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Se’aros

שערות

Hairs (se’aros) · also: שער רישיה כעמר נקא

The image for a flow drawn, through great contraction, from a level beyond the order of the worlds: like hair growing from the brain, it carries only a radiance, with no comparison to its source.

The word The word is also plain hair: a nazir’s hair, a woman’s hair, the white hair of tzara’as, the Levites’ shaving. The maamarim usually start from these and read them as the hairs above; the concept is the latter, the contracted channel from a higher level.

Where it’s explained

  1. Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 2, ¶7Or Ein Sof, which is above Chochmah, is clothed in Chochmah by way of “the beard of Aharon,” the level of hairs. Hair is hollow and draws from the brain, yet the brain’s life does not spread in it, so cutting it causes no pain; so Chochmah and middos come from above them only as a radiance, through many great contractions.שהשערות הן חלולין ויונקין מהמוחין שבראש ועל כל זה אין להם ערך ויחוס כלל עם המוחין שבראש
  2. Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 6, ¶4From Chochmah to Binah and from Binah to middos is the ordered chain, where each has relation to the next; but from what is above Atzilus to Atzilus there is no comparison, only a radiance, like the hairs of the head growing through the skull that covers and hides the brain. So “Abba draws from the mazal.”אבל מלמעלה מן האצי׳ להיות אצילות אינו רק דרך הארה כדמיון שערות הראש היוצא דרך הגולגלתא
  3. Likkutei Torah, Emor 1, ¶30Holiness is bound up with hair: from the holy and separate, sovev kol almin, no inward flow is possible except through hairs. The life of memalei kol almin is drawn by cause and effect, like soul in body or intellect in middos, and needs no hairs; that chain is the opposite of hair.שהשערה מורה על ההמשכה שבצמצום עצום עד שאין ערוך כלל להמקור
  4. Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 3, ¶10“He shone forth to them from Se’ir” is se’ar yud: the Torah, Chochmah of Atzilus, is drawn from the hidden Chochmah of Arich Anpin through hairs alone, the novlos (droppings) of supernal Chochmah. The hair is a vav, and the light within the hollow hair a yud, only a tenth.כי התורה שהיא חכמה דאצילות נמשכת מבחי׳ חכמה סתימאה ע״י שערות לבד
  5. Likkutei Torah, Tzav 4, ¶6“Chochmah is found from ayin”: from a level beyond comparison, only hairs. These hairs are the halachos of the Torah (“the hair of His head like pure wool”). The hairs and beard are rooted in Mocha Stima’ah but drawn only from its seven lower levels, for hair is vegetative, like the middos.והנה השערות והדיקנא שרשה ממו״ס אכן נמשכה רק מבחי׳ ז״ת דמו״ס

Stated differently

Whether the hairs of Arich Anpin are chesed and mercy, or contractions through the gevuros (judgments)

Likkutei Torah, Shelach 4, ¶4משא״כ השערות המה בחי׳ צמצומים ע״י ה״ג בחי׳ דינים

The Torah is drawn from the hairs of the hidden Chochmah, in which the Gevurah of Atik is clothed; the mitzvos from the Gulgalta of Arich Anpin, in which the Chesed of Atik is clothed, whose paths are bare of hair. The hairs are contractions through the five gevuros, judgments.

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶41משערות דא״א שהם כעמר נקא בחינת ורב חסד להעלות הדברים המותרים

The positive mitzvos are the hairs of Arich Anpin, white “as pure wool,” the level of “abundant in kindness,” where all is great mercy; it is the black hairs of Zeir Anpin that are gevuros, on which the prohibitions hang.

Likkutei Torah, Korach 1, ¶20אבל שערות אלו דציצית הם חסדים והיינו לפי שמקור ההמשכה משערות דא״א

The hairs of Zeir Anpin are judgments, but the hairs of tzitzis are chasadim, white hairs drawn down through the 32 paths of Chochmah, because their source is the hairs of Arich Anpin.

