Torah Ohr · Parshas Vayeishev · Maamar 2
והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלמים כו׳
“And Behold, We Were Binding Sheaves”
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The big idea
Refining the scattered sparks of the shattered vessels takes two stages: the brothers’ work from below, which binds the fragments into one and nullifies them before G‑d, and Yosef’s light from above, which completes their inclusion in G‑dliness.
The maamar in brief
The maamar reads Yosef’s dream of the sheaves through the Kabbalah of the shattering of the vessels. The vessels of Tohu broke into fragments, and the light left them, like letters of a word pulled apart. Their fragments became the multiplicity of souls, angels and divine sparks, more divided the lower they fell. The 288 sparks of Atzilus have splintered into countless fragments in Asiyah, which is why the exile is so long. The Jewish people’s task is to reunite them in G‑d’s oneness, “one nation in the land.” The brothers’ binding of sheaves is this first refinement: they gather scattered sparks and raise them as mayin nukvin into Malchus of Atzilus, in a self-nullification so complete that it is “mute” (illem, echoing alumim), like a fetus in the womb. This is still only the lower unity. A second refinement, mayin duchrin from the Name Mah through Chochmah, must come from above, and that is Yosef, rooted in Yesod of Atzilus. The bowing of the sheaves is the brothers’ self-nullification that draws his light down, while Yaakov’s bowing drew encompassing light to Yosef. The brothers hated him because they mistook their root in Z’eir Anpin for their actual level in Beriah.
Outline
- The shattering as separationThe kings of Tohu fall; shattering means fragmentation, like letters pulled apart, and it produces the multiplicity of creation, greater the lower it falls.¶1–5
- The river that dividesThe river of Eden stays one in Atzilus and divides from Beriah down; angels, souls and the 288 sparks multiply at every level.¶6–11
- Why the exile is so longThe 288 sparks of Atzilus have broken into countless fragments below, so their refinement takes a very long time.¶12
- Making the many one“You made them all with wisdom”: Chochmah reunites the fragments, and Israel makes oneness even in the lowest world.¶13–16
- Binding sheaves: the first refinementThe brothers raise sparks as mayin nukvin into Malchus of Atzilus; such self-nullification is “mute,” like a fetus in the womb.¶17–22
- The second refinement from aboveMayin duchrin, the Name Mah through Chochmah, must complete the refinement, as G‑d-given love and awe complete human love and awe; this is Yosef’s level.¶23–27
- The sheaves bowYosef shares the first refinement but alone brings the second; bowing is both self-nullification and drawing down, which explains both dreams.¶28–33
- The brothers’ mistakeThe brothers thought their root in Z’eir Anpin made them Yosef’s equals, but they stand in Beriah, and he in Yesod of Atzilus.¶34–35
Key concepts
- The shattering of the vesselsשבירת הכלים
- The breaking of the vessels of Tohu, understood here as their separation into many fragments, from which the multiplicity of creation comes.
- The 288 sparksרפ״ח ניצוצין
- The sparks of light that fell with the broken vessels, counted as 288 in Atzilus and splintered into countless fragments below.
- Refinementבירור
- Extracting holy sparks from the lower worlds and raising them back to G‑dliness, done in two stages.
- Mayin nukvin (feminine waters)מיין נוקבין
- The arousal and ascent from below; here the refined sparks raised in self-nullification into Malchus of Atzilus.
- Mayin duchrin (masculine waters)מיין דוכרין
- The flow from above that answers the ascent, the light of the Name Mah through Chochmah; here Yosef’s level.
- Gestationעיבור
- The state of total absorption in one’s source, without independent existence or the power to give, like a fetus; the state of the rising sparks.
- The lower and higher unityיחודא תתאה ויחודא עילאה
- The lower unity is a creature’s self-nullification; the higher is true unity with G‑d, into which the lower must be absorbed.
For children · ages 9–13
Binding the sheaves
The big idea
When we use the things of the world for G‑d, we gather scattered sparks of holiness and bind them into one, like stalks bound into a sheaf.
Yosef dreamed that he and his brothers were binding sheaves in the field, and their sheaves bowed to his. The maamar explains this dream. Long ago, at the beginning of creation, the vessels that held a great light broke into many pieces; the light left them, and tiny sparks of holiness went down with the pieces. Those sparks fell into the world and became scattered, the lower they fell the more divided. The maamar compares it to the letters of a word: joined together, they carry a meaning; pulled apart, the meaning is gone. Our task is to gather the sparks and make them one again, so that everything shows G‑d’s oneness. The brothers binding sheaves stand for this work. Separate stalks are gathered and tied into one bundle. When a person eats for the sake of G‑d and then davens with love and awe from the strength of that food, the sparks in the food are raised up. Still, our own effort is only the first step. A second gift must come from above, and that is Yosef. The sheaves bowing to him show that setting ourselves aside makes room for G‑d’s light to come down.
The mashal
A farmer gathers many separate stalks and ties them into one bundle, called a sheaf. At first the stalks lay apart; once bound, they are one. So when we use the world for G‑d, its scattered sparks are gathered and made one in His oneness.
Questions for the Shabbos table
- Why do the sparks of holiness need to be gathered and made one?
- What does the word “ברוך” teach about letters that are joined and letters that are pulled apart?
- Before you eat this week, how can you remember to eat so that you have strength to serve G‑d?
Explanation © likuteitorah.com, CC BY-NC 4.0: retold for children from our translation and explanation, with AI assistance; not yet reviewed by a human editor.
In the Rebbe’s light · 19
AI research Found by AI reading every place in the Rebbe’s works that cites this maamar, and checked against each source by a second AI reader, the less certain by a third. Only what rated high is shown: the Rebbe’s own words, about this very passage. No person has reviewed it yet, so check the place itself before relying on a detail. See something to correct?
The maamar in the Rebbe’s light
Read together, the Rebbe’s teachings seem to treat this maamar as a map of the work of exile. In Padah VeShalom of 19 Kislev 5735, and in sichos of 19 Kislev 5717 and Shabbos Vayeishev 5720, he sets out its two refinements as two stages of service: binding the scattered stalks, only „ביטול היש” (bittul hayesh), and bowing to Yosef’s sheaf, the „ביטול במציאות” (bittul bimetzius) of Atzilus; in Pesach Sheni 5738 he names this maamar where the Tzemach Tzedek ties the two to Nissan and Iyar. He opens its images: the sheaves still to be ground into bread (Shelach 5722), „גוי אחד בארץ” (‘one nation in the land’) as souls rooted in G‑d’s thought (Acharei 5719), the world’s variety there to be „לתקן” (‘rectified’) until its inner unity shows (the letter of 11 Nissan 5740), and its countless small sparks as the „מלקטי עצים דקים” (‘fine wood’) of the Chanukah lamp’s measure (his Chanukah notebook of 5696). He weighed its answer to the exile’s length more than once: at Vayishlach 5740 he said it does not explain a length „שלא בערך” (beyond all proportion); a week later he set it beside the one consolation and the dream of the sheaves; at Balak 5747 he brought it as Chassidus’ answer, though not the plain sense. Perhaps (biur b’derech efshar) its sparks and its dream are then one teaching about the exile itself.
Paragraph by paragraph
- ¶1
Background from the Rebbe
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Vayeishev, 20 Kislev 5717, the Rebbe read aloud from a manuscript notebook (bichel) of the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim, apparently written down in his lifetime, a short teaching on Yosef’s first dream („מאלמים אלמים”), and said how it stands to this maamar.
The Rebbe read a short teaching of the Alter Rebbe, apparently from the years when he said brief teachings: binding sheaves is „העלאת מ״ן” (the raising of mayin nukvin), like gathering many stalks into „אגודה אחת” (one bundle), and the tribes’ mayin nukvin had to rise to G‑d’s oneness by way of Yosef’s level, because they are of the feminine world and Yosef of the masculine; but the brothers did not know this, and it angered them. He said that „ענין זה נתבאר גם בתורה אור ובתורת חיים בארוכה” (this subject is explained at length in Torah Ohr and in Torah Chaim), and that „וכנראה שההתחלה מזה היא תורה קצרה זו” (apparently this short teaching was its beginning), to which the long explanation was added later.
The Alter Rebbe
והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלמים כו׳. כתיב אלה המלכים אשר מלכו כו׳
The Rebbe
ענין זה נתבאר גם בתורה אור ובתורת חיים בארוכה, וכנראה שההתחלה מזה היא תורה קצרה זו, ואח״כ ניתוסף אריכות ביאור הענין
Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos, vol. 18 (תשי״ז א), p. 238 · ש״פ וישב, כ׳ כסלו, ה׳תשי״ז
- ¶10
A question the Rebbe raises
In an edited sicha from Shabbos Vayeishev and the fifth night of Chanukah 5730, explaining the inner meaning of Rashi on „מאלמים אלמים” (‘binding sheaves’), the Rebbe quotes this maamar’s reading of the verse as the refining of sparks and adds that the same refining applies to souls.
In an edited sicha the Rebbe writes that refining the sparks and raising them into G‑d’s oneness applies also to souls, as Torah Ohr explains (his note 29 cites 27c, where souls are among what fell in the shattering, ¶2). In the same note he raises the difficulty of this paragraph: here Torah Ohr says „הס״ר נשמות הם שכבר נתקנו ונתבררו” (the 600,000 souls ‘have already been rectified and refined’). He does not resolve it there, but sends the reader to the long explanation in the Tzemach Tzedek’s commentary on the Alter Rebbe’s maamar for Chayei Sarah, section 2, printed in the additions to Torah Ohr.
The Alter Rebbe
אך הס״ר נשמות הם שכבר נתקנו ונתבררו משבה״כ ונכללו בעולם התקון
The Rebbe
ואף שבתו״א שם ע״ד: הס״ר נשמות הם שכבר נתקנו ונתבררו כו׳ — ראה בארוכה בביאור הצ״צ על פ׳ ח״ש מאדמו״ר הזקן ס״ב
Likkutei Sichos, vol. י, p. 119 (note 29) · ש״פ וישב ונר ה׳ דחנוכה, ה׳תש״ל
- ¶11
Background from the Rebbe
In a letter of Monday 9 Teves 5705, before his leadership, answering a correspondent’s questions on Kabbalistic terms (the 120 combinations of the Name Elokim, ‘ashrei’ and ‘hoy’, and the 288 sparks, „רפ״ח ניצוצין”), the Rebbe’s third answer gives the reason for the number 288 and turns to this passage (the end of the letter is also printed in Likkutei Sichos vol. 15 p. 524, which the Kehot note here cites).
The Rebbe gives the source of the number itself: in Etz Chaim (Sha’ar (Gate) 18, ch. 2) the 288 sparks are four sets of 72 that came down from the four Names Havayah, of ע״ב, ס״ג, מ״ה and ב״ן. „ומהשייך לענין זה” (‘Related to this’), he then sums up this paragraph and the next: „מספר רפ״ח הוא כשהיו עדיין באצילות” (288 is their number while still in Atzilus), and falling into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah „נתפרדו הניצוצי׳ לאלפים ורבבות” (they split into thousands and myriads), which is why the exile lasts so long. He adds that Rabbi Yaakov Tzemach, in his gloss on Mevo She’arim, answers ‘somewhat differently’, and that Torah Ohr on Bo says 202 of the 288 were refined in the Egyptian exile.
The Alter Rebbe
ומספר רפ״ח הוא בחי׳ הפירוד של הנצוצין שנפלו כמו שהיו עדיין באצילות
The Rebbe
ומהשייך לענין זה: … בתו״א וישב (ד״ה והנה אנחנו מאלמים ס״ב) אשר מספר רפ״ח הוא כשהיו עדיין באצילות
Igros Kodesh, vol. ב, p. כא · יום ב׳, ט׳ טבת, ה׳תש״ה
- ¶12
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen on Motzaei Shabbos Vayeishev, Shabbos Chanukah 5740, a week after Vayishlach, the Rebbe says that the one consolation for the length of the exile, and that with the greatest strain, is that its purpose is the advantage of light that comes from darkness, the ches of Chanukah; then he adds this maamar.
Besides that one strained consolation, the Rebbe says, there is the Alter Rebbe’s explanation in Torah Ohr Vayeishev, which he had spoken of at the earlier farbrengen (the editors’ note: 27d, this paragraph). It belongs also to Mikeitz, whose reading had already begun at Minchah, because the explanation in Torah Ohr is bound up with „והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה” (‘we were binding sheaves) … my sheaf arose … „ותשתחוינה לאלומתי” (your sheaves bowed to my sheaf’): in Vayeishev this is only Yosef’s dream, and in Mikeitz it came about in fact, in the plain sense of the verses.
The Alter Rebbe
ובזה יובן מה שנמשך הגלות כ״כ הרבה יותר מן י״ז מאות שנה
The Rebbe
ווארום דער ביאור אין תו״א איז פארבונדן מיט ”והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה … ותשתחוינה לאלומתי”
Sichos Kodesh 5740, vol. א, p. 616–617 · מוצאי ש״פ וישב, שבת חנוכה, ה׳תש״מ
- ¶12
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Balak 5747, asking what Rashi does not explain to the five-year-old on Bilam’s ‘I see him, but not now’ (Bamidbar 24:17), namely how the exile can last so long, out of all proportion to its causes, the Rebbe brings this paragraph as the answer found in Chassidus.
The Rebbe quotes this paragraph as Chassidus’ answer to „עד מתי” (‘until when?’): the Jews in Egypt were general souls, so in 210 years they could refine 202 general sparks; afterwards each general soul divided into particular ones and the sparks into thousands of thousands of small parts, so their refinement takes longer. He extends it: the sins of the Second Temple era, done by general souls, are general sins, so the repair of each needs many acts of particular souls. But, he adds, this is the way of Chassidus and does not answer the five-year-old learning the plain sense.
The Alter Rebbe
ושם הם ג״כ מספר ס״ר נשמות כלליי׳ שהם צריכים לברר רפ״ח חלקים גדולים
The Rebbe
כלומר, בנ״י שהיו בגלות מצרים היו נשמות כלליות, ולכן, בזמן קצר, מאתיים ועשר שנים, יכלו לברר ר״ב ניצוצים כלליים
Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos 5747, vol. ד, p. 31–33 · ש״פ בלק, ה׳תשמ״ז
- ¶12
A question the Rebbe raisesThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Vayishlach, 18 Kislev 5740, returning to what he had said a few weeks before on why the exile is so long („אריכות הגלות”), the Rebbe tests this paragraph’s explanation against the numbers.
The Rebbe says the whole exile is bound up with refining the 288 sparks: in Egypt 202 of them were refined, as „וגם ערב רב עלה אתם” (‘a mixed multitude (erev rav) went up with them’) hints, and only „פ״ו ניצוצים” (the remaining 86), the value of Elokim, are left for the later exiles. Yet Egypt lasted „מאתים ועשר שנים” (210 years) and the later exiles thousands. Even with this paragraph’s explanation, which he quotes, „שלמטה בעשייה נתפרדו הניצוצי׳ לאלפים ורבבות” (that below the sparks split into thousands and myriads), and that later generations are particular souls each refining a particular spark, he says it is still „ניט קיין ביאור אויף אזא אריכות הגלות” (no explanation for a length) entirely out of proportion, all the more since in every generation Jews gave their lives for G‑d’s Name with joy.
The Alter Rebbe
אלא שהוא משום שלמטה בעשייה נתפרדו הניצוצי׳ לאלפים ורבבות אין מספר ומספר רפ״ח הוא באצי׳
The Rebbe
איז עס נאך אלץ ניט קיין ביאור אויף אזא אריכות הגלות, אין אן אופן וואס איז גאר אינגאנצן שלא בערך
Sichos Kodesh 5740, vol. א, p. 534–536 · ש״פ וישלח, ח״י כסלו, ה׳תש״מ
- ¶12
A question the Rebbe raisesThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Re’eh 5745, which fell on the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, having just spoken of the very last refinement that may still be awaited at the end of the exile, the Rebbe asks whether that explains why the exile is so long.
The Rebbe takes up the thought that some refinement is still missing, since new ones keep being added, a further mitzvah or a further matter in Torah, so that Mashiach is waiting for the last one; and he says „באמת איז דאס קיין תירוץ ניט” (this is truly no answer): the Rambam has already ruled that it is enough to be „חציו זכאי” (‘half meritorious’), so half the refinements may be missing and still one mitzvah tips the scale and brings salvation, and all the more one refinement cannot be holding back the redemption. The question „עד מתי” (‘until when?’) remains. He does not name Torah Ohr; the editors’ note refers here to this maamar (27c) and its parallels, where the exile lasts until the refinements are complete.
The Alter Rebbe
ולכך נמשך הגלות שעדיין לא נשלם כל הבירורים כו׳ וכשיושלם הבירור יבא הגואל בב״א
The Rebbe
אבער באמת איז דאס קיין תירוץ ניט, ווייל דער רמב״ם האט שוין געשריבן אז ס׳איז גענוג (אפילו בזמנו) ”חציו זכאי”
Sichos Kodesh 5745, vol. ה (תמוז–אלול), p. מא · ש״פ ראה, א׳ דר״ח אלול (שבת ר״ח), ה׳תשמ״ה
- ¶12
Background from the Rebbe
In his notebook of Chanukah 5696, explaining why the Chanukah lamp, unlike the Shabbos candle, is lit after sunset and toward the public domain, ‘until the foot of the Tarmoda’i ceases from the market’ (Shabbos 21b), the Rebbe reads Rashi’s Tarmoda’i, „מלקטי עצים דקים” (who gather fine wood) and linger in the market after dark, as fine sparks of holiness.
The Rebbe glosses Rashi’s Tarmoda’i, ‘a people who gather fine wood’ and linger in the market after dark, as „ניצוצות דקים דקדושה המובלעים” (‘fine sparks of holiness that are swallowed up’), and in a bracket of his own points to this maamar by its opening words and quotes this paragraph: below, „נתרבו מאד הניצוצים לאלפי אלפים חלקים קטנים” (the sparks multiplied into thousands upon thousands of small parts). When even their foot ceases from the market, the time the Gemara sets for the Chanukah lamp, he writes, „ה״ז סימן שגם הניצוצות דקים נתבררו” (it is a sign that the fine sparks too have been refined).
The Alter Rebbe
כך נתרבו מאד הניצוצים לאלפי אלפים חלקים קטנים
The Rebbe
ניצוצות דקים דקדושה המובלעים, והם מתעכבים בשוק גם משחשיכה … ואם גם רגלם כלה, ה״ז סימן שגם הניצוצות דקים נתבררו
Reshimos (second edition), booklets 1–14, vol. booklet 3, the Reshimah on Chanukah 5696, p. 52 · חנוכה, ה׳תרצ״ו
- ¶14
Background from the Rebbe
In his general letter dated Friday 11 Nissan 5740, the eve of Shabbos HaGadol, continuing his Rosh Chodesh Nissan letter on that Pesach’s ‘good to Heaven and good to people’, the Rebbe explains one purpose of the world’s endless variety: kinds, species and details, no two people alike, every day with its own task.
One purpose of all the world’s variety, the Rebbe writes, is ‘to make’, which the Midrash reads as „לתקן” (‘to rectify’): a person is to learn from the differences around him how to improve them each day, by conduct according to the Creator’s will, and so bring tikkun to the whole creation, bringing out its inner unity and fulfilling the Creator’s intent of „דירה בתחתונים” (a dwelling below), which is „אחדות הפשוטה” (simple unity). His note to ‘the inner unity of the whole creation’ cites this column (27d), and the next note explains it: all were brought into being by Havayah, who is One, ‘as it says, „מה רבו מעשיך הוי׳” (How many are Your works, Havayah)’.
The Alter Rebbe
וכולם בחכ׳ עשית עשית הוא ל׳ תיקון שע״י החכ׳ הם מתתקנים בבחי׳ עולם התיקון
The Rebbe
אַרויסברענגענדיק די אינערלעכע אחדות פון דעם גאַנצן וועלט־באַשאַף און פאַרווירקלעכן די כוונה פון באַשעפער, לעשות לו ית׳ דירה בתחתונים, וועלכער איז אחדות הפשוטה
Likkutei Sichos, vol. יז, p. 445 (the letter begins on p. 444) · י״א ניסן, ערב שבת פ׳ צו, שבת הגדול, ה׳תש״מ
- ¶16
The Rebbe explains
In an edited sicha of Shabbos Acharei 5719 on ‘I have found nothing better for the body than silence’ (Avos 1:17), explaining the Gemara’s „מה אומנותו של אדם בעולם” (‘What is a man’s craft in this world?) „ישים עצמו כאלם” (Let him make himself like a mute’), the Rebbe contrasts souls with the rest of creation.
All creatures come from G‑d’s speech, which is revelation to another, so they are created as an ‘other’, a separate something; souls come from His thought, which is for itself, so their essence is self-nullification, ‘one nation’. Creation is „ומשם יפרד” (‘from there it divides’), yet the purpose of the Jews is to reveal G‑dliness precisely in the world, „גוי אחד בארץ” (‘one nation in the land’): to bring the ‘One’, the nullification of thought, into the land, and his note cites this paragraph. That, he says, is the Gemara’s ‘make himself like a mute’: to reveal in the world not only the Ten Utterances, speech, which brings „ביטול היש” (bittul hayesh), but the silence of thought, „ביטול במציאות” (bittul bimetzius), ‘Echad’.
