Chochmah (חכמה) — Wisdom / Insight

Core definition

Chochmah — wisdom, the first of the intellectual sefiros and the second sefirah overall — is the flash of insight before comprehension: "the level of the flashing lightning-bolt (barak hamavrik), which has not yet come to comprehension and understanding" [31671/maamar_006 :: §169]. Binah is the comprehension that follows — "in length and breadth" — and Daas is what connects them, "the deepening of daas and the connection to the essence of the concept, until he understands it well, thoroughly" [31671/maamar_006 :: §169–172].

How the Rebbeim develop it

Bitul. "The chochmah of holiness is the level of bitul" — while "the chochmah of the other side is the magnification of the yesh, which separates" [31671/maamar_006 :: §19–20]. The name itself says it: adam in gematria is mah (45) — "what" — "Chochmah's aspect" [58845/maamar_010 :: §26]. Hence the main resting of the Ohr Ein Sof is in Chochmah: "since it is the power of 'mah' — the aspect of bitul in essence — it is a vessel for the Ohr Ein Sof" [31643/maamar_014 :: §78].

Chochmah is yichuda ila'ah. Chochmah is called the higher unity, for Chochmah is koach mah (the faculty of "what") — the place where the Ohr Ein Sof rests [58838/maamar_062 :: §27–28]. The maamar on "kol hama'arich be'echad" develops this: the essential intermediary between the Emanator and the emanated is chochmah stima'ah — "concealed chochmah" — neither Atik (pure essence, wholly separate) nor Arich (head, but will, not Chabad): it is "chochmah like the essence of the emanated beings," the source for the Chabad of Atzilus, yet separate from it ("Abba nurses from the mazal" — a radiance of a radiance, by leaping, not gradation) [31678/maamar_055 :: §223–237, summary]. The letter alef — which spells pela (wonder, apartness) and means teaching ("a'alefcha chochmah" — I shall teach you chochmah) — is the symbol of this intermediary: it "activates the chochmah," i.e., it is the source of chochmah [31678/maamar_055 :: §252–254].

From ayin. "And Chochmah, from ayin it shall be found" (Iyov 28:12): Chochmah's own formation from above is not through hishtalshelus but through tzimtzum — like one who finds a find and does not know from what ayin it came to him; from Chochmah and below, the light descends in the manner of hishtalshelus [31658/maamar_010 :: §169–178]. So Chochmah is the seam of the cosmos: above it, the leap from nothing; below it, the chain.

Chacham vs. chochmah. A 5677 maamar distinguishes: the name Havayah is called "essence" as undivided — like "chacham" (a wise man) before any particular wisdom is revealed; the added hei of "chochmah" marks extension — "extended and revealed in some particular" [31654/maamar_011 :: §90–97]. "Chacham in essence; chochmah in extension." Though "the Torah issued from chochmah," its root is in the interiority and essence of chochmah — before the world, "He and His name," the undivided essence's name [31654/maamar_011 :: §129–130].

The Torah from Chochmah. "Oraysa mechochmah nafkas" (the Torah issued from Chochmah) — when one is in the Torah's Chochmah aspect, the aspect of the name mah [58845/maamar_010 :: §26–27]. The Torah has chochmah's aspect and also the middos' aspect (kasher, pasul, tamei, tahor) [58845/maamar_010 :: §28]. Yet even Chochmah is "called physical action" relative to what is above will and Chochmah — for Chochmah too was drawn from the Ein Sof, the Emanator; hence "impossible to comprehend the Ohr Ein Sof's truth through Chochmah's aspect," as the hand cannot touch the spiritual intellect's light — "lits machshavah tefisa bei klal" [58845/maamar_010 :: §43–54].

Chochmah subdued and redeemed. The maamar on Yisro teaches that Yisro — yesod aba (the yesod of chochmah) of kelipah, "the chochmah of the other side" — by subduing the ChaBa"D of kelipah into holiness drew such added light that he added a parshah even to the revealed Torah: the advantage of light from darkness [31671/maamar_006 :: §16–31, summary].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources