Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Moach velev
מוח ולב
Mind and heart (moach velev)
The soul’s two opposite powers, the cool mind of comprehension and the fiery heart of feeling. Their peace is “the mind rules the heart,” though the inner heart, the higher will, is above the mind.
The word מוח and לב are also the bodily brain and heart: many passages use the organs as an analogy (blood from the liver to the heart, life-force rising from the heart to the brain). Where the text speaks of comprehension and feeling, or of the mind ruling the heart, it means the soul’s powers.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 7, ¶9Mind and heart are by nature two opposites: in the heart’s flames comprehension and depth of contemplation shrink, and in the mind the heart’s fire shrinks. Their union is that the mind rules the heart, the heart submitting to it, and this comes through Torah study for its own sake.
בחי׳ מוחא וליבא שהם בעצם שני הפכים כמו שאנו רואים שברשפי אש הלב מתמעט המוח ר״ל ההשגה ועומק ההתבוננות ובמוח מתמעט אש הלב
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 6, ¶15The “peace” within the soul is the mind ruling the heart: the heart produces ratzo, the running toward G‑d, but afterward there must be shov, the return, which is the main thing. Torah study, from the will above reason, draws the Daas that joins mind and heart, so that both their virtues remain.
להיות מוח שליט על הלב כי מהלב נמשך בחי׳ רצוא אם רץ לבך אבל אח״כ צ״ל שוב והוא העיקר
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 7, ¶2Emotions not led by the intellect have no link to one another: in anger there is no mercy at all. When the intellect is invested in them, they act as it dictates and anger is mixed with kindness; this is the mind ruling the heart, as above the middos are united by drawing Chochmah into them.
שהמדות באדם כשהם בלתי הנהגת השכל אזי כל מדה אין לה קישור וחיבור כלל עם זולתה
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶5The heart has an outer and an inner part. The mind rules only the outer heart, the feelings born of the intellect; the inner heart, the higher will, is above the mind, and the plain cry of the shofar comes from it.
ומ״ש מוח שליט על הלב היינו על חיצוני׳ הלב שנולד מהשכל כנ״ל והמוח שליט עליו
- Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1, ¶30At first the mind rules “over” the heart, from above it; earlier in the maamar this is called iskafya, subduing, not transformation. Afterward the Daas in the mind spreads down into the inwardness of the heart, until its inside is filled with love of G‑d alone (ishapcha).
כי מתחלה היה המוח שליט על הלב על דייקא. ואח״כ מתפשט ויורד הדעת שבמוח אל פנימיות הלב ותוכיותו
Stated differently
Whether the heart in this pair is Binah itself, or the emotive attributes that are below the intellect and receive from it
והנה איתא חכמה מוחא ובינה ליבא וכמאמר הלב מביןChochmah and Binah of the soul are mind and heart: Chochmah is the mind and Binah is the heart (“the heart understands”); the mind is cold and moist, the source of water, and the heart is the seat of fire.
חיצונית הלב הוא למטה מהשכל ומקבל ממנו כמ״ש לפי שכלו יהולל איש שהתפעלות המדות שבלב הוא לפי השכלThe outer heart is below the intellect and receives from it: the arousal of the emotive attributes in the heart follows the intellect, while the inner heart is above the intellect altogether.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Matos 6, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Matos 6, ¶15Likkutei Torah, Matos 7, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Matos 7, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶5Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1, ¶21Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1, ¶30Torah Ohr, Beshalach 8, ¶22
Where it appears
In 22 paragraphs of 15 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 18 ¶8 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 2 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 8 ¶4 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 8 ¶22
- Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1 ¶21 ¶30
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 17 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 6 ¶10 ¶14 ¶15 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 2 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 1 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 7 ¶2 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 12 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 26 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Bereishis 6 ¶12
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.