The Alter Rebbe
אעפ״כ הישראל ע״י עבודתן ותורתן הם עושים שם ג״כ אחד
The Rebbe
פונדעסטוועגן, איז דער תכלית פון אידן צו מגלה זיין אלקות דוקא אין וועלט — ”גוי אחד בארץ”, אויך אין ארץ, פועל׳ן דעם ”אחד”
Likkutei Sichos, vol. ד, p. 1188–1189 (note 74) · ש״פ אחרי, ה׳תשי״ט
- ¶17
The Rebbe explains
In the same edited sicha of 5730, after explaining why Rashi on ‘binding sheaves’ first quotes Onkelos, ‘binding bundles’, and then adds ‘sheaves’, the Rebbe turns to the inner meaning of Rashi’s words.
The Rebbe quotes this paragraph’s reading, that the brothers refined scattered sparks and bound them into one „להתכלל במל׳ דאצי׳” (in Malchus of Atzilus), and draws a lesson from the plain sense of ‘in the field’: besides gathering the sparks scattered in one’s own life, a person is „לצאת (ממקום מושבו) לתוך השדה” (to go out from his place into the field) and „לקבץ הניצוצות המפוזרים בעולם” (gather the sparks scattered in the world), by bringing others back to G‑d’s service and the light of the inner Torah. Rashi’s ‘binding bundles’ teaches that the bond must be a lasting knot that the winds of the world cannot untie, and ‘sheaves’, grain that can be sown and bear fruit, that the other should in turn bring others near. Finally „ותשתחוינה לאלומתי” (‘your sheaves bowed to my sheaf’): the completion is to bring others to the bittul of Yosef, the leader of the generation.
The Alter Rebbe
שהיו מבררים הנצוצין שנפלו בבחי׳ פירוד בשבה״כ והיו מעלי׳ אותן בבחי׳ מ״ן להתכלל במל׳ דאצי׳
The Rebbe
על האדם לצאת (ממקום מושבו) לתוך השדה ולהתעסק שם בהעבודה ד״מאלמים אלומים” — לקבץ הניצוצות המפוזרים בעולם
Likkutei Sichos, vol. י, p. 119–121 · ש״פ וישב ונר ה׳ דחנוכה, ה׳תש״ל
- ¶18
The Rebbe explains
In the maamar „והי׳ באכלכם מלחם הארץ” (‘VeHayah ba’achalchem milechem ha’aretz’) of Shabbos Shelach 5722, on the mitzvah of challah, the Rebbe sets the labors that make bread into stages of a person’s service and reaches the binding of sheaves (also in Toras Menachem 5722 vol. 3 p. 71).
After the reaper, which he reads as the self-nullification of the Amidah, comes the binder of sheaves, ‘as is known regarding binding sheaves in the field’ („מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה”): gathering many stalks after the harvest into one bundle is the raising of the sparks, and alumim is also „מלשון אלם” (from illem), „שיש לו פה ושותק” (one who has a mouth and keeps silent), which is self-nullification; that is, „שגם לאחרי הביטול דשמו״ע צריך להיות ביטול נוסף” (even after the bittul of the Amidah a further bittul is needed). All this is the first refinement, which is not enough: then must come grinding and kneading, a change of essence, so that it can become food for man.
The Alter Rebbe
עד״מ כמו שקושרין העמרים שמקבצין כמה שבולים רבים מאד ומחברין אותן וקושרין אותן באגודה אחת
The Rebbe
ואלומים הוא גם מלשון אלם, שיש לו פה ושותק, שהו״ע הביטול, והיינו, שגם לאחרי הביטול דשמו״ע צריך להיות ביטול נוסף
Sefer HaMaamarim 5722 (new edition), p. רצז · ש״פ שלח, כ״ח סיון, מבה״ח תמוז, ה׳תשכ״ב
- ¶19
A question the Rebbe raises
In the maamar Padah VeShalom of 19 Kislev 5735, explaining how Yosef’s dreams „פתרון החלום דזמן הגלות לטוב” (‘interpret the dream of the exile for good’), the Rebbe retells this maamar’s account of the shattering and of binding sheaves (also in Sefer HaMaamarim 5734–5735, old edition, p. 278).
The Rebbe adds two things to binding sheaves. To join one stalk to another one must first change each stalk, changing the nature it had before the work began. And „בתוך השדה” (‘in the midst of the field’): outwardly it is a field, but by binding sheaves in it, the whole service of fulfilling His will through Torah and mitzvos, one makes it recognizable there that this is „שדה אשר ברכו הוי׳” (‘the field which Havayah blessed’), as Yitzchak called the Temple a field, making the world a dwelling for G‑d. Our paragraph reads ‘in the midst of the field’ as „חקל תפוחין שהיא מל׳ דאצי׳” (the ‘field of apples’, Malchus of Atzilus), where the mayin nukvin are included.
The Alter Rebbe
בתוך השדה הוא בחי׳ חקל תפוחין שהיא מל׳ דאצי׳ שלשם נכלל המ״ן כנודע
The Rebbe
שבחיצוניות הרי זה ענין של שדה, אבל עי״ז שמאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה … אזי פועלים שיהי׳ ניכר בשדה שזהו שדה אשר ברכו הוי׳
Toras Menachem – Sefer HaMaamarim, Parshiyos uMoadim: 19 Kislev, p. רפט–רצ · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשל״ה
- ¶27
The Rebbe explains
In the edited maamar ‘Lehavin inyan Pesach Sheni’ (Motzaei Shabbos Emor, eve of Pesach Sheni 5738), the Rebbe sets out the Tzemach Tzedek’s maamar on Pesach Sheni (Or HaTorah Bamidbar p. 367 ff.) and its three introductions, and names this maamar for the second.
The Tzemach Tzedek’s maamar sets Nissan against Iyar: Nissan, the exodus, is iskafya („אתכפיא”), subduing evil, and Malchus, the first Sefirah from below; Iyar, the Omer, is is’hapcha („אתהפכא”), transforming the emotions, and Yesod, the second. That maamar explains, the Rebbe writes, that the two belong together, as this maamar of Torah Ohr explains: the refinement by the tribes, a chariot for Malchus, is „בירור ראשון” (the first refinement), only „ביטול היש” (bittul hayesh), like iskafya; the refinement by Yosef the tzaddik, the level of Yesod, is the second, being included in G‑dliness, bittul bimetzius, like is’hapcha. His note finds the pairing in the Alter Rebbe’s own Sefer HaMaamarim 5565: mayin nukvin, the first refinement, is iskafya, and through the drawing down of mayin duchrin, the second, is’hapcha comes about.
The Alter Rebbe
שבירור של השבטים הוא שמעלים מ״ן במל׳ דאצי׳ ועדיין לא נהפך לאלהות ממש
The Rebbe
דהבירור שע״י השבטים (שהיו מרכבה לבחינת המלכות), בירור ראשון, הוא רק ביטול היש (דוגמת אתכפיא), והבירור שע״י יוסף הצדיק, בחינת יסוד, בירור שני
Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat, vol. ג, p. קמג · מוצאי ש״ק פ׳ אמור, י״ג אייר, אור לי״ד אייר, פסח שני, ה׳תשל״ח
- ¶28
The Rebbe explains
In the same maamar of 19 Kislev 5735, moving from binding sheaves to „קמה אלומתי וגם נצבה” (‘my sheaf arose and also stood upright’), the Rebbe explains what sets Yosef above his brothers (also in the old edition, pp. 278–279).
Yosef was higher than the other tribes, so that „אלה תולדות יעקב יוסף” (‘these are the generations of Yaakov: Yosef’), and in some things even above Yaakov: Yaakov used natural means, the rods, as fitted his level, while Yosef was punished for relying on the butler, as the Mitteler Rebbe’s Torah Chaim explains at length. That is ‘my sheaf arose and stood’: in the language of Kabbalah „שעיקר מקומו של יוסף הוא בעולם האצילות” (Yosef’s main place is the world of Atzilus), so even in this lowest world, „ויבוא הביתה לעשות מלאכתו” (‘coming into the house to do his work’) and ruling all Egypt, nothing disturbed his service („לא בלבל אותו מעבודתו”), whereas Yaakov had to be a shepherd, in seclusion.
The Alter Rebbe
אלא שלאחר בירור זה והנה קמה אלומתי כו׳ שנמצא בו מעלה יתירה מצד שרשו בשם מ״ה דאצי׳
The Rebbe
וזהו שביוסף נאמר קמה אלומתי וגם נצבה, ובלשון הקבלה, שעיקר מקומו של יוסף הוא בעולם האצילות
Toras Menachem – Sefer HaMaamarim, Parshiyos uMoadim: 19 Kislev, p. רצ–רצא · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשל״ה
- ¶29
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In an edited sicha of 19 Kislev 5717 (printed in the additions to Likkutei Sichos vol. 2, Vayeishev), on how the exile, and the soul’s descent into the body, reach their purpose, the Rebbe explains the two stages of Yosef’s first dream.
Binding sheaves is done in the field, not in the house: one uproots separate stalks from their place and root and gathers them into one bundle, to bring it later into the house; so the soul takes the separate physical things it came down for and uproots them from their coarseness to serve G‑d. That is not enough: „ותשתחוין לאלומתי” (‘they bowed to my sheaf’) is bringing them into the house, making them a vessel and dwelling for G‑d while dealing with them, as Yosef „ויבוא הביתה לעשות מלאכתו” (‘came into the house to do his work’) even as ruler in Egypt. Yosef was a soul of Atzilus: binding sheaves, though a lofty bittul, is still a state of existence, of Asiyah, Yetzirah or even Beriah; bowing to his sheaf is the second refinement that rises to Atzilus, where bittul is „ביטול במציאות” (bittul bimetzius).
The Alter Rebbe
וזהו תסובנה אלומותיכם ותשתחוין לאלומתי בבחי׳ בטול ממש
The Rebbe
אַז אין די עבודות פון מאלמים אַלומים וואָס הגם עס איז געווען אַ ביטול נעלה, אָבער דאָך בבחינת מציאות … דער בירור שני שעולה לאצילות
Likkutei Sichos, vol. ב, p. 478–480 · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשי״ז (said on Motzaei Shabbos Vayeishev, 20 Kislev)
- ¶29
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In Padah VeShalom 5735, explaining why the verse speaks of redemption „בשלום” (‘in peace’), the Rebbe sets the brothers’ binding of sheaves against their bowing to Yosef (also in the old edition, p. 279).
Atzilus is called „עולם האחדות” (the world of oneness), and its bittul is bittul bimetzius, while of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah it says „ומשם יפרד” (‘from there it divides’); so even when the service of binding sheaves in the field is perfect, „הרי זה רק ביטול היש (היפך ענין הפירוד)” (it is only bittul hayesh, the opposite of separation). Therefore Yosef must act on the other tribes: their sheaves are nullified to his sheaf, to his service, and through this Yosef’s bittul, bittul bimetzius, is drawn into them too. This, he says, is why the verse speaks of ‘peace’: beyond the battle and victory of the first refinement, the binding of sheaves in the field, comes the peace above it, bittul bimetzius (so the old edition, p. 279; the new edition, p. רצב, says it of the threefold bond of Israel, the Torah and the Holy One).
The Alter Rebbe
כי בלעדי המ״ד דיוסף לא נכלל המ״ן שלהם באלקות ממש
The Rebbe
הנה גם כאשר העבודה היא בתכלית השלימות, מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה, הרי זה רק ביטול היש (היפך ענין הפירוד)
Toras Menachem – Sefer HaMaamarim, Parshiyos uMoadim: 19 Kislev, p. רצא–רצב · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשל״ה
- ¶29
The Rebbe explains
In an edited sicha of Shabbos Vayeishev (5720) on the lessons of Yosef’s two dreams, asking what each detail of the first dream teaches, the Rebbe explains why binding sheaves in the field must be followed by bowing to Yosef’s sheaf.
The soul comes down into the ‘field’, this world, a place of separation, and binds the separate powers of body and animal soul into one ‘sheaf’ for G‑d’s service. But once it has become a sheaf, a form of service, it must itself be nullified to the sheaf of Yosef the tzaddik, the leader of the generation, the head of the ‘complete form’ of Israel, as all the limbs are nullified to the head. Inwardly, he adds, that bittul is there even before the binding, since the very ability to work ‘in the field’ comes from the soul’s inner bittul to Yosef the tzaddik. His note says this follows what Torah Ohr and Torah Chaim explain there, „ובעבודה הוא בירור ראשון ובירור שני” (‘and in service it is the first and second refinement’).
The Alter Rebbe
ובירור זה אין בכח שאר השבטים שהן בבריאה כו׳ שלמטה מטה מאצי׳
The Rebbe
בפנימיות הענין, איז אויך פאַר דער עבודה פון ”מאלמים אלמים” פאַראַן דער ”ותשתחוין לאלומתי”, דער ביטול צום צדיק הדור
Likkutei Sichos, vol. ג, p. 808–809 · ש״פ וישב, ה׳תש״כ (the year from the unedited transcript, Toras Menachem 5720 vol. 1 pp. 243–249, whose notes match)
- ¶30
The Rebbe explains
In Padah VeShalom 5735, after explaining the second dream, where the sun, Yaakov, bows to Yosef, as a drawing down from above, the Rebbe turns to the verse this paragraph quotes, „ואביו שמר את הדבר” (‘and his father kept the matter’) (new edition, Parshiyos uMoadim: 19 Kislev p. רצא).
The Rebbe suggests that the Maggid of Mezritch’s teaching on ‘and his father kept the matter’, „המחשבה שומר את הדיבור והוא יחוד” (that thought guards speech and this is a union), refers to the second refinement, which is done by thought, since „בחכמה ובמחשבתא איתברירו” (‘through Chochmah and thought they are refined’). Our paragraph cites the verse to show that the second dream concerns Yaakov; on the Rebbe’s suggestion Yaakov’s ‘keeping’ is itself the higher refinement.
The Alter Rebbe
גם ענין החלום השני השמש והירח כו׳ משתחוים לי שהדברים מגיעים ליעקב וכמ״ש ואביו שמר כו׳
The Rebbe
וי״ל שזהו גם פירוש תורת הרב המגיד על הפסוק ואביו שמר את הדבר, פירוש המחשבה שומר את הדיבור והוא יחוד
Sefer HaMaamarim 5734–5735 (old edition), p. 279 · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשל״ה
Short quotes only, with the place of each so it can be read in full. The Rebbe’s sichos, letters and maamarim are published by Kehot and by Vaad Hanochos B’Lahak (lahak.org).
The shattering as separation ¶1–5
1והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלמים12 כו׳. כתיב אלה המלכים אשר מלכו3 כו׳ שהן ז׳ מלכין קדמאין דתהו שנפלו בשבה״כ [בשבירת הכלים]4 למטה לשם ב״ן [שם ב״ן] דאצי׳ מקור דבי״ע ומשם ירדו בבי״ע וזהו ענין מיתת המלכים כידוע.5
“And behold, we were binding sheaves,” etc. It is written, “These are the kings who reigned,” etc.: these are the seven primordial kings of Tohu, who fell in the shattering of the vessels down to the Name Ban of Atzilus, the source of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and from there they descended into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. This is the matter of “the death of the kings,” as is known.
The maamar opens with Yosef’s first dream, in which he and his brothers bind sheaves in the field, and immediately turns to the list of Edomite kings who “reigned and died”, which the Kabbalah reads as the seven kings of Tohu, the primordial world whose vessels could not hold their light and shattered. Their fall was to the Name Ban (the feminine, receiving aspect, identified with Malchus) of Atzilus, the source from which the three lower worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah draw, and from there they descended into those worlds; this descent is what the Kabbalah calls “the death of the kings.”
The paragraph sets the stage: the maamar’s verse about binding sheaves will be read against the background of the shattering of the vessels of Tohu and their fall into the lower worlds.
The seven kings of Edom (Genesis 36:31–39), whose reigns are each followed by “and he died,” are the Arizal’s image for the seven emotive Sefiros of Tohu. Only the eighth king, Hadar, is not said to have died, which the Arizal reads as the beginning of the world of Tikkun.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
Background from the Rebbe
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Vayeishev, 20 Kislev 5717, the Rebbe read aloud from a manuscript notebook (bichel) of the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim, apparently written down in his lifetime, a short teaching on Yosef’s first dream („מאלמים אלמים”), and said how it stands to this maamar.
The Rebbe read a short teaching of the Alter Rebbe, apparently from the years when he said brief teachings: binding sheaves is „העלאת מ״ן” (the raising of mayin nukvin), like gathering many stalks into „אגודה אחת” (one bundle), and the tribes’ mayin nukvin had to rise to G‑d’s oneness by way of Yosef’s level, because they are of the feminine world and Yosef of the masculine; but the brothers did not know this, and it angered them. He said that „ענין זה נתבאר גם בתורה אור ובתורת חיים בארוכה” (this subject is explained at length in Torah Ohr and in Torah Chaim), and that „וכנראה שההתחלה מזה היא תורה קצרה זו” (apparently this short teaching was its beginning), to which the long explanation was added later.
The Alter Rebbe
והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלמים כו׳. כתיב אלה המלכים אשר מלכו כו׳
The Rebbe
ענין זה נתבאר גם בתורה אור ובתורת חיים בארוכה, וכנראה שההתחלה מזה היא תורה קצרה זו, ואח״כ ניתוסף אריכות ביאור הענין
Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos, vol. 18 (תשי״ז א), p. 238 · ש״פ וישב, כ׳ כסלו, ה׳תשי״ז
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsMah and BanTohu and TikkunYetzirahAsiyah+2
- Mah and Ban מ״ה וב״ן
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים · ב׳ הנחות אחרות — בסה״מ תקס״ה ע׳ צט. וראה במאמרי אדה״ז הקצרים ע׳ יח. ובמגדל עוז ע׳ שפט שרבינו הזקן למד ענין זה מהרה״ק אברהם בן הה״מ ז״ל. באוה״ת בראשית כרך ו תתרפב, א המאמר עם הגהות אחרות נדפס מגוכתי״ק כ״ק הצ״צ שנכתבו כנראה בחיי כ״ק אדה״א או קודם לזה. ראה לעיל בציונים לכ״ק אדמו״ר זי״ע. ראה הנחות — תרט״ז ד״ה והנה אנחנו שמבאר הענינים של המאמר. ראה ד״ה פדה בשלום תשל״ה.
- 2והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים · Genesis 37:7
- 3אלה המלכים אשר מלכו · Genesis 36:31
- 4שהן ז׳ מלכין קדמאין דתהו שנפלו בשבה״כ · ראה לקמן קי, ד. ביאוה״ז להצ״צ כרך א ע׳ רפא.
- 5ומשם . . כידוע · באוה״ת שם ליתא.
2והנה בשבה״כ [בשבירת הכלים] נפלו כמה בחי׳ דהיינו הן בחי׳ נשמות והן בחי׳ מלאכים והן בחי׳ כחות אלקיים עצמם כולם נשברו ונפלו למטה בבי״ע והכחות אלקים נפילתן היינו שירדו להחיות בי״ע כו׳.
Now, in the shattering of the vessels a number of levels fell: namely, the level of souls, the level of angels, and the level of the G‑dly powers themselves. All of them were shattered and fell down into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah; and the fall of the G‑dly powers means that they descended to give life to Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and so on.
Three kinds of things fell in the shattering: the roots of souls, the roots of angels, and G‑dly powers themselves. For the G‑dly powers, “falling” does not mean they became unholy; it means they came down to be the life-force of the lower worlds.
ופי׳ וענין השבירה של הכלים ושל הנצוצות כו׳. הוא ענין התפרדותן לחלקים רבים כמו עד״מ תיבת ברוך כשאותיותי׳ [כשאותיותיה] מצורפות בתיבה זו מתלבש בהן השכלה שהוא ענין הברכה1
The explanation and meaning of the shattering of the vessels and of the sparks, etc., is that they separated into many pieces. By way of analogy: the word ברוך (“blessed”): when its letters are joined together in this word, an idea is enclothed in them, namely the idea of blessing;
The Alter Rebbe now defines what “shattering” means: not destruction but separation into many pieces. His analogy is the Hebrew word ברוך (“blessed”): as long as its letters stand together, they carry the idea of blessing.
אבל כשיתפרדו הד׳ אותיות אלו זמ״ז [זה מזה] להיות הבי״ת בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] וכן הרי״ש וכו׳ אזי לא ימצא בהן התלבשות השכלה זאת כלל.2
but when these four letters separate from one another, so that the ב stands by itself, and likewise the ר, and so on, then this enclothed idea will not be found in them at all.
Once the four letters are pulled apart, each letter on its own no longer carries that idea at all. So too, when the vessels fell apart, the light they had held could no longer rest in them.
The shattering of the vessels is defined as fragmentation: pieces that once formed a meaningful whole fall apart, and the meaning, the light, no longer rests in them.
A maamar of the Rebbe from 5735 (cited in the Kehot notes) adds two points: “blessing” (ברכה) here also means drawing down, and even after the letters separate, some impression of their having been together remains, because holiness never entirely leaves its place.
