Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Ner mitzvah
נר מצוה
The lamp of a mitzvah (ner mitzvah) · also: נר הוי׳ נשמת אדם
“A mitzvah is a lamp and the Torah is light”: the mitzvah, G‑d’s will beyond understanding, is the lamp; the Torah, Chochmah, is the light that holds to it and shines through it.
The word In the maamarim “lamp” (ner) is used in two verses: “a mitzvah is a lamp” (the mitzvah) and “the soul of man is a lamp of Havayah” (the soul itself, Torah Ohr, Miketz 11:13). Context shows which lamp is meant.
Where it’s explained
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 3, ¶9The mitzvos come from a very high place, so they cannot be grasped at all, like the oil; they do not enter the soul inwardly but encompass it from above, a king’s command done without reason. Yet as one who grasps a limb of the king draws the king himself, the 248 mitzvos, the King’s limbs, draw His very unity.
כי נר מצוה שהמצות נמשכין ממקום גבוה מאד נעלה. ולפיכך אין בהם השגה כלל כמשל השמן הנ״ל
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6, ¶6The souls of Israel are the lamp’s vessel, which holds the oil and wick; the mitzvos are the oil and wick, called “the lamp of a mitzvah.” The light is only called light when it holds to oil and wick, and shines more with more of them; so the Torah is the light and explanation of the mitzvos, a tractate for each.
כך הנשמות הם כלי קיבול לקבל המצות שהם בחי׳ השמן והפתילה שקרוים נר מצוה
- Likkutei Torah, Reeh 2, ¶14The mitzvos are G‑d’s will drawn down so that the soul’s will is roused toward Him, as water reflects a face. The lamp is the glow the mitzvah draws into the soul, the will and love in the heart. Sin puts out this lamp, not the mitzvah itself, and the voice of Torah guards it.
וזהו ענין נר מצוה דהיינו שמן המצוה נמשך נר והארה בנפש היא הארת הרצון והאהבה שבלב
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 1, ¶18The oil, pressed from the olive, follows the wick and is wholly consumed in the flame. So Chochmah, bittul, is wholly absorbed in the light of the mitzvah’s lamp, and then the Or Ein Sof drawn by the mitzvah abides on the soul; without oil the wick burns out at once.
וכך בחי׳ החכמה הוא בחי׳ הבטול שבטל ונכלל ממש באור הנר של מצוה זו
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 15, ¶16The lamp of a mitzvah is the ascent from below, turning the heart and the desires of this world to cleave to G‑d; the Torah’s light is the drawing down from above; and the light of the Torah comes through the lamp of the mitzvah.
נר מצוה היא בחי׳ העלא׳ מלמטלמ״ע ותורה אור היא בחי׳ ההמשכה מלמעלמ״ט וע״י בחי׳ נר מצוה בא אור התורה
Stated differently
Which part of the lamp the mitzvah is, and which the soul
כי זה שהנשמה נק׳ פתילה הוא דוקא בהתלבשותה בגוף שאז נק׳ היא פתילה לגבי המצות שהם הנק׳ שמןIn this world the soul, clothed in the animal soul, is the wick and the mitzvos are the oil. When the souls rise to Gan Eden it is the reverse: the garments made from the mitzvos are the wick, and the soul is the oil consumed in Or Ein Sof.
כי נר מצוה שהמצוה היא נר והיינו פתילהThe mitzvah is the lamp, that is, the wick; the things it is done with come from the world of Tohu, and the mitzvah draws a supernal makif that clothes and lifts the soul.
שנש״י נקראו נר ע״ש הכלי שבו השמן והמצות נק׳ נר מצוה ע״ש השמן והפתילהThe souls of Israel are called a lamp after the vessel that holds the oil; the mitzvos are called the lamp of a mitzvah after the oil and wick; the Torah is the light that hangs on oil and wick.
