Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Orlas halev
ערלת לבבכם
The foreskin of the heart (orlas halev)
The “covering” over the heart: its attachment to physical desires and worldly matters, which hides the inner love for G‑d. Teshuvah removes it (“circumcise your hearts”); in the future G‑d Himself circumcises the heart.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 1, ¶10The orlah is the heart’s attachment to desires and worldly matters; while the outer heart is bound to them, it hides the inner point of the heart, present in every Jew, from cleaving to G‑d. Remove it and the inner bond (bris) is revealed, and the outer heart too burns for G‑d.
וכל זמן שיש עליו בחי׳ ערלה זו בלבבו הרי מכסה ומסתיר ממנו אור פניו מלדבק בו בפנימיות לבו
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 7, ¶3Orlah means a covering, not a blockage. The love from sovev kol almin, called the sign of the covenant, is revealed only when this covering is cut; even people cool by nature must “draw the blood of the covenant” by lessening their bodily pleasures.
וערלה אינו לשון אוטם אלא ל׳ כיסוי
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3, ¶33Immersion in the pleasures of this world, without being pained by it, thickens the heart into a covering, so that what the mind contemplates no longer moves it at all. The next paragraph has it cut away by a broken heart in the Ten Days of Teshuvah.
שנעשה כמו כיסוי על הלב והיא נקרא׳ ערלת הלב שמכסה עליו עד שמחמת זה אין נכנס בו ההשפעה כלל
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 6, ¶2Two circumcisions: “circumcise the orlah of your hearts” is our work from below, teshuvah; “Havayah your G‑d will circumcise your heart” is from above, after the ingathering of the exiles, a revelation higher than the Torah, drawn through the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.
שיש ב׳ בחי׳ מילה האחת היא מלמטה למעלה שצריכים אנו למול את ערלת הלב והוא ענין התשובה
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4, ¶5Above, the orlah is kelipas nogah, the screen below Asiyah that covers Yesod and divides holy from mundane. Cutting it leaves only the chashmal of Binah; the work of the weekdays is to refine nogah so the mundane is done in holiness.
מעשייה ולמטה יש עוד מסך ופרסא הוא ק״נ והוא בחי׳ ערלה החופפת על הברית
Stated differently
Whether the heart’s desire for permitted pleasures (from kelipas nogah) is the orlah itself, or the thin membrane (periah) that remains after the orlah is cut
והוא בחי׳ אהבה רעה בתענוגות בני אדם אף שהוא בהיתר רק שהוא בחמימות והתלהבות התאוהThe orlah is a bad love for human pleasures even when they are permitted, when pursued with the heat of desire (so too Torah Ohr, Miketz 1:10: even one who has not actually blemished and defiled himself must cut the orlah, the heart’s craving for excess; and Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4:5: above, the orlah is kelipas nogah).
אך אחרי כריתות הערלה יש עוד בחי׳ פריעה שהוא עור דק המכסה וחופף והוא בחי׳ תאוות גשמיים שמקליפת נוגה שהוא לדברים של היתרAfter the orlah is cut there remains the periah, a thin skin: the physical desires for permitted things, from kelipas nogah, which still hide G‑d’s light; it is removed through humility, “let my soul be as dust to all.”
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 1, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Shelach 7, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3, ¶33Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 6, ¶2Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4, ¶5Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 1, ¶10Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2, ¶2
Where it appears
In 32 paragraphs of 21 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 1 ¶4 ¶5 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 7 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 7 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 4 ¶7 ¶9 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 6 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 6 ¶2 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 6 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 3 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 6 ¶37
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 1 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4 ¶5 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Kedoshim 1 ¶1 ¶9 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 1 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 7 ¶2 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 14 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 1 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 2 ¶13
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 1 ¶10 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶33 ¶34
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.