TermsRapach nitzotzinTohu and TikkunBerachahLights and vessels+9
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Berachah ברכה
- Lights and vessels אורות וכלים
- Malachim מלאכים
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Osiyos אותיות
- Elokim אלקים
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
Marei mekomos
- 1שהוא ענין הברכה · בד״ה פדה בשלום תשל״ה (הנחה בלתי מוגהה) מוסיף ”היינו ברכה לשון המשכה”.
- 2אזי לא ימצא בהן התלבשות השכלה זאת כלל · בד״ה פדה בשלום תשל״ה מוסיף: ”היינו שאין השכלה זו בגילוי, אבל בטח שנשאר איזה רושם מזה שהיו אותיות אלו ביחד, שהרי קדושה לא זזה ממקומה”.
3ועד״ז הוא שבה״כ [שבירת הכלים] דתהו שנתפרדו הכלים לחלקים רבים מפורדים זמ״ז [זה מזה] עד שנסתלק מהם האור שהי׳ [שהיה] מתלבש בתוכן קודם פירוד זה.
In the same way is the shattering of the vessels of Tohu: the vessels separated into many pieces, divided from one another, until the light that had been enclothed within them before this separation departed from them.
The analogy is applied: the vessels of Tohu broke into many separate pieces, and because they were no longer a whole, the light that had filled them withdrew.
ומצד זה ירדו במדרגה בבחי׳ בי״ע ונתהוו מזה עולמות הנפרדים ברואים רבים מינים ממינים שונים כמ״ש היש מספר1 כו׳.
Because of this they descended in level to the plane of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and from this came into being the worlds of separation: many creatures, species upon species of different kinds, as it is written, “Is there any number [to His troops],” etc.
Having lost their light, the fragments sank to the level of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and out of them came the “worlds of separation”: a vast multitude of distinct creatures and species. The verse “Is there any number to His troops?” expresses that countless multitude.
The fragmentation of Tohu is the origin of the multiplicity of the created worlds: the many separate creatures are the scattered pieces of the broken vessels.
TermsTohu and TikkunLights and vesselsYetzirahAsiyah+2
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Lights and vessels אורות וכלים
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
Also Hislabshus
Marei mekomos
- 1היש מספר · Job 25:3
4והנה עצמות המאציל ב״ה הוא יחיד ומיוחד בתכלית היחוד כנודע
Now, the Essence of the Emanator, blessed be He, is singular and unique in the ultimate unity, as is known.
G‑d’s own Essence, here called “the Emanator,” is absolutely one, beyond any trace of plurality.
ולזאת כדי שיתהוו בחי׳ הנבראים שהם בבחי׳ רבוי גדול ובבחי׳ פירוד שהם בחי׳ יש ודבר בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] שזהו ממש המנגד אל אמתות אחדותו ב״ה שאין עוד מלבדו.1 הוצרך להיות ע״י שבה״כ [שבירת הכלים]
Therefore, in order that created beings should come into being, which are in a state of great multiplicity and in a state of separateness, that is, in the state of something, an entity in its own right, which is the very opposite of the truth of His unity, blessed be He, that “there is nothing else besides Him,” it had to come about through the shattering of the vessels:
Created beings are many, and each feels itself a separate “something” in its own right, the very opposite of the truth of G‑d’s unity expressed in the verse “there is nothing else besides Him.” For such beings to come into existence, there had to be a shattering of the vessels.
שמחמת שנתפרדו לחלקים קטנים רבים מאד עי״ז נעשה בחי׳ הרבוי של הנבראים וגם ע״י פירוד זה נעשה כל נברא מהות בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] שכל מלאך מובדל מחבירו כו׳.
because they separated into very many small pieces, the multiplicity of created beings came about through this; and also through this separation each creature became an entity of its own, so that each angel is set apart from its fellow, and so on.
Because the vessels broke into countless small pieces, creation became many; and because the pieces were separated, each creature became its own distinct entity, so that even each angel is distinct from every other.
The paragraph explains why the shattering was necessary: a world of many separate beings, the opposite of G‑d’s oneness, could only come from vessels that broke apart.
TermsAchdus HashemTohu and TikkunYichudAtzmus u’mahus+2
- Achdus Hashem אחדות השם
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Yichud יחוד
- Atzmus u’mahus עצמות ומהות
- Malachim מלאכים
- Yesh and ayin יש ואין
Marei mekomos
- 1שאין עוד מלבדו · Deuteronomy 4:35
5והנה כאשר ירדו הכלים והנצוצות מאת פניו ית׳ לפי גודל הירידה כך נעשה בהם הפירוד והרבוי.
Now, when the vessels and the sparks descended from before Him, may He be blessed, the separateness and multiplicity that came about in them was according to the extent of the descent.
The degree of separateness depends on how far down the fragments fell: the further from G‑d, the more fragmented and multiplied.
וכל שעדיין לא ירדו כ״כ [כל כך] אזי לא הי׳ [היה] הפירוד כ״כ [כל כך] כי כל הקרוב קרוב יותר אליו ית׳ יש בו יותר הבטול והאחדות
Whatever had not yet descended so far did not have as much separateness, for whatever is closer to Him, may He be blessed, has more self-nullification and oneness;
Fragments that did not fall so far are less divided, because closeness to G‑d brings more self-nullification and oneness.
וכל שנתרחקו יותר אזי נעשה בהן יותר הפירוד והרבוי ונמצא כשנפלו למטה בעשייה נעשה הפירוד והרבוי ביותר.
and the further they became distant, the more separateness and multiplicity came about in them. It follows that when they fell down into Asiyah, the separateness and multiplicity became greatest of all.
The further something is from G‑d, the more it is divided and multiplied. So in Asiyah, the lowest world, fragmentation and multiplicity are at their greatest.
This paragraph states the rule that runs through the maamar: separateness grows with distance from G‑d, reaching its peak in the lowest world.
TermsAchdus HashemRapach nitzotzinLights and vesselsAsiyah+1
- Achdus Hashem אחדות השם
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Lights and vessels אורות וכלים
- Asiyah עשיה
Also Bittul
The river that divides ¶6–11
This is what is written, “And a river goes out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides,” etc.
The verse about the river that goes out of Eden to water the garden, “and from there it divides,” illustrates the rule.
שהנהר הנמשך מעדן שהוא חכ׳ [חכמה] דאצילות בהיותה נמשכת והולכת דרך כל עולם האצי׳ עד הגן הוא בחי׳ מל׳ דאצילות הוא הכל נהר אחד עדיין מושלל מגדר ההתחלקות בתכלי׳ [בתכלית].
The river flowing from Eden is Chochmah of Atzilus, the divine wisdom that is the source of the flow. As long as it flows through Atzilus down to the “garden,” which is Malchus of Atzilus, it is still one undivided river.
כי באצי׳ איהו וגרמוהי חד שהן בבחי׳ ביטול אמיתי למאצילן ומיוחדין עמו בתכלית היחוד שהוא הפוך הפירוד והרבוי כו׳.
For in Atzilus “He and His vessels are one”: they are in a state of true self-nullification to the One who emanates them, and are united with Him in the ultimate unity, which is the opposite of separateness and multiplicity, and so on.
The reason is that in Atzilus the Sefiros are one with G‑d, as the Zohar’s phrase “He and His vessels are one” says. They are wholly nullified to Him and united with Him, the opposite of separateness.
The river of Eden is the model of the flow of divine light: in Atzilus it remains one, because everything there is united with G‑d.
“His vessels” (גרמוהי) are the vessels of the Sefiros of Atzilus. Their unity with G‑d is what makes Atzilus the “world of oneness”, as against the “worlds of separation” below.
TermsIhu vegarmohiGan EdenYichudAtzilus+2
- Ihu vegarmohi איהו וגרמוהי חד
- Gan Eden גן עדן
- Yichud יחוד
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1ונהר יוצא מעדן · Genesis 2:10
7וכיון שמגיע הנהר בראש הבריאה אזי כתיב ומשם יפרד והיה לד׳ ראשים. ואף שלא נתוסף בו מים עכ״ז [עם כל זה] נתפרד והיו לד׳ חלקים.
And once the river reaches the head of Beriah, then it is written, “and from there it divides and becomes four heads”. Although no water was added to it, it nevertheless divided and became four parts.
When the river reaches the top of Beriah, the first world of separate existence, the verse says “from there it divides and becomes four heads.” Nothing was added to it, yet it became four: the division comes from the lower world, not from the river itself.
והן ד׳ מחנות שכינה פני ארי׳ [אריה] אל הימין פני שור1 כו׳. אך הם חלקים כוללים עדיין שכל חלק מהם כולל כמה פרטים רבים.
These are the four camps of the Shechinah: “the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox,” etc. But these are still general parts, each of which includes many particulars.
The four heads are the four camps of the Shechinah, the four faces of Ezekiel’s chariot (lion, ox, eagle and man). But these are still broad divisions, each containing many details.
At the threshold of Beriah the single flow first divides, into four general parts.
In the Kabbalah the four camps of the Shechinah are led by the angels Michael, Gavriel, Uriel and Refael, corresponding to the four faces of the chariot; the next paragraph continues with Michael and Gavriel.
Marei mekomos
- 1פני ארי׳ אל הימין פני שור · Ezekiel 1:10
8ובירידת המדרגה עוד נתחלק מבחי׳ מיכאל שהוא בחי׳ פני אריה לקפ״ו אלף בחינות מחולקות שהן מחנה מיכאל.
And as the level descends further, the level of Michael, which is the level of the face of the lion, divided into 186,000 separate aspects, which are the camp of Michael.
As the flow descends further, each general camp divides again: Michael, the face of the lion, becomes 186,000 separate aspects, the angels of his camp.
וכן מבחי׳ גבריאל שהוא בחי׳ פני שור נתחלק לחלקים רבים שהם כל פרטי המלאכים דמחנה גבריאל כו׳ וכ״ז [וכל זה] הוא עדיין בעולם הבריאה וביצירה מתחלק עוד לפרטים יותר שהן הרוחות דיצירה.
So too the level of Gavriel, which is the level of the face of the ox, divided into many parts, which are all the individual angels of the camp of Gavriel, and so on. All this is still in the World of Beriah; in Yetzirah it divides further into more particulars, which are the ruchos of Yetzirah.
Gavriel, the face of the ox, likewise divides into all the individual angels of his camp. That is still in Beriah; in Yetzirah the division grows finer still, into the ruchos (spirits) of Yetzirah.
ובעשיה מתחלק עוד לחלקים רבים ביותר שהם הנפשות דעשיה והכל הוא מבחי׳ שבה״כ [שבירת הכלים] שמתפררים בפירור אחר פירור ורבוי אחר רבוי כנ״ל.
And in Asiyah it divides further into the greatest number of parts, which are the nefashos of Asiyah. All of it comes from the shattering of the vessels, as they crumble fragment after fragment, multiplicity after multiplicity, as explained above.
In Asiyah the division is finest of all, into the nefashos (souls or life-forces) of Asiyah. All this is the continuing effect of the shattering: fragment after fragment, multiplicity after multiplicity.
אך המלאכים הם אשר כבר נתקנו בבחי׳ עולם התקון וזהו הנק׳ ואשר משרתיו כולם עומדים כו׳. ובחי׳ יוצר משרתי׳ [משרתים] הם המתבררי׳ בכ״י [בכל יום] כו׳:
But the angels are those that have already been rectified in the level of the World of Tikkun; this is what is called “and Whose servants all stand,” etc. And the level of “Who forms servants” are those who are refined every day, and so on.
Yet the angels themselves are already rectified, part of the World of Tikkun; these are the angels of the morning prayer, “Whose servants all stand” in the heights. The angels of “Who forms servants” are those still being refined every day.
The angels show the rule in detail: one camp becomes thousands, and thousands become more in each lower world, all as a consequence of the shattering.
The two phrases come from the Yotzer blessing before the morning Shema, which speaks of G‑d as the One “Who forms servants” and of the servants who “all stand in the heights of the world.” The Alter Rebbe distinguishes the angels that stand permanently, already rectified, from those formed anew as sparks are refined each day.
TermsTohu and TikkunMalachimYetzirahAsiyah+1
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Malachim מלאכים
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
9כז, דוהנה כמו שהוא במלאכים כך עד״ז נמצא בנשמות שע״י רבוי ירידת המדרגות בהשתלשלות העולמות מתפררים לחלקים קטנים מאד ברבוי אחר רבוי כו׳
Now, just as it is with the angels, so in the same way it is found with the souls: through the many levels of descent in the chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus) they crumble into very small pieces, multiplicity after multiplicity, and so on.
Souls follow the same rule as angels: descending through the chain of worlds, they break into ever smaller parts.
כי ד׳ דגלי מדבר הם מספר שרשי הנשמות בעולם הבריאה ונשמת יהודה כוללת כל הנשמות שבמחנה יהודה
For the four banners of the wilderness are the number of the roots of the souls in the World of Beriah; and the soul of Yehudah includes all the souls in the camp of Yehudah,
The four banners of the Israelite camp in the wilderness correspond to the four root-categories of souls in Beriah. Yehudah’s soul contains all the souls of his camp.
ואח״כ נתחלק להרבה נשמות פרטיים שבדגל מחנה יהודה וכן בשאר הדגלים והשבטים עד שנעשו ס״ר בעולם הבריא׳ [הבריאה].
and afterwards it divided into many individual souls in the banner of the camp of Yehudah, and likewise in the other banners and tribes, until they became six hundred thousand in the World of Beriah.
From there it divides into the individual souls of Yehudah’s banner, and so with the other banners and tribes, until in Beriah they number 600,000.
כי התורה מדברת הכל בעולם הבריאה אבל ביצירה נתרבו החלקים יותר במספר גדול הם בבחי׳ הרוח דיציר׳.
For the Torah speaks entirely of the World of Beriah; but in Yetzirah the parts multiplied further into a great number, and they are on the level of the ruach of Yetzirah.
The Torah’s account, with its numbered camps and tribes, describes souls as they are in Beriah. In Yetzirah they multiply further, into the ruach-level of souls.
The paragraph maps the descent of souls onto the camps of the wilderness: four banners, twelve tribes, 600,000 souls in Beriah, and many more below.
10ובעשי׳ [ובעשיה] המספר של הנפשות דעשייה הוא גדול יותר מכולן. אך הס״ר נשמות הם שכבר נתקנו ונתבררו1 משבה״כ [משבירת הכלים] ונכללו בעולם התקון.
And in Asiyah the number of the nefashos of Asiyah is greater than all of them. But the six hundred thousand souls are those that have already been rectified and refined from the shattering of the vessels and included in the World of Tikkun.
In Asiyah, the number of nefesh-level souls is greatest of all. But the 600,000 root souls have already been rectified and refined from the shattering and belong to the World of Tikkun.
וכמו שנמצא ענין השבירה שהוא בחי׳ הרבוי והפירוד בנשמות ומלאכי׳ כנ״ל כך ימצא בכחות האלקיים ממש שנתחלקו לחלקים רבים מאד ונתפזרו לבי״ע כו׳
And just as the shattering, which is multiplicity and separateness, is found in the souls and angels, as explained above, so it is found in the G‑dly powers themselves: they divided into very many parts and were scattered into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, and so on.
The same fragmentation found in souls and angels applies to the G‑dly powers themselves: they too broke into countless parts scattered through Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah.
וכל מה שירדו יותר בירידת המדרגה נתרבה יותר הפירוד דהיינו שכל חלק וכל נצוץ נתחלק עוד לנצוצות וחלקים רבים ע״ד הנ״ל במלאכי׳ ונשמות
And the further they descended in level, the more the separateness increased; that is, each part and each spark divided further into many sparks and parts, in the manner explained above regarding angels and souls.
And the further they fell, the more each part and spark divided into further sparks, just as with angels and souls.
For it is known on the verse “and the spirit of G‑d hovered (merachefes)”: merachefes [spells] “288 (רפ״ח) died (מת),” that is, 288 sparks that fell from the World of Tohu together with the vessels that were shattered.
This is based on the Arizal’s reading of “the spirit of G‑d hovered (merachefes)”: the letters of merachefes spell “288 died”, the 288 sparks that fell from Tohu together with the broken vessels.
After souls and angels, the paragraph applies the rule to the divine sparks themselves, which the Arizal numbers at 288.
In Etz Chaim the 288 sparks are the portion of light that stayed within the broken vessels to keep them minimally alive, so that they could later be rectified.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
A question the Rebbe raises
In an edited sicha from Shabbos Vayeishev and the fifth night of Chanukah 5730, explaining the inner meaning of Rashi on „מאלמים אלמים” (‘binding sheaves’), the Rebbe quotes this maamar’s reading of the verse as the refining of sparks and adds that the same refining applies to souls.
In an edited sicha the Rebbe writes that refining the sparks and raising them into G‑d’s oneness applies also to souls, as Torah Ohr explains (his note 29 cites 27c, where souls are among what fell in the shattering, ¶2). In the same note he raises the difficulty of this paragraph: here Torah Ohr says „הס״ר נשמות הם שכבר נתקנו ונתבררו” (the 600,000 souls ‘have already been rectified and refined’). He does not resolve it there, but sends the reader to the long explanation in the Tzemach Tzedek’s commentary on the Alter Rebbe’s maamar for Chayei Sarah, section 2, printed in the additions to Torah Ohr.
The Alter Rebbe
אך הס״ר נשמות הם שכבר נתקנו ונתבררו משבה״כ ונכללו בעולם התקון
The Rebbe
ואף שבתו״א שם ע״ד: הס״ר נשמות הם שכבר נתקנו ונתבררו כו׳ — ראה בארוכה בביאור הצ״צ על פ׳ ח״ש מאדמו״ר הזקן ס״ב
Likkutei Sichos, vol. י, p. 119 (note 29) · ש״פ וישב ונר ה׳ דחנוכה, ה׳תש״ל
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsRapach nitzotzinTohu and TikkunBirurLights and vessels+6
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין explained hereLike souls and angels, the G‑dly powers split and scattered into the lower worlds, dividing further with each descent; “merachefes” is 288 “died,” sparks fallen from Tohu.
רפ״ח מת דהיינו רפ״ח נצוצין שנפלו מעולם התהו עם הכלים שנשברו
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Birur בירור
- Lights and vessels אורות וכלים
- Malachim מלאכים
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Elokim אלקים
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
Also Neshamah
Marei mekomos
- 1הס״ר נשמות הם שכבר נתקנו ונתבררו · ראה בארוכה בביאור הצ״צ על פ׳ ח״ש נדפס לעיל בהוספות. לקו״ש ח״י ע׳ 119 הערה 29.
- 2כי הנה ידוע ע״פ ורוח אלקים מרחפת · מאמרי אדה״ז פרשיות בראשית ע׳ א. וראה מאמרי אדה״א בראשית ע׳ נו.
- 3ורוח אלקים מרחפת · Genesis 1:2
- 4רפ״ח מת · ראה ע״ח שער רפ״ח ניצוצין פ״א. ראה גם בה״ז בלק קט, ד. סה״מ תקס״ה ע׳ קד. מאמרי אדה״א בראשית ע׳ נו. מאמרי אדה״ז — פרשיות פ׳ בראשית ע׳ ה. סה״מ תרל״ב ח״ב ע׳ שעו. סה״מ אעת״ר ע׳ קפב. ועוד.
- 5רפ״ח מת · Sefer Etz Chaim 18:1:2
11ומספר רפ״ח הוא בחי׳ הפירוד של הנצוצין שנפלו כמו שהיו עדיין באצילות1 שזהו ראשית ירידתן שאז נתפרדו למספר רפ״ח וזהו רפ״ח מת2 כו׳.3
The number 288 is the separation of the sparks that fell as they still were in Atzilus, which is the beginning of their descent, when they separated into the number 288; this is “288 died,” and so on.
The number 288 describes the sparks at the first stage of their fall, while they were still in Atzilus; that first division into 288 is what “288 died” refers to.
אבל אח״כ כשנפלו מאצי׳ לעולם הבריאה אזי כל נצוץ מרפ״ח נצוצים הנ״ל שבאצי׳ נתחלק שם בבריאה לחלקים רבים מאד
But afterwards, when they fell from Atzilus to the World of Beriah, each spark of the 288 sparks in Atzilus mentioned above divided there in Beriah into very many parts.
When they fell from Atzilus into Beriah, each of the 288 divided there into very many parts.
וכשנפלו מבריאה ליצירה אזי נתחלקו עוד לחלקים ונצוצים קטנים וכן מיצי׳ [מיצירה] לעשיה נתחלקו ונתפרדו עוד ביותר לאלפים ורבבות.4
And when they fell from Beriah to Yetzirah, they divided further into small parts and sparks; and likewise from Yetzirah to Asiyah they divided and separated still further, into thousands and myriads.
When they fell from Beriah to Yetzirah they divided again, and from Yetzirah to Asiyah further still, into thousands and tens of thousands of tiny sparks.
