Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Shirayim
שיריים
Leftovers (shirayim): making oneself like leftovers · also: משים עצמו כשיריים
Making oneself like leftovers (the Gemara’s reading of “the remnant of His inheritance”): regarding oneself as superfluous in the world, a bittul that draws the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which bear sin.
The word As self-regard it appears in משים עצמו כשיריים and close variants (בחינת שיריים ומותר בעולם, Ki Tavo 3:11). In Rosh Hashanah 5:24 השיריים are also the lights above hishtalshelus that reach a person only as a makif (“His inheritance”). Elsewhere שיורי means remnants in other senses: the remnants of the kings of Tohu left unrefined, the “remnants of dew” (shiyurei tala), or the remnants of the makifim at the root of the heichalos.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5, ¶24A soul clothed in a body, within time and place, receives the light that is above hishtalshelus only as a makif, like leftovers. When he contemplates how deeply he is sunk in his animal soul and far from Or Ein Sof, he becomes crushed and nullified to the makif above him; these “leftovers” above hishtalshelus are “His inheritance.”
וזהו לשארית נחלתו שהשיריים שהם למעלה מבחי׳ ההשתלשלות הם בחי׳ נחלתו
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4, ¶2Making oneself like leftovers is the arousal from below in the manner of water: sinking and bittul, like a sunken seal that produces a raised one. It draws a higher arousal from above than fiery love does: Or Ein Sof revealed without concealing garments.
אתעדל״ת שבבחי׳ מיים שהוא בחי׳ שקיעה וביטול משים עצמו כשיריים ממשיך אתעדל״ע עליונה יותר ממה שנמשך על ידי אתעדל״ת בבחי׳ רשפי אש
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 9, ¶3In its plain sense, making oneself like leftovers is bittul, the nullification of yesh into ayin. Precisely this draws the Thirteen Attributes from Atik Yomin, which is above the Name Havayah and is called Ayin because it is not grasped.
ולהיות המשכה מבחי׳ זו הוא דייקא ע״י שמשים עצמו כשיריים שהוא בחי׳ ביטול היש לאין ועי״ז ממשיך עליו מבחי׳ אין
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 1, ¶16Like olives crushed for oil, one who makes himself like leftovers and surplus in the world, as if there were no need of him at all, subdues every desire of the other side: he no longer seeks or pursues the pleasures of this world.
כי מאחר שמשים עצמו כשיריים ומותרות בעולם וכאלו אין בו צורך בעולם כלל
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 3, ¶10For one who makes himself like leftovers in great lowliness, the Torah, Or Ein Sof, “passes over transgression”: his sins take up no place at all, as the sun’s warmth is greatest on the low ground rather than high in the air.
התורה אור א״ס ב״ה עובר על פשע שאין פשעיו תופסים מקום כלל
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5, ¶24Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5, ¶25Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Masei 9, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Masei 9, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 3, ¶10Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 1, ¶16
Where it appears
In 24 paragraphs of 13 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 9 ¶2 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 5 ¶24 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 9 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 4 ¶1 ¶2 ¶3 ¶7 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1 ¶25 ¶26
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 3 ¶9 ¶10 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 4 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 7 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini 1 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 1 ¶16 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 1 ¶15 ¶17
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 1 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 6 ¶1
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.