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Mah and Ban

מ״ה וב״ן

The Names Mah and Ban

Two spellings-out of the Name Havayah: Mah (45, as adam), essential bittul, male, which refines; and Ban (52, as behemah), Malchus, female, which is refined and in the future will stand above Mah.

The word מ״ה is also the plain word מה, “what” (ונחנו מה, “what are we?”), which the text reads as bittul; ב״ן also spells בן, “son.” With the abbreviation marks, and beside the other Names (ע״ב, ס״ג), they denote the two spellings-out of the Name Havayah.

Where it’s explained

  1. Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 6, ¶6Mah refines and Ban is refined. Mah is bittul in essence; Ban is the bittul of something that exists (yesh). The letters of the two Names are what bring each kind of bittul into revelation; the Name Mah is the spelling-out with alefs.הנה ידוע שמ״ה מברר וב״ן מתברר כו׳. מ״ה הוא בחי׳ הבטול בעצם. וב״ן הוא בחי׳ בטול היש
  2. Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2, ¶9Ban is Nukva, Malchus, the Oral Torah; Mah is the Written Torah, Chochmah, and complete bittul (“what are we”). Refining means drawing the Or Ein Sof from makif into inner revelation, which rests only where there is bittul: first Atzilus was refined, then what was not batel was pushed down to Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah.אמנם מ״ה הוא בחי׳ תשב״כ בחכמה אתברירו
  3. Likkutei Torah, Matos 2, ¶7Mah and Ban are present in Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah as inner and outer: the soul of each holy creature, its bittul, comes from Mah, and its vessel and body from Ban. In general the souls and angels, from Ban already rectified by Mah, are the inner; the chambers of nogah, still unrectified, are the outer.והחיצונית דהיינו הכלי והגוף שלו נמשך משם ב״ן
  4. Likkutei Torah, Matos 2, ¶9Tohu preceded Tikkun and was higher: Sag is above Mah but fell into Ban, as yesh. Tikkun is the joining of Mah and Ban, so that Ban too becomes bittul, by turning darkness into light; this is the refining done in the lower worlds through the six days of the week.והתיקון הוא חיבור מ״ה וב״ן דהיינו שגם ב״ן שהוא בבחי׳ יש יהיה בבחי׳ מ״ה
  5. Torah Ohr, Vayechi 5, ¶9The ten Sefiros are G‑dliness and need no refining, like Mah; worlds and chambers must be refined, through Ban, which raises them as mayin nukvin to Mah, which then clothes itself in Ban. This is the union of Havayah and Elokim, male and female; when the two join, the Name Ab, “love of delights,” is drawn down.וזהו ענין יחוד הוי׳ אלקים שהם דו״נ מ״ה וב״ן

Stated differently

Whether the soul is from Ban or from Mah

Likkutei Torah, Balak 2, ¶26שהגם שהנשמה היא משם ב״ן. מ״מ היא כלולה ג״כ משם מ״ה

The soul descends from Ban, where good and evil are mixed; at its descent a light of Mah, already refined and rooted in the forehead of Adam Kadmon, is mixed into it, giving it power to refine itself and the animal soul.

Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 3, ¶10שגם הנה״א אע״פ שעיקרה בחינת אדם שם מ״ה אעפ״כ כלולה ג״כ מבחינת ב״ן

The G‑dly soul’s essence is adam, the Name Mah, yet it includes Ban (behemah), since souls are born of the union of Z’eir Anpin and Nukva, Mah and Ban. It refers to the explanation in Balak for this.

Likkutei Torah, Matos 2, ¶7שהפנימית והנשמה שלו הוא בבחי׳ ביטול כמ״ש וצבא השמים לך משתחוים ונמשך משם מ״ה

In every holy creature of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, the inner and the soul are from Mah; the vessel and the body are from Ban.

Discussed by

  • The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat, vol. 4, p. רה

    The Rebbe finds both in the G‑dly soul itself: its Ban is the soul at the level of vessels, which refines the animal soul, and its Mah is the soul’s lights, which give the power for this; his note cites Likkutei Torah that they are the love in the inner and the outer heart.