The 288 sparks are counted as they are in Atzilus; below, each breaks into countless smaller sparks, which prepares the question of the next paragraph about the length of the exile.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
Background from the Rebbe
In a letter of Monday 9 Teves 5705, before his leadership, answering a correspondent’s questions on Kabbalistic terms (the 120 combinations of the Name Elokim, ‘ashrei’ and ‘hoy’, and the 288 sparks, „רפ״ח ניצוצין”), the Rebbe’s third answer gives the reason for the number 288 and turns to this passage (the end of the letter is also printed in Likkutei Sichos vol. 15 p. 524, which the Kehot note here cites).
The Rebbe gives the source of the number itself: in Etz Chaim (Sha’ar (Gate) 18, ch. 2) the 288 sparks are four sets of 72 that came down from the four Names Havayah, of ע״ב, ס״ג, מ״ה and ב״ן. „ומהשייך לענין זה” (‘Related to this’), he then sums up this paragraph and the next: „מספר רפ״ח הוא כשהיו עדיין באצילות” (288 is their number while still in Atzilus), and falling into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah „נתפרדו הניצוצי׳ לאלפים ורבבות” (they split into thousands and myriads), which is why the exile lasts so long. He adds that Rabbi Yaakov Tzemach, in his gloss on Mevo She’arim, answers ‘somewhat differently’, and that Torah Ohr on Bo says 202 of the 288 were refined in the Egyptian exile.
The Alter Rebbe
ומספר רפ״ח הוא בחי׳ הפירוד של הנצוצין שנפלו כמו שהיו עדיין באצילות
The Rebbe
ומהשייך לענין זה: … בתו״א וישב (ד״ה והנה אנחנו מאלמים ס״ב) אשר מספר רפ״ח הוא כשהיו עדיין באצילות
Igros Kodesh, vol. ב, p. כא · יום ב׳, ט׳ טבת, ה׳תש״ה
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsRapach nitzotzinYetzirahAsiyahBeriah+1
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין explained hereThe number 288 (the “rapach meis,” 288 died, that the previous paragraph reads in “merachefes”) is the division of the fallen sparks as they still were in Atzilus, the start of their descent. Falling into Beriah each divided into very many parts, and further in Yetzirah and Asiyah into thousands and myriads.
ומספר רפ״ח הוא בחי׳ הפירוד של הנצוצין שנפלו כמו שהיו עדיין באצילות שזהו ראשית ירידתן
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1כמו שהיו עדיין באצילות · ראה לקו״ש חט״ו ע׳ 524.
- 2וזהו רפ״ח מת · Sefer Etz Chaim 18:1:2
- 3וזהו רפ״ח מת כו׳ · באוה״ת גוכתי״ק הצ״צ: ”וזהו מת רפ״ח כו׳”. וכ״ה הלשון בלקו״ת מטות פב, ד. וכ״ה בע״ח שער רפ״ח ניצוצין פ״א. וראה בהנסמן למאמרי אדה״ז — פרשיות פ׳ בראשית ע׳ א.
- 4כי הנה ידוע · קטע מכאן מובא בסה״מ תרל״ד ע׳ קמה.
Why the exile is so long ¶12
12ובזה יובן מה שנמשך הגלות כ״כ [כל כך] הרבה יותר מן י״ז מאות שנה וידוע שהכוונה הכל לברר הרפ״ח ניצוצים וכשיוגמרו הברורי׳ [הברורים] יבא משיח בב״א [במהרה בימינו אמן].
Through this we will understand why the exile has lasted so long, far more than seventeen hundred years. It is known that the whole intent is to refine the 288 sparks, and when the refinements are completed, Mashiach will come, speedily in our days.
The teaching about the 288 sparks and their fragmentation answers a real question: why has the exile lasted so long, already more than 1,700 years when this was said? The whole purpose of the exile is to refine the 288 sparks, and once that is done Mashiach will come.
וא״כ הוא תמוה וכי אפשר שלא נתברר עדיין רפ״ח נצוצים במשך רב כזה אשר דור הולך ודור בא1 וכל א׳ מישראל מברר חלקו שצריך לברר
If so, this is puzzling: is it possible that the 288 sparks have still not been refined over such a long time, in which “a generation goes and a generation comes,” and every Jew refines the portion he needs to refine?
The question is sharpened: 288 is a small number, and over many generations every Jew has been refining the sparks that belong to his portion.
ומה גם שמספרן של ישראל שצריכי׳ לברר הרפ״ח הם ס״ר כיוצאי מצרים והרי עתה ב״ה ישראל רבים יותר ממספר זה2 יוסף ה׳ עליהם כו׳
All the more so, since the number of Jews who must refine the 288 is six hundred thousand, like those who went out of Egypt, and now, thank G‑d, the Jews are more than this number, “may Havayah add to them,” etc.;
The workers are many: 600,000 souls, the number who left Egypt, and in the Alter Rebbe’s time the Jewish people had already grown beyond that number.
וכ״ש [וכל שכן] בזמן הקדמוני׳ שהי׳ [שהיה] נמצא כפרים שהיו בהם יותר מס״ר כמ״ש בגמ׳ [בגמרא] כפר שחליים3 כו׳.
and all the more so in ancient times, when there were villages that had more than six hundred thousand [in them], as the Gemara says about the village of Shechalayim, etc.
In Talmudic times, the Gemara reports, single villages held more than 600,000 people. With so many workers over so long a time, how could 288 sparks still be unrefined?
אלא שהוא משום שלמטה בעשייה נתפרדו הניצוצי׳ לאלפים ורבבות אין מספר ומספר רפ״ח הוא באצי׳ ושם הם ג״כ מספר ס״ר נשמות כלליי׳ שהם צריכים לברר רפ״ח חלקים גדולים הן הניצוצות שבאצי׳.
But [the answer] is that below, in Asiyah, the sparks separated into thousands and myriads without number. The number 288 is in Atzilus, and there, too, is the number of six hundred thousand general souls, which must refine 288 large parts, namely the sparks in Atzilus.
The answer: 288 is the count of the sparks in Atzilus, where 600,000 general souls stand against 288 large parts. Down in Asiyah those 288 have broken into countless tiny fragments.
וכמו שלמטה נתרבה מספר הנשמות כנ״ל כך נתרבו מאד הניצוצים לאלפי אלפים חלקים קטנים ולכך נמשך הגלות שעדיין לא נשלם כל הבירורים כו׳ וכשיושלם הבירור יבא הגואל בב״א [במהרה בימינו אמן]:4
And just as below the number of souls multiplied, as explained above, so the sparks multiplied greatly into thousands upon thousands of small parts. Therefore the exile has lasted long, for all the refinements have not yet been completed, etc.; and when the refinement is completed, the redeemer will come, speedily in our days.
The number of souls grew as they descended, and the sparks grew far more, into millions of tiny fragments. That is why the work takes so long, and when it is complete the redeemer will come.
The multiplication of sparks in the lower worlds explains the length of the exile: the task is not 288 refinements but countless fragments of them.
The parallel between 600,000 general souls and 288 general sparks at the level of Atzilus mirrors the rule of the maamar: at each level down, both souls and sparks multiply.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen on Motzaei Shabbos Vayeishev, Shabbos Chanukah 5740, a week after Vayishlach, the Rebbe says that the one consolation for the length of the exile, and that with the greatest strain, is that its purpose is the advantage of light that comes from darkness, the ches of Chanukah; then he adds this maamar.
Besides that one strained consolation, the Rebbe says, there is the Alter Rebbe’s explanation in Torah Ohr Vayeishev, which he had spoken of at the earlier farbrengen (the editors’ note: 27d, this paragraph). It belongs also to Mikeitz, whose reading had already begun at Minchah, because the explanation in Torah Ohr is bound up with „והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה” (‘we were binding sheaves) … my sheaf arose … „ותשתחוינה לאלומתי” (your sheaves bowed to my sheaf’): in Vayeishev this is only Yosef’s dream, and in Mikeitz it came about in fact, in the plain sense of the verses.
The Alter Rebbe
ובזה יובן מה שנמשך הגלות כ״כ הרבה יותר מן י״ז מאות שנה
The Rebbe
ווארום דער ביאור אין תו״א איז פארבונדן מיט ”והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה … ותשתחוינה לאלומתי”
Sichos Kodesh 5740, vol. א, p. 616–617 · מוצאי ש״פ וישב, שבת חנוכה, ה׳תש״מ
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Balak 5747, asking what Rashi does not explain to the five-year-old on Bilam’s ‘I see him, but not now’ (Bamidbar 24:17), namely how the exile can last so long, out of all proportion to its causes, the Rebbe brings this paragraph as the answer found in Chassidus.
The Rebbe quotes this paragraph as Chassidus’ answer to „עד מתי” (‘until when?’): the Jews in Egypt were general souls, so in 210 years they could refine 202 general sparks; afterwards each general soul divided into particular ones and the sparks into thousands of thousands of small parts, so their refinement takes longer. He extends it: the sins of the Second Temple era, done by general souls, are general sins, so the repair of each needs many acts of particular souls. But, he adds, this is the way of Chassidus and does not answer the five-year-old learning the plain sense.
The Alter Rebbe
ושם הם ג״כ מספר ס״ר נשמות כלליי׳ שהם צריכים לברר רפ״ח חלקים גדולים
The Rebbe
כלומר, בנ״י שהיו בגלות מצרים היו נשמות כלליות, ולכן, בזמן קצר, מאתיים ועשר שנים, יכלו לברר ר״ב ניצוצים כלליים
Toras Menachem – Hisvaduyos 5747, vol. ד, p. 31–33 · ש״פ בלק, ה׳תשמ״ז
A question the Rebbe raisesThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Vayishlach, 18 Kislev 5740, returning to what he had said a few weeks before on why the exile is so long („אריכות הגלות”), the Rebbe tests this paragraph’s explanation against the numbers.
The Rebbe says the whole exile is bound up with refining the 288 sparks: in Egypt 202 of them were refined, as „וגם ערב רב עלה אתם” (‘a mixed multitude (erev rav) went up with them’) hints, and only „פ״ו ניצוצים” (the remaining 86), the value of Elokim, are left for the later exiles. Yet Egypt lasted „מאתים ועשר שנים” (210 years) and the later exiles thousands. Even with this paragraph’s explanation, which he quotes, „שלמטה בעשייה נתפרדו הניצוצי׳ לאלפים ורבבות” (that below the sparks split into thousands and myriads), and that later generations are particular souls each refining a particular spark, he says it is still „ניט קיין ביאור אויף אזא אריכות הגלות” (no explanation for a length) entirely out of proportion, all the more since in every generation Jews gave their lives for G‑d’s Name with joy.
The Alter Rebbe
אלא שהוא משום שלמטה בעשייה נתפרדו הניצוצי׳ לאלפים ורבבות אין מספר ומספר רפ״ח הוא באצי׳
The Rebbe
איז עס נאך אלץ ניט קיין ביאור אויף אזא אריכות הגלות, אין אן אופן וואס איז גאר אינגאנצן שלא בערך
Sichos Kodesh 5740, vol. א, p. 534–536 · ש״פ וישלח, ח״י כסלו, ה׳תש״מ
A question the Rebbe raisesThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
At the farbrengen of Shabbos Re’eh 5745, which fell on the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul, having just spoken of the very last refinement that may still be awaited at the end of the exile, the Rebbe asks whether that explains why the exile is so long.
The Rebbe takes up the thought that some refinement is still missing, since new ones keep being added, a further mitzvah or a further matter in Torah, so that Mashiach is waiting for the last one; and he says „באמת איז דאס קיין תירוץ ניט” (this is truly no answer): the Rambam has already ruled that it is enough to be „חציו זכאי” (‘half meritorious’), so half the refinements may be missing and still one mitzvah tips the scale and brings salvation, and all the more one refinement cannot be holding back the redemption. The question „עד מתי” (‘until when?’) remains. He does not name Torah Ohr; the editors’ note refers here to this maamar (27c) and its parallels, where the exile lasts until the refinements are complete.
The Alter Rebbe
ולכך נמשך הגלות שעדיין לא נשלם כל הבירורים כו׳ וכשיושלם הבירור יבא הגואל בב״א
The Rebbe
אבער באמת איז דאס קיין תירוץ ניט, ווייל דער רמב״ם האט שוין געשריבן אז ס׳איז גענוג (אפילו בזמנו) ”חציו זכאי”
Sichos Kodesh 5745, vol. ה (תמוז–אלול), p. מא · ש״פ ראה, א׳ דר״ח אלול (שבת ר״ח), ה׳תשמ״ה
Background from the Rebbe
In his notebook of Chanukah 5696, explaining why the Chanukah lamp, unlike the Shabbos candle, is lit after sunset and toward the public domain, ‘until the foot of the Tarmoda’i ceases from the market’ (Shabbos 21b), the Rebbe reads Rashi’s Tarmoda’i, „מלקטי עצים דקים” (who gather fine wood) and linger in the market after dark, as fine sparks of holiness.
The Rebbe glosses Rashi’s Tarmoda’i, ‘a people who gather fine wood’ and linger in the market after dark, as „ניצוצות דקים דקדושה המובלעים” (‘fine sparks of holiness that are swallowed up’), and in a bracket of his own points to this maamar by its opening words and quotes this paragraph: below, „נתרבו מאד הניצוצים לאלפי אלפים חלקים קטנים” (the sparks multiplied into thousands upon thousands of small parts). When even their foot ceases from the market, the time the Gemara sets for the Chanukah lamp, he writes, „ה״ז סימן שגם הניצוצות דקים נתבררו” (it is a sign that the fine sparks too have been refined).
The Alter Rebbe
כך נתרבו מאד הניצוצים לאלפי אלפים חלקים קטנים
The Rebbe
ניצוצות דקים דקדושה המובלעים, והם מתעכבים בשוק גם משחשיכה … ואם גם רגלם כלה, ה״ז סימן שגם הניצוצות דקים נתבררו
Reshimos (second edition), booklets 1–14, vol. booklet 3, the Reshimah on Chanukah 5696, p. 52 · חנוכה, ה׳תרצ״ו
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsRapach nitzotzinKavanahBirurAsiyah+2
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין explained hereThe whole purpose of exile is to refine the 288 sparks, and when the refinements are complete Mashiach will come. The exile is long because 288 is their number in Atzilus, matched to the 600,000 general souls; below, both the souls and the sparks have multiplied into countless small parts.
וידוע שהכוונה הכל לברר הרפ״ח ניצוצים וכשיוגמרו הברורי׳ יבא משיח בב״א
- Kavanah כוונה
- Birur בירור
- Asiyah עשיה
- Atzilus אצילות
Also Neshamah
Marei mekomos
- 1דור הולך ודור בא · Ecclesiastes 1:4
- 2שו״ה ס״ר — ממספר זה · באוה״ת שם גוכתי״ק הצ״צ נוסף: שאף במדינת פולין ימצא יותר מס״ר.
- 3בגמרא כפר שחליים · Gittin 57a:12
- 4יוסף ה׳ עליהם · Psalms 115:14
Making the many one ¶13–16
13והנה כתי׳ [כתיב] מה רבו מעשיך1 ה׳ כלם בחכמה עשית פי׳ שבחי׳ הרבוי שנעש׳ ע״י שבה״כ [שבירת הכלים] הנ״ל בנבראי׳ [בנבראים] שבבי״ע
Now, it is written, “How many are Your works, Havayah! You made them all with wisdom.” This means: the multiplicity that came about through the shattering of the vessels, as explained above, in the creatures of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah,
Psalm 104’s words “How many are Your works” are read as describing the multiplicity that came from the shattering, found in all the created beings of the three lower worlds.
ובפרט בעשי׳ [בעשיה] הרבוי והפירוד גדול יות׳ [יותר] שכל א׳ מובדל מחבירו ובבחי׳ יש ונפרד וזהו מה רבו מעשיך ה׳ כו׳.
and especially in Asiyah, where the multiplicity and separateness are greater, for each one is set apart from its fellow and is in a state of a separate something. This is “How many are Your works, Havayah,” etc.
Multiplicity is greatest in Asiyah, where every creature is separate from every other and feels itself an independent existence. That is the sense of “How many are Your works.”
The first half of the verse describes the multiplicity produced by the shattering; the next paragraph reads the second half as its repair.
TermsTohu and TikkunYetzirahYesh and ayinAsiyah+2
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Yesh and ayin יש ואין
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
Also Chochmah
Marei mekomos
- 1מה רבו מעשיך · Psalms 104:24
14וכולם בחכ׳ [בחכמה] עשית עשית הוא ל׳ [לשון] תיקון שע״י החכ׳ [החכמה] הם מתתקנים בבחי׳ עולם התיקון
“You made them all with wisdom”: “made” (עשית) is a term of rectification: through Chochmah they are rectified on the level of the World of Tikkun.
The word “made” (עשית) is read as meaning “rectified,” as in making something fit. Through Chochmah the fragments are brought into the World of Tikkun, the ordered world that follows Tohu.
דהיינו שע״י החכ׳ [החכמה] מגיע ונמשך בהם הביטול להיו׳ [להיות] בטלים ונכללים אליו ית׳ ולהיו׳ [ולהיות] מתחברין יחד עי״ז ולא יהיו מפורדים1 וזהו עבודת הישראל.2
That is, through Chochmah self-nullification reaches them and is drawn into them, so that they become nullified and included in Him, may He be blessed, and through this become joined together and are no longer separate. And this is the service of the Jewish people.
Chochmah is the level of self-nullification; when it reaches the fragments they set aside their separateness, become included in G‑d, and are joined to one another again. Bringing this about is the service of the Jewish people.
The second half of the verse describes the repair: Chochmah brings self-nullification into the fragments and so reunites them, and this is the Jewish people’s task.
In Chassidus, Chochmah is called koach mah, “the potential of what is,” a state of self-nullification. That is why it, and no other level, can undo the separateness of the broken vessels.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
Background from the Rebbe
In his general letter dated Friday 11 Nissan 5740, the eve of Shabbos HaGadol, continuing his Rosh Chodesh Nissan letter on that Pesach’s ‘good to Heaven and good to people’, the Rebbe explains one purpose of the world’s endless variety: kinds, species and details, no two people alike, every day with its own task.
One purpose of all the world’s variety, the Rebbe writes, is ‘to make’, which the Midrash reads as „לתקן” (‘to rectify’): a person is to learn from the differences around him how to improve them each day, by conduct according to the Creator’s will, and so bring tikkun to the whole creation, bringing out its inner unity and fulfilling the Creator’s intent of „דירה בתחתונים” (a dwelling below), which is „אחדות הפשוטה” (simple unity). His note to ‘the inner unity of the whole creation’ cites this column (27d), and the next note explains it: all were brought into being by Havayah, who is One, ‘as it says, „מה רבו מעשיך הוי׳” (How many are Your works, Havayah)’.
The Alter Rebbe
וכולם בחכ׳ עשית עשית הוא ל׳ תיקון שע״י החכ׳ הם מתתקנים בבחי׳ עולם התיקון
The Rebbe
אַרויסברענגענדיק די אינערלעכע אחדות פון דעם גאַנצן וועלט־באַשאַף און פאַרווירקלעכן די כוונה פון באַשעפער, לעשות לו ית׳ דירה בתחתונים, וועלכער איז אחדות הפשוטה
Likkutei Sichos, vol. יז, p. 445 (the letter begins on p. 444) · י״א ניסן, ערב שבת פ׳ צו, שבת הגדול, ה׳תש״מ
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
Marei mekomos
- 1שו״ה יחד — מפורדים · באוה״ת גוכתי״ק נוסף הגה״ה מכ״ק הצ״צ: (ועמש״ל פ׳ וישלח בענין יש לי רב ויש לי כו׳ ע״ש). וזהו.
- 2ולא יהיו נפרדים · באוה״ת גוכתי״ק שם נוסף: ועמש״ל פ׳ וישלח בענין יש לי רב ויש לי כל ע״ש. [כוונה לבוך הנ״ל — וחסר שם עד וישב].
15וזאת תורת האדם12 לברר בירורין ולהעלותן מבחי׳ הפירוד לאחדות ה׳ וזהו אתה אחד ושמך אחד ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ.3
“And this is the teaching of man”: to refine what must be refined and raise it from separateness to the oneness of G‑d. This is “You are One, and Your Name is One, and who is like Your people Israel, one nation in the land.”
The phrase “this is the teaching of man” is read as defining a person’s task: to refine the fragments and raise them from separateness to G‑d’s oneness. The Shabbos Minchah prayer, “You are One and Your Name is One, and who is like Your people Israel, one nation in the land,” is brought to show this.
פי׳ אתה היינו מהו״ע [מהותו ועצמותו] ית׳ שהוא יחיד ומיוחד ב״ה. ושמך הוא בחי׳ הזיו והאור המתפשט ממנו הנק׳ אא״ס [אור אין סוף] ב״ה הוא ג״כ אחד בתכלית.
The meaning: “You” is His Essence, may He be blessed, who is singular and unique, blessed be He. “Your Name” is the radiance and light that spreads forth from Him, called the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He; it too is utterly one.
“You” refers to G‑d’s own Essence, absolutely one. “Your Name” refers to the light and radiance that spreads from Him, the Infinite Light, which is also perfectly one.
The purpose of man is to bring separated fragments back into G‑d’s oneness, and the prayer “You are One” describes three levels of that oneness: His Essence, His light, and Israel.
