Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Pnimiyus haTorah
פנימיות התורה
The inner dimension of the Torah (pnimiyus haTorah)
The soul of the Torah: the hidden reasons and secrets within its laws, the Divine delight and supernal Chochmah clothed in them. At Sinai only the revealed Torah was given; its revelation awaits the future.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 6, ¶7The Torah has a hidden and a revealed part, a soul and a body. In Gan Eden the souls study the same laws we study here, such as the goring ox, but grasp their spiritual meaning and the secret reason the law is so: that is its inner dimension. Through the body of the Torah one can know a little of the soul’s existence, not its essence.
וסוד הכוונה בטעמה של הלכה למה יהיה הדין כך כו׳ וזהו הנק׳ פנימית התורה ונשמתא דאורייתא
- Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 2, ¶11Three “crops” of the Torah: grain is the revealed laws; wine, “when wine goes in, the secret comes out,” is the inner dimension, called the secrets of the Torah; and oil, floating above the wine, is the secret of secrets.
ותירושך נכנס יין יצא סוד הם פנימית התורה הנקרא רזין דאורייתא
- Torah Ohr, Vayigash 3, ¶5At Sinai, though face to face, only the outer dimension was revealed, the laws of forbidden and permitted, like betrothal; the Divine delight within the Torah remained encompassing. Its revelation in the future is the marriage itself, the light entering within.
אבל פנימית התורה שהוא בחי׳ ענג האלהי שבתורה לא נתגלה אז עדיין ונשאר בבחי׳ מקיף מלמעלה
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 3, ¶7Now the community of Israel receives the drop of supernal Chochmah clothed, as water descending; when the inner dimension is revealed it will be received as light, the Torah without its garments. Even now that light comes through the garments.
אבל לעתיד שתתגלה פנימיות התורה הוא בחינת אור
- Torah Ohr, Shemos 1, ¶5As the exile in Egypt led to receiving the revealed Torah at Sinai, the length of this exile is to merit the revelation of the inner reasons of the Torah in the future.
כל אריכות הגלות הזה הוא כדי לזכות לגילוי פנימית התורה שיהי׳ לע״ל
Stated differently
Whether the inner dimension, the reasons of the Torah, is open to a person’s study now or remains unrevealed until the future
ובעיון שכלו בעסק התורה בפרד״ס וזה נק׳ פנימית התורהOne with intellect should study the Torah in depth through its four levels (PaRDeS); this is called the inner dimension of the Torah, the explanation and reasons in which supernal Chochmah is clothed, whereas grasping only the plain sense is the outer “houses of Asiyah.” (So too Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 5:21: the Zohar, Tikkunim and Etz Chaim dwell at length on the obligation to study pnimiyus haTorah.)
כי טעמי תורה שהוא פנימיות התורה לא נתגלה עדיין וזה יהיה לעתידWhat is drawn through the Torah now is only from the “back”; the reasons of the Torah, its inner dimension, have not yet been revealed and will be in the future.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 6, ¶7Likkutei Torah, Vaeschanan 6, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 2, ¶11Torah Ohr, Vayigash 3, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Matos 3, ¶7Torah Ohr, Shemos 1, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 9, ¶5
Where it appears
In 22 paragraphs of 18 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 5 ¶33
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 6 ¶7 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Vayigash 3 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 4 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 5 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 3 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 1 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 5 ¶20 ¶24 ¶29
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 9 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 1 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶43
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 3 ¶7 ¶9
- Torah Ohr, Shemos 7 ¶25
- Torah Ohr, Toldos 2 ¶1
- Torah Ohr, Va’eira 5 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 2 ¶11
- Torah Ohr, Shemos 1 ¶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.