Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Shi’ur hei
שעור ה׳
The measure of hei (shi’ur hei), barley read as a measured flow
Barley (se’orah) read as shi’ur hei, “measure of hei”: divine speech measured out by the five Gevuros through the mouth’s five articulations, feeding angels at fixed ranks; in the soul, comprehension by one’s measure.
The word שעורה is simply barley (the grain of the Omer offering). The term applies when the text reads the word as two, שעור ה׳, “a measure of hei”; where barley is called animal food without this reading, it usually speaks of refining the animal soul during the Omer count.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 11, ¶4The flow to the angels (the lion that roars, the ox that lows, who burn and say “Holy”) is called barley, animal food, since angels are called beasts and chayos. It is “measure of hei”: a measured flow from the hei, divided among the four camps of the Shechinah, each fixed at its rank since the six days of creation, which is why angels are called “standing.” This flow depends on Israel’s Omer offering of barley.
ונקרא שעורה על שם שעור ה׳ פי׳ שיעור ומדה הנמשך מבחי׳ הה׳
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 4, ¶8Shi’ur hei is the dividing of the five Gevuros into many parts, to give life to many creations that differ from one another. The Gevuros divide the simple voice into the letters of speech, and in general into the five articulations of the mouth.
שעור ה׳ היינו התחלקות ה׳ גבורות לחלקים רבים להחיות הנבראים רבים שונים זמ״ז
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 13, ¶6The angels’ measure is apportioned from the five articulations of the mouth and divided into four camps: Michael (face of the lion), Gavriel (face of the ox) and the face of the eagle (compassion). The four camps come from four articulations; the fifth is the palatals, and all are refined in Chochmah, “He who makes peace.”
ששיעור ומדה נקצב להם מבחי׳ ה׳ היינו ה׳ מוצאות הפה ונתחלק לד׳ מחנות
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 14, ¶12In the soul, barley is comprehension, each one according to his own measure, and its root is Binah. Wheat is the drawing of the hidden Daas above comprehension, Chochmah. Counting the Omer, from barley harvest to wheat harvest, draws the fiftieth gate of Binah, which stands between them.
ענין שעורה שעור ה׳ שהוא ענין השגת הנפש לכל חד לפום שיעורא דיליה
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 7, ¶9Contemplating through barley how G‑d fills and encompasses all worlds still does not grasp His essence, nor the essence of Chochmah Ila’ah; it grasps that He is, not what He is.
משא״כ ע״י שעורה שעור ה׳ מה שמתבונן איך הוא ית׳ ממכ״ע וסוכ״ע כו׳ מ״מ אינו משיג כלל מהותו ית׳
Stated differently
Which hei the measure comes from: the speech of G‑d’s mouth, or the upper hei of the Name Havayah
שיעור ומדה הנמשך מבחי׳ ה׳ שהוא בחי׳ רוח פיו ית׳The hei is “the breath of His mouth”: the measure is drawn from divine speech (Bamidbar 13:6: the five articulations of the mouth).
וגם ה׳ שעור ה׳ הנמשך מבחי׳ ה׳ עילאה דשם הוי׳ שהיא בחי׳ גבוה מאדBesides the five Gevuros that give the measure, the hei of shi’ur hei is drawn from the upper hei of the Name Havayah, a very high level (Bamidbar 13:30 likewise roots it in Binah).
Discussed by
The Tzemach Tzedek · Derech Mitzvosecha, p. 51–52
The Tzemach Tzedek identifies the hei ‘going among the chayos’ as the hei of the Name Havayah within speech, the source of the particular articulations (the union of palate and throat, called the union of Chochmah and Binah), and on the next page calls the barley ‘the measures drawn from that upper hei into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah’.
היא מתהלכת בין החיות שהוא בחי׳ ה׳ דשם הוי׳ מקור ד׳ מוצאות הפרטיים ובל׳ הקבלה הוא ענין זיווג חך וגרון ונק׳ יחוד חו״ב
Whose food the barley is: the angels called beasts, or Malchus as the great beast
מאכל והשפעת המלאכים הנקראים בשם בהמות וחיות פני אריה פני שורBarley, animal food, is the flow to the angels, who are called beasts and chayos: the face of the lion and the face of the ox.
שעורה שעור ה׳ זהו מיכלא דההוא בהמה רבה שהוא בחי׳ מל׳ שם ב״ןBarley is the food of the great beast (behemah rabbah), which is Malchus, the Name Ban; in this maamar the refinements of the 288 sparks through the five Gevuros are what is called shi’ur hei (Emor 4:11).
Further in Chassidus
The Tzemach Tzedek · Derech Mitzvosecha, p. 52
In the mitzvah of the omer, the Tzemach Tzedek explains shi’ur hei as the fixed, apportioned life-force that reaches each angel at its rank, divided by the Gevuros that split speech into its articulations (hence the left-hand shin of se’orah), and says barley grows first because the revealed world begins with Gevuros.והמשכת והתחלקות החיות זו נק׳ שעורה שעור ה׳ פי׳ שיעור ומדה הנמשך מבחי׳ הה׳ בחי׳ היא מתהלכת בין החיות
The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Shemos vol. 4, p. א׳קפט
The Tzemach Tzedek brings the measure into the soul: the barley harvest of Pesach is comprehension at the level of shi’ur hei (the lower hei that feeds the ‘beasts’), while the wheat of Shavuos is a revelation above da’as, food for ‘man’, given at Sinai.וקציר שעורים זהו ההשגה שמבחי׳ שעור ה׳, ובשבועות חג הקציר של חטים הוא בחי׳ גילוי בחי׳ שהוא מאכל אדם
The Rebbe Maharash · Toras Shmuel, 5630, p. קלג
The Rebbe Maharash grounds shi’ur hei in ‘with hei He created them’: creation comes only from the light letter hei, a mere glow that changes nothing in Him, which divides into the mouth’s five articulations.דהיינו שברה״ע נמשך רק מבחי׳ ה׳ שהוא בחי׳ אתא קלילא דלית בי׳ מששא, שהברת אות ה׳ הוא קל לדבר מכל האותיות
Short quotes, © their publishers; each page opened by a second AI reader.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 11, ¶4Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 12, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 13, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 14, ¶12Likkutei Torah, Emor 4, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Emor 4, ¶11Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 7, ¶5
Where it appears
In 66 paragraphs of 35 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 11 ¶4 ¶5 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 6 ¶1 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 7 ¶2 ¶3 ¶5 ¶6 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 11 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 1 ¶29 ¶30 ¶31 ¶33
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 9 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 3 ¶7
- Torah Ohr, Vayeitzei 2 ¶6 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 2 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 13 ¶2 ¶6 ¶8 ¶9 ¶12 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 14 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 3 ¶16 ¶17 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 2 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 3 ¶8 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 14 ¶8 ¶9 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 3 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7 ¶6 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 11 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 20 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 28 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Shemos 8 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 1 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 16 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 6 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 21 ¶16 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶38
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶16 ¶19 ¶25 ¶45
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 14 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 9 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 4 ¶8 ¶11 ¶23 ¶26 ¶35
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 14 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 5 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 12 ¶2 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 3 ¶4
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.