A name is not the person himself but what allows others to relate to him; likewise “Your Name” is the light that goes out from G‑d, as distinct from “You,” His Essence.
TermsAchdus HashemZiv haShechinahBirur+1
- Achdus Hashem אחדות השם
- Ziv haShechinah זיו השכינה
- Birur בירור
Also Torah
Marei mekomos
- 1וזאת תורת האדם . . שיתעלו באחדות ה׳ · ראה תו״ח פרשתנו סו, א ואילך. לקו״ש ח״י ע׳ 119.
- 2וזאת תורת האדם · II Samuel 7:19
- 3ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ · I Chronicles 17:21
16ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ12 דהיינו שהם עושים בחי׳ אחד אפי׳ [אפילו] בארץ שעם היות שבארץ הוא הפירוד היותר גדול כנ״ל שעיקר הפירוד והרבוי הוא בעשיי׳ [בעשייה]
“And who is like Your people Israel, one nation in the land”: that is, they make oneness even in the land [below]. For although in the land [below] there is the greatest separateness, as explained above, since separateness and multiplicity are mainly in Asiyah,
“One nation in the land” is read as “those who make oneness in the land.” Asiyah, the physical world, is the place of the greatest separateness, and yet the Jewish people make oneness even there.
אעפ״כ [אף על פי כן] הישראל ע״י עבודתן ותורתן הם עושים שם ג״כ כח, אאחד שהם מעלים הנצוצים שנפלו שם בשבה״כ [בשבירת הכלים] שיתעלו באחדות ה׳:
nevertheless the Jewish people, through their service and their Torah, make oneness there too, for they raise the sparks that fell there in the shattering of the vessels so that they are elevated into the oneness of G‑d.
They do it through their divine service and Torah study, which raise the sparks that fell into this world in the shattering and bring them back into G‑d’s oneness.
Israel is “one in the land” because it creates oneness in the lowest and most divided world by raising its sparks.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
In an edited sicha of Shabbos Acharei 5719 on ‘I have found nothing better for the body than silence’ (Avos 1:17), explaining the Gemara’s „מה אומנותו של אדם בעולם” (‘What is a man’s craft in this world?) „ישים עצמו כאלם” (Let him make himself like a mute’), the Rebbe contrasts souls with the rest of creation.
All creatures come from G‑d’s speech, which is revelation to another, so they are created as an ‘other’, a separate something; souls come from His thought, which is for itself, so their essence is self-nullification, ‘one nation’. Creation is „ומשם יפרד” (‘from there it divides’), yet the purpose of the Jews is to reveal G‑dliness precisely in the world, „גוי אחד בארץ” (‘one nation in the land’): to bring the ‘One’, the nullification of thought, into the land, and his note cites this paragraph. That, he says, is the Gemara’s ‘make himself like a mute’: to reveal in the world not only the Ten Utterances, speech, which brings „ביטול היש” (bittul hayesh), but the silence of thought, „ביטול במציאות” (bittul bimetzius), ‘Echad’.
The Alter Rebbe
אעפ״כ הישראל ע״י עבודתן ותורתן הם עושים שם ג״כ אחד
The Rebbe
פונדעסטוועגן, איז דער תכלית פון אידן צו מגלה זיין אלקות דוקא אין וועלט — ”גוי אחד בארץ”, אויך אין ארץ, פועל׳ן דעם ”אחד”
Likkutei Sichos, vol. ד, p. 1188–1189 (note 74) · ש״פ אחרי, ה׳תשי״ט
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsAchdus HashemTohu and Tikkun
- Achdus Hashem אחדות השם
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
Marei mekomos
- 1ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ · דברי הימים-א יז, כא.
- 2ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ · I Chronicles 17:21
Binding sheaves: the first refinement ¶17–22
And this is “And behold, we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field.” For this was also the service of the tribes, Reuven and Shimon, etc.:
The opening verse is now explained: “we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field” describes the service of the tribes, Yosef’s brothers.
שהיו מבררים הנצוצין שנפלו בבחי׳ פירוד בשבה״כ [בשבירת הכלים] והיו מעלי׳ [מעליה] אותן בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] להתכלל במל׳ דאצי׳ ועי״ז היו מתחברים שם יחד והיו לאחדים שהרי נכללו באחדות ה׳ בבחי׳ מדת מלכותו ית׳.2
they would refine the sparks that fell into a state of separateness in the shattering of the vessels and raise them as mayin nukvin (feminine waters) to be included in Malchus of Atzilus. Through this they were joined together there and became one, since they were included in the oneness of G‑d, in the attribute of His sovereignty, may He be blessed.
The brothers refined sparks scattered by the shattering and raised them as mayin nukvin, the “feminine waters” that rise from below, into Malchus of Atzilus. There the sparks were joined together and became one, included in G‑d’s oneness in His attribute of sovereignty.
The brothers’ sheaf-binding is the service of refining scattered sparks and raising them up to Malchus of Atzilus as mayin nukvin.
Mayin nukvin (“feminine waters”) is the Kabbalistic term for the arousal rising from below, which calls forth a descent from above, mayin duchrin (“masculine waters”). Both terms play a central role in the rest of the maamar.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
In the same edited sicha of 5730, after explaining why Rashi on ‘binding sheaves’ first quotes Onkelos, ‘binding bundles’, and then adds ‘sheaves’, the Rebbe turns to the inner meaning of Rashi’s words.
The Rebbe quotes this paragraph’s reading, that the brothers refined scattered sparks and bound them into one „להתכלל במל׳ דאצי׳” (in Malchus of Atzilus), and draws a lesson from the plain sense of ‘in the field’: besides gathering the sparks scattered in one’s own life, a person is „לצאת (ממקום מושבו) לתוך השדה” (to go out from his place into the field) and „לקבץ הניצוצות המפוזרים בעולם” (gather the sparks scattered in the world), by bringing others back to G‑d’s service and the light of the inner Torah. Rashi’s ‘binding bundles’ teaches that the bond must be a lasting knot that the winds of the world cannot untie, and ‘sheaves’, grain that can be sown and bear fruit, that the other should in turn bring others near. Finally „ותשתחוינה לאלומתי” (‘your sheaves bowed to my sheaf’): the completion is to bring others to the bittul of Yosef, the leader of the generation.
The Alter Rebbe
שהיו מבררים הנצוצין שנפלו בבחי׳ פירוד בשבה״כ והיו מעלי׳ אותן בבחי׳ מ״ן להתכלל במל׳ דאצי׳
The Rebbe
על האדם לצאת (ממקום מושבו) לתוך השדה ולהתעסק שם בהעבודה ד״מאלמים אלומים” — לקבץ הניצוצות המפוזרים בעולם
Likkutei Sichos, vol. י, p. 119–121 · ש״פ וישב ונר ה׳ דחנוכה, ה׳תש״ל
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsAchdus HashemRapach nitzotzinMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinTohu and Tikkun+3
- Achdus Hashem אחדות השם
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Birur בירור
- Malchus מלכות
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה · Genesis 37:7
- 2וזהו . . עבודת השבטים · לקמן מה, ד. קיז, ג מציין לכאן.
18וזהו פי׳ מאלמים אלומים. עד״מ כמו שקושרין העמרים שמקבצין כמה שבולים רבים מאד ומחברין אותן וקושרין אותן באגודה אחת
And this is the meaning of “binding sheaves.” By way of analogy, it is like binding the sheaves: one gathers a great many stalks, joins them and binds them into a single bundle,
“Binding sheaves” is explained through the farmer’s work: gathering many loose stalks, joining them together, and tying them into one bundle.
וזהו הנק׳ אלומה כידוע והרי מתחלה היו השבולים מפורדים זמ״ז [זה מזה] וע״י קשירה זו היו לאחדים.
and this is what is called a sheaf, as is known. At first the stalks were separate from one another, and through this binding they became one.
That bundle is a sheaf. The stalks were separate at first, and binding makes them one.
כמו״כ [כמו כן] ממש הוא ענין הבירורים1 והעלאת הנצוצות הנ״ל כשמעלין אותן מטורי דפרודי להתכלל בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] באחדות ה׳ שנמצא נעשו ונכללו בבחי׳ אחד ממש ממה שהיו בתחלה בבחי׳ פירוד ורבוי כנ״ל.
Exactly so is the matter of the refinements and the raising of the sparks mentioned above: when they are raised from “the mountains of separation” to be included, as mayin nukvin, in the oneness of G‑d, it follows that they have become, and been included as, truly one, from what they were at first, in a state of separateness and multiplicity, as explained above.
Refining sparks works the same way. Sparks scattered in “the mountains of separation” (the Zohar’s term for the fragmented lower worlds) are raised as mayin nukvin into G‑d’s oneness, so what was many and scattered becomes truly one.
The image of a sheaf, many stalks bound into one, captures exactly what refining the sparks means: turning scattered multiplicity back into unity.
The notes quote a maamar of the Rebbe (Vayigash Elav Yehudah, 5736): the brothers’ refinement is from below upward, the refinement of the Name Ban, and achieves only the nullification of the ego. Hence a second refinement, from above downward, the refinement of the Name Mah, was needed through Yosef. This is developed later in the maamar.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
In the maamar „והי׳ באכלכם מלחם הארץ” (‘VeHayah ba’achalchem milechem ha’aretz’) of Shabbos Shelach 5722, on the mitzvah of challah, the Rebbe sets the labors that make bread into stages of a person’s service and reaches the binding of sheaves (also in Toras Menachem 5722 vol. 3 p. 71).
After the reaper, which he reads as the self-nullification of the Amidah, comes the binder of sheaves, ‘as is known regarding binding sheaves in the field’ („מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה”): gathering many stalks after the harvest into one bundle is the raising of the sparks, and alumim is also „מלשון אלם” (from illem), „שיש לו פה ושותק” (one who has a mouth and keeps silent), which is self-nullification; that is, „שגם לאחרי הביטול דשמו״ע צריך להיות ביטול נוסף” (even after the bittul of the Amidah a further bittul is needed). All this is the first refinement, which is not enough: then must come grinding and kneading, a change of essence, so that it can become food for man.
The Alter Rebbe
עד״מ כמו שקושרין העמרים שמקבצין כמה שבולים רבים מאד ומחברין אותן וקושרין אותן באגודה אחת
The Rebbe
ואלומים הוא גם מלשון אלם, שיש לו פה ושותק, שהו״ע הביטול, והיינו, שגם לאחרי הביטול דשמו״ע צריך להיות ביטול נוסף
Sefer HaMaamarim 5722 (new edition), p. רצז · ש״פ שלח, כ״ח סיון, מבה״ח תמוז, ה׳תשכ״ב
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsAchdus HashemRapach nitzotzinMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinBirur+1
- Achdus Hashem אחדות השם
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Birur בירור
Also Haalaah vehamshachah
Marei mekomos
- 1ענין הבירורים · ראה ביאוה״ז לכ״ק אדה״א ר״פ חקת. דרך מצותיך מצות איסור עבודת בעלי מומין. בד״ה ויגש אליו יהודה תשל״ו (נדפס בסה״מ מלוקט ח״ד ע׳ קיז) דכאן מבאר ”שהניצוצות שנתבררו ע״י השבטים הוצרכו להתברר בירור שני ע״י יוסף כי הבירור שע״י השבטים הוא בירור בדרך מלמטה למעלה (בירור דב״ן). דבירור זה הוא רק ביטול היש, ולכן הוצרכו להתברר בירור שני ע״י יוסף, בירור בדרך מלמעלה למטה (בירור דמ״ה). ועי״ז הם (הניצוצות) נכללים באלקות, ומבואר בתו״א [לקמן כח, ג] שכדי שתהי׳ המשכה דשם מ״ה, הוא ע״י העלאת מ״ן דשם ב״ן, וזהו מ״ש ותשתחוינה לאלומתי, העלאת מ״ן דהשבטים בבחי׳ ביטול (השתחואה), שעי״ז עוררו המשכת שם מ״ה להיות בירור שני” ע״ש בארוכה. ובסה״מ הקצרים: ”וזהו מאלמים אלומים כמו קיבוץ שבולת רבים לעשות מהם אגודה א׳ כו׳, והעלאת מ״ן של השבטים להעלות ליחודו ית׳ לא״ס ב״ה הוא צריך שיתעלו דרך מדרגת יוסף לפי שהן מעלמא דנוקבא ויוסף מעלמא דדכורא וד״ל”.
19וזהו מאלמים אלומים היינו העלאת הנצוצות בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] בתוך השדה הוא בחי׳ חקל תפוחין שהיא מל׳ דאצי׳ שלשם נכלל המ״ן [המיין נוקבין] כנודע.
And this is “binding sheaves,” namely the raising of the sparks as mayin nukvin, “in the midst of the field,” which is the level of “the field of apples,” which is Malchus of Atzilus, where the mayin nukvin is included, as is known.
“In the midst of the field” is the “field of apples,” the Zohar’s “field of holy apples,” a name for Malchus of Atzilus, which is where the rising mayin nukvin is gathered.
ועוד זאת מה שנק׳ העלאת מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] בלשון מאלמים אלומים. מלשון אלם שאינו יכול לדבר.
Furthermore: that the raising of mayin nukvin is called by the term “binding sheaves” (me’almim alumim) is from the term illem, a mute who cannot speak.
There is a second reason for the word me’almim: it echoes illem, a mute, one who cannot speak.
הואיל וענין העלאת מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] הוא בחי׳ בטול1 היש שנתבטל ממש להכלל בה׳ הרי אז הוא בבחי׳ אלם שאינו יכול לדבר ולהשפיע לזולתו שזהו בחי׳ יש.
Since the raising of mayin nukvin is the nullification of one’s sense of being something, becoming truly nullified so as to be included in G‑d, it is then in the state of a mute who cannot speak and give to another, [for giving to another] is the state of a something.
Raising mayin nukvin means giving up one’s sense of self to be included in G‑d. In that state one is like a mute, unable to speak or to give to others, since giving presupposes a self that has something to give.
וכיון שעיקר העלאה זו הוא בחי׳ הבטול ע״כ הוא הפוך ההשפעה ונק׳ אלם (וכענין איידי דטריד למיבלע2 כו׳ עמ״ש ע״פ התוספתא דבשלח3 )(ד׳ נ״א) בענין אגלידו מיא כו׳
And since the essence of this raising is self-nullification, it is therefore the opposite of giving [to others], and it is called “mute.” (This is like the idea “since he is busy swallowing,” etc.; see what is explained on the Tosefta in Beshalach (p. 51) on the matter of “the waters froze,” etc.
Ascent in self-nullification is the opposite of giving outward, so it is called “mute.” The parenthesis compares the Talmudic principle that something busy swallowing does not expel, and points to another discussion, on the Zohar’s Tosefta in Beshalach, about waters that froze.
ועמ״ש בטעם שהמסעות4 היו מ״ב וסה״ע [וספירת העומר] הוא מ״ט ימים כי בסה״ע [בספירת העומר] שהוא המשכות יש בכל מדה בחי׳ גילוי מל׳ דחסד כו׳ משא״כ במסעות העלאות הפוך הגילוי כו׳ ע״ש.
And see what is explained on the reason that the journeys were forty-two while the Counting of the Omer is forty-nine days: for in the Counting of the Omer, which consists of drawings-down, in each attribute there is the level of revelation, Malchus of Chesed, etc., whereas the journeys are ascents, the opposite of revelation, etc.; see there.)
The parenthesis also refers to an explanation of why the Israelites’ journeys numbered 42 while the Omer counts 49 days. The Omer is a drawing down, so each of its attributes includes revelation, while the journeys were ascents, the opposite of revelation.
כי הנה הדבור שבאדם אינו צריך לו רק בשביל לדבר לזולתו אבל כשהוא בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] א״צ [אין צריך / אינו צריך] לדבר.
For speech in a person is needed only in order to speak to another; but when he is by himself, he does not need to speak.
The analogy from human speech: a person needs to speak only to communicate with someone else. Alone, he has no need to speak.
וכך יובן למעלה בנמצאים הרוחניים ענין בחי׳ הדבור שבהם (כמו שמצינו בגמ׳ [בגמרא] שתי רוחות מספרות5 כו׳) הוא בחי׳ כח ההשפעה לזולתו מעילה לעלול
And so it will be understood above, in spiritual beings, that the level of speech in them (as we find in the Gemara, “two spirits were conversing,” etc.) is the power to give to another, from cause to effect.
The same holds for spiritual beings, which the Talmud says can speak to one another (in the story of two spirits conversing): in them, “speech” is the power to give to what is below, from cause to effect.
וזהו כשהעילה הוא מהות בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] אז יכול להשפיע להעלול שלו
And this is [possible] when the cause is an entity in its own right: then it can give to its effect.
A cause can give to its effect only when it stands as an entity in its own right.
אבל בהיותו דבוק בעילתו וטרוד לקבל שפע לעצמו אז הוא בבחי׳ בטול לעילתו ואין בו כח להשפיע לזולתו מצד עוצם ביטולו כו׳.
But when it is attached to its own cause and occupied with receiving flow for itself, it is then in a state of self-nullification to its cause, and it has no power to give to another because of the intensity of its self-nullification, etc.
When it is clinging to its own source and absorbed in receiving from it, it is nullified to that source, and its very self-nullification leaves it no power to give to anything below.
Sheaf-binding (me’almim) also means being mute (illem): a spark rising in total self-nullification cannot “speak,” that is, give to others, just as a being clinging to its source has no strength to flow outward.
The principle “since it is busy swallowing, it does not expel” (Chullin 108b) describes a thing absorbed in taking in, which therefore gives nothing out. The Alter Rebbe uses it to explain the “muteness” of what rises in self-nullification.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
A question the Rebbe raises
In the maamar Padah VeShalom of 19 Kislev 5735, explaining how Yosef’s dreams „פתרון החלום דזמן הגלות לטוב” (‘interpret the dream of the exile for good’), the Rebbe retells this maamar’s account of the shattering and of binding sheaves (also in Sefer HaMaamarim 5734–5735, old edition, p. 278).
The Rebbe adds two things to binding sheaves. To join one stalk to another one must first change each stalk, changing the nature it had before the work began. And „בתוך השדה” (‘in the midst of the field’): outwardly it is a field, but by binding sheaves in it, the whole service of fulfilling His will through Torah and mitzvos, one makes it recognizable there that this is „שדה אשר ברכו הוי׳” (‘the field which Havayah blessed’), as Yitzchak called the Temple a field, making the world a dwelling for G‑d. Our paragraph reads ‘in the midst of the field’ as „חקל תפוחין שהיא מל׳ דאצי׳” (the ‘field of apples’, Malchus of Atzilus), where the mayin nukvin are included.
The Alter Rebbe
בתוך השדה הוא בחי׳ חקל תפוחין שהיא מל׳ דאצי׳ שלשם נכלל המ״ן כנודע
The Rebbe
שבחיצוניות הרי זה ענין של שדה, אבל עי״ז שמאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה … אזי פועלים שיהי׳ ניכר בשדה שזהו שדה אשר ברכו הוי׳
Toras Menachem – Sefer HaMaamarim, Parshiyos uMoadim: 19 Kislev, p. רפט–רצ · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשל״ה
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsShem Mem-BeisIlah ve’alulBittul hayeshRapach nitzotzin+11
- Shem Mem-Beis שם מ״ב
- Ilah ve’alul עילה ועלול
- Bittul hayesh ביטול היש
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Deveikus דביקות
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Sefiros ספירות
- Yesh and ayin יש ואין
- Dibbur elyon דבור עליון
- Chesed חסד
- Malchus מלכות
- Hiskallelus התכללות
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1מאלמים אלומים מלשון אלם . . בחי׳ בטול · בסה״מ תרכ״ז (הוצאת תש״ס) ע׳ ב. המשך תער״ב ח״ב ע׳ א׳סז. סה״מ תרכ״ז ע׳ צד מביא קטע מכאן. ומציין לכאן.
- 2איידי דטריד למיבלע · Chullin 108b
- 3ועמ״ש ע״פ התוספתא דבשלח · ביאוה״ז לכ״ק אדה״א מד, א ואילך.
- 4ועמ״ש בטעם שהמסעות היו מ״ב · לקו״ת מסעי פט, ד.
- 5שתי רוחות מספרות · Berakhot 18b:7–8
20ובחי׳ בטול זה שדבוק בעילתו הוא עד״מ העובר כשהוא בבטן אמו שאינו מהות בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] רק אוכל ממה שאמו אוכלת1 כו׳2 אלא לאחר הלידה נעשה יש בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] עד שיכול אח״כ לדבר לזולתו כו׳.
And this self-nullification, of being attached to its cause, is by way of analogy like the fetus while it is in its mother’s womb: it is not an entity in its own right, but “eats what its mother eats,” etc. Only after birth does it become a something in its own right, until afterwards it can speak to another, etc.
The self-nullification of a being clinging to its source is compared to a fetus: in the womb it has no independent existence and “eats what its mother eats,” as the Talmud says. Only after birth does it become its own self, and later it learns to speak to others.
The fetus is the analogy for self-nullification: bound up in its source, without separate existence, and without speech until it is born.