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Devarim vol. 5 (Yom Kippur), p. ב׳קלא

    Having traced the thirteen attributes to the excess of the brain where the gevuros of Atik are clothed in the hidden Chochmah, the Tzemach Tzedek asks why they are called attributes of mercy if they are contractions like hairs, and answers from the nature of gevuros versus chasadim.

    ולהבין כ״ז וגם למה יקראו יגמה״ר מאחר שהם בחי׳ צמצומים כמשל השערות כו׳

Whether the positive mitzvos are drawn through the hairs of Arich Anpin, or from its Gulgalta, the paths bare of hair, while the Torah comes through the hairs

Likkutei Torah, Shelach 4, ¶4שהתורה נמשכת משערות דח״ס שמלובש בתוכה גבורה דעתיק והמצות נמשכות מגלגלתא דאריך

The Torah is drawn from the hairs of the hidden Chochmah; the mitzvos are drawn from the Gulgalta of Arich Anpin, Keser of Keser, whose paths are free of hair and divide into the 613 commandments.

Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7, ¶21דהנה המצות שרשן מגלגלתא דא״א

The mitzvos are rooted in the Gulgalta of Arich Anpin; so it asks how the Thirteen Attributes, the thirteen tikkunei dikna, only a drawing through hairs, can repair a flaw in them, and answers that the light within those hairs comes from Atik, above Arich Anpin.

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶41והוא בחינת שערות דא״א שהם בחינת כעמר נקא נהורא חיוורא

The positive mitzvos are the white light, the hairs of Arich Anpin “as pure wool,” for light can come into revelation only through hairs; the prohibitions hang on the black hairs of Zeir Anpin.

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Bamidbar vol. 2, p. תרעא

    Right after saying that the Torah comes through the hairs while the mitzvos draw the encompassing light of the Gulgalta itself, the Tzemach Tzedek distinguishes the hair of the head, the flow of the mitzvos and supernal will, from the beard, the flow of the hidden Chochmah through the laws of the Torah.

    ההפרש בין שער רישי לשער די״ג ת״ד דבחי׳ שער רישי׳ הוא ההמשכה מבחי׳ המצות ורצון העליון ובחי׳ ת״ד זהו ההמשכה מח״ס ע״י הלכות התורה

Further in Chassidus

  1. The Tzemach Tzedek · Derech Mitzvosecha (Mitzvas Achdus Hashem), p. 124

    The Tzemach Tzedek defines ‘hairs’ as a greatly contracted flow from His Chochmah, cut off from the essence of its source (the brain), so it can bring about a different Chochmah, and sets the white hairs of Atik (mercy), black of Zeir Anpin and red of Nukva as ever greater contractions.ונק׳ המשכה זו בשם שערות שהם המשכה שבפירוד ממהות המקור שמשם נמשכת שהיא המוח לפי שהם רק ממותרי המוחי׳

  2. The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Bamidbar vol. 2, p. תרעא

    On tzitzis, the Tzemach Tzedek explains that light from beyond the order of hishtalshelus can come down only through hairs, which are cut without pain yet still draw from the brain, and that even so this is infinitely higher than any orderly flow.כך להיות גלוי ממקום שלמעלה מדרך ההשתלשלות ע״י בחי׳ איברים שנה״י יהיו נעשי׳ מוחין, א״א כ״א ע״י שערות

  3. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga) 5722, p. רכג

    The Rebbe defines hair as a flow with no comparison to its source, coming through the break of the skull, which is why Arich and Zeir Anpin have beards but Abba, whose flow stays within Atzilus, does not; he then contrasts hair with garments.ענין השערות (דיקנא) מורה על המשכה שבאין ערוך ובדרך דילוג, כמשל השערות אף שיש בהם חיות מהמוח, מ״מ הרי זה הארה חיצונית בלבד

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

Main sources

Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 2, ¶7Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 6, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Emor 1, ¶30Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 3, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Tzav 4, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Shelach 4, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶41Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7, ¶21

Where it appears

In 205 paragraphs of 89 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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