah of Havayah: yud contraction, heh expansion, vav drawing down. The great circumcision from above is “heavenward,” above the Torah and the Name Havayah.
כי על התורה נאמר לא בשמים היא שהיא נשפלת למטה דוקא
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 7, ¶2“It is not in heaven” means that the drawing down of G‑dliness is near to a person; this is so when the covenant is unblemished.
שמה שאמר לא בשמים היא. פי׳ שבחי׳ המשכת אלהות קרובה אל האדם
Stated differently
What “it is not in heaven” is said of: the Torah, or the mitzvah of teshuvah
כי על התורה נאמר לא בשמים היא שהיא נשפלת למטה דוקאThe verse is said of the Torah, which has been lowered below; so too Tazria 6:33 (the Torah has been drawn from the encompassing levels into the inner light).
הנה ע״ז נאמר כי המצוה הזאת דקאי על התשובה“This mitzvah” of the passage cannot mean the whole Torah (2:1); it is teshuvah, the remedy for one who has blemished a mitzvah, citing Reishis Chochmah in the name of Ramban. Its nearness is then through Torah in the mouth and teshuvah in the heart (2:11).
What “Who will go up for us to heaven” (whose initials spell מילה) points to
והנה על מילה שניה הזאת שיהיה לאחר קבוץ גליות ולאחר קיום התורה כולה כתיב מי יעלה לנו השמימהThe second, great circumcision from above (“Havayah will circumcise your heart”), after the ingathering of the exiles; it is above the Torah and above the Name Havayah, which is in the final letters.
אבל בפגמו נסתלק למעלה ובאמת מי יעלה לנו השמימה ונרמז בר״ת מילה וס״ת הוי׳When the covenant is blemished, the G‑dliness that was near departs above, and then it is truly “who will go up”; guarding the covenant draws Havayah down to the end of all levels.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 2, ¶11Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 2, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶33Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 6, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 7, ¶2
Where it appears
In 11 paragraphs of 8 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.