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Binah

בינה

Binah (understanding)

The Sefirah of comprehension (Imma, the first hei): it expands Chochmah’s flash in length and breadth; letters of thought appear in it; it is “yesh,” and from it love, joy and the middos are born.

The word בינה also means understanding in the ordinary sense (a person’s insight, “to understand one thing from another”), and התבוננות, contemplation, is its activity in the soul. It means the Sefirah when the text writes בחי׳ בינה, חו״ב, אימא / מוחין דאימא, the hei of Havayah, נ׳ שערי בינה, or pairs it with Chochmah as Abba and Imma.

Where it’s explained

  1. Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 6, ¶3Chochmah is the beginning of the comprehension that takes place in Binah; Chochmah drawn into Binah is “a point in a palace.” Chochmah is hidden, like lightning flashing in the mind, while Binah is comprehension in length and breadth.אלא שהחכמה היא בבחי׳ ההעלם בבחי׳ ברק המבריק במוח והבינה היא ההשגה באורך וברוחב
  2. Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 2, ¶2Letters belong to Binah: when an idea comes to comprehension, letters of thought appear in it, while Chochmah, above grasped intellect, has none yet. So the Written Torah is of Binah, and Binah is “the concealment that belongs to revelation,” Beriah within Atzilus.וכנראה בחוש שכשבא השכל לכלל הבנה והשגה מתגלים בו בחי׳ אותיות במחשבה
  3. Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 2, ¶1Binah, “the mother of children,” is joy, which is the revelation of what was hidden: joy comes when one truly grasps the hidden things of Chochmah. Through Binah’s grasp of G‑d’s greatness the soul is set aflame; wine, which gladdens, is of Binah.כי השמחה היא גילוי ההעלם לכן נמשך דוקא מבחי׳ בינה
  4. Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2, ¶5Chochmah is “ayin” and Binah “yesh”: Binah is understanding and grasp, reaching only the radiance of the Shechinah, and the love it arouses is “yesh,” since there is one who grasps and one who is moved. The union of Chochmah and Binah is yesh nullified to ayin.משא״כ בחי׳ בינה הוא הבנה והשגה והוא רק בבחי׳ זיו השכינה
  5. Likkutei Torah, Reeh 8, ¶4Binah is the hei of Havayah, “the broad expanses of the river”: contemplation spread in length and breadth of how G‑d creates and is apart. From it is born love in “ratzo,” flames of fire; the love, the “son,” grows chiefly in Binah, as a child in its mother’s womb.כי הה׳ הוא בחי׳ בינה שנק׳ רחובות הנהר כלומר כמו צורת הה׳ שמתפשטת לאורך ורוחב

Stated differently

Whether delight (taanug) is revealed in Binah or already in Chochmah

Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 3, ¶12כי התלבשות ומקום גילוי התענוג הוא בבינה

Delight is clothed and revealed in Binah, where Atik is revealed: in Chochmah, called Eden, it is still hidden, and it is chiefly revealed when drawn into Binah’s comprehension in length and breadth; therefore Binah is the World to Come.

Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 4, ¶16ועדן הוא בחי׳ חכמה ושם מתגלה תענוג

Eden is Chochmah, and delight is revealed there; though not felt in Chochmah in itself, it shines in it through the novelty of the insight’s appearing. The essence of delight is higher still.

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Devarim vol. 2, p. תקמד

    The Tzemach Tzedek first says the main revelation of delight is in Binah, as pleasure is felt when a concept is well grasped, then asks from ‘a river goes out of Eden’ that Eden (Chochmah) is the chief delight, and answers that delight’s source is in Chochmah but is revealed only in Binah.

    אך הענין הוא דעיקר ומקור העונג הוא בחכמה דוקא אלא שאינו מושג לנשמות לפי שהחכ׳ הוא למעלה מההשגה אבל כשנמשך לבינה אז הוא מושג

Whether Binah (the hei) is the root of the World to Come or of this world

Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1, ¶17שמהחכמה נמשך בבחי׳ בינה שהוא הבנת והשגת אלקות שממנה שרש העוה״ב

“With the yud the World to Come was created” means that from Chochmah it is drawn into Binah, the understanding and grasp of G‑dliness, which is the root of the World to Come where the righteous sit and delight.

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 30, ¶12כי ה׳ הוא בחי׳ רחובות הנהר ונהר יוצא ולכן ומשם יפרד כו׳ וזהו ענין העוה״ז

The hei is the broad river (Binah), from which the separate worlds descend, and this is this world; the World to Come was created with the yud, the spring (Chochmah) itself, when “a spring shall go forth from the house of Havayah.”

Discussed by

  • The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5724, p. רמד (page unconfirmed)

    The Rebbe reconciles ‘with hei this world was created’ with Binah as the World to Come: the hei of this world is the last hei, rooted in the first hei (Binah), which is the World to Come itself; only its creation was with the yud.

    ומה שאמרו חז״ל בה״א נברא עוה״ז, קאי על ה״א אחרונה, אלא ששרשה מה״א ראשונה, שהיא בחי׳ עוה״ב

Further in Chassidus

  1. The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Bereishis vol. 3 (Noach, on ‘Vezeh asher taaseh osah’), p. 1278

    The Tzemach Tzedek explains Binah as the upper hei, the ‘breadth’ that widens comprehension where it emerges from the source, and its fifty gates as the openings through which understanding passes from the mind to the heart to bear love and fear.והוא בחי׳ ה׳ עילאה דשם הוי׳ בינה רחובות הנהר התרחבות ההשגה באור א״ס ב״ה

  2. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5716, p. רנג

    The Rebbe defines the fifty gates of Binah as joining mind and middos, comprehension going out to be grasped by the heart, and contrasts them with the 32 paths of Chochmah, which join Chochmah to Binah.שהם נו״ן שערי בינה, וענינם הוא כמו שער הנפתח לצאת בו לחוץ, והיינו, שאור ההשגה שבמוח יוצא ונתפס בלב

  3. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5713, p. ריז

    The Rebbe explains why Binah adds something new to Chochmah (expansion), unlike the middos, which never exceed their intellect: Binah is not Chochmah’s effect but has its own root in the soul, while Chochmah keeps the advantage of bittul.והוא לפי שבינה מהחכמה אינה בדרך עילה ועלול, אלא יש לה שרש מיוחד בנפש, שמשם הוא כח ההתרחבות שבבינה, שאינו בחכמה

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

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 6, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Reeh 8, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 2, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 2, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 3, ¶12Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 1, ¶2

Where it appears

In 550 paragraphs of 235 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.

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