LikuteiTorah.comThe Chassidishe Parsha
Sign in

Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah

Berachah

ברכה

Blessing (berachah); “blessed” (baruch) as drawing down

Blessing (berachah), read from bereichah, a pool, and from grafting a vine: drawing G‑dliness down from its hidden source into revelation; as opposed to hodaah, acknowledging what is not revealed.

The word Berachah also names the blessings a person recites (Birkas HaMazon, the blessing before a mitzvah) and plain good fortune. The text often takes such a blessing and explains it by this concept, reading “Baruch” as “drawn down”; the concept is meant where it speaks of drawing (המשכה), revelation, or sovev and memalei.

Where it’s explained

  1. Likkutei Torah, Eikev 3, ¶6Blessing is a drawing down into revelation, from above to below, as one grafts a vine (mavrich). Acknowledgment (hodaah) is bittul hayesh: conceding that before Him all is as nothing, though this is not revealed below, as the Sages “concede” to Rabbi Meir. The same pair is “true and faithful” (emes ve’emunah).ברכה היא בחי׳ המשכה בגילוי מלמעלה למטה כי ברכה היא מלשון בריכה המבריך את הגפן
  2. Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2, ¶30If He is the source of all blessing, what can our blessing add to Him? Yet the Sages say the Sanctuary “needs blessing.” The answer: blessing draws from the source, the Or Ein Sof, into His glory and radiance, from sovev kol almin into memalei kol almin.שהענין הוא להמשיך הברכה מן המקור שהוא אור א״ס ב״ה אל כבודו וזיו יקריה. דהיינו מבחינת סוכ״ע בבחינת ממכ״ע
  3. Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶3As a pool from which water is drawn for all: “He is baruch and She is berachah.” Malchus, memalei kol almin (“Your kingship is the kingship of all worlds”), is called berachah; Yesod Abba, its source, is called baruch. The previous paragraph explains baruch both as “blessed,” receiving blessing (Malchus), and as the source of blessing (Chochmah).וז״ש בזהר איהו ברוך ואיהי ברכה. פי׳ איהי המל׳ נקרא ברכה שהיא בחי׳ ממכ״ע
  4. Likkutei Torah, Devarim 1, ¶4“Blessed are You” is a higher level than “I thank You” (modeh ani). Acknowledgment is from afar, as faith, an encompassing level; blessing is revelation, drawn from the hidden world to the revealed world, through Torah and mitzvos. Between them comes love: the Shema precedes the blessings of the Amidah.אבל ברכה הוא גילוי וכמו ישמעאל בני ברכני וכך ברוך ה׳ מן העולם ועד העולם כו׳ שנמשך מן העולם דאתכסיא עד העולם דאתגלייא
  5. Torah Ohr, Yisro 6, ¶17The purpose of ascent is a drawing down afterward. The drawing from sovev kol almin into memalei kol almin is called blessing, since it is revelation out of concealment; hence the hundred blessings (me’ah) a person says each day, drawing into the level called mah, memalei.כי בחי׳ ההמשכה שנמשך מבחי׳ סוכ״ע לבחי׳ ממכ״ע נק׳ בשם ברכה כי הוא בחי׳ הגילוי מן ההעלם

Stated differently

Whether blessing only reveals what is already in the hidden root, or brings an addition of light

Likkutei Torah, Reeh 1, ¶7שהברכה היא גילוי השרש שבהעלם שיתברך ויהיה נמשך לידי גילוי ולא המשכה חדשה לגמרי

This is the difference between blessing and prayer: blessing reveals the root that is hidden, so that it be drawn into revelation, and is not an entirely new drawing.

Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 2, ¶21הנמשך ומתגלה בתוספת וריבוי האור שלמעלה מעלה מסדר ההשתלשלות וזו היא בחי׳ ברכה שברכה היא בחי׳ תוספת וריבוי

The end of blessing is the revelation of His kingship, with an addition and increase of light from far above the order of hishtalshelus; blessing is addition and increase.

Torah Ohr, Beshalach 8, ¶18לשון ברכה הוא בחי׳ המשכה שנמשך תוספת אור להוי״ה אלקיך

“You shall bless Havayah your G‑d”: blessing is a drawing by which added light, from the lights of Tohu through refining their vessels, comes to Havayah your G‑d, which is of Tikkun.

Discussed by

  • The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5727, p. שכא

    Explaining the Rebbe Maharash’s Re’eh 5627 on blessing versus prayer, the Rebbe says a blessing, even when it draws from the Ein Sof before the tzimtzum, only reveals what already exists in the root, though below the drawing is new, while prayer draws a truly new will.

