Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Yashes choshech sisro
ישת חשך סתרו
“He made darkness His hiding place” (yashes choshech sisro)
G‑dliness above all grasp, called “darkness” because no thought can take hold of it: Keser Elyon, or the Or Ein Sof itself. It is hidden so that revelation can begin, from Chochmah.
The word Darkness (חשך, חשוכא) also names the lower darkness: night, the body and animal soul, kelipah, which service turns into light (אתהפכא חשוכא לנהורא). The verse, or “the higher darkness” (החושך העליון), means the opposite: not absence of light but light too high to be grasped or revealed.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 1, ¶1The cloud that rested on the Tent was a drawing of the Or Ein Sof from a place so high that of it is said “He made darkness His hiding place”: the Or Ein Sof that encompasses all worlds, where no thought can grasp Him. Darkness means that in which nothing is seen or grasped at all (with LT Vayikra 1:3: the Raaya Mehemna calls it Keser Elyon).
חשך הוא דבר שאין נראה בו שום תפיסא והשגה כלל
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶4Seen from below, whatever is above created grasp is called darkness, and the higher, the darker. Seen from above it is the reverse: the Or Ein Sof itself is light, “white fire,” and all below it, even Keser, is darkness before it. The light was hidden in this darkness, through many tzimtzumim, so that the souls in Gan Eden could receive (with LT Shir HaShirim 5:6: Keser Elyon darkens like an engraving in a gem).
והנה כל זה הוא ממטה למעלה נקרא מה שלמעלה מהשגת הנבראים בשם חשך
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1, ¶18Chochmah, found from ayin, is the beginning of revelation, the “light”; for it to come into being there must first be concealment, so that the ayin above Chochmah is not revealed. Of this it says “He made darkness His hiding place”; what comes from it is only the small point of the yud. It is grasped only by negation, and the prohibitions are rooted there: it has no vessel of positive deed, and is drawn by refraining from what opposes it.
וכדי להיות התהוות החכמה מאין הוא ע״י ברישא חשוכא
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 12, ¶6The verse refers to the coming into being of Keser. Chochmah is called light, the beginning of revelation; Keser, above it, does not shine forth and is not grasped, so to us it is darkness. Keser is also darkness as the concealment of the Or Ein Sof, and Chochmah in turn conceals Keser.
והכתר שלמעלה מן החכמה ואינו מאיר ומתגלה נק׳ אצלנו בשם חשך לפי שאינו מושג
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1, ¶21The drawing from Keser, “He made darkness His hiding place,” comes through an arousal from below: bitterness over the darkness that hides His light rises to the higher darkness above the light of Chochmah Ila’ah, and from it come the cloud and the rain.
ולכן אתערותא דלתתא זו עולה עד בחינת החושך העליון שלמעלה מהאור דח״ע
Stated differently
Whether it is the Or Ein Sof that encompasses all worlds (sovev), or what is above sovev
שנאמר בו ישת חשך סתרו שהוא בחי׳ אור א״ס ב״ה הסוכ״עIt is the Or Ein Sof that encompasses all worlds, in which there is no grasp at all (and, in the same maamar, Vayikra 1:3: Keser Elyon).
כי גם סובב נק׳ אור מקיף משא״כ מה שלמעלה מבחי׳ סובב נק׳ ישת חשך סתרוIt is what is in the Or Ein Sof that is neither sovev nor memalei: sovev is still called Or Makif, and only what is above sovev is called “He made darkness His hiding place.”
Whether it is Keser, above Chochmah, or Chochmah and Binah (yud-heh) as they are in themselves
דזה קאי על התהוות בחי׳ הכתר כי החכמ׳ נק׳ אור שהוא בחי׳ גלויThe verse refers to the coming into being of Keser: Chochmah is called light, the beginning of revelation, while Keser, above it, is not grasped and so is called darkness (so too LT Ha’Azinu 1:21, the higher darkness above the light of Chochmah Ila’ah).
אינה כמו שהיא למעלה בבחי׳ י״ה עצמו בחי׳ ישת חשך סתרוYud-heh themselves, Chochmah and Binah, “the hidden things,” are “He made darkness His hiding place”; only a contracted light of them is drawn into the middos, with Da’as as its witness (in the same maamar, Pekudei 1:18: the concealment of the ayin above Chochmah, from which Chochmah comes as the first light).
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 1, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 1, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1, ¶18Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1, ¶21Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 12, ¶6
Where it appears
In 82 paragraphs of 44 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 5 ¶4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 6 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 3 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 4 ¶1 ¶2 ¶3 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5 ¶4 ¶5 ¶6 ¶12 ¶14 ¶20 ¶21 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 3 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 7 ¶4 ¶9 ¶12 ¶13 ¶14 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 1 ¶1 ¶3 ¶5 ¶18 ¶19 ¶20 ¶21 ¶22 ¶24 ¶28
- Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 2 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 1 ¶6 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1 ¶18 ¶20 ¶30 ¶34 ¶47 ¶48 ¶52
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 12 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 6 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 42 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 8 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1 ¶19 ¶20 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 7 ¶43
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 3 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2 ¶8 ¶14 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 2 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 6 ¶9
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 12 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 5 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 7 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 9 ¶7
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 11 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 3 ¶27
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 4 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 6 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶43 ¶46 ¶53
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 1 ¶28
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 1 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 2 ¶9
- Torah Ohr, Bereishis 8 ¶15
- Torah Ohr, Chayei Sarah 4 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 4 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 9 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 5 ¶12
- Torah Ohr, Vayechi 3 ¶28
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.