Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Osiyos hachakikah
אותיות החקיקה
Engraved letters (osiyos hachakikah)
Letters cut into stone, one with it, nothing foreign added, unlike ink on parchment. Above: Keser (Atik and Arich), root of the Torah and souls, above the “written letters” of Atzilus.
The word חקיקה alone is also used for “engraving” the animal soul into a vessel, from outside through Pesukei deZimra and from inside through the practical mitzvos that are chukim (LT Bechukotai 2:40–41); that is the work of making a vessel, not the engraved letters of the Torah’s root.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶5Ink is a thing apart that only clothes the parchment. Engraved letters are a new form that the plain stone did not have, so they are not its essence as such; yet they are of the very body and substance of what is engraved, far above a garment.
אבל עכ״פ הם מגופו ומהותו של הדבר הנחקק ולמעלה מעלה מבחי׳ לבוש
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 1, ¶1Chukas, “statute,” is from chakikah, “engraving”: in its root the Torah is engraved letters, higher than its enclothement in written letters as the Written Torah. Through the red heifer, a chok, the engraved letters of the Torah are drawn into the Written Torah and from it into the Oral Torah.
והיינו כמו שהתורה היא בשרשה ומקורה ששם היא בבחי׳ אותיות החקיקה
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶16The letters of thought and speech that give life to the worlds are garments, like written letters (the sense of the entry osiyos). “He engraved engravings in the supernal radiance” (Zohar) is the forming of Atik Yomin and Arich Anpin from a radiance of Or Ein Sof: Keser, united with Or Ein Sof, is likened to engraving, the other sefiros of Atzilus to writing.
אבל בחי׳ ע״י וא״א נמשלו לחקיקה
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶35Engraving in a brilliant gem adds and lacks nothing, but the engraved place shines a little less. So Keser, Atik and Arich, is truly Ein Sof, yet called “black” relative to Or Ein Sof, and so can be the source of the ten sefiros. The engraving above is higher than that of the Tablets, where stone was removed.
בחי׳ כתר שהוא בחי׳ פרצופי עתיק ואריך נק׳ גליף גליפו שהחקיקה היא מיניה וביה
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶30Each Jewish soul has both levels: at its root (“the soul You gave me is pure”) it is engraved letters; in its descent through Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah into the body (“You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me”) it is written letters.
נמצא יש בישראל ג״כ ב׳ מדרגות מצד שרשן טהורה היא הם בחי׳ אותיות החקיקה
Stated differently
Whether the engraving is in His very Essence or only in the radiance (tehiru ila’ah) drawn from His light
אבל באור א״ס עצמו לא שייך כלל בחי׳ חקיקה וגליפו ח״וThe engraving is only in the supernal radiance, a mere illumination of His simple light, in which the ten sefiros of Keser were engraved; in Or Ein Sof itself engraving does not apply at all.
וזהו ענין על כפים חקותיך בחי׳ אותיות החקוקים בעצמותו ית׳“On the palms I have engraved you” is letters engraved in His very Essence, unlike a seal, which is letters engraved in a separate thing; this is the engraving in the supernal radiance, above Chochmah, the root of the souls.
Whether the engraved letters are vessels
גליף גליפו בטהירו עילאה שהוא בחי׳ אותיות שבחקיקה שהם בחי׳ כליםThe engraving in the supernal radiance is the engraved letters, which are vessels; the soul is rooted there, and so it is to be a vessel and dwelling for Or Ein Sof.
משא״כ בע״י וא״א הגם שיש בהם שרש לכלים די״ס אין הכלים ניכרים ונתגלים בהם עדייןAtzilus has real vessels, so it is likened to ink on parchment, ink standing for vessels; Atik and Arich, though they hold the root of the vessels of the ten sefiros, do not yet show them, which are deeply hidden, so they are likened to engraved letters, with nothing foreign like ink.
Whether the engraving on the Tablets is the engraved letters of Keser itself, or below the engraving above
ע״כ היה המכתב חרות על הלוחות בחי׳ אותיות החקיקה כמו שהוא בחי׳ ומדרגת הכתרThe Tablets are rooted in supernal Keser, given on Shavuos when Keser shines into Z’eir Anpin; so the writing engraved on them was the engraved letters as at the level of Keser, “He engraved engravings in the supernal radiance.”
אותיות החקיקה שלמעלה הוא גבוה יותר ממדרגת החקיקה שנתגלה בהלוחותThe engraved letters above are higher than the engraving revealed in the Tablets: though those letters were engraved through and through, stone was missing where each letter was.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶16Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶22Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶30Likkutei Torah, Chukas 1, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶35Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶6
Where it appears
In 60 paragraphs of 24 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 1 ¶1 ¶2 ¶18 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 40 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 7 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 10 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 1 ¶13 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 5 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 1 ¶20 ¶21 ¶44
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 9 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5 ¶6 ¶7 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 1 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2 ¶2 ¶3 ¶4 ¶5 ¶6 ¶8 ¶10 ¶11 ¶12 ¶13 ¶15 ¶16 ¶20 ¶21 ¶22 ¶23 ¶24 ¶25 ¶29 ¶30 ¶35
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2 ¶33 ¶34 ¶35 ¶36 ¶37 ¶39 ¶40
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 5 ¶27
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 3 ¶4 ¶5 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 3 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 11 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 8 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 21 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 5 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 4 ¶25
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 8 ¶32
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 4 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 1 ¶10
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.