    הרי זה מה שנמצא כבר בשורש ומקור, אלא שע״י הברכה נמשך בגילוי, אבל אין זה דבר חדש לגמרי, דאף שלמטה ההמשכה היא חדשה

What blessing draws from: Chochmah (Yesod Abba) into memalei, or sovev and the Or Ein Sof into memalei

Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶3איהו היינו יסוד אבא נק׳ ברוך כי הוא מקור המשפיע בבחי׳ ממכ״ע. אכן למעלה מהחכמה אין יכול לבוא כלל בבחי׳ ממכ״ע רק סוכ״ע

Yesod Abba is called baruch as the source that gives into memalei, and Malchus is berachah, the pool already drawn from Chochmah. Above Chochmah nothing can come as memalei at all, only as sovev, shining in concealment.

Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2, ¶30להמשיך הברכה מן המקור שהוא אור א״ס ב״ה אל כבודו וזיו יקריה

Blessing draws from the source, the Or Ein Sof, into His glory: from sovev kol almin into memalei kol almin.

Torah Ohr, Yisro 6, ¶17וענין מאה ברכות הוא להמשיך מלמעלה למטה ההארה מבחי׳ סוכ״ע לממכ״ע

The hundred blessings draw the radiance of sovev kol almin down into memalei kol almin.

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Vayikra vol. 3 (Tazria), p. תתיז

    Having made baruch a drawing from Chochmah within hishtalshelus, the Tzemach Tzedek asks how ‘kadosh baruch’ can call a drawing from above hishtalshelus a blessing, and answers that through iskafya the essence of Mocha Stima’ah itself is drawn down, an ‘addition of blessing’ from Kodesh Elyon.

    ועפ״ז יובן פי׳ הקדוש ברוך הוא דשייך ברכה ממש גם בבחי׳ המשכה דקדוש והיינו שיהי׳ נמשך עצמות העלם דקדש העליון שהוא מו״ס

Further in Chassidus

  1. The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Bereishis vol. 4 (Vayera), p. 1488

    The Tzemach Tzedek sets blessing against acknowledgment: hodaah, from Binah and ‘hearing’, admits that all is nullified before Him though it is not revealed below, while blessing, from Chochmah and ‘sight’, draws it into open revelation.אבל הברכה היא המשכה בגלוי בבחי׳ ראי׳ כי ברכה הוא מלשון בריכה המבריך את הגפן כו׳

  2. The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Vayikra vol. 3 (Tazria), p. תתטז

    The Tzemach Tzedek defines baruch, the praise the angels can say, as drawing from cause to effect rooted in Chochmah, against kadosh from Keser above hishtalshelus, and adds that a blessing brings out its hidden root, unlike prayer, which draws new light.כי ברוך הוא כמ״ש ברוך כו׳ מן העולם עד העולם היינו מעלמא דאתכסיא לעלמא דאתגליא דהיינו מעילה לעלול, ומקור ההשתלשלות מבחי׳ חכמה

  3. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5720, p. קעו

    On ‘Baruch Havayah Elokei Yisrael from world to world’, the Rebbe explains the grafting image and calls Israel’s whole service a drawing from the hidden world to the revealed one, which makes Him a dwelling in the lowest realm.ברוך מלשון המבריך את הגפן, שהסדר בזה הוא שכופים את ענף הגפן למטה מטה ומכסים אותו בעפר, ומזה צומח גפן חדש

Short quotes, © their publishers; each page opened by a second AI reader.

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2, ¶30Likkutei Torah, Eikev 3, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Devarim 1, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Reeh 1, ¶7Torah Ohr, Yisro 6, ¶17

Where it appears

In 524 paragraphs of 219 maamarim.

Written with AI from the paragraphs of Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, each entry checked by a second AI reader and every Hebrew quote checked by code; not yet reviewed by a person. Our English: CC BY-NC 4.0.

Hebrew size

100%

English size

100%

Hebrew letters

Theme

How I learn

Calendar

Language

English

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

العربية71 maamarim so farDeutsch71 maamarim so farEspañol71 maamarim so farفارسی71 maamarim so farFrançais71 maamarim so farעברית71 maamarim so farItaliano71 maamarim so farPortuguês71 maamarim so farРусский71 maamarim so farУкраїнська71 maamarim so far中文（简体）71 maamarim so far中文（繁體）71 maamarim so far

Send us a suggestion

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

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