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Yesh and ayin

יש ואין

Something and nothing (yesh and ayin)

Yesh: what exists and is grasped, ultimately a being felt as separate. Ayin: what is beyond grasp, the G‑dly source. Creation brings yesh from ayin; the service of mitzvos turns yesh into ayin.

The word יש and אין are also ordinary words (“there is,” “there is not”); they are the concept when the text says בחי׳ יש, בחי׳ אין, מאין ליש, מיש לאין, or ביטול היש לאין.

Where it’s explained

  1. Likkutei Torah, Reeh 3, ¶5The terms are relative. Looking upward, whatever is higher is called ayin because it is not grasped, so the main ayin is sovev; looking downward, the reverse: what is lower is called ayin because it counts as nothing before Him.שממטה למעלה כל מה שהוא למעלה יותר נק׳ אין לפי שאינו מושג
  2. Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2, ¶5Yesh is what is seen and felt as a thing: in Binah’s grasp and the love it arouses there is someone who grasps and someone who is moved. Chochmah, above grasp, is ayin, and its effect is ceasing from existence.הכל בבחי׳ יש ודבר נראה ונרגש שהרי יש מי שמשיג ויש מי שמתפעל
  3. Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 3, ¶2Coming into being from ayin to yesh is creation, down to this physical world, the fully separate yesh; turning yesh back into ayin is something new, a change of nature, and is the purpose of the descent. Relative to what is above it, even the spiritual is yesh.שהתהוות מאין ליש הוא ענין הבריאה. כמ״ש והחכמה מאין תמצא. וחכמה היא ראשית הגילוי מהשתלשלות העולמות. משא״כ התהוות מיש לאין הוא דבר חדש ושינוי הטבע
  4. Likkutei Torah, Behar 2, ¶19The purpose of every mitzvah (offerings, charity, Torah study) is turning yesh into ayin. That human bittul is not yet true ayin, since he still exists and nullifies himself, but as an arousal from below it brings a revelation of true ayin.אמנם ביטול זה אינו אמיתי שהרי מ״מ יש הוא אלא שמבטל א״ע
  5. Torah Ohr, Vayeitzei 2, ¶18The worlds were created from ayin to yesh, through the concealment of Elokim, so that yesh would be turned into ayin; in the time to come the world will no longer be a separate yesh.כי זהו תכלית בריאת העולמות מאין ליש כדי לאהפכא מבחי׳ יש לבחי׳ אין

Stated differently

Whether Chochmah itself is ayin, over against Binah’s yesh, or is still yesh together with Binah, with ayin above it

Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2, ¶5כי החכמה הוא בחי׳ אין כמ״ש והחכמה מאין תמצא וגם חכמה היינו כח מה, ובינה הוא בחי׳ יש

Chochmah is ayin (reading “Chochmah is found from ayin” as naming Chochmah ayin) and Binah is yesh; their union is the union of ayin and yesh.

Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17, ¶13קנה חכמה קנה בינה ב״פ קנה גימטריא יש וכתיב והחכמה מאין תמצא. מכלל שהיא עצמה אינה עדיין בחי׳ אין

Chochmah and Binah are both called yesh; the verse shows that Chochmah comes from ayin and is itself not yet ayin. The true ayin is the light of Keser, what thought cannot grasp.

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Tehillim (Nach vol. 2), p. תתקעט

    Holds both sides together: Chochmah is ‘ayin’ only as its light enters Binah, from the standpoint of grasp, while Chochmah in itself is ‘the true yesh’ (the ‘yesh’ of ‘to make those who love Me inherit yesh’).

    כי מה שהחכמה נק׳ כח מ״ה שלמעלה מן ההשגה היינו בבוא האור שלה בבינה שאז לגבי ההשגה נק׳ אין

  • The Rebbe Rashab · Hemshech Yom Tov shel Rosh HaShanah 5666 (old edition), p. שלח

    Explains why Chochmah is sometimes called ayin against Binah’s yesh (a general point, not yet grasped), and adds that it is not truly ayin, since Chochmah to Binah is cause and effect, not yesh from ayin.

    ומה שלפעמים נק׳ החכמה אין ובינה יש זהו מה שהחכמה היא בבחי׳ נקודה כללית ולא בבחי׳ שכל מושג

  • The Rebbe Rashab · Sefer HaMaamarim 5656 (Hosafos), p. שצה

    Asks how Chochmah, the first yesh created from ayin (beyond comparison), can be called ‘not truly yesh’. Answers that it truly became yesh, but the power of the ayin that made it stays clothed in it, so it is not fully yesh.

    דחכ׳ היא צורה הראשונה שנתהווה מהאין הרי נתלבש בו כח האין שהמציאו, לכן גם הוא אינו יש ממש ונק׳ כח מ״ה

Further in Chassidus

  1. The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Bereishis vol. 6, p. תתרכה

    Shows that yesh and ayin depend on where one stands: for the giver the flow goes from yesh to ayin, for the receiver from ayin to yesh, and both are true, like a student who reasons out a new idea from one he received.שיהי׳ כך ב׳ הפכים מיש לאין אצל המשפיע ומאין ליש אצל המקבל ושניהם אמת

  2. The Tzemach Tzedek · Derech Mitzvosecha (Shoresh Mitzvas HaTefillah ch. 42-43), p. 280

    States the service side: the purpose of all the mitzvos (charity from one’s own earnings, for example) is bittul hayesh, making yesh into ayin, which brings delight above.וזהו יסוד כל המצות שתכליתם הוא בחי׳ לעשות מיש אין שמזה נעשה צחוק ותענוג למעלה

  3. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim 5730 (Shabbos Bereishis), p. נה

    Contrasts the two directions: creating heaven and earth is yesh from ayin, while the righteous (Israel) make ayin from yesh, physical into spiritual, which heaven ‘does not take back’.שמים וארץ הוא יש מאין, אבל לא אין מיש, כמאמר מן שמיא מיהב יהבי מישקל לא שקלי, משא״כ מעשה צדיקים הוא לעשות אין מיש

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

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Reeh 3, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 3, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Behar 2, ¶19Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 2, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17, ¶13Torah Ohr, Vayeitzei 2, ¶18

Where it appears

In 677 paragraphs of 266 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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