Marei mekomos
- 1רק אוכל ממה שאמו אוכלת · Niddah 30b:18
- 2שו״ה אוכלות כו׳ · באוה״ת מגוכתי״ק הצ״צ נוסף: ואינו מהות בפ״ע.
21ועד״ז יובן בענין הבירורי׳ [הבירורים / הבירורין] שעולים בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] ונכללים בבחי׳ עבור ביסוד דנוק׳ [דנוקבא]
The fetus analogy is now applied to the refined sparks. When they rise as mayin nukvin they enter a state the Kabbalah calls “gestation” (ibbur) within the Yesod of Nukva, the receiving configuration of Malchus.
דהיינו שמתחלה היו בבחי׳ יש ודבר בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] והי׳ [והיה] יכול להשפיע לזולתו אבל כשנכלל בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] שהוא בחי׳ בטול לאוא״ס [לאור אין סוף] ב״ה ודבוק בו בתכלית ה״ז [הרי זה] בחי׳ עבור שאז אינו מהות בפ״ע [בפני עצמו] רק אוכל ממה שאמו אוכלת1
That is: at first they were in the state of something, an entity in its own right, and could give to another; but when it is included as mayin nukvin, which is the state of self-nullification to the Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof), blessed be He, and is utterly attached to Him, this is the state of gestation, when it is not an entity in its own right but only “eats what its mother eats.”
Before rising, each was an independent “something” able to give to others. Once it is included as mayin nukvin it is wholly nullified and attached to the Infinite Light: that is gestation, in which, like a fetus that only “eats what its mother eats,” it no longer exists as an entity of its own.
ולפיכך נק׳ אז אלומים מלשון אלמים שאינו יכול לדבר ולהשפיע לזולתו מצד עוצם הביטול כמשל העובר כו׳
Therefore they are then called alumim (sheaves), from the term illemim (mutes), who cannot speak and give to another because of the intensity of the self-nullification, as in the analogy of the fetus, etc.;
That is why the sparks are called alumim (sheaves), from illemim (mutes): their self-nullification is so complete that they cannot “speak,” that is, give to others.
משא״כ קודם העלאה זו ועבור זה הי׳ [היה] בבחי׳ יש לדבר ולהשפיע כו׳ אלא שע״י העלאה זו נעשה בחי׳ אלמים.
whereas before this raising and this gestation it was in the state of something, able to speak and give, etc. But through this raising it became the state of illemim (mutes).
Before this ascent they could give; it is the ascent itself that makes them “mute.”
The rising sparks are like a fetus in the womb: absorbed in their source, with no independent existence and no power to give, and that is why they are called “mute” sheaves.
TermsIbbur and leidahYesodDeveikusMayin nukvin and mayin duchrin+6
- Ibbur and leidah עיבור ולידה explained hereThe refined sparks rising as mayin nukvin are included in ibbur in the Yesod of Nukva: before, they were an entity able to give to another; now, in utter bittul, they are not an entity of their own and are “mute,” unable to give. The next paragraph adds a second ibbur after birth, a return to bittul in order to receive mochin degadlus.
כשנכלל בבחי׳ מ״ן שהוא בחי׳ בטול לאוא״ס ב״ה ודבוק בו בתכלית ה״ז בחי׳ עבור שאז אינו מהות בפ״ע רק אוכל ממה שאמו אוכלת
- Yesod יסוד
- Deveikus דביקות
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Birur בירור
- Yesh and ayin יש ואין
- Hiskallelus התכללות
Marei mekomos
- 1רק אוכל ממה שאמו אוכלת · Niddah 30b:18
22ועד״ז יובן שיש ג״כ עבור שני לאחר הלידה כמ״ש בע״ח [בעץ חיים]1 והיינו בשביל המשכת מוחין דגדלות צריך לבא מתחלה בבחי׳ הבטול בתכלית וזהו העבור שני
In the same way it will be understood that there is also a second gestation after birth, as is written in Etz Chaim. That is: in order to draw down the mature intellect (mochin degadlus), one must first come into the state of utter self-nullification. This is the second gestation:
The Kabbalah (Etz Chaim, Sha’ar HaIbbur, chapter 1, as the Kehot note points out) speaks of a second gestation after birth: before a higher, mature intellect (mochin degadlus) can be received, one must first return to total self-nullification.
דהיינו שלאחר שהיו לו מוחין והי׳ [והיה] יכול להשפיע לזולתו. עתה מתכלל בבחי׳ עבור בתכלית הבטול (ונעשה בחי׳ אלם כנ״ל) כדי שע״י בטול זה יומשך לו אח״כ מוחין דגדלות מא״ס ב״ה.
that is, after he already had intellect and could give to another, he is now included in the state of gestation, in utter self-nullification (and becomes mute, as explained above), so that through this self-nullification mature intellect may afterwards be drawn to him from the Infinite One, blessed be He.
One who already has intellect and can give to others now enters gestation again, in utter self-nullification, and becomes “mute” once more; this is what allows mature intellect to be drawn to him from the Infinite One.
והנה כ״ז [כל זה] הי׳ [היה] עבודת השבטי׳ [השבטים] שהן בעולם הבריאה (לבד מיוסף שהוא מאצי׳ כדלקמן אי״ה [אם ירצה השם]) והם מרכבה לבחי׳ מל׳ דאצי׳
Now, all this was the service of the tribes, who are in the World of Beriah (apart from Yosef, who is from Atzilus, as will be explained below, G‑d willing), and they are a chariot for Malchus of Atzilus.
The raising of mayin nukvin described so far was the service of the tribes, whose souls are in Beriah and serve as a “chariot” (a vehicle wholly subordinate to what rides on it) for Malchus of Atzilus. Yosef is the exception: his root is in Atzilus, as the maamar will explain.
¶35 Why Yosef is from Atzilus: paragraph 35 explains it.
והוא כענין י״ב בקר שהיו בים של שלמה2 שהן י״ב בחי׳ שבראש הבריאה והים עומד עליהם הוא בחי׳ מל׳ דאצי׳.
This is like the twelve oxen in Shlomo’s Sea: they are the twelve levels at the head of Beriah, and the Sea standing on them is the level of Malchus of Atzilus.
Shlomo’s great basin, “the Sea,” stood on twelve oxen. The oxen are the twelve levels at the head of Beriah (the tribes), and the Sea resting on them is Malchus of Atzilus.
ולזאת עיקר עבודתם והעלאת מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] מהבירורים שביררו בבי״ע היה מגיע עד המל׳ דאצי׳ ולשם הי׳ [היה] נכלל בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין].3
Therefore the essence of their service, and the raising of mayin nukvin from the refinements they refined in Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, reached as far as Malchus of Atzilus, and there it was included as mayin nukvin.
That is why the tribes’ service of raising the refined sparks from the three lower worlds reached as far as Malchus of Atzilus, and no higher; there the sparks were absorbed as mayin nukvin.
The paragraph identifies the brothers’ sheaf-binding as the service of the tribes, who are in Beriah, reaching up to Malchus of Atzilus, prepared for by a “second gestation” of self-nullification.
The idea of a second gestation teaches that every real growth to a higher level requires a return to self-nullification first, even after one has already become a “giver.”
TermsIbbur and leidahKatnus and gadlusMerkavahMayin nukvin and mayin duchrin+11
- Ibbur and leidah עיבור ולידה explained hereThere is a second ibbur after birth: to draw mochin of gadlus from Ein Sof, one who already had mochin re-enters utter nullification, falling mute; this was the tribes’ service.
בשביל המשכת מוחין דגדלות צריך לבא מתחלה בבחי׳ הבטול בתכלית וזהו העבור שני
- Katnus and gadlus קטנות וגדלות
- Merkavah מרכבה
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Birur בירור
- Mochin מוחין
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Ein Sof אין סוף
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
- Malchus מלכות
- Hiskallelus התכללות
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1עבור שני לאחר הלידה כמ״ש בע״ח · שער העיבור פ״א.
- 2כענין י״ב בקר שהיו בים של שלמה · ראה לקמן קג, א.
- 3שו״ה לו — מא״ס ב״ה · באוה״ת שם נוסף: (וגם דמיון לבחי׳ אלמים הנ״ל הוא מ״ש במ״א בענין שהי׳ משה כבד פה לפי שהי׳ בבחי׳ ביטול ונחנו מ״ה לא יכול להיו׳ יש להשפיע וכעין זה ה״ע בקושי התירו לדבר דברי תורה בשבת מצד הביטול שלמעלה מהשפעה).
The second refinement from above ¶23–27
23וזהו מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה כנ״ל. אמנם ידוע שהמ״ן [שהמיין נוקבין] אע״פ [אף על פי] שכבר נכלל כח, בבבחי׳ מל׳ עדיין הוא צריך בירור שני ע״י המ״ד [המיין דוכרין].
And this is “binding sheaves in the midst of the field,” as explained above. However, it is known that the mayin nukvin, although it has already been included in Malchus, still needs a second refinement through the mayin duchrin (masculine waters).
The opening verse is recalled. But the mayin nukvin that has reached Malchus still needs a second refinement, which comes from above, through the mayin duchrin (“masculine waters”), the flow from above that answers the arousal from below.
והוא שנמשך מ״ד [מיין דוכרין] דז״א לברר המ״ן [המיין נוקבין] דנוק׳ [דנוקבא] וזהו ענין יחוד זו״נ [זעיר אנפין ונוקבא].
That is, the mayin duchrin of Z’eir Anpin is drawn down to refine the mayin nukvin of Nukva, and this is the union of Z’eir Anpin and Nukva.
The mayin duchrin of Z’eir Anpin comes down to refine the mayin nukvin of Nukva; this is the union of Z’eir Anpin and Nukva, the masculine and feminine configurations of Atzilus.
והענין כי אע״פ [אף על פי] שנתבררו הנצוצות ונכללו בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] שהוא בחי׳ בטול לאלקות כנ״ל עכ״ז [עם כל זה] א״א להם להתייחד ממש באלקותו ית׳ (כמו שהיו קודם שבה״כ [שבירת הכלים] שהיו בחי׳ אלקות ממש מי״ס [מי׳ ספירות] דתהו) עד שיומשך עליהם גילוי שם מ״ה [שם מ״ה] דאצי׳ ועי״ז יתבררו בירור שני והוא העיקר.
The explanation: although the sparks have been refined and included as mayin nukvin, which is self-nullification to G‑dliness, as explained above, they nevertheless cannot truly become one with His G‑dliness (as they were before the shattering of the vessels, when they were actual G‑dliness, from the ten Sefiros of Tohu) until the revelation of the Name Mah of Atzilus is drawn down upon them; through this they are refined with a second refinement, and this is the main one.
However nullified they are, the sparks cannot yet truly unite with G‑dliness as they were before the shattering, when they were part of the ten Sefiros of Tohu and actual G‑dliness. For that they need the revelation of the Name Mah of Atzilus, the principle of Tikkun, to be drawn upon them; that second refinement is the essential one.
יען בחכ׳ [בחכמה] דוקא אתברירו1 שהוא בחינת המ״ד [המיין דוכרין] כי הבירור הראשון הי׳ [היה] רק שיהי׳ [שיהיה] בהם בחי׳ בטול היש
For “they are refined specifically through Chochmah,” which is the level of the mayin duchrin; for the first refinement was only that they should have in them the nullification of their sense of being something,
The saying “through Chochmah they are refined,” stressed here as “specifically,” shows that the decisive refinement comes through Chochmah, the level of the mayin duchrin. The first refinement achieved only the nullification of their sense of self.
וזהו רחוק עדיין מאלהות מאד דאיהו וגרמוהי חד שהם בבחי׳ בטול אמיתי אלא ע״י שנמשך בהן בחי׳ מ״ד [מיין דוכרין] שהוא הארת שם מ״ה [שם מ״ה] לבררם אז נכללו בבטול אמיתי באלקו׳.
and this is still very far from G‑dliness, where “He and His vessels are one,” being in true self-nullification. Only when the mayin duchrin, which is the illumination of the Name Mah, is drawn into them to refine them are they included in true self-nullification in G‑dliness.
Self-nullification of that kind is still very far from Atzilus, where “He and His vessels are one” in true nullification. Only when the light of the Name Mah comes into them are they included in true nullification within G‑dliness.
The paragraph introduces the second refinement: after the sparks rise from below, a flow from above (the Name Mah, Chochmah) must refine them again so that they become actually one with G‑d.
In the Arizal’s system the Name Ban (52) stands for the broken world of Tohu and the receiving side, and the Name Mah (45) for the new light of Tikkun that repairs it. The maamar maps these onto mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin, the first and second refinements.
TermsMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinBirurBechochmah isbreruBittul hayesh+13
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד) explained hereThe raised sparks, though already included in Malchus, need a second refinement by the mayin duchrin of Z’eir Anpin, and this is the union of Z’eir Anpin and Nukva. The first refinement gives only bittul hayesh; only the light of the Name Mah of Atzilus brings them to true bittul in G‑dliness.
שהמ״ן אע״פ שכבר נכלל בבחי׳ מל׳ עדיין הוא צריך בירור שני ע״י המ״ד
- Birur בירור explained hereThere are two birurim. The first gathers the sparks as mayin nukvin into Malchus, bringing them only to bittul hayesh; the second, the main one, is by the mayin duchrin of Zeir Anpin, the light of the Name Mah, which brings them into true bittul (see bittul-hayesh).
כי הבירור הראשון הי׳ רק שיהי׳ בהם בחי׳ בטול היש וזהו רחוק עדיין מאלהות מאד
- Bechochmah isbreru בחכמה אתברירו
- Bittul hayesh ביטול היש
- Ihu vegarmohi איהו וגרמוהי חד
- Rapach nitzotzin רפ״ח ניצוצין
- Nukva נוקבא
- Richuk makom ריחוק מקום
- Mah and Ban מ״ה וב״ן
- Sefiros ספירות
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Yichud יחוד
- Z’eir Anpin זעיר אנפין
- Hiskallelus התכללות
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1בחכמה דוקא אתברירו · נסמן לעיל טז, ד.
24וכמשל באדם שמברר בירורים ע״י שאוכל ושותה ואח״כ מתפלל באהוי״ר [באהבה ויראה] ע״י כח זה שאכל ושתה שנמצא נכללו החיות של המאכלים והמשקים שנפלו בשבה״כ [בשבירת הכלים] בבחי׳ האוי״ר [האהבה ויראה] שלו
It is like a person who refines refinements by eating and drinking and afterwards prays with love and awe through the strength of what he ate and drank, so that the life-force of the food and drink, which fell in the shattering of the vessels, is included in his love and awe.
The two refinements have a parallel in a person’s service. When someone eats and drinks and then prays with love and awe through the strength the food gave him, the life-force in the food (which fell in the shattering) is included in his love and awe.
ועכ״ז [ועם כל זה] הוא עדיין רחוק ממהו׳ אחד האמת אלא כשע״י העלאת מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] דאוי״ר [דאהבה ויראה] שלו נמשכו לו דו״ר [דחילו ורחימו] מלמעלה מאת ה׳ שתפול עליו אימה כו׳ אז יוכללו באוי״ר [באהבה ויראה] זו שנמשכי׳ [שנמשכים / שנמשכין] מלמעלה מבחי׳ אלקות ממש ועד״ז הוא בירור שני דמ״ד [דמיין דוכרין].
Nevertheless, this is still far from the essence of the true One, until, through the raising of the mayin nukvin of his love and awe, love and awe are drawn down to him from above, from G‑d, so that “dread falls upon him,” etc. Then they are included in this love and awe that is drawn from above, from actual G‑dliness. In the same way is the second refinement of the mayin duchrin.
Yet this love and awe of a created being is still far from the true One. Only when his own love and awe rise as mayin nukvin and a love and awe from above, from G‑d, are drawn down on him, the “dread” that falls upon a person, are the refined sparks included in a love and awe that are actual G‑dliness; this is the second refinement, through mayin duchrin.
Eating and then praying refines the food’s sparks into human love and awe (the first refinement); G‑d-given love and awe from above complete the refinement (the second).
TermsAhavah v’yirahRichuk makomMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinTohu and Tikkun+3
- Ahavah v’yirah אהבה ויראה
- Richuk makom ריחוק מקום
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Tohu and Tikkun תהו ותקון
- Birur בירור
25ואפי׳ [ואפילו] ר״ע [רבי עקיבא] שיצתה נשמתו באחד1 עכ״ז [עם כל זה] הרי מס״נ [מסירות נפש] של הנברא רחוק עדיין מאלקות אלא שנמשך עליו הארה מבחי׳ אחד האמת ואז נכלל מס״נ [מסירות נפש] שלו בבחי׳ אחד ממש.
Even with Rabbi Akiva, whose soul departed with “One,” nevertheless the self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh) of a created being is still far from G‑dliness, except that an illumination from the level of the true One was drawn upon him, and then his self-sacrifice was included in the level of actual oneness.
Even Rabbi Akiva, who gave his life with the word “One” of the Shema on his lips, was a created being, and a created being’s self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh) is still far from G‑dliness. It became included in real oneness only because light from the true One was drawn upon him.
וזהו ענין למהוי אב״א [אחד באחד]2 שבחי׳ א׳ דיחו״ת [דיחודא תתאה] בטול היש נכלל ביחו״ע [ביחודא עילאה] בטול אמיתי כו׳.
This is the meaning of “to be one with the One”: the “one” of the lower unity (yichuda tata’ah), the nullification of one’s sense of being something, is included in the higher unity (yichuda ila’ah), true self-nullification, etc.
The Zohar’s phrase “to be one with the One” describes this: the “one” of the lower unity (the created being’s nullification of self) is included in the higher unity (true nullification, where nothing exists besides G‑d).
Even the highest human self-sacrifice is the “lower” oneness; it becomes true oneness only when a light from above includes it in the “higher” oneness.
Explained elsewhere AI research
Explained by the Tzemach Tzedek
"למהוי אחד באחד" (Zohar II 135a, the Kegavna passage): our commentary renders it ‘to be one with the One’ and explains lower and higher unity, but the reader is not told that the Zohar’s same passage sets this against a lower „חד לקבל חד” (‘chad l’kavel chad’, ‘one opposite One’), which is what makes it map onto the two refinements.
In his Biurei HaZohar on the Kegavna passage (Zohar II 135a), the Tzemach Tzedek explains its two unions by this maamar.
The phrase comes from the Zohar’s Kegavna passage, which speaks of two unions: Malchus below is united ‘in the mystery of One’, standing ‘one opposite One’ (chad l’kavel chad), until she becomes ‘one in One’ (lemehevei echad b’echad). The Tzemach Tzedek, citing this maamar, reads the first as the brothers’ refinement, the mayin nukvin raised into Malchus („מאלמים אלמים”, ‘we were binding sheaves’), and the second as Yosef’s, the mayin duchrin of Mah refining it („קמה אלומתי”, ‘my sheaf arose’); in service, a person’s own love and awe, and the love and awe from above that rest on them, as ¶24 describes.
the Tzemach Tzedek: Biurei HaZohar, vol. ב, p. תתז–תתח
ובחי׳ הא׳ זהו״ע חד לקבל חד, ובחי׳ הב׳ זהו״ע למהוי אחד באחד וכמש״ש בד״ה והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים
Where the maamar leaves something unexplained, found by AI in the library and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail.
TermsYichuda tata’ahYichuda ila’ahBittul hayeshRichuk makom+5
- Yichuda tata’ah יחודא תתאה
- Yichuda ila’ah יחודא עילאה
- Bittul hayesh ביטול היש
- Richuk makom ריחוק מקום
- Panim and achor פנים ואחור
- Mesirus nefesh מסירות נפש
- Hiskallelus התכללות
Marei mekomos
- 1ר״ע שיצתה נשמתו באחד · Berakhot 61b:9
- 2למהוי אב״א · Zohar II, 135a
26ובחי׳ מ״ד [מיין דוכרין] זה הנמשך לברר המ״ן [המיין נוקבין] דנוק׳ [דנוקבא] זהו מדרגת יוסף הצדיק שהוא בחי׳ ונהר יצא מעדן להשקות את הגן1 שהגן הוא בחי׳ מל׳ ועד שם נמשך בחי׳ נהר הנביעה מאא״ס [מאור אין סוף] ב״ה
And this level of mayin duchrin that is drawn down to refine the mayin nukvin of Nukva is the level of Yosef the tzaddik, who is the level of “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.” The garden is the level of Malchus, and the flowing river from the Infinite Light, blessed be He, is drawn as far as there;
This descending mayin duchrin is the level of Yosef the tzaddik, who corresponds to “a river went out of Eden to water the garden.” The garden is Malchus of Atzilus, and the river, a flow from the Infinite Light, reaches as far as the garden.
והוא בחי׳ הארת הקו״ח [הקו וחוט] ושם מסתיים ואינו נמשך בבי״ע לכך הם עלמא דפרודא ומשם יפרד כו׳.
it is the illumination of the kav and the thread (chut), and there it ends and is not drawn into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. That is why they are a world of separation, and “from there it divides,” etc.
This flow is the illumination of the kav and chut, the “line and thread” of light drawn from the Infinite Light. It ends at Malchus of Atzilus and does not flow on into the three lower worlds, which is why those are “a world of separation,” as in “from there it divides.”