    ע״י בחינת ב״ן דנפש האלקית, ב״ן בגימטריא בהמה, דבכללות הוא הנשמה כמו שהיא בדרגת כלים. אלא שהכח לזה הוא ע״י בחינת מ״ה דנפש האלקית

Whether Mah or Ban is rooted higher

Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2, ¶8אך לגבי ב״ן הוא המקיף ששרש מ״ה הוא ממצחא דא״ק

Relative to Ban, Mah is the makif, for Mah is rooted in the forehead of Adam Kadmon, the will, called the Will of all wills.

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 13, ¶20שם ב״ן שרשו למעלה משם מ״ה

The Name Ban is rooted above the Name Mah: so the matriarchs, from below upward, were above the patriarchs, and in the future the receiver will stand above the giver.

Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 11, ¶12וכשמתבררים עולים לשרשם בס״ג שהוא למעלה משם מ״ה

The sparks are rooted higher than Z’eir Anpin, the Name Mah: they fell from the seven lower Sefiros of Sag into Ban, and when refined they return to Sag, above Mah. So in the future Malchus, Ban, will be the crown of her husband, Mah.

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Shir HaShirim vol. 2, p. תרס

    The Tzemach Tzedek holds both: now Mah, as the male refiner, is above Ban and governs the worlds, but at the end of the refinements Ban will rise to its root in Sag, before Atzilus, above the Mah of tikkun.

    שב״ן הוא יתעלה לשרשו שם ס״ג שלפני האצי׳ שיהי׳ למעלה משם מ״ה התיקון דאצי׳, אך עתה שם מ״ה הוא הדכר המברר ושם ב״ן הנוק׳ המתברר

Which level the Name Mah denotes

Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 1, ¶13וזהו בחי׳ אדם בגימטריא מ״ה שהוא בחי׳ חכמה כ״ח מ״ה בחי׳ ביטול

The adam who rides the chariot, in gematria Mah, is Chochmah, read as ko’ach mah, the power of bittul.

Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 7, ¶11שבחי׳ שם ב״ן שנקרא ארץ לא יצטרך לקבל משם מ״ה שהוא ז״א הנק׳ מים

The Name Mah is Z’eir Anpin, called water; the Name Ban, called earth, will no longer need to receive from it, as “a female shall surround a man.”

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Biurei HaZohar (Tzemach Tzedek), vol. 1, p. תקלב

    The Tzemach Tzedek explains that Chochmah is called ‘koach mah’ and that Z”A is called adam (Mah) because it unites Chesed and Gevurah, and reads ‘what is His name and what is His son’s name’ as Mah of Abba itself, then the same Mah drawn into Z”A.

    וז״ש מה שמו פי׳ מ״ה דאור אבא עצמו ואח״כ נמשך שם מ״ה זה גם בז״א כנ״ל וזהו מה שם בנו

Further in Chassidus

  1. The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Megillas Esther, p. קפח

    The Tzemach Tzedek explains that all refinement in every world is done by Mah, Chochmah (‘koach mah’, bittul), refining Ban, Malchus, and that the process repeats at each level, since Ban of a higher world stands above Mah of the one below.וכל מעשה הבירורים שבכל העולמות הוא ע״י ב׳ שמות אלו מ״ה וב״ן שם מ״ה הוא המברר ושם ב״ן הוא המתברר כי ש׳ ב״ן הוא מל׳

  2. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5721, p. קיז

    The Rebbe roots the G‑dly and animal souls in Mah (adam) and Ban (behemah) and likens their difference to Havayah in the inner side of the sefiros against the other Names in their outer vessels, inner being for itself and outer for another; he then finds both within Torah.וכללות ההפרש בין שם מ״ה לשם ב״ן הוא ע״ד ההפרש בין שם הוי׳ לשאר ז׳ השמות שאין נמחקים

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

Main sources

Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 6, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Matos 2, ¶7Likkutei Torah, Matos 2, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Balak 2, ¶26Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 3, ¶10Torah Ohr, Vayechi 5, ¶9

Where it appears

In 308 paragraphs of 148 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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