וזהו נר מצוה כמו נר המשמר השמן והאור כמו כן המצוה משמרת בחי׳ אור א״סThe mitzvah is like the lamp that holds and guards the oil and the light: so the mitzvah guards Or Ein Sof, the level of Atik (“keep My mitzvos”).
What the lamp is named after: the oil or the wick
שכמו שהנר נקרא על שם השמן כלשון רז״ל נר של שמן נר של שעוהA lamp is named after its oil, as the Sages say “a lamp of oil, a lamp of wax”; the oil has no light of its own, yet the flame on the wick is drawn from it, and when the oil runs out the light goes out.
והנה ענין הנר הוא שקרוי ע״ש הפתילה כי היא עיקר הנרA lamp is named after the wick, its main part, because the light holds to the wick; the oil only makes it burn slowly, and a light sunk in the oil would go out.
Which is higher: the mitzvah (the lamp) or the Torah (the light)
ככה ממש היא המצוה הגם שהוא רצון המלך בלי שום טעם ודעת ואין בה שום השגה מ״מ ממנה ועל ידה נמשך ונתגלה אור החכמהThe mitzvah is the King’s will, without reason and beyond grasp, and from it the light of Chochmah, the Oral Torah, is drawn and revealed; the understanding in the Oral Torah only explains the reasons of the mitzvos.
שהמצוה נק׳ נר שהיא המשכת ח״ע ע״י רמ״ח אברים, אבל התורה אור היינו המשכת ח״ע ממש כמו שהיא למעלה מהתלבשות באבריםThough the mitzvah is the glow of the supernal will, it came down into the soul and was limited in a vessel, so sin can put out its glow. Citing the Ramaz: the mitzvah, called a lamp, is Malchus, Chochmah drawn through the 248 limbs, where the outer forces can take hold; the Torah, the light, is Chochmah itself, above that clothing. The Torah is rooted higher, in the thirteen attributes of mercy, so sin cannot put it out, and it lights the mitzvah’s lamp.
Main sources
Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 3, ¶2Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 3, ¶9Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 4, ¶28Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 12, ¶13Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Reeh 2, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Reeh 2, ¶15Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 1, ¶18
Where it appears
In 132 paragraphs of 62 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 1 ¶40
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 11 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 11 ¶3 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8 ¶40
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 5 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 1 ¶2 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 14 ¶11 ¶21 ¶22
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 5 ¶27
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6 ¶1 ¶5 ¶6 ¶11 ¶17 ¶20 ¶21 ¶39
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 1 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 19 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶42
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 3 ¶13 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 4 ¶10 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 6 ¶9
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 3 ¶1 ¶2 ¶9
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 4 ¶1 ¶23 ¶24 ¶25 ¶26 ¶27 ¶28 ¶29 ¶48
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 10 ¶12
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 11 ¶1 ¶2 ¶3 ¶11 ¶13 ¶21
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 12 ¶11 ¶12 ¶13 ¶14 ¶15 ¶16 ¶24 ¶26 ¶27 ¶35
- Torah Ohr, Vayishlach 4 ¶4 ¶5 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 5 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 2 ¶14 ¶15 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 3 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 2 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1 ¶55 ¶61
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 1 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 7 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 1 ¶3 ¶5 ¶15 ¶16 ¶17 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 3 ¶16 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 7 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 7 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 12 ¶2 ¶3 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 13 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5 ¶14
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 6 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 1 ¶18 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Kedoshim 1 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 1 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 13 ¶1 ¶2 ¶3 ¶4 ¶5 ¶11 ¶13 ¶14 ¶19 ¶20 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 2 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 41 ¶13
- Torah Ohr, Bereishis 2 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 10 ¶28 ¶40
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 7 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 10 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 4 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 5 ¶31
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 2 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 11 ¶4 ¶5 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 16 ¶8 ¶16 ¶21 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7 ¶23 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 5 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 3 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 1 ¶1
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 10 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 15 ¶16 ¶30
- Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 4 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2 ¶33
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 12 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 4 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 9 ¶2 ¶5
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.