אלא שיוסף הוא צדיק שמקשר וממשיך הארת אא״ס [אור אין סוף] בבי״ע והיינו ע״י שהנבראים נכללים בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] בהמל׳ דאצי׳ כנ״ל ויוסף ממשיך הארת אא״ס [אור אין סוף] ב״ה במל׳ לברר את המ״ן [המיין נוקבין] בירור שני שיהיו נכללים באלקותו ממש כנ״ל
But Yosef is a tzaddik who connects and draws the illumination of the Infinite Light into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. That is: the created beings are included as mayin nukvin in Malchus of Atzilus, as explained above, and Yosef draws the illumination of the Infinite Light, blessed be He, into Malchus to refine the mayin nukvin with a second refinement, so that they are included in His actual G‑dliness, as explained above.
Yosef, however, is the tzaddik who connects the worlds and draws the Infinite Light down even into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah. He does this through the created beings included as mayin nukvin in Malchus of Atzilus: Yosef draws the light into Malchus to refine them a second time, so that they become included in actual G‑dliness.
והארה זו היא בחי׳ הארת הקו וחוט דאא״ס [דאור אין סוף] וזהו בחי׳ ונהר יצא להשקות כו׳ כנ״ל.
This illumination is the illumination of the kav and thread of the Infinite Light, and this is “And a river went out to water,” etc., as explained above.
That light is the kav and chut, the “line and thread” of the Infinite Light, the river that goes out to water the garden.
Yosef is the channel of the “river of Eden,” the Infinite Light that normally stops at Malchus of Atzilus; through him it reaches the sparks raised from below and completes their refinement.
Yosef is identified in the Kabbalah with Yesod, the Sefirah that connects the higher Sefiros to Malchus; that is why he is the one who “waters the garden.”
TermsAlma deperudaKavMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinTzaddik+7
- Alma deperuda עלמא דפרודא
- Kav קו
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Tzaddik צדיק
- Birur בירור
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
- Malchus מלכות
- Hiskallelus התכללות
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1ונהר יצא מעדן להשקות את הגן · Genesis 2:10
27ונמצא מדרגת הבירור דיוסף הוא למעלה מעלה מהבירור של השבטים שבירור של השבטים הוא שמעלים מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] במל׳ דאצי׳ ועדיין לא נהפך לאלהות ממש עד שיוסף ממשיך המ״ד [המיין דוכרין]
It follows that the level of Yosef’s refinement is far higher than the refinement of the tribes. For the refinement of the tribes is that they raise mayin nukvin into Malchus of Atzilus, and it has not yet been transformed into actual G‑dliness until Yosef draws down the mayin duchrin,
Yosef’s refinement is therefore far higher than the tribes’. They raise mayin nukvin to Malchus of Atzilus, but what they raise is not yet transformed into actual G‑dliness until Yosef draws down the mayin duchrin.
שהוא הארת אא״ס [אור אין סוף] שמלובש בחכמה שזהו ונהר יצא מעדן כו׳ ובחכמה אתברירו בירור ב׳ ואזי נכלל המ״ן [המיין נוקבין] באלקות ממש שהיא התכללות יחו״ת [יחודא תתאה] ביחו״ע [ביחודא עילאה] כנ״ל.
which is the illumination of the Infinite Light enclothed in Chochmah; this is “And a river went out of Eden,” etc. “Through Chochmah they are refined” with the second refinement, and then the mayin nukvin is included in actual G‑dliness, which is the inclusion of the lower unity in the higher unity, as explained above.
The mayin duchrin is the Infinite Light clothed in Chochmah, the “river from Eden.” Through Chochmah the second refinement takes place, and the mayin nukvin is included in actual G‑dliness: the lower unity is absorbed into the higher unity.
This paragraph concludes the comparison: the tribes’ refinement brings the sparks up, and Yosef’s brings G‑dliness down into them and completes their unity with G‑d.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
In the edited maamar ‘Lehavin inyan Pesach Sheni’ (Motzaei Shabbos Emor, eve of Pesach Sheni 5738), the Rebbe sets out the Tzemach Tzedek’s maamar on Pesach Sheni (Or HaTorah Bamidbar p. 367 ff.) and its three introductions, and names this maamar for the second.
The Tzemach Tzedek’s maamar sets Nissan against Iyar: Nissan, the exodus, is iskafya („אתכפיא”), subduing evil, and Malchus, the first Sefirah from below; Iyar, the Omer, is is’hapcha („אתהפכא”), transforming the emotions, and Yesod, the second. That maamar explains, the Rebbe writes, that the two belong together, as this maamar of Torah Ohr explains: the refinement by the tribes, a chariot for Malchus, is „בירור ראשון” (the first refinement), only „ביטול היש” (bittul hayesh), like iskafya; the refinement by Yosef the tzaddik, the level of Yesod, is the second, being included in G‑dliness, bittul bimetzius, like is’hapcha. His note finds the pairing in the Alter Rebbe’s own Sefer HaMaamarim 5565: mayin nukvin, the first refinement, is iskafya, and through the drawing down of mayin duchrin, the second, is’hapcha comes about.
The Alter Rebbe
שבירור של השבטים הוא שמעלים מ״ן במל׳ דאצי׳ ועדיין לא נהפך לאלהות ממש
The Rebbe
דהבירור שע״י השבטים (שהיו מרכבה לבחינת המלכות), בירור ראשון, הוא רק ביטול היש (דוגמת אתכפיא), והבירור שע״י יוסף הצדיק, בחינת יסוד, בירור שני
Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat, vol. ג, p. קמג · מוצאי ש״ק פ׳ אמור, י״ג אייר, אור לי״ד אייר, פסח שני, ה׳תשל״ח
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsBechochmah isbreruYichuda tata’ahYichuda ila’ahMayin nukvin and mayin duchrin+6
- Bechochmah isbreru בחכמה אתברירו
- Yichuda tata’ah יחודא תתאה
- Yichuda ila’ah יחודא עילאה
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Birur בירור
- Malchus מלכות
- Hiskallelus התכללות
- Atzilus אצילות
Also HislabshusChochmah
The sheaves bow ¶28–33
28והיינו מ״ש והנה אנחנו מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה שהוא הבירורים מבי״ע להעלותן בבחי׳ מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] במל׳ כנ״ל.
This is what is written, “And behold, we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field”: these are the refinements from Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, to raise them as mayin nukvin into Malchus, as explained above.
The dream’s first image, “we were binding sheaves in the midst of the field,” is the first refinement: the brothers raise the sparks from the lower worlds as mayin nukvin into Malchus.
ויוסף עצמו בירר בירור זה הראשון ג״כ אף ששרשו משם מ״ה [שם מ״ה] דאצי׳ שהוא בחי׳ המ״ד [המיין דוכרין]1 אעפ״כ [אף על פי כן] מאחר שנתלבש למטה בגוף היה צריך לברר בירור זה התחתון ג״כ כשאר אחיו
And Yosef himself also refined this first refinement: although his root is from the Name Mah of Atzilus, which is the level of the mayin duchrin, nevertheless, since he was enclothed below in a body, he also had to refine this lower refinement, like the rest of his brothers.
Yosef also took part in this first refinement. His root is in the Name Mah of Atzilus, the source of the mayin duchrin, but because his soul was clothed in a physical body he, too, had to do the lower work like his brothers.
וזהו והנה אנחנו מאלמים כו׳ שכולנו שוים בזה להעלות מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] במל׳.
This is “And behold, we were binding,” etc.: all of us are equal in this, in raising mayin nukvin into Malchus.
That is why the dream says “we” were binding sheaves: in raising mayin nukvin all the brothers, Yosef included, are equal.
אלא שלאחר בירור זה והנה קמה אלומתי2 כו׳ שנמצא בו מעלה יתירה מצד שרשו בשם מ״ה [שם מ״ה] דאצי׳ שעי״ז מדרגתו הוא להוריד מ״ד [מיין דוכרין] לברר בירור שני את המ״ן [המיין נוקבין] שכבר העלו במל׳.
But after this refinement, “and behold, my sheaf arose,” etc., for he has an additional advantage because of his root in the Name Mah of Atzilus; through this his level is to bring down mayin duchrin, to refine with a second refinement the mayin nukvin that they had already raised into Malchus.
But after that shared work comes “and behold, my sheaf arose”: Yosef has an extra dimension, from his root in the Name Mah, which lets him bring down the mayin duchrin that gives the second refinement to what the brothers raised.
Both parts of Yosef’s dream are now explained: all the brothers share the first refinement, but only Yosef’s sheaf “rises” to bring about the second.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
In the same maamar of 19 Kislev 5735, moving from binding sheaves to „קמה אלומתי וגם נצבה” (‘my sheaf arose and also stood upright’), the Rebbe explains what sets Yosef above his brothers (also in the old edition, pp. 278–279).
Yosef was higher than the other tribes, so that „אלה תולדות יעקב יוסף” (‘these are the generations of Yaakov: Yosef’), and in some things even above Yaakov: Yaakov used natural means, the rods, as fitted his level, while Yosef was punished for relying on the butler, as the Mitteler Rebbe’s Torah Chaim explains at length. That is ‘my sheaf arose and stood’: in the language of Kabbalah „שעיקר מקומו של יוסף הוא בעולם האצילות” (Yosef’s main place is the world of Atzilus), so even in this lowest world, „ויבוא הביתה לעשות מלאכתו” (‘coming into the house to do his work’) and ruling all Egypt, nothing disturbed his service („לא בלבל אותו מעבודתו”), whereas Yaakov had to be a shepherd, in seclusion.
The Alter Rebbe
אלא שלאחר בירור זה והנה קמה אלומתי כו׳ שנמצא בו מעלה יתירה מצד שרשו בשם מ״ה דאצי׳
The Rebbe
וזהו שביוסף נאמר קמה אלומתי וגם נצבה, ובלשון הקבלה, שעיקר מקומו של יוסף הוא בעולם האצילות
Toras Menachem – Sefer HaMaamarim, Parshiyos uMoadim: 19 Kislev, p. רצ–רצא · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשל״ה
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinMah and BanBirurYetzirah+3
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Mah and Ban מ״ה וב״ן
- Birur בירור
- Yetzirah יצירה
- Asiyah עשיה
- Beriah בריאה
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1ששרשו משם מ״ה דאצי׳ שהוא בחי׳ המ״ד · אוה״ת שמות ע׳ יד מציין לכאן.
- 2והנה קמה אלומתי · Genesis 37:7
29ובירור זה אין בכח שאר השבטים שהן בבריאה כו׳ שלמטה מטה מאצי׳. וזהו תסובנה אלומותיכם ותשתחוין לאלומתי1 בבחי׳ בטול ממש
And this refinement is not in the power of the other tribes, who are in Beriah, etc., far below Atzilus. And this is “your sheaves came around and bowed down to my sheaf,” in actual self-nullification.
The other tribes, rooted in Beriah far below Atzilus, cannot bring about the second refinement. That is why in the dream their sheaves surround Yosef’s and bow to it: they nullify themselves before him.
כי בלעדי המ״ד [המיין דוכרין] דיוסף לא נכלל המ״ן [המיין נוקבין] שלהם באלקות ממש רק שע״י המ״ד [המיין דוכרין] דיוסף שמבררם בירור ב׳ שיוכללו בביטול אמיתי דמ״ה [דשם מ״ה]
For without Yosef’s mayin duchrin their mayin nukvin would not be included in actual G‑dliness; only through Yosef’s mayin duchrin, which refines them with the second refinement so that they are included in the true self-nullification of Mah,
Without Yosef’s mayin duchrin, what the brothers raised would never be included in actual G‑dliness. Only his second refinement brings it into the true self-nullification of the Name Mah.
וזהו ותשתחוין כו׳ ואז הוא שנכללו באלקות כנ״ל (ועמ״ש בענין ב׳ בירורים אלו ע״פ ואלה שמות):2
and this is “and they bowed down,” etc.: then they are included in G‑dliness, as explained above. (And see what is explained on these two refinements on the verse “And these are the names.”)
The brothers’ bowing is the moment their work is included in G‑dliness. The parenthesis refers to a fuller discussion of the two refinements in the maamar on “And these are the names” (the opening of Shemos).
The bowing of the brothers’ sheaves means that their refinement is completed only through Yosef’s.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In an edited sicha of 19 Kislev 5717 (printed in the additions to Likkutei Sichos vol. 2, Vayeishev), on how the exile, and the soul’s descent into the body, reach their purpose, the Rebbe explains the two stages of Yosef’s first dream.
Binding sheaves is done in the field, not in the house: one uproots separate stalks from their place and root and gathers them into one bundle, to bring it later into the house; so the soul takes the separate physical things it came down for and uproots them from their coarseness to serve G‑d. That is not enough: „ותשתחוין לאלומתי” (‘they bowed to my sheaf’) is bringing them into the house, making them a vessel and dwelling for G‑d while dealing with them, as Yosef „ויבוא הביתה לעשות מלאכתו” (‘came into the house to do his work’) even as ruler in Egypt. Yosef was a soul of Atzilus: binding sheaves, though a lofty bittul, is still a state of existence, of Asiyah, Yetzirah or even Beriah; bowing to his sheaf is the second refinement that rises to Atzilus, where bittul is „ביטול במציאות” (bittul bimetzius).
The Alter Rebbe
וזהו תסובנה אלומותיכם ותשתחוין לאלומתי בבחי׳ בטול ממש
The Rebbe
אַז אין די עבודות פון מאלמים אַלומים וואָס הגם עס איז געווען אַ ביטול נעלה, אָבער דאָך בבחינת מציאות … דער בירור שני שעולה לאצילות
Likkutei Sichos, vol. ב, p. 478–480 · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשי״ז (said on Motzaei Shabbos Vayeishev, 20 Kislev)
The Rebbe explainsThe Rebbe says this in more than one place
In Padah VeShalom 5735, explaining why the verse speaks of redemption „בשלום” (‘in peace’), the Rebbe sets the brothers’ binding of sheaves against their bowing to Yosef (also in the old edition, p. 279).
Atzilus is called „עולם האחדות” (the world of oneness), and its bittul is bittul bimetzius, while of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah it says „ומשם יפרד” (‘from there it divides’); so even when the service of binding sheaves in the field is perfect, „הרי זה רק ביטול היש (היפך ענין הפירוד)” (it is only bittul hayesh, the opposite of separation). Therefore Yosef must act on the other tribes: their sheaves are nullified to his sheaf, to his service, and through this Yosef’s bittul, bittul bimetzius, is drawn into them too. This, he says, is why the verse speaks of ‘peace’: beyond the battle and victory of the first refinement, the binding of sheaves in the field, comes the peace above it, bittul bimetzius (so the old edition, p. 279; the new edition, p. רצב, says it of the threefold bond of Israel, the Torah and the Holy One).
The Alter Rebbe
כי בלעדי המ״ד דיוסף לא נכלל המ״ן שלהם באלקות ממש
The Rebbe
הנה גם כאשר העבודה היא בתכלית השלימות, מאלמים אלומים בתוך השדה, הרי זה רק ביטול היש (היפך ענין הפירוד)
Toras Menachem – Sefer HaMaamarim, Parshiyos uMoadim: 19 Kislev, p. רצא–רצב · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשל״ה
The Rebbe explains
In an edited sicha of Shabbos Vayeishev (5720) on the lessons of Yosef’s two dreams, asking what each detail of the first dream teaches, the Rebbe explains why binding sheaves in the field must be followed by bowing to Yosef’s sheaf.
The soul comes down into the ‘field’, this world, a place of separation, and binds the separate powers of body and animal soul into one ‘sheaf’ for G‑d’s service. But once it has become a sheaf, a form of service, it must itself be nullified to the sheaf of Yosef the tzaddik, the leader of the generation, the head of the ‘complete form’ of Israel, as all the limbs are nullified to the head. Inwardly, he adds, that bittul is there even before the binding, since the very ability to work ‘in the field’ comes from the soul’s inner bittul to Yosef the tzaddik. His note says this follows what Torah Ohr and Torah Chaim explain there, „ובעבודה הוא בירור ראשון ובירור שני” (‘and in service it is the first and second refinement’).
The Alter Rebbe
ובירור זה אין בכח שאר השבטים שהן בבריאה כו׳ שלמטה מטה מאצי׳
The Rebbe
בפנימיות הענין, איז אויך פאַר דער עבודה פון ”מאלמים אלמים” פאַראַן דער ”ותשתחוין לאלומתי”, דער ביטול צום צדיק הדור
Likkutei Sichos, vol. ג, p. 808–809 · ש״פ וישב, ה׳תש״כ (the year from the unedited transcript, Toras Menachem 5720 vol. 1 pp. 243–249, whose notes match)
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinMah and BanBirurBeriah+3
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Mah and Ban מ״ה וב״ן
- Birur בירור
- Beriah בריאה
- Hiskallelus התכללות
- Atzilus אצילות
Also Bittul
Marei mekomos
- 1תסובנה אלומותיכם ותשתחוין לאלומתי · Genesis 37:7
- 2ע״פ ואלה שמות · ראה לקמן מט, ג. באוה״ת בראשית כרך ו תתרפד, א במקום מראה מקום זה נמצא ”ע״פ הזהר וישב דקפ״א אך אל הפרוכת כו׳ ובשאר דוכתי”.
30והנה להבין ביאור ענין ותשתחוין לאלומתי. גם ענין החלום השני השמש והירח כו׳ משתחוים לי1 שהדברים מגיעים ליעקב וכמ״ש ואביו שמר2 כו׳.
Now, to understand the explanation of “and they bowed down to my sheaf,” and also the matter of the second dream, “the sun and the moon… bowing down to me,” for the matter extends to Yaakov, as it is written, “and his father kept [the matter],” etc.:
Two questions about bowing are raised: the brothers’ sheaves bowing to Yosef’s, and the second dream, where the sun and moon bow to him. The second dream concerns Yaakov, which is why the verse says his father “kept the matter” in mind.
איך יתכן שיעקב שהוא למעלה במדרגה מיוסף כי הוא בחי׳ גוף ויוסף בחי׳ ברית ואע״ג [ואף על גב] דגוף וברית כחדא מ״מ כח, גהוא גבוה כו׳ א״כ איך ישתחוה ליוסף וזה תמוה.
How is it possible that Yaakov, who is higher in level than Yosef, for he is the level of the body [Tiferes] and Yosef the level of the covenant [Yesod], and although “body and covenant are counted as one,” nevertheless he is higher, etc., if so, how would he bow down to Yosef? This is puzzling.
How could Yaakov bow to Yosef? Kabbalistically, Yaakov is Tiferes, “the body” of the Sefiros, and Yosef is Yesod, “the covenant.” Although “body and covenant count as one,” the body is still higher, so Yaakov’s bowing seems impossible.
¶33 Hold this question: paragraph 33 answers it.
אך הענין כי השתחוואה כוללת ב׳ בחי׳.3 הא׳ בחי׳ בטול שבטל ומשתחוה כו׳ כמו וצבא השמים לך משתחוים45 שהם מתבטלים כו׳. הב׳ הוא ענין המשכה שמרכין ראשו וממשיכו למטה.
But the matter is that bowing includes two aspects. The first is self-nullification: one is nullified and bows down, etc., as in “and the host of heaven bow down to You,” for they are nullified, etc. The second is drawing down: one bends his head and draws [it] downward.
The answer: bowing has two sides. It is self-nullification, as when “the host of heaven bow down to You,” and it is also drawing down: bending the head downward draws something down below.
The paragraph raises the question of why the higher (Yaakov) would bow to the lower (Yosef) and answers that bowing means not only submission but also drawing down.
The Rebbe on this paragraph AI research
The Rebbe explains
In Padah VeShalom 5735, after explaining the second dream, where the sun, Yaakov, bows to Yosef, as a drawing down from above, the Rebbe turns to the verse this paragraph quotes, „ואביו שמר את הדבר” (‘and his father kept the matter’) (new edition, Parshiyos uMoadim: 19 Kislev p. רצא).
The Rebbe suggests that the Maggid of Mezritch’s teaching on ‘and his father kept the matter’, „המחשבה שומר את הדיבור והוא יחוד” (that thought guards speech and this is a union), refers to the second refinement, which is done by thought, since „בחכמה ובמחשבתא איתברירו” (‘through Chochmah and thought they are refined’). Our paragraph cites the verse to show that the second dream concerns Yaakov; on the Rebbe’s suggestion Yaakov’s ‘keeping’ is itself the higher refinement.
The Alter Rebbe
גם ענין החלום השני השמש והירח כו׳ משתחוים לי שהדברים מגיעים ליעקב וכמ״ש ואביו שמר כו׳
The Rebbe
וי״ל שזהו גם פירוש תורת הרב המגיד על הפסוק ואביו שמר את הדבר, פירוש המחשבה שומר את הדיבור והוא יחוד
Sefer HaMaamarim 5734–5735 (old edition), p. 279 · י״ט כסלו, ה׳תשל״ה
Found by AI in the Rebbe’s works and checked against each source; not yet reviewed by a person, so check the place before relying on a detail. How it was made
TermsMiut hayareachBris veTorah+2
- Miut hayareach מיעוט הירח
- Bris veTorah ברית ותורה
Marei mekomos
- 1החלום השני השמש והירח כו׳ משתחוים לי · Genesis 37:9
- 2ואביו שמר · Genesis 37:11
- 3השתחוואה כוללת ב׳ בחי׳ · ראה לקמן בד״ה יביאו לבוש מלכות, צא, א. ובאוה״ת פ׳ תרומה ד״ה ועשו לי מקדש ע׳ א׳תכח. סה״מ תרל״ב ע׳ עד.
