LikuteiTorah.comThe Chassidishe Parsha
Sign in

Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah

Yud-hei and vav-hei

י״ה ו״ה

Yud-hei and vav-hei, the two halves of the Name Havayah

The two halves of the Name Havayah: yud-hei, Chochmah and Binah, the hidden things, source of the 365 prohibitions; vav-hei, the middos and speech, the revealed, source of the 248 positive mitzvos.

The word י״ה is also the Name Kah itself (“let every soul praise Kah”); the texts read it as the first half of Havayah. ה׳ standing alone usually abbreviates the Name Havayah, not the letter hei; the letter is written ה״א, or ה׳ עילאה / ה׳ תתאה for the upper and lower hei.

Where it’s explained

  1. Likkutei Torah, Reeh 8, ¶4Chochmah and Binah are “the hidden things,” the hidden world, sovev kol almin; “the revealed things” are vav-hei, the drawing down into speech. In the soul, yud-hei is the contemplation of Shema and prayer: the hei (Binah, spreading in length and breadth) brings love in ratzo, the yud (Chochmah) the bittul of shov. Vav-hei is voice and speech, and mainly Torah study and mitzvos.ומ״מ חו״ב נקרא עדיין הנסתרות עלמא דאתכסיא סוכ״ע והנגלות היינו ו״ה
  2. Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1, ¶30Light from yud-hei is contracted and clothed in vav-hei as the mochin of Z’eir Anpin, yet it remains from yud-hei and is far above vav-hei, so it is called “testimony” (eidus) to the hidden things. Daas draws it from Chochmah and Binah into the middos. In each Jew the yud is bittul above grasped understanding and the hei is contemplation, “two companions who never part.”והוא בחי׳ הדעת הממשיך ההמשכה מבחי׳ י״ה שהן חו״ב לבחי׳ ו״ה שהן בחי׳ המדות
  3. Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 1, ¶4“My Name with Kah is 365, My remembrance with vav-hei is 248”: neglecting a positive mitzvah damages vav-hei, the arousal from below, so teshuvah alone repairs it; transgressing a prohibition damages yud-hei and blocks the light from above, so teshuvah suspends and Yom Kippur atones, when the inner will above both yud-hei and vav-hei is aroused.כי מ״ע נמשכים מבחי׳ ו״ה שהוא בחי׳ עלמא דאתגליא ומל״ת נמשכים מבחינת י״ה שהוא בחי׳ עלמא דאתכסיא
  4. Likkutei Torah, Reeh 1, ¶6In exile the Name is not whole, so we pray “yehei shmei rabba”: may the Name Kah become great. The joining of yud-hei with vav-hei comes from a drawing from Arich Anpin and from contemplation and bittul in the soul, so that yud-hei shines through thought, speech and action, by Torah and mitzvos.ולזאת אנו אומרים יהי שם י״ה רבא שיגדל בחינת שם י״ה
  5. Torah Ohr, Shemos 4, ¶1The prohibitions come from the yud-hei of Havayah and the positive mitzvos from its vav-hei, so the root of the prohibitions is higher. The “Scribe” above the “book” (the Written Torah) is ayeh, aleph and yud-hei: the source of the Name’s yud-hei is drawn from the aleph, the source of Chochmah.בחי׳ אי״ה שהוא א׳ י״ה כי מקור ושרש י״ה דשם הוי״ה נמשך מבחי׳ האל״ף

Stated differently

Which level the yud-hei and vav-hei of the mitzvos are: Chochmah-Binah and the middos, the Chassadim and Gevuros of Z’eir Anpin, or the Havayah of Arich Anpin and Atik

Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1, ¶16שמי עם י״ה שס״ה ל״ת הן נמשכים מבחי׳ י״ה שע״ז נאמר הנסתרות לה׳ אלקינו שהם למעלה מבחי׳ ו״ה

The prohibitions come from yud-hei, “the hidden things,” above vav-hei; the yud is Chochmah, the first revelation in hishtalshelus.

Torah Ohr, Bo 1, ¶6הם מושרשים בשם הוי״ה שהוא בחי׳ ז״א דאצי׳

Both the 248 and the 365 are rooted in the Name Havayah of Z’eir Anpin of Atzilus: the positive mitzvos from its Chassadim, the prohibitions from its Gevuros.

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶44ואין הפי׳ שהם משם הוי׳ שמלובש בע״ס דאצילות

It is not the Havayah clothed in the Ten Sefiros of Atzilus but the Havayah of Atik: vav-hei is Atik’s seven lower levels, revealed through the hairs; yud-hei is its Chochmah, Binah and Daas, which cannot be revealed through hairs.

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 37, ¶5אמנם הל״ת שהן מבחי׳ י״ה היינו ג״ר דא״א שאינם מתלבשים כלל

Vav-hei is the seven lower levels of Arich Anpin, which Abba and Imma clothe; yud-hei is its three upper levels, which are not clothed at all.

Whether the prohibitions stand above or below the positive mitzvos

Torah Ohr, Shemos 4, ¶1שרש מל״ת גבוה יותר משרש המ״ע שהל״ת נמשכי׳ מבחי׳ י״ה דהוי׳

The root of the prohibitions is higher than the root of the positive mitzvos, since the prohibitions come from the yud-hei of Havayah and the positive mitzvos from its vav-hei (likewise Yom Kippur 1:4: the hidden world and the revealed world).

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶27ואמנם מה דהלכות דל״ת תלויין בדיקנא דז״א שהוא למטה הרבה מבחי׳ דיקנא דא״א דשם תלויין הלכות דמ״ע

The laws of the prohibitions depend on the beard of Z’eir Anpin, far below the beard of Arich Anpin on which the laws of the positive mitzvos depend; the paragraph notes that elsewhere the prohibitions are from yud-hei and defers the matter.

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1, ¶16Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1, ¶30Likkutei Torah, Reeh 8, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Yom Kippur 1, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Reeh 1, ¶6Torah Ohr, Shemos 4, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 37, ¶5

Where it appears

In 549 paragraphs of 197 maamarim.

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.

Text size

Theme

How I learn

Calendar

Language

English

This page is in English only for now. Also in, so far:

العربية72 maamarim so farDeutsch72 maamarim so farEspañol72 maamarim so farفارسی72 maamarim so farFrançais72 maamarim so farעברית72 maamarim so farItaliano72 maamarim so farPortuguês72 maamarim so farРусский72 maamarim so farУкраїнська72 maamarim so far中文（简体）72 maamarim so far中文（繁體）72 maamarim so far

Send us a suggestion

Corrections, ideas, questions. Leave your email so we can answer.

We send it by email to the editor, with the page you’re on. Nothing is published.
Ask Freg about any paragraph