Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Havayah
הוי׳
The Name Havayah · also: הוי׳ אלקינו
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.
The word הויה is also an ordinary word for being or existence (as in התהוות, הויות), and הוי can be the interjection “woe.” The Name is written הוי׳ or הוי״ה, often as שם הוי׳.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 2, ¶8Havayah indicates that He brings all worlds into being through contraction, expansion and drawing down. It is only a Name, like the sun’s radiance: the righteous “enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah,” only the radiance, while teshuvah reaches above it to the Or Ein Sof itself, relative to which Havayah counts as Elokim.
כי שם הוי״ה מורה שהוא מהווה כל העולמות ע״י צמצום והתפשטות והמשכה כו׳. ואין זה אלא בחי׳ שם בלבד וכמשל זיו השמש
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 2, ¶3The four letters: yud and hei contract and conceal so that only radiance shows; vav-hei draw it down and spread it. All of hishtalshelus, as a whole and in each step, is Havayah. “Havayah is My Name”: a name is for others, while Anochi, His essence, is called by no name.
וזיו זה נמשך ע״י בחי׳ צמצום והתפשטות שהוא בחינת יו״ד ובחי׳ ה׳ לצמצם ולהעלים שלא יתגלה אלא בחי׳ זיו כו׳ ואח״כ המשכה והתפשטות בחינת ו״ה
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17, ¶8Havayah and Elokim are the sun and its shield. Elokim, Malchus, conceals Havayah so that the separate beings of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah can exist; Atzilus, open revelation, is called Havayah. In the time to come a revelation above Atzilus will make Havayah count as Elokim.
כי שמש ומגן הוי׳ אלקים דשם אלקים הוא מגן ונרתק לשם הוי׳ שמסתיר
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 5, ¶4The contemplation of Shema: for Havayah, past, present and future are all equal and He undergoes no change; and Havayah is “our G‑d,” our strength and life, since the souls of Israel are rooted in it, while other creatures draw life from His Malchus.
כי הוי׳ שהוא היה הוה ויהי׳. פי׳ שהיה הוה ויהיה הכל שוה אצלו
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 13, ¶23Two Havayahs: the Havayah after “gracious and compassionate” is the contraction and expansion within hishtalshelus, drawn from those attributes; the Havayah before “compassionate and gracious” is above hishtalshelus, and there too contraction and expansion draw the attributes of compassion from the Or Ein Sof into the lower Havayah.
משא״כ הוי׳ שקודם רחום וחנון היא ההוי׳ שלמעלה מגדר ההשתלשלות
Stated differently
Whether the Name Havayah is memalei kol almin or sovev kol almin
וגם שם הוי׳ הוא בבחי׳ ממכ״ע כמארז״ל ביו״ד נברא העוה״בLike the other Names that are drawn into hishtalshelus, Havayah too is memalei (“with the yud the World to Come was created”); only “His great Name” is above hishtalshelus and not enclothed in worlds.
והמשכה זו היינו משם הוי׳ שהוא סובב כל עלמין שיהיה נמשך ומאיר בשם אדניHavayah is sovev, drawn to shine into the Name Ado-nai; only in the time to come will what is now sovev become memalei, like the Name Elokim.
Discussed by
The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Devarim vol. 4 (Derushim LeSukkos), p. א׳תשמ
Reading ‘Havayah is Elokim in the heavens above and on the earth below,’ the Tzemach Tzedek sets sovev above the Name, so that the Name counts as Elokim before it, while in memalei Havayah is the ‘sun’ whose light comes through Elokim; he also speaks of two levels of the Name.
כי בחי׳ סוכ״ע הוא למעלה משם הוי׳ עד שהוי׳ הוא האלקים ששם הוי׳ נחשב לגבי מהותו ועצמותו ית׳ הסוכ״ע כמו שם אלקים
Further in Chassidus
The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Vayikra vol. 4 (Emor), p. א׳קא
The Tzemach Tzedek defines the Name as past, present and future as one, the same before and after creation, and explains why it is now veiled by Elokim, the ‘shield’, and read as Adnus.שם הוי׳ הי׳ הוה ויהי׳ כאחד הי׳ הוא קודם שנברא העולם ולאחר שנברא העולם בשוה
The Rebbe Rashab · Sefer HaMaamarim 5679, p. קמח
On ‘Havayah, Havayah,’ the Rebbe Rashab distinguishes the Name as it is in the order of hishtalshelus, light in measure after the tzimtzum, from the Name above hishtalshelus, the essence of the light.שיש ב׳ שמות הוי׳, הא׳ ש׳ הוי׳ דסדר השתל׳ שזהו האור שבא במדה וגבול ע״י הצמצום
The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5717, p. רסד
The Rebbe lays out three senses of the Name (He brings into being; was, is and will be as one; the proper Name of the Essence) and shows how the first two are joined by the third.הוי׳ מלשון מהוה, דפירוש זה בשם הוי׳ מורה על שייכותו לעולמות, ב׳ הוי׳ מלשון הי׳ הוה ויהי׳, דפירוש זה בשם הוי׳ מורה שהוא למעלה מעולמות
Short quotes, © their publishers; each page opened by a second AI reader.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 2, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 2, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Shelach 5, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶13Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 13, ¶23Torah Ohr, Vayeitzei 2, ¶18
Where it appears
In 1,288 paragraphs of 327 maamarim: part of the language of nearly every page.
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.