- 4וצבא השמים לך משתחוים · נחמי׳ טו, ו.
- 5וצבא השמים לך משתחוים · Nehemiah 9:6
31ובאמת הא בהא תליא שע״י הבטול גורם ההמשכה כו׳. וכן ידוע ג״כ מהשתחוואה שבש״ע [שבשמונה עשרה] באמרו בא״י [ברוך אתה ה׳] שהוא בחי׳ בטול וגם המשכה ע״י שמרכין ראשו וממשיך מבחי׳ ברוך בבחי׳ אתה כמבואר בפע״ח [בפרי עץ חיים].1
And in truth one depends on the other, for through the self-nullification one brings about the drawing down, etc. This is also known from the bowing in the Shemoneh Esreh when one says “Blessed are You, Havayah”: it is self-nullification and also drawing down, by bending one’s head and drawing from the level of “Blessed” into the level of “You,” as explained in Pri Etz Chaim.
The two aspects depend on each other: self-nullification is what draws the light down. The Arizal’s writings (Pri Etz Chaim) explain this in the bowing of the Amidah at “Blessed are You, Havayah”: one nullifies oneself and, by bending the head, draws the light from the hidden level of “Blessed” into the revealed level of “You.”
Self-nullification and drawing down go together, as the bowing of the Amidah shows.
Chassidus reads baruch (“blessed”) as related to hamshachah, drawing down, as in havrachah, grafting a plant. The bow of the Amidah draws the transcendent into “You,” G‑d as addressed and revealed.
TermsBittulHaalaah vehamshachah
Marei mekomos
- 1ברוך בבחי׳ אתה כמבואר בפע״ח · ראה שער העמידה.
32ועד״ז יובן ענין ותשתחוין לאלומתי. כי הנה השבטים כשהעלו מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] במלכות וצריכים לעורר המשכת מ״ד [מיין דוכרין] דאצילות שעי״ז עיקר הבירור.
In the same way the matter of “and they bowed down to my sheaf” will be understood. For when the tribes raised mayin nukvin into Malchus, they needed to arouse the drawing down of the mayin duchrin of Atzilus, through which the main refinement comes about.
Now the brothers’ bowing is explained. Once they had raised mayin nukvin into Malchus, they needed to arouse the flow of mayin duchrin from Atzilus, which gives the main refinement.
ובאמת אין המ״ד [המיין דוכרין] נמשך אלא לאחר שיש העלאת מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] כי לית ברכתא שריא באתר ריקניא1 רק כשיש כלי אז שורה האור והמ״ן [והמיין נוקבין] הוא כלי להמ״ד [להמיין דוכרין].
And in truth the mayin duchrin is drawn down only after there is a raising of mayin nukvin, for “blessing does not rest in an empty place”: only when there is a vessel does the light rest, and the mayin nukvin is the vessel for the mayin duchrin.
Mayin duchrin only comes after mayin nukvin has risen, because, as the Zohar says, “blessing does not rest in an empty place.” Light rests only where there is a vessel, and the mayin nukvin is the vessel for the mayin duchrin.
לכן כדי לעורר המשכת מ״ד [מיין דוכרין] דיוסף היה צ״ל תחלה העלאת מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] דהשבטים בבחינת בטול לעורר המשכה זו. גם יובן זה ממשל גשמי בזיוג זכר ונקבה שאין קישוי אלא לדעת.2
Therefore, to arouse the drawing down of Yosef’s mayin duchrin, there first had to be the raising of the tribes’ mayin nukvin, in self-nullification, to arouse this drawing down. This will also be understood from a physical analogy, in the union of male and female, that “there is no arousal except with intent.”
So the brothers’ raising of mayin nukvin in self-nullification had to come first, to call down Yosef’s mayin duchrin. The Alter Rebbe points to a parallel in the physical union of man and woman, citing the Talmud that arousal depends on conscious intent.
The brothers’ bowing is their raising of mayin nukvin in self-nullification, which forms the vessel that calls down Yosef’s mayin duchrin.
TermsMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinBirurMalchusAtzilus+2
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Birur בירור
- Malchus מלכות
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1לית ברכתא שריא באתר ריקניא · Zohar II, 155a
- 2שאין קישוי אלא לדעת · Yevamot 53b:11–13
33וכשהנקבה עורכת שולחנה אז נתעורר תאות הזכר כו׳. וזהו והנה תסובינה אלומותיכם שעשו הכלי והעלאת מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] ותשתחוין לאלומתי.
And when the female sets her table, then the desire of the male is aroused, etc. And this is “and behold, your sheaves came around,” for they made the vessel and the raising of mayin nukvin, “and they bowed down to my sheaf.”
The analogy continues, in discreet language: when the woman “sets her table,” the man’s desire is awakened. So too, the brothers’ sheaves “came around,” forming the vessel through their mayin nukvin, and bowed to Yosef’s sheaf.
ובהשתחואה זו עשו ב׳ בחי׳ א׳ הבטול שלהם לאור א״ס הב׳ שעי״ז עשו ג״כ ההמשכה שיומשך המ״ד [המיין דוכרין]
And in this bowing they did two things: first, their self-nullification to the Infinite Light; second, that through this they also brought about the drawing down, so that the mayin duchrin would be drawn down,
Their bowing had both aspects: self-nullification to the Infinite Light, and, through it, the drawing down of the mayin duchrin.
דהיינו שיומשך הארת הא״ס בבחי׳ יוסף והמשכה זו שעשו הם היינו שיומשך בחי׳ האו״פ [האור פנימי] ביוסף. ואמנם השתחואה דיעקב היה רק ענין המשכה לבדה שהמשיך בחי׳ המקיף ליוסף כו׳.
that is, that the illumination of the Infinite One be drawn into the level of Yosef; and this drawing down that they brought about was that the inner light be drawn into Yosef. Yaakov’s bowing, however, was only a drawing down alone, for he drew the encompassing [light] to Yosef, etc.
What they drew down was the Infinite light into Yosef, and specifically the inner light (or pnimi), light that enters and becomes part of him. Yaakov’s bowing, by contrast, was only a drawing down, and what he drew to Yosef was the encompassing light (makif), which stays above and beyond.
¶30 This answers the question from paragraph 30.
This answers both questions: the brothers’ bowing is self-nullification that draws inner light into Yosef, and Yaakov’s bowing is a pure drawing down of encompassing light, so it does not imply that Yaakov is lower.
The distinction between inner light (or pnimi) and encompassing light (or makif) runs through Chassidus: inner light is absorbed according to the recipient’s capacity, while encompassing light affects it from beyond. Yaakov, as the higher level, could give Yosef only what surpasses him.
TermsOr PnimiKoach hamisavehMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinOr Makif+4
- Or Pnimi אור פנימי
- Koach hamisaveh כח המתאוה
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Or Makif אור מקיף
- Ein Sof אין סוף
The brothers’ mistake ¶34–35
34והנה סבת שנאת השבטים ליוסף על חלומותיו כו׳ הוא לפי שהם טעו בדבר א׳.
Now, the reason for the tribes’ hatred of Yosef because of his dreams, etc., is that they erred in one thing.
Why did the brothers hate Yosef for his dreams? Because they made one mistake.
בהיות כי ידוע בענין ששם עלו שבטים שבטי1 י״ה כו׳. שיש בחי׳ י״ב גבולי אלכסון2 בז״א דאצילות ונק׳ שבטי י״ה שנמשכים מאו״א [מאבא ואימא].
Since it is known regarding “there the tribes went up, the tribes of Kah,” etc., that there are twelve diagonal boundaries in Z’eir Anpin of Atzilus, and they are called “the tribes of Kah” because they are drawn from Abba and Imma.
The verse “there the tribes went up, the tribes of Kah” refers, in the Kabbalah, to the twelve “diagonal boundaries” (in Sefer Yetzirah, the twelve edges where two of the six directions meet) in Z’eir Anpin of Atzilus. They are called “tribes of Kah” because they come from Abba and Imma, Chochmah and Binah, which the two letters of the Name Kah represent.
The brothers’ hatred is traced to a mistake about their own spiritual root, which the Kabbalah places in the twelve boundaries of Z’eir Anpin.
TermsYud-hei and vav-heiZ’eir AnpinAbba and ImmaAtzilus
- Yud-hei and vav-hei י״ה ו״ה
- Z’eir Anpin זעיר אנפין
- Abba and Imma אבא ואמא
- Atzilus אצילות
Marei mekomos
- 1ששם עלו שבטים שבטי י״ה · Psalms 122:4
- 2שיש בחי׳ י״ב גבולי אלכסון · בלקו״ת צו יז, א. שמע״צ פ, ד מציין לכאן.
35ולזאת סברו השבטים שלמטה ששרשן משם וא״כ הם במדרגה אחת עם יוסף שכולן שרשן מז״א דאצילות וא״כ אין צריכים לו בשביל המשכת המ״ד [המיין דוכרין]
Therefore the tribes below thought that their root is from there, and if so they are on one level with Yosef, since all of them have their root in Z’eir Anpin of Atzilus; and if so, they do not need him for drawing down the mayin duchrin,
The brothers reasoned that since their souls come from the twelve boundaries of Z’eir Anpin, they stood on the same level as Yosef, and so did not need him to draw down mayin duchrin.
שהרי כמוהו כמוהם משרש א׳ מבחי׳ ז״א שמשם המשכת המ״ד [המיין דוכרין]. אבל טעו בזה כי אמת ששרשם1 מז״א כנ״ל אבל הם בעצמם למטה בבריאה.
since he and they are alike, from one root in Z’eir Anpin, from which the mayin duchrin is drawn. But they erred in this: it is true that their root is from Z’eir Anpin, as explained above, but they themselves are below, in Beriah.
They thought themselves his equals, from the same root in Z’eir Anpin that is the source of the mayin duchrin. Their mistake: their root is indeed there, but they themselves are down in Beriah.
וכנ״ל בענין בחי׳ י״ב בקר שהים עומד עליהם מלמעלה הילכך הם רק המעלים מ״ן [מיין נוקבין] למלכות.
And as explained above regarding the twelve oxen, with the Sea standing upon them from above, therefore they are only those who raise mayin nukvin to Malchus.
As with the twelve oxen that carry the Sea above them, they can only raise mayin nukvin to Malchus.
משא״כ יוסף שלמטה הוא עצמו מבחי׳ יסוד דאצילות ממש ולפיכך הוא דוקא הממשיך מ״ד [מיין דוכרין] והם צריכים לו כמו שכתוב והנה תסובינה אלומותיכם2 כו׳ כנ״ל:3
Whereas Yosef, [even] below, is himself from the level of Yesod of Atzilus itself, and therefore he specifically is the one who draws down mayin duchrin, and they need him, as it is written, “and behold, your sheaves came around,” etc., as explained above.
Yosef, even down here, is himself from Yesod of Atzilus, so he alone draws down mayin duchrin, and they need him, as the dream said: “your sheaves came around and bowed down to my sheaf.”
¶22 This explains Yosef's place in Atzilus, promised in paragraph 22.
The maamar closes by resolving the brothers’ error: a shared root does not mean a shared level; they stand in Beriah, while Yosef stands in Atzilus, and so their work depends on his.
TermsYesodMayin nukvin and mayin duchrinZ’eir AnpinBeriah+3
- Yesod יסוד
- Mayin nukvin and mayin duchrin מיין נוקבין ומיין דוכרין (מ״ן ומ״ד)
- Z’eir Anpin זעיר אנפין
- Beriah בריאה
- Malchus מלכות
- Atzilus אצילות
Also Haalaah vehamshachah
Marei mekomos
- 1שו״ה ששרשם · באוה״ת מגוכתי״ק הצ״צ נ׳: שרש שרשם . . אבל הם נשפלו למטה בבריאה.
- 2והנה תסובינה אלומותיכם · Genesis 37:7
- 3אלומותיכם כו׳ כנ״ל · באוה״ת שם נמצא קיצור ואח״כ מעתיק מד״ה ואני נתתי לך שכם אחד מפ׳ ויחי תקס״ג ע״ש. הקיצור. השבה״כ ענין בחי׳ פירוד ופירור הכלי לחלקי׳ רבים ועי״ז מסתלק האור וההשכלה, ושבירה זו הי׳ בנשמו׳ וניצוצו׳ לכן כל מה שירדו למטה נעשה הרבוי יותר. ועבודתינו לברר ולהעלות מטורי דפרודא לבחי׳ אחדו׳ גוי אחד בארץ, וזהו מאלמי׳ אלומין, מהרבה שבולי׳ נעשה אלומה א׳, גם ל׳ אדם מצד הביטול כו׳. וכ״ז הוא העלא׳ מ״ן ביטול היש ועדיין צריך בירור שני ע״י מ״ד לשיתהפך לאלקו׳ ממש וזה הי׳ עבודת יוסף וזהו והנה קמה אלומתי כו׳ וענין ותשתחוין כי השתחוא׳ ביטול וגם עי״ז המשכה מאוא״ס להתלבש במ״ד דיוסף, והשתחוא׳ דיעקב המשכה לבד. ומה שהשבטי׳ שנאו אותו לפי שסברו ששרשם ג״כ מי״ב ג״א דז״א א״כ כמוהו כמוהם וא״צ לו בשביל המ״ד ג״כ אבל האמת שהם י״ב בקר דבריא׳ והוא מיסוד ז״א וזה הי׳ החלומות כנ״ל.
Finished the maamar?
Mark it as learned; it counts toward the week and the year’s siyum.
Each Rosh Chodesh the names of those learning here are brought to the Ohel. Add your name, and mark what you learn so it is counted.
In one’s avodah
A person refines the sparks in food and the world by eating for the sake of G‑d and then praying with love and awe drawn from that strength. But one’s own love and awe, even self-sacrifice, remain the “lower unity” until love and awe given by G‑d, an illumination of the true One, descend upon them; one’s service from below makes the vessel, in self-nullification, for that gift from above.
Questions for discussion
- How does the analogy of the letters of ברוך explain what “shattering” means, and why does separation cause the light to depart?
- Why does the multiplication of the 288 sparks explain the length of the exile?
- In what sense is the self-nullification of the rising sparks “mute,” and how does the analogy of the fetus clarify it?
- What is the difference between the first refinement (the brothers’) and the second (Yosef’s), and how does the example of eating and prayer illustrate it?
- How do the two aspects of bowing resolve the difficulty of Yaakov bowing to Yosef?
Key terms in this maamar
- The World of Atzilus (Emanation)אצילות
- The first revelation in the chain of worlds (vayaetzel, “drew off”): the ten Sefiros, where Or Ein Sof rests and lights and vessels are one with Him; Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah are created from nothing. ×7Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The World of Beriah (Creation)בריאה
- The first created world, below the partition (parsa) under Atzilus: something new from nothing (yesh me’ayin), corresponding to thought, where Binah of Atzilus dwells; world of the seraphim, souls and Gan Eden HaElyon. ×11Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The World of Yetzirah (Formation)יצירה
- The world of formation, between Beriah and Asiyah: like speech, it reveals what was hidden in Beriah (something from something, not new creation); the middos of Atzilus shine there; the world of the angels. ×4Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The World of Asiyah (Action)עשיה
- The lowest of the four worlds, corresponding to action: its ten Sefiros are still holy, but below them lies kelipas nogah; this physical world is Malchus of Asiyah, its lowest level. ×3Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Self-nullification (bittul)ביטול
- Self-nullification before G‑d, the condition for the Or Ein Sof to rest. Its lower degree is a “something” that bows; its higher, Chochmah’s “what are we,” takes up no place at all. ×4Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Chochmah (wisdom)חכמה
- The first Sefirah of revelation: a single point of insight (koach mah, the yud of Havayah) that comes from the “nothing” above it; being bittul, Or Ein Sof rests in it, and Binah expands it. ×3Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Malchus (sovereignty)מלכות
- G‑d’s kingship: the lowest Sefirah, His “speech” and the revealed world, through which all worlds come into being from nothing and live, without touching His essence (“there is no king without a people”). ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The Shechinah (Divine Presence)שכינה
- G‑d’s Malchus as it “dwells” among created beings to give them life: Malchus of Atzilus come down below Atzilus. Its being clothed below, down to the kelipos, is called the exile of the Shechinah. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The chain of descending worlds (hishtalshelus)השתלשלות
- The descent of levels from cause to effect, linked like the rings of a chain, from Chochmah downward; each reveals what was hidden in the one above. Or Ein Sof itself is above this order. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The Name Havayahהוי׳
- The Name meaning “He brings into being”: by contraction and expansion, its four letters, He brings all worlds into being while Himself unchanged; was, is and will be are one to Him. Elokim conceals it.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The Infinite Light (Or Ein Sof)אור אין סוף
- The boundless light radiating from G‑d’s Essence like sunlight from the sun: His “Name,” a revelation, not the Essence. Chiefly the light before the tzimtzum; also that light as clothed in the sefiros.Where it’s explained, stated differently, Sefer HaErchim
- Chesed (kindness)חסד
- The Sefirah of kindness (the right arm; Avraham): giving that comes from its nature to do good, spreading from highest to lowest like water. Gevurah, its opposite, limits it; in tikkun each includes the other. ×1Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Yesod (foundation)יסוד
- The Sefirah of binding: a giver’s lowest level, through which it ties itself to the receiver and draws its flow to it. Called kol (all), chai (living), tzaddik and bris (covenant); linked to Yosef. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Nukva (the feminine / Malchus)נוקבא
- Malchus of Atzilus as a partzuf: the feminine partner of Z’eir Anpin, built after it and from the gevuros; receiving from above, she gives to Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah below.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The intellect (mochin)מוחין
- The intellect, Chochmah, Binah and Daas, as the “brains” of a level; chiefly the light of Abba and Imma clothed in Z’eir Anpin, the middos, by which they grow. ×3Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The Infinite One (Ein Sof)אין סוף
- The name for G‑d as without end or limit, beyond all grasp; what is drawn from Him is Or Ein Sof, only a radiance; all revelation comes from Malchus of Ein Sof.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The Sefirosספירות
- Ten emanated powers, Keser (or Daas) and Chochmah through Malchus, each a light in a vessel; through them G‑d conducts the worlds, His essence unchanged; they recur in every world and in man.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Love and aweאהבה ויראה
- Love, the soul’s longing to cleave to G‑d, and awe, its self-nullification before Him: opposites born of the mind (“son and daughter”), called the two “wings” that lift one’s service on high.Where it’s explained, stated differently, Sefer HaErchim
- Life-forceחיות
- Life-force: the G‑dly vitality that brings each creation into being and keeps it alive, drawn to each according to its level and renewed from nothing, as the soul enlivens the body. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh)מסירות נפש
- Giving over one’s life to G‑d: nullifying one’s very existence in the Or Ein Sof, as at “One” in the Shema. It stems from above reason, and every Jew has it in potential.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The lower unity (yichuda tata'ah)יחודא תתאה
- The unity seen from below: through the Name Elokim the world exists as a “something” (yesh), and that yesh bows before G‑d (bittul hayesh). It receives from the higher unity, which through it rests below.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The higher unity (yichuda ila'ah)יחודא עילאה
- The unity seen from above: before G‑d all is as nothing and nothing exists besides Him (the Name Havayah, the Shema’s first verse); the lower unity is the existing world’s self-nullification.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The kav (line of light)קו
- The thread-like line of Or Ein Sof drawn into the vacated space after the tzimtzum: a small revelation, root of all hishtalshelus and the inner light, narrowing as it descends until it ends in Atzilus. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Tiferes (beauty)תפארת
- The Sefirah of the middle line (Yaakov’s attribute) between Chesed and Gevurah: it joins and includes them, so Or Ein Sof shines in it constantly. It is mercy and truth, and is rooted in Keser.Where it’s explained, stated differently
- Abba and Imma (Chochmah and Binah)אבא ואמא
- Chochmah and Binah as father and mother, who beget the middos (love and awe, “son and daughter”). Abba is self-nullifying insight, source of the chassadim; Imma is comprehension, source of the gevuros.Where it’s explained, stated differently, Sefer HaErchim
- Z'eir Anpin (the emotive attributes)ז״א
- The partzuf of the six middos of Atzilus (Chesed to Yesod), born from Imma and filled out by the mochin of Abba and Imma; Nukva’s masculine partner, through which the light reaches her. ×5Where it’s explained, stated differently
- The Name Elokimאלקים
- The Name of contraction and concealment, the shield and sheath over Havayah, through which creation appears separate (yesh) and runs as nature (hateva, numerically Elokim). Relative to a higher revelation, Havayah counts as Elokim. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently
- “He and His vessels” (ihu vegarmohi)איהו וגרמוהי
- Or Ein Sof is wholly one with the vessels of Atzilus (“He and His vessels are one”), a union below His oneness with Chochmah (“He and His life-forces”); the created vessels below Atzilus are not. ×2Where it’s explained, stated differently